Novasom SBC-U1 is a Tiny Industrial grade ESP32 Single Board Computer

SBC-U1A Industrial ESP32 Board

Novasom Industries is an international company specializing in SBCs (Single Board Computers) with offices in Romania and the US. Most of their products are based on Arm and Intel processors, and they have two product lines their U-Line for low power IoT devices, and M-Line for applications requiring multimedia processing with various Rockchip,  Qualcomm, and Intel processors. One model in the U-Line caught my attention, as beside an NXP i.MX6ULL SBC, the company is also offering an industrial temperature grade ESP32 SBC named SBC-U1 / SBC-U1A. SBC-U1/SBC-U1A board specifications: SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32 dual core Tensilica LX6 processor @ 240 MHz, 384KB RAM Storage – 4MB flash, micro SD card slot up to 32GB Connectivity – 802.11 b/n/g WiFi 4, Bluetooth 4.1 LE I/Os – 24-pin 2.54mm pitch header with up to 15 GPIO @ 3.3V, I2C, SPI, 2-ch 12-bit ADC, 2-ch 10-bit DAC, 2x protected inputs up to […]

Papyr is a Nordic nRF52840 based Bluetooth/802.15.4 ePaper Display

papyr nRF52840 epaper display

Electronut Labs has designed a Nordic Semi nRF52840 boards featuring a black, red, and white e-Paper display. Papyr board supports both Bluetooth LE (BLE5, BLE Mesh) and 802.15.4 (Thread, Zigbee) connectivity, and can be controlled via an Android app, with iOS support coming later on. Papyr hardware specifications: Wireless Module – Raytac MDBT50 module with Nordic nRF52840 BLE/802.15.4 SoC (as used in Raytac MDBT50Q-RX Bluetooth 5 LE USB adapter) Connectivity – Bluetooth 5 LE/Mesh, 802.15.4 (Thread/Zigbee), NFC (PCB antenna) Display – 1.54″ 200×200 pixel red/black/white epaper display USB – 1x micro USB device port Expansion – Extra GPIOs via 2.54mm header Debugging – SWD Programming header Misc – RGB LED, push button, USB/Battery power switch Power Supply – 5V via USB, or CR2477 coin cell Dimensions – 65 x 35 mm You can control the board using Electronut Labs app for Android. Three features are supported at this stage: Draw, […]

nRF52840 MDK Base Dock Adds AA Battery Holder, Grove Connectors

nRF52840 MDK Base Dock

Makerdiary nRF52840 Micro Development Kit (MDK) is a breadboard-friendly devkit for Nordic Semi nRF52840 multi-protocol wireless SoC that supports Bluetooth 5.0, Thread, IEEE 802.15.4, ANT, and 2.4GHz proprietary, and various popular frameworks or OS such as Arm Mbed OS, or the Zephyr Project. nRF52840 MDK Base Dock makes development just a little easier, by adding an AA battery holder, and four Grove connectors compatible with Seeed Studio’s Grove modules. nRF52840 MDK Base Dock specifications: Dual 2×18 Socket Headers compatible with nRF52832-MDK & nRF52840-MDK 4 Grove connectors with selectable UART/I2C/I2S/PDM/QDEC/SPI/ADC NFC tag-A PCB Antenna Power Power button with latching circuit AA battery holder Synchronous, Step-up Converter with VIN>VOUT Down Mode Operation 0.8V-to-4V Input Range 3.3V Output with Over-Current Protection Battery level sensing with 1:2 voltage divider on AIN2 Low power consumption: 5uA Shutdown Current; 145uA Idle Current Dimensions – 58mm x 54mm x 17mm The board also adds an NFC PCB […]

Xunison X-Brain Android Smart Home Hub Supports Z-Wave and Bluetooth Controllers

Xunison-X-Brain-1200

Xunison X-Brain is an All-in-One smart home hub that integrates a high-performance secure router, a home server, a WiFi, Z-Wave & Bluetooth gateway. X-Brain runs Android TV operating system, so you can watch live television, stream videos from Netflix, Hulu or IPTV services with EPG, as well as install apps from Google Play. The home automation part of the system allows you to control Z-Wave & Bluetooth Smart Home devices, monitor your home security system, control your home energy consumption, and so on. Xunison X-Brain V1 preliminary hardware specifications: Multimedia subsystem SoC – Unnamed quad-core processor @ 1.5 GHz with penta-core Arm Mali-450 3G GPU, likely Amlogic S905X System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16 GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI + AV port (composite) Audio – HDMI output, AV (stereo audio), and S/PDIF Router subsystem SoC – Mediatek MT7628 580MHz MIPS 24KEc […]

This Amplifier Board Features Beken BK3266 Bluetooth 5.0 Audio SoC

Bluetooth 5 audio board

I’ve been writing about a few Bluetooth 5.0 solutions this year, but in most case those were based on Nordic Semi nRF52 chips which do support BT 5.0 Low Energy, but not Bluetooth classic which means they are suitable for HID devices, but not for all applications such as potentially some Bluetooth audio application. I’ve just come across a $10.59 audio amplifier board on IC station that is supposed to support Bluetooth 5.0 via Beken BK3266 Bluetooth audio chip. Specifications and features listed for the board: Bluetooth 5.0 Connectivity Up to 6 paired devices Bluetooth protocols – HFPV1.7, A2DPV1.2, AVRCPV1.5, AVCTPV1.2, AVDTPV1.2 Range up to 10 meters Transmission Power – Class2, 4dbm Sensitivity – -81dBm < 0.1% BER Frequency Range – 2.402GHz – 2.480GHz Audio MP3/WMA/WAV music format Speaker Impedance – 4 to 8 Ohm Output Power –  2x15W at 16V/4A, 2x10W at 12V/4A Audio signal to noise ratio >75dB […]

Raytac MDBT50Q-RX Bluetooth 5 LE USB Adapter Features nRF52840 WiSoC

Raytac Bluetooth 5 USB Adapter

Bluetooth 5 has been around for a while, but apart from MakerSpot CC2640 Bluetooth 5 USB dongle and Nordic Semi nRF52840 USB Dongle both for developers (and without case), it’s been hard to find Bluetooth 5 USB adapters. So far the only proper BT 5.0 USB adapter for consumers that’s easily purchasable I know of has been Fanstel USB840F available for about $18 plus shipping. Soon enough there should at least another alternative with Raytac MDBT50Q-RX Bluetooth 5 USB adapter- also based on Nordic Semi nRF52840 WiSoC – that the company very recently announced. Raytac MDBT50Q-RX BT 5 dongle main features and specifications: Bluetooth 5 Module – Raytac MDBT50Q-P1M Nordic nRF52840 SoC Arm Cortex-M4F MCU with 1MB Flash memory, 256kB RAM Connectivity – Bluetooth 5 Certified, supports BT5 Long Range Feature Bluetooth Low Energy, ANT+, Zigbee, Thread (802.15.4) Certifications – FCC, IC, CE, Telec (MIC), KC, SRRC, NCC, RCM, WPC […]

Particle Mesh Networking Review – Part 2: Getting Started Guide with Argon & Xenon

Particle Mesh Network Argon Xenon Success

I’ve recently received a Particle Mesh IoT Development Kit with one Argon WiFi + Mesh (802.15.4) board acting as gateway, three Xenon Mesh boards, and various sensors and accessories.  I’ve already showcased the hardware in the first part in the review, so in this post I’ll post my experience getting started with Particle Mesh networking using the kit. Beside the kit, you’ll need a few micro USB cables, a mobile phone running Android or iOS, a reliable Internet connection (more on that later), and a host PC for programming and debugging potential issues. Setting Up Particle Argon & Xenon boards First we’ll need to configure / setup the boards. Go to https://setup.particle.io to login or create an account if you don’t already have one, and you should be brought the following page. Select Mesh, and you’ll be asked to setup a gateway first. Any of the boards from Particle Mesh […]

Ambiq Apollo2 Blue Ultra Low Power MCU adds Bluetooth Connectivity

Ambiq Apollo2 Blue

Ambiq Micro unveiled their ultra-low power Apollo MCU back in 2015 with claims of Cortex-M4 performance at Cortex-M0+ energy efficiency by leveraging SPOT (Subthreshold Power Optimized Technology) technology that allows operating the microcontroller at very low voltages (less than 0.5V). Since then the company introduced Apollo2 MCU with 10 μA/MHz power consumption, but still a generic purpose microcontroller. Earlier this year, the company unveiled a new version of Apollo2 microcontroller adding Bluetooth connectivity, and allowing Bluetooth applications that last years on a charge. Meet Apollo2 Blue. Apollo2 Blue key features and specifications: Arm Cortex-M4 Processor up to 48 MHz with FPU, MMU, wake-up interrupt controller with 32 interrupts Ultra-low power memory Up to 1 MB of flash memory for code/data Up to 256 KB of low leakage RAM for code/data 16kB 1 or 2-way Associative Cache Bluetooth 5 Low Energy RF sensitivity – -95 dBm TX: 5mA @0 dBm; RX: […]

EDATEC Raspberry Pi 5 fanless case