The Tiniest Raspberry Pi RP2040 Boards – Tiny 2040 & Adafruit QT Py RP2040

Smallest RP2040 boards

The Raspberry Pi Pico officially board for RP2040 MCU has a lot of free space on the PCB. So when third parties made their own board they either added features like camera, display, and sensors as found on like on Arducam Pico4ML board, while others “cut the fat” to the minimum. Some of the tiniest Raspberry Pi RP2040 boards are Pimoroni Tiny 2040 & Adafruit QT Py RP2040, both of which come with the dual-core Cortex-M0+ MCU, a USB-C port, two buttons, some I/O ports, and not much else. Tiny 2040 Pimoroni Tiny 2040 specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller@ up to 133Mhz with 264kB of SRAM Storage – 8MB QSPI flash USB – USB Type-C port for power, data, and programming I/Os – 2x 8-pin castellated and through holes for 12 I/Os pins including 4x analog inputs, SPI, I2C, UART, 5V, 3.3V, and GND Debugging – […]

Banana Pi BPI-R64 Linux Router Board Launched for $68

Banana Pi BPI-R64 Specifications

SinoVoIP introduced Banana Pi BPI-R64 router board in the summer of 2018. The Linux router board is powered by MediaTek MT7622 dual-core Cortex-A53 WiFi processor with 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0 built-in, and offers more connectivity options namely 802.11ac WiFi 5 via MT7615 chip, as well as  Gigabit Ethernet ports. 4G LTE is optional via a mini PCIe socket, and a SATA port is included for storage. At the time, I envisioned an official launch in Q1 2019, but I was off by a few quarters, as the company has only just launched Banana Pi BPI-R64 on Aliexpress for $68 plus shipping. The specifications of the Banana Pi BPI-R64 board have slightly changed since last year announcement, and we’ve got a few more details: SoC – MediaTek MT7622 dual-core Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1.35GHz with dedicated network accelerator, 4×4 802.11n and Bluetooth 5 connectivity System Memory – 1GB DDR3 SDRAM Storage […]

Axiomtek Introduces PICO312 Fanless Apollo Lake Pico-ITX SBC

Axiomtek has recently introduce PICO312, a fanless pico-ITX single board computer powered by either Intel Pentium N4200 quad core processor or Celeron dual code N3350 processor N3350 part of “Apollo Lake” family. The board is equipped with a SO-DIMM socket supporting up to 8GB RAM, LVDS, VGA or HDMI output, and working within -20°C to +60°C without the need for a fan, but just a heat spreader with heatsink. Axiomek PICO312 Apollo Lake Pico-ITX board specifications: SoC – Intel Pentium N4200 quad core procesoor @ up to or Celeron N3350 processor @ up to with respectively 18EU or 12 EU Intel HD Graphics Gen 9. System Memory – 1x DDR3L-1867 SO-DIMM supporting up to 8GB Storage – 1x SATA-600 port, 1x mSATA via mini PCIe slot (both on the back of the board) Video Output / Display IF 1x LVDS; 18/24-bit single/dual channel 1x HDMI (N4200 model) or 1x VGA […]

Electrodragon WiFi IoT Relay Includes ESP8266 Module, AC Power, and Enclosure for $6

Thanks to ESP8266, the cost of WiFi relays has dramatically come down, but so far, I could not find an all-in-one solution with ESP8266, relay, AC power and enclosure, and for example I’m still using NodeMCU board, a relay board, a USB power supply, and put all that into a plastic jar in order to control a water pump. It works but it’s not ideal, and solutions like Wemos D1 mini with relay shield improves things further, but Electrodragon has come with a connect-and-play WiFi IoT relay that integrates everything including the case for $6 + shipping. Wifi IoT Relay Board Based on ESP8266: WiFi module – ESP-12F based on Espressif ESP8266EX WiSoC Relays – 2x Songle SRD-05VDC-SL-C relays supporting 125VAC/10A, 250VAC/10A, 30VDC/10A, 28VDC/10A Input/Output – 3x terminal blocks for relay and power Expansion – 12-pin header with Rx/Tx,  GPIO4, Btn2, GPIO15, 5V/GND,  ADC, GPIO5, Btn1, OUTPUT1, and 3V3 Debugging […]