development board

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on $99 MATRIX Creator Raspberry Pi Add-on Board Features Plenty of Sensors, a 2.4 GHz Radio, and More

$99 MATRIX Creator Raspberry Pi Add-on Board Features Plenty of Sensors, a 2.4 GHz Radio, and More

MATRIX Creator is a round-shaped add-on board for Raspberry Pi boards with various sensors, a microphone array, an LED array, a Xilinx FPGA, an Atmel Cortex-M3 MCU, wireless connectivity via Z-Wave, ZigBee, Thread, and NFC, as well as various I/Os…. MATRIX Creator specifications: FPGA – Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA MCU – Atmel ATSAM3S2C Cortex-M3 MCU Connectivity – ZigBee, Thread, Z-Wave and NFC Sensors – Ultraviolet, pressure, humidity, temperature, 3D accelerometer, 3D gyroscope, 3D magnetometer Audio – 8x MEMs microphone array with Alexa support Expansion – 2x ADC, 17x digital GPIOs, SPI, I2C, UART; 40-pin connector for Raspberry Pi 2/3 Misc – 35x RGBW LEDs array, IR Rx/Tx, infrared ring for the Raspberry Pi NoIR camera I can’t think of the single application that would make use of all features of this board, but the least we can say is that it’s extremely versatile. The developers are providing MATRIX OS based […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments on RisingHF IoT Discovery is a LoRaWAN Evaluation Kit for Raspberry Pi

RisingHF IoT Discovery is a LoRaWAN Evaluation Kit for Raspberry Pi

There are many current and upcoming long range low power wireless protocols for the IoT, but this morning I learned that South Korea launched a LoRa network (aka LoRaWAN), after another launch in the Netherlands earlier this year. While there are also some LoRa hobbyist kits such as LoraONE and LoPy being worked on, I decided to look on Aliexpress, but only got two products were listed: a LoRaWAN temperature and humidity sensor, and a LoraWAN USB modem. Both of them are made by a company called RisingHF. Among the products offered by the company, there’s a potentially interesting development kit called RisingHF IoT Discovery with the following components: 1x Raspberry Pi board 1x RHF0M301 LoRa Gateway based on Semtech SX1301 1x RHF4T002  adapter for Raspberry Pi and RHF0M301 1x RHF3M076 LoRaWAN USB AT Modem End point to connect to computer. It operates at 434MHz, 470MHz,868MHz, and 915MHz 3x RHF76-052 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments on WiThumb is an ESP8266 WiFi USB Adapter with Motion and Temperature Sensors (Crowdfunding)

WiThumb is an ESP8266 WiFi USB Adapter with Motion and Temperature Sensors (Crowdfunding)

There are now plenty of Espressif ESP8266 boards or module to play with, but most of them require some cables or wires, at least for power. WiThumb does not need any of that as it’s designed to be plugged into any USB ports, and includes a 6-axis motion sensor, and a temperature sensor. WiThumb USB dongle specifications: SoC – Espressif ESP8266 32-bit MCU with 802.11b/g/n WiFi Storage – 4MB Flash memory Sensors – Temperature sensor (+/- 0.25C typical accuracy, -40 to 125 C range), 6-axis gyroscope + accelerometer Expansion – Breadboard friendly through holes with 1x 10-bit ADC, I2C and 4x GPIOs USB – USB type A connector Misc – Reset and flash buttons Power – 5V via USB port Dimensions – 4.8 x 2.2 cm The USB stick can be programmed like most ESP8266 board, i.e. via USB using the Arduino IDE. In case you wonder what kind of […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Infineon Showcases the Radar Board used in Google’s Project Soli, and Sense2Go Development Kit (Video)

Infineon Showcases the Radar Board used in Google’s Project Soli, and Sense2Go Development Kit (Video)

Google’s Project Soli sensing technology uses a miniature radar to detect touchless gesture interactions, so that you can control devices such as wearables using gestures without having to physical touch the product. The 60 GHz radar technology used in the project has been developed by Infineon, and the company was recently interviewed by Arrow Electronics where they showcased Soli board, as well as another 24 GHz radar development kit called Sense2Go. The Soli board called BGT60TR24 features Infineon XMC4500 ARM Cortex M4 MCU, and a 60 GHz “CRIS20” radar chip designed specially for Project Soli by Infineon, and allowing 20mm resolution, falling to less than one millimeter with Google’s algorithms. The micro USB port will be used for power and programming. This board should be the one included in Project Soli development kit to be shipped to developers this fall. Infineon also have a Sense2Go 24GHz sensor development kit that […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments on Boardcon MINI6818 CPU Module Features Samsung S5P6818 Octa-core Processor

Boardcon MINI6818 CPU Module Features Samsung S5P6818 Octa-core Processor

Update: a defect has been found, so the board is not for sale anymore. Samsung S5P6818 octa-core Cortex A53 processor has already been found in several single board computers and development boards including Graperain G6818 SBC and NanoPi M3 board, but so far I had not seen it implemented into a system-on-module to be used in custom designs, and that’s just was Boardcon did with their MINI6818 CPU module. Boardcon MINI6818 SoM specifications: SoC – Samsung S5P6818 octa-core ARM Cortex A53 processor @ 1.4GHz with Mali-400MP 3D GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash 2x 100-pin board-to-board connectors with 1.27 pitch: 5x UART, I2C, SPI 1x USB2.0 Host, 1x USB HSIC Host, 1x USB2.0 OTG, LCD (TFT/LVDS/MIPI) Gigabit Ethernet I2S, CIF (not sure what it is), Audio HDMI GPIOs ADC PWM HSMMC/SD Power – 5V; AXP228 PMIC Dimensions – 70 x 58 mm (8-layer PCB) The […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments on ARMADA 8040 Networking Community Board with a Quad Core ARM Cortex A72 SoC Coming Soon for $300 and Up

ARMADA 8040 Networking Community Board with a Quad Core ARM Cortex A72 SoC Coming Soon for $300 and Up

Developers interested in ARMv8 server or networking boards are starting to have more and more affordable choices. After AMD Opteron A1100 series based LeMaker Cello board, and Softiron Overdrive 1000 server, SolidRun is now working on ARMADA 8040 networking community board powered by Marvell ARMA8040 quad core Cortex A72 network processor. ARMADA 8040 networking board (mrvl8040) preliminary specifications: SoC – ARMADA 8040 (88F8040) quad core Cortex A72 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with MoChi architecture System Memory – 4GB DDR4 DIMM by default Storage – 4x SATA 3.0 port + micro SD slot Connectivity – 1x Gigabit RJ45 port, 1x SFP SGMII @ 2.5Gbps, dual 10Gbps copper with auto switchover to dual SFP+ Expansion – 1x PCIe-x4 3.0 slot, Linaro 96Boards expansion slot exposing GPIO, UART, I2C and SPI, Marvell TDM module header USB – 1x USB 3.0 port, 2x micro USB ports Debugging – Console port (UART) over […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on $25 Ameba Arduino IoT Board Powered by Realtek RTL8195AM MCU Supports WiFi and NFC

$25 Ameba Arduino IoT Board Powered by Realtek RTL8195AM MCU Supports WiFi and NFC

Ameba Arduino is another development board for the Internet of Things, but beside WiFi connectivity, it also includes an NFC tag, and can support Ethernet via Arduino compatible headers. The brain of the board is Realtek RTL8195AM ARM Cortex M3 MCU that includes WiFi connectivity, hardware SSL, SRAM, and flash. Ameba Arduino Specifications: MCU – Realtek RTL8195AM ARM Cortex M3 @  up to 166MHz with 512KB SRAM, 1MB ROM, WiFi connectivity, hardware SSL engine Memory – 2MB SDRAM Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 b/g/n 1T1R with PCB antenna and external antenna connector, NFC tag with read/write Function, 10/100M Ethernet via expansion headers USB – 1x micro USB OTG port, 1x micro USB host port Expansion Headers SDIO Device/SD card controller Up to 30x GPIOs 2x SPI interfaces supporting master and slave modes 3x UART interfaces including 2 HS-UART and one log UART 4x I2C Interfaces supporting master and slave mode 2x […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 31 Comments on Mediatek Labs Unveils Deca-core Helio X20 Development Board Compliant with 96Boards CE Specifications

Mediatek Labs Unveils Deca-core Helio X20 Development Board Compliant with 96Boards CE Specifications

More and more companies are joining the 96Boards bangwagon, and the latest move by Mediatek Labs will mean their Helio X20 development board, designed in collaboration with ArcherMind, will be the most powerful 96Boards CE edition released so far thanks to its deca-core processor with two Cortex A72 cores, and 8 Cortex A53 cores. Mediatek Helio X20 board specifications: SoC – Mediatek Helio X20 (MT6797) deca-core processor with two ARM Cortex A72 cores @ 2.3 GHz, four Cortex A53 @ 1.95 GHz, four Cortex A53 @ 1.4 GHz, and  ARM Mali-T880 GPU @ 800 MHz System Memory – 2GB LPDDR3 @ 933 MHz Storage – 8GB eMMC 5.1 flash + micro SD 3.0 (UHS-I) slot Video Output – HDMI up to 1080p @ 30 fps Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS with antenna connector USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB port (device only). Expansion: […]