Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE Selects Two Winners for Commercial Medical Tricorders

Healthcare takes around 10% of worldwide GDP, and while in some cases an increase in the healthcare to GDP ratio means better care for people, in other cases it may  lead to a decrease in the population’s living standards. There are political, business, and legal issues involved in the costs, but overtime I’m confident that technology can both improve care and lower the costs, in some instances dramatically, especially if open source designs become more common, and there’s some work in that respect with open source projects for prosthetics, opthalmoscope, and even surgical robots. Some commercial projects also aim(ed) to lower the costs of diagnosis tools such as Sia Lab’s medical lab dongle or Scanadu medical tricorder. The latter project sadly did not manage to pass FDA approval, and the company will stop supporting it on May 15, 2017, but that does not mean others have given up on developing […]

MatchX LoRaWAN Solution Supports up to 65,535 Sensor Nodes per Gateway

MatchBox-LoRa

MatchX is a startup with offices in Chicago, Shenzhen, and Berlin, that provides a complete LoRaWAN solution with their MatchBox gateway based on SX1301 concentrator and Mediatek MT7628N processor, as well as MatchStick, MatchModule, and MatchCore sensors with up to 65,535 of those connecting to a single  gateway. MatchBox LoRaWAN/WiFi/GPRS/GPS Gateway MatchBox specifications: Processor – Mediatek MT7628AN MIPS WiSoC @ up to 580 MHz System Memory – 128MB DDR2 RAM Storage – 16MB FLASH Connectivity LoRa – Semtech SX1301 + 2x SX1257@+27dbm  Output Power; 470/868/915Mhz frequency range, -146dBm sensitivity 10/100M Ethernet 802.11n 2×2 WiFi @ 300 MHz Optional GPRS via SIM800H, 85.6 kbps (downlink/uplink) + micro SIM card slot GPS via UBlox Max 7C Antennas – 2x u.FL antennas for WiFi, u.FL or chip antenna for LoRa, GPS and GPRS modules USB – 1x USB 2.0 port, 1x USB type C exposing 4 or 6 GPIOs and UART Misc – […]

ESP8266, Mongoose OS & Grove Sensors – An Alternative Solution for Hackathons

CNXSoft: This is a guest post by Cesanta If you walked into any Hardware hackathon over the last year, you would see they are about innovation and bringing new ideas to this world and most of them are centered around the connected devices nowadays. However, just walk the floor, talk to the teams and you can quickly see an elephant in the room. The Hackathons are about connected devices, but with the ‘recommended’ and frequently sponsored hardware distributed to the teams such as Intel Galileo, Raspberry Pi, etc…. developers may struggle for a long time to even connect it to the cloud! Not to mention the innovation is usually hindered by a tedious environment setup which takes hours, things to learn about the specific hardware and how it can be programmed using low level languages. So many teams spent most of the time fighting with those issues and oftentimes still […]

Hornbill ESP32 Development Boards Come with an Optional IP67 Rated Enclosure (Crowdfunding)

While there are plenty of ESP32 development boards, and prices have recently plummeted, getting a case for your project can still be a problem especially if you plan to use it outdoor, as you need to protect your hardware from rain and dust. Hornbill project offers two ESP-WROOM-32 based boards, a prototype board, and an IP67 certified case that could be useful for outdoor use. Hornbill ESP32 Development Boards Let’s start by checking the boards available starting with ” Hornbill ESP32 Dev” board with the following specs: ESP-WROOM-32 module with WiFi, Bluetooth LE,  FCC, CE, IC, MIC (Telec), KCC, and NCC certifications I/O headers 2x 19-pin headers with GPIOs, I2C, UART, SPI, ADC, DAC, touch interface, VN/VP, 5V, 3.3V and GND Breadboard-friendly Debug – Built-in CP21XX USB-to-serial Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port, battery header + single cell LiPo charger Dimensions – TBD ESP32 Minima is also based […]

Samsung Galaxy S8 & S8+ Smartphones Launched with Infinity Screen, Samsung DeX Desktop Mode, Bixby Assistant

Samsung has finally launched their latest Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 or Exynos 8895 processor, 5.8″ and 6.2″ screens , and some of the most interesting features include the “infinity screen” with ultra thin bezels, Samsung DeX allowing for a desktop experience on a large monitor when the phone is docked, as well as Bixby assistant. Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ specifications: SoC (one or the other depending on markets) Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor with four Kryo 280 cores @ 2.3 GHz, four Kryo 280 cores @ 1.7 Ghz;; Adreno 540 GPU; 10nm process Samsung Exynos 8895 octa-core processor with four M2+ cores @ 2.35 GHz, four Cortex A53 cores @ 1.9 GHz, ARM Mali-G71 GPU; 10nm process System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 64GB UFS 2.0 flash; micro SD up to 256 GB Display Galaxy S8 – 5.8” quad HD+ (2960×1440), (570ppi) Galaxy S8+ […]

Karl’s Home Automation Project – Part 3: Adding Light Detection to a Motion Sensor

This is the 3rd part of my Home Automation light project. In the first part, I wrote about basic setup with basic Sonoff Wifi MQTT switches and setting them up. In the second one, we added some 433 MHz motion sensors and a 433 MHz to MQTT bridge. And finally in part 3, we are going to modify the 433 MHz motion sensors to only work when it is dark in the room. Motion Sensor The motion sensor I linked in part 2 is run by a common chip called a BISS0001. We are interested in pin 9. If voltage is below .2v it will not trigger a motion. This solves the problem discussed in part 2, when we have a gloomy day or if blinds are closed etc. By adding an GL5537 LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) shown as R3 in the diagram above, you will achieve the desired effect. […]

NanoPi NEO2 Board, NanoHats, and BakeBit Starter Kit Review – Part 1: Hardware Overview & Assembly

NanoPi NEO 2 development board is an update of NanoPi NEO with a quad core 64-bit Allwinner H5 processor + 512 MB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, and an extra audio header, which can be a great little board for headless application since there’s no video output. FriendlyELEC ask me whether I wanted to review to board with some of their NanoHATs add-on boards, and while I asked for NanoHat PCM5102A audio board and NEO Hub which I intended to use with Grove modules from my Wio Link Started Kit, I get a bit more than expected, as the company included sets of NEO 2 boards and accessories, NanoHATs, two serial debug board, and their BakeBit Starter Kit with several Grove modules to play with. Since I have so many things to look at in this first post, I’ll just describe the hardware, assemble it, quickly check the paper documentation, and give […]

Xiaomi 6-in-1 WiFi & Zigbee Smart Home Kit Works with Domoticz Home Automation Software

Xiaomi “Mijia” 6-in-1 smart home (security) kit is an home automation set with a WiFi & Zigbee multi-functional gateway with RGB light and speaker, a wireless switch, a window/door sensor, a  human body sensor, temperature & humidity sensor, and a smart socket. The key features of each item are as follows: Multifunctional Gateway Remote Control WiFI and Bluetooth connectivity Built-in speaker Light sensor and 18x RGB LED for notifications potentially trigerred by connected sensors: body sensor, door sensor, IP camera… Online radio support Window / Door Sensor Set Light and rings the gateway when opened or closed Away from home mode: can trigger IP camera recording Power – CR2032 cell battery that should last for 2 years Smart Wireless Switch Programmable one key switch to turn off all lights/applicance, turn on one light at night, etc… Human Body Sensor Motion sensor allowing you to control other devices through the gateway Power […]