Black Magic Probe Mini V2.1 (BMP21)designed by 1BitSquared in collaboration with Black Sphere Technologies is a JTAG and SWD Adapter used for programming and debugging ARM Cortex MCUs. Its the best friend of any ARM microcontroller developer.
Black Magic Probe gets rid of intermediate programs like OpenOCD or STLink server. This makes the operation faster and more reliable. You just open your GNU Debugger (GDB) and select the virtual com port offered by BMP21 as your extended remote target. For a full description and how-to visit the projects Wiki page on GitHub.
Features:
GDB server port without the need of special PC side software.
TTL level serial interface
SWD and JTAG support
Supports 1.7V up to 5V targets
Can provide 3.3V to the target (up to 100mA)
Semihosting support
Works on Linux, Mac and Windows
Works with Eclipse and other Integrated Development Environments
In this project I will show you how I combined an Arduino Nano, a current sensor, an LCD, a rotary encoder and a couple of other complementary components in order to create an adjustable constant load. It features a constant current and power mode and can handle a maximum of 30V and 20A if your heatsink design can handle it. Let’s get started!
ICP Deutschland has announced the KINO-DH310 Mini-ITX CPU board with LGA1151 socket that gives access to the latest Intel Coffee Lake processor series. [via]
The board can take any Coffee Lake processor, from Core i7/i5/i3 to Celeron or Pentium. Depending on the CPU configuration level, up to six cores and 12 threads can run with a constant 35W power dissipationor 65W when “boosted”. The KINO-DH310 can be equipped with maximum of 64GB DDR4 SO-DIMM memory. Two SATA 6Gb/s interfaces and an M.2 slot are available for mass storage. The second M.2 slot supports PCIe x1, USB 2.0 or an optional WLAN module. The PCIe x16 slot offers a transfer rate of up to 16Gb/s and can be used for older expansion cards due to its backward compatibility. Three USB 3.0, four USB 2.0, one RS-422/485, three RS-232 and 8-bit digital I/O are also available. The KINO-DH310 is designed for a voltage input of 12VDC and a temperature range of 0°C ~ 60°C.
The embedded board offers has two HDMI display outputs, as well as an optional internal display port with up to 4K UHD resolution. ICP Deutschland can also deliver the KINO-DH310 partially assembled with Coffee Lake CPU and DDR4-SO-DIMM memory.
Language has been one of the most fundamental ways of communication among people; it is regarded as the essential way of communication. Of course, language is not the only means of communication between people, but the need for language-based communication is critical especially when people are working and collaborating on tasks together. Communication becomes difficult in situations where people don’t understand each others’ language.
Smark
The need for a common language has been one that has usually been advocated for, but the chances of that happening are limited based on the difference in cultural heritage and history. When people travel to other countries that speak a different language either for vacation or work will mostly result in the use of human language translators which sometimes could prove expensive, inefficient, and not always available. One way of going around this language barrier is to go the route of a language translation device, and Smark might be your best tool for that.
Smark is a pure modular language translator device that is capable of real-time translation of 37+ languages using a simple, intuitive method. There are several ways of doing language translation, there are apps that do that, but Smark goes a step further in the language translation game. Smarks gives you that immersion experience, it gives the experience of a foreign culture and make one communicate like a local.
Smark can support 37+ languages. It provides on the go support for English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Thai, Mandarin, Cantonese, Russian, Greek, Dutch, Polish, Danish, Finnish, Czech, Romanian, Swedish, Hungarian, Malay, and lastly Turkish and more.
Smark is separable.
Smarks brings back the memories of using walkie-talkies to communicate; it is an efficient way of two people trying to talk to each other. The device is separable and can be split into two halves providing back-&-forth sharing work like simple walkie-talkies making it very easy for anyone to use.
Spark is capable of speech recognition, machine translation and speech synthesis seamlessly and fluently in near real time. The device features a dual microphone at the two opposite ends accompanied with a trigger switch; recording can be done with any of the microphones. The product not only does Speech to Speech (S2S) but also Speech to Text (S2T). Spark translation and recognition is based on four main cloud translation engines, namely, Google Translate, Microsoft Translate, Baidu and Alibaba Translate Engines. In the future, it is believed Spark will provide offline translation capabilities to make it more accessible especially in the absence of network or for remote traveling.
Below are the device’s specification:
Network – WiFi
Network Bank – GSM, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, TDD-LTE, FDD-LTE, EVDO.
Smark is made for travel. It can also be used as a network station for multiple devices while on-the-go. With a built-in SIM card, a flat rate roaming plan can be purchased to create a shareable Wi-Fi hotspot for your phone, tablet or laptop. The roaming plan covers 100+ countries and regions in total, so you’ll never have to worry about being out of range or out of touch with your family and friends.
Smark is a product of Misway, a startup with a focus on cutting-edge technology in the areas of Artificial Intelligence with an emphasis on Natural Language Processing and Speech Intelligence Development. More information about Spark is available on the product website. Also a kickstarter campaing is live.
The diffusion of the A10 Cortex A8 processor did not stop the ARM9 market of the Allwinner F series. Since its foundation, Allwinner has released several SoCs for use in Android tablets, as well as in smartphones and camera systems. The A10 was the most successful Soc of Allwinner. The chip was mainly used on Android and Linux keys, even with tablets under $ 150 such as Ainol Novo 7 Aurora (India). The processor supports a maximum resolution of 1920×1080 pixels, although it has often been used in tablets with resolutions of 1024×600 or 1280×800 pixels.
Figure 1: LicheePi Nano board
The F series finds application especially in multimedia systems for vehicles and various audio solutions. LicheePi Nano is a small Single Board Computer (SBC) which marries the configuration of the F1C100, in a form factor of the size of an SD card. It provides a full support[MP1] for LED and RGB displays. The F1C100 processor is based on the ARM9 CPU architecture with a high level of functional integration. F1C100 supports Full HD video playback, including H.264, H.263, MPEG1 / 2/4 decoders. The integrated audio codec and I2S / PCM interface enable the user for an excellent audio experience. The TV-IN and TV-OUT interfaces allow the use of video devices such as the camera and the TV.
The SoC implements two timers to provide the operating system’s scheduler interrupt. There are three type of DMA, each can support 8-bit/16-bit/32-bitdata width. Moreover, The DRAM Controller (DRAMC) provides an interface to support up to a 1G bits memory address space.
The specifications of the LicheePi Nano board are summarized in the following points:
SoC- Allwinner F1C100s ARM926EJS processor clocked at up to 900MHz
System Memory – 32MB DDR integrated into SoC
Storage – Micro SD card, and optional 8M SPI flash (unpopulated in the photo above)
Display I/F – 40-pin RGB LCD FPC connector supporting 272×480, 480×800, 1024×600 and other resolutions resistive and capacitive displays
Video Decoding – H.264 / MPEG up to 720p
I/Os via 2.54mm pitch through holes and 1.27mmm pitch castellated holes
SDIO for WiFi module
2x SPI, 3x TWI (I2C),3x UART
1x TV out, 2x TV in
2x PWM
1x LRADC
2x speaker output, 1x mic input
USB – 1x micro USB OTG port
Power Supply
Input 5V via micro USB port, 3.3 to 5V via pin
Output – 3.3V, selectable input RTC voltage
Power Consumption – 54mA (idle) with Linux, 250mA with display
Temperature Range – Storage: -40~125°C; operating: -20 to 70°C
The LicheePi Nano board supports resistive touch screen with on-board driver and three operating systems: Linux, RT-Thread (RTT) and Xboot. XBOOT supports several Linux Distributions and allows to choice a Grub or Syslinux bootloader. It includes a built in QEMU emulator.
Figure 2: LicheePi Nano board has size almost like a SD card
The amount of RAM present does not support desktop solutions. The parent company offers full support via Telegram to solve the various problems that may occur during the operations of use. The card is sold in a development kit with a 5 “display and a WiFi module for wireless communication in IoT solutions. The board is available on various web platforms such as Bang good for about 9 USD.
Another great little project is published by David Johnson-Davies and it’s about a circuit able to keep track of your alcohol intake.
There seems to be a lot of discussion in the news currently about how much alcohol it’s safe to drink on a regular basis [1][2]. If you want help in monitoring your alcohol consumption this gadget might be useful. You enter the number of units you drink each day, and it keeps track of where you are relative to your target intake.
[…]
I built this circuit a while ago when I wanted a way to keep an eye on my alcohol intake. Of course you could achieve the same result with a calendar and notebook, but this is more fun and motivating. The aim is to keep to a sensible average level of consumption, with the ability to enjoy several drinks when the occasion arises.
The PAN9026 module combines 2.4/5 GHz IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n support with Bluetooth BDR/EDR/LE functionality for to provide connectivity options in smart energy, home gateways, and Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
The Panasonic PAN9026 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module features Dynamic Rapid Channel Switching (DRCS) for simultaneous operation in 2.4 and 5.0GHz. The independent operation of the two standards enables high data rates up to 150Mbits per second to meet IEEE 802.11n specifications, together with low power consumption of 400mA (transmit) and 70mA (receive).
With integrated power management, a fast dual-core CPU, 802.11i security standard support, and high-speed data interfaces, the PAN9026 delivers the speed, reliability, and quality requirements of next-generation products. The module includes pre-stored transmit power calibration data and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth system parameters on the one-time-programmable (OTP) memory to simplify certification processes.
Mouser also offers, the PAN9026 Evaluation Kit and PAN9026 SDIO adapter, available to order, to enable engineers to rapidly prototype designs.
Mouser claims to stock the world’s widest selection of the latest semiconductors and electronic components for new design projects. Mouser Electronics’ website is continually updated and offers advanced search methods to help customers quickly locate inventory. Mouser.com also houses data sheets, supplier-specific reference designs, application notes, technical design information, and engineering tools.
Mouser is now offering the MPLAB Snap in-circuit debugger and programmer from Microchip to streamline in-circuit debug/program for MCUs and DSCs.
The MPLAB Snap targets most PIC, AVR and SAM flash microcontrollers and dsPIC digital signal controllers (DSCs), using the MPLAB X IDE GUI.
The MPLAB Snap board has a 32-bit 300 MHz SAM E70 Arm Cortex-M7 based MCU for quicker debug iterations. The debugger system executes code in the same way as an actual device, because it uses the target device’s built-in emulation circuitry instead of a special debugger chip.Available features of the device can be set and modified by the MPLAB X IDE interface. The board also matches the clock speed of the target device.
Along with support for a wide target voltage range of 1.20V to 5.5V, the MPLAB Snap supports interfaces such as 4-wire JTAG and Serial Wire Debug with streaming data gateway. It is also backward compatible for demo boards, headers and target systems using 2-wire JTAG and ICSP. [via]
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