Page 246 – Electronics-Lab.com

Low Cost Battery Power for Your Raspberry Pi Projects with PiSugar S and PiSugar S Pro

Posted on 15 July, 202115 July, 2021 by Emmanuel Odunlade

Powering the Raspberry Pi in battery-based applications is usually quite the hassle due to the high power consumption of the Pi and its sensitivity to voltage and current fluctuations. Guangzhou-based electronics manufacturer, PiSugar Kitchen, has over the past few years provided a variety of Battery Solutions for the Raspberry Pi but they have been at quite a steep price. To provide more options, and lower costs to the users, the company recently launched two new products; the PiSugar S and the PiSugar S Pro, designed to serve the different Raspberry Pi boards.

PiSugar S

Designed to serve the smaller boards like the Raspberry Pi Zero, Zero W, and Zero WH, the PiSugar S comes in a 65 x 30 x 1.5 mm form factor, just big enough to sit on the boards without taking up extra spaces on the sides of the Pi. It features a 1200mAh battery which is capable of reliably powering the Raspberry Pi Zero W for more than 6 hours, but users can get access to more juice with a 5000mAh battery option which can ensure the Pi stays powered for more than 10hours with 5V/2A supplied at the output.

Like previous Pi Sugar batteries, the PiSugar S works as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for the Raspberry Pi in that the device will continue to power the Pi without any interruptions when the external power supply is disconnected or connected. The system has the ability to detect the availability of the external power supply and switch input from the battery to the external power supply seamlessly. In situations where the device runs out of battery power, the provision of external power immediately turns on the device and can be used to trigger boot, which comes in handy for resetting remote devices.

The PiSugar S also comes with a configurable button that can be used to turn the device On (when OFF), or used as custom button input to your project, and an expansion through which solar and wireless charging can be added to the board.

The PiSugar S Pro, while retaining the UPS and other functionalities available on the PiSugar S, was designed to serve the bigger Raspberry Pi boards including the Pi 3B, 3B+, and the Pi 4B. Asides from matching the size of the bigger Raspberry Pi boards, the PiSugar S Pro also features a bigger battery (5000mAh) which is used to meet the 5v/3A requirements of the boards, with the ability to keep the boards on for more than 10 hours on battery power.

The PiSugar S is available for sale on the project’s Tindie page for $27.99 while the PiSugar S Pro goes for $29.99, without shipping.

More information on the PiSugar S and the PiSugar S pro can be found on the PiSugar Kitchen’s Page on Tindie and wiki.

Logic AND Gate

We know from the Digital Logic Gates Introduction that a digital circuit at its input and output can have only two – states i.e. either “HIGH” or “LOW”. The logic “HIGH” and “LOW” are also termed as “1” and “0” logic, respectively. The voltage level at the input or output is the determinant of the logic “HIGH” or “LOW” and is dependent on the logic family. The Transistor-Transistor Logic (TTL) devices treat 2 to 5 Volts as logic “HIGH” and 0 to 0.8 Volts as logic “LOW”. Whereas, the Complimentary Metal-Oxide-Silicon (CMOS) devices use 3 to 18 Volts as logic “HIGH” and 0.15 Volts as logic “LOW”. The digital logic circuits are commercially available in form of an integrated circuit (IC)/ Chip and may have up to four logic gates inside.

The AND logic returns logic “HIGH” when all of its inputs are in the “HIGH” logic state. In other words, the output of AND gate will be “LOW” when any of the inputs is in the “LOW” logic state. In order to obtain a logic “HIGH”, all of its inputs should be “HIGH” and any of the input turning “LOW” will result in the output being driven to logic “LOW”.

Alternatively, the multiplication of “0”s and “1”s of the inputs gives the output state of AND logic. This gives the Boolean or logic expression of AND logic and is called Logical Multiplication. It is denoted by a dot (.) between the inputs of AND logic gate. For the inputs A and B, the Boolean expression is:

Q = A.B

Resistor-Transistor AND Gate

In the following figure, a basic two-input AND gate constructed using Resistor-Transistor Logic (RTL) are shown. For each input, a Transistor (T) is used and the output is driven across the Resistor (R). In this type of AND logic circuit, the transistors are operated in saturated “ON” & “OFF” states.

RTL AND Gate — Figure 1: The Resistor-Transistor Logic AND Gate

When both inputs “A” and “B” are “HIGH” then both transistors are in saturated “ON” states and a state “HIGH” appears at the output (Q). Turning any of the inputs to logic “LOW” will drive the relative transistor to the “OFF” state and thus incomplete path across VCC & Ground yields state “LOW” at the output (Q).

Logic AND Gate Symbol & Truth Tables

The representation of a AND logic by a symbol is shown in the following figure. Its symbol denotes the multiplication/ AND logic operation.

Log AND Gate Symbol — Figure 2: Logic AND Gate Symbol

The truth table of a two-input AND logic gate is shown below:

AND logic truth table

Similarly, the truth table of a three-input AND logic gate is as follow:

AND logic truth table 3 inputs

The Boolean expression can be extended to include multiple inputs to obtain AND logic operation. However, commercially available AND logic circuits have up to four inputs but the number of inputs can be further extended by cascading the AND logic circuits. In the following figure, three two-inputs gates and one three-input AND logic gate are cascaded to construct a six-inputs (2 x 3 = 6) AND logic circuit.

Figure 3: A 6-input AND logic constructed by cascading multiple AND gates

The Boolean expression for this cascaded circuit can be written as:

Q = (A.B).(C.D).(E.F)

Odd Number of Inputs

The AND logic circuit having an odd number of inputs can be constructed by driving the unused input to logic “HIGH”. This will ensure that another input(s) of the AND logic gate is truly reflected at the output. It is explained in the following diagram where unused input is pulled high using a pull-up resistor.

Commercially Available AND Gates

The AND logic gates are available in both TTL and CMOS logic families. The most commonly used AND logic packages are:

CMOS based AND Gate IC Package

CD4081 Quad 2-input
CD4073 Triple 3-input
CD4082 Dual 4-inputs

TTL based AND Gate IC Package

74LS08 Quad 2-input
74LS11 Triple 3-input
74LS21 Dual 4-input

Logic AND 74LS08 CD4081

Figure 5: 74LS08 & CD4081 Package having 2-input quad AND gates

Example of AND Logic

In the following figure, a AND gate is used to drive a 12V relay to switch on the lamp using NI Multisim. The AND gate (74LS08) energizes the relay when all of the inputs are connected to VCC. The relay thus turns on the lamp through an external circuit of 12V. When one of the inputs is connected to ground AND logic goes “OFF” turning the relay and lamp to “OFF” state as well.

Conclusion

The output of the AND logic is “HIGH” when all of the inputs are in logic “HIGH” states.
Any of the inputs in the logic “LOW” state will drive AND logic to the “OFF” state.
The AND logic gates can be constructed using Resistor-Transistor Logic (RTL) but are seldom used because of the propagation delay and power consumption.
The Transistor-Transistor Logic (TTL) and Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) are commonly used.
The TTL uses a 5V supply whereas CMOS uses a 3-18V supply.
The AND logic gates commercially available have up to four AND logic inputs. However, inputs can be extended by using cascaded AND logic gates.
The AND logic circuit having an odd number of inputs can be constructed by using a pull-up resistor on the unused pin.
An external circuit can be controlled by AND logic with the use of a magnetic relay.

Meet M5Stack CORE2 ESP32 IoT Dev Kit for AWS IoT Edukit

Posted on 14 July, 202114 July, 2021 by Abhishek Jadhav

A couple of months back, AWS launched AWS IoT EduKit, which is an easy way to learn how to build IoT applications using AWS services. AWS IoT EduKit is developed in such a way that everyone from beginner to expert can build end-to-end IoT applications. For this, Amazon has partnered with M5Stack to provide a reference hardware kit.

M5Stack Core2 for AWS is a reference hardware kit that comes with touch screen control and is widely used in IoT sensors, including temperature, accelerometer, gyroscope, and microphone.

The Core2 for AWS is a feature-rich, plug and play extensible, and secure hardware kit for learning and building a wide range of IoT applications. It comes equipped with a Microchip ATECC608A Trust GO secure element, in addition to the existing features of the standard M5Stack Core2 and M5GO Bottom2.

The Core2 IoT development kit has an ESP32-D0WDQ6-V3 microcontroller at its heart that comes with dual Xtensa 32-bit LX6 cores running at a frequency of 240Mhz. The microcontroller also supports wireless communication including 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v4.2 BR/EDR, and BLE. The kit is manufactured with 16MB flash onboard which can be more than enough for small IoT applications.

Features:

CPU: ESP32-D0WDQ6-V3, dual Xtensa 32-bit LX6 cores and the main frequency of up to 240Mhz
Memory: 8M PSRAM
Storage: 16M flash storage, TF card slot (support up to 16GB)
Wireless connectivity: 2.4GHz WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, BLE
Encryption chip: Built-in ATECC608 hardware encryption chip
Software frameworks: Supports FreeRTOS, MicroPython, UIFlow, Arduino development frameworks
Connectivity options: LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, LTE

Edukit is Alexa capable of coming up with multiple onboard peripherals and expansion modules for connectivity options like LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, and LTE. Also, come with plug play grove-connector peripherals for the user to connect sensors and actuators. With the support of LoRaWAN, the kit is expected to gain traction for a variety of IoT applications majorly in agriculture.

The hardware supports several application frameworks like FreeRTOS, Arduino, and MicroPython that will allow the users to program in the language and design embedded applications on a single hardware platform. Also, with the collaboration of AWS and M5Stack, you can now use Espressif’s RainMaker platform and PlatformIO development platform. With the RainMaker platform, you can now control the smart home application without an AWS account, while with PlatformIO development platforms can be used to edit and flash code on the hardware.

The main unit also has a 2.0-inch capacitive touch screen that enhances the user experience on smart homes and small agriculture applications. More hardware specifications are available on the M5Stack Docs. If you plan to buy and play with the development kit, head to the product page on the M5Stack product page where it is priced at $49.90 plus shipping.

High Voltage DC Power Supply for intelligent Power Modules

Posted on 14 July, 2021 by mixos

Although this power supply design is specific to the Intelligent Power Modules (IPM), the concepts and circuit design may be used for any power supply that requires high voltage output up to 400V DC and 6 A. It is an unregulated power supply, DC output is dependent on AC input. The circuitry includes a passive EMI filter consisting of elements C5, C6, C7, C8, C9, C10, T1, and a BR1 25 A/600V rectifier block, R3 NTC for inrush current protection, and a relay RL1 for soft powering up and reducing conduction losses in steady-state operation. 2 x electrolytic capacitors C3, C4 are used for buffering the rectified DC bus voltage. It is advisable to use a heatsink on the bridge rectifier. Inrush current circuit requires 12-15V DC @ 50mA power supply. Choose appropriate fuse as per current requirement.

High Voltage DC Power Supply for Intelligent Power Modules – [Link]

Joystick Controlled 2 x RC Servo motors – Arduino Compatible

Posted on 14 July, 2021 by mixos

This project enables easy control of 2 RC servo motors using a thumb joystick. This is an Arduino compatible project and it consists of a thumb joystick, ATMEGA328 microcontroller, filter capacitor on dc supply, and other components. The thumb joystick has 2 axes, X and Y. The joystick consists of 2 x 10K potentiometers. These potentiometers provide analog voltage output as per the movement of each axis. The microcontroller reads this analog voltage and converts it to RC PWM pulse. The PWM frequency is 50Hz and the duty cycle is 1ms to 2ms. Connect the RC servos to connector CN1 and CN3, apply 5V power supply to connector CN2 and you are ready to go. I have used a high-value electrolytic capacitor on DC supply for the smooth operation of RC Servo. It is important to use at least 1-3A power supply or batteries for the proper smooth operation of the servos and to avoid vibrations. It can be used to control small camera pan-tilt head, robotics, robotics arm, animatronics, toys etc.

Joystick Controlled 2 x RC Servo motors – Arduino Compatible – [Link]

iWave Systems introduces Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 ax) enabled i.MX 8 System on Modules and Single Board Computers

Posted on 14 July, 2021 by mixos

Targeting connected industrial, medical, and automotive applications, iWave adds to its strong portfolio: i.MX 8 System on Modules with Wi-Fi 6. With the continuous advancement of wireless technologies, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 ax) brings performance improvement with increased spatial and spectral performance in high-density environments. Wi-Fi 6 is designed to improve speed, increase efficiency with increased throughput by 4 times in a crowded environment, when compared to Wi-Fi 5.

The System on Module (SOM) approach is now the preferred model of product design with the SOM market exptected to reach USD 2.3 billion by 2025 with a CAGR of 11% in the period 2020 – 2026. With W-Fi 6 integrated on the SOM, it becomes easier for designers to design carrier cards and end products, shortening development time with reduced risk and complexity. iWave Systems takes the responsibility of product longevity while maintaining end of life for the hundreds of components on the module.

Integrated with the u-Blox JODY-W3, the System on Module provisions for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity options. iWave provides for a feature rich BSP support on the series of system on modules with the options of LINUX, ANDROID, UBUNTU and QNX. Available in SMARC 2.0, SMARC 2.1 and Qseven form factors, end customers have the options to choose based on the end requirement and the interfaces required. SMARC system on modules fin a fit in multi-media applications, Qseven in industrial applications and SBC for customers who want to focus on software development.

Technology Advancements of Wi-Fi 6

Wi-Fi 6 drives performance with 2 key technologies: MU-MIMO and OFDMA.

MU-MIMO (Multi-User, Multiple Input, Multiple Output) allows the hub/router to communicate with multiple devices simultaneously. OFDMA allows one transmission to communicate with multiple devices simultaneously, where a single channel is divided into a larger number of sub-channels. This allows for increased efficiency in both uploads and downloads.

Wi-Fi 6 also brings in improved battery life through a feature “Target Wake Time” (TWT). TWT allows for the devices to negotiate and decide when and how often they will wake up to receive and send data. This increases the device sleep time, thereby increasing the battery life.

Why Wi-Fi 6 with i.MX 8

The NXP i.MX 8 family of application processors aim to revolutionise multiple display automotive applications, vision, HMI and industrial systems. The i.MX 8 QuadMax/QuadPlus SoC integrates heterogeneous multicore 64-bit Arm® Cortex®-A72, Cortex-A53 & Dual Cortex-M4F Cores with an array of features like Dual GPU systems, 4K H.265 capable VPU targeted for applications that demand advanced real-time processing, multi-media performance as well as in applications that requires simultaneous multi-OS operations.

With the support for extensive industrial interfaces such as CAN, PCIe, USB 3.0 and SATA, i.MX 8 can be a perfect for industrial applications. With an integrated SECO Module with a dedicated HSM in the processor, i.MX 8 enables sophisticated security features such as Secure Boot, Secure storage, Wi-Fi Security and OPTEE. State of the art safety and secure software execution is mandatory in industrial and automotive connected products, where devices are prone to attacks.

Wi-Fi 6: Industrial, Automotive and Smart Home Applications

Wi-Fi 6 enables a new wireless era, solving challenges faced with previous wireless infrastructure, while laying the foundational capability to new use cases in the industrial, automotive, and smart city vertical markets.

In industrial environments, where intelligence is moving towards the edge and an increased number of sensors and connected devices in a dense environment, Wi-Fi 6 can help in providing a much more efficient connected infrastructure for wireless sensor data collection. In Industry 4.0 solutions, there is now a need for wireless 4K Video streaming and audio processing at the edge, there is a need for more reliable and robust

Connected mobility and automotive IoT solutions are evolving by day, with now a need for cars to talk to each other while also communicating to external infrastructure such as traffic signals and pedestrians. With emerging radio technologies such as C-V2X and DSRC, cars need efficient connectivity to download updates for various ECU and gateways at regular intervals. Wi-Fi 6 can help provide an efficient path for OTA through the Wi-Fi 6 network in houses, when the car is parked. With car manufacturers now looking at user experience and automotive infotainment to build customer loyalty, Wi-Fi 6 can help transform connectivity within cars for such applications.

You can view the performance of 4K video streaming over Wi-Fi 6

Through the extensive feature rich ready to use development kits, customers can now build quick prototypes to evaluate product market fit and evaluate performance. With our system on modules portfolio, iWave is driven by the mission to be a reliable technology partner in their product journey and ensure the best of products and extensive technical support.

You can find more information on our Embedded Computing platforms here.

High Voltage DC Power Supply for Intelligent Power Modules

Safety precautions

The board operates at lethal voltages and has bulk capacitors that store significant charge. Accidental contact can lead to lab equipment damage, personnel injury, and may be fatal. Please be exceptionally careful when probing and handling this board. Always observe normal laboratory precautions.

Features

Nominal Input Voltage 220V-240V AC
Output 330V DC (Approx.)
Output Current Continued 3A (Maximum 6 A)
On Board EMI Filter
On Board NTC for inrush Current
On Board Relay for soft powering up and reducing Power Losses
On Board Fuse for Short Circuit/Over Current Protection
Screw Terminals for Easy Connections
PCB dimensions: 98.50 x 85.88 mm

Schematic

Parts List

NO.	QNTY.	REF.	DESC	MANUFACTURER	SUPPLIER	SUPPLIER PART NO
1	1	BR1	BRIDGE DFB2560	ON SEMI	DIGIKEY	DFB2560-ND
2	1	CN1	4 PIN MALE HEADER 2.54MM PITCH	WURTH	DIGIKEY	732-5317-ND
3	2	CN2,CN3	3 X 2 PIN BARRIER STRIP	TE CONNECTIVITY	DIGIKEY	A113421-ND
4	1	C1	10uF/25V	NICHICON	DIGIKEY	493-17428-3-ND
5	1	C2	4.7uF/25V	NICHICON	DIGIKEY	493-11353-3-ND
6	2	C3,C4	470uF/450V	NICHICON	DIGIKEY	493-3239-ND
7	2	C5,C6	0.47uF/275V X 2	KEMET	DIGIKEY	399-12744-ND
8	4	C7,C8,C9,C10	1KPF/2KV	TDK	DIGIKEY	445-175190-3-ND
9	2	D1,D2	1N4007	SMC DIODE	DIGIKEY	1655-1N4007FLTR-ND
10	1	F1	FUSE HOLDER	WURTH	DIGIKEY	732-11376-ND
11	1	F1	FUSE HOLDER CLIP COVER	WURTH	DIGIKEY	732-11379-ND
12	1	F1	FUSE	WURTH	DIGIKEY	507-1270-ND
13	1	Q1	BC847AL	NEXPERIA	DIGIKEY	1727-2924-2-ND
14	1	RL1	Relay	TE CONNECTIVITY	DIGIKEY	PB2531-ND
15	1	R1	10K 5% SMD SIZE 0805	MURATA/YAGEO	DIGIKEY
16	1	R2	2K2 5% SMD SIZE 0805	MURATA/YAGEO	DIGIKEY
17	1	R3	NTC5D/20	AMTHERM	DIGIKEY	570-1268-ND
18	1	R4	330K 5% 3W	TE CONNECTIVITY	DIGIKEY	A131571CT-ND
19	1	R5	DNP			OMIT
20	1	T1	TX	WURTH	DIGIKEY	732-1449-ND

Connections

Gerber View

Photos

Video

DFB2560 Datasheet

Rock Pi 4 Plus SBC Features Rockchip OP1 Processor and eMMC Storage with Twister OS Armbian

Posted on 13 July, 202113 July, 2021 by Saumitra Jagdale

Radxa launched the Rock Pi 4 Plus series of single-board computers with the Rockchip OP1 Processor, as an alternative to the Raspberry Pi. The new Rock Pi 4 Plus has been upgraded to a Rockchip OP1 processor, a powerful hexa-core ARM-based RK3399 SoC. Hence, it should be 11% faster than its predecessors. Additionally, the SBC delivers class-leading performance while leveraging excellent mechanical compatibility, making it a good choice for IoT enthusiasts and hobbyists.

The onboard RK3399 SoC packs a quad-core 1.4GHz Cortex-A53 with a dual-core 2GHz Cortex-A72 along with a Mali T860MP4 graphic processing unit (GPU). This high-performance SoC is used in ASUS Tinker Board 2. The Plus version additionally has onboard eMMC storage and comes pre-loaded with the Armbian-based Twister OS.

The new Rock Pi 4 Plus features Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) with PoE support (additional HAT is necessary). The board is equipped with two-lane MIPI-DSI and -CSI interfaces and a 4K-ready HDMI 2.0 port for display interface. With the small form factor of 85 x 54 mm, the SBC comes with a rich set of physical connectivity through 40-pin GPIOs, and a pair each of USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports.

Interface Description of Rock Pi 4 Plus

Furthermore, instead of depending on an optional eMMC module, the board includes 16 to 128 GB of eMMC memory. It also offers a microSD card slot and an M.2 socket with support for the NVMe SSD storage. Additionally, the company also packs an audio jack with a mic and a real-time clock(RTC). It also comes with a USB Type-C port for charging.

Radxa offers two versions of Rock Pi 4 Plus— Model A and Model B, both featuring the same SoC and most of the same hardware. However, the 4A+ and 4B+ are similar to the previous Rock Pi 4A and 4B. But it comes with the exception that the 4B+ SBC includes built-in WiFi and Bluetooth. Hence, the Rock Pi 4B+ is the perfect choice for personal or commercial applications.

According to the post by Linux Gizmos, Radxa intends to sell the Rock Pi 4 Plus in four variations as follows:

Model A — 2GB LPDDR4 + 16GB eMMC — $49
Model A — 4GB LPDDR4 + 32GB eMMC — $65
Model B — 2GB LPDDR4 + 16GB eMMC — $59
Model B — 4GB LPDDR4 + 32GB eMMC — $75

Talking about the software ecosystem, the new Rock Pi 4 Plus board comes pre-loaded with Twister OS Armbian. It is a fast and lightweight desktop operating system based on Armbian Focal 20.04.1 LTS for RK3399-based SBCs. Additionally, Twister OS strongly recommends using an RK3399-based SBC with 4 GB of RAM and 16 GB of microSD/eMMC storage. According to Radxa, the Armbian-based Twister OS “brings recent Linux kernel, supports HW decoding and 2D/3D GPU acceleration to the Rock Pi Plus.”

Currently, only Rock Pi 4B+ with 4GB RAM, 32GB of eMMC flash, and WiFi/Bluetooth is available for $95 on Amazon. For more information visit Radxa’s Rock Pi community website.

Meet the Photoacoustic Sensing Based SCD41 CO2 Sensor; The Latest Addition to Sparkfun’s QWiiC Ecosystem

Posted on 13 July, 2021 by Emmanuel Odunlade

Sparkfun’s QWiiC ecosystem comprises of I²C based components which through 4-pin JST connectors can be quickly interfaced with development boards. The product line, which already features over 1800 products including, sensors, actuators, and QWiiC enabled development boards, keeps growing daily and the latest addition to the ecosystem is the QWiiC Sparkfun CO₂ Humidity and Temperature Sensor.

Essentially a breakout board for the highly accurate, miniature, and Photoacoustic sensing-based SCD41 CO₂ sensor from Sensirion, the Sparkfun’s SCD41(QWIIC) CO₂ Humidity and Temperature Sensor possesses the capacity to detect CO2 over a large output range from 0 to 40000 ppm with higher accuracy over 400-5000 ppm ±(40ppm+5%) range, with accuracy further improved by the On-chip signal compensation realized via the built-in SHT4x humidity and temperature sensor.

CO2 is a key indicator for indoor air quality with high levels noted to have the capacity to compromise humans’ cognitive low power, as such the SCD41 QWIIC sensor brings to makers the ability to develop rapid prototypes and solutions leveraging the quick, and easy to use Sparkfun’s QWIIC sensor interface.

Some of the highlight features of the SCD41 sensor which are made available to users via the QWIIC module includes:

Photoacoustic sensor technology PASens®
Large output range: 0 ppm – 40’000 ppm
Large supply voltage range: 2.4 – 5.5 V
High accuracy: ±(40 ppm + 5 %)
Digital I2C interface
Integrated temperature and humidity sensor
Low power operation down to < 0.4 mA avg. @ 5 V, 1 meas. / 5 minutes

So users can get up and running with the new sensor in no time, Sparkfun, as with all its products, has released an Arduino library to make reading the CO₂, humidity, and temperature from the sensor super easy. The library can be installed through the Arduino Library manager by searching for ‘SparkFun SCD4x’.

While there is no information on stock availability on Sparkfun’s website, the sensor is currently available for sale on the website for $59.95 without shipping. Quite Pricey? I agree but asides from the quality and solid performance of Sensirion’s SCD41 sensor, which is most certainly a major contributor to the cost, the SCD41 (QWIIC) CO₂ Humidity and Temperature Sensor was developed by Sparkfun as a SparkX product which means it was not produced in large quantity, and this may have affected the cost, and will definitely also affect availability, at least for the time being.

Sparkfun’s SparkX products are experimental products, rapidly produced in SparkFun’s lab to provide access to products based on recent technology breakthroughs to makers, as fast as possible. While the products are usually tested, they don’t exactly go through nearly as much rigorous testing and verification that the regular SparkFun products go through, due to the rapid nature of their development. As such, SparkFun usually offers no guarantees, support or beginners guide for products in this category, as some of them, at the end of the day, don’t make it to the regular products category. This means limited supply, and probably not the best set of components to use for the development of your new product with a million unit sales plan.

However, Like all Sparkfun’s projects, the SCD41(QWIIC) CO₂ Humidity and Temperature Sensor is open-source hardware, as such, all the designs and test files are fully open-source and available on the project’s GitHub page, which you can easily build your own version of the sensor and not worry about availability.

More information on the new sensor, features, and specifications, is available on the product’s page on Sparkfun’s website.

Sparkfun’s MicroMod Family Adds the Teensy 4.0 board with an M.2 Connector

Posted on 13 July, 2021 by Emmanuel Odunlade

Sparkfun launched the MicroMod Interface Ecosystem, a modular ecosystem of interchangeable processors and specialized carrier boards, in late 2020, to provide users with a solder-free rapid prototyping platform aimed at making the transition from prototypes to products easier and faster. The ecosystem has experienced tremendous success with new MicroMod Processor Boards, offering plug and play capability for different processors and MCUs released every now and then. The latest addition to the family is the Sparkfun MicroMod Teensy Processor.

Developed in partnership with PJRC, which owns the Teensy Trademark, the Sparkfun MicroMod Teensy processor, brings the awesome computing power of the NXP iMXRT1062 processor, which we’ve all come to love from the experience with the Teensy 4.0, to the Sparkfun’s Micromod family.

Thanks to the NXP iMXRT1062, the Sparkfun MicroMod Teensy Processor features an ARM Cortex-M7 processor operating at clock speeds up to 600MHz, with 16MB Flash Memory, and 1024K of RAM Memory. To allow full utilization of the huge processing power, the MicroMod Teensy Processor board comes with a total of seven serial UART ports, four I2C buses, two SPI ports, CAN-Bus, 12 GPIO, dedicated digital, analog, and PWM pins, digital audio, and USB Host and Device capability at speeds of up to 480Mbit/s.

Feeling like you’d need more? well, one of the many great things about the iMXRT1062 is that many of its pins support multiple signal types, so you can customize them to meet the needs of your project.

The highlight features and specifications of the Sparkfun MicroMod Teensy Processor are provided below:

USB Device up to 480Mbit/sec: Capable of enumerating as a USB keyboard, mouse, joystick, MIDI, audio, and more
USB Host up to 480Mbit/sec: Capable of interfacing to USB flash drives, mice, keyboards, and more
7x Serial Ports
2x SPI
4x I2C Bus
1x CAN-Bus
1x I2S Digital Audio
1x SDIO for SD
2x Dedicated Analog Pins (Up to 14 available for use)
2x Dedicated PWM Pins (Up to 22 available for use)

Thanks to the M.2 MicroMod connector, users can either choose to use one of the several Sparkfun MicroMod Carrier Boards in the MicroMod ecosystem for their project or design their own carrier board by modifying open-source MicroMod carrier board designs available on SparkFun’s GitHub page.

As tradition with Sparkfun, the MicroMod Teensy Processor is fully open source, and users interested in the design can find the board’s designs and documentation on the project’s GitHub page here. However, for those who are interested in buying, the coin-sized, Teensy processor is available on Sparkfun for $19.95, without shipping.

More information on the Teensy processor, along with usage, and design guides, can be found on the product’s page on Sparkfun’s Website.