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Cubiio 2: Laser Cutter & Metal Engraver with Autofocus

Posted on 3 July, 20203 July, 2020 by Emmanuel Odunlade

Whether it’s to print your name on personal belongings, elevate product value with your own logo or print your favorite photo on any surface, this 2nd generation machine gives an output resolution of 500 DPI.

After we saw what could be described as “the very first palm-sized compact laser engraver and the most funded fabrication tool ever on Kickstarter” back in 2017, designer of the compact Cubiio Laser Engraver is back with a more powerful and much faster laser cutter and metal engraver with Autofocus and WiFi remote control.

Measuring 30 cm x 22 cm, the 2nd generation of the laser engraver features a workspace bigger than the size of an A4 paper and offers plenty of room to bring your ideas and creativity to life. It is a portable, easy-to-use, and safe machine designed particularly for makers, bakers, designers, handcrafters, leather workers, carpenters, and anyone with amazing imaginations.

Some cool things about the Cubiio 2 include its maximum cutting thickness of 5mm and its ability to cut through materials like leather, felt, wood, cardboard, paper, acrylic, fabric, and many others. If the material appears to be too thick for a single pass to cut through, the Cubiio 2 will focus continually downward into it for subsequent passes until it is able to cut.

The Cubiio 2 is also known for its versatility; it is able to craft designs on several kinds of metal surfaces.

“Thanks to the first latest advances in semiconductor laser technology, our laser cartridge works on stainless steel directly, without pre-coating spray. Cubiio 2 can engrave on titanic, dark glass, shale, brick, concrete, most varieties of colored anodized aluminum, and other materials. It even works on curved surfaces, like wine bottles.” says Muherz.

In order to cut or engrave properly with the laser beam, the Cubiio 2 employs the LiDAR technology that focuses the laser beam precisely and automatically on the target’s surface. Other rich user-friendly and intuitive features include alignment-free optics, preview, OTA firmware update, embedded fume filter, cross-format compatibility, and of course, a WiFi remote control that makes it an easy tool to handle. It is further equipped with an attenuator, thermometer, beeper, digital lock, emission indicator, accelerometer, and an emergency stop switch for safety.

The product has already been launched on Kickstarter with delivery scheduled to start by November 2020 to any part of the world. More information can be found here.

eMCOS® POSIX Commercial OS Supports Kalray’s Coolidge™ Intelligent Processor for Mixed-Criticality Systems[1]

Posted on 3 July, 2020 by mixos

High Performance, Low Power Consumption of Third-Generation MPPA® from Kalray now Available on Same Terms as Existing Multi-core Processors to Suit Applications such as Autonomous Driving, Edge Computing, Robotics and Medical Equipment.

The eMCOS® POSIX high-performance, scalable real-time operating system (RTOS) from eSOL, a leading developer of real-time embedded software solutions, now supports the Coolidge™ third-generation MPPA® (Massively Parallel Processor Array) intelligent processor developed by Kalray. As a result, developments based on the MPPA Coolidge can be brought to market for advanced applications such as Autoware and AUTOSAR Adaptive Platform software for autonomous driving, as well as ROS[2] for robotic control. Further notable applications include edge computing, data centers, medical equipment, high-performance computing (HPC) and machine learning (ML). Importantly, developers will be able to access the extremely high computing performance and low power consumption of the MPPA Coolidge (80 cores) on the same terms as existing multi-core processors. For eSOL it ultimately means the ability to offer a POSIX-compliant, secure software platform that takes advantage of the Coolidge ‘manycore’ architecture.

eMCOS POSIX complies with the POSIX PSE53 profile for running multiple processes. A proprietary distributed microkernel architecture extracts maximum performance from the MPPA Coolidge manycore processor and provides scalable support across different processor configurations, ranging from single-core through to multi-core, many-core and multi-chip. Scalable support is also provided, not only in homogenous settings that lack a cache coherence mechanism, but for heterogeneous configurations combining different architectures.

The safety of the eMCOS platform is delivered by eliminating single points of failure and providing freedom from interference (FFI) in the software that mixes different automotive safety integrity levels (ASILs), an essential requirement of Functional Safety (FuSa) standards.

As a point of note, an optimized development environment and tools are available for creating advanced applications with multiple POSIX processes targeting the MPPA Coolidge.

In heterogeneous hardware configurations, eMCOS supports a variety of profiles that include POSIX, AUTOSAR and a hypervisor. This flexibility enables the RTOS to deliver optimal computing performance from MPPA Coolidge, which can be used as a stand-alone embedded platform that mixes functions with different criticalities on the same chip, or as an accelerator delivering high performance when combined with a separate host processor.

“By adding support for MPPA Coolidge, eMCOS POSIX has become the world’s first commercially available full POSIX OS to run on 80 cores,” said Bob Nobuyuki Ueyama, Executive Vice President of eSOL. “eSOL intends to continue working closely with Kalray to supply platforms for intelligent systems that provide superior computing performance, energy efficiency, real-time capabilities, and safety and security.”

Stéphane Cordova, VP Embedded Solutions at Kalray, added:

“We have engaged with eSOL as part of a technical and strategic collaboration for many years, and this latest development highlights what we can achieve together for the benefit of customers. Moving forward, we intend continuing this teamwork to supply secure software platforms that combine high performance and safety for a wide range of advanced and demanding applications such as Autonomous Driving, industrial equipment, robotics, medical devices and edge computing.”

For more information, please visit: https://www.esol.com

AI with Google Coral TPU and Gateworks SBCs

Posted on 3 July, 2020 by mixos

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) are shaping and advancing complex automated technology solutions. Having these capabilities integrated into hardware allows for solutions that can recognize objects in an image, analyze and detect abnormalities in patterns or find key phrases. These functionalities can be paramount for applications including, but not limited to, autonomous vehicles and robots, monitoring devices for IoT networks, and voice & language processing applications. Nearly any industry can take advantage of this powerful technology, including manufacturing, oil and gas, security and defense, agriculture and automotive.

Google Coral TPU Card in the bottom left Mini-PCIe Socket.

Google Coral TPU & Gateworks SBC Highlights:

Rugged SBC & TPU Solution
Accelerates neural networks with edge TPU
Performance: 4 TOPS (Trillion Operations Per Second)
Half-size Mini-PCIe Form Factor (PCIe Gen2 x1)
Supported Framework: TensorFlow Lite
Works with AutoML Vision Edge
Power: 2 Watts Typ, 4 Watts Max
-20 to +70C Operating Temperature

A rugged & compact platform that can provide AI & ML in a single small package is available from Gateworks. Gateworks single board computers can be paired with a Google Coral Tensor Processing Unit (TPU). A demonstration has been created showcasing these two pieces working together in an image recognition scenario. The Google Coral Mini-PCIe card is inserted into a Gateworks SBC which also has an USB webcam connected to it. The Coral unit analyzes the live video from the webcam to detect and identify different objects. Each inference is extremely fast and accurate. A video of the demo is available.

Google Coral analyzing a picture of a snail.

3D magnetic field sensor allows the selectable measurement of X, Y, and Z magnetic fields

Posted on 3 July, 20203 July, 2020 by mixos

The Belgium-based global supplier of micro-electronic semiconductor solutions, Melexis has announced the MLX90395 Triaxis Magnetometer Node, an automotive-grade (AEC-Q100) monolithic sensor that uses the Hall effect to provide contactless 3D sensing in three dimensions. The dual-die version of the MLX90395 provides redundancy for demanding scenarios, such as gear lever position sensing in automotive applications. The functionality of the MLX90395 is defined through the system processor, rather than hardwired into the device itself.

In terms of its applicability to position sensing, it has practically unlimited scope. The MLX90395 offers both I2C and SPI interfaces, making it simple to integrate into an automotive or industrial control environment. Both medium-field (50 mT) and high-field (120 mT) versions are available in three package options: SOIC-8, TSSOP-16 (dual-die for redundancy) and QFN-16 (with wettable flanks).

All package options are qualified to AEC-Q100 covering the extended temperature range for -40°C to +125°C and are RoHS compliant. The selectable digital output provides 16-bit resolution for X, Y and Z magnetic field measurements, enabling the host processor, DSP, microcontroller or digital signal controller to decode the absolute position of any magnet as it passes the sensor. The MLX90395 is smaller and more power-efficient than alternative Hall effect sensors, thanks in large part to Melexis’ Triaxis technology.

This innovative and proprietary technology helps return an industry-low power consumption, with an idle current of 1.4μA and standby current of 2.4μA, and supply current of 4mA or less. Along with magnetic field sensors to measure three fields (Bx, By, Bz), the MLX90395 also integrates a temperature sensor and supply voltage monitor.

Functionally, the sensor features three state machines and operates in one of three modes: single measurement, burst mode and wake-up on change mode. Engineers can select which magnetic field is measured and the frequency of measurement, to further fine-tune the sensor’s energy efficiency as well as the filtering and sampling time to optimize noise vs bandwidth.

“The MLX90395 represents a new way of sensing position for the automotive and industrial markets, one that can redefine the way a wide number of applications are designed in HMI, top column, center stack and body control,” commented Nick Czarnecki, Global Marketing Manager Position Sensors at Melexis. “Its strengths lie in its high sensitivity and versatility, coupled with its low power and small size. Manufacturers now have access to the very best 3D magnetic node sensing solution qualified to an automotive-grade.”

Operational modes can be defined and selected at runtime through the I2C or SPI interfaces, allowing multiple sensors to form part of a sensor cluster, controlled by a single microcontroller. The bus protocol (SPI or I2C) is also selectable, running at up to 10MHz for SPI and 1MHz for I2C. Each sensor is given a unique 48-bit ID number during the manufacturing process and contains additional free space to store customer traceability information.

ATSAMD51 Machine Learning MCUs

Posted on 2 July, 20202 July, 2020 by mixos

Microchip’s TensorFlow Lite kit features the Microchip ATSAMD51 microcontroller

The ATSAMD51J19 high-performance microcontroller family from Microchip Technology was formerly targeted for general purpose applications until now. The ATSAMD51J19 can now be used for edge computing in machine learning applications using the Adafruit ByBadge and TensorFlow. ATSAMD51 microcontrollers feature a 32-bit Arm® Cortex®-M4 processor with floating point unit (FPU) running up to 120 MHz, up to 1 MB dual-panel Flash with ECC, and up to 256 KB of SRAM with ECC.

Machine learning has come to the “edge” – small microcontrollers that can run a very miniature version of TensorFlow Lite to do ML computations. Complex hardware to start developing the TensorFlow models is no longer needed. Teachable Machine is a free service for TensorFlow experimentation that takes the pain out of training models. In just a few moments users can get video data for image recognition, train a model, and export it for use with TF or TF Lite. Use a mod of tiny sorter to send a WebUSB signal to a Circuit Playground Express to light up LEDs based on which class was detected. The TensorFlow kit utilizing the Microchip ATSAMD51 Cortex-M4 processor is a cutting edge development platform for machine learning applications.

TensorFlow Kit Contents

Adafruit PyBadge with SAMD51 Cortex-M4F processor @ 120 MHz with display, speaker, and buttons
Electret microphone amplifier – MAX4466 with adjustable gain
JST PH 3-pin to female socket cable – 200 mm
Lithium-ion polymer battery with short cable – 3.7 V, 350 mAh

TensorFlow Kit Features

ATSAMD51J19 @ 120 MHz with 3.3 V logic/power – 512 KB of FLASH + 192 KB of RAM
2 MB of SPI Flash for storing images, sounds, animations, and more
1.8″ 160 x 128 color TFT display connected to its own SPI port
8 x game/control buttons with silicone button tops
5 x neopixels for badge dazzle or game scorekeeping
Triple-axis accelerometer (motion sensor)
Light sensor, reverse-mount so that it points out the front
Built-in buzzer mini-speaker
Class-D speaker driver for 4 ohm to 8 ohm speakers, up to 2 W
LiPoly battery port with built-in recharging capability
USB port for battery charging, programming, and debugging
Two female header strips with feather-compatible pinout so users can plug any featherwings in
JST ports for NeoPixels, sensor input, and I²C (I²C grove connectors fit in here)
Reset button

TEC Microsystems Introduces New Thermoelectric Coolers with Aluminum Plates

Posted on 2 July, 2020 by mixos

TEC Microsystems introduces the new 1MA10 Series of thermoelectric coolers, with aluminum plates instead of ceramics.

All 1MA10 thermoelectric coolers have bare metal, aluminum plates instead of ceramics. Aluminum instead of ceramics is the key approach in TEC manufacturing. According to the company, aluminum is easy to machine, it has suitable thermal conductivity than ceramics, and it matches ideally by CTE with Aluminum heatsinks. An ideal combination for PCR and any application with long-term temperature cycling.

1MA10 TECs have the combination of classical bulk thermoelectric coolers technology with advanced high-density (HD) pellets placement. This combination allows reaching a 30W/cm2 cooling power density and creating 4x times smaller TEC solutions without compromises in cooling performance. More than 100W of TEC cooling capacity (Qmax) is possible now on just 20x20mm2 size instead of traditional 40x40mm2 or 50x50mm2.

For more information, visit: https://www.tec-microsystems.com/products/1ma10-aluminium-thermoelectric-coolers.html

MS5839-02BA36 Digital Altimeter

Posted on 2 July, 20202 July, 2020 by mixos

TE Connectivity’s digital altimeter delivers sensing accuracy for both pressure and temperature measurements

TE Connectivity’s (TE) MS5839 is an ultra-compact digital altimeter that is optimized for applications where chlorine and saline are present. The robust, gel-filled design of the MS5839 enables operation in harsh media environments while providing accurate and reliable digital measurements. This MEMS-based sensor offers advanced water resistance, chlorine resistance, shielding, low power consumption, and digital interconnectivity in an ultra-compact, low-profile package. The board-level design delivers sensing accuracy for both pressure and temperature measurements.

Miniaturization, performance, and precision are key for sensors embedded in consumer devices like swim watches and diving equipment. Expanding on TE’s portfolio of ultra-compact digital altimeters, the MS5839 2-bar model is designed to meet the next generation of device manufacturer designs and challenges.

Benefits

Enables ultra-compact design with robust gel-filled construction that is suitable for harsh media environments
Facilitates both pressure- and temperature-combination sensing with precise 24-bit digital output and I²C interface
Offers advanced water resistance, chlorine resistance, and digital interconnectivity with low power consumption
Ensures high accuracy and high performance with O-ring and integrated shielding to reduce signal noise and interference

Applications

Shallow diving computers
Underwater drones
Swim watches
Fitness trackers
Underwater vehicles
Diving equipment
Diving computers
Shallow water drones

more information: https://www.te.com/global-en/product-CAT-BLPS0061.html?q=MS5839

LMD-401 Radio Transceiver Module for Industrial Applications

Posted on 2 July, 2020 by mixos

The LMD-401 is a low power narrow band synthesized transceiver with GFSK modulation, designed for use in the North American ISM licensed band

Saelig Company, Inc. has announced the Circuit Design LMD-401 RF Transceiver Module for industrial applications, which is certified to FCC Part 90 in the USA and ISED RSS-119 in Canada. The LMD-401, a successor to the successful LMD-400-R, is a compact integrated module with the long-range transmission and excellent interference rejection characteristics demanded for today’s battery-operated radio equipment. The LMD-401 is pin- and performance-compatible with the LMD-400-R, but provides reduced current consumption and a greater operating temperature range. Users can set operating frequencies in 12.5kHz steps within the 458MHz to 462.5MHz band, now with improved RF output flatness up to 10mW. Receiver performance includes superior interference rejection characteristics that meet the highest European EN300220 receiver standard, category 1.

The LMD-401 is designed to have low spurious emissions and excellent interference rejection capabilities, with sensitivity to -116dBm. Users can expect stable operation, even in a site where multiple radio units are being operated simultaneously. All high frequency circuits are enclosed inside a robust housing to provide exceptional resistance against shock and vibration. Using a TCXO as the reference oscillator circuit ensures high frequency stability over a wide temperature range.

This simple, compact and low power transceiver is designed for embedding in user equipment and is suitable for low power industrial telecontrol and telemetry applications requiring high performance and reliability. Applications include industrial remote control, telemetry, remote monitoring, security, data acquisition, SCADA, etc.

Features

FCC Part 90 and ISED RSS119 certified
12.5kHz channel spacing Narrow band FM
High receiver sensitivity with double super-heterodyne receiver circuit
Superior receiver performance (EN300220 category 1 receiver equivalent)
4800bps data rate
Transparent data interface: simple and easy serial data interface allowing use of user-specific protocols
Operating voltage: 3.0 to 5.5 V (typ. 46mA / TX, 36mA / RX)
Operating temperature range: -20 to +65degC

The LMD-401 RF transceiver is made by Circuit Design, Inc., a leading Japanese supplier of low-power radio modules, highly rated for their quality and performance. Their products are in use worldwide in industrial remote control, telemetry, monitoring systems, tracking systems, drones, etc. The LMD-401 is available now from CDI’s US technical distributor Saelig Company, Inc.

SBG Systems Ellipse-D Miniature Dual GPS INS

Posted on 2 July, 2020 by Tope Oluyemi

Ellipse-D is the smallest Inertial Navigation System (INS) integrating a Dual-antenna, multi-band GNSS receiver, capable of delivering precise heading as well as centimeter-level position accuracy in the most challenging GNSS conditions. It provides attitude, heading, heave as well as navigation outputs. Ellipse-D is an ideal choice for magnetic denied applications and can operate in all dynamic conditions with optimal performance. It features 0.05° Roll and Pitch (RTK), Post-processing with Qinertia PPK Software. The Ellipse-D is equipped with state-of-the-art MEMS sensors, especially very low noise gyroscopes. The Ellipse-D enables a 9-axis IMU sensor, a dual-antenna RTK GNSS module offering one-centimeter accuracy, with a 64-bit microprocessor for processing data. The Ellipse-D is also equipped with high-quality accelerometers with Internal FIR filters coupled with Coning & Sculling integrals to provide efficient vibration rejection. Additional features includes a temperature sensor, pressure sensor, and odometer input.

The Ellipse-D inertial navigation sensor specifications include:

SoC – Unknown 64-bit microprocessor for data processing
GNSS – Dual antenna GNSS with support for GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BEIDOU; Supported features: SBAS, RTK, RAW
Sensors – 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis magnetometer, temperature sensors, pressure sensor
Host Interface:
RS-232, RS-422, USB up to 921,600 bps
CAN 2.0A/B up to 1 Mbit/s
Protocols – Binary eCom, NMEA, ASCII, TSS
Input Voltage – 5 – 36 V
Power Consumption – < 1,000 mW
Dimensions & Weight:
Box: 46 x 45 x 32 mm | 65 grams
OEM: 29.5 x 25.5 x 16 mm | 17 grams

Application of the SBG Systems Ellipse-D inertial navigation system includes UAV navigation, USV, Antenna tracking and SAT OTM, UGV, Instrument Buoy, Gimbaled Camera, etc. The Ellipse-D is a go-to product because it offers access to technical support by phone and email, unlimited free firmware updates, Ellipse sensors are not restricted to export and ITAR free, and Ellipse are warranted for 2 years. This warranty can be extended up to 5 years. For the INS models (E, N, D), the internal Extended Kalman Filter fuses in real-time inertial and GPS data for enhanced position and orientation measurements in harsh environments (urban canyons, tunnels, etc.)

Ellipse INS enables features that allow you to connect to a PC via Qinertia program. The Qinertia improves your navigation data, it also helps to access further analysis, and helps to fix some outages in your trajectory Qinertia PRO gives access to post-processing to all SBG sensors, in all applications/environments. It is compatible with industry-standard GNSS receivers. Native support of Septentrio, Novatel & Trimble. It has a modern & Intuitive Interface, easy-to-use step by step project creation wizard, and advanced quality & feedback indicators. Area of application includes Marine, Airborne, and Land. Qinertia gives access to offline RTK corrections from more than 7,000 base stations located in 164 countries – and it is always up-to-date. It supports Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. The Ellipse-D is available in either Box or OEM versions. More details can be found on SBG Systems Ellipse-series product page.

Simple fixture determines leakage of capacitors and semiconductor switches

Posted on 2 July, 202029 September, 2020 by mixos

The circuit in Figure 1a comprises a voltage follower, IC₁ , and the reference-voltage source of IC₂. IC₁ is an Analog Devices AD8661 op amp, which has a guaranteed input-bias current of no more than 1 pA and a typical input-bias current of 0.3 pA (Reference 1), and IC₂ is an Analog Devices ADR391 precision voltage reference (Reference 2). The manufacturer trims the input offset voltage of this op amp not to exceed 100 µV, and the typical value is 30 µV. These properties suit this amplifier for observing self-discharging of almost any type of capacitor. The leakage currents of solid-tantalum capacitors and those having high-quality plastic dielectrics are well above the input-bias current of voltage follower IC₁. The CUT (capacitor under test) initially charges to the reference-voltage level of 2.5V by connecting Point A to the output of IC₂. Subsequently, at some convenient time, Point A disconnects from the source of the reference voltage. A DVM (digital voltmeter) measures the output voltage of the follower at some reasonable time.

Simple fixture determines leakage of capacitors and semiconductor switches – [Link]