Page 588 – Electronics-Lab.com

SolidRun HummingBoard SBC gets a boost of CAN and Serial ports

Posted on 25 January, 201930 January, 2019 by Ayo Ayibiowu

SolidRun has released a new board to their HummingBoard style family called the HummingBoard CBi. SolidRun who specialize in a wide variety of embedded systems and network solutions which are mostly based around ARM and x86 Architecture SBCs, SOMs and Industrial mini PCs, has launched the HummingBoard CBi – an Industrial SBC – different from the previous HummingBoard Edge SBC which was more of a maker/hacker’s board.

HummingBoard CBi Boards — HummingBoard CBi Industrial SBC

The new HummingBoard CBi is a robust embedded industrial SBC with CAN bus & RS485 connectors, and it’s tailor-made for industrial applications. It is a spin-off of its earlier HummingBoard Edge SBC and it swaps out the HDMI port with a more industrial-proof MIPI-DSI in a sandwich-style board. It also comes with a generic metal enclosure for housing the new SBC.

Just like it’s predecessor, the HummingBoard CBi SBC runs Linux using the same MicroSOM modules on NXP i.MX6 with an option for dual or quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A9 Cores. Additional, the device enclosure can support temperature range between -40 to 85°C making it ideal for the industrial environment. Regarding OS, it supports different Linux builds from Debian, Yocto Project, BuildRoot, to OpenWrt stacks, and possibly other similar builds.

As expected the Quad Core version costs higher than the Dual Core version. Prices are, $255 for the quad-core model with 2GB RAM and $189 for the dual-core model with 1GB RAM.

Like the Edge, the CBi offers similar features if not the same set of features. It provides 4x USB 2.0 ports, 8GB eMMC, a microSD slot, a WiFi/Bluetooth module, a mini-PCIe slot with SIM slot, as well as a storage-ready M.2 slot. Other features include LVDS, MIPI-DSI, and MIPI-CSI interfaces, as well as an RTC and a wide power input range 7-36V.

The significant difference with the Edge is the addition of CAN and RS485 ports via terminal connectors, an increase in RAM and a configurable push button and LEDs.

Below are some of the device specifications:

Processor (via MicroSOM i.MX6) – NXP i.MX6 (2x or 4x Cortex-A9 cores @ up to 1.2GHz)
Memory/Storage:
- 1GB (Dual) or 2GB (Quad) DDR3 RAM (via MicroSOM i.MX6)
- 8GB eMMC (via MicroSOM i.MX6)
- MicroSD slot
- M.2 2242 slot with storage support
Wireless — WiFi/Bluetooth module
Networking –- Gigabit Ethernet port (limited to 470Mbps bandwidth)
Media I/O:
- MIPI-DSI
- LVDS
- MIPI-CSI-2
Other I/O:
- 4x USB 2.0 ports
- RS485 port (terminal connector)
- CAN bus port (terminal connector)
Expansion:
- Mini-PCIe slot with SIM card holder
- M.2 2242 slot (see memory/storage above)
Other features – Reset button; configurable push button; IR receiver; RTC; 3x LEDs; metal enclosure
Power — 7-36V input jack
Operating temperature — -40 to 85°C
Dimensions -– 102 x 69mm
Operating system — Linux 4.4x (Debian, Yocto Project, BuildRoot, OpenWrt; Android coming soon

The device is available for purchase and more information about the product is available on the product page here.

ATtiny10 Thermometer using DS18B20

Posted on 24 January, 201924 January, 2019 by mixos

This is a small battery-powered thermometer that displays the temperature as a series of red and green flashes on an LED. by David Johnson-Davies:

The thermometer consists of an ATtiny10, a DS18B20 1-wire temperature sensor, and a bi-colour LED. To avoid the need for a digital display, and minimise current consumption, the thermometer pulses the temperature as a series of red or green flashes on the bi-colour LED. I designed it so I could seal it in a small waterproof enclosure and put it outside the window, allowing me to see the outdoor temperature from inside.

It incorporates several power-saving features to enable it to run for over a year on a CR2032 button cell.

ATtiny10 Thermometer using DS18B20 – [Link]

Allwinner H6 “Orange Pi 3” SBC with GbE and mini-PCIe

Posted on 24 January, 201929 January, 2019 by Tope Oluyemi

Shenzhen Xunlong Software has launched an open-spec, Allwinner H6 based “Orange Pi 3” SBC. The $30 to $40 SBC offers GbE, HDMI 2.0, 4x USB 3.0, WiFi-ac, and mini-PCIe, with the $40 SBC offering 2GB of RAM and 8GB eMMC. Shenzhen Xunlong Software earlier launched their first Allwinner H6 development board, Orange Pi One Plus for $20, but was disappointing, as the board did not utilize some key features of H6 processor such as USB 3.0 or PCIe, and the RAM was limited to 1GB. Subsequently, Shenzhen Xunlong Software introduced Orange Pi Lite2 board for $25 with 802.11ac WiFi, a USB 3.0 port, HDMI 2.0a output, but no Gigabit Ethernet, nor PCIe interface, and also 1 GB LPDDR3 memory.

The Orange Pi 3 however, takes care of this setback by offering 1GB and 2GB LPDDR3 RAM, 4x USB 3.0 ports, an optional 8GB of eMMC, and a mini-PCIe slot. Armbian makes it possible to load experimental Ubuntu and Debian images based on Linux 4.19 on the H6-based Orange Pi boards. Shenzhen Xunlong Software will release Android 7.0, Ubuntu, and Debian images for the board, which will be made available in the download page. At 90 × 64mm, the Orange Pi 3 is larger than the previous H6-based SBCs, which seems to be the only other H6 hacker boards on the market.

The Allwinner H6 is not as fast as its counterpart the RK3399 SoC, lacking the RK3399 dual Cortex-A72 cores. However the Allwinner, features RK3399-like outlying support and also a high-end Mali-T720 MP2 GPU with OpenGL ES3 and DirectX 11. The SBC supports “H.265 6K @ 30fps” video decoding and H.264 4K @ 30fps video encoding and offers full-channel, 10-bit HDR10 technology. The Orange Pi 3 prices ranges from $29.90 for 1GB RAM, $34.90 for 2GB RAM or 1GB RAM with 8GB eMMC, or $39.90 for 2GB RAM, 8GB eMMC.

Specifications listed for the Orange Pi 3 include:

Processor — Allwinner H6 (4x Cortex-A53); ARM Mali-T720 MP2 GPU with OpenGL ES3 and DirectX 11
Memory — 1GB or 2GB LPDDR3 RAM
Storage — microSD slot; optional 8GB eMMC
Wireless – Ampak AP6256 module with 802.11a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 5.0; antenna
Networking — 10/100/1000Mbit Ethernet port
Media I/O: HDMI 2.0a with audio and HDCP 2.2 output, 3.5mm audio output jack with CVBS AV, Mic input
Other I/O: 4x USB 3.0 ports, USB 2.0 host port, Micro-USB 2.0 OTG port with power, 3-pin GPIO with UART and ground, 26-pin GPIO expansion connector
Other features — IR receiver; power and status LEDs
Power — DC barrel jack with +5V @ 2A; supports micro-USB power; PMU (AXP805); power button;
Weight — 75 g
Dimensions — 90 × 64mm
Supported OSes — Android 7.0; Ubuntu and Debian images coming (experimental Linux 4.19 available from Armbian

More information can be found on the Orange Pi 3 AliExpress page. Image downloads and schematics will be available on Orange Pi project website.

Pocket Science Lab Puts an Open Source Electronics Lab in Your Pocket

Posted on 24 January, 201924 January, 2019 by mixos

What is Pocket Science Lab

All in One Device. PSLab is a small USB powered hardware extension for your Android phone or PC that lets you measure all kinds of things. PSLab comes with a built-in Oscilloscope, Multimeter, Wave Generator, Logic Analyzer, Power Source, and we are constantly adding more digital instruments. PSLab is many devices in one. Simply connect two wires to the relevant pins and start measuring. You can use our Open Source Android or desktop apps to view and collect the data. You can also plug in hundreds of compatible I2C standard sensors to the PSLab pin slots. It works without the need for programming. So, what experiments you do is just limited to your imagination! PSLab is developed by FOSSASIA and OpnTec in collaboration with a global community of Open Source developers.

Who is it for

It can be used by anyone! Teachers, students, hobbyists, scientists, anyone who wants to know what is going around yourself.

What can it do

It can function as a.. Oscilloscope, Multimeter, Logic Analyzer, Wave Generator, Power Source, Accelerometer, Barometer, Compass, Sensors, Luxmeter and many more without the need of programming because we provide it with the software!

Which software can it be used with

Simply use our Open Source PSLab Android app from the app stores or the Python Desktop app to run your experiments.

Hardware Specifications

4-Channel up to 2MSPS Oscilloscope. Software selectable amplification stages
12-bit Voltmeter with programmable gain. Input ranges from +/-10 mV to +/-16 V
3x 12-bit Programmable voltage sources +/-3.3 V,+/-5V,0-3 V
12-bit Programmable current source. 0-3.3 mA
Supports Advanced Plugins/Add-on Modules
4-Channel, 4 MHz, Logic Analyzer
2x Sine/Triangular wave generators. 5 Hz to 5 KHz. Manual amplitude control for SI1
4x PWM generators. 15 nS resolution. Up to 8 MHz
Capacitance Measurement. pF to uF range
I2C, SPI, UART data buses for Accel/gyros/humidity/temperature modules etc

Features

Oscilloscopes

One of the main features of PSLab is the 4-channel Oscilloscope which can monitor analog inputs at maximum of 2 million samples per second. It includes controls such as triggering, and gain selection.

Waveform Generators

SI1: 5 Hz – 5 KHz arbitrary waveform generator. Manual amplitude control up to +/-3 Volts
SI2: 5 Hz – 5 KHz arbitrary waveform generator. Amplitude of +/-3 Volts. Attainable via software
SQx: There are four phase correlated PWM outputs with maximum frequency 32 MHz, 15 nano second duty cycle, and phase difference control.

Measurement Functions

Frequency counter tested up to 16 MHz.
Capacitance Measurement. pF to uF range
PSLab has several 12-bit analog inputs (function as voltmeters) with programmable gains, and maximum ranges varying from +/-5 mV to +/-16 V.

Voltage and Current Sources

12-bit Constant Current source. Maximum current 3.3 mA (subject to load resistance).
PSLab has three 12-bit Programmable voltage sources +/-3.3 V,+/-5 V,0-3 V. (PV1, PV2, PV3) controls

Advanced Controls

Advanced Controls with Oscilloscope
Data Logger
Logic Analyzer

Other information

4MHz, 4-channel Logic analyzer with 15 nS resolution.Voltage and Current Sources
SPI, I2C, UART outputs
Graphical Interfaces for Oscilloscope, Logic Analyser, streaming data, wireless acquisition and several experiments developed that use a common framework which drastically reduces code required to incorporate control and plotting widgets.
PSLab also has space for an ESP-12 module for WiFi access with access point/ station mode.

Everything (hardware/software) is open source, and Fossasia even lists a BOM for the hardware needed to build your own board. For those who don’t have the option of making their own, you can grab one on Seeed Studio for $64.90.

Fomu Runs MicroPython And Fits Into Your USB Port

Posted on 23 January, 201923 January, 2019 by Ayo Ayibiowu

When it comes to the world of Microcontrollers, FPGAs, DSPs, or basically anything related to embedded devices, we have traditionally been accustomed to something averagely big (in regards to this domain) and even created some standards like SBCs (Single Board Computers) to categorize devices.

What if we could have development boards that goes beyond the standard norms of the traditional form factor, something about the size of the chip itself. Also, not just small, but powerful as well. Tim Ansell envisioned the Tomu ARM dev boards in late 2017 – a tiny ARM micro-controller board that fits inside your USB port running on the popular Cortex-M0+, but he isn’t stopping there and now presenting an FPGA in your USB port called Fomu.

When it comes to FPGA, micro size is not something you see every day, it’s one of those rare events. An FPGA is an Array of Gates that is Field-Programmable. Unlike CPU where all the logic cells are already fixed in place, FPGA puts everything in your hand. You customize things at the hardware level, connect the logic cells the way you want and get better performance than the average microcontroller.

Fomu is a programmable FPGA device, and it was designed to fit inside a standard USB Type-A slot. It has 4 buttons, RGB LED, two capacitance touch buttons, and an FPGA that is compatible with a fully open source chain and capable of running a RISC-V core. It is based on a Lattice iCE40UP5K with 5k LUTs and DSP tiles, along with 128KB of RAM and 2MB of Flash.

With its 128 kilobytes of RAM, Fomu is capable of running MicroPython natively, and the installation is straightforward – It is entirely compatible with FμPy which is a MicroPython module. With Python onboard, you don’t have to go through the general complication involved in getting FPGA to work properly. At the heart of the Python interpreter lies a RISC-V softcore running on the FPGA fabric.

Specifications

FPGA: Lattice ICE40UP5K
Speed: 48 MHz external oscillator
RAM: 128 kB RAM for a soft CPU¹
Storage: 1 MB SPI flash²
Connectivity: USB 2.0 FS (12 Mbps)
Buttons: Four³
LEDs: One RGB

The default Fomu firmware exposes a USB bootloader running a RISC-V softcore, but you can load whatever you want. You can practice adding instructions to the CPU, or add new blocks such as LED blink patterns or better cap touch hardware blocks.

Fomu is now live on Crowd Supply, costing $39, with free shipping inside the United States, and an additional $5 for worldwide shipping. Want to get one? Or want to appreciate the Fomu team, then pledge them a beer on their CrowdSupply page.

Firewalla Blue, Cybersecurity device for homes and businesses

Posted on 23 January, 2019 by Tope Oluyemi

Firewalla is an all-in-one, simple, and powerful firewall that connects to your router, and provides protection against cyber attacks, and gives insights about your network. It helps to safeguard your personal data, monitor and control your kids’ Internet usage, and block unwanted ads. All these are possible due to its built-in VPN server. The Blue will be capable of examining network traffic at near Gigabit speed and has enough power to protect more complex devices.

For Cyber Security, Firewalla protects your baby camera from getting hacked, someone tampering with your smart speakers, and your phone being used by hackers. Firewalla will automatically alert and protect your devices from all of these cyber threats. Firewalla offers Intrusion Detection and Prevention features like alerting you of active cyber attacks and blocks them if needed, offers Intelligent behavior analytics for abnormal behavior warning, and actively blocks malicious sites. It continuously scans your home for security vulnerabilities and risks.

For parental control, if you want to see what your kids are doing on their devices, If they are playing games or doing something else, and want to stop it, you don’t have to pull the power cord off your router. With a single tap, you can Stop all gaming, Stop all social networking with a tap, shut the Internet with a single tap, see what your kids are doing on websites, and social media. You get alerts on kids’ activities such as gaming, video or adult content, and automatically alarm/block malicious and adult content.

For Your Privacy, Firewalla OpenVPN server Protects your privacy from public Wi-Fi, enables private browsing at work, no monthly fee for VPN services, no bandwidth throttling. You can Surf the web just as you would at home, and bypass internet filtering and monitoring when traveling.

If you are tired of website ads, or you feel someone is tracking your web browsing habit, Firewalla’s built-in ad blocker can make sure ads are blocked while browsing and ads don’t see you. It blocks and locks Ads across all devices, and DNS cache to speed up all other lookups.

Firewalla also manages your Bandwidth Usage. If you have concerns about your internet usage, or have network issues, Firewalla Deep Insight, gives a summary of hourly, daily or monthly usage. It allows you comb through any device and identify any IP or domain address consuming bandwidth, and tap on any flow to stop them.
Firewalla allows for family time through its Social Hour feature, which blocks all social networks for one hour, instead of spending much hours on social media.
Firewalla is easy to install. No password is required. Just connect your Firewalla to a power source and your primary router, then Launch the app on your mobile device and scan the barcode.
Firewalla will be available by February, and early bird price goes for $119.

More information may be found on www.indiegogo.com

MIX-H310A1 – AAEON’s Mini-ITX board with Intel® 8th Generation Core

Posted on 23 January, 201923 January, 2019 by mixos

Mini-ITX with Intel® 8th Generation Core™ LGA1151 Socket Processor, Max. 65W TDPs, Giga-LAN x 4

AAEON, a leading developer of industrial computing solutions, has announced its launch of MIX-H310A1, a next-generation industrial motherboard in mini-ITX form factor powered by 8^th Generation Intel® Core™ processor family (formerly Coffee Lake) for applications requiring high-performance computing and graphic-intensive systems.

MIX-H310A1 is AAEON’s latest innovation of its Mini-ITX industrial motherboard line, empowered by 8^th Generation Intel® Core™ processor family (formerly Coffee Lake), which optimizes the processor performance over previous generations by offering up to 6 cores, each with hyper-threading capability. With the optimized performance by increased core count and the refined graphic engines, MIX-H310A1 meets the requirements for graphic-intensive and high-performance computing applications in machine vision, kiosk and robotics.

Designed as the embedded solution for IoT and A.I. applications, MIX-H310A1 comes with four Intel® – powered Gigabit LAN ports for connections with IP cameras, which are critical for image processing and recognition tasks such as machine vision, kiosks, facial recognition and robotics. The LAN port density can be further expanded with compatible adapter devices.

With the integrated graphics processors of the 8^th Generation Intel® Core™ processor family, MIX-H310A1 supports 4K display, as well as mainstream display functionality including HDMI 1.4 and HDCP (optional) to boost A.I.-enabled image analysis and processing.

Features

8th Gen. Intel® Core™ LGA1151 Processor
DDR4 SODIMM x 2, Up to 32 GB
M.2 Slot (M key) x 1, M.2 Slot (E key) x 1
USB 3.0 Port x 4, USB 2.0 Port x 4
Intel® LAN 211AT x 3, 219V for iAMT 12.0 x 1
SATA 6.0 Gb/s x 2
PCI-Express [x16] (Gen3) x 1
ATX Power

more information: www.aaeon.com

BK891 – 300kHz Bench LCR Meter

Posted on 23 January, 201923 January, 2019 by mixos

The BK891 is a Bench LCR Meter capable of measuring inductors, capacitors and resistors at DC or from 20Hz to 300kHz. The instrument’s compact 2U half-rack form factor is suitable for the bench or rack mount installation. A large 4.3-inch colour display with all important parameters and measurements visible on one screen makes this meter easy to operate. The instrument’s convenient bin sorting function and frequency sweep function enables quick sorting and characterization of components. Standard USB, GPIB and LAN interfaces enhance your productivity by providing remote control capabilities to perform daily operations in production, quality control and laboratory environments.

Features

Measurement parameters: L, C, R, Z, G, B, Y, D, Q, θ, DCR
0.05% best impedance accuracy
Fully adjustable test frequency from 20 Hz to 300 kHz with 4-digit resolution
0.5 Vrms and 1 Vrms selectable test levels
Adjustable measurement speed for fast readout or better accuracy
300-point linear and logarithmic sweep function
Bin sorting function (9 primary, one secondary, and one out-of-spec bin)
Save/recall up to 100 setups (10 internal) including 1000 measurements and screenshots
Standard USB (Virtual COM), GPIB, and LAN interface for remote control

Overview Video

BK891 LCR meter is available for ~ £1,254 from various distributors.

⇒ Datasheet PDF

Axiomtek COM Express Type 7 module is powered by Intel Xeon

Posted on 22 January, 201922 January, 2019 by Tope Oluyemi

Axiomtek has unveiled the CEM700, its first COM Express Type 7 module with 5th Gen Intel Xeon or Pentium CPUs, 2x 10GBASE-KR, 2x SATA III, a lot of PCIe, extended temperature support, and a new Type 7 carrier board. The CEM700 offers processor options from the 16-core Intel Xeon D-1577 and quad-core Pentium D1519 processors from Intel’s 5th Generation “Broadwell-DE” family, led by the 16-core, 1.3/2.1GHz Xeon D-1577, and quad-core, 1.5/2.1GH Pentium D1519.

The COM Express Type 7 module features two 10GBASE-KR channels and supports two DDR4-2400 SO-DIMM slots for up to 32GB system memory. It also offers a single GbE controller and an NC-SI (Network Controller Sideband Interface) for remote management. The CEM700 provides powerful server-class performance in a small form factor of 125 x 95 mm, which can be incorporated into compute-intensive and space-constrained applications that make use of high data and network throughputs, like edge computing, microserver, data transmission device, and other networking fields. It has 3.5 Grms vibration resistance and an optional heat pipe cooler and heat spreader are available.

The module has an operating temperature range from -20 to +70°C or optionally -40 to +85°C. I/O option includes 4x USB 3.0, 4x USB 2.0, and 2x serial TX/RX interfaces. Single LPC, SMBus, SPI, and I2C interfaces plus 4-in, 4-out DIO are available. For expansion interfaces, there are single PCIe x16 Gen3 and PCIe x8 Gen3 interfaces, and also 8x PCIe x1 Gen2. Additional features include a watchdog timer, hardware monitoring, and Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0.

Features

Intel® Xeon® D-1500 and Pentium® Processor D1500 (Broadwell-DE)
2 DDR4-2400 SO-DIMM for up to 32GB of memory
1 PCIe x16 Gen3, 1 PCIe x8 Gen3, 8 PCIe x1 Gen2
2 SATA-600
4 USB 3.0 and 4 USB 2.0
Two 10GBASE-KR
TPM 2.0 supported

Axiomtek also introduced the CEB94701, which is provided with the COM Express type 7 baseboard to operate with CEM700 and enable fast turnkey evaluation. This enables users to swiftly emulate the functionality for software development and hardware verification. The 305 x 244mm board is equipped with dual SATA III interfaces, dual 10GBASE-KR SFP+ ports, and a single GbE port.

The CEB94701 board is powered via a 24-pin ATX connector and also a 4-pin 12V connector to power the module. It is fitted with a 3V, 220mAH Lithium battery, and supports -20 to 70°C temperatures. The board is equipped with 4x USB 3.0 ports, 2x RS-232/422/485 ports, and 2x TX/RX headers. The I2C, DIO, SMBus, fan, and front-panel interfaces are placed along the edge of the board as well as a BMC console port and VGA port. There is also 2x full-size mini-PCIe slots. The CEM700 and CEB94701 Type 7 carrier prices are undisclosed right now but will be available soon.

More information can be found on Axiomtek’s CEM700 and CEB94701 (PDF) product pages.

Groboard “Giant Board” runs Linux and follows Adafruit Feather form-factor

Posted on 22 January, 201922 January, 2019 by Tope Oluyemi

Groboard has unveiled a tiny single board computer that runs Linux on Arm Cortex-A processor, called “Giant Board”. In contrast to it’s name, the board is tiny and runs Linux on Microchip’s SiP application of its Cortex-A5-based SAMA5D SoC and is equipped with 128MB RAM, micro-USB, microSD and I/O including ADC and PWM. There are many available single board computers that run Linux on Arm Cortex-A processor and that’s include Raspberry Pi Zero (W), PocketBeagle, or FriendlyElec NanoPi Duo.

The Giant Board is another option that will be available soon. The 51 x 23mm SBC supports Linux 4.14. The product page provides limited information on the board, but more details could be found on the developer’s (Groboard) twitter account. The page states the board is now supported by Adafruit CircuitPython and has been tested with various Adafruit add-ons such as TFT FeatherWing.

The SiP design enables Groboard to fit a Linux computer into the Adafruit’s distinctive MCU-oriented Feather format. Early specs listed for the board include 6x ADC and 4x PWM with external triggers, and also I2C, SPI, and UART. The availability of a microSD slot and micro-USB OTG port narrowly makes the COM-like board to be recognized as an SBC. The Giant Board features 3.7V LiPo battery support, just like its counterparts.

It is unclear if the board will ever go up for sale, but Groboard has already built the first few Giant Board models, and there is no indication when the Giant Board will be produced in larger quantities. Groboard also built an alternative to the now defunct Next Thing C.H.I.P. board, the Nebula One board which features Octavo Systems OSD3358-SM SiP, so “Giant Board” is not their first project powered by a system-in-package.

Preliminary specifications listed for the Giant Board include:

Processor (via SiP) — Microchip SAMA5D2 (1x Cortex-A5 @ 500MHz)
Memory (via SiP) — 128MB DDR2 RAM
Storage — microSD slot
Other I/O – Micro-USB port, 6x 12-bit ADC with 3.3V reference, 4x 16-bit PWM, ADC and PWM external triggers, I2C, SPI, UART
Power — 3.3V pin input; “full” 3.7V LIPO support
Operating system — Linux kernel 4.14

There’s no price or availability information provided yet for the Giant Board, but more information may be found on OSH Park and Groboard’s Giant Board product page.