There are many small and compact Arm Linux SBCs, starting from the NanoPi NEO to the Raspberry Pi Zero or Rock Pi S, but lately a smaller board based on the MStar MSC313E Cortex-A7 SoC from BreadBee with a 64MB RAM appeared, enough to run embedded Linux.

Despite MStar MSC313E being a camera processor, the camera interface does not seem exposed in the board, so it looks to be designed to control I/Os over Ethernet. There’s no WiFi for now, but there may eventually be a future model that replaced the Ethernet jack with an Ampak WiFi module.

Source: https://www.cnx-software.com/2020/04/14/breadbee-tiny-embedded-linux-sbc-mstar-msc313e-camera-soc/

BreadBee specifications:

  • SoC – MStar MSC313E Arm Cortex-A7 processor @ ~1.0 GHz with NEON, FPU, 64MB DDR2
  • Storage – 16MB SPI NOR flash
  • Networking – 10/100M Ethernet (RJ45)
  • USB – 1x Micro USB 2.0 port
  • Expansion
    • 24-pin dual-row header (2.54mm pitch) with  SPI, I2C, 4x 10-bit ADC, 3x UART, GPIOs
    • 21-pin header (1.27mm pitch) with SD/SDIO, USB 2.0, GPIOs
  • Misc – RTC, Watchdog timer
  • Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port
  • Dimensions – 32 x 30mm

Source: https://www.cnx-software.com/2020/04/14/breadbee-tiny-embedded-linux-sbc-mstar-msc313e-camera-soc/

Raspberry Pi increase in IoT significance

More and more engineers and technology providers believe that it is suitable for industrial applications in the real world. Over the past few years, there has been a lot of discussion about the use of Raspberry Pi in industry, most of which emphasize that Raspberry Pi is a great tool for engineering experiments, but not so much for industrial applications in the real world. While it is true that the Raspberry Pi is not considered the best choice for mission-critical applications, it is also true that the Raspberry Pi is no longer a platform for experimentation.

Latest Raspberry Pi 4 development board, equipped with a 1.5GHz quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A72 processor (approximately 3 times better performance than previous Cortex-A53 powering Raspberry Pi 3+ Model B and Compute Module 3 and 3+). can be chosen from 1GB / 2GB / 4GB LPDDR4 SDRAM options.

Raspberry Pi 4 continues the tradition of one of the most versatile and cheapest computer devices. It can be used for virtually anything from proprietary IoT solutions to a full-fledged desktop computer. The new Malinka has two micro-HDMI ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, two USB 3.0 type A ports and two USB 2.0 type A ports.

Industrial use of Raspberry Pi 4

A year ago, TECHBASE released an updated version of the ModBerry M500 industrial IoT computer, replacing the aging Raspberry Pi 3 with a 3B+, giving it better performance. With the recent launch of the Raspberry Pi 4, TECHBASE has yet again, announced another upgrade to the M500, which now packs the latest single-board computer.

Raspberry Pi 4, with 2xHDMI, Gigabit Ethernet and 2xUSB3.0
Raspberry Pi 4, with 2xHDMI, Gigabit Ethernet and 2xUSB3.0

Over 10 million Raspberry Pi’s have been sold and the Raspberry Pi is likely to stay as a new standard in the industry. Official Raspbian OS is free operating system based on Linux Debian optimized for the Raspberry Pi comes with over 35,000 packages, pre-compiled software bundled in a nice format for easy installation. ModBerry devices are compatible with Raspberry Pi accessories, supported by Raspberry Pi Foundation. ModBerry M500 now with Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ / Raspberry Pi 4 Model B support.

The new Banana Pi BPI-F2P has the same layout and list of functions as the BPI-F2S. The biggest difference is the addition of two serial ports and the addition of a new Power-over-Ethernet function on one of the two 10/100 Ethernet ports. Meanwhile, the FPGA connector on the optional Artix-7 FPGA module has been removed.

The Banana Pi design also revealed Banana Pi BPI-EAI80 AIoT SBC, which does not work under Linux, but to some extent looks like an array. Separate reports state on on BPI-F2P and BPI-EAI80 AIoT. BPI-F2P and BPI-F2S appear to be supported by the Banana Pi community, but there is no indication that they are open source hardware boards like most Banana Pi SBCs. The BPI-F2 diagram has not yet been published.

Banana Pi BPI-F2S

Characteristics Of The SP7021

  • Easy-to-use LQFP package.
  • Quad-core 1GHz Cortex-A7 CPU, plus A926 and 8051 cores.
  • Single 3.3V power*.
  • Integrated 128MB or 512MB DDR3 DRAM.
  • Eight 8-bit 5V-tolerant IO ports, plus one high-current port.
  • Flexible Peripheral Multiplexing (PinMux).
  • Dual PinMuxable Ethernet MACs.
  • Four PinMuxable Enhanced UARTs, plus one console UART.
  • Industrial operating temperature range: -40C ~ +85C.
  • Low EMI simplifies certification.
  • Modern, Yocto-based Linux distribution.
  • 10-year supply guarantee.
  • Robust ready-to-run modern Linux distribution available

Source: https://www.electronics-lab.com/banana-pi-bpi-f2p-low-power-iot/

Industrial use of market Banana Pi-like SBCs

A year ago, TECHBASE released an updated version of the ModBerry M500 industrial IoT computer, replacing the aging Raspberry Pi 3 with a 3B+, giving it better performance. With the recent launch of the Raspberry Pi 4, TECHBASE has yet again, announced another upgrade to the M500, which now packs the latest single-board computer.

ModBerry M500 with Raspberry Pi’s 4

ModBerry M500 also utilizes many more SBC platforms, such as Orange Pi, NanoPi and Intel-based UpBoard. Find more information here: https://iiot-shop.com/product/modberry-m-series/

In 2019, with the premiere of Raspberry Pi 4, TECHBASE upgraded their ModBerry M500 device with the latest revision of this popular SBC, further enhancing the performance of their device. New 1.5GHz quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A72 processor (approximately 3 times better performance than previous Cortex-A53 powering Raspberry Pi 3+ Model B and Compute Module 3 and 3+). ModBerry M500 can now be configured from 2GB / 4GB and new 8GB option of LPDDR4 SDRAM.

Revised ModBerry M500 features Gigabit Ethernet, USB3.0, two microHDMI ports supporting OpenGL ES 3.x and 4Kp60 hardware decode of HEVC video. The device is fully compatible with previous versions of Rasbperry Pi based Industrial IoT devices and accessories from TECHBASE.

Pricing and availability of 8GB RAM and M.2/SSD options

ModBerry M500 8GB option has been added to configurator here. SSD/M.2 option is currently undergoing testing – preliminary devices are available on demand, via Live Chat or contact form at https://iiot-shop.com/

The Raspberry Pi 4 is a versatile SBC that requires active cooling to maximize its potential. There are several options to combine several Raspberry Pi units, the latest one is CloverPI. Manufactured by IPTerra, the Clover PI has four 40-pin GPIO connectors for connecting four Raspberry Pi units.

CloverPI is actually the 4th edition and is properly called CloverPI 1.4. The board also has four 6-pin Ethernet connectors, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and two power connectors. It’s unclear why IPTerra needed two power connectors instead of one. CloverPI 1.4 also has a 5-port Ethernet switch.

CloverPi (Raspberry Pi cluster) features

  • Backplane compatible with any Raspberry Pis containing the standardized GPIO pins
  • Integrated power for four raspberry pies
  • Individual power switches for each raspberry pi
  • Individually addressable RGB LED for each raspberry pi
  • Link light for Network for each raspberry pi
  • Network header for each raspberry pi
  • 5 Port gigabit switch: four ports for raspberry Pi’s one for uplink

Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cloverpi/cloverpi-take-your-raspberry-pi-to-the-next-level

Industrial use of Raspberry Pi 4

A year ago, TECHBASE released an updated version of the ModBerry M500 industrial IoT computer, replacing the aging Raspberry Pi 3 with a 3B+, giving it better performance. With the recent launch of the Raspberry Pi 4, TECHBASE has yet again, announced another upgrade to the M500, which now packs the latest single-board computer.

Over 10 million Raspberry Pi’s have been sold and the Raspberry Pi is likely to stay as a new standard in the industry. Official Raspbian OS is free operating system based on Linux Debian optimized for the Raspberry Pi comes with over 35,000 packages, pre-compiled software bundled in a nice format for easy installation. ModBerry devices are compatible with Raspberry Pi accessories, supported by Raspberry Pi Foundation. ModBerry M500 now with Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ / Raspberry Pi 4 Model B support.

Pros and cons of using Raspberry Pi 4 in IoT

Every fan of new technologies has heard of small single-board computers (SBC) in the form of Raspberry Pi 4. Raspberry debuted on the market in many different versions, and the current model is Model 4B. A lot of people got infected with it for DIY, programming or Linux. But new board comes with variety of pros and cons, as compared to previous RPi3 versions.

Industrial use of market Raspberry Pi 4 SBCs

A year ago, TECHBASE released an updated version of the ModBerry M500 industrial IoT computer, replacing the aging Raspberry Pi 3 with a 3B+, giving it better performance. With the recent launch of the Raspberry Pi 4, TECHBASE has yet again, announced another upgrade to the M500, which now packs the latest single-board computer.

ModBerry M500 with Raspberry Pi’s 4

ModBerry M500 also utilizes many more SBC platforms, such as Orange Pi, NanoPi and Intel-based UpBoard. Find more information here: https://iiot-shop.com/product/modberry-m-series/

The ODROID-C4 is a new generation single board computer that is more energy efficient and faster than the ODROID-C2, which was introduced as the world’s first inexpensive 64-bit ARM computer more than four years ago. ODROID concept and format mimic Raspberry Pi 4 but features extended capabilities as a next level competitor to the most popular SBC on the market

The main ODROID-C4 processor is built on a Cortex-A55 quad-core cluster with a new generation Mali-G31 graphics processor. The A55 core uses basic heat sinks and operates at 2.0 GHz without thermal throttling, making it a solid and quiet computer. The performance of multi-core processors is about 40% faster than ODROID-C2, and the system DRAM memory performance is 50% faster.

RPi4 & ODROID-C4 comparison: https://www.cnx-software.com/2020/04/24/raspberry-pi-4-vs-odroid-c4-features-comparison/

Benchmark comparison. Source: https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-c4/

Raspberry Pi increase in IoT significance

More and more engineers and technology providers believe that it is suitable for industrial applications in the real world. Over the past few years, there has been a lot of discussion about the use of Raspberry Pi in industry, most of which emphasize that Raspberry Pi is a great tool for engineering experiments, but not so much for industrial applications in the real world. While it is true that the Raspberry Pi is not considered the best choice for mission-critical applications, it is also true that the Raspberry Pi is no longer a platform for experimentation.

Latest Raspberry Pi 4 development board, equipped with a 1.5GHz quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A72 processor (approximately 3 times better performance than previous Cortex-A53 powering Raspberry Pi 3+ Model B and Compute Module 3 and 3+). can be chosen from 1GB / 2GB / 4GB LPDDR4 SDRAM options.

Raspberry Pi 4 continues the tradition of one of the most versatile and cheapest computer devices. It can be used for virtually anything from proprietary IoT solutions to a full-fledged desktop computer. The new Malinka has two micro-HDMI ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, two USB 3.0 type A ports and two USB 2.0 type A ports.

Industrial use of Raspberry Pi 4

A year ago, TECHBASE released an updated version of the ModBerry M500 industrial IoT computer, replacing the aging Raspberry Pi 3 with a 3B+, giving it better performance. With the recent launch of the Raspberry Pi 4, TECHBASE has yet again, announced another upgrade to the M500, which now packs the latest single-board computer.

Raspberry Pi 4, with 2xHDMI, Gigabit Ethernet and 2xUSB3.0
Raspberry Pi 4, with 2xHDMI, Gigabit Ethernet and 2xUSB3.0

Over 10 million Raspberry Pi’s have been sold and the Raspberry Pi is likely to stay as a new standard in the industry. Official Raspbian OS is free operating system based on Linux Debian optimized for the Raspberry Pi comes with over 35,000 packages, pre-compiled software bundled in a nice format for easy installation. ModBerry devices are compatible with Raspberry Pi accessories, supported by Raspberry Pi Foundation. ModBerry M500 now with Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ / Raspberry Pi 4 Model B support.

In March, sales of Raspberry Pi single-board computers totaled 640,000. The consumer find it the cheapest way to start tinkering and drove to the second-largest sales month since Raspberry Foundation began selling for home use.

Other uses of Raspberry Pi computers are more directly associated with the appearance of COVID-19. For example, in Colombia, efforts are underway to run a ventilator on a Pi computer, and if successful, it will help solve the problem of the lack of traditional ventilation equipment in this country.

I think what this is telling us is that we’re seeing genuine consumer use of the product. It’s not like your desktop PC – you’re not going to be able play Crysis on it – but if you want a machine you can use to edit documents, use the web, use Gmail and Office 365 and all the baseline use cases of a general purpose computer, the Raspberry Pi 4 is a product we’ve made to get over that bar.

Eben Upton, the Raspberry Pi’s co-creator for Techrepublic

When the Raspberry Pi Foundation asked to talk about how to deal with COVID-19 using Raspberry Pi devices, one of the most common uses he saw was 3D printing with use of Raspberry Pi, especially for 3d-printed faceshields.

Raspberry Pi 4
Raspberry Pi 4

Arduino-based ventilator to help coronavirus patients

A month ago we wrote about Arduino-based solution, similar to the one tested in Columbia. As far as manufacturing and using home-made medical equipment is not advised, the spread of the COVID-19 might push humanity to such solutions. Johnny Lee’s project involves a simple, low-cost ventilator controlled via Arduino.

The idea is that since these machines are basically just blowers controlled by a brushless DC motor, an Arduino Nano equipped with an electonic speed controller could allow it to act as a one. Such a setup has been shown to provide more than enough pressure for a ventilator used on COVID-19 patients. This device has in no way been evaluated or approved for medical use, but it does provide a starting point for experimentation.

Source: https://blog.arduino.cc/2020/03/17/designing-a-low-cost-open-source-ventilator-with-arduino/

New #CoronaIOT initiative from Industrial IoT manufacturer

Trends indicate a weakening of many sectors of the economy, including the IoT sector. However, we can prevent the upcoming crisis with products and technology keeping up with the inevitable changes in our daily lives.

TECHBASE Group took the challenge of gathering potential partners for projects that serve improvement of health safety and worldwide trend of Social Distancing. The program will periodically present new IoT projects, involving manufacturers, software and hardware developers, new technology influencers and media.

Industrial Raspberry Pi powered devices as a base of medical equipment?

When industrial IoT devices and edge devices, like medical equipment work together, digital information becomes more powerful. Especially in contexts where you need to collect data in a traditional edge context, or control the servo-motors of a ventilator. You can then remotely monitor the container using the sensor.

By introducing AI (artificial intelligence) into the device itself, edge computing can also make more context-sensitive, quick decisions at the edge. Data gathered from the sensors can be transferred to the cloud at any time after local work has been completed, contributing to a more global AI process, or archived. With the combination of industrial IoT devices and advanced technology, high quality analysis and small footprint will become the AI standard in 2020.

ModBerry M500 with Raspberry Pi’s 4 on-board

Sequent Microsystems has introduced the Raspberry Pi „4-relay” add-on to the Industrial IoT market. Four relays switch lines for loads up to 10 A and 250 V, can be stacked up to 8 times with max. 32 switched relays.

It can be used to control loads of up to 10A and 250V. You can control directly all your lights and appliances. Pluggable connectors accept 18 to 22 AWG wires and simplify the installation, specially if you are planning to use more than one card. The cards are stacked with 18mm male-female standoffs. All the hardware required for the installation is provided. Relays are controlled through I2C IO Expanders, using only 2 pins on the GPIO interface and leaving all the other pins available for the user.

Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/279405789/4-relays-for-raspberry-pi-8-level-stackable-10a-250v-each/

Some industrial IoT devices, based on Raspberry Pi platform already offer Relay expansion modules. One of them is ModBerry 500/9500 series, introduced in 2014 – later upgraded with latest Raspberry Pi’s Compute Module 3+. ModBerry standard configurator offers up to 12x Relay expansion, with additional customizable options available for larger orders.

ExCard modules to peak the performance

Every TECHBASE’s industrial computer is supported by ExCard add-on modules for extra RS-232/485 serial ports, Ethernet ports, PCIe slots, analog input and output, digital I/Os, relays, M-Bus interface, opto-isolation, accelerometer, etc. To provide specific communication paths, ModBerry can be rigged with additional Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module, 3G/LTE, NarrowBand-IoT, LoRa, ZigBee, GPS and Wireless M-Bus.

The latest options for ModBerry series are:

  • SuperCap expansion, to provide constant power supply as a UPS option
  • OLED 0.96” & new OLED 1,3″ screen, allowing the control without the need of connecting into the device
  • ESP32 module as a security chip, to add a firewall into control installation and ensure constant operation of the device, even with power drops and random events
  • Aluminum case, to grant much higher durability for extra harsh industrial conditions
  • Mentioned earlier SATA/M.2 SSD controller for extra data storage

The Colombian medical team tests a fan made with the Raspberry Pi and easily available parts. Robotics engineer Marco Mascolo said he made the project because he knew that machines were in great demand to handle Covid-19. The design and code was published online in March by a Californian, stating that he had ’no previous experience creating medical devices’.

The ventilator control computer is the most important part. Raspberry Pi can set the air pressure, open and close the valves to adjust if the patient needs full or partial breath support, and Mascorro has integrated the code with open software so that anyone can use or change it for free.

Arduino-based ventilator to help coronavirus patients

A month ago we wrote about Arduino-based solution, similar to the one tested in Columbia. As far as manufacturing and using home-made medical equipment is not advised, the spread of the COVID-19 might push humanity to such solutions. Johnny Lee’s project involves a simple, low-cost ventilator controlled via Arduino.

The idea is that since these machines are basically just blowers controlled by a brushless DC motor, an Arduino Nano equipped with an electonic speed controller could allow it to act as a one. Such a setup has been shown to provide more than enough pressure for a ventilator used on COVID-19 patients. This device has in no way been evaluated or approved for medical use, but it does provide a starting point for experimentation.

Source: https://blog.arduino.cc/2020/03/17/designing-a-low-cost-open-source-ventilator-with-arduino/

New #CoronaIOT initiative from Industrial IoT manufacturer

Trends indicate a weakening of many sectors of the economy, including the IoT sector. However, we can prevent the upcoming crisis with products and technology keeping up with the inevitable changes in our daily lives.

TECHBASE Group took the challenge of gathering potential partners for projects that serve improvement of health safety and worldwide trend of Social Distancing. The program will periodically present new IoT projects, involving manufacturers, software and hardware developers, new technology influencers and media.

Industrial Raspberry Pi powered devices as a base of medical equipment?

When industrial IoT devices and edge devices, like medical equipment work together, digital information becomes more powerful. Especially in contexts where you need to collect data in a traditional edge context, or control the servo-motors of a ventilator. You can then remotely monitor the container using the sensor.

By introducing AI (artificial intelligence) into the device itself, edge computing can also make more context-sensitive, quick decisions at the edge. Data gathered from the sensors can be transferred to the cloud at any time after local work has been completed, contributing to a more global AI process, or archived. With the combination of industrial IoT devices and advanced technology, high quality analysis and small footprint will become the AI standard in 2020.

ModBerry M500 with Raspberry Pi’s 4 on-board

Aries Embedded announced one of the first computing modules with the SoF PolarFire function. It is equipped with a Linux RISC-V SoC chip with a Microchip Microsemi FPGA processor. The M100PFS has the same dimensions of 74 x 42 mm as the similar M100PF module from Aries and is equipped with PolarFire FPGAs without RISC-V core for Linux.

The two major M100PFS SKUs are:

  • M100PFS-025ADA0 — MPFS025T FPGA with 23K LE, 68 math blocks, 4x SERDES; 1GB LPDDR4 RAM for HMS (RISC-V/Linux); 4GB eMMC
  • M100PFS-250AECC — MPFS250T FPGA with 254K LE, 784 blocks, 16x SERDES; 4GB LPDDR4 each for HMS and FPGA; 8GB eMMC

Source: http://linuxgizmos.com/linux-powered-module-charges-up-the-risc-v-polarfire-soc/

Aries’ M100PFS a competition for Raspberry Pi 4 in IoT
M100PFS

PolarFire SoC from Microchip combines the previously introduced PolarFire FPGA card with 4x RISC-V U54-MC SiFive core. Microchip claims that PolarFire SoCs are superior to hybrid SoCs with an arm / FPGA, such as Xilinx Zynq, with more configurable and open RISC-V designs, lower power consumption and much better real-time deterministic functions. I am In December, the company called it „the first FPGA SoC chip with deterministic and consistent RISC-V processor clusters and the deterministic L2 memory subsystem enabling the use of Linux and real-time applications.”

Industrial use of market Raspberry Pi 4 SBCs

A year ago, TECHBASE released an updated version of the ModBerry M500 industrial IoT computer, replacing the aging Raspberry Pi 3 with a 3B+, giving it better performance. With the recent launch of the Raspberry Pi 4, TECHBASE has yet again, announced another upgrade to the M500, which now packs the latest single-board computer.

ModBerry M500 with Raspberry Pi’s 4

ModBerry M500 also utilizes many more SBC platforms, such as Orange Pi, NanoPi and Intel-based UpBoard. Find more information here: https://iiot-shop.com/product/modberry-m-series/