Pysense: hardware setup in a virtual machine

I had to help someone starting a project which includes, among others, a Pysense board.

The development environment was Linux Mint 18.3, running in a VirtualBox virtual machine (VirtualBox version 5.2.26). The host system was a MacBook Pro running macOS Mojave.

One difficulty that the user may face with this environment relates to the USB device redirection. When the Pysense is switched to bootloader mode, for firmware upgrade, it stays in this mode less than 7 seconds, which is not long enough to configure VirtualBox.

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Some programmable wireless ICs and modules

Updated: 29-Mar-2023

Some integrated circuits or modules providing wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Public Land Mobile Radio aka 2G/3G/4G, etc.) or satellite positioning, can host some customer code. Below, some of them.

Note (on the 29-Mar-2023): I haven’t been updating this post for almost a year now. It may contain some old references that are no more valid. I will review it some time soon. Continue reading “Some programmable wireless ICs and modules”

IoT device development kits

Updated: 17-May-2021

Here is a list of various low cost programmable boards or kits, with some (wireless) connectivity. This list is maintained on a best effort basis only.

  • B-L462E-CELL1, from ST: LTE-M/NB-IoT modem, eSIM with prepaid connectivity, accelerometer, magnetometer, humidity, temperature, pressure, etc. – US$ 74 (May-2021)
  • mangOH, an open-source project from Sierra Wireless – three versions, the mangOH Yellow being the latest one: 2G to 4G & LTE-M/NB-IoT, GNSS, Wi-Fi, BT 5.0, built-in antennas, accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, pressure, humidity, acoustic mic, air Index quality, temperature, and light sensors, battery charger and battery gauge, LEDs, buzzer, touch button, expansion connector, SD card, etc. – from 96 € to 116 €, depending on the model (Jan-2021) – to be considered along with Legato, another open-source project from Sierra Wireless, for the software part
  • QuickFeather Development Kit, from QuickLogic – FPGA-enabled Arm Cortex®-M4F MCU, 16-Mbit of Flash memory, accelerometer, pressure sensor, PDM digital microphone, integrated battery charger – US$49 (Jan-2021)
  • M5Stack Core2 ESP32 IoT Development Kit for AWS IoT EduKit – US$42 (Dec-2020)
  • Thunderboard Sense 2 Sensor-to-Cloud Advanced IoT Development Kit, from Silicon Labs – ARM Cortex M4 core with 256 kB RAM and 1024 kB Flash, multi-protocol radio, sensors, source code of applications for Android, iOS and web – US$21 (Dec-2020)
  • Icarus IoT Board, from Actinius – based on the nRF9160 – LTE-M / NB-IoT, GPS – 99.50 € (Dec-2020)
  • Thingy:91, from Nordic – based on the nRF9160 – LTE-M / NB-IoT, GPS, 16 sensors, Bluetooth / Thread / Zigbee / ANT, plastic and rubber case – around 111 € (Dec-2020)
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