We worked with a lot of cutting-edge electronic components this fall, but these microcontrollers and processors, sensors, LEDs and power supply products really impressed us. That's why they made our list of the top ten tech products for fall of 2017.
1. PocketBeagle® USB Key-Fob
The latest BeagleBoard.org board is PocketBeagle®, an ultra-tiny yet complete Linux-enabled open-source USB key-fob computer. With its incredible low cost, slick design and simple usage, the PocketBeagle® is an ideal development board for all experience levels.
It leverages an incredibly intuitive design, not to mention the excellent community support, and beginners will have no trouble getting started. Users can develop directly in a web browser and easily reset PocketBeagle® back to factory default settings, providing fearless freedom to experiment. The affordability of PocketBeagle® allows users to dedicate one to live permanently in each of their individual projects.
For the professional, PocketBeagle® is the perfect solution for rapid prototyping with complete customization potential, well-documented components and excellent support. PocketBeagle® is built around Octavo Systems’ System-In-Package that integrates a high-performance TI AM3358 processor, 512MB of DDR3, power management, nonvolatile serial memory and over 140 passive components into a single package. This integration saves cost, space, a small amount of power, and most notably it simplifies the board design so BeagleBoard.org can focus on the user experience.
To sum it up, the PocketBeagle® is a small, simple and incredibly affordable key-fob computer that is highly powerful and flexible for wherever your imagination takes you.
2. SFH 4735 Broadband Infrared LED
Awarded Product of the Year 2017 for its category in Elektronik, one of Germany’s most widely read electronics trade journals, the SFH 4735 from OSRAM Opto Semiconductors is the world’s first broadband infrared emitter. OSRAM specially developed a phosphor converter to aid in converting the light into infrared radiation.
This infrared LED is ideally suited as a compact light source for near-infrared spectroscopy in applications such as assessing the quality of food. It paves the way for this method of measurement to be viable for the consumer sector. Users could, for instance, have a USB-stick-like device that plugs into their smartphone and enables them to analyze their food for its freshness, nutrient and calorie count.
How does this work? The Food and Agriculture industries actually already use infrared spectroscopy as a means of determining the presence and quantity of certain ingredients. Basically, it uses the characteristic absorption behavior of certain molecular compounds. By directing a defined spectrum at a food sample, it is possible to know if certain ingredients are present based on the wavelength distribution of the reflected light.
With OSRAM’s SFH 4735, this technology is now available in a compact unit that can more easily be integrated into the consumer world as an extension of the current bio monitoring of calorie consumption, pulse rate and physical activity. At just 3.5 mm square, the infrared LED emits a broadband spectrum from 700 nm to 1050 nm and visible light at 450 nm to allow indication of where the infrared illumination is directed.
3. TQS-Q14H9-J82 Optical Pluggable Transceiver
Just launched in August 2017, this 100 Gigabit optical transceiver from Formerica OptoElectronics Inc is perfect for applications in High Performance Computing (HPC), Data Center inter or intra-rack optical links, Infiniband EDR, FDR and QDR interconnects and 100GB Ethernet interconnects. This 4 lanes aggregated 100 Gbps optical pluggable transceiver is compliant with IEEE 802.3bm 100GBase-SR4 CAUI-4 and QSFP28 MSA, supporting short reach 100m optical links. It features extremely low power consumption, typically at just 2 Watts, which reduces overall data center operating costs. The TQS-Q14H9-J82 optical pluggable transceiver is RoHS-6 and TAA compliant.
4. VeriSafe™ Absence of Voltage Tester (AVT)
The patent-pending VeriSafe™ Absence of Voltage Tester from Panduit offers improved safety, productivity and risk reduction by automating the voltage verification test. When servicing electrical equipment, workers must comply with safety regulations that require a voltage verification test to validate the absence of voltage. This process includes a number of stages that can be complex and time-consuming when using hand-held portable test instruments.
The patent-pending VeriSafe™ Absence of Voltage Tester from Panduit greatly simplifies this process. Once installed, one button enables qualified electrical workers to see an active visual indication when the absence of voltage is confirmed. This provides a new and innovative way to efficiently, reliably and safely verify the absence of voltage before accessing potentially dangerous electrical equipment. By automating this process, the VeriSafe™ Absence of Voltage Tester greatly reduces testing procedure time and complexity to improve productivity, reduce the risk of worker exposure of electrical hazards and support compliance when used as part of the lockout/tagout process in NFPA 70E.
The VeriSafe™ Absence of Voltage Tester minimizes risk by verifying the absence of voltage before equipment is accessed, making it easier for qualified electrical workers to determine an electrically safe environment in a fraction of the time required by hand-held portable test instruments.
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5. XLamp® Extreme High-Power LED
The new XLamp® XHP70.2 LEDs from CREE are the next generation of Extreme High Power LEDs that deliver the lowest system cost through the best lumen density, reliability and color consistency. This second generation offering delivers up to 9% more lumens and 18% higher lumens per watt (LPW) than the previous LEDs. When up against the closest competitor LED of equal size, the XHP70.2 provides up to 58% higher lumen density, enabling smaller luminaires and better optical control for high-lumen lighting applications.
Because the XHP70.2 LED features the same 7 mm square footprint as the previous generation, it provides an easy drop-in upgrade for customers using the gen 1 design and eliminates any redesign costs. Beyond light output and efficacy enhancements, the new XLamp® LED generation also improves optical uniformity through secondary optics, allowing lighting manufacturers to deliver better lighting performance.
Featuring Cree’s EasyWhite® technology, which provides the industry’s best color consistency, the XLamp XHP70.2 LEDs are available in 2700K-6500K with high CRI options. The new XLamp® XHP70.2 LEDs enable lighting design customers to quickly improve their existing designs and create innovative new products at lower system costs.
6. Click™ Board
MikroElektronika was proud to announce the recent release of their 300th plug-and-play click board. These revolutionary boards allow users to easily add new functionality to their development board by simply pushing one of the click boards into the MikroBUS™ socket. There are no wires, no need for soldering and zero hardware configuration necessary. Microchip Technologies and many other vendors adopted the MikroBUS™ socket standard onto their boards, expanding their compatible offering to include everything from educational learning kits as well as single board computers running on Linux.
The large number of Click Boards™ is the key value of the mikroBUS™ standard. Each one carries a single IC, module or circuit that brings a specific functionality to a target mainboard. All Click Boards™ have a standardized size, shape and mikroBUS™ connector, and there are hundreds of boards to choose from with all types of sensors and transceivers.
These boards cover the full gamut of technologies, including wireless connectivity modules, wired communication modules, display modules, interface modules, sensor modules and more. Click Boards™ are the world’s fastest growing add-on board standard, endorsed by major vendors and used by countless companies, startups, R&D engineers and hobbyists.
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7. Nordic Thingy:52 Iot Sensor Kit
The Thingy:52 from Nordic Semiconductor is a compact, power-optimized, multi-sensor IoT development platform designed for building IoT prototypes and demos without the need to build hardware or write firmware. Based on the NRF52832 Bluetooth® 5 SoC, the Thingy:52 connects to Bluetooth-enabled devices such as phones, tablets and laptops, and sends data to and from its sensors and actuators to an application or the cloud.
The Nordic Thingy:52 allows quick and easy configuration over-the-air via Bluetooth API. With a built-in speaker and microphone, the Thingy can either play sounds via its speakers or stream it to the host. The variety of sensors on Thingy:52 include temperature, humidity, pressure, air quality, color and light as well as 9-axis motion sensing via accelerometer, gyroscope and compass. Jumpstart your next IoT prototype with this simple yet powerful Nordic Thingy:52 IoT sensor platform.
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8. Jetson TX1 & TX2 Credit-Card Sized Supercomputers
The Jetson TX1 and Jetson TX2 from NVIDIA put the power of an AI supercomputer in the palm of your hand. These development kits and boards have the power to enable more complex deep neural networks and offer support for the latest technology in graphics, GPU computing, computer vision and more.
The TX1 features NVIDIA Maxwell™ architecture, 256 NVIDIA CUDA® cores, 64-bit Quad ARM A57/2 MB L2 CPUs, and a power-efficient design. The module itself supports encoded 30 Hz 4K video and decoded 60 Hz 4k video with up to 6 cameras. It has 4 GB of 64-bit LPDDR4 memory on board and 16 GB of native flash storage. In short, that means the TX1 module includes and supports the latest technology for deep learning, computer vision, GPU computing and graphics—making it ideal for embedded AI computing for all sorts of applications.
The TX2 has all the capabilities of the already-powerful TX1, but with double the strength behind it and a few additional features. Instead of Maxwell GPU architecture, the TX2 comes with NVIDIA’s Pascal™ architecture, which boasts 150 billion transistors built on bleeding-edge 16 nanometer FinFET fabrication technology. In NVIDIA’s own words, “Pascal is the most powerful computer architecture ever built inside a GPU.”
The Jetson TX2 Developer Kit gives you a fast, easy way to develop hardware and software for the Jetson TX2 AI supercomputer on a module. It exposes the hardware capabilities and interfaces of the developer board, comes with design guides and other documentation, and is pre-flashed with a Linux development environment. It also supports NVIDIA Jetpack – a complete SDK that includes the BSP, libraries for deep learning, computer vision, GPU computing, multimedia processing and much more.
Ultimately, the needs of your application will determine which Jetson module or dev kit you choose. Rest assured that no matter which of these solutions you end up going with, you’ll have the power to bring science fiction into reality.
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9. SLN-IOT-GPI Integrated Development Experience
New from NXP Semiconductors, the SLN-IOT-GPI Integrated Development Experience (IDEx) features a complete platform for developing secure IoT systems. It provides a pre-integrated configuration for software, hardware, security, connectivity, cloud services and NFC commissioning for popular IoT applications. This IDex solution speeds time-to-market, reduces risks associated with wireless conductivity and saves development costs in demanding commercial installations of large node networks (LNNs).
The platform includes the NXP Modular IoT Gateway and Modular Edge Node, which are tested and verified for ZigBee and Thread connectivity as well as secure cloud communications through Wi-Fi, Ethernet and cellular, enabling access to cloud services. The optimized hardware is supported with pre-integrated production-ready Linux® and FreeRTOS-based BSPs. Out-of-the-box low-power wireless mesh connectivity, NFC-based commissioning and state-of-the-art security capabilities enable a solutions platform ideal for connected applications that need to combine management and control of large node networks with cloud connectivity. Edge nodes can exchange data with the gateway through ZigBee or Thread and the gateway delivers data to the cloud over Ethernet or Wi-Fi. A mobile app enables iOS or Android users to easily set up their system and then monitor and control the edge nodes.
Commercial installations with thousands of nodes can leverage the built-in secure NFC tap-to-connect capabilities through the gateway. Using a smartphone app, end nodes can be quickly and securely commissioned to the network, even when the device that is being installed is not powered, which is common in smart buildings and industries, smart connected cities, oil and gas fields and agriculture installations. With this level hardware and software modularity, developers have the flexibility to quickly build and iterate a wide range of potential IoT use-case-specific applications.
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10. ADALM2000 Advanced Active Learning Module
Coming soon, this ADALM2000 from Analog Devices packs an electronics lab full of traditional equipment into the palm of your hand, allowing enthusiasts and students to have the power of a full lab in a cost effective, easy-to-use, hands-on environment. This USB-powered portable tool offers a function generator, digital 2-channel oscilloscope, logic analyzer, voltmeter, spectrum and network analyzer, digital bus analyzer and two programmable power supplies.
Use the active learning module to design and test analog circuits in real time, exploring signals and systems into the tens of MHz without the limitations of a traditional lab. Plus, with the help of graphical application software, users have easy access to the most popular high performance instrumentation functions.