#lowpower

First of the Bones Rises – RP2350 Adalogger 🦴

With the RP2350 chip in wide distribution , we're now able to come up with a lot of variants of our popular RP2040 "Bones"

https://blog.adafruit.com/2023/01/22/rp2040-feather-bones-for-a-few-different-varieties/

that ended up becoming a dozen different boards.

We're starting with the 'Adalogger' design folks love: with a microSD card socket that is wired for SPI or SDIO. A separate regulator allows the I2C/uSD to be powered off completely for ultra-low power usage. This didn't make as much sense for the RP2040 because it was not a particularly low-power chip. There's also a Stemma QT port for plugging in external sensors.

TDK InvenSense T5837 PDM mic with low power auto-wake on sound 🔊🎤🔋

On a recent Great Search, we looked at I2S microphones

- but we also glanced at the latest offerings from TDK InvenSense

and found an interesting PDM mic with 'low power auto-wake' - the T5837

The SX1262 is an updated LoRa chip, so we made a breakout 📡🔧🔄

ESP32-C6 Feather is here, time to bring it up 🚀🛠️💡

The ESP32-C6 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5672) is Espressif’s first Wi-Fi 6 SoC integrating 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5 (LE) and the 802.15.4 protocol. It brings the goodness you know from the low-cost C3 series (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5337) and improves it with Zigbee/802.15.4 at 2.4Ghz. That means it could make for great Matter (https://csa-iot.org/all-solutions/matter/) development hardware!

We took our Feather ESP32-S2 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5000) and swapped out the 'S2 for a C6. Plus some re-routing and here's what we've got: a C6 Feather with lots of GPIO, lipoly charging and monitoring with the MAX17048, (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5580) NeoPixel, I2C Stemma QT port, and a second low-quiescent LDO for disabling the I2C and NeoPixel when we want ultra-low power usage. We also tossed a BME280 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2652) on there, so you could use it immediately as a low power temp/hum/pressure sensor.

PCB of the day! Ultimate GPS Logger Shield 🌐🔌🛰️

MTK3333 chipset with -165 dBm sensitivity, 10 Hz updates, 99 channels, 30mA power draw, Arduino-compatible. Includes MicroSD slot, RTC battery (7-year backup), built-in & external antenna options, PPS output, LEDs, big prototyping area. Enables high-speed logging/tracking.

PCB of the Day! SPI Non-Volatile FRAM Breakout - 2 Mbit / 256 KBytes - MB85RS2MTA 🔌🛠️💾

Similar to Dynamic random-access memory, only with a ferroelectric layer instead of a dielectric layer. This gives it stable handling (the bytes you write are non-volatile) with dynamic responsiveness (you can write them very fast!). With our SPI FRAM breakout board, you can add FRAM storage to your next DIY project. FRAM allows for lower power usage and a faster write performance. It's excellent for low-power or inconsistent-power data logging or data buffering, where you want to stream data fast while keeping the data when there's no power. Unlike Flash or EEPROM, there are no pages to worry about. Each byte can be read/written 10,000,000,000,000 times, so you don't have to worry too much about wear leveling.