ESP32-S3 PowerFeather V2 board gains support for LiFePO4/LFP batteries
The ESP32-S3 PowerFeather V2 board is an ESP32-S3 WiFi and BLE IoT board with an Adafruit Feather form factor that supports LiFePO4/LFP batteries, as well as Li-Ion or LiPo batteries, and up to 18V DC input for solar panel connection. As one could have guessed, it's an update to the ESP32-S3 PowerFeather board introduced in 2024 with support for solar panel input, Li-Ion, and LiPo batteries. The V2 design is virtually identical, except it features an Analog Devices MAX17260 fuel gauge and a TPS631013 buck-boost regulator that keeps 3.3 V stable to add support for LiFePO4 batteries. Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries are said to be safer and longer-lasting than Li-ion or LiPo batteries, albeit at the cost of lower energy density. ESP32-S3 PowerFeather V2 specifications: ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N8R2 SoC – ESP32-S3 CPU - Dual-core Tensilica LX7 up to 240 MHz Memory - 512KB SRAM, 16 KB RTC SRAM Wireless – 2.4 GHz
M5Stack PaperColor ESP32-S3 devkit features 4-inch E Ink Spectra 6 color display
M5Stack PaperColor, or M5Paper Color, is an ESP32-S3 development kit with a 4-inch E Ink Spectra 6 full-color display with a resolution of 600x400, designed to offer both low power consumption and high visibility under strong lights. While the color ePaper display is the start of the show, the devkit also features a microSD card slot for storage, a microphone with echo cancellation, a 1W speaker, a temperature & humidity sensor, a few buttons, two RGB LEDs, and an IR transmitter, but no GPIO expansion connectors. With regards to power, a 1250 mAh battery is included, rechargeable through the device's USB Type-C port. M5Paper Color ESP32-S3 Dev Kit specifications: SoC – Espressif ESP32-S3R8 CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration Memory – 8MB PSRAM Wireless – 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE + Mesh connectivity Storage 16MB SPI flash
Renesas RZ/V2H Robotics Development Kit handles AI vision, motor control, and power management with a single board
Renesas WS125-V2HRDKREFZ is a Robotics Development Kit (RDK) powered by Renesas RZ/V2H Arm Cortex-A55/R8/M33 microprocessor and designed for high‑performance AI vision applications leveraging the MPU's built-in 80 TOPS (sparse) AI accelerator. The kit ships with 16GB LPDDR4, 64MB QSPI flash, a 64GB microSD card, and appears to be partially inspired by the Raspberry Pi 5 with a 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header, a 16-pin PCIe Gen3 FFC connector, two MIPI CSI connectors, and a micro HDMI port. Other features include a Gigabit Ethernet port, two USB 3.2 ports, two CAN-FD interfaces, and a 12-24V DC input voltage range. Renesas WS125-V2HRDKREFZ specifications: SoC – Renesas RZ/V2H CPU/MCU cores 4x Arm Cortex-A55 cores up to 1.8 GHz 2x Cortex-R8 real-time cores up to 800 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller core up to 200 MHz for system management GPU – Arm Mali-G31 GPU NPU - DRP-AI3 dynamically reconfigurable processor delivering up to 8 TOPS (INT8) or
STMicro VD65G4 and VD55G4 0.56MP global shutter image sensors enable ultra-low-power always-on event-driven vision
STMicroelectronics VD65G4 and VD55G4 are ultra-low-power 0.56-megapixel global shutter CMOS image sensors designed for battery-operated edge AI and always-on vision applications. The main difference between the two sensors is that the VD65G4 features a color RGB Bayer pattern, while the VD55G4 is a monochrome sensor designed to capture visible to near-infrared (NIR) light. Both sensors use a compact 1/9-inch optical format and a 2.16 µm pixel pitch, utilizing Back Side Illuminated (BSI), CDTI, and 3D stacking technologies to achieve a tiny 2.73 x 2.16 mm bare-die footprint. STMicro VD65G4 and VD55G4 specifications: Resolution – 0.56 MP (804 x 704) Chroma VD65G4 – RGB Bayer (RGGB). VD55G4 – Monochrome (Clear, Visible to NIR). Optical Characteristics – 1/9-inch (2.3mm) optical format with a 30° linear CRA and close to 1:1 aspect ratio. Pixel Technology – 2.16 µm x 2.16 µm pixel size utilizing global shutter, BSI, CDTI, and 3D stacking. Frame Rates
2026 Green Powered Challenge: Adding Low-Power Sleep To Microcontrollers
When building a project to operate on battery power for long periods of time, having a microcontroller with a reliable and extremely low-power sleep mode is critical. When processing power isn̵…
2026 Green Powered Challenge: Adding Low-Power Sleep To Microcontrollers
When building a project to operate on battery power for long periods of time, having a microcontroller with a reliable and extremely low-power sleep mode is critical. When processing power isn̵…
LightInk – An ESP32-based, solar-powered E-ink smartwatch with up to 10 months of battery life
Daniel Ansorregui has developed LightInk, an open-source solar-powered E-ink watch inspired by 90s solar digital watches. It features a 1.54-inch e-paper display and supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LoRa, and GPS, running on a 100mAh battery. The project integrates a custom low-quiescent-power design using a TPS63900 buck-boost converter, capacitive-touch input, and deep-sleep-driven firmware, along with ultra-fast partial e-ink updates (<1 ms active time) and precise RTC timekeeping with drift calibration. It also supports solar-first operation (no dedicated charging IC) and dynamic power gating of peripherals, enabling around 9–10 months of operation on a small battery supplemented by solar power. LightInk specifications: System-in-package - ESP32-PICO-D4 SiP CPU - Dual-core processor @ 240MHz Memory - 520KB SRAM Storage - 4MB flash Wireless - 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 4 up to 150 Mbps and Bluetooth 4.2 BR/LE connectivity Display – 1.54-inch 200×200 B/W e-Paper panel (GDEH0154D67 or compatible) Audio - 10-15mm piezo electric disc speaker Connectivity
Microchip PIC16F132 and PIC18-Q35 low-power 8-bit MCUs feature CPLD-like Configurable Logic Blocks (CLB)
Microchip Technology has introduced the PIC16F132 and PIC18-Q35 8-bit families of MCUs, as an upgrade over the PIC16F13145, which combine traditional embedded control with integrated Configurable Logic Blocks (CLB), to bring CPLD-like programmable logic directly onto the microcontroller die. The main difference between the two families is in logic density, where the PIC16F132x includes 32 Basic Logic Elements (BLEs), and the PIC18-Q35 offers 128 BLEs. Alongside the CLB, these MCUs also integrate security and voltage management features. Programming and Debugging Interface Disable (PDID) provides anti-tamper protection against unauthorized firmware access, and Multi-Voltage I/O (MVIO) allows direct communication across different voltage domains without external level shifters. The company also mentions that by executing logic functions on dedicated hardware rather than in software, the CLB architecture reduces CPU load and power consumption while ensuring deterministic behavior. This makes the devices well-suited for timing-critical applications such as motor control, industrial automation, consumer electronics,
Idle CPU power management: cpuidle
CNXSoft: This is a guest post by Daniel Thompson, Principal Software Engineer at RISCstar Solutions, about Linux CPU power management for embedded systems, specifically covering cpuidle in depth. Twenty years ago, it was easy for an operating system kernel to go idle: when there were no tasks to run, “the idle loop” would be scheduled. Early idle loops were basically empty infinite loops that did nothing while waiting for the next interrupt to happen. This saved power simply by avoiding running instructions that needed power-hungry components such as the cache or FPU! Over time, changing technology has allowed multiple additional hardware mechanisms to reduce power to be introduced. With these new options available today, the idle loop is responsible for choosing and deploying the “best” way to go idle. As a brief reminder, entering and returning from an idle state has a cost, and that cost can be measured both
Conclusive Engineering KSTR-SAMA5D27 is an ultra-compact, low-power SBC based on Microchip SAMA5D27 SiP
Conclusive Engineering KSTR-SAMA5D27 is an ultra-compact (70x50mm) single board computer (SBC) powered by a Microchip SAMA5D27 Arm Cortex-A5 processor microprocessor clocked at 500 MHz paired with 256MB LPDDR2 (system-in-package). The board also features a microSD card slot and EEPROM for storage/configuration, Fast Ethernet, WiFi 4, and Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity, a USB-C port, two GPIO headers, and supports USB and battery power. It's designed for IoT devices, smart systems, and edge computing applications. Conclusive Engineering KSTR-SAMA5D27 specifications: SiP - Microchip SAMA5D27 CPU - Arm Cortex-A5 microprocessor @ 500 MHz System Memory - 256 MB LPDDR2 Storage MicroSD card slot 4KB EEPROM Networking 10/100Mbps Ethernet RJ45 jack 2.4 GHz WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.1 USB 1x USB 2.0 OTG Type-C connector 1x USB 2.0 Host on expansion header Expansion 34-pin and 30-pin connectors 2x Flexcom (configurable: I2C, SPI, UART) I2C 6-channel ADC with Vref 10-bit ISC (Image Sensor Controller), 10-bit
cnx-software.com [Unofficial]