VoltJots | Electronics and IoT

Issue 56

Author

VoltJots
August 28, 2025

Welcome to the latest edition of the VoltJots newsletter, linking you to the very best electronics and IoT news, products, and projects.

Hope you enjoy! Until next week,

VoltJots

NEWS & ARTICLES

Rokid's on a mission to simplify AR and AI wearables, focusing on creating devices that are so comfortable, you'll hardly notice they’re there.

Lightning and power spikes can toast your electronics, but ZeusFilter 1.0 is here to save the day with a solid design that tackles surges and keeps your Raspberry Pi safe from chaos.

Advantech, Tria Technologies, and Aaeon have rolled out new SMARC-compliant modules, each built on different platforms, to help developers strike the right balance between performance and efficiency for edge AI applications.

Power Integrations has launched a GaN PSU development kit for solar racing teams, offering up to 80W power and designed to maximise efficiency, inspired by a collaboration with ETH Zurich's aCentauri team.

A new reference design from ROHM, the REF67004, tackles the limitations of traditional analog and costly digital power supplies by combining them both into one controller and only using a single microcontroller.

Renesas' new three-level buck controllers (RAA489300/RAA489301) slash switching losses and ripple in USB-C chargers while adding handy bidirectional passthrough when input and output voltages match.

xMEMS Labs’ piezoMEMS tech is all about moving air and fluids, found in earphones and semiconductor cooling. It uses a piezo layer on a MEMS substrate, plus an ASIC for smooth system control.

PROJECTS & TUTORIALS

The LD2410C is a compact, cost-effective sensor that uses radar technology to distinguish humans from animals, making it great for smart homes, offices, and healthcare applications without relying on body heat.

Check out this project on a custom DC/DC buck converter PCB built around the SiC431 chip, handling up to 24V and 24A, and get insights on design, features, and manufacturing files.

With TETHER, the ESP32 AI TextBot, you can send and receive texts without data. It uses a GSM module for messaging and connects to ChatGPT for quick answers while remembering your chats for five minutes.

As you know, transistors are essential components in many electronic projects. This guide, which focuses on BJT and MOSFET transistors, breaks down why they're useful, how they work, and how to design with them. It's an oldie, but a goodie.

Control your NeoPixel lights over Wi-Fi using Fishino and NodeMCU, thanks to a Python library that lets you send effects to all devices without needing to tweak the microcontroller code.

Build a snake arcade game that runs on a 24x24 NeoPixel array, using an FPGA setup on the Sundance VCS-3 board for a unique gaming experience.

Using the Raspberry Pi Pico W, this project combines internet weather data, LED temperature indicators, and a clock on a 7-segment display.

PRODUCTS

Forget tangled wires! The Protomatrix routable perma-breadboard connects rows into 30 nets, providing a clean setup that simplifies circuit building and makes it easy to spot connections during debugging.

The Adafruit BMP581 is an advanced temperature and pressure sensor offering precise environmental sensing and altimeter capabilities. It supports I2C and SPI, boasts impressive accuracy, and is perfect for drones, wearables, or any altitude-tracking project.

Toshiba’s Switched Mode Power Supply Library lets you pick and download circuit designs tailored to your needs, making it easy to simulate MOSFET behaviour and customise power supply circuits with a user-friendly interface.

Keep an eye on your local environment with the Canopy sensor board, which combines the ENS160 and BME280 to monitor CO2, VOCs, humidity, temperature, and pressure.

Murata's Type 1SC module now features integrated SIM functionality, streamlining connectivity for low-power IoT devices while eliminating the need for traditional SIM cards, thus simplifying logistics and manufacturing challenges in cellular integration.

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