Home Assistant has released its latest version, 2023.11, packed with new features and improvements. Here’s what you need to know:

• To-do list entities: Home Assistant now introduces a new entity type called “To-do list entities.” These entities represent a list of tasks, and you can create multiple to-do lists and manage them through the new “To-do lists” item in the sidebar.
• Shopping lists are now to-do’s: The shopping list feature has been converted into a to-do list. Existing shopping lists will be automatically converted upon upgrading to this release.
• Integrations providing your to-dos: Automations can now be created to create, complete, or clean up tasks on your to-do lists.
• Matter 1.2: Home Assistant has upgraded its Matter implementation to version 1.2, benefiting from stability improvements and preparing for new device types.
• Customize information in Tile cards: The Tile card now displays entity state information, and you can now customize the information shown on the card by adding attributes to the state content.
• Select any date range in the energy dashboard: The energy dashboard now allows you to select a custom date range to view the energy usage of your home over a specific period.
• New conditions for the conditional card: The conditional card now includes new conditions such as user condition, numeric state condition, and screen condition, allowing you to show or hide cards based on specific criteria.
• Restarting into safe mode: You can now restart Home Assistant in safe mode, which disables all custom integrations and custom frontend resources.
• Set up Improv Wi-Fi devices directly from Home Assistant: If you have a device that supports Improv Wi-Fi over Bluetooth and you are using Bluetooth in Home Assistant, you can set up the device directly from Home Assistant.
• Configuring script fields in the UI: Script fields can now be configured in the UI, allowing you to define variables in your script and provide a UI for your script fields.

The release also includes several other noteworthy changes, new integrations, integrations available to set up from the UI, and bug fixes. For a full list of changes, you can refer to the changelog.

This release showcases Home Assistant’s commitment to providing a comprehensive and customizable home automation experience. Whether you’re managing tasks, customizing your dashboards, or integrating new devices, Home Assistant 2023.11 has you covered.

For more information, visit the Home Assistant website.

Libre Computer has announced their latest single-board computer called the AML-A311D-CC Alta. This board is powered by an Amlogic A311D hexa-core processor, which includes an integrated neural processing unit (NPU) for hardware-accelerated AI tasks. The AML-A311D-CC Alta also features Raspberry Pi-compatible connectors, including a 40-pin GPIO header, and 22-pin MIPI-DSI and MIPI-CSI display and camera connectors.

The heart of this single-board PC is the Amlogic A311D processor, which consists of 4 ARM Cortex-A72 cores clocked at up to 2.2 GHz, and 2 Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 1.8 GHz. The GPU is a Mali-G52 quad-core, and the NPU offers 5 TOPS (tera operations per second) of AI performance.

In terms of memory and storage, the board features LPDDR4X memory, 16MB of SPI NOR Flash storage, an eMMC 5 connector for optional onboard storage, and a microSD card reader for removable storage.

The AML-A311D-CC Alta also offers a range of ports, including 4 USB 3.0 Type-A ports, 1 USB Type-C port, 1 HDMI 2.1 port, 1 3.5mm audio jack, and 1 Gigabit Ethernet port. The USB Type-C port can be used for power and data, and the board also supports Power Over Ethernet (PoE). Additionally, there is an IR receiver for using a remote control with the board.

Libre Computer claims that the performance of the AML-A311D-CC Alta should be similar to their ROC-RK3328-CC Renegade system, which is powered by a Rockchip RK33288 processor. However, the AML-A311D-CC Alta offers additional features such as more USB 3.0 ports and an integrated NPU.

Source: Liliputing.

Alibaba has released nine user manuals for the T-Head TH1520 quad-core RISC-V processor. These manuals cover various aspects of the processor, including video and audio processing, peripheral interfaces, memory interfaces, system registers, and the built-in NPU for video acceleration.

The TH1520 RISC-V SoC was first mentioned in the expensive web3-focused ROMA laptop in October 2022. Since then, there have been interesting developments with the release of Sipeed’s Lichee Pi 4A SBC and various other platforms based on the LM4A system-on-module. Both boards have preliminary support in mainline Linux, with the Lichee Pi 4A making it to Linux 6.5 and the BeagleV Ahead being added to the Linux 6.6 kernel.

The user manuals for the TH1520 processor were not released publicly until now. Sipeed and Beagleboard.org have made available nine user manuals in English, with the Sipeed link also providing the Chinese versions.

While these user manuals are useful for people writing drivers for the TH1520 SoC, some of the documents may not provide enough details to be truly useful, especially those related to the video blocks of the TH1520 processors. Nonetheless, having public documentation is a step in the right direction.

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.

The Official Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide, 5th Edition is now available, according to an announcement from Raspberry Pi. This fifth edition of the flagship book about the Raspberry Pi offers new coverage of the Raspberry Pi 5, Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, and the most recent version of Raspberry Pi OS. In addition, the author, Gareth Halfacree, has included a bonus chapter that covers Raspberry Pi Pico and Pico W.

The book features a new look, with an interior design from Sara Parodi. Nellie McKesson developed an HTML- and CSS-based layout engine to bring the design to life. The book also includes new graphics, including photography from Brian O Halloran, diagrams from Natalie Turner, and illustrations from Sam Alder. The process was overseen by Liz Upton, Jack Willis, and Brian Jepson.

The Official Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide, 5th Edition can be ordered from the Raspberry Pi Press Store. Raspberry Pi users running Raspberry Pi OS can expect it to appear in the Raspberry Pi Bookshelf application in a few days.

Olimex has released the RT1010-Py board, a small development board powered by a 500 MHz NXP i.MX RT1011 Cortex-M7 MCU. The board is designed to run MicroPython and is about four times faster than the Raspberry Pi Pico.

The RT1010-Py board features two 20-pin GPIO headers that expose various interfaces such as SPI and I2C. It also includes a microSD card slot for storage, two buttons, and a USB-C Type port for power and programming. Additionally, the board has a 12-pin fUEXT connector that allows users to connect Olimex’s UEXT modules via a flat cable.

In terms of specifications, the RT1010-Py board is equipped with an NXP iMX RT1011 crossover microcontroller, which features an Arm Cortex-M7 clocked at 500 MHz and 128KB SRAM/TCM. It has 2MB SPI Flash storage and a microSD card slot for additional storage. The board also has a USB 2.0 OTG Type-C port for connectivity.

Expansion options on the RT1010-Py board include two 20-pin headers with up to 15x GPIO, 3x UART, 2x SPI, 2x I2C, 1x I2S, 4x PWM, and 5x analog inputs. It also features an fUEXT connector with support for 3.3V, GND, I2C, SPI, and UART.

Other features of the RT1010-Py board include an RTC with a 32.768 kHz crystal, RESET and BOOT buttons, and power supply via a 5V USB-C port. The board has dimensions of 53.34 x 25.4 mm.

The NXP i.MX RT1010 board can run MicroPython with support for all hardware interfaces such as GPIO, I2C, and SPI. The user manual for the board is available in PDF format. The board also supports PlatformIO, although there are no board-specific documentation for it. The KiCAD and PDF schematics for the board are available on Olimex’s GitHub page.

For easier expansion, Olimex has designed the RT1010Py-DevKit as a carrier board for the RT1010-Py board. The devkit features support for the RT1010-Py board via 2x 20-pin headers. It also includes 2x 250VAC/10A relays, 2x UEXT connectors for expansion modules, a boot configuration slide switch, status LEDs, power and user buttons, and a USB-C power supply connector. The RT1010Py-DevKit has dimensions of 75 x 55 mm.

While the RT1010Py-DevKit is supposed to be open-source hardware, the schematics and user manual have not been released yet.

The RT1010-Py board is available for purchase from Olimex for 15 Euros, while the RT1010Py-DevKit is available for an additional 10 Euros. It is worth noting that Adafruit has previously launched a larger NXP i.MX RT1010 board called the Metro M7, which follows the Arduino UNO form factor and supports CircuitPython.

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.

Matrix Synapse, an open-source Matrix homeserver developed and maintained by the Matrix.org Foundation, has announced the first release candidate for version 1.96.0, marked as v1.96.0rc1. Synapse has been under development since 2014 and reached version 1.0.0 in 2019. The development of both Synapse and the Matrix protocol itself continues actively.

The release candidate, v1.96.0rc1, includes several new features, bug fixes, and improvements to the documentation and internal processes. Some of the notable features and bug fixes include:

Features:

• Experimental support for multiple workers to write to receipts stream
• Introduction of a new module API for controller presence
• Addition of a new module API callback to add extra fields to events’ unsigned section when sent to clients
• Performance improvements for claiming encryption keys

Bugfixes:

• Fixed a bug in the example Grafana dashboard that prevented it from finding the correct datasource
• Fixed a long-standing, rare edge case where the first event persisted by a new event persister worker might not be sent down /sync
• Fixed a bug where /sync incorrectly did not mark a room as limited in sync requests when there were missing remote events
• Fixed a bug introduced in Synapse 1.41 where HTTP(S) forward proxy authorization would fail when using basic HTTP authentication with a long username:password string
• Fixed a bug where /sync could tight loop after restart when using SQLite
• Fixed a bug where invited/knocking users would not leave during a room purge

Improvements to Documentation:

• Improved documentation of the presence router
• Added a sentence to the opentracing docs on using Jaeger in a different location than Synapse
• Corrected the description of unspecified rule lists in the alias_creation_rules and room_list_publication_rules config options and improved their descriptions
• Updated the recommended poetry version in the contributors’ guide
• Fixed a broken link to the client breakdown in the README

Internal Changes:

• Improved performance of delete device messages query
• Reduced memory allocations
• Enhanced replication performance when purging rooms
• Ran tests against Python 3.12
• Ran trial & integration tests in continuous integration when the .ci directory is modified
• Made various improvements to type hints and performance optimization

The release also includes updates to locked dependencies, with various packages being bumped to newer versions.

Matrix Synapse’s release candidate v1.96.0rc1 brings several new features, bug fixes, and improvements, making it an exciting update for users of the Matrix homeserver. The release demonstrates the commitment of the Matrix.org Foundation to continuously improve and enhance the Matrix protocol and its associated software.