Earlier this month, Renesas announced that their new CK-RA6M5 and CK-RX65N embedded kits are now supported by the Azure Cloud platform. These devices are loaded with various onboard sensors and they are also compatible with the Edge Impulse machine learning firmware.   

Both Renesas Cloud kits provide very similar peripherals, however the first board is powered by a RA6M5 chip while the other board integrates an RX65N MCU  : 

• R7FA6M5BH3CFC – Single Arm Cortex-M33 (up to 200MHz); 2MB Code Flash, 8kB data flash, 512kB SRAM
• R5F565NEHDFB – RX MCU (up to 120MHz); 2MB Code Flash, 32kB data flash, 640kB SRAM

 RA6M5 board block diagram
(click image to enlarge)

It’s described that both Cloud Kits come with the RYZ014A certified LTE Category M1 module which includes base-band, memory and RF connectivity required in IoT applications. As shown below, the RYZ014A module is based on the Monarch SQN3330 Cat-M1 baseband with some of the following specifications:

 Specifications listed for the CK-RA6M5 Cloud kit:

• Memory:
  • 128 Mbit SPI Flash
• I/O Interfaces:
  • 3x UART, GPIO 
  • JTAG, RING, Wake, USIM
• LTE bands:
  • B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B8/B12/B13/B14/B17
  • B18/B19/B20/B25/B26/B28/B66
• Operation Voltage:
  • 3.1V to 5.5V (operational)
  • 3.1V to 4.5V (recommended)
• Operating Temperature:
  • -30°C to 85°C (RF compliant)
  • -40°C to 85°C (operational)

     
CK-RX65N top view (left) and bottom view (right)
(click images to enlarge)

The following Microsoft page contains documentation related for this specific Cloud kit (CK-RX65N). There is also a GitHub repository from Renesas to show how to interface RA devices and Azure.

As mentioned earlier, the CK-RA6M5 Cloud Kit is also supported by the Edge Impulse machine learning platform. The instructions to set up this device and Edge Firmware can be found here.

CK-RX65N Cloud kit
(click image to enlarge)

The kit contents include the Renesas development board, the RYZ014A module, 1x Micro USB cable, 1x Micro USB A/B to A adapter cable, 1x SIM card and 1x Antenna.

Specifications listed for the CK-RA6M5 Cloud kit:

• Ethernet:
  • Ethernet (RJ45 RMII)
• I/O Interfaces:
  • Arduino Uno connectors
  • 2x Digilent Pmod connectors
  • 4x User LEDs
  • 2x Status LEDs
  • 1x User button, 1x Reset button
• Sensors:
  • 1x HS3001 Humidity & Temperature
  • 1x ZMOD4410 Indoor air quality index sensor
  • 1x ZMOD4510 Outdoor air quality index sensor
  • 1x OB1203 Biometric sensor
  • 1x TDK ICP-10101 Barometric pressure sensor
  • 1x TDK ICM-20948 IMU
  • 2x SPH0645LM4H-B MEMS Microphones
• USB:
  • 1x micro USB (High speed)
  • 1x micro USB (Full speed)
  • 1x micro USB (Debug)
• Debug:
  • 1x JTAG/SWD connector
• Power:
  • 5V DC input (USB Debug, Full Speed & Pin jumpers)
• Mechanical:
  •  80 x 95mm

Further information

Both, CK-RA6M5 and CK-RX65N Cloud Kits can be obtained for £82.20 from Farnell.com