Components & Connectors

u-blox launches compact triple-band antenna for high-precision GNSS

Thu, Sep 25, 2025

u-blox has announced the launch of the ANN-MB3, its latest L1/L2/L5 triple-band RTK antenna. Designed for the u-blox F20 high precision platform the ANN-MB3 delivers exceptional performance at an affordable price point. By offering a robust antenna suitable for mass adoption, u-blox is addressing the industry’s growing demand for a reliable, flexible, and cost-effective GNSS antenna solution that accelerates the adoption of high-precision positioning technologies across industrial, automotive, and robotics applications.

The ANN-MB3 provides customers with a practical and scalable way to integrate high-precision positioning into their products. By combining robust design and compact dimensions (62 × 80 × 25.5 mm), the antenna makes high-precision GNSS accessible for a wide range of industries and applications.

The ANN-MB3 integrates an additional notch filter (LTE B13) in L1 RF path, and provides out-of-band interference mitigation, ensuring reliable performance even in harsh RF environments while minimising design complexity for customers. Ready-to-use and designed with flexible installation options, ANN-MB3 reduces the time, cost, and RF expertise required to implement triple-band GNSS solutions.

Optimised for the u-blox F20 triple-band platform (e.g. ZED-F20P) and fully compatible with u-blox F9 receivers supporting L1, L2, and L5 bands, ANN-MB3 enables customers to standardise on a single antenna solution that covers multiple frequency needs.

Applications such as industrial automation, agriculture, heavy machinery, autonomous vehicles, mobile robotics, UAVs, and network infrastructure increasingly require robust centimetre-level positioning.

https://www.u-blox.com

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Taoglas expands Comet antenna series with compact solutions for metal enclosures

Tue, Sep 23, 2025

Taoglas has announced the expansion of its Comet Series with the new MA58x family of compact, discrete, screw- or through-hole mount puck antennas. Metal structures or flat surfaces, such as cabinets, can affect antenna performance and change the electrical groundplane. The Comet MA58x Series is specifically engineered to maintain stable, high-efficiency operation in these challenging conditions.

Conventional LTE antennas rely on their RF cable to achieve low-band efficiency, particularly when the cable itself is routed inside a metal enclosure, turning it into an unintended radiator. The MA58x design removes this dependency, enabling efficient radiation and delivering at least 20% better performance than comparable alternatives.

With a footprint of just 101 x 101mm and super low profile of just 20mm, the antennas deliver reliable multi-antenna connectivity across 5G/4G MIMO, Wi-Fi 6/7, and GNSS constellations including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou. Advanced RF design enables consistent gain and efficiency across global cellular frequencies from 600 MHz to 6 GHz and Wi-Fi bands up to 7.125 GHz, while also supporting legacy 2.4/5.8 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for maximum compatibility.

The rugged, weather-resistant housing is moulded in Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate (ASA) for long-term outdoor durability, and the IP67-rated enclosure with a screw/stud mount provides a permanent installation option that ensures secure, reliable operation in vibration-prone and harsh conditions such as fleet vehicles, heavy equipment, and industrial automation.

“Metal housings are often unavoidable in real-world deployments, and they can present serious challenges for RF performance,” said Baha Badran, Head of Engineering, Taoglas. “With the Comet MA58x Series, we’ve addressed that head-on, while also delivering the efficiency, reliability, and multi-antenna performance that are normally very difficult to achieve in such a compact form factor. This combination gives our customers confidence that their systems will stay connected, whatever the environment.”

The new antennas are available now in multiple configurations and in either black or white enclosures. Custom cable lengths and connector options are also offered, making integration more flexible for OEMs and system designers. The MA58x Series is ideally suited to gateways and routers, public safety systems, point-of-sale terminals, digital signage, smart home automation, robotics, and industrial automation. The Comet Series also offers a magnetic mount MA32x variant to address different deployment needs.

www.taoglas.com

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Sfera Labs Introduces SuperCaps UPS Expansion Board for Strato Pi Max

Tue, Sep 23, 2025

Sfera Labs has released the new SuperCaps UPS X2-Series Expansion Board, bringing integrated, supercapacitor-based backup power to its Strato Pi Max XL and XS servers.

The Strato Pi Max is based on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 or 5, with a wide range of swappable expansion boards that adapt it to countless applications. With the addition of the SuperCaps UPS, the platform now gains built-in protection against power interruptions, ensuring continuous operation and safeguarding critical data.

The SuperCaps UPS expansion board integrates with the Strato Pi Max ecosystem and is particularly valuable in environments where short power outages are common, such as industrial automation systems, building management controllers, smart grids, and edge computing nodes, where even brief interruptions can cause downtime, loss of sensor data, or interrupted communication with the cloud. The expansion board also enables sending alerts when a power outage occurs, allowing remote monitoring systems to react quickly and prevent wider disruption. In applications like industrial databases or logging systems, the ability to perform a clean shutdown ensures data integrity and prevents corruption of critical files.

Unlike the existing UPS expansion board for Strato Pi Max, which requires an external lead-acid or AGM battery, the new SuperCaps UPS uses high-capacity supercapacitors directly integrated on the board. This results in a more compact, durable, and installation-friendly solution, eliminating the need for external cabling, bulky batteries, or periodic battery replacement.

With this launch, Sfera Labs further extends the flexibility of the Strato Pi Max ecosystem, giving engineers and system integrators a reliable tool for deploying resilient industrial, IoT, and edge computing solutions in the most demanding environments.

sferalabs.cc

 

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Fisego and Panasonic collaborate for smart power strips with integrated safety technology

Wed, Sep 17, 2025

Panasonic  has announced a strategic collaboration with Fisego Holding GmbH. The start-up based in Hesse, Germany, is setting new standards in fire prevention with its advanced fire protection systems and smart power strips featuring integrated safety technology. A key component of these next-generation devices is Panasonic Industry’s polarised DW-YL relay.

The already available Fisego EINS automatically cuts off the power supply in the event of technical faults or imminent fire hazards and sends a real-time alert to the user via the associated app. This not only protects property but, more importantly, safeguards human life. The 20A relay stands out for its high inrush current capability of up to a 320A, making the power strip suitable for almost any load scenario. The latest iteration of the DW relay has been structurally optimised: enhancements, including improvements to the contact materials, ensure the contacts do not weld – even when switching capacitive loads with high inrush currents. The smart sockets are VDE-certified and offer a wide range of applications, from protecting large appliances to integration in smart home environments and industrial settings. Notably, Fisego’s sockets are the only smart sockets worldwide to hold a VDE certification.

Fisego’s products are distinguished by the use of sustainable materials that offer excellent energy efficiency, reduce environmental impact and lower operating costs. Panasonic Industry’s relays contribute significantly to these benefits. Their polarised drive system optimises energy consumption, reduces the overall system power demand of the power strip and extends the product’s lifespan. This also results in reduced heat generation within the housing, which, combined with the compact footprint of the DW-YL relay, supports stringent space-saving design requirements.

https://www.fisego.de

http://industry.panasonic.eu 

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