CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

September 12, 2020September 12, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

HarmonyOS 2.0 Beta Released, HarmonyOS Devices Coming in 2021

Due to geopolitical tensions, Huawei cannot rely on Google Android operating system over the long term, and in May 2019 we reported HongMeng OS may become Huawei’s OS alternative to Android. HongMeng (鸿蒙) OS will finally be called HarmonyOS outside of China, and we recently reported Huawei was trying to attract more developers with monetary incentives to brings more apps to HMS (Huawei Mobile Services). We now have a more clear timeline with the company’s recent release of HarmonyOS 2.0 beta that’s currently available for smart home applications, smartwatches, and head-on-displays, and will become available for smartphones in December 2020. The release includes SDKs with over 13,000 APIs, documentation, tools, and simulator/emulator. OpenArk is an open-source compiler that was released last September, and Huawei DevEco is the IDE for development that works on top of Android Studio. Huawei also introduced OpenHarmony which should be the equivalent of the Android Open […]

September 11, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

ASROCK 4X4 BOX-4800U Industrial Mini PC is Powered by AMD Ryzen 7 4800U Processor

AMD announced the 15W Ryzen 4000-U series processor family last January. In June, the first mini PC with the new processor was announced, and ASUS PN50 which is now expected to become available in October a choice of Ryzen 3 to Ryzen 7 4000-U series processors. ASUS is now joined by another Taiwanese company with ASROCK 4X4 BOX-4800U industrial mini PC just being announced with AMD Ryzen 7 4800-U octa-core processor, and up to 64GB RAM, SATA and M.2 NVMe/SATA storage, and up to four 4K video outputs. ASROCK 4X4 BOX-4800U mini PC specifications: SoC – AMD Ryzen 7 4800U octa-core / 16-thread processor @ up to 1.8 GHz / 4.2 GHz (boost) with 12MB cache, AMD Raden Vega 8 graphics; 12 to 25W TDP (default: 15W) System Memory – 2x 260-pin SO-DIMM sockets for up to 64GB DDR4-3200 dual-channel RAM Storage 1x M.2 KEY M, 2242/2260/2280 socket with PCIe […]

September 11, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Z-Wave Long Range (LR) Promises Up to 4 Times the Range, 10-year Battery Life

The new Z-Wave Alliance Technical and Certifications workgroup, part of the Z-Wave Alliance, has announced the new Z-Wave Long Range (Z-Wave LR) specifications offering up to four times the range, support for ten times larger network, and 10-year coin cell battery life while keeping backward compatibility and interoperability Z-Wave LR will support up to 2000 nodes on a single smart home network making it suitable for indoor and outdoor smart home applications in multi-dwelling units, hotels, and hospitals, and removing the need for repeaters. The Z-Wave LR specification will be managed and certified under the Z-Wave Plus V2 certification program that currently mandates the inclusion of the enhanced S2 security framework as well as SmartStart plug-and-play setup feature for the consumer smart home. More details may be found on the press release and some of the sessions that were presented at Works With by Silicon Labs Virtual Conference on September […]

September 11, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

PICO317 Fanless Atom x5-E3940 Pico-ITX SBC Powers Industrial IoT Applications

Axiomtek has launched a 2.5-inch Pico-ITX Atom x5-E3940 Apollo Lake SBC supporting two independent video outputs and designed for Industrial IoT (IIoT) applications for industrial automation and in the transportation and retail sectors. The PICO317 single board computer is equipped with up to 8GB SO-DIMM RAM, supports SATA and mSATA storage, Gigabit Ethernet, and dual video output is achieved via HDMI and LVDS interfaces. Axiomtek PICO317 specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x5-E3940 quad-core Apollo Lake processor @ 1.6 GHz / 1.8 GHz (Turbo) with 2 MB cache, 12 EU Intel HD graphics; 9.5W TDP System Memory – Up to 8GB RAM via 1x 204-pin DDR3L-1867 SO-DIMMto Storage – SATA 3.0 connector, mSATA socket (see Expansion section), flash for AMI BIOS Video Output – 1x HDMI up to 4K, 1x dual-channel 18/24-bit LVDS Audio – Realtek ALC662 HD Codec audio; Line-out jack Networking – Gigabit Ethernet via Intel i211-AT and supporting […]

September 10, 2020July 14, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

How to Take a Remote Screenshot in Raspberry Pi over SSH

I recently reviewed a Raspberry Pi 4 laptop with a custom interface that made it impractical to take screenshots directly on the device. So instead I had to take screenshots remotely over SSH. It’s quite easy to do. Most of the steps can be reproduced in other Linux systems, and are not specific to Raspberry Pi. Enable SSH in Raspberry Pi First, enable SSH either with sudo raspi-config in a terminal window and selecting 5. Interface Options, then P2 SSH… If for some reason, you don’t have access to the terminal, take out the MicroSD card from the Raspberry Pi board, and from a computer create a new empty file named “ssh” in the boot partition. Now provided you have the username and password for your board, you can connect to SSH with the IP address from a terminal:

ssh <username>@<ip_address>

1	ssh <username>@<ip_address>

or a program like Putty. Taking a screenshot remotely You’re […]

September 10, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

AAWireless Enables Wireless Android Auto on Android 9.0+ Smartphones (Crowdfunding)

Android 11 was just released yesterday with wireless Android Auto support removing the need to use a cable between your phone and a car running Android Auto. That’s great if you have a phone that got upgraded to Android 11, but what about people with older smartphones or people equipped with a wired Android Auto infotainment system? AAWireless offers a solution for phones running Android 9.0 or greater as a plug & play USB device that allows the use of a WiFi connection instead of a USB cable. Emil Borconi-Szedressy started the project in 2018 with the AAGateway app allowing you to use an auxiliary (slave) device to connect your existing Android Auto compatible car to your phone (master) using a hotspot created on your phone. This is not ideal since should need a spare Android phone to run the slave device. AAWireless removes this need as Emil ported the […]

September 10, 2020September 10, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Allwinner T5 Processor to Power Android 10 and Linux Multi-Camera Infotainment Systems

Allwinner T-series processors are designed for transportation applications such as automotive infotainment systems, smart rear-view mirrors, and navigation systems. The Zhuhai-based company has now added a new T-series processor to its website with Allwinner T5 processor featuring four Cortex-A53 cores and a Mali-G31 MP2 GPU that’s a nice upgrade to the Mali-400 MP2/4 GPUs used in their other automotive processors. Allwinner T5 specifications: CPU – Quad-core Arm [email protected] GPU – Arm Mali G31 MP2 with support for OpenGL ES 3.2/2.0/1.0, Vulkan 1.1, OpenCL 2.0 Memory I/F – 32-bit DDR4/DDR3/DDR3L/LPDDR3/LPDDR4 interface up to 4GB Storage I/F SD3.0/eMMC5.0 interface 8-bit Nand flash interface with maximum 80-bit/1KB ECC Video Engine Video decoder H.265 MP decoder up to 4K @ 60fps H.264 BL/MP/HP decoder up to 4K @ 30fps VP9 decoder up to 4K @ 60fps AVS2 decoder up to 4K @ 60fps Multi-format 1080p60 video playback including VP8, MPEG1/2 SP/MP, MPEG4 SP/ASP, AVS+/AVS […]

September 10, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Raspberry Pi Zero Inspired ATMegaZero Arduino Compatible Board Launched for $24.90

When we reported about ATMegaZero, an Arduino Leonardo compatible board following Raspberry Pi Zero form factor last July it was not available for sale just yet. The good news is that the Microchip ATmega32U4 board is now available on GroupGets for $24.99 plus shipping. The group buying campaign is expected to end around September 30th, and the boards will ship right after that. Here’s a reminder about ATMegaZero specifications: MCU – Microchip ATmega32U4 microcontroller running at 16MHz with 32KB Flash, 2.5KB SRAM, 1KB EEPROM (Arduino Leonardo compatible) Storage – MicroSD card Display – 32-pin OLED display port compatible with 30-pin SSD1306 and SSD1331 based displays Wireless Connectivity – 8-pin header for optional ESP8266 ESP-01(s) WiFi module Expansion – 40-pin Raspberry Pi-inspired GPIO header with UART, SPI, I2C, analog input signals Debugging & Programming – Micro USB port, 6-pin ICSP header Misc – 4x LEDs, reset push-button Power Supply – 5V […]