Month: May 2013

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments on $25 Texas Instruments SensorTag is a Bluetooth LE Devkit with 6 Sensors

$25 Texas Instruments SensorTag is a Bluetooth LE Devkit with 6 Sensors

Yesterday, I wrote about Wimoto Motes, tiny Bluetooth LE devices with several sensors that can be controlled and monitored via an iOS app, and soon by an Android app, as well as Linux devices. Each mote costs $39 plus shipping, and one commenter mentioned the price may be a bit too high. A Google search for “bluetooth sensor” immediately brings TI SensorTag, which looks somewhat similar, except it is a Bluetooth LE development kit, includes 6 sensors (but no light sensor), and only costs $25 including shipping. SensorTag Specifications: Bluetooth 4.0 low energy (CC2541) SoC 6 sensors connected via I2C: IR Temperature sensor (TI TMP006) Humidity sensor (Sensirion SHT21) Pressure sensor (Epcos T5400) Accelerometer (Kionix KXTJ9) Gyroscope (InvenSense IMU-3000) Magnetometer (Freescale MAG3110) Power – Single cell coin cell battery (CR2032), quiescent current consumption of 8uA, allowing years of battery life. FCC, IC and ETSI certified solution Dimension – 71.2x36x15.5 mm, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 112 Comments on $32 iPush Wi-Fi DLNA / Miracast Adapter for Android

$32 iPush Wi-Fi DLNA / Miracast Adapter for Android

Last time I wrote about Miracast / DLNA dongles, the price was about $55, but today I’ve found a new device closer to my target price ($25) with IPUSH Miracast adapter that sells for $31.90 on DealExtreme. [Update: Several users report it’s only a DLNA dongle, and it does not support Miracast yet] Here are the specifications according to DealExtreme: SoC – Allwinner A10s Cortex A8 + Mali-400 GPU Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n USB – 1x micro USB port for power Video Output – HDMI 1.4 Supports DLNA and Miracast mode Power – 5V / 0.5A The device comes with an HDMI cable and a micro USB cable used to connect the device to your TV HDMI and USB ports, or if your TV lacks USB, a USB power adapter. However, I’ve done a little more research, and it turns out iPush is also a product designed by Action Semi, that just […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Linaro 13.05 Release With Linux Kernel 3.10, Android 4.2.2, and Ubuntu Raring Ringtail

Linaro 13.05 Release With Linux Kernel 3.10, Android 4.2.2, and Ubuntu Raring Ringtail

Linaro 13.05 has just been released with Linux Kernel 3.10-rc2 and Android 4.2.2. This is the first release with Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) images. There’s also Linux Linaro Stable (LSK) preview based on kernel 3.9.4. BeagleBone Black support has been added and preliminary hwpack and images are available, an Android Arndale image with virtual framebuffer is also available. You can now get a desktop environment (XFCE) on Aarch64 / ARMv8. Hardware packs with Real-time Linux kernel (PREEMPT_RT) can be downloaded for Pandaboard and Arndale. More work has gone into Aarch64, big.LITTLE HMP, and ARM virtualization (KVM). Finally an UEFI is available not only for Vexpress boards, but also Samsung Origen and Arndale boards, as well as Texas Instruments Pandabord and Beagleboard. Here are the highlights of this release: LAVA First prototype production run of LAVA Lmp completed, tested functional. Beaglebone Black is now running in LAVA. TC2s is now running […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on Wimoto Motes are Tiny Bluetooth Sensors for iOS, Android, and Linux Devices

Wimoto Motes are Tiny Bluetooth Sensors for iOS, Android, and Linux Devices

Wimoto Motes are small (30x30x8mm) wireless sensors that communicate temperature, humidity, soil moisture… values to your iPhone, iPad, Android, and Linux (yes, including the Raspberry Pi) devices via Bluetooth. They are said to last for about a year on a single CR2032 battery and don’t require an Internet connection to work, but you can still upload your data to Wimoto cloud service via the app, or use an optional mote.cloud bridge to do it for you in realtime via Wifi. There are currently 4 Motes: Climote – Measures light (0 to 60,000 lux), temperature (-25 to 85 C) and humidity. Used to monitor a room environment (bedroom, cellar, greenhouse,…), and tell you if you need to make adjustment Growmote – Measures sunlight (0 to 60,000 lux), soil moisture (5 levels) and temperature (-25 to 85 C), to make sure your lawn or flowers are not  thirsty. Thermote – Measures an object temperature […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on EnSilica eSi-ZM1 System-on-Module Features Xilinx Zynq XC7Z020 SoC

EnSilica eSi-ZM1 System-on-Module Features Xilinx Zynq XC7Z020 SoC

EnSilica has introduced the eSi-ZM1 SoM powered by Zynq ZC7Z020 SoC featuring 2 ARM Cortex A9 core, and an Artix-7 FPGA with 85K logic cells. The module also comes with 1GB RAM, 1GB NAND flash, and 16MB QSPI Boot Flash. ZC7Z020 SoC is notably used in ZedBoard development board, so if you have developed an application around this board, and want to commercialize it, using eSi-ZM1 module with your own custom baseboard could be an option. eSi-ZM1 system-on-module specifications: SoC – Xilinx Zynq XC7Z020 dual-core Cortex A9 processor @ 666 MHz, 85 K logic cells, 560 KB block RAM, and 220 DSP Slices. CLG484 package type System Memory – 1 GB, 1.35 V, 32-bit wide DDR3 SDRAM @ 533 MHz Storage: 1 GB, 1.8 V, 8-bit wide NAND FLASH 16 MB QSPI flash 1 or 2 Kb I2C EEPROM (and not 1MB as mentioned in the block diagram ) uSD card […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Mediatek Introduces MT8125 Quad Core SoC for 3G and Wi-Fi Tablets

Mediatek Introduces MT8125 Quad Core SoC for 3G and Wi-Fi Tablets

MediaTek has just announced the availability of MT8125 quad core Cortex A7 SoC designed for tablets. The processor can run up to 1.5GHz, integrates a PowerVR Series5XT GPU, and comes in 3G HSPA+, 2G EDGE and Wi-Fi versions, all of which are pin-to-pin compatible. MT8125 supports Full HD 1080p video playback and recording, 13MP camera with integrated ISP and Full HD (1920 x 1200) displays. It also support Mediatek’s MiraVision technology that’s suppose it improve picture quality. As with other Mediatek SoCs, this processor also includes support for MediaTek’s 4-in-1 connectivity combo (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and FM), as well as Wi-Fi certified Miracast. That’s about all we know about the SoC itself for now. Tablets incorporating MT8125 SoC will soon be available including Lenovo IdeaTab S6000 series. Via Liliputing Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on RebeccaBlackOS is a Linux Distribution Showcasing Wayland

RebeccaBlackOS is a Linux Distribution Showcasing Wayland

nerdopolis, a developer and a Rebecca Black fan, has been maintaining a Linux distribution called RebeccaBlackOS that uses Wayland’s reference compositor Weston as the default for handling its graphical user interface, and automatically start “Friday” song as it boots. This distribution actually supports both Wayland and X, as even though QT, GTK, EFL (Enlightenment Foundation Libraries), Clutter, and SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) have all been compiled to support Wayland, many apps don’t work with Wayland, so Xwayland provides a way to run many, but not all, X apps in Wayland. You can try the latest 1.8 GB ISO image (24 May 2013), which is based on 32-bit Kubuntu 13.04, by transferring it to a USB flash drive via Unetbootin, or by using the ISO directly in VirtualBox (it will then use the framebuffer). I planned to try it before writing this post, by the “18 hours, 10 minutes remaining” message […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on XBMC Linux Coming to AMLogic AML8726-MX Based Media Players

XBMC Linux Coming to AMLogic AML8726-MX Based Media Players

XBMC now works pretty well on several Android set-top boxes, but if XBMC is the only application you’re going to run on your device, you may prefer running XBMC in Linux to gain a bit in terms of performance. The only catch is that it’s not available yet, but J1nx posted a teaser video showing XBMC running in Geniatech ATV1200 set-top box. The demo above outputs at 720p, hardware video decoding appears to be working, the user interface is rendered at 30fps with a video played in the background, and CPU usage is about 10 to 20%. Under the hood, the box is running Linux 3.0.50, with Linaro 2013.02 armhf rootfs and BusyBox 1.21. An image is not available yet, and there’s no ETA. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily […]