Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft), Author at CNX Software

March 8, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Pironman 5 Pro Max Raspberry Pi 5 case gains 4.3-inch touchscreen, camera mount, speakers, microphone, and more

Pironman 5 Pro Max is the latest Raspberry Pi 5 case by SunFounder. The new enclosure adds a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen display, a 5MP camera module, a mount suitable for Raspberry Pi Camera Modules, stereo speakers, a USB microphone, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Besides the new features, its design is close to the Pironman 5 Max we reviewed with a Raspberry Pi 5, an NVMe SSD, and an Hailo-8 AI accelerator last June. That means it keeps black aluminum and semi-transparent black acrylic panels, offers two M.2 PCIe slots, an IR receiver, a power button, and the Tap-to-Wake feature for the OLED information display. Pironman 5 Pro Max specifications: Designed for the Raspberry Pi 5 and compatible SBCs Storage Pironman 5 Dual NVMe PiP supporting 2x M.2 2230, 2242, 2260, or 2280 NVMe SSDs at up to PCIe 2.0 x1 speeds due to switch used; RAID 0/1 support MicroSD […]

March 7, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

GEEKOM A5 Pro 2026 Edition Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 25.10 on an AMD Ryzen 5 7530U mini PC

GEEKOM A5 Pro 2026 Edition mini PC Ubuntu 25.10 linux review

After checking out the hardware with an unboxing and a teardown of the GEEKOM A5 Pro 2026 Edition mini PC, and testing it with the pre-installed Windows 11 Pro OS in the second part of the review, we will now report our experience with Ubuntu 25.10 to show how the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U mini PC performs under Linux. The Ubuntu 25.10 review includes an overview of the system, benchmarks, storage and networking (2.5GbE and WiFi 6) performance testing, and measurements of CPU temperature under stress, fan noise levels, and power consumption of the mini PC under various workloads. Ubuntu 25.10 installation We decided to install Ubuntu 25.10 in dual boot configuration alongside Windows 11. To do so, we first shrank the Windows partition (C:) to roughly half its original size, before inserting a USB drive with the Ubuntu 25.10 ISO to carry on with the installation. The installation proceeded […]

March 6, 2026March 8, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Echo Pyramid enables smart voice interaction applications on M5Stack Atom ESP32 IoT controllers

Designed for M5Stack Atom, AtomS3, and AtomS3R series IoT controllers based on ESP32 or ESP32-S3 wireless SoC, the Echo Pyramid base enables smart voice interaction applications such as far-field voice recognition, voice assistants, voice control, and more. The device features a built-in speaker, a MEMS microphone, an ES8311 HD audio codec for playback and capture, and an STM32 MCU for touch areas and RGB LED management. It’s powered via a USB Type-C port and can be expanded through a 4-pin connector for I2C modules. Echo Pyramid specifications: Supported IoT controllers – M5Stack Atom, AtomS3, and AtomS3R Microcontroller – STMicro STM32G030F6P6 32-bit Arm Cortex-M0+ CPU @ 64 MHz with 8KB SRAM, 64 KB flash Audio HD Codec – ES8311, handles playback and recording Microphone – LMA3729T381-0Y3S MEMS microphone ADC – ES7210 for microphone input Built-in speaker on the bottom of the pyramid Amplifier – AW87559 Class-D speaker driver for the speaker […]

March 6, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

WiFi and Bluetooth LE can now be used simultaneously on Arduino boards with NINA-W102 (ESP32) module

Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect WiFi and Bluetooth

Today I learned that WiFi and Bluetooth LE could NOT be used simultaneously on Arduino boards featuring the ESP32-based u-blox NINA-W102 wireless module, impacting the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, Arduino MKR WiFi 1010, and Arduino Nano 33 IoT boards. It’s a long-running problem since the first Arduino board with NINA-W10 was introduced in 2018, and meant you could use WiFi or Bluetooth LE, but not both simultaneously. The good news is that the issue has finally been fixed, thanks to a new firmware for the module and new WiFi and BLE libraries. More specifically, you’ll need the following libraries and firmware: WiFiNINA library version 2.0.0 or later ArduinoBLE library version 2.0.0 or later NINA-W102 firmware version 3.0.1 or later The libraries can easily be updated in the Library Manager in the Arduino IDE, and the firmware needs to be updated with the Firmware Updater Tool in Tools > WiFi101 / […]

March 6, 2026March 6, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

STM32U3B5/C5 ultra-low-power MCU features 640 KB RAM, 2 MB Flash, and HSP accelerator to run AI without batteries

STMicroelectronics has added two members to the STM32U3 ultra-low-power Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller family: the STM32U3B5 and STM32U3C5 MCUs get more resources with up to 640 KB SRAM and 2 MB flash, as well as an HSP (hardware signal processor) accelerator to run AI/ML workloads without batteries, just using energy harvesting. The new chips are still clocked at up to 96 MHz, benefit from a near-threshold design (down to 0.65 V), allowing a power consumption of just 117 Coremark/mW in active mode, and can operate up to 105°C ambient temperature. They come with one additional group of interfaces, bringing the total to four SPI and I2C, two I3C and CAN-FD, and five UARTs, as well as five more 16-bit timers, for a total of 10. The STM32U3C5 also includes a cryptocore to accelerate encryption and decryption operations, and supports the CCB (Coupling and Chaining Bridge) hardware security feature, both of which […]

March 5, 2026March 5, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

ADLINK Express-PTL Panther Lake COM Express Type 6 module supports up to Intel Core Ultra 7 368H, 128GB DDR5

ADLINK Express-PTL COM Express Type 6 computer-on-module is built on Intel Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake-H” SoCs up to the 16-core Core Ultra 7 368H processor delivering 180 TOPS of AI performance. The module pairs up to 128 GB DDR5 memory with IBECC support, features high-speed I/O such as PCIe Gen4, multiple display options, USB4/Thunderbolt capability, and industrial features such as TSN Ethernet, TPM 2.0, and advanced power management. As an industrial part, the Express-PTL is designed to operate across an extended –40°C to 85°C temperature range, and targets applications in robotics, industrial automation, medical imaging, transportation, and smart infrastructure. ADLINK Express-PTL specifications: SoC – Intel Core Ultra Series 3 Panther Lake-H processors (one or the other) Intel Core Ultra 5 336H 12-core (4P+4E+4LPE) processor up to 1.9 GHz / 4.6 GHz (Turbo) with 18MB cache, 4-core Xe3 graphics (37 TOPS), 47 TOPS NPU; TDP: 25W (15-65W cTDP) Intel […]

March 5, 2026March 5, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Checking out the actual AMD Ryzen SoC used on CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 laptop

I’ve just completed the review of the CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16, a laptop based on an AMD Ryzen 5 6600H SoC. All software testing on Windows 11 Pro and Ubuntu 25.10 confirmed that the laptop was based on an AMD Ryzen 5 6600H SoC, but I was asked to confirm that the actual CPU on the motherboard was indeed the advertised chip, for reasons I’ll explain below. Let’s do that right now. I had already done a teardown of the laptop, but since the AMD Ryzen processor was covered by copper pipes for cooling, I could not read the markings on the chip. So earlier today, I removed the bottom cover of the laptop again and loosened the three screws holding the pipes on top of the CPU, so I could check the markings on the processor. It’s an AMD Ryzen 5, a good sign, but there’s nothing that […]

March 4, 2026March 5, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

NanoPi NEO3 Plus – A tiny Rockchip RK3528A headless SBC with Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 port, GPIO header

FriendlyELEC NanoPi NEO3 Plus is an ultra-compact headless SBC powered by a Rockchip RK3528A SoC paired with 1GB RAM, whose main interfaces are a Gigabit Ethernet jack, a USB 3.2 port, and a 26-pin GPIO header. I can still remember using its predecessor, the NanoPi NEO3, based on a Rockchip RK3328, which I reviewed with Armbian in 2020. The new model is similar, with a quad-core Cortex-A53 SoC but clocked at 2.0 GHz instead of 1.5 GHz, and offered with a black metal case instead of a white plastic case. The OS can still be booted from a microSD card, but the NanoPi NEO3 Plus also offers a socket for an optional eMMC flash module, and adds an RTC battery connector, a speaker connector, and a MASK button for firmware updates. NanoPi NEO3 Plus specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3528A CPU – Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 @ 2.0 GHz GPU – Arm […]