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

June 4, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Raspberry Pi 5 and Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 get a ~$10 protective case

Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 Raspberry Pi 5 case

When I used the Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 with a Raspberry Pi 4 as part of the Raspberry Pi AI camera review, I just placed the kit on a smartphone stand, but it was somewhat awkward and not super stable. Waveshare has now introduced the PI5-CASE-TD2 protective case for the 7-inch Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 and the Raspberry Pi 5 that neatly combines the two, and also supports mounting to standard tripods. The company also claims it works with some other 7-inch displays. The enclosure gives access to all main ports of the Raspberry Pi 5, including Gigabit Ethernet, the four USB ports, the 40-pin GPIO header for Raspberry Pi HATs, the PCIe FFC connector, micro HDMI ports, the power button, and the USB-C port for power. I initially thought it would be compatible with the Raspberry Pi 4 too, but since the USB ports and Ethernet ports […]

June 4, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Vortex86EX3 Twin Core x86 processor targets legacy industrial applications running Windows, Linux, DOS, WinCE, QNX…

D&MP Vortex86EX3 is a Twin Core x86 SoC for industrial applications with a master CPU and a Slave CPU, each capable of running an operating system independently, be it Windows 10 IoT, Linux, legacy OS like WinCE or DOS, or an RTOS like QNX. Like its predecessors, such as the DM&P Vortex86EX2 or Vortex86DX3, the Vortex86EX3 – also written Vortex86 EX3 – supports older PCI and ISA interfaces, as well as more recent interfaces such as PCIe, and the usual serial, CAN Bus, and GPIO found in this type of processor. The Vortex86EX3 is the most powerful x86 SoC from the company so far, with two cores clocked at up to 1.2 GHz to 1.6 GHz. The comparison table below lists the specifications and main features of the Vortex86DX3 (2015), Vortex86EX2 (2019), and the new Vortex86EX3. The Vortex86EX3 is not listed on the Vortex86.com website yet, and instead, I found […]

June 4, 2025June 4, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

This ESP32-P4 board is equipped with an ESP32-C5 dual-band WiFi 6 module

All ESP32-P4 boards and devkits we’ve covered so far rely on ESP32-C6 for wireless connectivity, but the Wireless Tag WT99P4C5-S1 differs in that it pairs the ESP32-P4 RISC-V SoC with an ESP32-C5 wireless module featuring dual-band WiFi 6, Bluetooth LE 5.0, and an 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee, Thread, and Matter connectivity. The board also features MIPI DSI and CSI connectors for a display and a camera, GPIO headers for the ESP32-P4 and ESP32-C5 modules, a microSD card slot, a Fast Ethernet port, a built-in microphone, a speaker connector, an RS485 terminal block, and a few USB ports for data and debugging. Wireless Tag WT99P4C5-S1 board specifications: Core module – Wireless Tag WT0132P4-A1 SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-P4 CPU Dual-core 32-bit RISC-V HP (High-performance) CPU @ up to 400 MHz with AI instructions extension and single-precision FPU Single-RISC-V LP (Low-power) MCU core @ up to 40 MHz with 8KB of zero-wait […]

June 3, 2025June 3, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Credit card-sized industrial Allwinner T113-i SBC operates in the -40 to 85°C temperature range

Ebyte ECB30-P4T13IA5ME8G-I is a credit card-sized industrial-grade SBC powered by an Allwinner T113-i Cortex-A7 SoC with 512MB DDR3 RAM and 8GB flash, all part of the company’s ECK30-T13IA5ME8G-I castellated system-on-module. The single board computer is also equipped with a microSD card slot, a gigabit Ethernet port, four USB 2.0 ports, a 3.5mm audio jack, a WiFi 4 module, and the usual 40-pin GPIO header that’s more or less compatible with the one found on Raspberry Pi SBCs. What’s different is the lack of HDMI output, and the board features an MIPI DSI connector instead. Ebyte ECB30-P4T13IA5ME8G-I specifications: System-on-Module – Ebyte ECK30-T13IA1GE8G-I SoC – Allwinner T113-i CPU Dual-core Arm Cortex-A7 clocked at up to 1.2 GHz 64-bit XuanTie C906 RISC-V real-time core DSP – HiFi4 VPU Video decoder – H.265 up to 4K @ 30 FPS, H.264 up to 4K @ 24 FPS, MPEG-1/2/4, JPEG, Xvid, Sorenson Spark up to 1080p60 […]

June 3, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 37 Comments

Liberux NEXX is a Linux smartphone with Rockchip RK3588S, 32GB RAM, 6.34-inch OLED (Crowdfunding)

Liberux NEXX is a Linux smartphone powered by a Rockchip RK3588S octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor coupled with 32 GB LPDDR4x and a 512GB eMMC flash, as well as a 6.34-inch 2400×1080 OLED display. We’ve seen other Linux smartphones in the past with the most popular likely being the Purism Librem 5 and Pine64’s PinePhone Pro. However, those are showing their age with older NXP i.MX 8M and Rockchip RK3399 SOCs, and the Liberux NEXX brings much-needed performance with a Rockchip RK3588S and 32GB of RAM, enabling mobile/desktop convergence to an extent. Liberux NEXX specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588S CPU – Octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G610 GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.2, and Vulkan 1.2 support VPU – 8Kp60 video decoder for H.265/AVS2/VP9/H.264/AV1 codecs, 8Kp30 H.265/H.264 video encoder AI accelerator – 6 TOPS NPU […]

June 3, 2025June 3, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

MOKO LW005-MP – A LoRaWAN Smart Plug and power meter

Moko LW005-MP LoRaWAN Smart Plug Power Meter

The MOKO LW005-MP is a LoRaWAN smart plug for indoor power and energy consumption monitoring, featuring sockets compliant with EU, US, UK, and FRA standards and suitable for industrial equipment control, power monitoring, and energy management. The UL-certified smart plug operates with 100-230V AC mains, offers 0.5% power measurement accuracy, supports Bluetooth 4.0 for initial configuration and OTA updates, and can be controlled with LoRaWAN commands, an open-source mobile app, or a physical button. MOKO LW005-MP specifications: Wireless Bluetooth LE V4.0 for local configuration and OTA updates. LoRa Protocol – LoRaWAN V1.0.3 Supported frequency bands – CN470, EU868, AU915, US915, AS923, IN865, KR920, EU433, CN779, and RU864 Max Transmit Power – +21dBm Rx Sensitivity – -137dBm @ SF12 300bps Range – Up to 7 km in urban open space Power measurement accuracy – ±0.5% Misc Power and pairing button 2x RGB LED indicators display network status and power consumption levels. […]

June 2, 2025June 3, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

ESP32-P4 Smart 86 Box features 4-inch square touch display for Smart Home and IIoT applications

Designed for Smart Home or industrial IoT (IIoT) applications, Waveshare’s ESP32-P4 Smart 86 Box is equipped with a 4-inch square touchscreen display, an ESP32-C6 module with WiFi 6 and Bluetooth connectivity, and a range of connectors. Two models are offered: the ESP32-P4-WIFI6-Touch-LCD-4B with a MIPI CSI camera connector and a 28-pin GPIO header, and the ESP32-P4-86-Panel-ETH-2RO with a bottom board that features an RS485 serial interface, two relays, a 10/100Mbps Ethernet RJ45 connector, and 6V-30V DC input. ESP32-P4 Smart 86 Box specifications: Main module – ESP32-P4-Core Module Microcontroller – ESP32-P4NRW32 MCU Dual-core RISC-V microcontroller @ 400 MHz with AI instructions extension and single-precision FPU Single-RISC-V LP (Low-power) MCU core @ up to 40 MHz GPU – 2D Pixel Processing Accelerator (PPA) VPU – H.264 and JPEG codecs support Memory – 768 KB HP L2MEM, 32 KB LP SRAM, 8 KB TCM, 32MB PSRAM Storage – 128 KB HP ROM, 16 […]

June 2, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Bestechnic BES2700YP Arm Cortex-M55 Bluetooth Audio SoC targets headphones, earbuds, portable speakers

Bestechnic BES2700YP is an Arm Cortex-M55 Bluetooth Audio SoC designed for Smart earbuds with adaptive ANC, Smart Bluetooth headphones/headsets, ANC hearing-aids, Bluetooth speakers, and other portable audio devices When I wrote about the Ambiq Apollo330 Plus SoC family last week, I realized it was the first time I covered Arm Cortex-M55 microcontrollers with built-in wireless, in that case Bluetooth LE 5.4 and 802.15.4 (Thread/Matter) radios, and that’s how I came across the BES2700YP SoC with a more narrow use cases since it’s made for Smart Bluetooth audio applications. BES Technic BES2700YP key features and specifications: CPU Subsystem – Arm Cortex-M55 core Sensor Hub Subsystem – Arm STAR-MC1 core (improved Arm Cortex-M33 core) with sensor engine, BECO NPU, and VAD (Voice Activity Detection) Memory – 4 MB SRAM shared across the CPU, Bluetooth, and Sensor Hub cores Storage – Flash in package, boot ROM Bluetooth Subsystem Arm STAR-MC1 core (Arm Cortex-M33 […]