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

November 12, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

V-Bridge Muses DTV Modulator and Video Encoder Review – Part 2: Muses-β Turnkey Solution Demo

V-Bridge Muses-α and Muses-β boards can be used to respectively broadcast video to DTV standard from your PC, and as a turnkey solution taking any HDMI, CVBS, or USB inputs. The VATek SoC used in those board support various DTV standards including DVB-T, DVB-C, ATSC/QAM, DTMB, ISDB-T/TB up to full HD resolution. I’ve received an early prototype for each, and I’ve already taken pictures and show how to assemble both Muses-α and Muses-β kits in the first part of the review. Today, I’ll show a demo with Muses-β turnkey solution taking HDMI input from an Android TV box (R-Box Pro), encoding and modulating the video to DVB-T, before broadcast it to an Android STB with a DVB-T/T2 tuner (U4 Quad Hybrid). This tool could be useful to test STB featuring ATSC or ISDB-T too, as those two standards are not supported in my country, and I could instead generate signals […]

November 11, 2016November 11, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Microchip Atmel ATtiny417/814/816/817 tinyAVR MCUs Include Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs)

Microchip’s latest Atmel tinyAVR MCUs combine Atmel 8-bit AVR core with CIPS (Core Independent Peripherals) normally found in the company’s PIC MCUs. Since Atmel’s purchase by Microchip, I believe this is the first time the company leverages features from both MCU families. The four new ATtiny MCUs come with 4 to 8 KB flash, and up to 24 pins: ATtiny417 – 8-bit Atmel AVR MCU with 4KB Flash, 256 bytes SRAM, 128 bytes EEPROM, 20MHz/20 MIPS, two 16-bit timer/counters, one 12-bit timer/counter, RTC, USART, SPI, Two-wire Interface (I2C), 10-bit ADC, 8-bit DAC, analog comparator, accurate internal oscillators and multiple calibrated voltage references, Custom Logic, 10-bytes unique ID, and 24 pins ATtiny814 – Same as above but with 8KB flash, 512 bytes SRAM, Peripheral Touch Controll (PTC), and 14 pins ATtiny816 – Same key features as ATtiny814 but with a 20-pin package with more I/Os ATtiny817 – Same key features as […]

November 11, 2016November 11, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Marvin is a Plug and Play, Arduino Compatible, LoRa USB IoT Development Board (Crowdfunding)

LoRa appears to be one of the most popular LPWAN standards so far, with hobbyist development boards such as LoPy or LoRaONE, and we’ll soon have at least one more choice thanks to Marvin, a LoRa development board with a full size USB port. Marvin board specifications: MCU – Atmel/Microchip ATmega32u AVR MCU (same as Arduino Leonardo board) Connectivity – LoRa via Microchip RN2483; Supports both 868 MHz and 433 MHz frequency bands, on-board antenna USB – 1x USB, 1x micro USB port for power and programming Debugging – USB, and ISP header Expansion – 5x Grove connectors Power Supply – 5V via USB port Dimensions – N/A, but similar to USB flash drive The board can be programmed with the Arduino IDE, and they mention IBM Bluemix platform, and Node-RED, but overall details about documentation and software are scarce right now. One of the advantage of this form factor is […]

November 10, 2016November 15, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

Allwinner H2 Linux & Android SDK, and Allwinner XR819 WiFi Driver Released

Orange Pi Zero is an interesting little ARM Linux board thanks to its low price, but also because it features a new Allwinner H2 / H2+ quad core Cortex A7 processor very similar to Allwinner H3 minus the 4K video decoding part, as well as Allwinner XR819 WiFi module, which I have not seen on any other boards so far. But hardware without software is pretty much useless, so developers will be happy to find out that Allwinner H2 SDK with Linux (lichee) and Android has been released or leaked, and it also includes the Allwinner XR819 WiFi driver. You’ll find the SDK on Zoobab server with three main directory / files: Android folder – Android 4.4.2 SDK lichee folder – Linux 3.4.39 source code. However you’d probably better use Linux 3.4.113 currently released by sunxi-linux, or Linux mainline. The latter does have some limitations, and may or may not […]

November 10, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

HF10 is a 2-in-1 Android 6.0 TV Box & Bluetooth Speaker Powered by Amlogic S905X Processor

We’ve previously seen CS668 TV box combining an Android TV box, a Bluetooth Speaker, and a power bank into a single device, but audio quality is likely to be mediocre on such as small device. Eny Technology HF10 is slightly different as it combines an Amlogic S905X Android TV box with a larger 10 Watt speaker with a class-D amplifier, and can also used as a Bluetooth speaker. HF10 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.5 GHz with Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 (option: 2GB) Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (Options: 16 and 32GB) + micro SD slot up to 32 GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60 Hz Audio HDMI output 2.5″ 10W mono bass speaker with class-D amplifier Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port Misc […]

November 10, 2016November 10, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

November 11 Singles’ Day Promotions in Chinese Online Stores

November 11 is Single’s day in China, and just like Valentine’s day, it is used for commercial purpose to make people buy stuffs. It’s also Black Friday before Black Friday, as Chinese online stores will also offer discounts to their customers, and this remains true for stores catering to oversea customers, so you may find a few interesting deals from 11.11 day festivities around the web. I’ve gathered a few of the offers from the most popular Chinese sites catering to overseas markets. GeekBuying has an “11.11 Carnival” that actually started on November 1st, and ending on November 12th. They have promotions changing every day, as well as some coupons such as DB1111 $15 coupon if you spent over $215. Aliexpress calls it “11.11 Global Shopping Festival” instead. You can buy coupons for half price, and check out for products with the red SALE icon on the left of the […]

November 10, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

8Devices Rambutan Qualcomm Atheros QCA9557 / QCA9550 GbE & WiFi Modules and Development Kit Run OpenWrt

8Devices, a Lithuanian company specialized in the development and manufacturing of electronic equipment, is known for their Carambola and Carambola2 WiFi modules powered by Ralink and Qualcomm Atheros WiSoCs. The company has now introduced a new dual band WiFi module called Rambutan that comes in commercial and industrial temperature range through respectively Qualcomm Atheros QCA9557 & QCA9550 SoCs. Rambutan and Rambutan-I modules specifications: SoC Rambutan – Qualcomm Atheros QCA9557 MIPS processor @ 720 MHz Rambutan-I – Qualcomm Atheros QCA9550 MIPS processor @ 720 MHz System Memory – 128 MB DDR2 Storage – 128 MB Flash Connectivity WiFi – 802.11 a/b/g/n, 2.4 or 5 GHz, 2×2 MIMO, 300 Mbps data rate, 21 dB per chain output power; 2x u.FL connectors Ethernet – Atheros AR8032 10/100M Ethernet PHY 68x half holes with 2 x USB 2.0 host port 2 x serial port 1x 100 Base-T Ethernet port; 1000 Base-T Ethernet port (SGMII […]

November 9, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Eurotech EDCK 4001 Everyware Device Cloud Development Kit Includes IoT Gateway, PLC and Demo Board

Eurotech has recently EDCK 4001 “Everyware Device Cloud Development Kit” for professionals who wish to experiment with and/or develop IoT/M2M applications. It includes the company’s ReliaGATE 10-11 IoT gateway powered by Texas Instruments Sitara AM3352 Cortex A8 processor, DirectLOGIC DL05 PLC, and a control/demo board with buttons, LEDs, and rotary encoder, as well as all necessary cables and accessories. ReliaGATE 10-11 gateway specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments AM3352 ARM Cortex A8 processor @ 800MHz Memory – 512MB DDR3 Storage – 4GB eMMC flash, user accessible micro SD Slot Connectivity – 2x 10/100Mbps, WiFi and Bluetooth, optional Cellular connectivity and GPS via ReliaCELL USB – 3x USB 2.0 host ports; noise and surge protected Serial – 2x RS-232/RS-485 (Surge protected, RS-485 termination and Fail-safe Resistors); 1x Serial Console TTL CAN – 2x CAN 2.0b bus with 5V/100mA power out Digital I/O – 2x Digital Input 5V (TTL), 1KV opto-isolated – 2x […]