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

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

Qualcomm DragonBoard 600c 96Boards Development Board Includes Ethernet and SATA

A few weeks ago, I was informed that some code about DB600c board powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor (APQ8064T) was making it into mainline Linux, and more recently I found a website listing DragonBoard 600c with a low resolution picture of the board. While we don’t have the complete specifications yet, the form factor of the board is quite interesting, as we’ll find the typical 96Boards CE form factor on the right, and some extra interfaces on the left with Ethernet and SATA. It turns out, as we’ll see below, it’s perfectly compliant (hardware wise) with 96Boards CE “Extended Version” specifications. Preliminary specifications of DragonBoard 600c board: SoC- Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 (APQ8064 Fusion 3) quad-core Krait processor @ 1.7 GHz with Adreno 320 GPU @ 400MHz System Memory – 1GB or more RAM (TBD) Storage – eMMC Flash + micro SD slot + SATA port Video Output – HDMI […]

May 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

SkinTrack Controls Your Smartwatch with Gestures on Your Skin or Clothes

A group of researchers of the Future Interface Group, Carnegie Mellon University in the US, has worked on SkinTrack technology which enables continuous touch tracking on the skin by using a ring emitting high frequency AC signal, and a sensing wristband with multiple electrodes. They’ve created sensor band and ring prototypes to demonstrate the technology. The ring includes an oscillator that generated a 80Mhz sine wave at 1.2Vpp. It consumes 7mA during operating meaning that they could get 15 hours out of the 100 mAh battery used in the prototype. The wristband features four pair of electrodes coupled with AD8302 RF/IF gain and phase comparator chips in order to derive X and Y coordinates from the phase of the signal. The sensing board produces eight analog values which are sampled by Atmel ATMega328 microcontroller’s 10-bit ADC inputs, and transmitted to the watch using a Nordic NRF8001 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) […]

May 6, 2016May 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 33 Comments

Debian on DragonBoard 410c Development Board

I purchased Qualcomm DragonBoard 410c development board last year, and first tested it and run some benchmark on the 96Boards compliant hardware with Android. I found that it was still work-in-progress, and decided to wait before trying Debian on the board. I’ve now done so, and will report by experience installing Debian Linux, playing with the board, and running Phoronix benchmarks to compare it to other ARM Linux boards. Installing Debian on DragonBoard 410c The first challenge is to navigate through the documentation that is not always clear or up-to-date. I eventually ended up on DragonBoard 410c Wiki on Github. You then have to decided which image you want. While there are two official operating systems with Android and Debian, you can three “entities” releasiong their own images. For Debian specifically, you have the Linaro image, and Reference Platform Build (RPB) image. I could not find any changelog or known […]

May 6, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Num Lock, Caps Lock and Scroll Lock Keyboard Indicator for Ubuntu

My old USB keyboard recently started to miss keypresses, and some keys were even barely working, and cleaning up would not do, so I decided to buy a wireless keyboard and mouse combo with decent reviews namely Logitech MK270. It’s working well, but for some reasons, Logitech decided it was a good idea to make a keyboard without Num Lock indicator, and all I get is a Caps Lock indicator. I find this really annoying, as I never know in which mode the keypad is. I don’t have an hardware hack for this, but I discovered that you could install a Numlock, Caplocks and Scroll Lock indicator in Ubuntu:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tsbarnes/indicator-keylock
sudo apt update
sudo apt install indicator-keylock

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tsbarnes/indicator-keylock

sudo apt update

sudo apt install indicator-keylock

When you press capslock, numlock or scroll lock, you’ll get a notification of the change on the upper right corner of the desktop. You can also get a permanent indicator on the top bar for one of the keys: Caps […]

May 6, 2016May 6, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 Upgrade May Cost You After July 29, 2016

The first Bay Trail TV sticks and mini PCs were all pre-loaded with Windows 8.1, and so far Microsoft has let users upgrade to Windows 10 for free. I tested the upgrade on MeLE PCG01 and PCG03 last year, and while it took many hours, I could eventually get Windows 10 running on both systems without paying anything. But Microsoft is reminding users that the Free update offer will end soon: The free upgrade offer will end on July 29 and we want to make sure you don’t miss out. After July 29th, you’ll be able to continue to get Windows 10 on a new device, or purchase a full version of Windows 10 Home for $119. So if you’ve purchased a device with a proper Windows 8.1 license, you may consider upgrading to Windows 10 soon. If you do this on a devide with 32GB storage, you’ll get very […]

May 6, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

BeagleBone Air is a BeagleBone Black & Green Compatible Development Board with WiFi, Bluetooth LE, and Zigbee Connectivity

So far, if you wanted to add wireless connectivity to BeagleBone Black or BeagleBone Green, you’d either use a USB dongle, or a wireless CAPE, but Neuromeka, a Korean company has recently launched BeagleBone Air “IoT gateway” board, fully compatible with the two aforementioned boards (minus HDMI output), but adding on-board WiFi, Bluetooth LE, and Zigbee connectivity. BeagleBone Air specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM3358BZCZ100 Cortex A8 @ 1 GHz with NEON + PowerVR SGX530 GPU System Memory – 512 MB DDR3L @ 800 MHz Storage – 4GB eMMC + micro SD slot USB HS USB 2.0 client port (micro USB) HS USB 2.0 host poty (USB type -A) HS USB 2.0 host port on expansion header Connectivity 10/100M Ethernet (RJ45) WiFi 802.11 b/g/n via Realtek RTL8188US with SMA connector for antenna Bluetooth 4.0 LE via TI CC2541 with SMA connector for antenna Zigbee via TI CC2531 with SMA […]

May 5, 2016May 5, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

NEXBOX 809VI Octa core Android TV Stick is Powered by Rockchip RK3368 Processor

While there are many Rockchip RK3368 TV boxes, I had not seen an RK3368 TV stick until today, with NEXBOX 809VI that combines the octa-core processor with 2GB RAM, and 8GB flash. NEXBOX 809VI specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3368 Octa-core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.2GHz with PowerVR G6110 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB flash Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K*2K 60Hz Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi @ 2.4GHz, Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB port for power Power Supply – DC 5V/2A via micro USB port Dimensions – TBD The stick will run Android 5.1 just like all other RK3368 devices. The company claims the 809VI is available now, but they have a (short) history of promoting devices quite early in the development cycle, so it could be that only have a few engineering samples, and retail availability […]

May 5, 2016May 5, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Phonoclipper PT-300 Plays Vinyl Discs, Records them to MP3 on USB Drives or SD Cards

If you are old wise enough to have a vinyl record collection, a Japanese company called Bearmax (or Kumazaki-aim in Japanese), has designed Phonoclipper PT-300 vinyl disc player and recorder that may make you want to listen your old songs again, or digitize them to MP3. PT-300 is powered by four AA batteries or 5V via USB, consumes about 3 watts, and output audio to a single 3W speaker, but you can also connect better speakers via two RCA audio connector. The top of the device features a small display, and control buttons. The vinyl drive system plays discs at 33 rpm or 45 rpm, and uses a sapphire needle. You can convert your vinyl records to MP3 files @ 128 Kbps on the SD cards (up to 8GB) or USB driver using the port on the side. The device measures 290 x 115 x 95 mm, and weights 950 […]