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

March 11, 2015March 13, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 226 Comments

Giveaway Week – RipplTV Quad Core Android Media Player

Today, I’d like to give away RipplTV, an Android TV box based on M8 hardware with Amlogic S802, 2GB RAM, and 8GB eMMC, but putting XBMC front and center, as the popular media center is used as the default launcher in this media player. When I tried RipplTV, the device had a much better firmware than M8/TM8 from the same company (Shenzhen Tomato), although it was not always trouble free, as 3D gaming could be problematic (Riptide GP2), and I had to clear data for XBMC once to have it run correctly, but overall a pretty decent device. It probably never became very popular through due to the rather large difference in price with M8 TV box. You can get full specs and more pictures in the unboxing post. Please note that the 5V/2A power adapter is not included, since I cut the cable for some other purpose, so you’d […]

March 10, 2015March 12, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

$35 Tessel 2 IoT Board Features Atmel SAMD21 MCU and Mediatek MT7620n WiSoC

Tessel is a Wi-Fi IoT board based on NXP LPC1830 Cortex M3 MCU and Texas Instruments CC3000 modules, that’s designed to bring embedded development to web programmers with a system that can be programmed with JavaScript and Node.js. At the time of the crowdfunding campaign in 2013, the board was available with external modules (Relays, sensors, Bluetooth LE…) for $100 and up, but now Technical Machine, the company behind the project, has announced Tessel 2 combining Atmel SAMD21 Cortex M0+ to control I/O and Mediatek MT7260n for Wi-Fi connectivity, still programmable with JavaScript ot Node.js. Tessel 2 specifications: MCU – Atmel SAMD21G14A-MU Cortex M0+ MCU @ 48MHz with 16KB SRAM and 2KB Flash SoC – Mediatek MT7260n MIPS24KEc Wi-Fi SoC @ 580 MHz System Memory – 64MB DDR2 Storage – 32MB flash for firmware (OpenWRT) Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with dual PCB antennas USB – 2x […]

March 10, 2015March 26, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

Xiaomi Mi Box Mini Media Player Can Now Be Purchased for $50 Worldwide

Xiaomi announced their tiny Mi Box Mini media player powered by Mediatek MT8685A quad core processor in January, and the power plug sized box sells in China for 199 RMB (~$32 US). The good news is that I’ve just found out it listed on GeekBuying for $54.99, and several sellers also offer it for just under $50 on Aliexpress, so it’s available worldwide now, as long as you are comfortable purchase it online. [Update: Gearbest has it for $42.98 with coupon MIBOX] Mi Box mini specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT8685(A) quad core ARM Cortex A7 @ 1.3GHz with Mali-450MP4 GPU (4 fragment + 2 vertex cores) @ 416MHz System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 4GB eMMC 4.5 flash Video & Audio Output – HDMI 1.4 up to 1080p with Dolby 2.0 and Digital Plus pass-through Video Codecs – H.265, H.264, H.263, MPEG 1/2/4, VP8 (Up to 1080p30) Connectivity – […]

March 10, 2015March 10, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Android 5.1 Released, Adds multiple SIM Cards Support, HD Voice, and More

Google has just announced the release of Android 5.1, still called Lollipop, which mostly improves performance and stability, but also adds a few features. There are at least 4 main additions or improvements on Android 5.1: Multiple SIM slots support – Allows to use 2 or 3 SIM cards in your phone to better manage your mobile costs. Device Protection – Your lost or stolen device will remain locked until you sign in with your Google account – even if someone resets your device to factory settings. Google says it will be available on most Android phones and tablets shipped with Android 5.1, implying it might not be supported on all. High Definition voice calling Join Wi-Fi networks and control of your paired Bluetooth devices directly from Quick Settings. Factory images can already be downloaded for Nexus 5, Nexus 10, and Nexus 7 Wi-Fi (nasaki), but Android 5.1 firmware should […]

March 10, 2015May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 161 Comments

Giveaway Week – VidOn Box XBMC Android Media Player

Vidon Box is the second item for the Giveaway Week organized on CNX Software. This nice looking media player is powered by Allwinner A31s with 1GB DDR3 and 8GB internal storage, and runs Android 4.4 with VidOn’s own XBMC version. VidOn Box is certainly not the fatest device around but in my review I found out that it mostly did the job with excellent Wi-Fi performance, and good XBMC support, but for some reasons transfer from USB hard drive was particularly slow, at least with the firmware version I used during testing. Some features that you may take for granted like Blu-ray playback and audio pass-through require a $15 one year membership, but one free year is included. I’m not sure if the one-year free card is transferable, so the giveaway winner may not be able to enjoy the remaining membership options without paying extra. Basic functionalities will work fine. […]

March 9, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Android 4.4 Source Code Released for ODROID-C1 Board

ODROID-C1 development board was launched on December 10, 2014, and a few days later U-boot and Linux source code was released for this low cost Amlogic S805 board, but Android was only due later due to licensing issues. I’ve just noticed Hardkernel uploaded Android 4.4 source code to github at the end of February. The build instructions are provided on ODROID-C1 wiki, and there are quite straightforward. You’ll need to type four command lines to get the code in a working directory:

mkdir odroid-c1
cd odroid-c1
repo init -u https://github.com/hardkernel/android.git -b s805_4.4.2_master
repo sync

mkdir odroid-c1

cd odroid-c1

repo init -u https://github.com/hardkernel/android.git -b s805_4.4.2_master

repo sync

and three more to build an Android image:

source build/envsetup.sh
lunch odroidc-eng
make -j8

source build/envsetup.sh

lunch odroidc-eng

make -j8

All relevant binary files (system, userdata, bootloader, kernel…) will be located in out/target/product/odroidc/ directory, and can be flash to your board via fastboot. Alternatvely, you can create an Android SD card image (out/target/product/odroidc/selfinstall-odroidc.bin) with:

make selfinstall

1	make selfinstall

That means developers will be able to easily customize source code for ODROID-C1 board, but they should also be able use this base […]

March 9, 2015March 10, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

Beelink i one (i826) / Ubox i828 Quad Core Amlogic Media Player & Recorder with HDMI Input

There are very few Android TV boxes capable of recording video over HDMI. One of them is Zidoo X9 which works pretty well as long as you use the built-in apps, but playing 4K and/or H.265 with Kodi is a disaster, and despite Mstar MS09810 being a quad core Cortex A9 processor, the actual performance barely better than Amlogic AML8726-MX dual core Cortex A9 processor due to the poor memory bandwidth. But now, if you’d like a system with HDMI PVR function, but better performance and good Kodi support, Beelink i one (i826) could be an option with its Amlogic S812 processor and HDMI input support. There’s also a similar looking UBox i828 featuring Amlogic S802 processor which lacks H.265 support. i one / Ubox i828 specifications: SoC i one – Amlogic S812 quad core ARM Cortex A9r4 at 2.0GHz with ARM Mali-450MP6 GPU Ubox i828 – Amlogic S802 quad […]

March 9, 2015May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Calaos is an Open Source Home Automation Suite for Raspberry Pi, Allwinner A10/A20 and x86 Platforms

Calaos is a Linux based home automation software released under GPLv3 license that works on Raspberry Pi, some Allwinner platforms like Cubiebaord 1/2, Mele A1000(G)/A2000, as well as x86 / amd64 hardware platforms that allows you control switches & lights in the rooms of your home or office, control your music, and manage security cameras.. The developers have recently released Calaos v2.0, the first stable release, so it’s a good time to have a look. The software stack is comprised of 6 main components: Calaos Server – Daemon that exports the state of the house via a JSON protocol. It can currently manage the following hardware components and protocols: Wago’s PLC, with digital or analog I/O, DALI or DMX light bus IPX800 web relay board GCE Electronics Eco Devices used to monitor power consumption. Web API 1-Wire, X10 Zibase I/O GPIO (Linux based GPIO, for direct use of RaspberryPI GPIO […]