Hardware Category - Page 1071 of 1189 - CNX Software

March 10, 2014March 10, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

PC Engines APU System Boards Feature AMD G-Series T40E APU, 3 Gigabit Ethernet Ports

Up to now there were basically two embedded board based on x86 architecture available to hobbyists: Gizmo Board (AMD T40E) and Minnowboard (Intel Atom). There’s now another solution with PC Engines system boards, namely APU.1C and APU.1C4, that comes with AMD G-Series T40E dual core APU, 2 to 4 GB RAM, 3 Gigabit Ethernet ports, an mSATA connector, and more. Contrary to the other two boards however, there’s no video output, and that makes these APU boards suitable for routers, firewalls, VOIP, dedicated servers, special purpose network plumbing, etc.. PC Engines APU boards specifications: APU – AMD G -Series T40E dual core APU @ 1 GHz with 64 bit support, 32K data + 32K instruction + 512KB L2 cache per core, with Radeon HD6250 GPU. System Memory APU.1C – 2 GB DDR3-1066 DRAM APU.1C4 – 4 GB DDR3-1066 DRAM Storage – SD card (connected through USB), m-SATA, and one SATA […]

March 7, 2014March 7, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Finwe & Kolor 360 Degrees Video Solutions for Smartphones, Virtual Reality Kits and HTML5 Browsers

Google Street View allows you to have a 360 degrees panoramic view of a particular location, and you can move around to look up and down, left and right and so. Finwe & Kolor, two European start-ups, have gone further, as they do not only use pictures, but their 360 panorama video solution records videos in 6 to 12 directions simultaneously, and create a 360 degrees panoramic videos than you can watch on your smartphone or, even better, in a virtual reality kit for a complete immersion. Let’s go through all the steps and equipment required to make and watch 360 videos: Recording – You’ll need a mount system for 6 GoPro Hero cameras from companies like Freedom360 or 360 Heros. They also have rigs for 12 cameras for 3D 360 degrees videos, but I’m not sure this is supported by the video software yet. You just need to start […]

March 6, 2014March 6, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

AMLogic S802 TV Boxes Board Pictures

AMLogic S802 Android TV Boxes are currently available for pre-order, and are expected to ship by the end of the month. Last time I wrote Tronsmort Vega S89 and Eny ES8 featuring the latest quad core SoC from AMLogic. Geekbuying currently has test samples for both Vega S89 and M8 (similar to ES8), has open them, and taken some pictures of the boards. The good news, if you want to tinker, is that both of them appear to give relatively access to the UART port. Tronsmart Vega S89 Board There are two models: Vega S89 and Vega S89 Elite. The former is the high-end version with dual band Wi-Fi (2.4/5.0GHz) and 16 GB flash, and the latter only supports 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and comes with 8GB flash. Price: $120 and $105. The serial port appears to be on the left side of the board (TBC), just above the two USB […]

March 5, 2014March 5, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Arduino based Open Source ECU for Diesel Engines

If you buy a diesel engine without ECU (Engine Control Unit), what would you do? If you’re a hacker like synkooppi, you might just decide to design your own ECU with an Arduino, open source the code, and provide some documentation on your site. Many people already control motors with Arduino boards, they just happen to be electric motor, and not diesel motor. The system works with diesel engines with Bosch VP37 pumps, and it has been used successfully since 2012. The ECU is based on an Arduino Mega board with a 8-bit AVR MCU @ 16MHz. The latest source code is available for download (2013-10-06), and can be uploaded to the board via the Arduino IDE. Configuration is done with text-based interface using serial connection over USB port. Hardware schematics have not been released yet. This open source ECU currently support the following features: Integrated control map editor Diagnostic […]

March 5, 2014November 23, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

The New $50 Roku Streaming Stick Drops MHL, Gets a micro USB Port, and a Wi-Fi Remote

The first Roku Streaming Stick was announced early 2012 with an HDMI/MHL port. It turns out MHL did not take as Roku and others, including myself, expected, and even today MHL is not a prominent feature in new TVs, and seldom listed in the specifications. So they’ve just announced a new Roku Streaming Stick, HDMI version, that can be powered via the USB port of your TV, or a standard USB power adapter. The processor and memory have not been disclosed, but we can assume it’s probably based on a Broadcom processor. The rest of the specs are as follows: Video Output – HDMI (720p or 1080p) Audio Output – HDMI with 7.1 and 5.1 surround pass-through support Connectivity – 802.11 dual-band (a/b/g/n compatible) with WEP, WPA, and WPA2 support Misc – Status light, reset button Power Consumption – Less than 2W (typical) when streaming HD video Power Input – […]

March 4, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

BroadLink SP2 Wi-Fi Smart Socket for iOS and Android Adds Support for Energy Monitoring, Motion Sensing

Broadlink SP1, a low cost Wi-Fi smart socket released last year, allows you to control your electric appliance with your mobile device running iOS or Android. You could turn it on or off, set timers, and so on. An updated model is now available, Broadlink SP2, that adds energy monitoring to the features found in the previous model, to track your historic and live power consumption on your smartphone or tablet, as well as a motion sensor to automatically turn off the lights, for instance, if you are away (Auto Home / Auto Away feature). The hardware specifications are very similar to SP1 except it’s using a case made of polycarbonate plastic instead of ABS, and the device is a bit bigger: Material – PC Wi-Fi – 802.11 b/g/n Power Plug – Three flat-pin plug (Australia type) Voltage – 100~265V @ 50-60 Hz Output Current – 10A Output Power – […]

March 4, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Alps Electric Magnetic Field Sensor Measures 1.15 x 1.15 mm, Software Algo Adds Gyroscope Function

I’m really impressed with the recent miniaturization of boards and components. Back in the days (in 2012), many people were amazed at the credit card size of the Raspberry Pi ARM Linux computer. Since then, we’ve seen many other ARM Linux board with similar or even smaller sizes, and on a broader scope, many smaller and smaller hardware and components: Olimex launched OLIMEXINO-85S Arduino compatible board about the size of a micro SD Card, eConais unveiled WiSmart EC19D Wi-Fi module measuring 8×8 mm, Freescale recently announced Kinetis KL03 Cortex M0+ MCU measuring 1.6 x 2.0 mm in its smallest package, etc… Today, I’ve come across another tiny chip, the world smallest magnetic field sensor by Alps Electric that measures only 1.15 x 1.15 x 0.56 mm. Height does matter too. It’s about 60% smaller than previous product by the company, but only slightly smaller than Asahi Kasei Microdevices’ AK09911C which measures 1.2 x […]

March 4, 2014March 4, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

$37 GK328 Android mini PC Powered by Rockchip RK3028 Dual Core Processor

Rockchip RK3028 is a low cost dual core Cortex A9 processor pin-to-pin compatible with RK2928 single core Cortex A9, I first heard about at Hong Kong Electronics Fair 2013. It’s now found in a few kids tablets, as well as GK328, an Android 4.2 HDMI TV dongle, that sells for about $37, or a few dollars cheaper than similar AllWinner A20 or Rockchip RK3066 based devices. GK328 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3028 dual core Cortex A9 @ 1.0 GHz with Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 512MB RAM Storage – 4GB NAND flash + microSD card slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI Connectivity – 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi USB – 1x USB HOST 2.0, 1x micro USB OTG, 1x micro USB for power Misc – Fn button (for recovery?) Power – 5V/1A via micro USB port The device runs Android 4.2 and sells with a power adapter, a USB cable, an HDMI […]