In 2015, a UK-based team launched a mini IoT development board called CodeBug. The same team has now come up with the CodeBug Connect IoT Development Board. CodeBug Connect is a new wearable micro-computer that brings IoT to everyone and aimed at educators and young makers. Upgrade to the original CodeBug This comes as an upgrade to the original CodeBug. The new development board retains its original cuteness and petite proportions but adds full color to the grid of 5×5 LEDs. The original buttons have been upgraded to mini joysticks, making them more suitable for games. The touch-sensitive, croc-clip connectors ‘legs’ that serve as I/O pins remain, as does the 0.1” header socket. “This year has shown our reliance on connected technology — with CodeBug Connect we wanted to make this technology accessible so everyone can build their own IoT devices and no one is left behind. The technology in […]
ASRock Mars 4000U could be the world’s thinnest AMD Ryzen 4000 mini PC
We’ve already written about AMD Ryzen 7 4800 mini PC‘s such as ASROCK 4×4 BOX-4800, but if you’d like something slimmer with the processor, nothing beats the company’s Mars 4000U series mini PCs with a 26mm height. Despite its slim body, the mini PC packs up a lot of processing power and features, with up to an AMD Ryzen 7 4800 processor, up to 64GB RAM, support for a 2.5-inch SATA drive and M.2 NVMe/SATA SSD, as well as HDMI and VGA video outputs and more. ASRock Mars 4000U mini PC specifications: SoC Mars 4300U model – AMD Ryzen 3 4300U quad-core processor up to 3.7GHz with 6MB cache, 5-core Radeon graphics; 15W TDP Mars 4500U model – AMD Ryzen 5 4500U hexa-core processor up to 4.0GHz with 11MB cache, 6-core Radeon graphics; 15W TDP Mars 4800U model – AMD Ryzen 7 4800U octa-core/16-thread processor up to 4.2GHz with 12MB […]
uSVC Arduino VGA board – a portable and programmable retro-gaming console (crowdfunding)
Itaca Innovation previously launched uChip, an Arduino-compatible board that has a Cortex M0+ MCU that features 0.3” spacing between rows. Now, next-hack joined Itaca Innovation to come up with an expansion board for uChip. The uChip Simple VGA Console (uSVC) Arduino based retro-gaming console is open hardware and is a programmable console. It will allow creating and playing retro “9-bit” games with standard USB controllers and keyboards. You will get one uChip (pre-soldered) and the uSVC game loader pre-programmed, a PCB with a pre-soldered SMD MicroSD card reader. It also includes all of the components needed to build your uSVC, and Bill of Material (BOM) and assembly drawings will also be provided. uSVC Specifications uChip is the heart of uSVC (48 x 86 x 17 mm), with a Microchip SAMD21 Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU clocked @ 48 MHz (Arduino Zero compatible). A VGA output of 57 Hz vertical frequency, 30 kHz […]
ASUS Chromebox 4 features Intel Comet Lake processor, WiFi 6, up to 16GB RAM
Chrome OS devices, be it Chromebook laptops, Chomebox mini PCs, or Chromebit PC sticks, used to be relatively low-cost devices designed to run the Chrome browser. But over the years. the versatility of the platform has increased with more powerful, yet still with low-power consumption, hardware, and improved software with support for Android apps, the Google Play Store, and even Linux programs. ASUS Chromebox 4 mini PC should be able to handle all those tasks pretty well, thanks to a choice of Intel Comet Lake processors ranging from a dual-core Intel Celeron 5205U to a quad-core Core i7-10510U with up to 16GB RAM, 64GB eMMC flash, and an M.2 socket that will be fitted to either 128GB or 256GB SATA SSD. The device offers Gigabit Ethernet and WiFi 6 connectivity, also has the ability to drive up to three displays thanks to two HDMI 2.0 ports, and a USB 3.2 […]
MorphESP 240 ESP32-S2 board integrates a 1.3-inch color display (Crowdfunding)
We’ve already seen ESP32 platforms with a color display such as M5Stack, but MorphESP 240 is kind of cute with a 1.3-inch color display, features the more recent ESP32-S2 WiFi processor, and supports battery power & charging. MorphESP 240 specifications: Wireless Module – ESP32-S2-WROOM with Espressif Systems ESP32-S2 single-core 32-bit Xtensa LX7 microprocessor up to 240 MHz with 128 KB ROM, 320 KB SRAM, 16 KB SRAM in RTC, 4MB SPI flash, 802.11 b/g/n 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi connectivity Display – Onboard 1.3-inch ST7789 display with 240 x 240 resolution, connected over SPI USB – 1x Micro USB port for power/charging and programming Expansion – 16-pin and 24-pin headers with GPIO, I2C, UART, SPI, USB, and power signals Misc – WS2812B RGB LED connected to IO16, Reset button, boot mode switch, battery on/off switch Power Supply 5 V to 3.3 V regulator to feed additional modules JST connector for a battery […]
Allwinner H6 SBC offers dual Ethernet, four display outputs, M.2 expansion
While the processor was introduced in 2017, there are only a few Allwinner H6 SBC’s on the market with, for instance, Orange Pi 3 or Pine H64 boards, and it never became as popular as solutions based Allwinner H3 processor. But Boardcon has now launched its own Allwinner H6 SBC targeting professionals with Boardcon EMH6 board combining a carrier board and a computer-on-module that can be integrated into products. Boardcon EMH6 specifications: Core module SoC – Allwinner H6 quad-core Arm Cortex A53 processor with Arm Mali-T720 GPU with support for OpenGL ES3.1/3.0/2.0/1.1 System Memory – 1GB LPDDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC Storage – MicroSD card slot, M.2 slot for NVMe SSD Video Output 1x HDMI 2.0a up to 4Kp60 1x CVBS interface 1x RGB interface or 2x eDP interface via NCS8801S RGB-to-eDP converter Backlight header Camera – 24-pin connector compatible with 13MP OV13850 camera sensor Audio – Optical S/PDIF output, […]
Ender 3 Pro 3D printer in late 2020 – Build and first prints
Karl here. How does the Ender 3 Pro 3D printer stand up in late 2020? The short answer is pretty well. With just a few minor gripes it is a solid printer. According to All3dp the Ender 3 Pro came out in September 2018. Over 2 years ago. It is the successor to the most popular 3D printer: the Ender 3. I usually don’t do any research so I won’t be influenced by other reviewers but I did in this case so I could see what the differences are between the Ender 3 and Pro versions. It has been upgraded to a Meanwell power supply. Better mainboard layout. Wider extrusion for the bed to ride on, which should make the bed more stable. If you have done any research on 3D printers I would say it is impossible not to have heard about the Ender 3. With its low price, […]
M1108 AI accelerator chip delivers up to 35 TOPS for high-end edge AI applications
Last week, Mythic announced a breakthrough with compute-in-memory technology based on a 40 nm process with what the company claims to be the industry’s first Analog Matrix Processor. The M1108 AMP AI accelerator chip targets high-end edge AI applications including smart home, AR/VR, drones, and is said to set a benchmark in the industry for high performance and low power in a single cost-effective device, also available in M.2 and PCIe form factors. The M1108 comes with an array of flash cells, ADCs, a 32-bit RISC-V nano-processor, a SIMD vector engine, SRAM, and a high-throughput Network-on-Chip (NOC) router. With 108 AMP tiles, the M1108 provides up to 35 Trillion-Operations-per-Second (TOPS) enabling ResNet-50 at up to 870 fps. This enables a power-efficient execution of complex AI models such as ResNet-50, YOLOv3, and OpenPose Body25. The industry leader NVIDIA also has a similar AI accelerator chip NVIDIA Xavier AGX which delivers up […]