Eufy EverCam Full HD Waterproof WiFi Security Camera Works for Up to a Year on a Single Battery Charge

Wired security cameras can be troublesome to installed due to the cabling required, but luckily there are solutions to avoid all those long cables with solar powered IP cameras, or battery powered IP cameras. A few years ago I wrote about Immedia Blink WiFi HD camera that claimed to last a year on a charge, and despite several complains on Kickstarter, they seem to still be in business.  There’s now a more advanced model by Eufy – an Anker brand – that supports 1080p video recording with motion sensing and face recognition, that also lasts up to one year on a charge, and offers free storage. Eufy EverCam specifications: Resolution – 1080p Video Format – H.264 High profile Image Sensor – Sony Exmor IMX323, 1/2 9-inch Field of View (FoV) – 140° Night Vision Range – up to 10 meters Digital Pan & Zoom  – Yes, up to 8x Motion […]

Working on High Quality Low Cost DIY 3D Scanning using Structured Light

Hello all, Karl here. I just wanted to send a note about what I have been working on. As the title says shows it is about 3d scanning. I have found it pretty fascinating so far. These are mainly based on structured light 3d scanning. From Wikipedia: Structured light is the process of projecting a known pattern (often grids or horizontal bars) on to a scene. The way that these deform when striking surfaces allows vision systems to calculate the depth and surface information of the objects in the scene, as used in structured light 3D scanners. There are a few commercial offerings that I have run across or have found while searching around but they are very expensive. The first one I ran across was made by Einscan. They are over 1k and have been reviewed a lot. It seems like they put out a good product and keep […]

BQ Ciclop is an Open Source Hardware 3D Scanner Kit

I’ve already written about 3D scanners, and at the time mentioned the price range varied a lots from just around $100 fo entry-level models to over several thousands dollars for professional solutions. This morning I saw a tweet for one of the cheap model by HE3D, where they claimed the scanner to be “open source”,  so I asked, and while you could buy the kit with or without camera for $83.30 or $116.53 respectively,  the company shared a rar file with documentation, and design files, so you could also built it yourself, or modify it. 3D scanner kit content: bq ZUM BT-328 controller board micro USB cable Logitech  C270 HD webcam 42-stepper motor 2x Laser 12V/1.5A power supply 8mm Bobbin 4x  M3*12 self-tapping screws 2x  M3*20 self-tapping screws 10x M3*10 screws 6x M3 nuts 28x M8 nuts 18x M8 washer 2.5mm hexagon wrench 3x M8*30 screws 1x 16014 bearing 2x M8*382mm […]

Xiaomi Mi AI Speaker Mini Smart Speaker is Selling for $27 (in China)

Smart speakers are becoming cheaper and cheaper, and in the US and some other countries, Amazon Echo Dot can be purchased for under $50. But Xiaomi has come up with an even cheaper model – for the Chinese market – with their Allwinner R16 based AI Speaker Mini that has just launched for 169 RMB, or about $27, in China. XIaomi Mi AI Speaker Mini specifications: SoC- Allwinner R16 quad core Cortex A7 processor @ 1.2 GHz System Memory / Storage – TBD Speaker 1.5″ 4Ω speaker Frequency Range – 140Hz – 20000Hz Speaker sensitivity – 78dB/m/W Maximum output power – 2W 4x Microphones Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1 with A2DP support Misc – Microphone on/off button, volume buttons, and play/pause button Power Supply – 5V/2A via micro USB port Dimensions – 90 x 90 x 50 mm Weight – ~210 grams The speaker ships with a power […]

NanoPi K1 Plus is a $35 Allwinner H5 Development Board using Raspberry Pi Form Factor

NanoPi-K1-Plus

Almost exactly one year ago, FriendlyELEC launched NanoPi K2 board powered by Amlogic S905 processor, following Raspberry Pi 3 form factor, but adding an eMMC flash socket, Gigabit Ethernet, 4K video playback, an I2S header, more memory (2GB RAM), and doing without a camera or LCD display interface. The company has now launched another similar looking model – NanoPi K1 Plus – based on Allwinner H5 processor, also equipped with one DVP camera connector, but losing one USB 2.0 port, and HDMI is limited to 4K @ 30 Hz. NanoPi K1 Plus specifications: SoC – Allwinner H5 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.3+ GHz with Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – micro SD card slot, eMMC flash interface Video Output – HDMI 1.4 up to 4K @ 30 fps, CVBS (composite) Audio HDMI digital audio output 3.5mm audio jack On-board microphone 7-pin 2.54mm pin header Connectivity –  Gigabit […]

Kite is an Open Source Hardware Android Smartphone Powered by Snapdragon 450 Processor (Crowdfunding)

Kite is an open source hardware Android phone kit specifically targeting makers which you can assemble yourself into a Kitephone. The phone is based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 mainboard (Kiteboard v2), and comes with  a 720p touchscreen display module, a 12MP camera, antennas, buttons, a 3,000 mAh battery, and a Raspberry Pi HAT compatibility board to optionally interface to external hardware. Kiteboard v2 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 octa-core Arm Cortex A53 @ 1.8 GHz with Adreno 506 GPU System Memory – 2 GB RAM Storage – 16 GB storage + microSD card slot Connectivity Cellular LTE Cat. 6/3G/2G, 2x nano SIM slots (dual-SIM dual standby) Two variant North America with LTE FDD Bands: 2,4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 25, 26 LTE TDD Bands: 41 WCDMA 850, 1700, 1900, 2100 GSM 850, 1900 Rest of the World (Europe, Russia, etc…) LTE FDD Bands: 1, 3, 5, 7, […]

Primebook Laptop Runs Android based PrimeOS with Start Menu, Multi-Tasking Support, Key Mapping, etc…

After solutions such as Remix OS and Phoenix OS, PrimeOS is the latest attempt to bring Android OS to the desktop with support for a start menu, a status bar with pinned apps, multiple windows & multi-tasking, key mapping for playing games with keyboard, various power modes, and so on. Floydwiz Technologies Pvt. Ltd has ported their Prime OS to Arm and x86 laptops which they call Primebooks. The first model is based on Rockchip RK3288 Arm processor with the following specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex A17 processor @ up to 1.8 GHz with Arm Mali-T764 GPU System Memory – 2 GB LPDDR3 RAM Storage – 64 GB flash + micro SD slot up to 256 GB Display – 14.0″ TN LCD HD Display (non-touch) Video Output – mini HDMI port Audio – 3.5mm audio jack, built-in microphone and speaker Connectivity –  WiFi 802.11 b/g/n + Bluetooth […]

Making a DIY Case Out of PVC Pipes & Fittings for Electronics Projects

PVC-Pipe-Gateway

If you’ve ever visited Thailand, you may have noticed blue PVC pipes that are for water supplies, and usually visible since most of the time they are not placed underground. The pipes and fittings are very cheap, easy to find, and one person found out those could be used to make DIY cases for electronics projects. The two specimen above are a LoRaWAN node & gateway. The former is based on ESP07(ESP8266) module and RFM95W LoRa 868/915Mhz RF transceiver module, together with battery and sensors, while the latter is 1-channel LoRaWAN gateway or repeater, but I could not find the full details of the hardware design. I find that’s a clever idea, the design is pretty neat, and not everybody owns a 3D printer. An additional benefit is that it should be suitable for waterproof cases by adding some pipe glue to the unmovable parts, and a PVC screw cap […]