Two Contests for Makers with BeagleBone Green (ARM) and Creator CI20 (MIPS) Boards

I’ve noticed Hackster hardware community has helped organizing several challenges for makers, and the most two recent one are sponsored by Imagination Technologies with their Creator CI20 MIPS board, and SeeedStudio and Beagleboard.org with BeagleBone Green board. “Terminate the competition with Creator Ci20!” That’s the title for Imagination Technologies contest, who basically wants you to create our robot overloads using their MIPS board, or at least design a Terminator inspired robot or hack using the board. You’ll need to submit your idea by March 4, 2016, and the company will give 50 Creator Ci20 to the best 50 ideas, aftwer which you have until April 29, 2016 to complete your project, and write about it on Hackster with photos, code and schematics. Three winners will be selected by May 6, 2016 to get one of the three prizes: 1st place (worth $400) – A bag of Imagination-powered goodies, including a Meizu […]

Crowdfunded Projects Use Raspberry Pi and ODROID Boards into Home Theater PCs and Retro Game Consoles

I’ve been tipped about two separate projects launched on Indiegogo and Kickstarter that integrate Raspberry Pi or ODROID boards into their products. indieGO! retro gaming console and distribution leverages Raspberry Pi 2, ODROID-C1+, or ODROID-XU4 to play older games, while Pi2Media HT1 relies on either Raspberry Pi2, and later the upcoming UP Board or ODROID-C2 boards in order to offer a Surround 7.1 Home Theater PC. indieGO! Retro Game Console Beside the development board, indieGo! also includes a DVD-RW drive, an SD card reader, a mini-ITX case, a 3D-Printed I/O-shield and ARM board holder, a USB joypad, and two USB ports. indieGO!-OS is also a Linux distribution based on AEROS running Exagear which means both ARM (native) and x86 (emulation) executables will run on the device. Pre-isntalled programs include Wine, Kodi, Moonlight, AmiCloud, and EmuLA. The many emulators installed allow support for games running Playstation, C64, Dreamcast, Game Boy, Atari, Sega, PC, […]

Ugoos UT4 TV Box Giveaway

Ugoos UT4 is an actively cooled Android TV box powered by Rockchip RK3368 octa-core processor, and I did notice a better overall performance in my review compared to other RK3368 mini PCs I tested. However, I did find some issues, such as power off not working properly, a lack of DRM support, Kodi video and audio capabilities could be improved and so on. Since the review, Ugoos released two firmware updates fixing several of the issues I noticed during my testing, and the company has asked me if I could organize a giveaway for one Ugoos UT4, so here it is. I’ve organized the giveaway a little differently, as I’ll use Rafflecopter form below with three options, each optional, but if you do all three you’ll get more chances to win. The contest will run for 4 days until February 15 10am (GMT+7), I’ll select the winner randomly rthrough RaffleCopter, […]

Congatec Introduces Intel Atom x5-E8000 Thin mini-ITX Board, COM Express & QSeven Modules

Following Intel’s announcement of their new Atom x5-E8000 quad core processor with 5W TDP/4W SDP and 7-year availability earlier today, Congatec published a press release for four new platforms based on the processor with conga-QA4 Qseven module, conga-MA4 COM Express Mini & conga-TCA4 COM Express Compact modules, as well as conga-IA4 industrial-grade Thin Mini-ITX board. All four products are actually variation of existing Braswell platforms, but Intel Atom x5-E8000 brings 64-bit computing even cheaper thanks to its $39 recommended customer price. So I’ll just look at the QSeven module specifications in details: SoC – Intel Atom x5-E8000 quad core “Braswell” processor @ 1.04 GHz / 2.00 GHz (Burst) with 2MB L2 cache, and Intel HD Gen8 graphics @ 320 MHz; 5 W TDP. System Memory – Up to 8GB onboard DDR3L with 1600 MT/s On-board Storage – Up to eMMC 4.5.1 onboard flash  (optional), 8 MB serial SPI firmware flash […]

MINIX NGC-1 Review and Benchmarks with Windows 10 Home

MINIX NGC-1 mini PC is powered by an Intel Celeron N3150 quad core “Braswell” processor with 4GB RAM and a 128GB M.2SSD, and pre-loaded with Windows 10 Home. While the product aims to provide a convenient alternative to Intel NUC kits, as everything is pre-assembled and pre-installed, I’ll also compare the experience to Bay Trail and Cherry Trail mini PCs such as MeLE PCG03 or Tronsmart Ara X5. I’ve already provided NGC-1 specifications and some pictures, so today, I’ll test the capabilities of the device, and run some benchmarks in the review. MINIX NGC-1 Setup Once you’ve connected a USB keyboard and mouse, and the power supply, you are ready to start. Press the power button, the blue power will lit on the front of the device, and you’ll hear a beep and the very first time system will boot to Windows 10 setup screen where you’ll be asked to […]

Henes Broon T870 is a Kids’ Electric Car Controlled by an Android Tablet

If you ever wanted to played around with an electric car that’s a bit better than an RC toy, but don’t quite have the cash for a full-size Tesla model, Henes has designed an electric card for you your younger kids that’s controlled by an Android tablet and allows both manual and remote driving. Henes Broon T870 specifications: Tablet – 7″ Android 4.4.2 tablet PC smart system with HD resolution display, micro SD, HDMI and audio output ARM Cortex-M3 based main control system Bluetooth remote control Built-in stereo speakers Functioning hood & doors 4 wheel drive with high density urethane tires Spring suspension & shock absorbers Leather bucket seat and seat belt Foot pedal accelerator Bright Headlight / Aux Light / Turn Signal Light / Tail/Brake/BackUp Lights Motors – Dual 24V driving motors Battery – Rechargeable 24V 7Ah battery pack for a little over 2 hours drive, or up to […]

LoPy Tiny IoT Developer Board Runs MicroPython, Supports LoRa, WiFi and Bluetooth (Crowdfunding)

Pycom launched WiPy last year, a WiFi IoT board based on Texas Instruments CC3200 ARM Cortex M4 SoC, and a few months after sending rewards to their Kickstarter backers, they are back on the crowdfunding platform to launch LoPy, another IoT development board that runs MicroPython and offers LoRa, WiFi and Bluetooth LE connectivity. LoPy board hardware specifications: SoC – Dual processor @ 160 MHz with WiFi & BLE radio with 400 kB RAM, 1MB flash External Storage – 4MB flash Connectivity 802. 11b/g/n @ 16Mbps with WEP, WPA/WPA2 WiFi security; SSL/TLS support; AES encryption engine. Bluetooth Classic and Low Energy LoRaWAN Semtech LoRa transceiver SX1272 @ 868 MHz (Europe) or 915 MHz (North America). Range – Node: Up to 40km; Nano-Gateway: Up to 5 km Nano Gateway Capacity – Up to 100 nodes. Internal chip antenna and u.fl connectors for external antennas Headers – 2x 14-pin headers for: Up […]

SkyStream X5 Android Streaming Media Player Also Includes an ATSC Tuner

While there’s now a decent choice of Android TV boxes with DVB-S2 or DVB-T2 tuners, devices with ATSC tuners are a little harder to come by, and the few Android devices I know of include WeTek Play, U4 Quad, and some Mygica (Geniatech) and Vygica ATSC Android set-top boxes. SkyStream X5 is now another option, based on Amlogic S812, mostly advertised as an Android streaming player, but still with one ATSC tuner to watch free-to-air television in North America, and a few smaller countries. SkyStream X5 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S812 quad core Cortex A9 processor @ 2.0 GHz with Mail-450 octa-core GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB flash + SD card slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI 1.4 with HDCP support + 3 RCA ports for composite and stereo audio Video Codecs – MPEG, MPE, MPG, M2V, ISO, TS, VOB, DAT, AVI, MKV, MP4, MOV, […]

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