Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X is a $60 Gigabit Ethernet PoE Router Supported by OpenWrt

Stanislav needed a Gigabit Ethernet router to run OpenVPN, and after some research he settled on Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X router with 5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, PoE in and pass-through, with a decent 256 MB RAM and 256MB flash, and a $49 MSRP, although I’ve only seen it for $60 and up. The router is not a new product, as it has been out for a few years (since 2015), and it’s also officially supported by OpenWrt, which makes it even more interesting. Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X (ER-X model) specifications: Processor – Mediatek MT7621AT dual core MIPS1004Kc processor @ 880 MHz System Memory – 256MB RAM Storage – 256 MB NAND flash for firmware 5x Gigabit RJ45 ports Ports configurable for line-rate, Layer-2 switching 260 kpps for 64-byte packets 1 Gbps for 1518-byte packets Passive PoE passthrough option Power – 24V via passive PoE or power adapter There’s also a ER-X-SFP model […]

Acme Systems CM3-PANEL Panel PC based on Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3 Sells for 99 Euros and Up

After their first Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3 based board called CM3-Home designed for home automation, Acme Systems has designed a new RPi CM3 carrier board called CM3-PANEL for panel PCs / tablets. They sell four variants of their panel PC built around the board with or without WiFi module and/or 868MHz RF module, and offer customization services for people willing to purchase at least 100 pieces. CM3-PANEL based Panel PC  specifications: Socket for Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3 Display – 7″ (800×480 resolution) with 10-point capacitive touch Camera – MIPI connector for Raspberry Pi Camera Up to 24 GPIO lines available for extensions or LCD backlight control Camera led and camera shutdown control SPI bus (5 GPIOs) Hardware PWM lines (2 GPIOs) Serial line PCM line (4 GPIOs) I2C bus Model specific features: CM3-PANEL-W – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi @ 2.4GHz (RaLink RT5370N USB module) CM3-PANEL-U – 1x USB host […]

RockPro64 Board is Now Available for $59.99 and Up for Early Adopters & Developers

Several Rockchip RK3399 development boards and SBCs were announced or launched in Q4 2017 / Q1 2018, including Orange Pi RK3399, ODROID-N1, Rock960, etc… RockPro64 was the most aggressively priced of the lot as it was expected to launch for about $60. The good news is that Pine 64 is now selling the first production batch for $59.99 (2GB RAM) or $79.99 (4GB RAM). The less good news is that software is still being worked on so the company only recommends it for early adapters and developers. RockPro64 specifications have changed a bit since the board now comes with LPDDR4 memory instead of LPDDR3: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor with 2x ARM Cortex A72 cores up to 2.0 GHz, 4x Cortex A53 cores, and an Arm Mali-T860 MP4 GPU System Memory – 2 or 4 GB LPDDR4, dual channel Storage – eMMC flash module (up to 128 GB), micro […]

24 Orange Pi Zero Boards Cluster and ArmWizard’s Debian Image

ArmWizard forum member “-W.-” needed a cluster to test his firmware build and deployment solution for Orange Pi Zero boards which can deploy the firmware to multiple boards from one single board. So he procured 24 Orange Pi Zero boards, a 24-port switch, some USB hubs and debug board, as well as some other accessories, power supplies, and two wooden planks. That’s the results after assembly. So we have 4 tower of six Orange Pi Zero boards fairly neatly connected to the 24-port Ethernet switch with 30 cm Ethernet cables, and four black USB hubs for the USB to TTL debug boards. The side view below shows the boards are powered by micro USB cables connected to three different power supplies, cooling achieved via four fans,  and the power extension is hidden right underneath close to the Ethernet switch. The cluster will also be used for machine learning latter on,  […]

Run Linux Apps in (PixelBook) Chromebook with Crostini VM

Ever since the first Chromebooks were released, it has been possible to run Ubuntu or other Linux distributions using Crouton (Chromium OS Universal Chroot Environment) on Chrome OS devices, but that requires to enable developer mode, which disables some of security features that come with Chrome OS. Google has now make it easier and safer with Crostini VM that does not require developer mode. The only downsides for now are that it only works on Google Pixelbook, and you need to install/run Chrome OS v67 dev channel with the #enable-cros-container flag enabled. Using Crostini is fairly straightforward. First start crosh terminal with Ctrl++Atl+t, and running the following command to create a VM, and launch a container:

This will start a Debian Stretch environment with networking and GUI support, so you can install & run programs like you would in Debian (e.g. apt install htop).  Kevin Tofel at AboutChromebooks managed […]

Google AIY Projects Kits are Easier to Use in 2018 with Raspberry Pi Zero WH and All Accessories Included

Google launched two AIY Projects kits last year with a Voice Kit that took a Raspberry Pi 3 to create a smart speaker, and a Vision kit for hardware accelerated computer vision using a Raspberry Pi Zero W board. Google reports the kits are popular, especially for STEM education,  but educators/parents had to buy the Raspberry Pi boards and micro SD cards themselves, as well as flash the firmware to the cards. So the company decided to redesign both kits to work with the Raspberry Pi Zero WH (RPi Zero W with headers), and include it inside the box with cable and pre-provisioned SD card, so kids can get started faster with experimentation with having to setup the kits. So that means we now have AIY Projects Voice Kit v2 with RPi Zero WH and micro SD card with firmware, as well as  AIY Projects Vision Kit v1.1 with RPi Zero […]

Hikey 970 Development Board is Now Up for Pre-order for $299.99

Four A.I. development boards compliant with 96Boards specifications were announced at Linaro Connect HK 2018 last month: HiKey 970, Ultra96, as well as ROCK960 PRO & Enterprise Edition. So for we only knew pricing for Ultra96 ($249), but I’ve now noticed Hikey 970 “Super Edge AI Computing Platform”  is now up for pre-order for $299.99 on Lenovator website, with shipping planned for the end of April. [Update: Also found on Seeed Studio for the same price] Hikey 970 specifications: SoC – Huawei/Hisilicon Kirin 970 with 4x Cortex A73 @ 2.36GHz,  4x Cortex A53 @ 1.8GHz, Arm Mali G72-MP12 GPU, NPU (Neural Processing Unit) with 256MAC/cycle @ 960MHz System Memory – 6GB 1866MHz, 4 Channel LPDDR4x Storage – 64GB UFS storage, micro SD card slot, PCIe Gen3 on M.2 M key connector Video Output – HDMI 1.4 type A up to 1080p60 (TBC), 1x 4-lane MIPI DSI (via HS expansion connector) […]

Banana Pi BPI-W2 Multimedia Router / NAS Board Launched for $93

RTD1296-Development-Board

SinoVoIP has really been busy for products launches this month, as Banana Pi BPI-W2 is the fourth board they’ve started selling on Aliexpress. The board is designed for media, storage, and networking application, thanks to its Realtek RTD1296 quad core processor combined with 2GB RAM, dual Gigabit Ethernet, dual SATA interfaces, M.2 slots, USB 3.0/2.0 ports, HDMI 2.0a output and input, and more. Banana Pi BPI-W2 specifications have not changed since the early announcement last fall: SoC – Realtek RTD1296 quad core Cortex A53 processor with ARM Mali-T820 MP3 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR4 RAM Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (optional 16, 32 or 64GB), 2x SATA 3.0 interfaces,  micro SD slot up to 256GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz, mini DP Input – HDMI 2.0 input up to 1080p60 Playback – HDR, 10-bit HEVC/H.265 up to 4K @ 60fps, H.264 up to […]