Create Minimal Debian Upstream Images with Debos and Armbian

Debos Armbian Debian Orange Pi Zero Plus 2 H5

[Update June 28: Post updated with correct procedure thanks to Collabora help] Armbian provides lightweight Debian or Ubuntu images for various Arm Linux SBC, and over the years has become the recommended source for stable firmware images for boards part of Orange Pi & Banana Pi families, and others. Uncompressed images are still over 1GB and come with Armbian-specific tools, kernel and bootloader. If you’d like to leverage Armbian images, but instead create a Debian upstream image with only the packages you intend to use, Collabora explains how to do just that with Orange Pi Zero +2 H5 and Libre Computer AML-S905X-CC (aka Le Potato) boards using Debos Debian OS builder. I’ve decided to give a try at the instructions for Orange Pi Zero Plus2 H5 in my laptop running Ubuntu 18.04 to better understand how this all works. I’ll assume you’ve already installed Docker, and made sure you’ve got […]

$99 MikroTik RB450Gx4 Router is based on Qualcomm IPQ4019 SoC

MikroTik RB450Gx4 Router board

A few days ago, we covered  Dakota DR40X9 Wave-2 AC router board powered by Qualcomm QCA4019/QCA4029 SoC, but we were informed about MikroTik RB450Gx4, an Ethernet router with five Gigabit Ethernet ports, a serial port, two power jacks, and a microSD card slot that is also based on the 4-core Qualcomm IPQ4019 SoC. Mikrotik has used this SoC as the heart of its RB450Gx4 Router Board. It has 5 Ethernet ports, one of them able to power the board by means of Power-On-Ethernet (PoE), and another port can be used as PoE output. In addition, it may be powered from 2 DC Jacks. Router price is 99$, making it a great choice for 5 ports, PoE enabled router with a great SoC which allows to use Mikrotik Router OS firmware or to install a Linux distribution, like OpenWrt. Additionally, it provides PCB temperature and voltage monitoring. MikroTik RB450Gx4 Router specifications: […]

Winston Privacy Filter Lets You Browse the Web Anonymously, Ad-free & Tracking-free (Crowdfunding)

Winston Privacy Filter

More and more people are worried about their privacy online, so products and solutions aiming to protect people against tracking, targeted ads, cookies, and various other threat have been popping up. Fingbox and Firewalla are such devices, but their hardware may be limited, and software solutions like PiHole are also an option, but  may not be suitable for everyone. Winston privacy filter is another plug-and-play solution, but based on an actual network processor, namely a Marvell ARMADA dual core Arm Cortex-A53 SoC, that should make sure your network performance is not impacted, and even provides a boost of performance for most visited websites due to the resources that are being blocked out. Winston “privacy filter” hardware specifications: SoC – Marvell ARMADA dual core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.0 GHz with security and data acceleration engines System Memory – 1GB DDR4 @ 800 MHz Storage – TBD Networking – Dual Gigabit […]

$9.9 ROCK Pi S is a Tiny SBC Powered by Rockchip RK3308 Processor

Rock Pi S SBC

Radxa launched their low cost ($40) Rock Pi 4 SBC powered by Rockchip RK3399 processor a little over 18 months ago. If you are subscribed to their mailing list, the company has now sent an email entitled “ROCK Pi Summer Updates 2019” (no link available) that reports about v1.4 of the board with 4MB SPI flash onboard, an external WiFi antenna connector, and various other small changes, as well as the announcement of RockPi PoE HAT to power the board from an Ethernet cable, and an USB 3.0 eMMC card reader. But what particularly caught my attention in the email was a new tiny single board computer powered by Rockchip RK3308 Cortex-A35 processor: Rock Pi S selling for as low as $9.9 with 256MB RAM, and targetting headless IoT & smart voice applications. Rock Pi S board specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3308 quad-core Arm Cortex-A35 processor with built-in VAD (Voice […]

Dakota DR40X9 Wave-2 AC Router Board is Based on Qualcomm QCA4019/QCA4029 WiSoC

Dakota DR40X9 QCA4019/QCA-4029 Wave-2 AC Router Board

Qualcomm is mostly known for its Snapdragon processors for mobile devices and wearables, but the company is also making WiFi chipsets via their (previously) “Atheros” family. Some of their latest WiFi SoCs are IPQ4019 and IPQ4029 (aka QCA4019/QCA4029) Wave-2 802.11ac “Dakota” SoCs for routers, gateways, and access points. We recently covered the official Qualcomm mesh networking devkit powered by IPQ4019 processor, but there are now third parties also offering solutions based on QCA40x9 processor such as Dakota DR40X9 Wave-2 AC router board. Dakota DR40X9 board specifications: SoC (one of the other) Dakota DR4019 -Qualcomm IPQ4019 quad-core Arm Cortex A7 processor @ 717 MHz with 802.11ac Wave 2 WiFi Dakota DR4029 – Qualcomm IPQ4029 quad-core Arm Cortex A7 processor @ 717 MHz with  802.11ac Wave 2 WiFi System Memory- 256MB~512MB DDR Storage – 2MB~32MB NOR Flash, 128MB NAND Flash, microSD card slot Connectivity Wired Dual 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet (RJ45) 1x optional […]

KB-IDE Open Source IDE Supports ESP-IDF, Arduino, and Visual Programming for ESP32 Boards

KBIDE

We’ve previously written about MakerAsia when covering their KBX Extension case for Kidbright ESP32 educational board. The company has now launched a new product, but it’s not an hardware platform, and instead KB-IDE is an open IDE (Integrated Development Environment) ESP32 boards. The IDE is suitable whatever your level from kids getting started with supports visual programming, to Arduino programming, and even the official Espressif ESP-IDF framework for more experienced makers. The IDE comes with with a Board Manager, a Plugins System and works with any Arduino Library out of the box. Made with Vue.js framework, KB-IDE is open source with the code available on Github.  You can install a binary release, or build it from source for Windows, Linux, or Mac OS. Since it’s open source, it’s also expandable so makers can customize it, for instance by adding new architectures (AVR and ARM are already planned), new boards,  creating […]

DM&P Vortex86EX2 Dual Core Processor Targets Dual OS Systems, Support ISA & PCI Interfaces

Vortex86EX2 Block Diagram

Most people will probably think about Intel and AMD when asked about x86 processors, at least those who understand the question… But there are also other companies such as Zhaoxin (based on VIA Technologies designs) and DM&P. Last time I wrote about the latter was in 2015 with the introduction of DM&P Vortex86DX3 dual-core x86 SoC for embedded systems and the corresponding evaluation board. The company is still making new x86 processors, and I’ve just been information the company unveiled  Vortex86EX2 dual-core processor last year with master and slave cores suitable for running two operating systems at the same time without the need for virtualization, nor hypervisor. The new processor still supports ISA & PCI interfaces for legacy expansion cards and targets real-time industrial or automation applications. DM&P Vortex86EX2 specifications: Processor Cores Master @ 600MHz max with Build-in FPU L1/L2 Cache for user interface Slave @ 400MHz max with Build-in […]

Strawberry4Pi Enables Home Automation on Raspberry Pi Boards (Crowdfunding)

Strawberry4Pi Boards

Strawberry4Pi is an ecosystem of hardware, firmware, and software to create home automation and IoT projects with for Raspberry Pi boards. The project offers a pre-configured Linux operating system, a mobile app for Android and iOS, as well as two boards with four relays: Strawberry4Pi baseboard Zero for Raspberry Pi Zero (W), and Strawberry4Pi shield A/B for the larger boards such as Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ or Model A. Strawberry4Pi boards specifications: 4x SONGLE relays Misc – Temperature sensor and Wifi configuration button Power Supply Baseboard Zero – 100V-220V via 3-pin terminal block Shield A/B – 5V via 2-pin terminal block Dimensions Baseboard Zero – 97 x 75 mm Shield A/B – 65 x 56 mm Certifications – CE/FCC A 3D printed case and a DIN rail mount are also offered as options. There’s no a whole lot of information about the operating system as most people won’t need […]

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