$24 Sunvell R69 Android 4.4 TV Box is Powered by Allwinner H2 Processor

We’ve fist seen Allwinner H2(+) quad core Cortex A7 processor in cheap development boards such as Orange Pi Zero, but the processor main market is actually “Basic OTT TV boxes” for 1080p video playback, and Sunvell R69 TV box is one of the first of those, and comes with 1GB RAM & 8GB storage. Sunvell R69 TV box specifications: SoC – Allwinner H2 quad core Cortex A7 processor @ up to 1.5 GHz (TBC) with Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB flash + micro SD slot up to 32GB Video & Audio Output – HDMI 1.4 output up to 1080p60, AV port (composite video + stereo audio) Video Codec – H.265 / H.264 up to 1080p Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi (via XR819 chipset) USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports Power Supply – 5V/2A Dimensions – 9 x 9.5 x 1.8 cm Weight – […]

NanoPi NEO Boards Get a New Arduino UNO Compatible Dock to Play with Arduino Shields

FriendlyELEC has launched a new accessory board for their NanoPi NEO / NEO 2 / NEO Air boards with UNO Dock V2.0 board compatible with Arduino UNO board thanks to its Microchip ATMeaga328P MCU and compatible headers, and also equipped with headers to plug a NanoPi NEO board. Key features for UNO Dock v2.0 for NanoPi NEO: MCU – Microchip ATmega328 8-bit AVR  MCU @ 16 MHz with 2KB SRAM, 32KB flash, 1024 bytes EEPROM USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports connected to NEO board Expansion Arduino UNO headers for shields Female headers to insert the NanoPi NEO board Male headers to access NanoPi NEO boards’ IOs Debugging & Programming – 1x micro USB port (USB to UART), ICSP header, NEO debug UART header Misc – Power on/off, reset button, UART select jumper Power Supply – 12V DC via 2.1mm power barrel   The system would be great if NanoPi […]

No Case for Orange Pi Zero or Other Tiny Development Boards? No problem: Use an Old Mouse

There now plenty of tiny ARM Linux boards, which are normally sold without case, but usually it’s not to hard to find a 3D printed case. But if you have small board, and don’t feel to purchase a case for it, there’s an other solution: use an old mouse. That’s exactly what Slider2732 has done with his Orange Pi Zero board to convert it to a mini PC running Armbian, or a game console running RetroOrangePi. So after the keyboard PC, here comes the mouse PC! So what did he exactly use for the mouse PC? Orange Pi Zero board An old Logitech mouse for the case and cable An 8GB micro SD card to flash the operating system A 4.3″ car reversing monitor (optional) acting as the display with composite input An Rii wireless keyboard/mouse, as the mouse function is not included with the mouse PC… A PAM8403 based […]

Shenzhen Xunlong Releases Two Orange Pi Boards with 64-Bit ARM Processor, 2GB RAM

Shenzhen Xunlong has already been selling 64-bit ARM development board with their Orange Pi PC 2 & Orange Pi Zero Plus 2 H5 boards based on Allwinner H5, as well as Orange Pi Win board powered by Allwinner A64 processor. However, so far none of them are equipped with much memory, with the only options being 512MB or 1GB RAM. The company has recently launched  two new boards with 2GB RAM, namely Orange Pi Win Plus featuring Allwinner A64 SoC, and Orange Pi Prime equipped with Allwinner H5 SoC. Orange Pi Win Plus That board is just an update to Orange Pi Win board with the only difference I could find being the 2GB RAM: SoC – Allwinner A64 quad core ARM Cortex A53 processor @ 1.2 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 2MB SPI flash, micro SD slot up to 64GB, footprint for optional […]

FriendlyELEC Introduces $12.99 1-bay NAS Dock Kit for NanoPi NEO & NEO 2 Boards

NanoPi NEO is a tiny board with Fast Ethernet and USB 2.0 interface, so in theory it could make a nice low-end NAS as long as you don’t need the best performance. As always the problem is that there was no case for it, but FriendlyELEC changes that as they just launched a 1-bay NAS Dock Kit for NanoPi NEO / NEO 2 board selling for just $12.99 (promotional price at launch). The kit comes with the following: 1-bay NAS Dock expansion board with JMicron JM20329 USB to SATA bridge SATA connector for 2.5″ HDD drive Extra USB host port On/off switch, and dual color status LED Header to connect NanoPi NEO board 12V DC power input Dimensions – 151 x 89.7 mm NS-120 aluminum enclosure (154 x 100 x 47.5 mm, 4141 grams) Heatsink set for NanoPI NEO M3 6mm screws, M2.5 6 mm screws Four rubber pads Front […]

NanoPi NEO2 Board Benchmarks with Ubuntu 16.04.2 using Linux 3.10 and Linux 4.10

I’ve received NanoPi NEO 2 boards, add-boards and sensor modules last week, where we could see how small the boards were, and how it could be suitable for IoT projects or “hardware hacking” education.  Before testing the board with the add-ons, I have to select the image to run on the board, and currently we have two choices: Ubuntu 16.04.2 FriendlyELEC image with Linux 3.10 “legacy” kernel, or Armbian Ubuntu 16.04.2 Xenial nightly build with Linux 4.10 “mainline” kernel. So I decided to try both: dfssf nanopi-neo2-ubuntu-core-qte-sd4g-20170329.img.zip (296 MB) is the image from FriendlyELEC (previously FriendlyARM) Armbian_5.27.170401_Nanopineo2_Ubuntu_xenial_dev_4.10.0.7z (222 Mb) is the image from Armbian, which I downloaded on March 31st despite the filename including “170401” string You can flash the image with Win32DiskImager (Windows) or dd (linux) to a micro SD card the usual way, and while I’ve never personally had troubles with dd, I’ve been told Etcher was better, […]

Allwinner H6 Processor for 4K HDR Set-Top Boxes Supports USB 3.0, PCIe, and Smart Card Interfaces

Allwinner H6 is a new quad core Cortex A53 processor designed for 4K set-top boxes. It will support “6K” video decoding for 10-bit HEVC, VP9, and H.264, integrate HDR10 and HLG video processing, support high speed interfaces like USB 3.0 and PCIe, as well as security features like two ISO7816 smart card interfaces and DRM solutions. Allwinner H6 specifications: CPU –  Quad-core ARM Cortex A53 with NEON, hardware Java acceleration, and FPU 3D GPU – Dual shader ARM Mali-T720 with support for OpenGL ES3.1/3.0/2.0/1.1, OpenCL 1.1/RenderScript, Microsoft DirectX 11 FL9_3 Memory I/F – DDR4/DDR3/DDR3L interface Storage I/F – 1x eMMC 5.0 flash interface, 1x NAND Flash interface for SLC/MLC/TLC flash memory with up to 80-bit error-correcting code (ECC), 1x SPI NOR Flash interface, 1x SD Card 2.0 Multimedia via Allwinner Phoenix 3.0 VE Engine Video Decoder H265/HEVC Main/Main10 [email protected] High-tier ;4K@60fps, up to 6Kx4K@30fps H264/AVC BP/MP/[email protected], MVC, 4K@30fps VP9,Profile 0/2, […]

Orange Pi Zero Plus 2 H5 Board Replaces Allwinner H3 by Allwinner H5 for $1 More

It’s hard to keep up, but Shenzhen Xunlong has launched another Orange Pi board, as two weeks after introducing Orange Pi Zero Plus 2 development board, the company has now introduced “Orange Pi Zero Plus 2 H5” board, with the exact same specification, except Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 32-bit processor has been replaced by Allwinner H5 quad core Cortex A53 64-bit processor. Orange Pi Zero Plus 2 H5 board specifications: SoC – Allwinner H5 quad core Cortex A53 processor with 2+4 core Mali-450MP4 GPU System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 SDRAM Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI port Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0 LE (Ampak AP6212) with u.FL antenna connector and external antenna USB – 1x micro USB OTG port Camera – MIPI CSI port Expansion headers – Unpopulated 26-pin “Raspberry Pi B+” header + 13-pin header […]