A while ago, I wrote about USBminiPower, a USB power supply with 3.3V, 5V, and one variable DC output up to 14.3V adjustable with a rocker switch, and equipped for a 4-digit LED display showing current intensity and voltage. But recently, I was made aware of another USB power supply – EasyVolts USB dongle – that supports 0 to 24V DC, and also exposes either UART pins, or RS-485 signal, plus two GPIO/PWM pins. EasyVolts specifications: USB – 1x USB port for power, communication Power Supply function: Input voltage: 5V from USB port Output voltage: 0-24V Max output current: 1A Max output power: ~2.4W (e.g. 24V/0.1A; 3.3V/0.55A) Voltage resolution: <50mV Current resolution: <2mA I/O expansion 4- pin to be used as UART (Tx/Rx) or RS-485 + 2x GPIO/PWM UART – speed: 300-230400 bit/sec; resistance of Tx/Rx pins: 300 Ohm PWM – Base frequency: 240kHz.; frequency division configuration: 1-65535; duty cycle […]
RetrOrangePi 4.0 Released
RetrOrangePi is a retro gaming & media center firmware based on Armbian Debian image and working on Allwinner H3/H2+ based Orange Pi boards, Banana Pi M2+, and NanoPi M1, as well as Beelink X2 TV Box. Right at the end of last year, I reviewed RetrOrangePi 3.0 on Orange Pi One board to which I connected Mars G01 gamepad, and I could play some games like Wolfenstein 3D and Quake, and watch videos on OpenELEC/Kodi 16. The firmware also comes with various emulators, but you’d have to load the ROMs yourself due to intellectual property / license issues. The developers have now released RetrOrangePi 4.0. RetrOrangePi 4.0 changelog: Latest Armbian v5.32 (Debian Jessie kernel 3.4.113) RetroPie-Setup v4.3.3 (unofficial fork, upgradeable) New RetrOrangePi repository for easy updates and fixes EmulationStation v2.6.5 with video and game collection support, Desktop/OpenELEC shorcuts from main menu New ROPi “Attract-Mode”-like theme (based on Cosmos theme) Retroarch […]
Giveaway Week – Khadas Vim Pro Development Board
For the final day of this giveaway week, I’ll send Khadas Vim Pro development board to a new home. The board is powered by an Amlogic S905X processor coupled with 2GB RAM and 16GB storage, features 10/100M Ethernet and 802.11ac WiFi, and support 4K video playback and output via its HDMI 2.0a port. The board supports various operating systems such as Android, LibreELEC, dual boot Android/Ubuntu, etc.. and I wrote a Ubuntu review / getting started guide for the board in February. At the time, the image was still “raw” with many steps to perform by the users, and part of the documentation needing to be worked on. But the company (Szwesion) and members of the community are usually active in resolving user issues on the forums. I’ll give away the kit I’ve received with the board in an acrylic case, a USB to USB type C cable for power, […]
Lab in a Box Concept Embeds x86 Server and 6 ARM Boards into a PC Case for Automated Software Testing
The Linux kernel now has about 20 millions line of code, Arm has hundreds of licensees making thousands of processors and micro-controllers, which end up in maybe hundreds of thousands of different designs, many of which are not using Linux, but for those that do, Linux must be tested to make sure it works. The same stands true for any large software used on multiple hardware platforms. Manual testing is one way to do it, but it’s time consuming and expensive, so there are software and hardware continuous integration solutions to automate testing such as Linaro LAVA (Linaro Automated Validation Architecture), KernelCI automated Linux kernel testing, and Automotive Grade Linux CIAT that automatically test incoming patch series. Both CIAT and KernelCI focus on Linux, and rely on LAVA, with KernelCI leveraging hardware contributed by the community, and proven to be effective as since it’s been implemented, failed build configs dropped […]
Giveaway Week – Wio GPS Tracker Board
It’s Friday, and the fifth day of giveaway week on CNX Software. Today, I’ll be giving away Wio Tracker, an Arduino compatible board based on Microchip / Atmel SAMD21 ARM Cortex M0 MCU with GPS, Bluetooth, 2G GSM/GPRS connectivity. My review of the board was rather negative, as I only managed to make Bluetooth 3.0 work while following the documentation as it was back in May. Since then the documentation seems to have improved, and other people have been more successful than me, and made the blink LED, and GPS samples to work. This version of the board only support 2G, so make sure it is still supported in your region/country. To enter the draw simply leave a comment below. Other rules are as follows: Only one entry per contest. I will filter out entries with the same IP and/or email address. Contests are open for 48 hours starting at […]
Rikomagic RKM V3 Rockchip RK3328 TV Stick Launched for $63
We’ll know find plenty of devices powered by Rockchip RK3328 from TV boxes to development boards, but if you are interested in getting an Android TV stick based on the processor, I’m only aware of Rikomagic RKM V3 which the company unveiled in September. However, at the time the TV dongle was not for sale yet, and the company has just launched it for $62.90 including shipping on Aliexpress. RKM V3 specifications have not changed since the announcement, except we can have info about size and weight: SoC – Rockchip RK3328 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz with Mali-450MP2 GPU System Memory – 2 GB RAM Storage – 8 GB eMMC flash + micro SD card up to 32 GB Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDR10 and HLG support Video Codec – 4K VP9, H.265 and H.264. 1080p VC-1, […]
Giveaway Week – NanoPi K2 Development Board
NanoPi K2 development board is powered by Amlogic S905 processor coupled with 2GB RAM, and follows Raspberry Pi 3 form factor, and I’ve got a K2 multimedia kit to give away courtesy of FriendlyELEC who sent me one a few months ago. The kit includes the board, a quick start guide, a fansink, a USB cable for power, an acrylic case (not shown above), and an IR remote control. I got it when I asked for NanoPi NAS Kit, and sadly I did not find the time to test it, but the company provides both Android 5.1 and Ubuntu 16.04.2 images for the board, and Armbian also released an experimental Ubuntu server image with mainline kernel, and an Ubuntu desktop “testing” image with legacy Linux. To enter the draw simply leave a comment below. Other rules are as follows: Only one entry per contest. I will filter out entries with […]
Arm Announces Mali-D71 for 4K/120 Hz Displays, Assertive Display 5 with HDR
Arm has just announced Mali-D71 display processor optimized for 4K120 displays used for virtual reality, Assertive Display 5 display management core which adds support for high dynamic range (HDR10 / HLG), as well as CoreLink MMU-600 system memory management unit to handle data feed to Mali-D71, with the integration leading to a 55% area saving for the combined solution and a 50% latency improvement. Mali-D71 Display Processor The main advantages of D71 display processor include: 30% system power savings by fully offloading GPU workloads before output such as composition, rotation, high-quality scaling, and other imaging processing in fixed function hardware. 2x area efficiency compared to Mali-DP650. When driving a single display, it can re-use the resources of a secondary display, doubling the performance. 4x latency tolerance – Mali-D71 can sustain up to 4x the delay on the system bus for the same throughput, helping maintaining high refresh rates up to […]