Category: Testing

QA & Testing procedure, software and more.

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments on Iocean M6752 Octa-core Cortex A53 Android Smartphone Unboxing, First Boot, and Benchmarks

Iocean M6752 Octa-core Cortex A53 Android Smartphone Unboxing, First Boot, and Benchmarks

I’m quite interested in testing 64-bit ARM platform, but since mini PCs and development boards are not quite there yet, GearBest give me the opportunity to check out Iocean M6752 smartphone based on Mediatek MT6752 Octa core ARM Cortex 53 processor with 3GB RAM, 16GB flash, but running Antutu 4.4.4 (32-bit). Today, I’ll provide the complete specifications of the phone, take a few pictures, and run CPU-Z and Antutu benchmark, before writing a full review in one week or so. Iocean M6752 specifications The smartphone may have multiple versions with up 16 or 32GB storage, and 1, 2 or 3 GB RAM, but the one I received has the following specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT6752 Octa-core 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 processor @ 1.7 GHz, with ARM Mali-T760 MP2 GPU and H.265 UHD capable video processing unit. System Memory – 3GB RAM Storage – 16 GB eMMC + micro SD slot […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Embedded Systems Conference 2015 Schedule – May 6-7, 2015

Embedded Systems Conference 2015 Schedule – May 6-7, 2015

The Embedded Systems Conference took the name “Design West” for a couple of years, but this year, there’s no mention of Design West, and the Embedded System Conference 2015 will take place in Boston, MA, US on May 6-7, 2015. The 2-day event will have a demo hall, and well as sessions divided into 8 tracks: Connected Devices and the IoT Embedded Software Design Hardware: Design, I/O and Interfacing Prototyping Embedded Systems Design Software: Design, Languages, & Quality Fantastical Theater Teardowns The full schedule has now been posted, and I’ll build a virtual schedule with some of the sessions provided. Wednesday May 6, 2015 8:00 – 8:45 – Understanding Google/Nest Thread by Michael Anderson, Chief Scientist, The PTR Group, Inc. The IoT will live or die based on its connectivity. In examining existing wireless protocols, Google/Nest found most of them lacking. In order to address the needs for low-power wireless […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments on Sigrok and Pulseview in Ubuntu 14.04 with UNI-T UT61E Digital Multimeter

Sigrok and Pulseview in Ubuntu 14.04 with UNI-T UT61E Digital Multimeter

A couple of months ago, I received a new digital multimeter UNI-T UT61E that can send data to a computer via a serial cable, and allows you draw some nice charts. I’ve already done that in Windows 7 with the provided tools, and reported on the power consumption of some Chinese Android TV boxes. However, since I use Ubuntu 14.04 as my main operating system, Linux based tools would be more convenient, and open source sigrok-cli command line client and its graphical interface pulseview are supposed to support UT61E DMM, so I had to give it a try. A Quick Look at UNI-T UT61 Digital Multimeter Before going into Sigrok, I’ll quickly show what the multimeter received from DealExtreme . It took longer than expected to ship because of of  included 9V battery, and at the first shipping attempt it was returned to DX, but after 8 weeks or so, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on How to Build a Single Kernel Module (Driver) in Ubuntu

How to Build a Single Kernel Module (Driver) in Ubuntu

When I bought UNI-T UT61E digital multimeter,  I planned to to use the open source tool Sigrok to capture voltage, current or resistance data with my Ubuntu 14.04 machine. Unfortunately, it was just not working for me and I kept getting some “Invalid function byte” error messages, so I asked on Sigrok mailing list, and since it worked for others, I was in big troubles. It turned out the RS-232 to USB dongle I used:

was most likely to culprit, so I decided to buy another random USB to serial dongle on eBay, and after a few weeks I received it only to find out it had the exact same VID:PID, so I was out of luck. Finally, I gave up on Sigrok on Linux, and tested the power consumption of some Rockchip RK3288 & Amlogic S802 devices in a Windows 7 virtual machine running in my Ubuntu 14.04 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 40 Comments on Build a Raspberry Pi 2 Minimal Image with The Yocto Project

Build a Raspberry Pi 2 Minimal Image with The Yocto Project

The Yocto Project is a build system that allows developers to make custom Linux distributions matching their exact needs. I’ve already shown how to build a 12MB Compressed image for the Raspberry Pi with Yocto, but the Raspberry Pi 2 has recently been added to the project, so I’ve tried to build it too in a machine running Ubuntu 14.04. I’ll use poky since it’s the default, but you could also build the system for Angstrom or without distributions (OpenEmbedded Core only). The steps to get the code is just the same as for the Raspberry Pi:

You just need to checkout master, and not any branch (like dizzy) since R-Pi 2 is not yet supported in any release. Initialize some environment variables and the build directory:

Now edit conf/local.conf with vim or nano to set the machine to raspberrypi2 instead of qemux86:

There are more Raspberry […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments on SoundMate WM201 Wi-Fi Music Streamer (EZMusic) Review

SoundMate WM201 Wi-Fi Music Streamer (EZMusic) Review

Last year I reviewed SoundMate M2 Wi-Fi audio streamer, and Uyesee has sent me a sample of their new SoundMate WM201 powered by Actions Semi AM8253, and based on EZCast app for audio calld EZMusic (EZCast Music). SoundMate WM201 Unboxing Pictures That’s the package for the device. The device comes with two audio cables, a micro USB to USB cable for power, and “SoundMate WiFi Music Streamer” user manual. Let’s have a closer look at the tiny box. Two LEDs are located on the front for power and connection, a micro SD slot can be found on the side, and the rear panel has most of the connection: micro USB port for power, reset pinhole, optical SPDIF, 3.5mm stereo jack, and USB 2.0 host for mass storage. SoundMate WM210 Teardown Take out of four sticky rubber pad on the bottom of the case, and loosen four screws to remove the […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on Nvidia Tegra X1 Gets About 75,000 Points in Antutu

Nvidia Tegra X1 Gets About 75,000 Points in Antutu

Nvidia Tegra X1 was expected to outperform the competition, but based on Antutu results provided by Mydrivers, the performance leap might be greater than expected, as Nvidia Tegra X1 reference tablet gets 74,997 points in Antutu 5.6.1. As usual caution is warranted with Antutu results, as the benchmark is easily cheated, which explains why Allwinner A80T devices can get over 140,000 points. But let’s assume Tegra X1 result is representative and compare it to its predecessor the Tegra K1. Surprisingly I struggled to find a detailed Antutu 5.x score for the Nexus 9, and I had to get the scores from that video with Antutu 5.2.0. Nexus 9 (Tegra K1 64-bit) Tegra X1 Reference Platform Ratio Antutu 57040 74977 1.31x Multitask 11817 9217 0.78x Runtime 4146 4758 1.15x CPU integer 3038 11295 3.72x CPU float-point 1939 7274 3.75x Single-thread integer 2920 3206 1.10x Single-thread float-point 2831 2878 1.02x RAM operations […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on HPH NT-V6 Firmware V1.4.4 (Rockchip RK3288) Fixes Ethernet Performance, Adds Smartphone App

HPH NT-V6 Firmware V1.4.4 (Rockchip RK3288) Fixes Ethernet Performance, Adds Smartphone App

When I first started to review Rockchip RK3288 based TV boxes I noticed several had critical issues with Ethernet including Nagrace HPH NT-V6 and Kingnovel K-R6. The main cons of the Nagrace media player included: XBMC has too many issues: VC1 not supported, H.265 support only partial, audio/video sync issue, some MPEG-2 and XVID videos are skipping frames, some of the 4K videos I used could play properly, etc… Some MPEG-2 file won’t play smooth in either XBMC or MX Player Potential Ethernet issues, confirmed with my Gigabit switch (D-Link DSG-1005A) and 10/100Mbps D-Link router (configured as a switch). Since then SPMC and Kodi must have improved video playback issues, but as late as last month I still got feedback from one person (Mr. B.) complaining about Ethernet on HPH NT-V6, but he finally got an email with a new firmware that is said to fix the Ethernet issues and […]

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