Arduino Compatible Microduino JoyPad with TFT Display Lets You Play Games, Control Devices, and More (Crowdfunding)

Last year, Microduino successfully launched their tiny Arduino board and shields via Kickstarter, and they are now back on Kickstarter with Microduino Joypad, an other Arduino compatible board that also happens to be a gamepad with a small OLED display. It can be used in standalone to control games on the tiny display, as a gamepad for PC or game console, a control interface for quadcopters and robots etc… Microduino Joypad (main board) specifications: MCU – Atmel ATMega328p/1284p/644p or 32U4 via Microduino Core, Core+, CoreUSB boards. (Not part of board but included in all perks) Display I/F – TFT and OLED headers. Separate TFT display board included in all perks. Controls – Left and right joysticks, 4 buttons, and left and right switches. Audio – Microphone Sensors – Light sensor, temperature sensor USB – 2x micro USB ports: one for power and one for charging Expansions – 2x UPin27 headers for […]

$99 Polaroid Cube Mini Sports Camera

I’m often writing about Android / Linux mini PCs, but in this post, I’ll cover a mini camera: Polaroid Cube (POLC3).  Just like GoPro or SJ1000, it’s a Full HD wide angle sports camera, but just smaller being a 3.5cm wide cube. Some of the key features include: Video capture resolution – 1920 x 1080; 1280×720 (30FPS) Recording format – H.264 Still image resolution – 6 MP; JPEG still image Lens – 124º wide angle lens (F 2.0, f=3.4mm) Viewing angel – 124º (wide angle) Built-on Microphone External memory – Micro SD card, up to 32GB USB – mini USB 2.0 port for connection with PC or Mac Weatherproof/splash proof Misc – LED for still image, video recording indication. (Since there’s no display) Battery & power- Lithium battery, good for 90 minutes recording Dimensions – 3.5 x 3.5 x3.5 cm Weight – N/A There’s a strong magnet inside the camera, […]

Test Your 4K Device True Resolution With a 4K UHD / 2160p Video Test Pattern

4K_Test_Image_Crop

Now many products are sold on the market advertising 4K video output, but how to test and check if it just a lie with only part of the system support 4K (e.g. physical video output), but the rest of the system makes you lose quality? When I worked on DVD players, we had some special DVDs with video pattern allowing us to test different video quality. You can read about different video test patterns in “AVSHD 709 DVD document“. There are also some expensive equipments such as DVDO AVLab TPG – 4K Test Pattern Generator that generate test patterns to calibrate video equipments, but if all we want to do is to check the resolution has not been tempered with there must be a cheaper and easier way. After having a discussion about this issue on Google+,  Dan Car decided to create a 2160p (3840×2160) test pattern image with some […]

Review of EM6Q-MXQ Android Quad Core Media Player

After taking a few pictures of Eny EM6Q-MXQ Android media player, it’s time for a full review. I’ll first give my first impressions and go through the user interface, test video playback, test the system, network, and storage performance, try a few games, and check various hardware ports are working as they are supposed to do. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions I’ve inserted two AAA batteries in the provided infrared remote control to check it’s working, and it’s usable in the main user interface and XBMC, but once you start using most Android apps it’s useless, so I quickly switched to  Mele F10 Deluxe air mouse. Before powering up the device, I’ve connected an HDMI cable, an Ethernet cable, and made with use of the 4 USB ports by connecting two RF dongles (Air mouse and gamepad), a USB hard drive, and a UVC USB webcam. The box lacks […]

Unboxing of Nagrace HPH NT-V6 Android TV Box with HDMI In, Rockchip RK3288 Processor

Thanks to Nagrace Times Technology, I’ve got a new Rockchip RK3288 Android mini PC to play with. HPH NT-V6 model is higher end compared to the other ones I’ve received including Uyesee G1H, Kingnovel R6 and Orion R28 Meta, because it comes with 32GB eMMC, HDMI In, and a AP6335 Wi-Fi module providing 802.11ac Wi-Fi connectivity. I’ll start by listing the device specifications, take some pictures of the device and the board, and I’ll write a full review probably next week as I have some other hardware to test first. Nagrace NT-V6 specifications The company provides various memory and storage options for this product, and if Linux based operating systems such as Ubuntu or Chrome OS end up being properly supported on Rockchip RK3288, Nagrace NT-V6 could end up bring a very nice mini PC: SoC –  Rockchip RK3288 quad core ARM Cortex A12/A17 processor @ 1.8 GHz with ARM […]

Unboxing of Eny EM6Q-MXQ Android TV Box Powered by Amlogic S805 Processor

EM6Q-MXQ is an Android TV box based on Amlogic S805 quad core Cortex A5 processor, with a quad core Mali-450MP GPU, 1GB RAM, and 8GB flash. The company sent me a sample for review, so today I’ll start with some pictures, and follow up with a full review in a few days. EM6Q-MXQ Unboxing Pictures The box comes with a brand-less “OTT TV BOX” package. The media player comes with an HDMI cable (1.2m), a remote control requiring two AAA batteries, a 5V/2A power supply, and a user’s manual in English and Chinese. The box features an LED and an IR receiver at the front, 3 USB 2.0 ports and an SD card slot on the side, with most ports on the rear panel: another full size USB port (OTG), coaxial S/PDIF, AV output, HDMI output, 10/100M Ethernet, and DC in. There’s also MAC address on the bottom of the […]

Linux based MOD Duo Multi-Effects Pedal is Powered by an AllWinner A20 SoM (Crowdfunding)

If you are both a maker and a musician, MOD Duo multipurpose pedal may be a fun “toy” to play with. It’s an embedded computer comprised of a Hi-Fi soundcard (baseboard) powered by the same ITEAD Studio A20-CORE system on module found in ITEAD Studio IBOX, fitted into an enclosure with a pedalboard interface, and two graphics displays. You can create and share your own effects, or download the one made by the community using LV2 sound plugins, an open sound processing standard. A MOD Arduino Shield is also available to create new peripherals. Some technical specifications of the MOD Duo: SoC – AllWinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 processor @ 1GHz (AllWinner A23 is part of stretch goals) Two audio inputs Two audio outputs Stereo headphones output MIDI IN and MIDI OUT Cirrus Audio Codec USB – 1x USB Host for bluetooth, Wifi adapters and MIDI peripherals, 1x USB […]

WeIO is an Open Source Hardware IoT Board Programmable from a Web Browser (Crowdfunding)

WeIO is an open source hardware board for the Internet of things with Wi-Fi connectivity and lots of I/Os designed by nodesign, a French based startup, in collaboration of 8devices, the makers of the Carambola boards. WeIO is powered by an Atheros AR9331 SoC running OpenWRT as well as an NXP LPC MCU for faster handling of I/Os and support for analog I/Os. One interesting aspect of this board is that it can be programmed via a web browser using HTML5 or Python, and it does not rely on the Cloud to store data. WeIO hardware specifications: SoC – Atheros AR9331 MIPS 24K Wireless SoC @ 400 MHz MCU – NXP LPC11xx ARM Cortex M0 MCU for analog I/O and real-time H/W interfaces System Memory – 64 MB DDR2 Storage – 16 MB flash + micro SD slot Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi with on-board antenna (AP and STA modes), […]

EDATEC Raspberry Pi 5 fanless case