Raspberry Pi News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

December 9, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

7.3-inch full color e-paper wooden photo frame is designed for the Raspberry Pi Zero

Waveshare RPi-Zero-PhotoPainter-ACCE is a 7.3-inch color e-paper photo frame designed for the Raspberry Pi Zero family. It’s an 800×480 resolution display based on E-Ink Spectra 6 (E6), and housed in a wooden frame. The display also features an RTC with backup battery support, a LiPo battery connector with “UPS circuitry”, a USB-C port for power, a 3-pin debug/serial header, a power button, and a charging LED. It supports portrait and landscape orientation on the desk thanks to a rotatable stand and wall mounting through a hook hanger. RPi-Zero-PhotoPainter-ACCE specifications: Display – E-Ink Spectra 6 (E6) Full-color display with Black, White, Green, Blue, Red, and Yellow Resolution – 800×480 pixels Pixel Pitch – 0.2 x 0.2mm Viewing Angle – > 170° Refresh Time Full refresh – 12s Partial refresh – Not supported Grayscale – Two shades of gray Dimensions – 160 x 96mm Expansion – 40-pin HAT connector to connect Raspberry […]

December 7, 2025 by Debashis Das - 2 Comments

AQEX qUPS-P-BC-2.0 UPS HAT works with large capacity, multi-chemistry batteries (Li-Ion, LiFePO4, Sodium-Ion)

AQEX qUPS P BC 2.0 multi chemistry UPS HAT

Developed by Hungary-based AQEX, qUPS-P-BC-2.0 is a Raspberry Pi-compatible UPS HAT that supports multi-chemistry batteries, including Li-Ion, LiFePO₄, Sodium-Ion, and even supports large, high-capacity packs up to 300Ah. It is designed for applications that require long backup times and reliable 5V power. It features an offline UPS-like architecture with a highly efficient boost converter, adjustable input voltage and energy thresholds, as well as AUTO/ON/OFF operating modes to prevent reboot loops or unsafe restarts. Communication with the Raspberry Pi is handled through three GPIO pins to provide alerts for power loss and low battery. The board supports up to 7.5A discharge, 2A charging, USB-C and auxiliary 6–28V input, reverse-polarity and thermal protection, and external power-control capability. It’s also stackable with other HATs thanks to a robust soldered 40-pin header. AQEX qUPS-P-BC-2.0 specifications: Compatibility – Raspberry Pi 5 / 4B / 3B+ and other boards with compatible form factor and 40-pin PIO header […]

December 4, 2025December 6, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Mini review of JOYROOM PODIX 140W 5-port USB GaN charger with power meter function

JOYROOM PODIX 140W 5 port charger review

I’ve just received a review sample of the JOYROOM PODIX 140W 5-port USB GaN charger, which I found interesting because it integrates a power meter function for the whole charger and for each individual port, which could be useful for reviews of USB-powered boards and devices. In this short review, I’ll go through an unboxing, before testing the features with a smartphone, and trying to stress it a little with five devices, including a laptop, a USB-C powered HDMI display, a wireless display, an Android smartphone, and a Raspberry Pi 5 SBC. JOYROOM PODIX 140W charger unboxing I received the device in its retail package, reading “JOYROOM PODIX” “140W 5-port desktop GaN charger” and listing key features like fast charging, 80cm retractable cables, and a 1.54-inch “ultra large” display, as well as compatibility with standards such as USB PD 3.1, PPS, AFC, SCP, FCP, and QC 3.0. The side of […]

December 2, 2025 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Amazing Hand – A 8-DOF 3D-printable open-source robotic hand for prototyping and research

Amazing Hand Open Source Robotic Hand Developer Kit

Seeed Studio’s Amazing Hand is an open-source, 3D-printable robotic hand kit with eight degrees of freedom (8-DOF), designed for developers working on robotics control and hardware experimentation. It integrates all actuators directly in the hand itself, making it suitable for robotics projects, education, prototyping, and integration into systems like Reachy2 or custom robotic arms. The hand uses eight Feetech SCS0009 servos arranged in a parallel linkage, with all actuators housed in the palm to keep the unit compact and lightweight at around 400 grams. Each finger offers two-axis motion for flexion, extension, and limited abduction via differential servo control. Its structure is fully 3D-printable, combining rigid internal frames with flexible TPU shells for robotics prototyping, manipulation research, and custom hand design studies. Amazing Hand specifications Supported Controllers – Raspberry Pi, NVIDIA Jetson, and microcontrollers (MCUs) Degrees of Freedom – 8 Servo 8x Feetech SCS0009 bus servos (2 servos per finger […]

December 1, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Raspberry Pi 5 1GB launched for $45, most other Pi 4/5 models get a price increase

Last October, Raspberry Pi had to increase the price of its CM4/CM5 Compute Modules due to DDR4 supply constraints. Now the company has had to do the same for the Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 single board computers, and launched the Raspberry Pi 5 1GB for people wanting a lower cost option. They could not get the traditional $35 price tag, and the new low-cost Pi 5 sells for $45. Here’s what the old and new prices are. $145 for a Raspberry Pi 5 16GB starts to be really stiff, especially since that’s only the board we are talking about here. Other casualties are 16GB variants of the Compute Module 5, which got a price increase of $20 after being spared by the October price adjustments. The cheapest Pi 4/5 option – the Raspberry Pi 4 1GB – is still sold for $35. It’s not in the table above as […]

December 1, 2025December 4, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Linux 6.18 LTS release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 6.18 on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML), which will likely become the next LTS kernel [update: it’s now official]: So I’ll have to admit that I’d have been happier with slightly less bugfixing noise in this last week of the release, but while there’s a few more fixes than I would hope for, there was nothing that made me feel like this needs more time to cook. So 6.18 is tagged and pushed out. Most of the last-minute fixes are minor fixes to drivers, with some random noise elsewhere (bluetooth, ceph, afs..). Nothing strikes me as standing out, but hey, there’s a shortlog appended if you want to see the details. And this obviously means that the merge window will open tomorrow, and I already have three dozen pull requests pending. Thanks. And as I already mentioned a couple of […]

November 30, 2025November 29, 2025 by Debashis Das - 4 Comments

$9.99 2.5GbE PCIe adapter for Raspberry Pi 5 uses Realtek RTL8125 controller

Waveshare PCIe TO 2.5G ETH Board (C) low-cost PCIe x1 adapter adds a 2.5GbE port to the Raspberry Pi 5 using the board’s 16-pin PCIe interface. It’s plug-and-play and doesn’t require any additional drivers, making it a practical upgrade for DIY NAS, routers, or edge-networking applications. The board is built around a Realtek RTL8125 controller and offers a 10/100/1000/2500 Mbps RJ45 port with link/activity LEDs. It includes a transparent acrylic mounting plate at the bottom to save space above the board. It relies on a PCIe Gen2 x1 interface, takes 5V power through the PCIe cable or 5V power connectors, and works out of the box in Raspberry Pi OS. PCIe TO 2.5G ETH Board (C) specifications: Compatibility – Raspberry Pi 5 or other boards with a compatible 16-pin PCIe connector Ethernet 10/100/1000/2500 Mbps Ethernet RJ45 port via Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE PCIe network controller Link/activity LEDs (yellow = link, green […]

November 27, 2025November 27, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Banana Pi BPI-CM6 – A SpacemiT K1 RISC-V system-on-module compatible with Raspberry Pi CM4/CM5 carrier boards

Banana Pi BPI-CM6 system-on-module (SoM) is powered by a SpacemiT K1 octa-core RISC-V processor and compatible with most carrier boards for the Raspberry Pi CM4 or CM5 modules. It ships with 8GB LPDDR4 and 16GB eMMC flash by default, a Gigabit Ethernet PHY, and a WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 4.1 wireless module. It exposes most interfaces through three 100-pin board-to-board connectors with HDMI 1.4, MIPI DSI, three MIPI CSI, five PCIe 2.1 lanes, USB 3.2/2.0 interfaces, and more. While it can work with Raspberry Pi CM4/CM5 carrier boards using two of the B2B connectors, the company also designed the BPI-CM6 IO carrier board to make full use of all the interfaces, especially the PCIe lanes. Banana Bi BPI-CM6 SoM Let’s check the module itself first. Banana Pi BPI-CM6 specifications: SoC – SpacemIT K1 CPU – 8-core X60 RISC-V (RV64GCVB) processor @ 1.6 GHz (roughly Cortex-A55 equivalent) GPU – Imagination IMG […]