$59 pcDuino – AllWinner A10 Board with Arduino Compatible Headers

pcDuino is a new development board based on AllWinner A10 Cortex A8 SoC that comes with 1GB RAM and 2GB NAND Flash, HDMI output, as well as USB and Ethernet RJ45 ports, and is said to feature 2.54mm pin headers compatible with Arduino boards. Here are the pcDuino specifications: SoC – AllWinner A10 ARM Cortex A8 CPU @ 1GHz + Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 1GB DRAM Storage – 2GB Flash + SD card slot for up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI USB – 2x USB 2.0 Host Connectivity: Ethernet – 10/100 Mbps (RJ45) Wi-Fi – Via USB Wi-Fi dongle (not included with the board) Headers – 2.54mm pin headers: 1x UART, 6x ADCs, 2x PWMs up to 24MHz, 14x GPIOs, 1x I2C and 1x SPI. Power Supply – 5V/2A Dimensions – 125mm x 52mm The board comes preloaded with Ubuntu 12.10, but it also supports Android 4.0 ICS. […]

Linux Conference Australia and FOSDEM 2013 Videos are Now Online

FOSDEM 2013 took place last week, and the organizers are in the process of uploading videos. Up to now, 5 main tracks sessions have been uploaded (Firefox OS;  Free, open, secure and convenient communications; FreedomBox 1.0;  Samba 4; and systemd, Two Years Later) as well as over 20 lightning talks. You can find the videos at http://video.fosdem.org/2013. You may also want to check my previous post for a lists of interesting talks, and I’ll probably feature some FOSDEM 2013 videos in this blog, at least the open source GPU driver talk. Linux Conference Australia took place on January 28 – February 1, 2013, and the 5-day conference featured lots of talks including several dealing with graphics in Linux, and one developer apparently trashing X in terms of complexity and performance, and explaining how Wayland was better. Others Linux sessions dealt with subject such as 3D printing, supercomputing, Arduino, big.LITTLE processing, […]

smARtDUINO Open System Provides a Low Cost Modular Arduino Platform

smARtDUINO is a new platform design by the former ARDUINO’s manufacturer (Update: This claim appears to be incorrect and a lie) composed of several compact modules and is a fully funded project on Kickstarter (Less than 3 days remain to become a sponsor). The platform is not based on a single processor, architecture or language but, makes use of an universal platform that can be used to connect components originally developed from different companies, technologies and form factors. For example, it is possible to integrate modules, accessories or shields from Arduino, Netduino, ChipKit and even interact with smartphone using an ADK module, without having to use a breadboard and/or soldering. Interoperability is made possible thanks to what they call “smARtBUS Open I/O“, which is a standard for connectors designed after looking at existing (Arduino) platforms on the market. The company opted for 2 solutions composed of 2 connectors: smARtBUS BASIC […]

Arduino Due Cortex M3 Board is now Available

Announced a little over a year ago, the Arduino (over) Due based on Atmel SAM3U Cortex M3 MCU is finally available for purchase. The specifications of the new boards are as follows: Microcontroller – Atmel AT91SAM3X8E @ 84 Mhz Flash Memory – 512 KB SRAM – 96 KB (64 + 32 KB) Operating Voltage – 3.3V Input Voltage (recommended) – 7-12V Input Voltage (min/max) – 6-20V Digital I/O Pins – 54 including 6 supporting PWM Analog Input Pins – 12 Analog Output Pins – 2 (DAC) Total DC Output Current on all I/O lines – 130 mA DC Current for 3.3V Pin – 800 mA DC Current for 5V Pin – Theoretical 1A, recommended 800 mA Debug ports – JTAG/SWD connector The new board is mostly compatible with the AVR (8-bit) boards, but since the board runs at 3.3V some shields may not be compatible (Arduino Wi-Fi and Ethernet shields do […]

$25 Outbreak Galago – Cortex M3 Open Hardware Development Kit

Outbreak Galago is a tiny development kit based on a Cortex M3 processor that fits a debugger, and is destined for rapid electronics prototyping. The company promotes it as some sort of Arduino board on steroid (MCU wise) and sells for $25 on kickstarter, and less than $10 in 10k quantities. Here are the board specifications: 72 MHz 32-bit ARM CPU with 32KB of flash ROM and 8KB of RAM (NXP LPC1313 TBC) Integrated hardware debugger One high-speed SPI port, up to 36 Mbps One high-speed I2C port, up to 1.5 Mbps One UART/USART with hardware flow-control capability, up to 256 kbps 10 high-speed PWM pins, 6 driven by 32-bit (high-resolution) timers 6 ADC (analog) input pins with 10-bit resolution at over 400 KSa/sec 25 GPIO (digital) input/output pins The form factor and built-in debugger (via USB) are not really new, as those are already featured in devkit such as TI Piccolo controlSTICK, […]

Fedora To Give Away Raspberry Pis, OLPC 1.75 Laptops and Arduinos to Developers

Fedora will give away over 200 open hardware devices as part of its Summer of Hardware initiative to Fedora contributors. 150 Raspberry Pi boards, 50 OLPC 1.75 laptops and 20 Arduino boards and shields will be freely distributed to randomly selected candidates. In order to qualify, you must have a Fedora Project account, have signed the Fedora Project Contributor Agreement, be a member of at least one non-CLA / FPCA Fedora Group and be resident in one of the following country/region: Australia (excluding the states of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory), Belgium, Canada (excluding Quebec), Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, or the United States (excluding New York and Florida). To apply, you need to fill an application form by the 15th of August where you select your preferred device and enter your full name, Fedora account information and […]

How to Get Free Hotel Rooms with An Arduino Board and a Resistor

Earlier this week, Cody Brocious (Daeken) gave a presentation at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas showing how it was possible to hack and open hotel door locks (Onity HT lock systems), using an Arduino Mega 128 board, a 5.6 kOhm resistor and a DC barrel plug to physically mate with the lock (Total price: around $20). He explains that 4 million hotel rooms are fitted with this type of lock, which means you could potentially stay for free anywhere in the world. Obviously, you could also end-up in another type of room (including free food) for a longer period of time. That looks like a win-win situation to me 🙂 Each locks contain a 32-bit unique value (sitecode) that identifies a property, and is used for encryption. Cody’s Arduino’s based solution can communicate with the lock over a 1-wire communication protocol read memory to get the sitecode (no […]

16 Euros Arduino Leonardo Board is Now Available

Arduino Leonardo is a new Arduino board with a 16 MHz Atmega32U4, 2.5KB RAM, 32 KB of Flash memory, 20 digital I/O, 12 analog inputs and 7 PWM outputs. In this version the MCU takes care of USB communication with the host, whereas for Arduino Uno, a separate chip is required to take care of this, which makes Arduino Leonardo cheaper than Uno. Here’s a summary of Arduino Leonardo specifications: Microcontroller – Atmel ATmega32u4 @ 16 MHz SRAM – 2.5 KB onchip (ATmega32u4) Flash Memory – 32 KB onchip (ATmega32u4) of which 4 KB used by bootloader EEPROM – 1 KB onchip (ATmega32u4) Operating Voltage – 5V Input Voltage – (recommended) 7-12V | (limits) 6-20V Digital I/O – 20 pins PWM – 7 channels Analog Input – 12 channels DC Current per I/O Pin – 40 mA DC Current for 3.3V Pin – 50 mA Watch the video to get […]