firmware News - Page 12 of 31 - CNX Software

June 20, 2018June 20, 2018 by Karl Johnson - 1 Comment

YouTube Streams 1 & 2 Update, Plus Quick Fix for Uneven X Gantry

Hey Karl here with an update on the YouTube Live streams from last week. Live Streams Update The 1st stream went about as well as I expected….Not very well. I was really nervous and I broke the live link that was posted on here at the last minute. My whole reasoning for the Livestream was to show the processes in real time and not do too much footwork ahead of time. On the first one I was planning on migrating from Marlin 1.1.6 to Marlin 1.1.8 but I had already done lol… So I ended up migrating to the bugfix branch which presented additional challenges. Overall it was successful and I hope I conveyed the process. I was able to get it to print but I ended up going back to 1.1.8 due to some error in the bugfix branch that caused weird jittery movement. I will in the future […]

June 19, 2018June 19, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

$10 H801 WiFi RGB LED Controller Supports Sonoff-Tasmota Open Source Firmware

This week-end, I played with ANAVI Light Controller, an open source hardware solution based on ESP8266 used control 12V RGB LED strips. The board has the advantage of being open source with KiCad schematics, Arduino firmware, and HTML5 server program available, so easy to get started and modify the features as you see fit, and it also supports external I2C sensors via three headers. That’s a low volume project made in Eastern Europe and as a result the board costs $25, so I was shortly made aware there were cheaper solution, and if you are ready to mess around a little bit, H801 WiFi controller appears to be one of the most interesting solution as it sells for under $10 shipped on Aliexpress or eBay, and is officially supported by Sonoff-Tasmota open source firmware. H801 specifications: Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi (2.4GHz) with about 10 meter range Output – 5x […]

June 13, 2018June 15, 2018 by Karl Johnson - 6 Comments

LiveStream #1 – Migrating to Marlin Firmware

Karl here. I’ve decided to start doing a weekly Livestream on different topics related to subjects covered on CNX Software. For the fist livestream, I will be showing the workflow that I use to migrate to newer Marlin firmware on HE3D K280 3D printer but it applies to any printer. I will also cover the calibration process for the K280. I originally did a written review of the K280 but it is sometimes hard to show concepts in writing. The livestream will take place on June 14th @ 21:30 ET timezone, and if you are interested you can register below, or come back to this page to check it out. Karl JohnsonKarl is a technology enthusiast that contributes reviews of TV boxes, 3D printers, and other gadgets for makers.

May 24, 2018May 24, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Android 8.1 Firmware and SDK Released for Orange Pi 4G-IoT Board

When Orange Pi 4G-IoT board launched a few months ago, it shipped with a not so recent Android 6.0 operating system. But the good news is that Shenzhen Xunlong Software has now released Android 8.1 firmware for their Mediatek MT6737M quad core Cortex A53 LTE Cat 4 board, as well as the corresponding SDK. This makes it the cheapest Android 8.1 board with LTE connectivity available on the market so far as it goes for just under $50. The SDK is a large tarball (22.6 GB) split into 11 smaller files. It’s hosted on MEGA so download is fairly fast, but due to the size I had to install MEGA Sync software in order to download it easily. Once the download is complete, it’s not recognized in Nautilus, but you can extract the SDK as follows in a terminal:

cd 4G-IOT_Android 8.1 SDK
cat x* &gt; OrangePi_4G-IOT_Android8.1.tar.gz
tar xvf OrangePi_4G-IOT_Android8.1.tar.gz

cd 4G-IOT_Android 8.1 SDK

cat x* > OrangePi_4G-IOT_Android8.1.tar.gz

tar xvf OrangePi_4G-IOT_Android8.1.tar.gz

This will take a while and extract over a million […]

May 17, 2018May 17, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

XU4Q Retro Gaming System Runs ODROID GameStation Turbo, Sells for $150 and Up

One of the use case for little Arm Linux boards is retro gaming thanks to open source projects like RetroPie, RetrOrangePi, Lakka, and others. To get a complete & usable system, it’s possible to purchase console kits, enclosures, or even complete game consoles running one of such emulators. This morning I’ve come accross another option, as Ameridroid is now taking pre-order for XU4Q Retro Gaming System for $149.95 and up. As it name implies, the console is based on ODROID-XU4Q, the fanless version of ODROID-XU4 board, which with its Exynos 5422 octa-core processor and 2GB RAM will be much more powerful than Raspberry Pi 3 boards, and most other boards on the market. The kit also includes OGST Gaming Console, GameSir G3w analog joystick controller, a power supply, and a 16GB microSD boot media flashed with ODROID Game Station Turbo based on Debian. If you already own an ODROID-XU4(Q) board, […]

May 2, 2018May 2, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Hardkernel & Libre Computer Release Ubuntu 18.04 Images for ODROID-XU4/3 & AML-S905X-CC Boards

Ubuntu 18.04 “Bionic Beaver” LTS operating system was released just last week, and at least two Arm board companies have independently released Ubuntu 18.04 images for their boards. First, Hardkernel has released an Ubuntu 18.04 MATE image for their Exynos 5422 powered ODROID-XU4(Q), ODROID-XU3 (Lite), ODROID-HC1, and ODROID-MC1 boards/kits. The ODROID Ubuntu image comes with the following key features: Linux 4.14.37 LTS GPU hardware acceleration via OpenGL ES 3.1 and OpenCL 1.2 drivers for Mali T628MP6 GPU FFMPEG/ffplay with hardware accelerated H.264 decoder X11 armsoc display driver with 2D acceleration GPU accelerated Chromium browser (WebGL contents and YouTube 720p plays well) Kodi 17.6 can play H.264 1080p/60fps BigBuckBunny sample video. (Note: no h.265, no 4K in Exynos-5422 processor) WiringPi and other GPIO/SPI/I2C/ADC/I2S tinkering libraries are available. KVM & Docker More stable and performant USB 3.0 and Gbit Ethernet drivers The company sent me a kit based on ODROID-XU4Q board to […]

May 1, 2018April 30, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

USB Burning Tool v2.1.6 for Amlogic Processors Released

Amlogic’s USB Burning Tool is a Windows based tool used to upgrade devices based on Amlogic processors over USB. Most devices now implement OTA firmware updates, so in most cases it is not necessary, but if your device has problem to boot, or want to update to a beta software it is often required, although now it is possible to use a micro SD card with Burn Card Maker. USB Burning Tool is often updated to fix bugs and support new processors, so you may want to check out you have the latest version to avoid any potential issues. Tanix provided a link to USB Burning Tool v2.1.6, which you’ll also find on mirror 1 and mirror 2. The executable will install the drivers and the utility itself. There’s also a changelog in Chinese. The Google Translation of the changelog may be useful to find out if you want to […]

April 29, 2018April 29, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Ugoos Releases Android 7.1.2 Nougat (Beta) for Rockchip RK3288 TV Boxes

Rockchip RK3288 quad core Arm Cortex A17 processor was first released in early 2014 with Android 4.4, and TV boxes that are still sold with the processor – e.g. Lenovo G66 – often still come with Android 4.4 or Android 5.1, and development boards do barely better as ASUS Tinker Board supports Android 6.0.1, while Firefly-RK3288 may never get its expected Marshmallow update. However, Ugoos decided to support their RK3288 TV boxes for a longer time, and has now released a beta version of Android 7.1.2 firmware for Ugoos UM3, UT3, and UT3s TV boxes. Some of the features and Ugoos specific settings available in the firmware include: CIFS & NFS Clients Support, Samba Server Masked HDMI Screen Rotation Root access Hardware Monitor Wireless Assistant Gamepad Settings Debug Settings User Scripts USB Mode Settings If you want more details about what each setting does, read the post about Ugoos settings. […]