Amlogic processors are mostly found in TVs and TV boxes, but the company is now apparently entering a new market with A111, A112, and A113 audio processors. I was first made aware of those new processors through Buildroot OpenLinux Release Notes V20170831.pdf document posted on their Open Linux website, where two boards with Amlogic A113D and A113X are shown. First, S400 board with the following key features/specifications: SoC – Amlogic A113D CPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 512MB SLC NAND flash Display I/F – MIPI interface Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet SDIO WiFi/BT (AP6356S) Audio SPDIF_IN/SPDIF_OUT LINE_IN/LINE_OUT 2x Audio headers (MIC_Connector & SPK_Connector) USB – 1x USB 2.0 OTG Expansion – 2x PCIe ports Misc – 6x ADC Keys, IR_IN/IR_OUT, UART Interface (RS232) The second S420 board is based on A113X SoC, and comes with less features (no display, no Ethernet, no PCIe…), less memory: SoC – Amlogic A113X […]
Habey EMB-2200 Pico-ITX board is Designed for Industrial IoT Gateways & HMI Panels
Habey USA has sent out an email to announce their EMB-2200 industrial grade Pico-ITX board powered by NXP i.MX6UL processor with up to 512 MB DDR3, WIFi and Bluetooth, optional PoE support, LCD interface, etc…, and designed for IoT gateways, HMI applications, and other embedded applications. Habey EMB-2200 board specifications: SoC- NXP i.MX 6UltraLite single core ARM Cortex-A7 processor at 528/696MHz System Memory – 128, 256 or 512MB RAM Storage – Various options of eMMC, iNAND or SLC NAND flash (Default: 8GB eMMC flash) Display – 1x 24-bit Parallel LCD (RGB) interface up to 1366×768, 4-wire touch interface Audio – 1x 3.5mm Line OUT jack Connectivity – 2x 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet ports, WiFi and Bluetooth module USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports I/Os – 5x RS-232 header, 2x CAN Bus, 2x USB2.0, 1x USB OTG Configurable GPIO, SPI, I2C Expansion – 1x full-size mini-PCIe with USB connection for cellular […]
e-con Systems Introduces a 360° Camera Kit for NVIDIA Jetson TX1/TX2 Development Boards
e-con Systems has previously launched MIPI cameras for Jetson TX1/TX2 development kit, but the company has now announced e-CAM30_HEXCUTX2, a kit with an adapter board, and six synchronized HD cameras connected that can be used for video surveillance, or robots requiring a 360° or “720°” field of view. The kit is comprised of the following elements: e-CAMHEX_TX2ADAP adapter board for connecting six cameras through Jetson boards’s J22 connector supporting up to 6x 2-lane MIPI CSI-2 cameras 6x 3.4MP MIPI CSI2 low light camera board with interchangeable S-mount lens, and featuring ON Semiconductor AR0330 color CMOS image sensor; each camera supports VGA to 1080p/3M resolution up to 30 fps 6x 30cm custom micro coaxial cable The kit operates at 5V, and requites between 5.33 to 8.10 watts, the later while streaming 6 Cameras on Jetson TX2. Software support is implemented through a Linux camera driver (V4L2) on top of NVIDIA’s JetPack […]
Linux 4.9 Kernel Source Code Released for Phoenix OS Android Desktop Operating System
Phoenix OS is one of the last options left for people wanting to run Android with desktop optimizations on their computer. The problem is that so far, it was fully closed source, and the company refused to comply with the Linux kernel’s GPLv2 license, despite part of the project being based on Android-x86 work. The community also wanted to get involved to improve hardware compatibility with graphics cards, wireless modules / dongles, and other peripherals. However, without source code, nothing could be done, and a petition was launched on Change.org asking Chaozhuo, the company behind the project, to release the Linux kernel code. After over 300 signatures was reached in the petition, the company did push Linux 4.9.24 to Github, and after verifying there was indeed some changes compared to Android x86 kernel, the community declared victory. They are however trying to make the company develop the kernel in the […]
Flick HAT is a 3D Tracking & Gesture Expansion Board for Raspberry Pi Boards
Way back in 2012, I wrote about Microchip MGC3130 3D Gesture Controller with “GestIC technology” which allows you to make gesture up to 15cm from the surface and at lower power in order to control devices in a new way. At the time, the chip was said to sell for $2.26 in large quantities, and the evaluation kits went for $169 and up. I’m writing about MGC3130 about 5 years later, as Seeed Studio has started taking pre-orders for a $25.89 Flick HAT board based on the solution, and designed for Raspberry Pi boards, or other boards with a compatible 40-pin “GPIO” header featuring an I2C interface. Flick HAT 3D Tracking & Gesture HAT specifications & features: Chip – Microchip MGC3130 3D Tracking and Gesture Controller Tracking / Gesture Features 3D tracking Gesture sensing up to 15cm: Swipe (east to west, west to east, north to south, south to north), […]
RadioShuttle Network Protocol is an Efficient, Fast & Secure Alternative to LoRaWAN Protocol
LoRaWAN protocol is one of the most popular LPWAN standards used for the Internet of Things today, but some people found it “lacked efficiency, did not support direct node-to-node communication, and was too costly and far too complicated for many applications”, so they developed their own LoRa wireless protocol software called RadioShuttle, which they claim is “capable of efficiently sending messages in a fast and secure way between simple LoRa modules”. Some of the key features of the protocol include: Support for secure or insecure (less time/energy) message transmission, multiple messages transmission in parallel Unique 32-bit device ID (device number) per LoRa member, unique 16-bit app ID (program number for the communication) Security – Login with SHA-256 encrypt password; AES-128 message encryption Air Traffic Control – Nodes only send if no LoRa signal is active on that channel. Optimized protocol – Message delivery within 110 ms (SF7, 125 kHz, free […]
Connect Watch Runs AsteroidOS Open Source Operating System (Crowdfunding)
At the beginning of last year, we discovered AsteroidOS (hobby) project aiming to provide a Linux based open source operating system working on some Android Wear smartwatches. At the time the OS relied on Android drivers working with libhybris, Qt5/QML for apps, and only supported LG G Watch. Since then, Florent Revest has continued development, with more watches being supported from Samsung, Asus, and other brands, and a French startup has decided to design and bring to market Connect Watch running AsteroidOS. Connect Watch specifications: SoC- Mediatek quad core processeur @ up to 1.39GHz MTK System Memory – 512MB or 1GB RAM Storage – 4 or 8GB flash Display – 1.39″ round Amoled display with 400×400 resolution Audio – Built-in speaker Connectivity Bluetooth Optional GSM ( 850/900/1800/1900MHz) and 3G WCDMA (850/2100MHz) support with nano SIM card slot GPS Camera – 2.0 MP; records to 720p Sensors – Heart rate monitor […]
Orange Pi 2G IoT Board Can Now Boot Linux from NAND Flash
Orange Pi 2G IoT is a $10 development board with a 2G cellular modem that was launched last March. The board is based on RDA Micro RDA8810PL processor designed for cheap Android phones, but Linux support was also promoted, and an RDA8810 Android SDK was released in April. It was the first time RDA8810 was used in a development board, and unsurprisingly it was, and still is, a challenge to use such board, as software support is on-going… So people who purchased the board has troubles with controlling GPIOs, or booting Linux from the SoC’s built-in NAND flash, instead reverting to booting from a micro SD card. Luckily, Orange Pi forum’s user surfero75 worked on the latter, found a solution, and posted instructions in Spanish. He wrote those instructions leveraging the work done by Aib user, and I summarized the main steps below explaining how install and boot from NAND […]