$64 Allwinner V3 Action Cameras Support 4K Video Recording (or Not?)

Cheap_4K_camera

An “Allwinner V3 4K Ultra HD DV Sport Camera” just appeared in GeekBuying product feed which the company sells for $84.39, and searching for alternative sellers led me to Soocoo F60 4K action camera sold for $63.34 on GearBest. Both cameras look the same, and the price appears amazing cheap as 4K cameras such as GoPro Hero4 or Sony X1000V normally sell for $500 and more. But one of the tricks is that both “4K” cameras are likely based on Sunchip 4K camera design, which does support 4K video recording, but only at 15 fps. Soocoo F60 camera specifications: SoC – Allwinner V3  ARM Cortex A7 processor @ 1.2GHz System Memory – N/A Storage – micro SD card up to 64GB Display – 2″ LCD Camera OmniVision OV4689 image sensor (4MP according to sensor page, but 16MP on camera description, probably achieved with extrapolation). 170-degree wide angle Recording time up […]

giggleBits Hackable ARM & FPGA Router Comes with an SFP Cage and 5 Gigabit Ethernet Ports (Crowdfunding)

Remember Snickerdoodle board? If you don’t, the board is one of the cheapest Xilinx Zynq available on the market, and the project is currently on CrowdSupply, and 75% funded with 28 days left. They’ve just posted an update about a new daughterboard that I found interesting: giggleBits which provides 5 Gigabit Ethernet and an SFP cage on top of WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth connectivity already found on Snickerdoodle board. giggleBits + snickerdoodle specifications: SoC/Memory/Storage/WiFi via Snickerdoodle board: SoC Xilinx Zynq-7010 dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 667 MHz + FPGA with 430K gates or Xilinx Zynq-7020 dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 866 MHz + FPGA with 1.3million gates (~430K ASIC gates) System Memory – 512MB or 1GB LPDDR2-800 Storage – micro SD card slot, 16MB boot flash Ti Wilink 8 –  single or dual band 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0 Expansion – 4x 40-pin TFM headers for access […]

How to Use an ESP8266 Board as a WiFi to Serial Debug Board

Telnet and SSH are great to access a Linux device, machine and computer remotely when they are already running, but when you are working on the bootloader and/or kernel themselves, you’ll have to use a serial port to access the terminal / serial console. Boards used to get an RS232 port which you connected to your computer with a NULL modem cable, but these days, most boards and devices expose TTL signals and require a USB to TTL debug board to access the console via a USB cable. If you only have one device close to you computer that’s fine, but if your testbed is a little further. or you need to access the serial console on multiple boards you could consider using ESP8266 module to export the terminal over WiFi. This is exactly what Zoobab did above with a GL.inet router running OpenWRT and NodeMCU board with ESP-12(E) module […]

EzeeCube Linux Media Hub Unboxing and Teardown

EzeeCube is a Linux based Kodi Media Hub powered by Freescale i.MX6Quad processor with one internal 1TB hard drive and up to 8TB extra storage via four stackable 2TB hard drive module, as well as an option for a Blu-Ray player module. Beside playing video, it’s also designed to store your pictures and videos like a cloud service such as dropbox, but without privacy concerns since data is only stored in your own EzeeCube. The company launched an Indiegogo campaign in Q2 2014 which ended up being pretty successful having raised over $160,000, and as they are now shipping rewards to backers, I’ve also been sent a unit. Today, I’ll check out the hardware, and will review the unit probably sometimes next month. EzeeCube Unboxing The device came in a cardboard package with some EzeeCube branding, and some features like Freescale quad core processor, a 2TB hard drive (which finally […]

Compulab Unveils Texas Instruments Sitara AM5718 / AM5728 SoM and Single Board Computer

After last week formal launch of Texas Instruments Sitara AM572x processor, and Beagleboard-X15 development board, Compulab has now introduced  CL-SOM-AM57x System-on-Module based on TI Sitara AM5718 or AM5728 SoC, as well as the corresponding SBC-AM57x single board computer.  Both target industrial automation and control systems, and network connectivity options also make them suitable for networking, communications and IoT applications. CL-SOM-AM57X module specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM5728  or AM5718 SoC with: Dual (AM5728) or single (AM5718) Cortex A15 processor @ up to 1.5 GHz Dual core PowerVR SGX544 3D GPU, Vivante GC320 2D GPU Two Cortex M4 cores @ 212 MHz Dual TMS320C66x DSP @ 700 MHz Video IVA-HD 1080p video sub-system Four 32-bit PRUs (Programmable Real-time Units) System Memory – 512MB to 4GB DDR3 Storage – 4 to 32GB on-board eMMC, 512MB to 1GB on-board SLC NAND Connectivity – On-board WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n + Bluetooth 4.1 BLE (TI WiLink […]

UP Board is a Raspberry Pi Clone with an Intel Atom X5 Processor (Crowdfunding)

Many ARM based “insert-fruit-name-here” Pi boards are available on the market, and they all look like the Raspberry Pi board to some extends, but thanks Emutex we’ll soon get the “UP board” powered by Intel Atom x5-Z8300 and in Raspberry Pi form factor including the ubiquitous 40-pin Raspberry Pi headers, DSI and CSI connectors, and mostly the same port placements, with some extra goodies like a USB 3.0 port and Gigabit Ethernet. Up Board specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8300 “Cherry Trail” quad core processor @ 1.44 GHz (Burst frequency: 1.84 GHz) with Intel Gen8 HD graphics @ 500 MHz System Memory –  1 GB DDR3L-1600 Storage – 16 or 32 GB eMMC Video Output / Display – HDMI, DSI connector Audio I/O – HDMI Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet USB – 4x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x USB 2.0 pin header, 1x micro USB 3.0 port (under the board) Camera […]

Turris Omnia is a Feature-Packed OpenWRT Router Board Powered by Marvell ARMADA 385 Processor

FireWRT and WiTi router boards based on Mediatek MT7621A processor offer lots of high speed interfaces with multiple Gigabit Ethernet ports, SATA connectors, and USB 3.0 ports, as well as 802.11ac connectivity for $70 to $80. Sadly FireWRT development was canceled once the company realized they could not get the Mediatek SoC at the right price, and while WiTi router has not been shipped to backers just yet. An even more powerful solution, which should cost $100 and up, is now in development with Turris Omnia board powered by Marvell ARMADA 385 dual core ARMv7 processor, and made in the Czech Republic. Turris Omnia board specifications: Processor – Marvell ARMADA 385 (88F6820?) dual core ARMv7 processor (Cortex A9 class) @ 1.6 GHz with 1MB L2 cache System Memory – Up to 1GB DDR3 Storage – 4GB flash, mSATA slot Connectivity 5x Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports 1x Gigabit Ethernet WAN port […]

BeagleBoard-X15 Board Based on TI Sitara AM5728 SoC Announced, To Sell for $239

We’ve first found out about Beagleboard-X15 open source hardware board about a year ago, and development has taken a bit longer than expected, but Beagleboard.org has now formally launched BeagleBoard-X15, which remains based on Texas Instruments Sitara AM5728 dual Cortex A15 processor, and is expected to ship before Christmas for $239. The key part of the specifications are still the same as last year, but we’ve got a few more details now: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM5728 with: Two ARM Cortex A15 cores @ 1.5 GHz PowerVR SGX544-MP2 3D GPU, Vivante GC320 2D GPU Two Cortex M4 cores @ 212 MHz Dual core C66x DSP @ 700 MHz IVA (Image and Video Accelerator) for 1080p video decode (H.264, VC-1, MPEG 1/2/4, AVS, etc..) Four 32-bit PRUs (Programmable Real-time Units) System Memory – 2GB DDR3L @ 533MHz Storage – 4GB 8-bit eMMC flash, micro SD slot, and eSATA interface (500 […]