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January 15, 2014February 4, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 35 Comments

Building a Low Power Fanless Intel “Bay Trail-D” mini PC for $250

Yesterday, I wrote about MSI J1800i, a motherboard based on Intel Celeron J1800 “Bay Trail-D” processor with 10W TDP, that is expected to sell for $60 by the end of the month. I’m sure some fully assembled fanless small form factor computers based on Bay Trail-D processor will eventually show up, but I’ve decided to find out what would be needed to build a complete fanless PC with this mini-ITX motherboard, and how much it would cost. First we’ll need a mini-ITX enclosure with a fanless PSU. I’ve found M350 Universal Mini-ITX enclosure (pictured above) coupled with picoPSU-80 80W picoPSU-90 90W 12V fanless power supply, and a 12V 60W AC-AC power adapter would probably fit the bill. The mini-ITX casing and power adapter are available from E-ITX.com, and the picoPSU power supply can be found on Amazon. I’ll also add a 1TB SATA HDD, and a 4GB SO-DIMM DDR3 memory […]

January 10, 2014January 11, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

NETGEAR NeoMediacast Android HDMI Dongle (NTV300D) Features Wi-Fi 802.11ac Module

NETGEAR has announced a new HDMI dongle called NeoMediacast, but also known as NTV300D model, running Android 4.2.2, with functionalities very similar to all the HDMI TV sticks / mini PCs originating from Chinese manufacturers we’ve seen for nearly 2 years. AFAIK, NETGEAR is the first relatively well-known global company to unveil an Android HDMI TV stick for the consumer market. [Update: see comments for details how it will reach the comsumer]Key features published for NTV300D by the company: Android 4.2+ supported with RDK support in the future 1080p/60 full HD, H.264/MPEG4 video decode Supports HDMI 1.4 and HDCP 2.1 Miracast-enabled Wi-Fi 802.11ac 1×1 AC 450 Mbps, Bluetooth 4.0 USB powered Micro SD slot for playback/storage Micro USB (OTG) for secondary storage Misc – Infrared Port, status LED DRM support for Microsoft PlayReady, Google Widevine and Adobe RTMPe Remote control unit – RF4CE or Bluetooth supported So there’s now information […]

January 9, 2014January 9, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments

ZOTAC to Sell ZBOX Nano mini PC based on Freescale i.MX6 SoC

ZOTAC, a company known to provide small x86 Linux PCs, is currently showcasing an ARM based version at CES 2014, part of their ZBOX nano series, running either Ubuntu 12.04 or Android 4.2 on a Freescale i.MX 6Quad processor. ZOTAC ZBox nano “ARM” specifications: SoC – Freescale i.MX 6Q quad core Cortex A9 @ 1 Ghz with Vivante GC2000 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, SATA 3Gb/s interface with 2.5″ HDD support, and SD card slot (SD/SDHC/MMC) Video Output – HDMI 1.4 USB – 4x USB 2.0 host port Connectivity – GbE Ethernet, and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n via mini PCIe module. The computer currently runs Android 4.0.4 and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, but Android 4.0.4 will be upgraded to Android 4.2. ZBOX nano “ARM” mini PC will be available in Q2 2014 for a price between $100 and $150. Via Liliputing Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX […]

January 5, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

How-to Use an Android mini PC to Edit and Print Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, and More

Android mini PC have come a long way, and for many use cases such as web browsing and online videos, they nearly match or even surpass the user’s experience you’ve got on a full blown PC. However, unless you’ve installed Linux on your HDMI TV stick or TV box, there were serious limitations using an Android device as a computer where you can install an office suite to create and edit text documents, spreadsheets, and presentation, and print them out. With the availability of apps such as AndrOpen Office, and the addition of printing support in Android 4.4 KitKat, it’s now possible to use Android mini PCs to create content and print documents just like in a normal PC. So if your kids need a cheap PC for their homework, you could just buy a $60 device, adding a USB keyboard and mouse, and connecting the device to an HDMI monitor. […]

December 31, 2013November 23, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Android 4.4.2 KitKat Beta Released for Rockchip RK3188 mini PCs

I’ve just been informed that Android KitKat, version 4.4.2, is now available for Rockchip RK3188 powered mini PCs based on AP6210 Wi-Fi module. This is a beta version, but it’s known to work for MK908 II, CX-919, GM282, GK525, iMito QX2, and IPPLI Mars I2C HDMI TV dongles. Albeit MK908 is also based on AP6210 Wi-Fi module, it does not appear to work right now, and the “new” model of MK802 IV with AP6210 might work, but has not been tested. Devices based on AP6330 and other Wi-Fi modules, such as T428 mini PC, are not working with this firmware, and you’ll have to wait a few more days or weeks to get a compatible firmware. Android 4.4 will bring new features that can be interesting with mini PCs such as printing support, screen recording, and overall better graphics and streaming performance. So with the recent release of AndrOpen Office, […]

December 18, 2013April 24, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

TBS Matrix ARM mini PC Features Freescale i.MX6Q, Supports USB DVB Tuners

TBS, a producer of digital TV tuners for PC, has decided to launch their own ARM mini PC called Matrix to interface with their USB DVB tuners. The board is based on Freescale i.MX6 Quad ARM Cortex A9 SoC with 2GB RAM, 16GB eMMC flash, and costs about $150. The company also claims to have XBMC, VDR, Tvheadend software running on the platform. Here are the specifications for this quad core ARM board / computer (Codename: TBS2910): SoC – Freescale i.MX6 Quad (MCIMX6Q5EYM10AC) quad core ARM Cortex A9 processor @ 1.0 GHz with Vivante GC2000 3D GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR Storage – 16GB eMMC, SD card slot, micro SD card slot, and SATA interface USB – 3x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x USB OTG Video Output – HDMI Audio Output – HDMI and 3.5mm audio jack Connectivity – 10/100/1000M Ethernet, and Wi-Fi 802.11n/b/g Expansion – 16-pin header for […]

November 30, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

XBMC MX Linux v1.00 RC1 for AMLogic AML8726-MX Devices

Developer “croniccorey” has recently announced the release of MX Linux v1.00 RC1, an XBMC Linux image for media players based on AMLogic AML8726-MX, on XDA Developers’ Forums. This release supports G18REF and MX2REF devices (See build.prop in Android) such as Matricom G-Box Midnight MX2, and a test image has also been released for g02refDongle devices such as Droid Stick A2. Checking the MTD layout Before starting the installation, you may want to check your flash partitions in order to avoid bricking your device: Install and run Terminal Emulator Run the command below to make sure your partition table is compatible with the image:

[root@amlogic /]# cat /proc/mtd
 dev:    size   erasesize  name
 mtd0: 00400000 00200000 "ubootenv" or "bootloader"
 mtd1: 00800000 00200000 "logo"
 mtd2: 00800000 00200000 "aml_logo"
 mtd3: 00800000 00200000 "recovery"
 mtd4: 00800000 00200000 "boot"
 mtd5: 40400000 00200000 "system"
 mtd6: 20000000 00200000 "cache"
 mtd7: 10000000 00200000 "backup"
 mtd8: 18c800000 00200000 "userdata"

[root@amlogic /]# cat /proc/mtd

dev: size erasesize name

mtd0: 00400000 00200000 "ubootenv" or "bootloader"

mtd1: 00800000 00200000 "logo"

mtd2: 00800000 00200000 "aml_logo"

mtd3: 00800000 00200000 "recovery"

mtd4: 00800000 00200000 "boot"

mtd5: 40400000 00200000 "system"

mtd6: 20000000 00200000 "cache"

mtd7: 10000000 00200000 "backup"

mtd8: 18c800000 00200000 "userdata"

If your partition table is different, do not install the default image for MX2REF / G18REF. However, If you’ve got Matricom Android firmware version 1.1.6 or greater or WJB’s Linux builds from November 21 2013 onwards, the MTD layout will be different, and you’ll need to […]