Giveaway Week 2020 winners announced

Giveaway Week 2020 Winners

CNX Software’s “Giveaway week 2020” took place last week with 7 different prizes including three MINIX accessories (USB-C hubs and USD PD charger), M5Stack Atom Echo ESP32 based programmable speaker,  Miniware DT71 smart tweezers, and two SBC’s namely RockPi 4C and Ryzen Embedded based DFI GHF51. All people had to enter was to leave a comment with the country to which the parcel would have to be sent. With the help of random.org, we now have selected and confirmed winners which all happen to come from the US or Europe this time around: MINIX NEO Storage Plus USB-C Hub with 480GB SSD – Marc, USA Miniware DT71 Smart Tweezers – xdcc_master, GERMANY MINIX NEO C-G USB-C Multiport Adapter – Barnaby, UK RockPi 4C SBC – Garrett, USA M5Stack Atom Echo ESP32 Speaker – Venet, ITALY MINIX NEO P2 100W USB-C Charger – Michal, SLOVAKIA DFI GHF51 Ryzen Embedded SBC – […]

Giveaway Week – RockPi 4C SBC

RockPi 4C vs Raspberry Pi 4

The first, but not last, SBC of Giveaway Week 2020 is RockPi 4C single board computer equipped with a Rockchip RK3399 processor coupled with 4GB RAM, and featuring HDMI and DisplayPort for dual 4K monitor setups, as well as Gigabit Ethernet, WiFI 5, Bluetooth, USB 3.0/2.0 ports, etc… The board closely follows Raspberry Pi 4 form factor, so without thinking too much about it I thought I could just use it with CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 laptop. However due to small mechanical differences, and a different position of the processor impacting cooling, I quickly realized this would not work. Since I did not have time to review yet another RK3399 SBC, I thought I might as well as give it away, as I’m sure somebody will find a good use for it. Note the board does not come with any accessories, so you’ll have to get a MicroSD card, USB-C […]

Linux 5.9 Release – Main Changes, Arm, MIPS & RISC-V Architectures

Linux 5.9 release

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 5.9 on lkml: Ok, so I’ll be honest – I had hoped for quite a bit fewer changes this last week, but at the same time there doesn’t really seem to be anything particularly scary in here. It’s just more commits and more lines changed than I would have wished for. The bulk of this is the networking fixes that I already mentioned as being pending in the rc8 release notes last weekend. In fact, about half the patch (and probably more of the number of commits) is from the networking stuff (both drivers and elsewhere). Outside of that, the most visible thing is a reinstatement of the fbdev amba-clcd driver – that’s a noticeable patch, but it’s basically just mainly a revert. The rest is really really tiny (mostly some other minor driver updates, but some filesystem and architecture fixes […]

Windows 10 capable Rock Pi X SBC Launched for $59 and Up

Rock pi x

Radxa unveiled Rock Pi X intel SBC powered by an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 processor over a year ago with a starting price of just $39 making one of the cheapest Windows 10 single board computer together with Atomic Pi, but the latter is not super convenient to use. What’s new is that you can now buy Rock Pi X SBC, but not quite for $39 since the board has been redesigned, and instead, you’ll find the 4GB RAM/32GB eMMC flash model (Rock Pi X B4E32) for $75 on Seeed Studio, but if you can do with 2GB RAM and 16GB flash storage, AllNetChina has stock for $59 plus shipping. Those are the so-called model B boards with WiFi and Bluetooth, as well as support for an optional PoE module. Rock Pi X model B specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8350 “Cherry Trail” quad-core processor @ 1.44 GHz / 1.92 GHz […]

Tiny Rock Pi S SBC gets PoE & audio HAT add-on board

Rock Pi S PoE HAT

Powered by a Rockchip RK3308 quad-core Cortex-A35 processor, Radxa Rock Pi S single board computer was launched with specifications listing PoE support via an add-on board. Just one little problem though: it was not available for sale. The good news is that Radxa has now launched a PoE HAT for the Linux SBC adding support for 802.3af PoE up to 10W input, making it one of the smallest single board computers with PoE support in the world, and adding audio features with a 3.5mm audio jack, and an FPC connector for a microphone array. It can be purchased on Seeed Studio for $13.00. Here are the specifications of the complete solution with Rock Pi S SBC and PoE HAT: SoC – Rockchip RK3308 quad-core Arm Cortex-A35 processor @ up to 1.3 GHz with built-in Voice Activity Detector (VAD) System Memory – 512MB RAM Storage – 1GB SD NAND flash, MicroSD […]

AAWireless Enables Wireless Android Auto on Android 9.0+ Smartphones (Crowdfunding)

AAWireless Prototype

Android 11 was just released yesterday with wireless Android Auto support removing the need to use a cable between your phone and a car running Android Auto. That’s great if you have a phone that got upgraded to Android 11, but what about people with older smartphones or people equipped with a wired Android Auto infotainment system? AAWireless offers a solution for phones running Android 9.0 or greater as a plug & play USB device that allows the use of a WiFi connection instead of a USB cable. Emil Borconi-Szedressy started the project in 2018 with the AAGateway app allowing you to use an auxiliary (slave) device to connect your existing Android Auto compatible car to your phone (master) using a hotspot created on your phone. This is not ideal since should need a spare Android phone to run the slave device. AAWireless removes this need as Emil ported the […]

CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Education Laptop Review

CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi Laptop Review

I started my review of CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Learning Kit a while ago and at the time I showed content from the kit and its first boot. I’ve now spent more time with this very special Raspberry Pi 4 laptop and will focus this review on the education part, namely CrowPi2 software, but will also look at thermal cooling under stress with and without a fan, and try to install another Raspberry Pi compatible board inside the laptop shell. CrowPi2 Education Software It’s quite important to read the user manual before getting started as there are a few non-intuitive steps you may have to take. First I assume the wireless keyboard would just connect after pressing the power button, but it did not. The user manual explains the RF dongle is inside the mouse, and once you connect it you’ll be able to use the keyboard that has some […]

Rock Pi 4C SBC with 4GB RAM, HDMI and DisplayPort Launched for $59 and up

Buy Rock Pi 4C

Last October, Radxa unveiled Rock Pi 4C SBC as an update to the company’s Rock Pi 4 SBC, with the same Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor, 4GB RAM, but instead of providing one HDMI output only, Rock Pi 4C board offers two video output just like Raspberry Pi 4 board, but with a twist, since it combines a micro HDMI port with a Mini DisplayPort connector. It’s all good except for one small detail. So far, it was not possible to purchase the board. The good news is that Radxa has now announced the availability of the board for just $59 on AllNetChina. You can also buy Rock Pi 4C on other platforms, but the price is much higher at $109.99 on Amazon, and $99.99 on Aliexpress. Rock Pi 4C specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 big.LITTLE hexa-core processor with 2x Arm Cortex-A72 @ up to 1.8 GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 @ up […]

Memfault IoT and embedded debugging platform