Reviews - Page 10 of 120 - CNX Software

November 4, 2023November 4, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Makeblock mBot Neo robot review with Smart World Add-on Pack

MakeBlock mBot Neo, also known as mBot2, is an educational robot that builds upon the previous generation mBot1 robot, and the company has sent us a review sample, following our earlier review of the Ultimate 2.0 10-in-1 educational robot kit, along with the Smart World Add-on Pack. The mBot Neo features a new ESP32-based CyberPi control board with WiFi connectivity for IoT and AI support. The robot is also equipped with a 2nd generation Ultrasonic sensor with improved object detection accuracy and status indicator, a built-in 4-ch RGB line sensor that can detect colors, as well as a new drive motor that comes with an encoder for more precise motion control. The mBot Neo robot kit is expandable with metal parts from other Makeblock models, mBuild modules and various electronic modules can be added making it also possible to build custom robots with third-party structural parts. The mBot Neo robot […]

November 1, 2023November 28, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

GEEKOM Mini IT13 Core i9 mini PC review – Part 1: Specs, unboxing, teardown, and first boot

GEEKOM Mini IT13 is a powerful 13th gen Raptor Lake mini PC that was unveiled last August with either an Intel Core i9-13900H, Core i7-13700H, or Core i5-13500H processor, up to 32GB RAM, 2TB NVMe, and interfaces such as HDMI 2.0, USB4, 2.5GbE, and so on. The company has sent us a review sample of the Mini IT13 mini PC equipped with a Core-i9 14-core processor, 32GB RAM, and a 2TB NVMe SSD. We’ll start the review with an unboxing, a teardown to check the hardware design and upgradability of the device, and quickly try out to boot the system with the pre-installed Windows 11 Pro. But let’s go through the specifications before that. GEEKOM Mini IT13 specifications SoC – Intel Core i9-13900H 13th Gen Raptor Lake processor with 14 cores, 20 threads up to 5.40 GHz, 24MB Cache, Iris Xe graphics; TDP: 45W System Memory – Dual-channel DDR4-3200 SODIMM, […]

October 31, 2023November 5, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Raspberry Pi 5 Kit Review – Part 1: Unboxing, Assembly and First Boot

Raspberry Pi 5 Kit Review Raspberry Pi OS boot

I’m quite late on that one, but after an extended holiday, I’m now ready to review the Raspberry Pi 5 the company sent me last month. I’ll do so with the latest Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm based on Debian 12 and CNX Software’s “tropical reviews” are usually more demanding than most others due to the higher ambient temperature (usually around 28°C in my room) in Thailand. But since Raspberry Pi did not just send the Raspberry Pi 5, but a full kit with keyboard, mouse, enclosure, and more, I’ll start with a post mostly looking at the hardware with an unboxing, assembly, plus a quick try at Debian 12 on the new SBC. Raspberry Pi 5 Kit Unboxing Besides the Raspberry Pi 5 itself, the package included the active cooler (heatsink + fan), a microSD card preloaded with a pre-release Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm image, a USB-PD power supply, a […]

October 29, 2023October 29, 2023 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - 17 Comments

Review of RaZberry 7 Pro Z-Wave Raspberry Pi HAT and Z-Uno2 Z-Wave board

Z-Wave.Me has sent us a couple of Smart Home devices based on Z-Wave technology for review, namely the RaZberry 7 Pro Raspberry Pi HAT and the Z-Uno2 board. The Swiss company has primarily developed Z-Wave products for years and is a member of the Z-Wave Alliance. For those who are concerned about the issues of signal interference in the 2.4GHz range (WiFi, Zigbee, Bluetooth, and Thread), Z-Wave technology is an excellent choice because it operates on a less congested frequency range of 800-900MHz and the technology has been around for more than 20 years, resulting in a wide variety of Z-Wave devices available in the market, and they can work well together across different brands due to a proper certification process which is another advantage when compared to other protocols. The two devices we received are RaZberry 7 Pro, which is a shield that plugs into the 40-pin GPIO header […]

October 24, 2023October 23, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

DSOM-020R PX30 development board review – Unboxing, Benchmarks, and Zigbee gateway

DSOM-020 PX30 Development Board review zigbee gateway

Dusun IoT DSOM-020R PX30 is a development board based on the company’s 1.3GHz Rockchip PX30K quad-core Cortex-A35 module of the same name designed for industrial applications that emphasize reliability and power efficiency. The board comes with various ports and expansion capabilities with support for monitors, microphones, and sensors through its carrier board in order to create prototypes and develop software before integrating the SOM DSOM-020 PX30 system-on-module into your own custom carrier board and product. As the company stipulates on the website, the development board is suitable for AIoT equipment, vehicle control, gaming platforms, smart displays, medical equipment, vending machines, and industrial computers. Let’s start the review with an unboxing of the DSOM-020R PX30 development board to find out more. DSOM-020R PX30 development board unboxing Dusun IoT sent us a basic kit of the DSOM-020R PX30 development board for review with a carrier board, the DSOM-020 PX30 system-on-module module, a […]

October 23, 2023October 23, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Review of Arylic H50 wireless stereo amplifier with TIDAL Music

We’ve recently completed the review of the Arylic BP50 Bluetooth preamplifier where we tested the audio quality while streaming audio from the TIDAL Music app. But RAKOIT also sent us the Arylic H50 wireless stereo amplifier for review, and we’ll report on our experience with that device today using the TIDAL Music app again. The H50 is an audio streaming player with a digital-to-analog (DAC) converter chip and a built-in power amplifier. It supports wireless networks such as WiFi and Bluetooth and plenty of wired connections namely analog RCA line In, analog RCA phono In, digital optical in, Subwoofer out, RJ45 LAN port, HDMI ARC, USB Type-A Host, and USB Type-C. To use the Arylic H50, simply connect the output signal cable to stereo speakers (passive speaker) with 50 watts of output power on each side, allowing you to stream music from various services through the 4STREAM app or Spotify, […]

October 22, 2023 by Kumpee Teeravech - 4 Comments

Review of MaTouch ESP32-S3 Rotary IPS Display with a 2.1-inch round touchscreen display

Matouch ESP32-S3 rotary display - graphic screen no.2

The product we are reviewing today is the “MaTouch ESP32-S3 Rotary IPS Display with Touch 2.1” ST7701″ from Makerfabs which offers an alternative to the MaTouch_ESP32-S3 4-inch Display Demo Kit that we reviewed a few months ago. Just like the earlier model, the new kit is equipped with an ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R8, featuring 16MB of flash memory and 8MB of PSRAM. This device supports both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 wireless communication and offers connectivity options through I2C and UART ports for interfacing with external devices. The display features a round IPS panel with a resolution of 480×480 pixels, capacitive touch capability, and LVGL library support. Additionally, it includes a mechanical rotary encoder and supports press operations. MaTouch ESP32-S3 Rotary IPS Display specifications Controller: ESP32-S3-WROOM-1, PCB Antenna, 16MB Flash, 8MB PSRAM, ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R8 Wireless: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 LCD: 2.1-inch High Lightness IPS,65K color LCD Driver: ST7701S FPS: > 70 Resolution: 480×480 LCD interface: […]

October 3, 2023October 3, 2023 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - 20 Comments

Review of the first Matter device by SONOFF – MINI Extreme Wi-Fi Smart Switch (MINIR4M)

We have just received the first Matter product from SONOFF for review, which is the Mini Extreme Switch (MINIR4M) model. Its external appearance closely resembles the Mini Extreme Switch Wifi (MINIR4) which we reviewed previously. They have different colors to distinguish between WiFi (Orange) and Matter (Green). In this review, we have experimented with various Smart Home platforms that support Matter, such as Home Assistant, Apple HomeKit, Google Home, and even their own eWeLink app. Let’s see how their operations and features differ to some extent. Quick intro for Matter. We have heard Matter/Thread together in the news. Matter is a control protocol, while Thread is a communication protocol. Both protocols can work together, or separately. Matter can operate on the top of various communication protocols, including WiFi, Ethernet, BLE, or Thread, with subtle differences such as energy efficiency, network, and resiliency. What’s crucial to note is that Matter acts […]