YC-CDA19Q is an 8-Port Quick Charge 3.0 Capable USB Charger with a Display Showing Power Consumption

USB charger doctor is a cheap and easy way to monitor the voltage and current from a USB 2.0 port or charger, but you may have more than one device to monitor, and USB 3.0  type C ports as well as fast charger are now quite common, so it may not be suitable for all situations. Bakeey YC-CDA19Q USB charger hub could be an interesting power monitoring device with 7 USB ports, including one supporting Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging, and an extra USB type C port. Specifications: 8x USB Ports 7x USB type A ports including 6x red USB 2.0 port up to 5V/2.4A each 1x blue USB port supporting QC 3.0 (3.6-6.5V/3A, 6.5-9V/2A or 9-12V/1.5A) 1 USB type C port up to 5V/3A Max Power – 40 Watts (5V/8A) Display – LCD display showing – real-time current and voltage, active charging ports, and charge status Power Supply – […]

USB Burning Tool v2.1.6 for Amlogic Processors Released

Amlogic’s USB Burning Tool is a Windows based tool used to upgrade devices based on Amlogic processors over USB. Most devices now implement OTA firmware updates, so in most cases it is not necessary, but if your device has problem to boot, or want to update to a beta software it is often required, although now it is possible to use a micro SD card with Burn Card Maker. USB Burning Tool is often updated to fix bugs and support new processors, so you may want to check out you have the latest version to avoid any potential issues. Tanix provided a link to USB Burning Tool v2.1.6, which you’ll also find on mirror 1 and mirror 2. The executable will install the drivers and the utility itself. There’s also a changelog in Chinese. The Google Translation of the changelog may be useful to find out if you want to […]

Nutaq PicoLTE IoT Kit Allows NB-IoT and LTE Cat M1 Devices Testing Anywhere

If you’ve been following cellular IoT news you must have read plenty of announced about NB-IoT and LTE Cat M1 (eMTC) hardware platforms bring LTE connectivity at lower power and somewhat lower cost than existing 3GPP networks. That’s all good, and you may have decided to go ahead with a commercial project, except none of the Telco are providing LTE IoT connectivity in your area just yet, or if it does, you may also want to test your device in bands not allowed/supported in your country (at a permitted power level). If that’s the case, Nutaq PicoLTE IoT Kit should help as an LTE NarrowBand & Cat M test measurement platform for IoT that can test NB-IoT and Cat-M1 devices in all frequency bands. Nutaq PICOLTE IoT kit key features: Supports M1 & NB-IoT devices Proven compatibility with M1 & NB-IoT devices from over 5 manufacturers Test multiple devices simultaneously […]

Human Readable Decoding of /proc/cpuinfo for Arm Processors

One of the most common way to get CPU information is to check the content of /proc/cpuinfo. For example, this is the output I get from running the command on NanoPi NEO (Allwinner H3) board:

Many fields are self-explanatory, but what about CPU implementer and CPU part numbers? Those are values stored in Arm’s CPUID Base Register, and 0x41 looks up to Arm implementer, while 0xc07 refers to Cortex A7. But I had to look it up to find out. One solution would be to decode those values in the kernel, but the developers won’t do that probably because it may break user-space programs that rely on hexadecimal values. So instead, Riku Voipio decided to write and submit a patch for lscpu program found in util-linux package. The patch has been merged so the new ID mapping feature should be supported in util-linux 2.32 and greater. In the meantime, […]

Getting Started with IkaScope WiFi Pen-Oscilloscope, and ScanaQuad SQ50 USB Logic Analyzer & Signal Generator

A couple of weeks ago, I received IkaScope WS200 pen-like WiFi oscilloscope, as well as ScanaQuad SQ50 USB logic analyzer & signal generator, and I’ve already checked out the hardware both both in a aforelinked unboxing post. I had also very shortly tried IkaScope with GOLE 10 mini PC, but just to showcase potential use case for a Windows 10 mini PC with an inclined touchscreen display. But at the time I did not really a proper measurement, as it was more to test the mini PC than the oscilloscope itself. I’ve now had time to test IkaScope desktop program and mobile app in respectively Ubuntu 16.04 and Android 8.0.0, as well as ScanaStudio for ScanaQuad USB device using Ubuntu 16.04 only, since there’s no mobile version of the program. While I’ll focus on Ubuntu and Android, most of the instructions will be valid for Window 10 and Mac OS X […]

The Stress Terminal UI (s-tui) is a Pretty CPU and Temperature Monitoring Terminal App

While it’s possible to do monitoring with tools like RPI-Monitor on headless or remote systems, top and htop are likely the commonly used tools to monitor CPU and process usage in the terminal. There’s now a new and different option with the Stress Terminal UI that display pretty charts for frequency, CPU usage, and temperature in the terminal, and as its name implies it can also stress the system. I’ve first installed it in my main computer running Ubuntu 16.04.2 as follows:

and then just started it

It took the screenshot above after enabling stress operation for a few seconds, and while frequency and CPU utilization in percent are updated properly, temperature is not, at least on my system. I had to enable “Smooth Graph” option to see any changes in the first two charts. I tried to run the app again with sudo, but still no temperature […]

HT-01 “Helping Hand” Soldering Stand Comes with 6 Arms, a USB powered Fan

I have a “helping hand” in my office with two flexible arms and alligator clamps, and a magnifier that I use sometimes to solder or unsolder components more easily. The metallic arm are not always easy to put in the right position, and the base is not always heavy enough, but it does the job most of the time. But I’ve just come across with a helping hand station with 6 flexible gooseneck arms that may allow for more positions and easier setup, as well as hold a USB powered fan to such out fumes or blow them away, and/or a lamp. HT-01 soldering station features: Aluminum alloy base – 140 x 100 x 12mm (purple or black) 6x universal joint pipe of 300mm length with alligator clip 1  5V USB output regulator plate with two USB ports up to 5V/3A to connect fans 1x 5V USB Fan 1x Soldering […]

HDFury Vertex is a High-End HDMI 2.0 Splitter, Scaler, and Diagnostic Tool

Most people won’t need this, but if you are working on HDMI, HDFury Vertex HDMI 2.0b splitter and scaler could be a very useful product. It comes with one HDMI 2.0b input port, two HDMI 2.0b output ports, some audio ports, an OLED display showing EDID, HDR, and other information, and a Windows tool allowing you to find out the full details about your HDMI connection over USB. HDFury Vertex hardware specifications: HDMI revision: HDMI 2.0b (Level A) 600Mcsc – 18Gbps Max Resolution: 4K60 4:4:4 8b, 4K60 4:2:2 12b, 4K120 4:2:0 8b or 8K30 4:2:0 8b I/O – 2 HDMI In, 2 HDMI Out, IR, RS232, USB, Analog Jack, Optical Out. Upscale port – FHD 1080p to UHD 2160p & 4K/DCI Downscale port – UHD 2160p & 4K/DCI to FHD 1080p Signal Conversion – Resolution, Chroma Subsampling, Color Space, Color Depth, HDCP HDCP Conversion – Any HDCP to any HDCP […]

EDATEC Raspberry Pi 5 fanless case