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January 5, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

GL.iNet Comet 5G – A KVM over IP solution with 5G RedCap Cellular connectivity, 3.69-inch touchscreen display

GL.inet Comet 5G (GL-RM10RC) is an upcoming KVM over IP solution with a 3.69-inch touchscreen display and 5G RedCap (Reduced Capacity) IoT cellular connectivity, enabling remote access even when your regular Internet connection is down. The design builds upon the GL.iNet Comet Pro introduced last year, featuring a larger design and display, and adding 5G cellular connectivity on top of WiFi 6 and Gigabit Ethernet. It still features HDMI input and output (loop) ports, two USB Type-C ports for power and keyboard/mouse emulation, and a USB 2.0 port for accessories like ATX power control or fingerbot for the control of physical buttons on the target. GL.iNet Comet 5G specifications: SoC – Quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU @ 1.5 GHz; potentially a Rockchip RV1126B SoC System Memory – 1GB DDR3L Storage – 64 GB eMMC flash Video & Audio Input – HDMI port up to 4K @ 30 FPS Output – HDMI loop/passthrough […]

January 5, 2026January 5, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Openterface KVM-GO – An ultra-compact KVM-over-USB solution with HDMI, DP, or VGA video input

Small enough to fit on a keychain, Openterface KVM-GO is a tiny, open-source hardware KVM-over-USB gadget available with an HDMI, DisplayPort (DP), or VGA connector and is designed for headless device troubleshooting and remote server monitoring. It follows the company’s earlier Mini-KVM KVM-over-USB device introduced in 2024 with HDMI and audio inputs. The new KVM-GO is more versatile with an HDMI, DP, or VGA connector, and does not require any video cable since it’s designed to be connected directly to the target device. It also adds a microSD card slot for easy OS installation. Openterface KVM-GO specifications: Microcontroller – WCH CH32V208 RISC-V MCU @ up to 144 MHz with Bluetooth LE, USB 2.0 Storage – MicroSD card for remote OS installation and file transfers Control method – KVM-over-USB Video capture Up to 4K @ 60 Hz Input port – HDMI, DisplayPort, or VGA, depending on model (direct connection to target, […]

December 29, 2025December 29, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Open-source hardware USB to GPIB adapter connects legacy GPIB/IEEE-488 instruments to modern hosts

XyphroLabs’s UsbGpib is an open-source hardware, inexpensive, and portable USB to GPIB adapter aiming to provide “access to legacy GPIB/IEEE-488 instruments using contemporary hardware and software, with a focus on accessibility, openness, and ease of integration into current workflows”. Initially developed by Hewlett-Packard in the late 1960s/early 1970s, GPIB (General Purpose Interface Bus), also known as IEEE-488 or initially HP-IB (Hewlett-Packard Interface Bus), is a short-range digital communications bus standard designed for connecting and controlling programmable electronic test and measurement instruments such as oscilloscopes, multimeters, and power supplies to computers or controllers. The UsbGpib project helps connect GBIP-compliant equipment to modern host computers with a USB port. UsbGpib key hardware features and specifications: Microcontroller – Microchip ATMega32U4 8-bit AVR microcontroller for 5V I/O compatibility USB – USB Type-C port with full USBTMC (USB Test and Measurement Class) support 24-pin GPIB interface – Fully IEEE-488.1 and IEEE-488.2 enabled, including service request […]

December 15, 2025December 15, 2025 by Debashis Das - No Comments

tinySA is a low-cost handheld spectrum analyzer with built-in signal generator

tinySA Spectrum Analyzers and Signal Generators

The tinySA is a compact, low-cost handheld spectrum analyzer and RF signal generator designed for hobbyists, radio amateurs, educators, and engineers. It comes in three different variants and can be used for RF debugging, signal inspection, interference hunting, filter testing, antenna-related measurements, and basic RF education, both in the field and on the bench. The product line includes the tinySA Basic, tinySA Ultra, and tinySA Ultra+, which mainly differ in their supported frequency ranges and performance. The tinySA Basic supports 100 kHz to 350 MHz on its low input and up to about 960 MHz on the high input, while the Ultra and Ultra+ models can observe signals up to 12GHz. The devices run from an internal rechargeable battery with USB-C charging, support firmware updates, internal self-test and calibration routines, marker and peak detection, configurable frequency span and amplitude settings, and PC control over USB. Input protection limits are specified at +10 […]

November 28, 2025November 28, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Easily create an ESP32-C5 dual-band Wi-Fi analyzer

Chen Liang (陳亮) has found an interesting use case for the Espressif ESP32-C5: a dual-band Wi-Fi analyzer showing the signal strength of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi access points in your area. It works like one of the Wi-Fi analyzer apps on your phone, except it relies on an ESP32-C5 board and a display support for the Arduino_GFX libraries, for example, based on the ILI9341 driver, as it’s easier for beginners since the code does not need to be changed. Here’s what it looks like. You can follow the instructions provided by Chen to reproduce the setup. It’s fairly straightforward. He specifically used an ESP32-C5-DevkitC-1 board (or one of the clones) along with an ILI9341 display (not sure about the exact model, but any should do) and wired them together using a breadboard as shown in the photo below. You’ll then need to fire up the Arduino IDE, install Arduino […]

November 27, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

$19.90 XIAO Debug Mate ESP32-S3-based 3-in-1 multi-tool acts as a DAPLink debugger, serial monitor, and/or power profiler

Seeed Studio XIAO Debug Mate is an inexpensive ESP32-S3-based multi-tool designed for the company’s XIAO boards, offering DAPLink debugger, serial monitor, and power profiler modes. The debugger comes with 8MB flash, 8MB PSRAM, a 2.01-inch display to display debugging/power information, two 14-pin headers to provide easy access to the XIAO’s module I/Os, a 36 LED matrix for status indication, and a couple of buttons, plus a srcoll wheel to navigate the menu. The serial monitor function can also be used be Arduino, Raspberry Pi, or other boards. XIAO Debug Mate specifications: Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3R8 CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller @ 240 MHz Memory – 512KB SRAM, 8MB PSRAM Wireless – Wi-Fi 4 & Bluetooth 5.0 dual-mode (Classic + BLE) connectivity Storage – 8MB SPI flash Display – 2.01-inch TFT LCD with 296 x 240 resolution Expansion 2x 14-pin female GPIO headers routing the XIAO module pins […]

November 24, 2025November 24, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0 released with a revamped user interface, Raspberry Pi Connect support

Raspberry Pi Imager V2.0.0 Raspberry Pi 5 Device

Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0 has just been released with a revamped user interface with a wizard to enable easier navigation, as well as a new option for Raspberry Pi Connect remote access, among other changes. The Raspberry Pi Imager was first released in March 2020 to improve the user experience when flashing OS images for the Raspberry Pi to a microSD card. No need to download an OS image from the website and flash it manually to a microSD card with the dd command line tool, Win32DiskImager, or BalenaEtcher. Just select your Raspberry Pi model, the image you want from a curated list, and the storage device, and you’re good to go. A popular feature was the OS customization settings, but the list grew quite large, and that’s one of the main reasons for the release of the Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0 utility. Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0 highlights: New UI […]

November 24, 2025November 24, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Taradov’s open-source hardware pocket USB sniffer works with Wireshark

Alex Taradov has designed a low-cost, open-source hardware USB sniffer compatible with the popular Wireshark packet capture utility, and also controllable from the command line, capturing data in the standard PcapNG format in either case. Wireshark has had built-in USB capture capability for many years, and I used it myself to reverse-engineer the software for a USB video capture card around 2007, but it’s not perfect since it does not capture low-level packets. For that, you need extra hardware, and last year we covered the tinysniffer USB sniffer based on a WiFi-connected Linux SBC. It does the job, but it’s sold for $199, and you don’t need an application processor to handle USB 2.0 speeds. Alex’s design is optimized for cost and built around three main components: Cypress CY7C68013A 8051 MCU, Lattice MachXO2 LCMXO2 FPGA, and Microchip USB3343 USB PHY. Taradov’s USB sniffer specifications: Microcontroller – Cypress CY7C68013A enhanced 8051 […]