tools News - Page 2 of 13 - CNX Software

October 2, 2023October 2, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Ollie v2 USB to UART/CAN/RS485/RS232 converter gets USB-C port, plastic enclosure, and more (Crowdfunding)

USB-C to UART, CAN Bus, RS485, and RS232 converter

Ollie v2 is an improved version of the Ollie USB to isolated UART, CAN Bus, RS232, and RS485 converter that gains a USB-C port, a plastic case, the ability to set the voltage from the target board, and various other minor improvements. Like the first version, the Ollie v2 is a portable tool designed for hackers and field engineers that allows them to work with a single device instead of a bunch of USB converters, each handling a single protocol, and isolation makes sure the host, such as a laptop, is protected from high voltages. Ollie V2 specifications: Serial chip – WCH CH344 quad-serial port chip (instead of XR21V1414 in the first design) Host interface – USB Type-C port Isolated interfaces (all with ESD protection) 2x UART ports up to 6 Mbps with 1.8/3.3/5 V or target voltage levels (set by slide switch) CAN 2.0A/B up to 1 Mbps bus […]

August 21, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

ESP ZeroCode web application creates custom Matter-certifiable firmware for ESP32 targets

Low-code/no-code platforms keep on coming and Espressif Systems ESP ZeroCode adds to the list. It is a web application designed to prepare Matter-certifiable firmware for ESP32 devices as per the user’s requirements. The website is supposed to streamline the product development where the firmware is developed for you (no need for those costly software/firmware engineers!) and future OTA updates are also guaranteed for a period of three years. It’s a bit similar to the Tuya platform, but for ESP32 devkits, modules, and/or rebranded products with Matter-certified firmware. So I went to the website to give it a try in Firefox in Ubuntu. After registration and login, we are given three options: Your products, Create a new product, and Rebrand a Certified Product I went with the second option and named by new product “CNX Software Gizmo”. In the next step, we can select the device type between socket, plug, light, […]

July 3, 2023July 6, 2023 by Sponsored Post - Comments Off

Stellar Data Recovery Technician – RAID data recovery software for Windows (Sponsored)

Stellar data recovery technician enter parameters

Stellar Data Recovery Technician is a RAID data recovery software that works on Windows 7, 8, 10, or 11 and can recover RAID data from RAID 0, 5, and 6 drives including deleted documents, photos, emails & more from RAID drives. The software can also recover data from lost or formatted RAID logical volumes, create bootable USB media to recover data from a crashed PC, and supports RAID arrays with NTFS, FAT, and exFAT file systems. It can be used whether you’ve accidentally deleted or lost RAID data, incorrectly rebuild a RAID array, or are starting to get RAID read/write errors while accessing data such as ‘Can’t read data from RAID disk’ or ‘Unrecoverable Read Error’ which can result in data loss. Stellar Data Recovery Technician key features: Recovers data from an inaccessible RAID volume – The program recovers data from logically corrupt and inaccessible RAID 0, RAID 5, and […]

June 15, 2023June 18, 2023 by Sponsored Post - Comments Off

56% off UPDF – An Adobe Acrobat Alternative for PC, Mac, iOS and Android (Sponsored)

UPDF is an all-in-one PDF editor that can read, annotate, edit and sync, convert, encrypt, sign, and organize PDFs. It’s a cross-platform software that works on Mac OS, Windows, Android, and iOS with one license working on all operating systems. The developers also plan to release AI features next month to automatically translate, summarize, write, rewrite, explain, and proofread PDFs quickly using the latest artificial intelligence development, but users can already benefit from a 56% discount for UDPF Pro as part of the Father’s Day promotion for which we’ll provide more detail at the end of this post. Key features of UPDF PDF Editor View and Read PDF – UPDF supports basic features of PDF readers such as opening and reading PDFs, printing PDF, searching for a text query, or even displaying a PDF as a slideshow. Edit and Sync PDF – As an advanced PDF editor, the program can […]

June 5, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Analog Discovery 3 – A 125 MS/s USB oscilloscope, waveform generator, logic analyzer, and variable power supply

Digilent Analog Discovery 3 is a USB oscilloscope with a sample rate of up to 125 MS/s, that can also be used as a waveform generator, logic analyzer, and/or a variable power supply up to 5V. Several other features are also enabled through its software and the USB-C oscilloscope can also act as a spectrum analyzer, a network analyzer, an impedance analyzer, a protocol analyzer, a data logger, a voltmeter, and supports in-app scripting. Analog Discovery 3 features highlights: Xilinx FPGA-based design Host interface – USB Type-C port Oscilloscope 2x differential channels with 14-bit resolution at up to 125 MS/s per channel with a +/-25 V input range, 30+ MHz bandwidth with BNC Adapter User-configurable input filters and lock-in amplifier FFT, Spectrogram, Eye Diagram, XY Plot views, and more Arbitrary Waveform Generator 2x channels with 14-bit resolution at up to 125 MS/s per channel with a +/-5 V output range, […]

May 25, 2023May 25, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Snagboot is an open-source cross-vendor recovery tool for embedded targets

Bootlin has just released the Snagboot open-source recovery tool for embedded platforms designed to work with multiple vendors, and currently STMicro STM32MP1, Microchip SAMA5, NXP i.MX6/7/8, Texas Instruments AM335x and AM62x, and Allwinner “sunxi” processors are supported. Silicon vendors usually provide firmware flashing tools, some closed-source binaries, that only work with their hardware. So if you work on STM32MP1 you’d use STM32CubeProgrammer, while SAM-BA is the tool for Microchip processors, NXP i.MX SoC relies on UUU, and if you’ve ever worked on Allwinner processors you’re probably family with sunxi-fel. Bootlin aims to replace all those with the Snagboot recovery tool. The Python tool is comprised of two parts: snagrecover using vendor-specific ROM code mechanisms to initialize external RAM and run the bootloader (typically U-Boot) without modifying any non-volatile memories. snagflash communicates with the bootloader over USB to flash system images to non-volatile memories, using either DFU, USB Mass Storage, or […]

May 5, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

PicoVNA 5 software for vector network analyzers supports Windows, Linux, MacOS, and Raspberry Pi

Pico Technology has released PicoVNA 5 control software for their vector network analyzers for Windows x86 64-bit, Mac, Linux x86 64-bit, and Raspberry Pi 3 and greater single board computers, superseding the Windows-only PicoVNA 3 software. As a Ubuntu user, I hate it when some hardware tool forces me to install software on Windows when there’s no Linux alternative, so any company that provides cross-platform tools is making the right move. I’m also not quite sure what a “vector network analyzer” (VNA) is, so I’ll first look into the PicoVNA 106 and PicoVNA 108 6/8.5 GHz VNAs from the company. PicoVNA 106/108 vector network analyzers highlights and specifications: Frequency ranges PicoVNA 106 – 300 kHz to 6 GHz PicoVNA 108 – 300 kHz to 8.5 GHz Up to 5500 dual-port S-parameters per second > 10 000 S11 + S21 per second Quad RX four-receiver architecture Up to 124 dB dynamic […]

March 31, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

STMicro STLINK-V3PWR debugging & programming probe supports power measurement

STMicro STLINK-V3PWR is a new in-circuit debugging and programming probe made for STM32 microcontrollers and that is said to provide accurate power measurement. The probe is especially useful for battery power IoT and wireless applications and is able to measure current values from nanoamps up to ~500mA with up to ±0.5% accuracy. The STLINK-V3PWR can also power the target over a single USB cable up to 2A. STMicro STLINK-V3PWR key features and specifications: 1‑Quadrant source measurement unit: Programmable voltage source from 1.6 to 3.6 V Output current rating 500 mA with over-current protection (OCP) at 550 mA Programmable sampling rate from 1 SPS to 100 kSPS Dynamic measurement 100 nA to 550 mA current 160 nW to 1.65 W power measurements 50 kHz bandwidth 1.6 MHz acquisition / 2% accuracy Compatible with EEMBC ULPMark tests Auxiliary output voltage source from 1.6 to 3.6 V under up to 2 A (no current measurement, OCP at 2.5 A) Debugging of […]