usb

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments on ORICO COM2-T3 review – A 40Gbps SSD enclosure tested with a 7000MB/s M.2 NVMe SSD

ORICO COM2-T3 review – A 40Gbps SSD enclosure tested with a 7000MB/s M.2 NVMe SSD

ORICO COM2-T3 40Gbps SSD enclosure review

ORICO sent me a COM2-T3 SSD enclosure capable of 40 Gbps speeds for review along with the company’s 1TB O7000 NVMe SSD rated at up to 7000MB/s read speed which converts to about 56 Gbps and should be plenty enough to test 40 Gbps SSD enclosure. Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 are not always equivalent But before going into the review itself, here’s some background information. When I test the USB-A and USB-C ports in mini PC reviews, I rely on an ORICO M234C3-U4 NVMe SSD enclosure with an Apacer SSD. That enclosure was falsely advertised as a “USB4″ enclosure but still works at 40Gbps with an Intel JH7440 Thunderbolt 3 chip that works with 40 Gbps USB Type-C ports and a JMS583  “USB 3.1 Gen 2 to PCIe NVMe Gen3” bridge for USB 3.0 ports up to 10 Gbps. I always assumed a 40Gbps USB-C peripheral would always work with […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Olimex USB-SERIAL-L is a USB-to-serial debug board with CTS/RTS pins, up to 3Mbps baud rate, adjustable voltage from 0.65V to 5.5V

Olimex USB-SERIAL-L is a USB-to-serial debug board with CTS/RTS pins, up to 3Mbps baud rate, adjustable voltage from 0.65V to 5.5V

OLIMEX USB-Serial-L

There are already many USB-to-TLL debug boards on the market, but Olimex USB-SERIAL-L open-source hardware USB-to-serial board is more advanced than most with not only Tx/Rx pins, but also CTS/RTS pins, support for up to 3 Mbps speeds, and an adjustable voltage from 0.65V to 5.5V to cater to a wide range of boards. Olimex USB-SERIAL-L specifications: USB-to-serial chip – Silicon Labs CP2102N Seven signal lines – +5V, GND, CTS, RTS, TX, RX, Vref Baud rate from 50bps up to 3Mbps Output buffers with adjustable levels from 0.65 up to 5.5V USB – USB Type-C port for power and connect to host Misc – Power, Tx, and Rx status LEDs Power Supply Input – 5V via USB-C port Output – +5V to the target Dimensions – 35 x 35 x 8 mm (Custom 3D printed plastic box) Seven 200 mm long cables The Vref signal is used to adjust the […]

Posted on by Debashis Das - 1 Comment on Waveshare RP2350-GEEK USB development board doubles as a debugger for Raspberry Pi and other Arm boards

Waveshare RP2350-GEEK USB development board doubles as a debugger for Raspberry Pi and other Arm boards

Waveshare RP2350 GEEK Development Board

Waveshare has recently launched the RP2350-GEEK USB development board which can also be used as a debugger for Raspberry Pi boards and other Arm-based targets. Built around the Raspberry Pi RP2350 MCU this development board/debugger features a 1.14-inch 65K color IPS LCD, a USB Type-A interface, a microSD card slot supporting SDIO and SPI communication, 16MB NOR-Flash, and multiple interfaces, including 3-pin SWD, USB to UART, and I2C ports. The board is compatible with standard CMSIS-DAP debugging tools like OpenOCD, which attaches to Raspberry Pi’s 3-pin debug connector for debugging. It also features open-source firmware for easy upgrades. Housed in a plastic case, the development board looks like a USB drive and is suitable for debugging, testing, and firmware development in IoT, embedded systems, and educational projects. Waveshare RP2350-GEEK Raspberry Pi debugger specifications Microcontroller – Raspberry Pi RP2350A MCU CPU – Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 processor @ 150MHz Memory – 520KB internal RAM […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 24.04 on a low-cost mini PC

GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 24.04 on a low-cost mini PC

GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite Ubuntu 24.04 review

We have already checked the hardware of the GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite mini PC in the first part of the review, before testing the low-cost Intel Processor N100 mini PC with its 8GB RAM and 256GB SATA SSD running Windows 11 Pro in detail in the second part. We’ve now had time to test the GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite with Ubuntu 24.04 in the third and final part of the review. We’ll test the features in Linux, run some benchmarks, evaluate storage and network performance, play some 4K and 8K videos in YouTube playback, perform a stress test to check its thermal design, and finally measure the mini PC’s fan noise and power consumption. We’ll also compare the results in Linux to the earlier GEEKOM Mini Air12 mini PC with the same CPU, but better specs and a higher price. A challenging Windows 11 / Ubuntu 24.04.1 dual boot installation […]

Posted on by Sayantan Nandy - 2 Comments on SparkFun introduces Quadband GNSS RTK Breakout board with Quectel LG290P module for high-precision navigation

SparkFun introduces Quadband GNSS RTK Breakout board with Quectel LG290P module for high-precision navigation

SparkFun Quadband GNSS RTK Breakout

SparkFun has released the Quadband GNSS RTK Breakout featuring the Quectel LG290P module designed for high-precision real-time kinematic (RTK) applications. It supports GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BDS, QZSS, and NavIC constellations, with the ability to simultaneously receive signals from L1, L2, L5, and L6/E6 frequency bands. The module includes support for SBAS augmentation systems (e.g., WAAS, EGNOS, GAGAN) and PPP services (e.g., BDS PPP-B2b, QZSS CLAS), delivering reliable positioning with fast convergence times for precision navigation tasks. The breakout board offers a compact design (43.2 x 43.2mm) and multiple expansion options including 24 PTH pins, dual 4-pin JST Qwiic connectors, three UART interfaces, a USB-C connector, and additional PTH pins for BlueSMiRF/Serial-to-UART. With its RTK support and advanced GNSS capabilities, the board is ideal for applications requiring high-accuracy positioning and robust navigation performance. Previously, we covered several GNSS boards including the SparkFun GNSS L1/L5, u-blox EVK-LEXI-R10, and Conexio Stratus Pro and […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on SoundSlide capacitive touch USB-C adapter aims to ease volume control on laptops

SoundSlide capacitive touch USB-C adapter aims to ease volume control on laptops

USB-C capacitive touch volume control

SoundSlide is an open-source hardware USB-C adapter that adds a capacitive touch interface to your laptop or keyboard PC in order to control the volume without having to reach out to the volume keys on the keyboard that may require Alt or Fn presses. SoundSlide is meant to be more intuitive than pressing keys and works without drivers with macOS, Windows, and Linux. At just 20.9 x 6.9 x 3.5 mm in size excluding the USB Type-C port, you can leave it connected to your laptop when you move around or put the laptop in your backpack. The SoundSlide relies on the touch interface from the Microchip SAM D11 Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller, and the company behind the project – Drake Labs – has made the firmware, schematics (PDF/WebP), and a command-line interface written on Go available on GitHub. You can check out how it works on a laptop in the […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on High-speed data acquisition with Raspberry Pi Pico 2’s HSTX interface and HDMI to USB 3.0 video capture dongle

High-speed data acquisition with Raspberry Pi Pico 2’s HSTX interface and HDMI to USB 3.0 video capture dongle

Raspberry Pi Pico 2 high-speed data acquisition

We previously explained the HSTX high-speed serial transmit interface of the Raspberry Pi RP2350 microcontroller was mostly useful for video outputs and display interfaces since it can only transmit, and not receive data. But Steve Markgraf found another use case for the HSTX interface – high-speed data acquisition – combining a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 board with the DVI Sock board for Pico and one of those cheap MS2130-based HDMI to USB 3.0 video capture dongles. He managed to stream out up to 75 MB/s of real-time data from an overclocked RP2350 to a host computer with a USB 3.0 port. The Adafruit Feather RP2350 HSTX board should also work, but also not been tested. Steve’s “hsdaoh-rp2350” data acquisition over HDMI firmware is based on the dvi_out_hstx_encoder example from Raspberry Pi using the HSTX interface for DVI output and code by Shuichi Takano implementing the HDMI data island encoding required […]

Posted on by Sayantan Nandy - 1 Comment on EDATEC ED-GWL1010: Amlogic S905X4-based PoE-enabled LoRaWAN gateway targets Smart Buildings and IoT applications

EDATEC ED-GWL1010: Amlogic S905X4-based PoE-enabled LoRaWAN gateway targets Smart Buildings and IoT applications

ED-GWL1010 LoRaWAN gateway

The AMLogic S905X4 SoC is typically found in TV boxes, but EDATEC has integrated the quad-core Cortex-A55 SoC into its ED-GWL1010 LoRaWAN IoT gateway designed for smart buildings and industrial IoT networks requiring long-range, low-power connectivity. The ED-GWL1010 is built around the ED-REIMEI1 single-board computer, combining a mainboard and an expansion board. It integrates Semtech’s latest SX1302/SX103 baseband chip and a Microchip ATECC608 security chip for enhanced protection. The gateway offers up to 8GB LPDDR4 and 32GB of eMMC storage. For connectivity, it supports dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, 10/100Mbps Ethernet with PoE, and a mini PCIe slot for a LoRa module compatible with both American and European LoRa frequencies (US915, AU915, AS923, EU868). It also features USB 3.0, an RGB LED indicator, a user button, and flexible power options through a 7-18V DC input or PoE. The ED-GWL1010 operates reliably in temperatures ranging from -25°C to 50°C and is housed […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC