CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 29, 2015April 29, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

USBminiPower USB Power Supply Delivers 3 Outputs: 5V, 3.3V, and a Variable Output up to 14.3V (Crowdfunding)

Yesterday, I found out about a cheap 5V/3.3V USB power supply board, YwRobot MB-102, selling for $1 shipped on Ebay, but one person lamented the lack of 1.8V output, which may be required for example for modules like AsiaRF AWM002 that takes both 3.3V and 1.8V. One way is make your own power board, and get an expensive lab power supply, but I got a solution in my inbox this morning, with USBminiPower, as tiny USB power supply board with three output: 5V, 3.3V and a variable pin between 1V and 14.3V, as well as a 4 digit LED display showing the voltage and intensity just like Charger Doctor. USBminiPower specifications: MCU – Microchip PIC16 MCU (several are supported) Voltage outputs – 5V (from USB port), controllable 3.3V, and controllable & adjustable 1V … 14.3V Display – 4 Digit red LED to display intensity and voltage Max Power – 2.45 […]

April 28, 2015April 29, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Intel Atom Z3735F mini PC Power Consumption in Android

I’ve already measured power consumption running Antutu and playing a 4K video on Rockchip RK3288 and Amlogic S812 platform, as described in “Power Consumption of Amlogic S812 and Rockchip RK3288 TV Boxes“, and now that I have an Intel Bay Trail-T mini PC running Android 4.4 with Wintel W8, I was interested in comparing its power consumption to the ARM platform. [Update: I forgot to mention measurements have all been done @ ~5V.] The test normally consists in several steps: Boot the device Run the latest Antutu benchmark Connect a USB hard drive Play a 4K video in Kodi from the hard drive Diconnect the hard drive Power off the device But since the current draw was a little to high at times, I got a few issues with my setup. First, I had to boot twice hence the “Power On 1” and “Power On 2” strings on the chart, […]

April 28, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Ottobox Smart Wi-Fi Electric Socket Learns Your Schedule to Save Electricity (Crowdfunding)

There are already quite a few smart Wi-Fi electric sockets like Kankun KK-SP3, Broadlink SP2, or Orvibo Vivo S20 among others that cost between $20 and $45 shipped. They can all be controlled via an Android or iOS app either via the touch of a button, or by setting schedules, and some can also measure power consumption. But what they can’t do, is to automatically learn your schedule or habits, and detect whether you are at home or not, and that’s exactly what Ottoxbox has been designed to do. Ottobox hardware specifications: MCU – Unnamed ARM based micro-controller Connectivity – Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 Sockets and charging ports 1x 3-pin power socket 2x USB port to charge devices Misc – Multicolor LEDs Mains Voltage – Supports 120V / 220V / 230V and US & UK plug types, and possibly EU too (TBC) Dimensions – 10.80 x 3.8 x 3.8 cm […]

April 28, 2015April 28, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

ZTE ZX296702 Dual Core Cortex A9 SoC Boots Android in 10 Seconds with TuxOnice

ZTE XZ296702 is a dual core Cortex A9 processor with a Mali-400 GPU that targets Android set-top boxes and media players, and while Charbax filmed a video with ZX296702-AD1 development board at Linaro Connect HK, initial patchsets were recently submitted to the Linux ARM Kernel mailing list for XZ296702 SoC and the development board. There aren’t any product page for ZX296702 processor, so instead let’s have a look at the board’s specifications: SoC – ZTE ZX296702 dual core ARM Cortex A9 processor with Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 512 MB RAM Storage – 4GB flash + micro SD card Video Output – HDMI + AV (RCA) Audio Output – HDMI + Stereo audio (2x RCA) Connectivity – Ethernet and Wi-Fi USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports Power Supply – 5V Considering the board is running Android 4.4, the specs are quite low end, however the developers claim to have […]

April 27, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Marvell Introduces ARMADA 1500 Ultra SoC for 4K STB with Vivante GC7000XS GPU

Marvell has just unveiled another STB SoC with ARMADA 1500 Ultra (88DE3218) with four ARM Cortex A53 cores, and instead of using Mali or PowerVR GPUs like many competitors, they integrated an octa core Vivante GC7000XS 3D GPU anda Vivante GL520 2D GPU into the chip. The SoC is designed for 4K Android set-top boxes from PayTV operators and STB manufacturers, supports 4K UHD 10-bit HEVC and VP9 video codecs, and embeds a security processor supporting conditional access systems (CAS) solutions from Verimatrix, Widevine, PlayReady, and DTCP-IP. Key features listed for ARMADA 1500 Ultra: 2160p60 10 bit HEVC & VP9 Video Decode + 1080 PiP + Trancoding concurrently Quad Core ARM A53 64-bit CPU @ up to 1.5 GHz (Up to 14K DMIPs) with 1MB L2 Cache 8 core GPU, 8 shader Vivante GC7000XS supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.0/3/.1, OpenCL 1.2 and DirectFB. Includes HW tessellation and geometry shaders, optimized for […]

April 27, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Zidoo D1 Android DVB-T2 Set-top Box is Powered by ALI M3733 SoC

We’ve already seen Android set-top boxes powered by ALi M3733 dual core Cortex A9 processor with either DVB-T2 or DVB-S2 tuners. Zidoo, the maker of Zidoo X9 Android HDMI player and recorder, have unveiled a new model based on ALi processor dubbed Zidoo D1 that will come with a DVB-T2 tuner, and they’ve also released a video giving a better glimpse of the user interface used in ALi M3733 media players. The hardware specs are very similar to Uyesee L100T2: SoC – ALi M3733 dual core Cortex A9 processor with a dual core Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 512 MB or 1GB DDR3 Storage – 4 or 8 GB NAND flash Video & Audio Output – HDMI 1.4 up to 1080p + 3.5mm AV jack Tuner DVB-T and DVB-T2 with male and female IEC 169-24 connectors for loop and output. Frequency – 104-862MHz (VHF/UHF) Demodulation – QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM for DVB-T; […]

April 27, 2015August 8, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 46 Comments

Wintel W8 Review – Dual Boot Android & Windows TV Box

Wintel W8 (aka Kingnovel K8) is an Intel Atom Z3735F mini PC inspired from Sunchip Wintel CX-W8 (the hardware is a little different), but instead of just running Windows 8.1, the device can dual boot Android 4.4 and Windows 8.1 with Bing. I’ve already taken pictures or torn down Wintel W8, so today, I’ll focus on the software part of the review, first checking dual boot functionality and Windows 8.1 briefly since it should be very similar to MeLE PCG03, before spending more time on Android as it’s my first Android Intel platform. Dual boot in Wintel W8 When you boot the device, you can select Android or Windows icon, with a 10 second timeout that will boot your latest choice. There’s no menu within Windows to start Android, and vice versa, so to dual boot you need to reboot first, and select the operating systems right after UEFI. The […]

April 26, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Improve Mediatek MT6752 GPS Accuracy by Turning WiFi Off?

Mediatek smartphones used to have a terribly slow GPS fix, and it would often take over 10 minutes to get a fix if any, and one workaround was to enable Mediatek EPO. However, in my Iocean M6752 review, I found out GPS fix was not super fast even without Internet connection, but accuracy is quite a disaster as Nike+ Running screenshot below clearly shows. I’m running around a stadium so the shape should be elliptic…, but data point are all over the place. Since the review, I’ve kept using the smartphone with Nike+ Running, and each time it’s a disaster, and once the app even reported a 81 km for an actual 10 km run… I’ve also used Google Maps once or twice, and found accuracy to be poor as well. However, I usually leave Wi-Fi on, and for some reasons today, I decided to turn Wi-Fi off before driving […]