CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

June 19, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

$5 Ai-M62-12F-Kit RISC-V development board features BL616 WiFi 6, BLE 5.2, and Zigbee MCU, plenty of I/Os

Ai Thinker Ai-M62-12F-Kit is a development board based on Bouffalo Lab BL616 RISC-V microcontroller with 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 LE, and an 802.15.4 radio (Zigbee/Thread), plus thirty I/O pin for expansion. We had already covered the tiny Sipeed M0S module based on BL616 MCU earlier this year along with its M0S dock board that exposed eight GPIO pins via a 12-pin header, and the “NodeMCU” Ai-M62-12F basically offers the same features but with many more I/Os thanks to two 15-pin headers, as well as an RGB LED and two user-programmable LEDs. Ai-M62-12F-Kit specifications: MCU – Bouffalo Lab BL616 32-bit RISC-V (RV32IMAFCP) microcontroller @ up to 320 MHz (384 MHz overclocked) with 480KB SRAM, 4MB flash, 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 dual mode, and 802.15.4 radio (Zigbee) Antenna – PCB antenna USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and programming I/Os – 2x 15-pin headers with Storage […]

June 19, 2023June 22, 2023 by Sponsored Post - No Comments

Arylic H50 wireless stereo amplifier supports Airplay2, Amazon Alexa (Sponsored)

Arylic H50 is a new wireless stereo amplifier with an ESS9023p Sabre DAC and support for Airplay2, Amazon Alexa, and services such as Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect. It offers dual-band WiFi 4 connectivity, and Bluetooth 5.2 audio support through a Qualcomm QCC3040 SoC with aptX HD, supports 50W stereo speakers, and plenty of audio input sources from analog and digital audio ports to HDMI ARC, as well as NAS (DLNA) function and USB mass storage. Arylic H50 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm QCC3040 with 32-bit application processor @ 32 MHz, 32-bit system processor @ 32 MHz, Kalimba DSP @ 120 MHz, Bluetooth 5.2 and aptX HD support. DAC – ESS9023p Sabre DAC Display – 2.23-inch OLED display panel Connectivity 10/100M RJ45 port Dual-band (2.4GHz/5.0GHz) WiFi 4 (802.11 b/g/n) Bluetooth 5.2 with up to 15m range, suppport for aptX-HD, aptX-LL, aptX-AD, SBC, AAC Streaming Protocols – Works with Alexa, Spotify Connect, […]

June 19, 2023June 22, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

GEEKOM AS 6 mini PC review – Part 3: Ubuntu 22.04 Linux

We’ve already checked out GEEKOM AS 6 (ASUS PN53) mini PC’s hardware based on AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX CPU, have tested its performance and features in Windows 11 in the second part of the review, and we’ve now taken the time to review GEEKOM AS 6 (Ryzen 9 6900HX) with Ubuntu 22.04 Linux operating system.

We had to disable BitLocker disk encryption in Windows 11, before resizing the partition in the Disk Management program in order to install Ubuntu 22.04 from a USB flash drive. The installation went smoothly once we disable BitLocker.

Ubuntu 22.04 system information

June 18, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Station P2S Rockchip RK3568 mini PC adds support for 4G LTE cellular connectivity

Firefly’s Station P2S mini PC is a new variant of the Station P2 based on Rockchip RK3568 Cortex-A55 SoC that adds support for 4G LTE cellular data connectivity, but downgrades to WiFi 5 instead of WiFi 6, but only supports shorter M.2 2242 NVMe SSDs. The Station P2S still comes with up to 8GB RAM, 128GB eMMC flash, and supports dual Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 2.0 4Kp60 video output, 2.5-inch SATA 3.0 storage, and integrates a few USB 3.0/2.0 ports, plus an RJ45 jack for RS232 and RS485 serial interfaces. Station P2S specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with Arm Mali-G52 2EE GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.1, 1.0 TOPS NPU for AI acceleration, 4Kp60 H.265/H.264/VP9 video decoding, and 1080p60 H.265/H.264 video encoding System Memory – 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB LPDDR4 Storage 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB eMMC flash 1x […]

June 17, 2023June 17, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

i-Pi SMARC 1200 (MediaTek Genio 1200) devkit tested with a Yocto Linux image

i-Pi SMARC 1200 Yocto Linux glmark2 benchmark

Last weekend I received ADLINK’s i-Pi SMARC 1200 development kit powered by MediaTek Genio 1200 Octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 AIoT processor, checked out the hardware and wanted to install the Yocto Linux image but stopped in my tracks because it looked like I had to install Ubuntu 18.04 first in a Virtual Machine or another computer. But finally, the documentation has been updated to clarify “Ubuntu 18.04 or greater” is required, and I had no problem flashing the image from a Ubuntu 22.04 laptop after installing dependencies and tools as follows:

$ sudo apt install android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot
$ echo 'SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0e8d", ATTR{idProduct}=="201c", MODE="0660", $ GROUP="plugdev"' | sudo tee -a /etc/udev/rules.d/96-rity.rules
$ echo -n 'SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0e8d", ATTR{idProduct}=="201c", MODE="0660", TAG+="uaccess"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0e8d", ATTR{idProduct}=="0003", MODE="0660", TAG+="uaccess"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0403", MODE="0660", TAG+="uaccess" SUBSYSTEM=="gpio", MODE="0660",
TAG+="uaccess" ' | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/72-aiot.rules
$ sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
$ sudo udevadm trigger
$ sudo usermod -a -G plugdev $USER
$ pip3 install -U -e "git+https://gitlab.com/mediatek/aiot/bsp/aiot-tools.git#egg=aiot-tools"

$ sudo apt install android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot

$ echo 'SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0e8d", ATTR{idProduct}=="201c", MODE="0660", $ GROUP="plugdev"' | sudo tee -a /etc/udev/rules.d/96-rity.rules

$ echo -n 'SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0e8d", ATTR{idProduct}=="201c", MODE="0660", TAG+="uaccess"

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0e8d", ATTR{idProduct}=="0003", MODE="0660", TAG+="uaccess"

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0403", MODE="0660", TAG+="uaccess" SUBSYSTEM=="gpio", MODE="0660",

TAG+="uaccess" ' | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/72-aiot.rules

$ sudo udevadm control --reload-rules

$ sudo udevadm trigger

$ sudo usermod -a -G plugdev $USER

$ pip3 install -U -e "git+https://gitlab.com/mediatek/aiot/bsp/aiot-tools.git#egg=aiot-tools"

That’s it for the tools. Eventually, the development kit will support three images: Yocto Linux, Android 13 (July 2023), and Ubuntu 20.04 (Q3 2023). So that means only the Yocto Linux image is available from the download page at this time, and that’s what I’ll be using today. We’ll need to connect the micro USB to USB cable between the […]

June 16, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

ESP32 WiFi Color Display Kit Grande is a soldering kit with a 3.5-inch touchscreen display

ThingPulse “ESP32 WiFi Color Display Kit Grande” is an IoT soldering kit based on the company’s ePulse Feather low-power ESP32 development board and a 3.5-inch 320×480 color TFT display with a capacitive touch interface. The kit can be used for all sorts of touchscreen display applications, including an Internet-connected weather station or a Bluetooth-connected Windows, Linux, or Mac OS information display. ESP32 WiFi Color Display Kit Grande content: ePulse Feather low-power ESP32 development board with 8MB Flash and 8MB SPRAM following Adafruit’s Feather form factor 3.5-inch 320×480 color TFT display (ILI9488 display controller) with capacitive touch Interface (FT6236 chip) Custom connector PCB to connect the ESP32 and the display Set of special pin headers to be soldered to the connector PCB On-off switch to be optionally soldered to the connector PCB Grove connector to be optionally soldered to the connector PCB 4x double-sided foam adhesive to secure the display to […]

June 16, 2023 by Ian W MORRISON (Linuxium) - 7 Comments

Morefine M600 6900HX review – A Ryzen 9 6900HX mini PC tested with Windows 11 and Ubuntu 23.04

Under review today is Morefine M600 6900HX mini PC which is a generational update to the previously released S500+ (5900HX or 5700U) although it should be noted that Morefine will soon be releasing a newer version of the M600 with either a Ryzen 7 7840HS or Ryzen 9 7940HS. The current M600 (6900HX) brings both processor and iGPU improvements over the S500+ together with a couple of port upgrades and the welcome introduction of USB4, DDR5, PCIe Gen 4.0, and an additional M.2 storage slot. This review will look at Windows 11 performance together with a quick look at running Ubuntu 23.04 and experiences from using the new features. Morefine M600 6900HX product specifications The Morefine M600 6900HX specifications are as follows: Product overview Overview of hardware The M600 physically consists of a 149 x 145 x 40 mm (5.87 x 5.71 x 1.57 inches) square metal case with […]

June 16, 2023June 16, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

uSDR – A tiny M.2 SDR board controllable from your web browser (Crowdfunding)

uSDR is an embedded software-defined radio (SDR) M.2 board based on an AMD Embedded Artix-7 FPGA and designed to be controlled in the Chrome, Opera, or Edge browser without specific drivers or software thanks to WebUSB technology. The module can be inserted into any compatible host, or through M.2, USB, mini PCIe or PCIe adapters, and used from a web browser with ready-to-use applications such as a spectrum monitor or a signal analyzer, or your own JavaScript, C/C++, Rust, Go, or C# application thanks to WebAssembly and the Emscripten project. uSDR specifications: RFIC – Lime Microsystems LMS6002D programmable RF (FPRF) transceiver IC operates from 300MHz to 3.8GHz FPGA – AMD Embedded XC7A35T (Artix-7) FPGA with 33,280 logic cells Full-duplex TX & RX Frequency range – 300 – 3700 MHz (usable range typically starts from 230 MHz) RX/TX Bandwidth – 0.75 – 28 MHz plus bypass mode Clock generator – SI5332A […]