Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on Getting Started with WRTnode OpenWRT Development Board

Getting Started with WRTnode OpenWRT Development Board

Seeed Studio sent me two nice little boards that can be used for IoT development: WRTNode and LinkIt ONE. Today, I’ll show pictures of WRTNode and accessories, and go through the “starting guide“, and will test LinkIt ONE board a few days later. WRTnode Unboxing I’ve received WRTnode by Fedex, and the board is stored in a plastic box. Inside the box, you’ll find the board, a “special” USB used to power the board and as an OTG adapter, a piece of paper with useful links (Wiki), and some WRTnode stickers. Any micro USB to USB cable can be used to power the board, but this cable is useless to connect USB devices such as flash drives, webcams (OpenCV is supported), Bluetooth dongles, and so on. You could even connect a USB hub to connect multiple USB devices as shown below. I’ve also taken a picture of both sides of […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments on Mediatek Releases Linux Source Code for Android One Smartphones

Mediatek Releases Linux Source Code for Android One Smartphones

Android One is a program by Google aiming at bringing low cost smartphones to the emerging markets with firmware updates to the latest Android version guaranteed for two years. Three phones part of Android One program have recently been announced for the Indian market: Micromax Canvas A1, Karbonn Sparkle V, and Spice Dream Uno, and Android One phones will be available in Indonesia, the Philippines and South Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) by the year of the year. The three phones currently available sell for $100, which based on the specs (quad core processor, 1GB RAM, 4GB flash, 4.5″ display) is not exactly an aggressive pricing compared to what is already available from Aliexpress, but the main advantage here is clearly Google support with promised firmware updates, and currently Android 4.4.4. All these phones appear to be powered by Mediatek MT6582, and company decided to release the Linux […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on $39 PcDuino3 Nano ARM Linux Development Board Features HDMI, SATA, Gigabit Ethernet, Arduino Headers…

$39 PcDuino3 Nano ARM Linux Development Board Features HDMI, SATA, Gigabit Ethernet, Arduino Headers…

Linksprite recently announced PcDuino3 Nano development board powered by AllWinner A20 dual core processor. PcDuino3 Nano is, as you can expect, a smaller and cheaper version the company’s PcDuino3 board without Wi-Fi module, LVDS header, and I2S interface. The board does not appear to support Li-Po batteries either, but it adds one extra USB host port compared to its big brother. pcDuino3 Nano specifications: SoC – AllWinner A20 dual core ARM Cortex A7 @ 1.0 GHz with Mali 400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB DRAM Storage – 4GB NAND Flash, SATA connector, and microSD card slot (up to 32GB) Video Output – HDMI 1.4 with HDCP support Audio Out – 3.5mm analog audio interface Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet USB – 2x USB host, 1x USB OTG Expansion Headers – Arduino UNO extension interface with 14xGPIO, 2xPWM, 6xADC, 1xUART, 1xSPI, 1xI2C. Camera – MIPI camera support Misc – IR receiver Power […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments on MXQ S85 Android TV Box Based on Amlogic S805 is Available for $50

MXQ S85 Android TV Box Based on Amlogic S805 is Available for $50

Android media players powered by Amlogic S805 quad core processor such as TV110 are already pretty cheap at around $60, but there’s currently a deal on Gearbest where you can get MXQ S85 for less than $50 without Bluetooth and about $55 with Bluetooth by using BackToSchool8 coupon to get 8% discount. Prices include shipping. MXQ S85 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S805 quad core ARM Cortex A5 @ 1.5GHz with quad core Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage – 8 GB NAND flash + micro SD slot (up to 32GB) Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and optional Bluetooth 4.0. Video Output – HDMI 1.4, AV output Audio Output – HDMI, AV, optical S/PDIF USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports + 1 x micro USB OTG port Misc – IR sensor Power Supply – 5V/2A Dimensions – 11.4x 11.4 x 2.3 cm Weight – 137 grams […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on VIA ARTiGO 1300 Quad Core x86 Rugged Digital Signage Player

VIA ARTiGO 1300 Quad Core x86 Rugged Digital Signage Player

VIA has recently announced ARTiGO 1300, a rugged digital signage player powered by a VIA quad core E-Series x86 processor with VX11PH media processor, provides two HDMI outputs for independent displays, USB 3.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet and more. Beside digital signage applications, it can also be used for kiosks, menu boards, HMIs, and other IoT applications.   ARTiGO A1300 Specifications: Processor – VIA QuadCore E-Series @ 1.0 GHz Chipset – VIA VX11PH Media System Processor with Chrome 645/640 GPU for 2D/3D, and hardware video decoding  support (MPEG-2, WMV9, VC-1 and H.264) System Memory – 1x DDR3 1066/1333 SODIMM socket (up to 8GB) Storage – Support 1x 2.5” SATA SSD/HDD, 1x mSATA SSD. 32Mbit Flash memory for AMI Aptio UEFI BIOS. Video Output – 2x HDMI ports supporting resolutions up to 1920 x 1080 pixels. Dual independent HDMI display support. Audio – VIA VT2021 High Definition Audio Codec, Line-in and Line-out Connectivity […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments on Creating and Flashing an Android Image from Rockchip RK3288 SDK

Creating and Flashing an Android Image from Rockchip RK3288 SDK

Following up on my post explaining how to build Android for RK3288 TV box, I’ve generated a firmware image, and flashed it to Tronsmart Orion R28 Meta TV box to see if it could boot properly. There’s basically no information in the Andoird SDK explaining how to do basic things like building from source, and generating and flashing the resulting image, so I’d like to thanks Linuxium, Droidmote and Naobsd for their various tips. Since I’ve built everything from source, I’m using a Linux machine, but you should be able to create and flash the Android image in Windows using tools in RKTools/windows folder. First let’s copy the required, and freshly built, files to create the firmware:

We’ll also need to edit package-file follows (I only had to change the bootloader field):

And now create the firmware file:

The firmware file update.img can be flashed with upgrade_tool […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Android TV Overview – Linaro Connect US 2014

Android TV Overview – Linaro Connect US 2014

Google announced Android TV and ADT-1 devkit last June, as the company wants to bring user-friendly Android user-experience to TVs, set-top boxes and game consoles. Mark Gregotski, head of the Linaro Digital Home Group (LHG), has provided a technical overview of Android TV during the on-going Linaro Connect US 2014. You find a summary of yesterday sessions on Linaro’s blog, and the even will last until Friday, where several demos will be showcased. SoC companies currently involved in Android TV include Nvidia, Marvell, Qualcomm, Mediatek, Intel, Broadcom, and ST micro, so none of usual Chinese Android TV Box players (Rockchip, Amlogic, AllWinner…) are represented. Android (for smartphone) currently support video playback but you may experience dropped frame from time to time, where in the STB market requirements are not stringent. For example, NTT is said to only allow one frame dropped per month! So Android TV aims to improve video […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments on How to Build Android 4.4 for Rockchip RK3288 Devices (Tronsmart Orion R28)

How to Build Android 4.4 for Rockchip RK3288 Devices (Tronsmart Orion R28)

After blowing up my ATX power supply, and learning such things as “FULL” power supplies do exists, I finally managed to build Android for Tronsmart Orion R28 using the provided SDK. I haven’t tried to load it on the device yet, but the build could complete successfully after following the steps below in Ubuntu 14.04. The SDK is probably not specific to one device, so it might just also work on other RK3288 TV boxes and tablets. First download Android 4.4 SDK for RK3288, or use the one in the micro SD card provided with the Beta version of R28 Pro and Meta. Install some dependencies:

Extract the SDK:

And build the kernel first: Enter the kernel directory:

Change arch/arm/boot/dts/Makefile to use RK3288 device tree file instead of an RK3188 (may not be needed, but the build failed for me without that change…):

It’s also quite […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC