CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

May 15, 2025May 15, 2025 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - No Comments

SmartWings Smart Shade Review – An outdoor, solar-powered Matter shade tested with Apple HomeKit and Home Assistant

Recently, we received a custom-made-to-order smart shade from SmartWings for review. We never heard about SmartWings before, but the company claims to have been in the smart blind/shade and home automation industry for over 15 years. Their standout feature is the high degree of customisation they offer—whether it’s the type of shade, custom size up to almost 3 meters in width and height, various fabric styles, and compatibility with major Smart Home platforms like Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit, Samsung SmartThings, Home Assistant, and Hubitat. SmartWings asked us to select a location in the house where we wanted to review the smart shade. We wanted to review a solar-powered outdoor shade, so we selected a windowed door with direct sunlight. We carefully measured the dimensions following the instructions on the company’s website to understand the process. We had to select the shade type, privacy level of the fabric (openness), […]

May 15, 2025May 15, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

ZimaBoard 2 micro server review – Part 1: Unboxing, teardown, and ZimaOS interface

We’ve just received a review sample of the ZimaBoard 2 micro server and mini PC powered by an Intel Processor N150 “Twin Lake” CPU. The system features two 2.5 Gbps Ethernet ports, two SATA III ports, two USB 3.1 ports, and a miniDP video port supporting 4K resolution. IceWhale Technology provided us with the ZimaBoard 2 model 832 prototype with 8GB RAM and 32GB eMMC flash preloaded with the ZimaOS operating system for review. In this article, we will unbox the device and its accessories, perform a teardown, and boot the micro server with the pre-installed ZimaOS and check the web dashboard. In the second part of the review, we will test ZimaOS in more detail, run some benchmarks since it’s our first Twin Lake mini PC, install an Ubuntu virtual machine, test the SATA ports and PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, and more. ZimaBoard 2 unboxing We received a package […]

Graperain Samsung, Rockchip, and Qualcomm CPU modules, SBCs, and carrier boards

May 15, 2025May 14, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Backy is a nRF52840-powered wearable for real-time posture monitoring and injury prevention

TACNIQ Backy is an AI-enabled wearable monitoring device designed to reduce workplace injuries caused by improper lifting and posture, based on a Nordic nRF52840 wireless microcontroller and a 6-point piezo-resistive sensor array measuring direct force sensing. While most ergonomic tools rely on motion tracking or vision-based systems, Backy relies on direct force sensing and embedded AI inference, and the company claims it provides real-time, direct strain detection at a lower cost than competing solutions while keeping costs low and precision high. Backy specifications: SoC – Nordic Semi nRF52840 ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller with Bluetooth LE 5.0 Data Storage – Onboard, with local/cloud sync options Sensors – 6-point piezo-resistive pressure array + tilt sensing Feedback – 5G-force vibration motor for posture alerts Calibration – Auto-calibrates in ~3 seconds Connectivity – BLE 5.0, USB for charging and updates Features Optional SMS/Telegram supervisor notifications Open API (REST/Tag-based protocols) Security – End-to-end encryption; note: disabled […]

May 14, 2025May 21, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

M5Stack Tab5 Review – Part 1: Unboxing, teardown, and first try of the ESP32-P4 and ESP32-C6 5-inch IoT devkit

I’ve just received a review sample of the M5Stack Tab5 ESP32-P4 IoT development kit, which looks like a small tablet with a 5-inch touchscreen display, a 2MP front-facing camera, an ESP32-C6 WiFi 6, Bluetooth, and 802.15.4 wireless module, and various expansion interfaces. Today, I’ll go through an unboxing, a (partial) teardown, and have a quick try with the default firmware and GUI, before checking out how to program the device in the second part of the review. M5Stack Tab5 unboxing I received the Tab5 in its retail package along with an M5Stack-branded transparent sticky tape roll. Not sure why, but thanks M5Stack, sticky tape is always useful, so appreciated! The bottom side of the package has all the key features and specifications that we already covered in our article about the Tab5. The package contains the Tab5 itself, a 2,000mAh/14.8Wh battery, and a cable with six wires for the ExtPort2 […]

May 14, 2025May 14, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 32 Comments

$39 ODROID-C5 is a power-efficient Amlogic S905X5M SBC with 4GB RAM, no heatsink needed

Hardkernel ODROID-C5 is a lower-cost upgrade to the ODROID-C4 SBC with a faster and more efficient Amlogic S905X5M quad-core Cortex-A55 SoC clocked at 2.5 GHz, 4GB DDR4 RAM, and almost the same features as the previous generation Amlogic S905X3 single board computer. That means a microSD card slot and an eMMC flash module socket for storage, HDMI 2.0 video output up to 4Kp60, a Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port, four USB ports, and the usual 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header. ODROID-C5 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X5M CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ 2.5 GHz GPU – Arm G310-V2 GPU @ 850 MHz supporting OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.0 and OpenCL 2.0 VPU Video Decoding – 4Kp75 10-bit: AV1, H.265, VP9, AVS2; 4Kp30: H.264 Video Encoding – 1080p30 H.264 System Memory – 4GB DDR4 @ 3200MT/s Storage eMMC module connector with HS400 speed (16, 32, 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB modules available) MicroSD […]

May 14, 2025May 14, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

SiFli SF32LB52J big.LITTLE Arm Cortex-M33 Bluetooth MCU powers the Core Time 2 smartwatch

SiFli SF23LB52J is a Bluetooth 5.3 microcontroller part of the SF32LB52x family with two Cortex-M33 in big.LITTLE configuration with a 240 MHz high-performance core for user application/GUI and a 24 MHz low-power core to manage the Bluetooth part. A few months ago, Eric Migicovsky, the founder of the smartwatch company Pebble, and now Core Devices, introduced the Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2 smartwatches running PebbleOS open-source firmware that were mostly relaunches of the never-released Pebble 2 and Pebble Time 2 with some tweaks. We already knew the Core 2 Duo would be based on a Nordic nRF52840 Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller, however, the one for the Core Time 2 was kept secret. That’s until today, as Eric has just announced that the Core Time 2 would be based on the SiFli SF23LB52J MCU, since the smartwatch required an MCU with more RAM and processing power, and SiFli also offers […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025

May 13, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Root Commit releases free training materials on OpenEmbedded and Yocto using the BeaglePlay SBC

Michael Opdenacker, Founder of Root Commit, has published free and open-source training materials on OpenEmbedded and Yocto using the BeaglePlay SBC powered by a Texas Instruments AM625 processor. If the name rings a bell, it’s because Michael was the founder of Bootlin (previously Free Electrons) before selling the company to employees in 2021. He’s now started a new company called Root Commit, where he continues providing Embedded Linux training and development services. He’s kept the tradition of releasing free training materials, with the latest course being related to Yocto development on the BeaglePlay board. You’ll find resources on the Root Commit website with three files, including 220 pages of lectures, 18 practical labs for the BeaglePlay board and QEMU, and source code/patchsets released under a Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license. The course includes an introduction to the Yocto Project 5.0 and Embedded Linux, a Getting Started guide explaining how to […]

May 13, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Geniatech AP880 Edge AI embedded systems pair NXP i.MX 8M Plus SoC with 40 TOPS Kinara Ara-2 AI accelerator

Geniatech AP880 and AP880 Mini Edge AI Embedded Systems

Geniatech AP880 and AP880 Mini are two Edge AI embedded computers powered by an NXP i.MX 8M Plus AI SoC and a 40 TOPS Kinara Ara-2 AI accelerator for industrial edge applications that may benefit from AI acceleration in applications such as optical inspection. The AP880 is a single board computer design with the Ara-2 soldered on the board, while the AP880 has a modular design with a SMARC SoM, a carrier board, and an M.2 Kinara Ara-2 AI accelerator, likely Geniatech’s own AIM M2 M.2 module. Geniateach AP880 and AP880 mini specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Plus CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.8GHz, Arm Cortex-M7 real-time core @ 800 MHz GPU – Vivante GC7000UL OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, OpenCL 1.2, Vulkan support AI accelerator – 2.3 TOPS NPU VPU Encoder up to 1080p60 H.264, H.265 Decoder up to 1080p60 H.264, H.265 AI Accelerator – 40 TOPS […]