CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

December 8, 2019December 9, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 40 Comments

ROCK Pi SATA HAT Targets ROCK Pi 4 & Raspberry Pi 4 NAS

Raxda ROCK Pi 4 is a single board computer (SBC) powered by Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor and inspired by Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+. The company has now designed ROCK Pi SATA HAT expansion board to design 4-bay NAS based on Raspberry Pi 4 and ROCK Pi 4. There are 3 models with support for 2, 4 or 5 drives: Dual/Quad SATA HAT connected over two USB 3.0 ports and working with both boards Penta SATA HAT connected over PCIe and compatible with ROCK Pi 4 only ROCK Pi Dual/Quad SATA HAT Specifications: 2x or 4x SATA connectors supporting 2.5″ or/and 3.5″ HDD/SSD 2x USB 3.0 port to connect to RPi 4 via one or two JMS561 USB to SATA controllers Storage Features – HDD suspend mode, UASP, software RAID 0/1/5 Misc Fan and heatsink header for Raspberry Pi 4 CPU cooling Optional PWM control fan for HDD heat dispatching Optional OLED display for IP Address/Storage info Power Supply 1x …

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December 7, 2019December 7, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Getting Started with NVIDIA Jetson Nano Devkit: Inference using Images, RTSP Video Stream

Last month I received NVIDIA Jetson Nano developer kit together with 52Pi ICE Tower Cooling Fan, and the main goal was to compare the performance of the board with the stock heatsink or 52Pi heatsink + fan combo. But the stock heatsink does a very good job of cooling the board, and typical CPU stress tests do not make the processor throttle at all. So I had to stress the GPU as well, as it takes some efforts to set it up all, so I’ll report my experience configuring the board, and running AI test programs including running objects detection on an RTSP video stream. Setting up NVIDIA Jetson Nano Board Preparing the board is very much like you’d do with other SBC’s such as the Raspberry Pi, and NVIDIA has a nicely put getting started guide, so I won’t go into too many details here. To summarize: Download the latest firmware image (nv-jetson-nano-sd-card-image-r32.2.3.zip at the time of the review) …

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December 6, 2019December 6, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

$7 Sonoff D1 Smart Dimmer Switch Supports Mobile App, RF433 Remote, and Voice Assistants

Sonoff D1 Smart Dimmer Switch & RF433 Remote

ITEAD Studio Sonoff is a family of WiFi or/and 433 MHz RF connected smart home switches, sockets, light bulbs or other products for home automation. They are usually based on ESP8266 WiSoC and while the pre-loaded firmware works with eWelink Android/iOS app and popular voice assistant, it’s also possible to load open-source firmware such as Sonoff-Tasmota or ESPurna to add MQTT and other protocols in order to integrate those with home automation solution such as Domoticz, or something control those from your web browser. The company has now launched another Sonoff device, namely Sonoff D1 smart dimmer switch which – as its name implies – will allow you to dim incandescent and dimmable LED lights. Sonoff D1 smart dimmer switch specifications: Connectivity – RF433 and 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 Max Current – 1A Max Power – 400W for Incandescent lamp, and 150W for LED light Power Supply – 110V-230V AC input & output Mechanical Dimensions – 62 x 47 x 32.5 …

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December 6, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Nordic Semi nRF52832 Powered PineTime Dev Kit is Now Available for $24.99

PineTime was announced as a $25 smartwatch & companion for PinePhone Linux smartphone which itself sells for $150. PineTime specifications are still not frozen, but we do know it will be based on Nordic Semi nRF52832 or nRF52840 wireless SoC, come with a 1.3″ 240×240 capacitive touch display, and support a variety of operating systems such as ZephyrOS, FreeRTOS, Arm Mbed or NuttX depending on community involvement. So far it was not available for purchase, but in Pine64’s December update about their various projects, Lukasz Erecinski announced the PineTime dev kit is now available for pre-order for $24.99. PineTime Dev Kit specifications: WiSoC – Nordic Semiconductor nRF52832 ARM Cortex-M4F @ 64 MHz with 512KB Flash, 64KB RAM, Bluetooth 5.0 LE connectivity Storage – 4 MB SPI NOR Flash Display – 1.3″ 240×240 IPS capacitive touchscreen with 65K colors Sensors – Accelerometer, PPG Heart Rate Sensor Actuator – Vibrator Battery Built-in 170-180 mAh LiPo battery Charging via 2-pogo pin @ 5V/500mA …

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December 6, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c & 8c Processors Target Entry-Level & Mainstream Mobile PCs

Nearly exactly one year ago, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 8cx processor for always-on always-connected PCs, and lateron Qualcomm and UL released PCMark 10 benchmark results showing Snapdragon 8cx had similar performance to a 15W Intel Core i5-8250U Kaby Lake-R processor, but with much better efficiency. The price of such laptops is still fairly high with Samsung Galaxy Book S announced in August for $1,000, and possibly canceled at this stage. Microsoft SQ1 powered Surface Pro X tablet is the only system based on Qualcomm Arm technology (customized version of Snapdragon 8cx) available now, and also sells for $1,000 and up. Qualcomm has now unveiled Snapdragon 7c and 8c arm processor to address the entry-level and mainstream markets of connected mobile PCs. Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Specifications: CPU – Octa-core Kryo 468 processor @ up to 2.45 GHz GPU – Qualcomm Adreno 618 GPU DSP – Qualcomm Hexagon 692 DSP with Hexagon Vector eXtensions and Tensor Accelerator Memory – Up to 10GB …

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December 5, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Rikomagic MK25 Amlogic S922X TV Box Supports Digital Signage Features

Here’s another Amlogic S922X TV box. Rikomagic MK25 TV box & digital signage player comes with up to 4GB RAM and 32GB storage, HDMI 2.0 output, Gigabit Ethernet, and dual-band WiFi 5. Rikomagic MK25 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S922X hexa-core big.LITTLE processor with 4x Arm Cortex A73 cores @ up to 2.0 GHz, 2x Arm Cortex A53 cores, Arm Mali-G52MP6 (6EE) GPU; 12nm manufacturing process System Memory & Storage Configurations 2GB LPDDR4 RAM + 16GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot up to 32GB 4GB LPDDR4 RAM + 32GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60 Hz, 3.5mm AV port (composite) Video – AVE-10 engine with 4K UHD H.265/VP9/AVS2 video decoding up to 60 fps, Dolby Vision, Advanced HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, and PRIME HDR high-dynamic range support Audio – Optical S/PDIF, digital audio via HDMI, stereo analog audio via 3.5mm AV jack Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual-band 802.11 b/g/n/ac 2×2 …

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December 5, 2019December 6, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Marlin 2.0 Open Source 3D Printer Firmware Finally Released

Back in June, we wrote about Marlin 2.0 firmware supporting ESP32 3D printer board, but at the time the firmware was still in RC1 (Release Candidate) phase. I was informed Marlin 2.0 firmware had been in beta for several years now, but the good news is that Marlin 2.0.0 open-source 3D printer firmware has now been officially released. Some of Marlin 2.0.0 new features include: 32-bit support with several boards including Arduino DUE (SAM3X8E), Adafruit Grand Central (SAM5D), Smoothie / SBASE / EZBoard based on NXP LPC176x, SKR Mini powered by STM32, as well as ESP32 boards Some improvements were made to some AVR boards including Melzi (ATmega 1280), RAMPS (ATmega 2560), and RAMBo / miniRAMBo / Einsy RAMBo boards PlatformIO build environments for supported boards VSCode “Auto Build Marlin” extension for one-click build Power-Loss Recovery for SD print jobs Magnetic Parking Extruder support Magnetic Switching Toolhead and Toolchanger support Gradient Mixing and Gradient Virtual Tools Automatic power supply control …

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December 5, 2019 by Stephen Vicinanza - No Comments

Versalogic Owl Small Form Factor Apollo Lake Embedded Computer Targets Military & Industrial Applications

VersaLogic Owl VL-EPU-4012 Embedded System Computer In October 2019 we reported on the VersaLogic Harrier computer that was slightly bigger than a credit card. Just announced by the company is a new embedded computer system is being developed, the Owl. Basics of the VersaLogic Owl The intended uses are again industry and military-grade applications. The system uses ECC memory and the Embedded Processing Unit (EPU) format. The processing unit is an Intel Atom E39xx Platform, 5th Gen Apollo Lake processor with dual or quad-core options. Strength and Resilience The ECC memory is fixed to the board and can be up to 8 GB in size. This reduces the damage that can be caused by vibration and shock, making the system tough and resilient. Available Ports and Security Hardware-based security is through a TDM 2.0 chip. There are onboard power conditioning, mini-PCIe expansion sockets, analog inputs, standard USB 3.0 and 4x 2.0 host ports and Ethernet I/O ports. Form Factor of …

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