CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

December 10, 2020December 10, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Ollie USB board exposes isolated UART, CAN, USB, RS485 & RS232 interfaces (crowdfunding)

Just like months, we wrote about Tigard open-source USB FT2232H board for hardware hacking with easy access to OpenOCD, JTAG, Cortex, flashrom interfaces used to debug/flash boards, extra I/Os with UART, SPI, and I2C, as well as a header to connect a logic analyzer and observe signals. If the board does not exactly match your requirements, Ollie USB board might, also it may not serve exactly the same purpose(s). The board acts as a USB bridge to isolated UART (x2), CAN, USB, RS485, and RS232 interfaces. Ollie specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32F042 Arm Cortex-M0 microcontroller with CAN interface Host interface – Micro USB port Isolated interfaces (all with ESD protection) 2x UART ports up to 12 Mbps with 1.8/3.3/5 V voltage levels (set by slide switch) CAN bus based on CANable/CANtact open hardware, flashed with dual firmware CANtact and Candlelight (switch selectable) and equipped with termination resistor switch Downstream USB […]

December 10, 2020December 10, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

RISC-V hardware & software ecosystem highlights in 2020

The RISC-V Summit 2020 is currently taking place virtually, and RISC-V International, a non-profit corporation aiming to drive the adoption and implementation of the RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA), took the occasion to remind us of the growth of the ISA both in terms of commercial adaption, education, and other projects. Calista Redmond, CEO of RISC-V International, detailed the growth in memberships: This year, our technical community has grown 66 percent to more than 2,300 individuals in our more than 50 technical and special interest groups. We’re seeing increased market momentum of RISC-V cores, SoCs, developer boards, software and tools across computing from embedded to enterprise … We’re proud of our growing global membership, which has more than doubled in the last year to 1,000 total members, including 222 organizations.” RISC-V also launched the RISC-V Exchange now listing over 124 RISC-V cores, SoCs, and developer boards, as well as 129 […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

December 9, 2020 by Abhishek Jadhav - No Comments

What is Federated Learning in 5G C-V2X?

Implementation approach of Federated learning

In the past, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G with onboard sensors and GPS gave a huge start to the partial or conditional automation of the vehicles. In today’s era of 4G/5G C-V2X (Cellular vehicle-to-everything) with onboard compute and sensors have pushed the connectivity evolution in the automotive industry. Work has increased on high-automation and fully autonomous vehicles. This is all possible due to wireless communication which is 5G. 5G brings high bandwidth, ultra-low latency, and high reliability to the board. With these promises, it becomes very evident that these technologies, specifically with 5G that can be leveraged in vehicles. The technology is not just to connect vehicles, but also tries to see if a vehicle can connect to a network to get some information from the cloud servers. For the use case of vehicles platooning, we can expect a latency of 10 ms with 99.99% reliability and a high data rate […]

December 9, 2020December 9, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

$20 mini spot welder machine welds thin steel strips on battery packs

When I think about welding machines, I imagine fairly large units, protective gloves and masks, plus sparks coming out of the welding process when two metal parts are melted together. So when I saw a small “portable DIY mini spot welder machine” going for $25 on Banggood[update: or just under $20 shipped on Aliexpress], I thought to myself: “what is THAT”? It turns out it’s made for welding jobs with thin nickel-plated steel strips such as the ones that can be found attached to 18650 batteries, or full battery packs. Mini spot welder specifications: Controlled with by unnamed MCU Display – LCD with welding parameters: WELD ENERGY – 01-99 adjustable by up and down keys INPUT – Display input power voltage WELD WAY – Manual / Auto (adjustable with “square label” button) Based on 5x 300A MOSFETs 30cm 10AWG cables for welding pens 25V 10000uF high-frequency low-resistance capacitor to increase […]

December 9, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Foenix 21-5-inch Android 8.1 smart touch computer features MediaTek MT8167A Cortex-A35 SoC

Foenix Touch Console Mediatek MT8167A Smart Display

Earlier this week, we covered Wireless Tag’s Industio 7-inch smart display powered by a SigmaStar SSD201 32-bit Arm Cortex-A7 processor and offering both Ethernet and WiFi 4 connectivity. If you’d like a 64-bit processor, a much larger display size, and faster wireless connectivity, Innocomm has just introduced the “Foenix Touch Console” 21.5-inch open-frame touch computer based on the same MediaTek MT8167A quad-core Cortex-A35 processor as found in the PlayStation Classic, and capable of Ethernet and WiFi 5 (AC) networking. Foenix iCOM1019 touch console preliminary specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT8167A quad-core Cortex-A35 processor @ up to 1.5 GHz with PowerVR GE8300 GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 8GB storage, MicroSD card slot Display – 21.5-inch PCAP touchscreen display with 1920×1080 resolution Video Output – Optional HDMI 1.4a Audio – 2-channel 6W amplifier, 2x digital microphones, 3.5mm 4-pole audio jack Camera – Optional 2MP front-facing camera Connectivity 10/100M Ethernet (RJ45) […]

December 9, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

Google’s Fuchsia OS is now open to public contributions, gets a “roadmap”

We were first made aware of Fuchsia OS, an open-source operating system developed by Google, in 2016. At the time, nobody clearly knew what was the goal of the project, although some speculated it could be a Linux replacement. We first wrote about it in 2018, as Fuchsia OS added support for several Amlogic processors hinting that it may be used in TV boxes and media streamers. Google also launched a developer website in 2019 to provide more information and resources to people outside the company interested in trying it out. But while the OS development was always made in the open with the source code publicly available, Google did not accept contributions from the community so far. This has now changed, as the company just announced the expansion of Fuchsia’s open-source model to make it easier for the developer community to contribute to the project. Specifically, Google has set […]

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

December 8, 2020December 8, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Raspberry Pi 4 gets a 13MP 4K MIPI camera devkit for $99

The Raspberry Pi boards already have their official 4K MIPI camera with Raspberry Pi HQ camera based on a 12.3MP Sony sensor module that sells for $75 and up with a lens. But e-Con Systems still decided to launch their own 13MP 4K MIPI camera development kit for Raspberry Pi 4 which they currently sell for $99 plus shipping. At first, I dismissed the news, but let’s have a look if there may be some advantages in using that camera devkit. e-CAM130_CURB camera devkit specifications: e-CAM137A_CUMI1335_MOD 13.0 MP camera module with S-mount lens holder, ON Semiconductor AR1335 13MP 1/3.2″ CMOS image sensor Image Signal Processor (ISP) for auto functions such as auto white balance, auto exposure control as well as optional MJPEG compression. Resolutions and frame rates VGA (640 x 480) – 110 fps HD (1280 x 720) – 72 fps Full HD (1920 x 1080) – 60 fps 4K […]

December 8, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Android’s 3D mapping aided GPS enables improved urban GPS accuracy

One of the best features of smartphones is GNSS location with standards like GPS that allows you to get directions or share your location with friends or business contacts. It works great in most cases, but getting an accurate location may be challenging in urban areas due to tall buildings that block the signal to the satellites and create reflections. This can be an issue for ride-sharing apps for example, as the applications may detect the wrong side of the street you are on, either forcing the client to cross the street (when possible) or the driver to take a detour to reach your location. This problem may soon go away in Android phone thanks to 3D mapping aided GPS corrections. So how does that work exactly? Google explains: The 3D mapping aided corrections module includes tiles of 3D building models that Google has for more than 3850 cities around […]

Boardcon LGA3576 Rockchip RK3576 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications