CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

June 3, 2019June 3, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Silicon Labs Demonstrates Bluetooth 5.1 Location Technology (Video)

Recently there are been advancements related to precise indoor positioning with the announcement for Bluetooth 5.1 and 802.15.4z. Both can provide 1 to 10 centimeters accuracy with minimal lag, and Bluetooth 5.1 achieves this through Angle of Arrival (AoA) and Angle of Departure (AoD) features and an antenna array. I had never seen the new feature in action, but Silicon Labs recently demonstrated Bluetooth 5.1 location technology at Arrow IoT summit with a DMX-512 connected light following a person carrying a Bluetooth 5.1 tag. It looks fairly accurate, and it does not have a 3-6 seconds lag like previous solutions based on earlier versions of Bluetooth? So what does one need to enable Bluetooth 5.1 location finding? First, we’ll need a Bluetooth 5.1 base station with an antenna array, The one used above includes a 16 antenna array (4×4 grid) used to calculated angles of departure and arrival and ultimately […]

June 2, 2019June 3, 2019 by Karl Johnson - 17 Comments

Review of Zonestar Z6 Low-cost 3D Printer

Ugh…I don’t like calling these reviews. I like to say that I am sharing my experiences with the products. I have a fair bit of experience under my belt using 3D printers now but still don’t consider myself an “expert”. I think that I have had about a dozen come through here. Anyway on with the show. Today we are going to look at a very economical 3D printer: the Zonestar Z6. I have to say I wasn’t expecting much. I read/ watch a lot of reviews about 3D printers and sub $100 printers aren’t typically very good. Gearbest recently had the Zonestar Z6 on sale for $99 that Jean-Luc recently posted here on CNX Software but is currently $120. Let’s see how it prints. Some assembly required I designed a spool holder but not very good. The whole printer rocks when the full spool is on it. The tiny […]

June 1, 2019February 16, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Shuttle EN01J is a Tiny Apollo Lake Mini PC Topped with a Large Heatsink

Many people don’t want heatsink, but in some case fanless designs do not allow for maximum sustained performance. This should not be a problem for Shuttle EN01J mini PC with a choice of 10W Apollo Lake processors, and a rugged design completed with a large heatsink topping the enclosure used to make sure the processor runs optimally for the target applications, which include digital signage, industrial automation, and visual recognition applications as reported by FanlessTech. Shuttle EN01J specifications: SoC (One or the other) – Intel Celeron J3355 dual core, Celeron J3455 quad core, or Pentium J4200 quad core processor with Intel HD graphic; 10W TDP System Memory – Up to 8GB LPDDR4 2,400 MHz Storage – Up to 64GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot Video Output – HDMI 1.4 up to 3840z2160 @ 30 Hz Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet (Intel) with optional POE-PD or POE-PSE, nano SIM slot for M.2 […]

May 31, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

ATTO is the Smallest Arduino Board Ever

We already have some really tiny Arduino compatible boards with for example OLIMEXINO-85S or μduino, with the latter holding the world’s smallest Arduino board crown for a couple of years at just 12×12 mm. But there’s a new “champion” in town now with ATTO board measuring just 11.5 x 10.4mm, and powered by Microchip ATmega32U4 microcontroller. ATTO board specifications: MCU – Microchip (Atmel) ATmega32U4 8-bit AVR microcontroller @ 16 MHz with 32KB flash pre-loaded with Arduino Leonardo bootloader (~4KB footprint), 2.5KB SRAM, 1KB EEPROM Expansion – 2x 8-pin 1.27mm pitch through holes for 12 digital I/Os, 4x PWM, and 4x analog input channels. UART, SPI, I2C/TWI, and ISP interfaces are also supported USB – Micro USB port for power and programming Misc – RGB LED via 3x PWM, Reset push-button Power Supply – Input: 4-13V DC via Vin, 5V via micro USB port; 3.3V operating voltage Dimensions – 11.5mm […]

May 31, 2019May 31, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Intel NUC Compute Element Merges Compute Card and Computer-on-Module Benefits

Intel unveils the Compute Card at CES 2017. The business-card-sized module was supposed to allow for easy upgrades or repairs of modular computers by inserting the Computer Card in a proprietary socket without having to open the computer or device. Linuxium posted a review of the Compute Card and dock back in 2018, and noted that while performance was good, the price was really excessive for most applications. The Intel Compute Card was eventually discontinued, and an article on PCMag does confirm one of the reasons was price: According to the Intel rep we spoke with, that sealed design and extra durability added nominally to the card cost but about $50 to each unit on the OEM side to incorporate the module, which stunted its adoption. The Compute Card was easy to insert and replace, but OEM’s have long had another option for upgrades: Computer-on-Modules. In x86’s world, this often […]

May 31, 2019May 31, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

ASUS Tinker Edge R Pico-ITX Board to Feature Rockchip RK3399Pro SoC

Just a few days ago, we wrote about ASUS Tinker Edge T board and other products from ASUS featuring Google Coral Edge TPU which were showcased at Computex 2019. It turns out the company is working on another Tinker with a processor featuring an neural network accelerator. Meet ASUS Tinker Edge R Pico-ITX SBC powered by Rockchip RK3399Pro hexa-core processor equipped with a 3.0 TOPS NPU. One of the reasons it did not get noticed is that ASUS may not have had a sample for display at the event, but instead only described the board in a brochure. [Update: ASUS Tinker Edge R was also showcased at Computex 2019] ASUS Tinker Edge R SBC preliminary specifications: SoC – Rochchip RK3399Pro hexa-core big.LITTLE processor with 2x Cortex A72 cores up to 1.8 GHz, 4x Cortex A53 cores @ 1.4 GHz, an Arm Mali-T860 MP4 GPU up to 800 MHz with OpenGL […]

May 30, 2019May 31, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

FriendlyELEC SOM-RK3399 Development Kit Targets AI & Machine Vision Applications

FriendlyELEC is better known for their low-cost tiny single board computers, but the company has also introduced systems-on-module in the past such as Smart6818 module powered by Samsung S5P6818 octa-core processor. The company has now launched another system-on-module with SOM-RK3399, which as its name implied features Rockchip RK3399 processor, as well as a corresponding carrier board mostly designed for artificial intelligence and computer vision applications. SOM-RK3399 System-on-Module Specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 big.LITTLE hexa-core processor with 2x Cortex-A72 cores up to 2.0GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 cores up to 1.5GHz, Mali-T864 GPU with support for OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL, DX11, and AFBC, and VPU capable of handling 4K VP9 and 4K 10bits H265/H264 60fps decoding, Dual VOP, etc System Memory – Dual-Channel 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC 5.1 flash Networking 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combo module (AP6356S), dual antenna interface Realtek RTL8211E Gigabit Ethernet transceiver USB – 2x USB-C […]

May 30, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Sony CXM1501GR ELTRES LPWAN Module Promises a Range of over 100 Km

While there are many LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) standards, three appear to dominate the news namely LoRaWAN, SigFox, and 3GPP NB-IoT/eMTC. They all offer long range and up to 10-year of battery life enabled by the use of low bitrate which is fast enough to send sensor data. We can now add another LWPAN standard to the list, as Sony has developed ELTRES wireless communication standard suitable for IoT networks, and announced their CXM1501GR ELTRES module with a range of over 100km, even while traveling at 100km/h. Key features and specifications: ELTRES Connectivity Antenna radiated power – 20mW Communication direction – Uplink only Frequency – 923.6 MHz to 928.0 MHz (23-channel frequency hopping) Main modulation system – π/2 Shift BPSK Sub-modulation system – Linear chirp modulation Transmission system – Four repeated transmissions of 0.4 sec or shorter packets Reduction of interference with other systems – CSMA (Carrier Sense […]