CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

November 8, 2018November 8, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Foldables to Get Official Support in Android, Samsung Unveils Infinity Flex Display

Several Android mobile device categories have been launched to the market with smartphones, tablets, phablets, smartwatches, etc… But there’s a new category coming soon: foldables. They will be two variants: those with two display side-by-side such as ZTE Axon M, and smartphone with flexible displays that bend and fold, and are likely to be more popular. Google has just announced official support for foldables in Android, and Samsung has unveiled their Infinity Flex Display for foldables. Android will support both variants of foldables. When folded, foldables look like normal phones, but when unfolded, the screen size doubles transforming the phone into a tablet of sort. Android will automatically resize the screen in a seamless fashion which Google calls “screen continuity”. You can start a video with the phone folded, and when you open it it will neatly switch to the bigger screen tablet-like experience. Several manufacturers will come with foldables, […]

November 8, 2018November 10, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 258 Comments

Giveaway Week – Libre Computer ROC-RK3328-CC Board

What will be the prize on the fourth day of this year’s giveaway week? Libre Computer ROC-RK3328-CC, a development board based on Rockchip RK3328 processor and mostly following Raspberry Pi 3 form factor. When I reviewed the board with Debian 9 last summer, I was mostly reminded how important fast storage and proper power supply were important. I had some kernel panic when using slow storage (micro SD card), but when I switch to the eMMC flash stability improved a lot. I also had some troubles with my USB 3.0 hard drive, but switching from a 5V/2A power supply to a 5V/2.5A power adapter solved most of my problems. Once I had “solved” those two issues the board worked fairly well, and Libre Computer always aims for mainline Linux support on their board, so that’s an advantage to take into consideration. The kit offered includes the board and heatsink, so […]

November 7, 2018November 7, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Rockchip RK3399Pro EVB and NPU Performance Demos (Video)

Rockchip RK3399Pro was announced as an updated version of RK3399 processor with an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) capable of delivering 2.4 TOPS for faster A.I. workloads such as face or object recognition. There haf been some delays in the past because of a redesign of the processor that placed the NPU’s RAM on the PCB instead of on-chip for cost reasons. Eventually we got more details about RK3399Pro, and today I also received a 15-page presentation with some more information about the software, and processor itself. But even more interesting, that’s the first time I see Rockchip’s official RK3399Pro EVB (Evaluation Board), and the guys at Khadas uploaded a video to explain a bit more about the board, and showcase the NPU performance measured up to 3.0 TOPS with an object recognition demo, and an “body feature” detection demo – for the lack of a better word – running in […]

November 7, 2018November 7, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Rakoit KM200 Karaoke Audio Mixer Supports 4K Videos

While there are plenty of karaoke systems on Aliexpress, it’s pretty hard to find one that supports 4K videos, and Rakoit KM200 karaoke audio mixer is one of the rare that do. You’d just need to add your own 4K TV box / media player / computer, 4K UHD television, one or two microphones, and you’re ready to go. Rakoit KM200 specifications: Audio & Video In/Out HDMI output and HDMI input with 4K2K video support RCA jack for composite and stereo audio output and input 2x MIC Line-in Controls – 2x MIC volume adjust button, main volume adjust, echo volume adjust, earphone slot Power Supply – 12V DC Beside audio mixing, the device works as an amplifier, and supports 1080p to 4K upscaling. The karaoke mixer ships with an HDMI cable, an RCA cable, and a power adapter. Rakoit KM200 now sells for $99 on Acrylic.com, but you’ll also find […]

November 7, 2018November 9, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 108 Comments

Giveaway Week – ESP32-LyRaTD-MSC Audio Misc HDK

ESP32-LyraTD-MSC is a smart audio hard development kit based on ESP32 WiSoC that I plan to send to one of my readers as part of Giveaway week. I had the chance to test ESP32-LyraTD-MSC with Baidu DuerOS voice assistant back in February which requires you to speak Mandarin, but now the board has become more useful outside of China with the release of Espressif ESP-ADF audio development framework and support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. To enter the draw simply leave a comment below. Other rules are as follows: Only one entry per contest. I will filter out entries with the same IP and/or email address. Contests are open for 48 hours starting at 10am (Bangkok time) every day. Comments will be closed after 48 hours. If comments are open, the contest is still going on. Winners will be selected with random.org, and announced in the comments section of […]

November 6, 2018November 6, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

ModBerry M2000 Industrial Computer Features UP Squared Apollo Lake Board

TECHBASE has been providing DIN rail mountable Arm and x86 based Modberry industrial computers / IoT gateways for several years. The company has now upgraded ModBerry M1000 model with an Intel Cherry Trail UP board to ModBerry M2000 computer featuring AAEON UP Squared board powered by either an Intel Celeron N3350 dual core processor, or Pentium N4200 quad core processor, both part of Intel’s Apollo Lake family. ModBerry M2000 specifications: SoC (one or other other) Intel Celeron N3350 dual core processor @ 1.10 / 2.40 GHz with Intel HD Graphics 500; 6W TDP Intel Pentium N4200 quad core processor @ 1.10 / 2.50 GHz with Intel HD Graphics 505; 6W TDP System Memory – 2, 4, or 8GB RAM Storage – 16, 32, 64, or 128GB eMMC flash, SATA connector and M.2 SATA socket Video Output – 1x HDMI Connectivity – 2x Gigabit Ethernet, with optional LTE/3G, WiFi, ZigBee, LoRa, […]

November 6, 2018November 8, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 117 Comments

Giveaway Week – CHOETECH 24W Foldable Solar Charger

The second item for this giveaway week won’t really be a maker product, although you could probably integrate it in your solar powered project, but it should be useful mostly for hiking or other outdoor activities: CHOETECH 24W foldable solar charger. That’s a battery-less foldable system with four solar panels delivering up to 24 watts that can be used to charge your phone or tablet through up to two USB ports. I found it to be easy to fit to my backpack, be rainproof, and I could charge my phone at about 5 Watts (5V/1A) under decent sunlight, so it’s mostly doing the job you’d expect it to do. To enter the draw simply leave a comment below. Other rules are as follows: Only one entry per contest. I will filter out entries with the same IP and/or email address. Contests are open for 48 hours starting at 10am (Bangkok […]

November 5, 2018November 6, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Khadas Edge RK3399/RK3399Pro Board Crowdfunding Campaign Launched

Khadas Edge is another upcoming Rockchip RK3399 board that we initially covered this summer, and comes with a particular design in the sense it is both a single board computer with USB and Ethernet port, and a system-on-module through its edge connector. Later on we found out, the company was working on a variant called Khadas Edge-V with the edge connector being replaced by a more standard 40-pin header, as well as Khadas Edge1S powered by Rockchip RK3399Pro for AI applications. The company has now launched the three boards and accessories through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. I’ve already covered the two RK3399 boards in previous post, and the RK3399Pro based Khadas Edge-1S (2GB RAM, 2x MIPI-CSI, …) will be similar to Edge board but with , so instead I’ll have a closer look at the specifications for Khadas Captain carrier board for Khadas Edge / Edge-1S: Edge connector – 314-pin […]