CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

July 14, 2018September 28, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments

ROC-RK3328-CC Board Review, or the Case for Fast Storage and Adequate Power Supply

Firefly team from T-chip company has send me some of their Rockchip development boards, and we’ve already checked the provided boards and accessories, so today I’ll report my experience with one of the board: ROC-RK3328-CC also known as Renegade. I won’t test it with Android, since I have already reviewed RK3328 Android TV boxes such as Zidoo X7, and I’ve been told the team is hard at work with Android 8.1 SDK, so an Oreo image should be released in a few weeks/months. So I had initially planned to report my experience with one of the Linux images, then show how to install mainline Linux (currently 4.17) to the board, and reports what works. However, I encountered many issues, although likely not directly related to the board or its software support, so instead I’ll write about my experience getting started with the board, and list all the issues I had […]

July 13, 2018July 14, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 42 Comments

Pine64 Launches a $45 Dual SATA NAS Enclosure for ROCKPro64 Board

ROCKPro64 is one of the most affordable Rockchip RK3399 boards, as you can purchase it for as low as $60 with 2GB RAM, and $80 with 4GB RAM. Pine64 – the company behind the board – also offers add-on boards such as a PCIe card to connect up to two SATA drives. The company has now leveraged the latter in their ROCKPro64 metal desktop/NAS casing specifically designed for ROCKPro64 boards, and capable of holding two 2.5″/3.5″ SATA drives.Key features of ROCKPro64 Desktop/NAS case: Compatible with ROCKPro64 boards only SATA – Accommodates either 2x 2.5″ SATA drives or 2x 3.5″ SATA drives or a mix of 2x 2.5″/3.5″ SATA drives Power Supply – 12V DC Dimensions – 232.4mm (Width) x 105.0mm (Height) x 145.2mm (Depth) The case also ships with 2 SATA data cables, and a custom designed power supply cable as shown below. However, the company also notes that ROCKPro64 […]

July 13, 2018July 13, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

Renegade Elite (ROC-RK3399-PC) RK3399 Single Board Computer Launched for $99 on Indiegogo

Libre Computer and Firefly Team previously collaborated on Renegade (ROC-RK3328-CC) board powered by a Rockchip RK3328 quad core Cortex A53 processor and mostly following Raspberry Pi 3 form factor. We already knew both companies worked again on another Rockchip RK3399 single board computer, and were expected to launch it in July via a crowdfunding campaign. The good news is that Libre Computer has just launched Renegade Elite (aka ROC-RK3399-PC) SBC on Indiegogo. Renegade Elite board specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 hexa core processor with 2x Arm Cortex-A72 @ up to 2.0 GHz + 4 Arm Cortex-A53, Arm Mali-T860MP4 with OpenGL ES 1.1 / 1.2 / 2.0 / 3.1 / 3.2 and OpenCL 1.2 support System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 SDRAM Storage – eMMC 5.x interface for storage modules up to 128GB, micro SD card slot, and 128Mbit SPI NOR flash Video Output / Display I/F HDMI 2.0 connector Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) […]

July 12, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

LEORY 3G USB Dongle Sells for Just $9.99

When Orange Pi 3G-IoT SBC was launched, I looked at 3G USB dongles to make a comparison with a similar setup based on a Raspberry Pi Zero W board and an inexpensive 3G USB stick, and the cheapest I could find was a refurbished HUAWEI E3533 model now selling for around $16 shipped. But I’ve just found one fairly cheaper with LEORY 3G USB dongle offered for only $9.99 including shipping on Banggood. Specifications listed on Banggood: Cellular Connectivity 3G UMTS/ HSDPA + 2G GSM/EDGE Frequency bands 2G – 850/900/1800/1900MHz 3G – 2100 MHz (Band 1) Transfer rate -7.2Mbps downlink SIM card slot Storage – micro SD card storage up to 16GB USB – 1x USB 2.0 port Dimensions – 9 x 3 x 1 cm Temperature Range – Operating: -20°C ~ +55°C; storage: -30°C ~ +65°C Relative Humidity – Up to 93% The dongle is said to be supported […]

July 12, 2018July 12, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Banana Pi BPI-M2+ V1.2 Board Improves Power Management

When people decided which development board to purchase for their project / use case(s), the often look at the processor, memory, storage, and the external ports, as well as I/Os. However, very few people look at the PMIC (Power Management IC) on the board, as it’s normally an afterthought. Development boards can work without PMIC, instead relying on a single fixed voltage, and for many people that may be good enough, but for more demanding tasks it may lead to either lower performance or overheating issues. Modern processor all rely on DVFS ( Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling) in order to adjust both the voltage and frequency of the processor depending on the load. This is done to optimize power consumption and/or manage the power budget, and overheating may lead to CPU throttling, where the system lowers the frequency and/or operating voltage in order to avoid damaging the processor. I’m […]

July 12, 2018July 12, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

A Closer Look at NVIDIA Jetson Xavier Developer Kit (Video)

NVIDIA unveiled Jetson Xavier module and devkit last month, but the company did not release the full information, and for example we did not get any clear photo of the module and kit. Charbax did shot a video with more details at the time, but NVIDIA has now published more information about their upcoming $1,299 Jetson Xavier Developer Kit, including an introduction video which I’ll embed at the end of this article. The first thing to understand is that the module is not actually used in the developer kit, and will only used in actual mass-produced products. The main difference is the thermal solition. The development kit including a large heatsink, while the production module has a thermally conductive plate to let product designer select the most suitable thermal solution for their products. The specifications are still basically the same. For Jetson Xavier (production) module: SoC – NVIDIA Jetson Xavier […]

July 11, 2018July 11, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

NetBSD ARM64 Images Now Available with SMP for Raspberry Pi 3, Some NanoPi Boards, and Pine64 Boards

NetBSD on Arm started in 2014 with the release of version 7.0, and last year device tree support was implemented and tested on some Allwinner H3 boards. But apparently, so far NetBSD only supported 32-bit Arm, with initial support for 64-bit Arm (ARM64) committed last April, but good progress has been made, and NetBSD ARM64 bootable firmware images are now available with SMP (multi-core) support. Eight different NetBSD ARM64 images can be downloaded: Generic NetBSD 64-bit image for Raspberry Pi 3 and NVIDIA Tegra X1 Two images for FriendlyELEC boards namely NanoPi NEO2 and NEO Plus2 boards Five images for the following Pine64 boards and hardware platforms Pine A64/A64+ Pine A64-LTS / Sopine with baseboard Pine H64 Pinebook laptop ROCK64 (ROCK64Pro not yet supported) The supported hardware matrix shows most features are supported, but there are still a few things missing such as GPU, crypto and MIPI CSI on all […]

July 11, 2018July 11, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

This Soldering Pen Board with Audio Jack Supports Weller RT Tips

The 3.5mm audio jack may be slowly disappearing from new mobile phones, but I’ve recently discovered they were also used in some soldering irons such as the upcoming TS80 USB soldering iron succeeding TS100 model. I initially thought it was a custom design from the maker of TSxxx soldering irons, but this morning I’ve come across the “RT Soldering Pen” board which also features a 3.5mm (audio) jack and can be used to make your own soldering iron by 3D printing your own enclosure, adding some power source, and inserting one of the many Weller RT tips available into the jack. RT soldering pen board specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32F031 Arm Cortex-M0 micro-controller Display – 0.91″ OLED display with 128×32 resolution Compatible with all Weller RT tips with 3.5mm jack. Set-point temperature – 20°C – 400°C with about +/-5°C accuracy (calibration is planed) Maximum measurable temperature – 500°C Heating speed […]