CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

October 16, 2019October 17, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Khadas VIM3L (Amlogic S905D3) Benchmarks, Settings & System Info

Khadas VIM3L is the first Amlogic S905D3 SBC on the market and is sold as a lower-cost alternative to the company’s VIM3 board with a focus on the HTPC / media player market. Shenzhen Wesion was kind enough to send me a sample for review, and I’ll start by checking out benchmarks and system information in Android 9.0 Pie operating system. I also plan to perform a more detailed review with Android 9.0 and CoreELEC with a focus on media playback. I received the bare board only, and the first thing I did was to install it the heatsink I received for VIM3 and in turn, install it in the acrylic case. The company told me the heatsink is not really necessary “for normal purpose using like watch TV”, but it should be installed for performance tests and heavy workloads. I’d still recommend purchasing the heatsink to make sure it […]

October 16, 2019October 16, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Semtech SX1302 LoRa Transceiver to Deliver Cheaper, More Efficient Gateways

After our interview with Rak Wireless CEO, we received a comment inquiring about the availability of SX1302 gateways. Semtech so far had two LoRa transceivers for gateways namely SX1301 and SX1308, but I had never heard about a third one. Semtech SX1302 is brand new, the latest generation of baseband LoRa chip for gateways that is said to reduce current consumption in order to simplify the thermal design of gateways, as well as the BoM (bill of materials) costs), while being capable of handling a higher amount of traffic. Semtech SX1302 LoRa Transceiver Key features: Up to -141 dBm sensitivity with SX1250 Tx/Rx front-end 125 kHz LoRa reception with: 8 x 8 channels LoRa packet detectors 8 x SF5-SF12 LoRa demodulators 8 x SF5-SF10 LoRa demodulators 125 /250 / 500 kHz LoRa demodulator (G)FSK demodulator Direct interface to Semtech transceivers SX1255, SX1257 and SX1250 SPI host interface Single 32 MHz […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

October 16, 2019October 16, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Dragino LHT65 is a $30 LoRaWAN Temperature & Humidity Sensor

LHT65 LoRaWAN Temperature & Humidity Sensor

If you’d like to monitor temperature and/or humidity in remote locations, one way is to get a LoRaWAN gateway, and setup a few LoRaWAN nodes connected to your own temperature & humidity sensors, and add a battery and enclosure. But if you’d like to save some time, and get a turnkey solution, Dragino LHT65 LoRaWAN temperature & humidity sensor may be an option. The sensor comes with an internal SHT20 sensor, and as well as an external DS18B20 waterproof temperature sensor. Features & specifications: LoRa Connectivity Frequency Bands – CN470, EU433, KR920, US915, EU868, AS923, AU915 LoRaWAN Class A protocol Sensors Sensirion SHT20 (internal) Temperature – Range: -40 ~ 125 °C; 0.1°C resoultion; +/-0.3°C accuracy; long term drift < 0.02 °C/yr Relative Humidity – Range: 0 to 100%; resolution: 0.04%; accuracy +/-0.3%; DS18B20 (external) – Range: -55 °C~ 125 °C; resolution: 0.0625 °C; +/-0.5°C accuracy from -10°C to +85°C; +/-2°C […]

October 15, 2019November 13, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

$5 Tang Nano FPGA Board Features GOWIN GW1N “LittleBee” FPGA

Last year, we wrote about Lichee Tang FPGA board powered by Anlogic EG4S20 FPGA and targeting RISC-V development for just under $15. The company, now called Sipeed, has made an even cheaper FPGA board with Tang Nano equipped with GOWIN Semi GW1N FPGA part of the company’s LittleBee family. Sipeed Tang Nano Sipeed Tang Nano specifications: FPGA – Gowin GW1N-1-LV FPGA with 1,152 LUT4, 864 Flip-Flops(FF), 72Kbit Block SRAM, 4x B-SRAM, 96Kbit user flash, 1x PLL, 4x I/O banks System Memory – 64Mbit (8MB) 3.3V PSRAM Display – Standard 40-pin RGB LCD interface with on-board screen backlight driver circuit (default normally open, EN pin can be connected to FPGA) USB – USB Type-C port for download and power supply Expansion – 34 I/O ports and power pins on headers (unpopulated), breadboard-compatible Misc – RGB LED, 2x user buttons, 24MHz crystal oscillator Power Supply – 5V via USB-C port (at least […]

October 15, 2019October 15, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Intel Denverton based Fanless Network Appliance Comes with 6x Ethernet Ports, 2x SFP Cages

PL-82000 Denverton Fanless Network Appliance

Intel Atom C3000 “Denverton” processors were introduced in 2016 for low power servers and network appliances with four to sixteen cores, and in the following years, many products based on the SoC were launched including GIGABYTE MA10-ST0 server motherboard, AAEON FWS-2360 desktop network appliance, and Supermicro A2SDi-2C-HLN4F Mini-ITX motherboard among others. New Denverton platforms did not get much coverage on CNX Software in the last couple of years, and an article on LinuxGizmos reminded me those still existed, as US-based WIN Enterprises recently launched LP-82000 fanless network appliance powered by Intel Denverton C3338, C3558, or C3758 processor and featuring six Gigabit Ethernet ports, as well as two SFP cages. LP-82000 specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Denverton C3338 dual-core processor @ 1.50 GHz / 2.20 GHz (Turbo); 4 MB cache; TDP: 8.5 W Intel Denverton C3558 quad-core processor @ 2.20 GHz; 8 MB cache; TDP: 16 W Intel Denverton […]

October 15, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

LPWAN Market Update – An Interview with RAK Wireless CEO

CNX Software interviews Ken Yu, RAK Wireless’ founder & CEO, to learn more about the company and the current & future state of the LPWAN (Low Power WAN) market especially with regards to NB-IoT and LoRaWAN. CNXSoft: We’ve already covered several products from RAK Wireless on CNX Software, starting with WiFi IoT boards several years ago, and more recently LPWAN products based on NB-IoT or LoRa. But for readers who may not be familiar with RAK Wireless yet, could you provide a short description of what the company does? Ken Yu: RAKwireless was founded in 2014. The core founder team consists of professionals coming from established leaders in the Networking industry as Qualcomm, H3C, etc. Because our engineers have more than 10 years of experience designing Wi-Fi solutions, this was the core of our business in the beginning. RAKwireless is working towards a vision of a connected world and In […]

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

October 14, 2019October 14, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments

PiPo Snapdragon 850 2-in-1 Laptop to Sell for around $400

Current Qualcomm based Windows 10 laptops are mostly interesting for people wanting all-day battery life and/or being always connected over 4G LTE, as they are still pretty expensive, and performance somewhat underwhelming, although Snapdragon 8cx processor should change that. Chinese-based PiPo, known for their tablets, mini PCs and Arm Android laptops, is working on solving affordability of Arm Windows 10 laptop with their Snapdragon 850 2-in-1 laptop, heavily inspired by Huawei MateBook E 2019, and expected to sell for half the price or around $400. PiPo 2-in-1 laptop preliminary specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 octa-core Kryo 385 Arm cores clocked @ up to 2.96 GHz with Adreno 630 Visual Processing Subsystem, Hexagon 685 DSP Systmem Memory – 8GB RAM Storage – 256GB flash storage Display – 12.3″ IPS display with 3000×2000 resolution, 10-point touch Audio – 3.5mm audio jack, Connectivity – WiFi 5 802.11ac/b/g/n + 4G LTE Camera – […]

October 14, 2019October 14, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Rockchip RK2108 Smart Audio Dock Converts Tablets into Smart Displays

Last April, Rockchip published a roadmap to 2020 with processors such as RK3588 Cortex-A76/A55 or RK3530 quad-core Cortex-A55 SoCs. Part of the roadmap was also Rockhip RK2108 Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller with an Audio DSP which did not get as much coverage. The company has now announced RK2108 based smart docks that convert tablets into smart display / speakers so that they can be waken-up and controlled by voice commands. Rockchip RK2108 audio MCU supports A/D audio interface, MIPI DSI/MCU LCD interface and USB2.0 interface, and comes with the following key features: Built-in audio DSP for voice/audio signal processing Audio pre-processing, active noise reduction, AEC, etc… for improved voice recognition Customizable wake-up words and offline instructions Ultra-low power consumption in both standby and operating modes The RK2108 smart dock pictured above connects to compatible Android tablets over USB or Bluetooth, and turns those into smart display products that can handle voice […]