Sonoff S26 WiFi Smart Plug Works in All/Most Countries, Sells for under $10

Sonoff-s26-wifi-smart-plug-europe-usa

One recurring issue with smart plugs / sockets is that they are often designed with a specific prong type, so if you want to use them in our country you may have to add an adapter, which may not be ideal, since the socket may fall off or have bad contact. Sonoff S26 WiFi smart plug solves that issue as ITEAD Studio made it available in six different versions for China, Australia, United Kingdom,  Europe type F, Europe type E, and the United States. Sonoff S26 specifications: Standard – US/ UK/ CN/AU/ EU(type F/E) Power supply – 90V~250V AC @ 50/60Hz Max. Current – 10A Max power – 2200W Connectivity – 802.11.b/g/n 2.4G WiFi with WEP/TKIP/AES encyprtion, WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK security Dimensions – 104 x 55 x 73 mm (Fire Retardant ABS enclosure) Weight –  130 grams Temperature Range – 0ºC-40ºC Humidity-  5%-90%RH, Non-condensing Certification – CE Just like other Sonoff devices, […]

ESP32-Sense Kit Lets You Experiment with ESP32 Touch Interface

Beside support for Bluetooth, one the other extra benefits of Espressif ESP32 over ESP8266 is the presence of a touch interface in the newer processor. If you are interested in that specific features, Espressif Systems has worked on ESP32-Sense kit that provides a main board with ESP32, and several touch enabled daughter boards. Board descriptions in the kit: Motherboard with ESP32 module (ESP-WROOM-32),  a 3-digit display unit,  a debug unit, USB port for power, switches, an RGB LED, and expansion headers. 5 daughterboard: linear slider duplex slider wheel slider matrix buttons spring buttons. Developers could even design and add their own daughterboards to connect to the motherboard’s touch header. A good way to get started with your own board is to check out ESP32 Sense Kit reference design files with Cadence/OrCAD Capture V16.6 schematics, and Mentor Graphics/Pads VⅩ.2 PCB layout files. But if you are just interested in the software […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC

ZiP (zGlue Integration Platform) Enables the Design & Manufacturing of Low Cost Custom Chips

When I first started to read about zOrigin on Crowdsupply, I was not really impressed. Meh… Yet another Bluetooth LE fitness tracker with a few sensors, and an Android app. But as I read further, I found out the interesting part was inside the device: ZGLZ1BA, a custom chip manufactured using ZiP (zGlue Integration Platform) chip-stacking technology, which produces something similar to SiP (System-in-Package) but at a much lower cost and manufacturing lead time. But let’s have a look at zOrigin tracker first, which acts as a demonstration / evaluation platform for ZiP technology. Key specifications & features: “SoC” – ZGZL1BA ZiP with Dialog Semiconductor DA14585 16MHz 32-bit ARM Cortex M0 MCU with BLE Analog Devices AD8233 Heart Rate Analog Front End (AFE) Macronix MX25R4035F 2 Mbit Flash Memory MCube MC3672 Accelerometer Maxim MAX77734 Power Managment IC (PMIC) SiTime SIT1552 32 kHz Oscillator Vishay SI8466EDB MOSFET 30 passive components Package […]

Arduino Unveils its First FPGA Board with MKR Vidor 4000, Updates UNO WiFi Board with ATmega4809 MCU

Arduino has been busy with new boards announcements in the last week, as after introducing MKR WiFi 1010 and MKR NB 1500 IoT boards with respectively WiFi + Bluetooth, and NB-IoT + eMTC connectivity, the company has now unveiled two new boards. MKR Vidor 4000 is the very first official Arduino board with an FPGA, while UNO WiFi Rev2 is an upgrade of UNO WiFi board featuring the new Microchip ATmega4809 MCU and an U-blox wireless module instead of an ESP8266 chip. MKR Vidor 4000 Preliminary specifications: FPGA part FPGA – Intel Cyclone FPGA with 16K Logic Elements, 504Kbit of embedded RAM and 56 18×18 bit HW multipliers for high-speed DSP System Memory – 8 MB SDRAM Storage – 2 MB QSPI Flash (1MB for user applications) Micro HDMI connector MIPI camera connector mini PCIe connector with up to 25 user programmable pins MCU – Microchip SAMD21 Cortex-M0+ 32bit low […]

R-TV BOX S10+ is an Android 8.1 TV Box with a Built-in Qi Wireless Charger

S10-R-TV-BOX-Wireless-Charging

A couple of years ago we wrote about ECS Live Station, an Intel Bay Trail mini PC with an integrated wireless charger that can be used to charge any compatible smartphone. But as I was checking out new arrivals feed, I found out there was now a TV box that does the same thing. Apart from the wireless charger placed on top of the device, R-TV BOX S10+ is pretty much a standard 4K TV box based on RK3328 processor: SoC – Rockchip RK3328 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz with Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 4GB RAM Storage – 32 GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDR10 and HLG support, 3.5mm AV port (composite) Video Codec – 4K VP9, H.265 and H.264. 1080p VC-1, MPEG-1/2/4, VP6/8 Audio – Via HDMI, AV port (stereo […]

Spreadtrum SC9863 Octa-core Cortex A55 Processor is Made for LTE Smartphones

Arm unveiled Cortex A55 cores about a year ago, and while we have seen the new cores combined with Cortex 75-class cores in premium smartphone processors such as Exynos 9810 SoC, I had yet to see a standalone Cortex A55 processor that should deliver a performance boost compared to A53, while keeping the costs in check, and providing good power efficiency. Spreadtrum has filled this void with their SC9863 processor equipped with eight Cortex A55 cores clocked a 1.6 GHz, and designed for LTE smartphones. Performance is said to be improved by 20% compared with their Arm Cortex-A53 processor, and the SoC also embeds an AI processing unit that increases AI tasks performance by 6 times, and allows for real-time intelligent context detection and recognition, AR photography, and face recognition. Spreadtrum SC9863 also features a dual ISP capable of handle dual cameras of up to 16 MP, supports 1080p HD […]

UP 7000 SBC

UMIDIGI Z2 Pro is one of the first Smartphones based on MediaTek Helio P60 SoC

MediaTek unveiled Helio P60 Cortex A73/A53 processor with AI HW acceleration a few months ago, and we were promised smartphones would start selling in Q2 2018. Mediatek’s partners seem to be right on schedule, as several MediaTek Helio P60 smartphones have now been announced, including UMIDIGI Z2 Pro, which we’ll cover in this post. Specifications for UMIDIGI Z2 Pro smartphone: SoC – MediaTek Helio P60 big.LITTLE octa-core processor with four Arm Cortex-A73 up to 2.0 GHz, four Arm Cortex-A53 up to 2.0 GHz, Arm Mali-G72 MP3 GPU at 800MHz, and a multi-core AI processing unit System Memory –  6GB RAM Storage – 128GB flash, micro SD slot up to 256 GB Display – 6.2″ FHD+ (1080 x 2246) display with 403 PPI Camera 16MP + 8MP rear camera, 5-element lens, Samsung sensor, dual LED flash, face recognition 16MP + 8MP front-facing camera,  ƒ/2.0 aperture, Sony sensor, face recognition Video recordings […]

HP t430 Thin client Works with a Single USB Cable

Gemini Lake mini PCs are starting to sell and ship, and from the look of it, HP t430 appears to be yet another Gemini Lake mini PC based on an Intel Celeron N4000 processor. But the device is actually a thin client that has been designed to work with a single USB type C cable for power, video and audio. HP t430 specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N4000 dual core processor @ 1.1 GHz / 2.4 GHz with Intel UHD Graphics 600 System Memory – Up to 4GB DDR4 RAM Storage – 16 GB to 32 GB Flash memory Display – HDMI, DisplayPort 1.2, USB type C DisplayPort Alt-mode Audio – Headphone/microphone mini-jack Networking – Gigabit Ethernet, and WLAN USB – 3x USB type A ports, 1x USB type C (DisplayPort 1.2, USB 3.1, charging) Misc – Power button, Kensington lock Power Supply – 19V DC, 45 W, worldwide auto-sensing, 100-240 […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC