CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

June 21, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

SIM7020E 4G NB-IoT Mini Development Board Sells for Just $14

We now have plenty to choose from when it comes to NB-IoT development boards or shields, but so far pricing has not been very attractive, and the cheapest NB-IoT solution I found so far was probably Dragino NB-IoT Bee, a XBee compatible board going for $23. But this morning, I saw an even cheaper NB-IoT board with SIM7020E 4G NB-IOT Mini development board selling for $14.30 on Electrodragon. Not quite the price of 2G solutions, but we’re getting there. Board specifications: NB-IoT Module – SIMCom SIM7020E module working globally with B1/B3/B5/B8/B20/B28 bands supported Nano SIM card holder and u.FL connector for NB-IoT Expansion – 9-pin unpopulated 2.54mm pitch header with 2x UART (3.3V / 5V), ADC, Boot, 3.3V, 5V and GND USB – 1x micro USB port that can be recognized by PC, but as Electrodragon puts it: “not sure how to use it”. Misc – Net LED, power key […]

June 20, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Semtech SX1261/SX1262 LoRa Development Kit Now Available for $305

Semtech announced SX1261, SX1262 and SX1268 LoRa chips in January as updates to their current LoRa solutions with a lower footprint, better efficiency, and even longer range. Mass production and development kits were expected in March 2018, and today I found out Semtech SX1261/SX1262 development kit is sold on Mouser for $305. The SX126xDVK1CAS kit comes with the following items: 2x SX126xMB1xAS RF modules including an ST Nucleo Mbed board and a touchscreen 2x Mini-USB / USB connection cables 2x 868/915MHz antennas 2x Mini-USB cables 2x touchscreen styluses Read-Me Note The SX1261/SX1262 LoRa Transceivers offer continuous frequency coverage from 150MHz to 960MHz. You’ll find information to get started in the user guide. Basically, the two boards will show a menu on the touchscreen with radio test modes, settings and utilities (e.g. firmware update) as well as two demos: DEMO Ping Pong performs a bidirectional range test between the two radio […]

June 20, 2018June 20, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Raspberry Pi 3 and Movidius Neural Compute Stick to the Rescue Against Child Pornography

Warning note: While there won’t be any NSFW photos in this post, there will be some photos of ladies in light clothing (e.g. bikini) and “naked” animals for testing purpose… Intel released Movidius Neural Compute Stick allowing low power image recognition at the edge earlier this year, and we’ve seen it work just fine with Raspberry Pi 3 board delivering three times the performance against an inference solution leveraging VideoCore IV GPU. Christian Haschek owns a photo hosting site (PictShare) which happens to run open source code with the same name, and allows user to upload images anonymously. However, he soon found out that at least one user uploaded some child pornography. He contacted the authorities, but then wondered whether there may be others? Since there are simply too many photo on the website to look it up manually, he decided to look for a solution, and went with a […]

June 20, 2018June 20, 2018 by Karl Johnson - 1 Comment

YouTube Streams 1 & 2 Update, Plus Quick Fix for Uneven X Gantry

Hey Karl here with an update on the YouTube Live streams from last week. Live Streams Update The 1st stream went about as well as I expected….Not very well. I was really nervous and I broke the live link that was posted on here at the last minute. My whole reasoning for the Livestream was to show the processes in real time and not do too much footwork ahead of time. On the first one I was planning on migrating from Marlin 1.1.6 to Marlin 1.1.8 but I had already done lol… So I ended up migrating to the bugfix branch which presented additional challenges. Overall it was successful and I hope I conveyed the process. I was able to get it to print but I ended up going back to 1.1.8 due to some error in the bugfix branch that caused weird jittery movement. I will in the future […]

June 20, 2018June 20, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Dual Display Laptop Made Possible with DUO Add-on Display (Crowdfunding)

I’m using a dual monitor setup at home since it’s just more convenient and increases productivity, but when I’m on the go, I have to revert to the single screen on my laptop. The guys at Mobile Pixels decided it was not good enough, and worked on providing a solution that allows you to take that dual display setup on the go. This gave birth to DUO, a screen that attaches to the back of your laptop, and that you can slide to the left or right of your laptop’s screen to add another display whether you may happen to be. DUO display specifications: Display Size & Resolution – 12.5″, 1920×1080 pixels Rotation – 270º full rotation, 180° presentation mode Connection – USB type C for power and video signal Power Consumption – 1.6 Watts; 0.3W in “rest mode”. Dimensions – 32.5 x 21.8 x 1.2 cm (ABS plastic) Weight […]

June 19, 2018June 19, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Onenuts 4G LTE TV Box Comes with Optional Battery and Zigbee Connectivity

In some countries, especially in the Middle Easy and Africa, 4G LTE is a popular way of getting broadband Internet, and in the past we covered several 4G LTE TV boxes running Android such as WeTek Hyperion, SDMC DV8230-AP LTE, or Geniatech ATV329. Shenzhen Tomato now offers another options with their “Onenuts 4G-LTE Android OTT Set-Top Box” powered by Amlogic S905X processor, and that happens to come with a compartment for optional batteries. Onenuts 4G LTE TV box specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X quad core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz with penta-core Mali-450 GPU System Memory – 1GB or 2GB Storage – 8GB, 16G, or 32G eMMC flash; micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K UHD @ 60 Hz, AV output (composite) Audio – Video – 10-bit H.265 & VP9 Profile 2 4K @ 60fps, H.264 4K @ 30fps, AVS+ & H.264 1080p60 Connectivity […]

June 19, 2018June 19, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

$10 H801 WiFi RGB LED Controller Supports Sonoff-Tasmota Open Source Firmware

This week-end, I played with ANAVI Light Controller, an open source hardware solution based on ESP8266 used control 12V RGB LED strips. The board has the advantage of being open source with KiCad schematics, Arduino firmware, and HTML5 server program available, so easy to get started and modify the features as you see fit, and it also supports external I2C sensors via three headers. That’s a low volume project made in Eastern Europe and as a result the board costs $25, so I was shortly made aware there were cheaper solution, and if you are ready to mess around a little bit, H801 WiFi controller appears to be one of the most interesting solution as it sells for under $10 shipped on Aliexpress or eBay, and is officially supported by Sonoff-Tasmota open source firmware. H801 specifications: Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi (2.4GHz) with about 10 meter range Output – 5x […]

June 19, 2018June 19, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 29 Comments

ODROID-GO is an Arduino Compatible, ESP32 based Portable Gaming Console Kit

When I first saw Hardkernel made ODROID-GO portable gaming console, I immediately thought they did a Linux device ala PocketCHIP, since so far the company has only designed Android & Linux development board. But ODROID-GO game console is actually based on Espressif ESP32 WiSoC, programmable with the Arduino IDE, and launched to celebrate Hardkernel’s 10-year anniversary. ODROID-GO specifications: SoC – Custom ESP32-WROVER module with ESP32 SoC @ up to 240 MHz, 16 MB Flash, and 4MP PSRAM Storage – micro SD card slot connected via SPI Display – 2.4″ 320×240 TFT LCD (SPI) Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz – 2.5GHz, Bluetooth 4.2 BR/EDR, BLE Speaker – 0.5Watt 8Ω Mono USB – 1x micro USB port for charging (500mA) and USB-UART communication Expansion Port – 10-pin header with I2C, GPIO, IRQ at 3.3Volt Misc – Buttons: Menu, Volume, Select, Start, A, B, Direction Pad Battery – 3.7V/1,200mAh Li-Polymer good for […]