CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 22, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

FFmpeg 4.0 Released with Initial AV1 Support, aptX, etc..

Whenever you are playing videos on a machine running Linux, Android or Windows, chances the software is at least partially using code from FFmpeg, a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The developers just outed a new major release FFmpeg 4.0 “Wu” which adds new filters, more hardware features, drops Windows XP and ffserver, implements initial AV1 codec support, aptX, TiVo ty+, and more. FFmpeg 4.0 includes the following libraries version:

libavutil      56. 14.100
libavcodec     58. 18.100
libavformat    58. 12.100
libavdevice    58.  3.100
libavfilter     7. 16.100
libswscale      5.  1.100
libswresample   3.  1.100
libpostproc    55.  1.100

libavutil 56. 14.100

libavcodec 58. 18.100

libavformat 58. 12.100

libavdevice 58. 3.100

libavfilter 7. 16.100

libswscale 5. 1.100

libswresample 3. 1.100

libpostproc 55. 1.100

and some of the main changes include: Bitstream filters for editing metadata in H.264, HEVC and MPEG-2 streams Experimental MagicYUV encoder TiVo ty/ty+ demuxer Intel QSV-accelerated MJPEG encoding & overlay filter native aptX and aptX HD encoder and decoder NVIDIA NVDEC-accelerated H.264, HEVC, MJPEG, MPEG-1/2/4, VC1, VP8/9 hwaccel decoding mcompan & acontrast audio filters OpenCL overlay filter video mix filter video normalize filter audio lv2 wrapper filter VAAPI MJPEG and VP8 decoding […]

April 21, 2018April 24, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Run Linux Apps in (PixelBook) Chromebook with Crostini VM

Ever since the first Chromebooks were released, it has been possible to run Ubuntu or other Linux distributions using Crouton (Chromium OS Universal Chroot Environment) on Chrome OS devices, but that requires to enable developer mode, which disables some of security features that come with Chrome OS. Google has now make it easier and safer with Crostini VM that does not require developer mode. The only downsides for now are that it only works on Google Pixelbook, and you need to install/run Chrome OS v67 dev channel with the #enable-cros-container flag enabled. Using Crostini is fairly straightforward. First start crosh terminal with Ctrl++Atl+t, and running the following command to create a VM, and launch a container:

vmc start dev
run_container.sh --container_name=stretch --user=<username> --shell

1 2	vmc start dev run_container.sh --container_name=stretch --user=<username> --shell

This will start a Debian Stretch environment with networking and GUI support, so you can install & run programs like you would in Debian (e.g. apt install htop). Kevin Tofel at AboutChromebooks managed […]

April 20, 2018July 19, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

RAK8211-NB iTracker Battery / Solar Powered Module Comes with NB-IoT & Bluetooth 5 Connectivity, GPS, and 5 Sensors

Rak Wireless has recently launched a new products called RAK8211-NB iTracker based on a Quectel BC95-G NB-IoT module, Nordic Semi nRF52832 Bluetooth 5 chip, and Quectel L70-R GNSS module. The asset tracker module also comes with 5 different sensors to monitor motion and environmental data, and can optionally be powered directly by a solar panel.RAK8211-NB iTracker specifications: Connectivity NB-IoT via Quectel BC95-G (Global) wireless communication module + SIM card socket Bluetooth 5 via Nordic Semi nRF52832 Arm Cortex-M4F micro-controller (Arduino compatible) GPS/GLONASS via Quectel L70 GNSS module Sensors LIS3DH 3-axis “nano” accelerometer LIS2MDL 3-axis digital magnetic sensor. Tilt sensor BME280 pressure, humidity and temperature sensor OPT3001 intensity of light sensor Expansion – 3x headers with SWD, 2x sensor out + tilt out (also usable as GPIO and analog inputs), 3.3V, GND, and reset Power Supply – 3.5V to 18V via solar panel (P2) or battery (P3) Dimensions – 43mm x […]

April 20, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Allwinner VR9 SoC is Specifically Designed for Extended/Virtual Reality Headsets

Virtual reality headsets have been powered by application processors designed for smartphones, tablets, or even TV boxes. For example last year, I reviewed a low cost VR headset good enough to watch 360 / VR videos, but not gaming that was based on Allwinner H8 TV box processor. But we’ve previously seen Allwinner was working on VR9 & VR10 processors specifically designed for virtual reality headsets with launches scheduled for Q4 2016 and Q2 2017. There’s obviously been some delays, but the company also now formally launched Allwinner VR9 quad core Cortex A53 processor specifically designed for XR and VR headset (Extended / Virtual reality). Allwinner VR9 key features & specifications with parts that look specific to XR/VR highlighted in bold: CPU – Quad-Core Arm CortexM-A53 @ 1.8GHz with 32KB L1 I-cache + 32KB L1 D-cache per core, 512KB L2 cache, CoolFlex power management architecture GPU – Arm Mali-T760 @ […]

April 19, 2018April 20, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

AAEON GENE-APL7 3.5″ Intel Apollo Lake Board Features Up to 12 COM Ports and 10 USB Slots

If you have an application requiring a relatively powerful – yet low power – and compact platform, and plenty of USB and/or serial ports (COM ports), AAEON GENE-APL7 might just be ideal. The 3.5″ subcompact board is powered by an Intel Pentium N4200 or Celeron N3350 processor with a SO-DIMM slots, some video/display outputs, two USB 2.0 ports, eight USB 2.0 interfaces, and up to 12 COM ports. AAEON GENE-APL7 board specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Pentium N4200 quad core Apollo Lake processor @ with Intel HD Graphics; 6W TDP Intel Celeron N3350 Apollo Lake processor with Intel HD Graphics; 6W TDP System Memory – 1x DDR3L-1866MHz SODIMM up to 8GB Storage – SATA 3.0 interface, 1x mSATA slot (full size) for SSD Video Output / Display I/F VGA, 2-ch 24-bit LVDS1, optional LVDS2/eDP 12V/2A backlight inverter supply Audio – High Definition Audio Interface, optional 2W Amplified Connectivity […]

April 19, 2018April 19, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Hardkernel Now Offers $48 ODROID-MC1 Solo Board for Clusters

Hardkernel launched ODROID-MC1 (My Cluster One) at the end of last year with four ODROID-XU4S boards powered by Samsung Exynos 5422 processor with Gigabit Ethernet, metal cases, and a cooling fan. As the name implies it is designed for cluster of boards, but the company found out that one size (4 boards) does not fit all, so they are now offered ODROID-MC1 Solo with one ODROID-XU4S board and stackable case to provide more flexibility to their customers. Here’s a reminder of the specifications: SoC – Samsung Exynos 5422 quad core ARM Cortex-A15 @ 2.0GHz quad core ARM Cortex-A7 @ 1.4GHz with Mali-T628 MP6 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.0 / 2.0 / 1.1 and OpenCL 1.1 Full profile System Memory – 2GB LPDDR3 RAM PoP Storage – 1x micro SD slot (UHS-1 capable) Network Connectivity – 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet (via Realtek RTL8153 USB 3.0 to Ethernet bridge) USB – 1x USB 2.0 […]

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

Alfawise JD-T8610-Q2 is Both a WiFi Light Bulb and 360° IP Camera

IP cameras and WiFi light bulbs are pretty common nowadays, but Alfawise JD-T8610-W2 combines both in a single device. The 3W white light bulb can be controlled with your Android/iOS smartphone to adjust the light, and a 360° camera with IR night vision is also built into the light bulb. Specifications: Camera + audio 1.3MP fisheye lens camera with 360° field of view (FOV) Built-in microphone and speaker Video / Audio format – H.264/AVI 960×960 @ 20 fps + audio (no format specified) Functions Interphone Motion detection up to 4 meters Night vision via 3 IR LEDs up to 8 meters Real-time video capture and recording Remote control Screenshot Storage – micro SD card slot up to 64GB Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n WiFi with WEP, WPA, WPA2 encryption, 10 meters range Protocols: DHCP, TCP/IP, RTSP Light – 3x 1W white light Power Supply – 110-240V via E27 socket (5V DC internally) […]

April 18, 2018July 24, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

hIoTron Modular & Enterprise IoT Development Kit is Designed for Fast Prototyping

hIoTron modular & enterprise IoT development kit is described by the company has a “fully pre-programmed prototyping kit for quickly building and testing your IoT concept” with plug-n-play module allowing for flexible prototyping. Beside the hardware comprises of a gateway and nodes, the kit also integrates with the company’s enterprise IoT Platform enabling easy design of custom mobile application & GUI dashboard. The company offers standard, advanced, and custom kits, but to keep things simple, let’s focus on the content of their standard kit first: Hi-Gate IoT gateway: WiSoC – Texas Instruments CC3200 Arm Cortex-M4 @ 80 MHz with 1MB flash, 256KB RAM Storage – 1MB serial flash, 512KB EEPROM Connectivity 802.11 n/g/n Wi-Fi, 2G GSM/GPRS (optional 3G/4G), ZigBee, BLE 4.0, sub-1GHz RF/NON RF to REST/MQTT gateway Expansion – 2x GPIO port pins, 2x analog port pins Power Supply – 9-12V DC 3x modular Hi-Nodes (up to 25 supported per […]