CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

October 14, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Gumstix Expands Raspberry Pi Support with Stepper Motor, Breakout Board, LoRa PoE, and Yocto Linux

Gumstix has recently released of three new expansion boards compatible with Raspberry Pi boards and Compute Modules: Gumstix Pi Stepper HAT for 4-wire stepper motors Gumstix Pi Newgate breakout boards exposing all I/Os of Raspberry Pi Compute Module and Compute Module 3 Gumstix Pi Conduit PoE adding PoE support to their LoRa gateway kit based on RisingHF RHF0M301 LoRa concentrator module. The company also offers a custom Yocto 2.2 (Morty) Linux images with support for their Pi HATs and Compute Module carrier boards. Gumstix Pi Stepper HAT The expansion board is designed with the 40-pin header for Raspberry Pi products, and includes Texas Instruments DRV8846, a 4 – 18V, 1.4A stepper motor driver with 1/32 microstepping providing rotational accuracy below a tenth of a degree, and 6,400 distinct positions. The board supports 6 to 36V batteries via a 3-pin headers, includes 256 kbit serial EEPROM, and can be used for […]

October 13, 2017October 13, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

STEGO BOARD Enables Neat Prototypes with Development Boards and Accessories (Crowdfunding)

If you’ve ever created a quick prototype for your own use, or for your company, you may have based it on a development board, and added some extra modules or add-on modules, as well as potentially accessories such as hard drives or power supply. Software is complete and it works, but it may look like a mess, and transporting it may cause cables to disconnect or other problems. STEGO BOARD should help in this case. It’s some kind of mounting systems compatible with the most common boards like Raspberry Pi 3, Rock64, or ASUS Tinkerboard, mini-ITX motherboards, mini PCs with VESA mounts, 2.5″ and 3.5″ drives, and so on. So you can create prototypes like the ones below. Six different products are available: STEGO BOARD 102 – 2 layers of the smaller board with 106 parts (stands, screws, zip ties). Can be used with mini PC, development board, up to […]

October 13, 2017October 13, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

The New Pi-Top Modular Laptop includes a 14″ Display, Sliding Keyboard, and Better Cooling

Pi-Top was first launched in late 2014 via an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, as a modular DIY laptop powered by a Raspberry Pi board. It’s equipped with a 13.3” LCD screen with 1366×768 resolution, and uses a sliding top cover placed between the display and the keyboard where you could insert your Raspberry Pi with enough space for extra hardware. This is a good week for DIY ARM laptops, as after the launch of Olimex TERES-I laptop yesterday, Pi-Top team has announced a new version of Pi-Top modular laptop with an larger 14″ display with 1920×1080 resolution, a sliding keyboard, and better cooling with a passive cooling unit for the Raspberry Pi 3 board. Pi-Top 2017 laptop specifications: Display – 14” full HD LCD screen with 1920 x 1080 resolution, 180° screen angle range Keyboard – 105mm sliding keyboard for internal access (US layout) Touchpad – 104x75mm trackpad with Gesture Control […]

October 13, 2017October 13, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 25 Comments

UniElec U7621-06 MediaTek MT7621 Router Supports OpenWrt, Padavan, and PandoraBox Firmware

UniElec U7621-06 is a router / gateway based on Mediatek MT7621 dual core/Quad Thread processor, and offered either as a board only or complete system with optional WiFi and/or LTE PCIe modules. While the board is said to run OpenWrt or firmware based on Mediatek Linux SDK , the company also mentions the board runs Breed bootloader that can be used to upgrade the firmware through a web interface. UniElec claims the router supports alternative firmware such as Padavan or PandoraBox. UniElec U7621-06 specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT7621 dual-core, quad-thread MIPS1004K processor @ up to 880MHz System Memory – 256MB DDR3 (optional 512 MB) Storage – 16MB NOR Flash (optional 8/32/64MB), 1x SATA 3.0 port, 1x micro SD card slot Connectivity – 5x Gigabit Ports (4x LAN, 1x WAN) USB – 1x USB 3.0 port Expansion 2x “normal” mPCIe for 802.11ac or 802.11n WiFi module 1x mPCIe connector for LTE […]

October 13, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 25 Comments

This TTGO Board Combines ESP32, LoRa Radio, and OLED Display for just $10

Just one year ago, it would cost around $15 to $20+ to get an ESP32 board, that is if you were lucky/fast enough to order one one before it went out of stock. Since then, availability is no longer an issue, and you now can get an ESP32 development board for as low as about $7, or even around $4 during promotions. Today, I was made aware of another board sold under the “TTGO” brand, that includes not only ESP32 WiFi and Bluetooth SoC, but also a (433 MHz) LoRa radio, and an OLED display. Price? Just $10 plus shipping ($1.75 here). TTGO ESP32/LoRa board specifications: WiSoC – Espressif ESP32 Storage – 32MB on-board flash (or maybe just 16MB?) LoRa Semtech SX1278 with u.FL connector + 433MHz antenna (N.B.: Antenna must be connected during use or the Semtech chip could be damaged) Sensitivity” ~ -148dBm; output power: +20dBm Display – […]

October 12, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Huawei Honor WaterPlay is a Waterproof IP67 Tablet with Kirin 659 SoC

It’s quite easy to find smartphone with some level of dust and waterproofness, with many premium smartphone coming with IP67 or IP68 ingress protection rating, and if you search for IP67 / IP68 smartphones on Aliexpress, you’ll get a long list. Now replace smartphone by tablet, you’ll get a much shorter list, and most are rugged tablets. Huawei has just unveiled Honor Waterplay, that looks more like a normal tablet, and as it’s named implied is waterproof with an IP67 rating. Huawei Honor WaterPlay “HDN-W09 (WiFi)” & “HDN-L09 (LTE)” tablets specifications: SoC – Hisilicon/Huawei Kirin 659 octa-core processor with 4x ARM Cortex A53 @ up to 2.36 GHz, 4x Cortex A53 @ up to 1.7 GHz, ARM Mali-T830 MP2 GPU @ 900 MHz System Memory + Storage HDN-W09 – 3 to 4GB LPDDR3 + 32 to 64 GB eMMC 5.1 flash, micro SD slot up to 256GB HDN-L09 – 4GB […]

October 12, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Olimex TERES-I DIY OSHW Laptop Now Up for Sale for 240 Euros

Olimex has been working on their open source hardware TERES-I DIY laptop since last year. The laptop is supposed to come in kit form, so that you can build it yourself. Every board and most parts are open source to let your easily repair it, or improve it by adapting the part to your own needs. The company has now launched the laptop kit for 240 Euros in black or white. Olimex TERES-I laptop updated specifications: SoC – Allwinner A64 quad core ARM Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.2 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3L Storage – 16 GB eMMC Flash, micro SD slot Display – 11.6″ LCD display with 1366×768 resolution Video Output – 1x HDMI 1.4 port Audio – Via mini HDMI, 3.5mm audio jack, 2x speakers, microphone Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi up to 150Mbps, Bluetooth 4.0 LE USB – 2x USB port ports Front camera […]

October 12, 2017November 10, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Zidoo H6 Pro (Allwinner H6) TV Box Review – Part 1: Unboxing & Teardown

Allwinner H6 is a quad core Cortex A53 processor designed for 4K HDR set-top boxes and TV boxes that also comes with high speed interfaces like USB 3.0 and PCIe. While at least one other company is working on an Allwinner H6 development board, Zidoo is the only company that I can find whose made a TV box based on the processor: Zidoo H6 Pro. They’ve just send me a sample from their local supplier for review, and as usual, I’ll start by checking out the hardware inside out, before testing the firmware and multimedia capabilities in the second part of the review in a few weeks. Zidoo H6 Pro Unboxing The company has slightly changed the design of their retail package. It also shows some icons with the main features like 4K, 3D, H.265, 2GB DDR4, Android 7.0 with ZIUI, etc… The box ships with a HDMI cable, a […]