CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

September 13, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

WizziKit is a DASH7, LoRa and Sigfox Wireless Sensor & Actuator Network Kit

Over the last few years, I’ve written several article about LoRaWAN, Cellular IoT, and Sigfox based long range low power IoT solutions. DASH7 is another LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) standard that operates on the same 868 and 915 MHz ISM bands as LoRa and Sigfox, but has much lower power consumption, and the cost of a shorter range up to 500 meters, instead of the 5+km associated with LoRa or SigFox. The DASH7 Alliance Protocol (D7A) is an Open Standard, and if you want more details you can download version 1.1 of the specifications on DASH7 Alliance website. I’m writing about DASH7 today thanks to an article on ST blog about Wizzilab’s Wizzikit, an evaluation kit and framework for DASH7 with a gateway, and several nodes that can also optionally support LoRaWAN and Sigfox protocols. The kit is comprised of the following items: WizziGate GW2120 Ethernet/Wifi/Dash7 gateway – based […]

September 13, 2017September 13, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

USBCEE Tiny-PAT Board Helps Testing USB-C Power Adapters (Crowdfunding)

USB power delivery allows for up to 100W charging using 20V @ 5A through a USB type C port, and the specifications also mandate supports for various voltages between 5V and 20V. However, some USB-C power adapter that not be fully compliant with the specifications, potentially risking to damage your device. USBCEE Tiny-PAT board has been created in order to test such power adapters to make sure they are compliant with USB PD 2.0/3.0 specifications. Tiny-PAT board features and specifications: Supported USB Spec Version – PD 2.0 / PD 3.0 Max Voltage: 24 V Max Current: 5 A Max Power: 100 W USB type C receptacle Misc – Fail and Pass LEDS, S4 mode button, through holes for VBUS & GND Power Consumption: ~10 mA (may vary based on voltage) Dimensions – 35 x 20 mm By default, the board will test all power rules advertised by the power adapter, […]

September 13, 2017September 13, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

IkaScope WiFi Oscilloscope Probe Works with Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Android and iOS

Last year, I wrote about Aeroscope, a portable Bluetooth oscilloscope that looks somewhat like a Stabilo Boss highlighter pen, and sends measurements over the air directly to your Android and iOS tablet or smartphone. It was introduced through a crowdfunding campaign which eventually failed, but Aeroscope can now be purchased for $199 on Amazon US or their own website. If you’d prefer WiFi over Bluetooth, and would like something that also works on Windows, Linux, and/or Mac OS X, IKALOGIC has just launched IkaScope WiFi oscilloscope probe compatible with all popular mobile and desktop operating systems. IkaScope WS200 specifications: Analog Bandwidth – 30 MHz @ -3dB Sample Rate – 200 MSps Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n/e/i WiFi @ 2.4 GHz configurable as access point or station Input Range – +/-40 V range CAT1 Offset Range – +/- 20V to +/- 40V offset Input Impedance – 10MΩ || 14pF Input Contact – […]

September 12, 2017September 12, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

Factory Prices of Some TV Boxes and Accessories

Some companies that contact me have not read the about section of the blog, and either tell me they can give me a good price for TV boxes, and some even send me their price list. And this morning, I’ve received a EXW (Ex Works) price list this of Amlogic S912/S905X/S905W and Rockchip based TV boxes, as well as some air mice, and Android projectors. The cheapest models are based on S905W and RK3229, with MXQ Pro 1GB/8GB going for $17.5 per unit for 200 pieces orders. For reference that models goes for around $26 shipped online before any discount coupon you may find. At the other end of the scale, you have TX2 model with 3GB RAM, 64GB flash going for $77.5 EXW for 200-unit orders, and sold online for $86 including shipping, again before coupon. Margin must be really low, or the prices above are not that competitive, […]

September 12, 2017September 12, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

SanStar WS-3A Medical Board Runs Android 5.1 on Rockchip RK3288 SoC

Warp United, a “Chinese Health 2.0″/point-of-Care medical technology company based in Shenzhen, launched Warp 3 medical recorder – an Android powered handheld device supporting various vital signs and ultrasound medical modules – earlier this year, and the company has now just introduced SanStar WS-3A motherboard powered by Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex-A17 SoC, and running Android 5.1 in order to allow engineers to develop and connect their own medical modules via the various interfaces of the board, and create their own medical products. SanStar WS-3A medical motherboard specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex-A17 processor @ 1.8GHz with an ARM Mali-T764 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 /3.0, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL, Directx11 System Memory – 2GB or 4GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB eMMC flash, micro SD slot up to 32GB Video Output / Display I/F HDMI 2.0 up to 3840 x 2160 pixel embedded DisplayPort (eDP) […]

September 12, 2017September 25, 2017 by Karl Johnson - No Comments

Review of Sonoff RF Bridge, Sonoff 4ch Pro, and Sonoff POW with Sonoff-Tasmota Firmware

Karl here. Today we are going to look at 2 new and one older Sonoff devices. Sonoff RF Bridge – $9.90 433MHz RF to WiFi Bridge Sonoff 4ch Pro – 4 Gang WiFi RF Smart Switch Sonoff POW – Wireless switch with power metering capabilities I spent very little time with the stock firmware on the device. I don’t like the fact that an Internet connection is needed, and I am not in control. As of the time of this writing I found the Ewelink was not configurable enough to meet my needs. There is one feature that is really nice that I could easily see keeping stock firmware. It is the Alexa Skill. It worked. I am also currently reviewing Vobot Smart Alarm Clock with Alexa integration and had no trouble controlling the Sonoff devices with Alexa. But unfortunately I am lazy and want everything automatic so I can’t […]

September 12, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

How to Remove Watermarks & Timestamps from Photos with GIMP

Watermarks can be seen on some photographs for copyright reasons, but in some cases even people or companies who clearly don’t own copyrights add watermarks, such as online resellers who add watermarks on top of photos provided by manufacturers, and some camera adds date & time automatically to photos if you’ve used the settings to enable it. I’ve recently read a blog post on Google Research about making watermarks more effective, as some computer algorithm could remove watermarks automatically. Since I often waste time while searching for watermark-free version of the photo, I decided to check if I could find such program running in Linux. I did not but I found a somewhat old blog post explaining how to use GIMP to perform the task with three different methods: Crop, if the watermark is on the edges… Easiest method, but for most case this won’t do… Content-aware filling using resynthetiser […]

September 11, 2017September 11, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Arm Research Summit 2017 Streamed Live on September 11-13

The Arm Research Summit is “an academic summit to discuss future trends and disruptive technologies across all sectors of computing”, with the second edition of the even taking place now in Cambridge, UK until September 13, 2017. The Agenda includes various subjects such as architecture and memory, IoT, HPC, computer vision, machine learning, security, servers, biotechnology and others. You can find the full detailed schedule for each day on Arm website, and the good news is that the talks are streamed live in YouTube, so you can follow the talks that interest you from the comfort of your home/office. Note that you can switch between rooms in the stream above by clicking on <-> icon. Audio volume is a little low… Thanks to Nobe for the tip.