CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

November 2, 2015November 4, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 262 Comments

Giveaway Week – Zidoo X6 Pro Android TV Box

Time for another giveaway week that will take place on November 2 – 8, with one device or board given away per day. The first device is Zidoo X6 Pro TV box powered by Rockchip RK3368 octa core SoC with 2GB RAM and 16GB Flash. Zidoo X6 Pro review showed a capable device, and pretty good, although not perfect yet, Kodi 15.1 implementation, however the device tends to overheat pretty quickly leading to very poor performance at times. So the company will have to work on improving thermal management in their firmware, beside fixing a few other bugs. I received two Zidoo X6 Pro samples due to miscommunication: one from Zidoo directly which I used for the review, one from GeekBuying which I’m giving away today, and is basically new, although I’ve quickly tried it to make sure it boots. You can find more pictures on Zidoo X6 Pro unboxing […]

November 1, 2015November 1, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Rockchip Light Biz OS Improves Android’s Desktop Experience

Android is great for consuming content, but if you’ve ever tried to use it to create content, it can be an hassle, as copy / paste is hard to use, shortcuts aren’t available, and overall the operating system and apps are not designed to work well with a mouse and keyboard. Remix OS is one of the solutions, and Rockchip has been working on improving Android as a desktop replacement for while, starting with multi-window support, and recently they showcased “Light Work OS“. But yesterday Charbax, of ARMDevices.net, uploaded two new videos showing Rockchip Light Biz OS in action, probably renamed from Light Work OS shown a few months ago. The first video is the “official” Light Biz OS video released by Rockchip, which shows the main features including: Based on Android 5.1 with CTS certification Light Biz OS features can be enabled/disabled in Android settings using the Multi-window option […]

October 31, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Razberry Board and UZB Dongle Add Z-Wave (Plus) to Raspberry Pi Boards

Z-Wave is one of the low power wireless communication protocols used for automation, and supported, for example, by gateways such as Samsung SmartThings Hub or Vera3. Z-Wave Plus is a certification program used to identify Z-wave 5th Generation hardware platform, allowing a greater range up to 45 meters, 50% improvement in battery life, 250% more bandwidth, and providing a standardized method for Over the Air firmware updates (OTA), among other things. Zwave.me, a startup registered in Switzerland, is specializing in Z-Wave products and solutions, and among their other products they’ve also designed Z-Wave hardware to turn the Raspberry Pi board and other compatible hardware into a Z-Wave gateway. RazBerry module will fit into the 26 or 40-pin header found on Raspberry Pi boards, and comes with the following specifications: Sigma Designs ZM5202 Z-Wave transceiver module Frequencies – Storage – 32KB SPI flash for network data CPU/MCU Interface – UART (Tx/Rx) […]

October 30, 2015October 30, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments

NanoPi2 is a Tiny Board with Samsung S5P4418 Processor, WiFi and Bluetooth Connectivity

FriendlyARM released NanoPi board this summer, a small and inexpensive development board based on Samsung S3C2451 ARM9 processor with both WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. The company has now unveils a more powerful, and slightly wider, version with NanoPi2 featuring Samsung S5P4418 quad core Cortex A9 processor with 1GB RAM, AP6212 wireless module, a new HDMI output, and the same connectors for I/Os and LCD displays. NanoPi2 specifications: SoC – Samsung S5P4418 quad core Cortex A9 processor @ up to 1.4GHz System Memory – 1GB 32bit DDR3 Storage – 2 x Micro SD Slot Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth LE 4.0 via AP6212 module Video Output / Display I/F- 1x HDMI 1.4a, 0.5 mm pitch SMT FPC seat for type-A full-color LCD (RGB: 8-8-8) Camera – 24-pin DVP interface USB – 1x USB Host port; 1x micro USB 2.0 OTG port for power and data Expansions Headers – 40-pin […]

October 30, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Qualcomm DragonBoard 410c Board Now Supports Windows 10 IoT Core

Microsoft announced Windows 10 IoT Core for Raspberry Pi 2 and Minnowboard MAX boards a few months, and now the company has added a new ARM board to their Windows 10 IoT program with the soon-to-be-available Qualcomm DragonBoard 410c development board compliant with 96Boards specifications. Windows 10 IoT Core for DragonBoard 410c adds support for onboard WiFi and Bluetooth, as well as DirectX graphics on top of features already supported on the Raspberry Pi 2. To get started, you’ll need a computer running Windows 10, and follow DragonBoard’s Winfows 10 IoT Core guide. I assume most people familiar with Linux operating systems won’t suddenly jump ship to run a Windows operating systems, but Windows developers who got used to work with Visual Studio may be more comfortable with Microsoft’s environment. Out of curiosity, I’ve checked out if anybody had done any project with Windows 10 IoT core, and was surprised […]

October 30, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

$10 WiFiMCU Board is a NodeMCU Clone Based on EMW3165 Module

Yesterday I wrote a short tutorial for NodeMCU board, and one visitor mentioned WiFiMCU board that has a similar form factor as NodeMCU, and while it is more expensive at about $10 on Aliexpress or Ebay, it is also more powerful and provides more I/Os thanks to its EMW3165 module including an STM32 Cortex M4 micro-controller with 128KB RAM, 512KB flash, a Broadcom WiFi module, and 2MB SPI flash. WiFiMCU specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32F411CE Cortex-M4 microcontroller @ 100MHz with 128KB RAM, 512KB flash Storage – 2MB SPI flash WiFi – Broadcom 802.11 b/g/n RF Chip: Modes – Station, Soft AP and Station+Soft AP Security – WEP, WPA/WPA2, PSK/Enterprise 16.5dBm@11b, 14.5dBm@11g, 13.5dBm@11n Receiver sensitivity – -87 dBm 2x 15-pin headers with 17x GPIO Pin 3x UARTs 5x ADC, 1x SPI, 1x I2C, 1x USB SWD debug interface 11x PWM Misc – Boot and Reset buttons Power Supply – 5V via […]

October 29, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Compulab Unveils CL-SOM-iMX6UL Freescale i.MX 6UltraLite System-On-Module and SBC-iMX6UL SBC

Compulab has launched a CL-SOM-iMX6UL system-on-module based on Freescale i.MX 6UltraLite ARM Cortex A7 processor with up to 1GB DDR3 and 32GB eMMC flash. The module can be coupled with SB-SOM-iMX6UL carrier board to form SBC-iMX6UL single board computer targeting industrial and embedded applications. CL-SOM-iMX6UL specifications: SoC – Freescale i.MX6 UltraLite Cortex-A7 processor @ 528MHz System Memory – Up to 1GB DDR3 Storage – Up to 32GB on-board eMMC, Up to 1GB on-board SLC NAND, SPI flash, I2C EEPROM Connectivity – Dual-band, dual-antenna 2×2 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1 BLE (Ti WiLink 8), 10/100M Ethernet PHY (with optional bypass) Audio – WM8731 audio codec with stereo line-out, line-in, mic, S/PDIF input/output Other I/Os via 204-pin SODIMM edge connector Display Parallel 24-bit display interface up to 1366 x 768 Touchscreen 4/5/8-wire resistive touch-screen support Capacitive touch-screen support through SPI interface USB – 1x USB2.0 OTG + 4x USB2.0 host ports Up to […]