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Manufacturing samples of Xassette-Asterisk open-source hardware board

We covered Xassette-Asterisk open source-hardware Allwinner D1s RISC-V Linux SBC last October. But it will most likely never be mass-manufactured since SdtElectronics, the designer, has no resources and time for production. So I thought I should give it a try, and I managed to get 10 boards manufactured and assembled. Time for a little disclaimer. While the post is not sponsored in the sense I did not get paid for it, NextPCB agreed to cover all costs, aka sponsor, and manufacture ten boards. Today, I’ll report my experience manufacturing an open-source hardware board, but I had no time to check whether any of the boards worked. Manufacturing timeline Since I did not want to go through the whole process of ordering the PCB, purchasing the components, and soldering each board individually, I opted for NextPCB’s PCB manufacturing and assembly services. Here’s the detailed timeline: November 9 – Ordered 10 boards […]

ESP32 UWB board
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ESP32 UWB board features DW1000 module for accurate indoor positioning

FiRa “Fine Ranging” UWB technology was introduced a few years ago and is now found in devkits and Apple U1 chip. Makerfabs ESP32 UWB board provides another option with Espressif ESP32-WROVER-32 or ESP32-WROOM-32 WiFi & Bluetooth module combined with a Decawave DW1000 module for precision tracking. Makerfabs explains the board acts like a continuously scanning radar that locks onto another device (called Anchor, since it’s usually in a fixed location) and communicates with it to determine the distance between objects by calculating the time of flight (ToF) between devices, or in other words, the roundtrip time of challenge/response packets. ESP32 UWB board specifications: Wireless modules: WiFi & Bluetooth LE – ESP32-WROVER-32 or ESP32-WROOM-32 module with ESP32 dual-core processor @ 240 MHz UWB – B&T BU01 module based on Decawave DW1000 chip; IEEE802.15.4-2011 UWB compliant wireless transceiver module with a precision of 10cm indoors, a data rate of up to 6.8 […]

Graperain Samsung, Rockchip RK3588, and Qualcomm CPU modules, SBCs, and carrier boards
DR8072 V1 SBC Qualcomm IPQ8072
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Qualcomm IPQ8072A networking SBC supports dual 10GbE, WiFi 6

DR8072 V01 is a networking SBC based on Qualcomm IPQ8072A communication processor, with two 10GbE interfaces, one through an SFP cage and the other through an RJ45 connector, plus four Gigabit Ethernet ports, and 4×4 MIMO WiFi 6 connectivity (AX3700). Based on Qualcomm AP.HK09 reference design, the board follows Wallys Communications’ DR8072A embedded router board introduced earlier this year, also based on Qualcomm IPQ8072, but equipped with two 2.5 GbE interfaces and WiFi 6 connectivity. DR8072 V1 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Atheros IPQ8072A quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 @ 2.2 GHz part of Qualcomm Networking Pro 1200 Platform System Memory – 512MB DDR4 2400MHz 16-bit interface (option up to to 2GB RAM) Storage – 8MB NOR flash, 256MB NAND flash Networking Wireless On-board 4×4 2.4GHz MU-MIMO OFDMA 802.11b/g/n/ax, max 17dBm per chain, up to 1147Mbps On-board 4×4 5GHz MU-MIMO OFDMA 802.11a/n/ac/ax, max 17dBm per chain, up to 2475Mbps Frequencies – 2.412 to […]

Review UP Xtreme i11 Edge Compute Enabling Kit
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UP Xtreme i11 Edge Compute Enabling Kit Review – Part 1: Unboxing and Teardown

AAEON’s UP Xtreme i11 Edge Compute Enabling Kit is an industrial mini PC based on the UP Xtreme i11 Edge single board computer powered by a choice of Tiger Lake processors and designed for edge applications for the industry. I recently got contacted by AAEON who sent me a version of the Edge Compute Enabling Kit with an Intel Core i7-1185GRE SoC, 16GB RAM, and a 128GB SSD pre-loaded with Ubuntu. I’ll start the review by checking out package content and interfaces, and teardown the hardware, before testing is with Ubuntu next month. UP Xtreme i11 Edge Compute Enabling Kit unboxing Customs took a keen interest in the package, opened it to check it out, and resealed it. But I eventually got the package, and customs their money… The package includes a 12V/6A power supply together with a power cord, EU type in my case, but the company will ask […]

RP2040 Pip-Boy wrist-computer
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DIY Pip-Boy wrist computer is equipped with Adafruit Feather RP2040 board

The Pip-Boy is a (virtual) personal information processor found in Fallout post-apocalyptic role-playing video games. But John Edgar Park decided to bring the wrist computer to (real) life combining an Adafruit Feather RP2040 board, a round IPS TFT color display, directional buttons, a joystick, and a battery. The Raspberry Pi RP2040 based Pip-Boy is programmed with CircuitPython and the demo code is a slide-show with navigation controls, but you could obviously adapt the code to your needs. The main components are: Black Adafruit Feather RP2040 board Adafruit Joy FeatherWing adding buttons and a joystick Adafruit 1.69″ 280×240 Round Rectangle Color IPS TFT Display FeatherWing Tripler mini kit to connect the two boards above and the display 3D printed enclosure A 3.7V/420mAh LiPo battery for power On/off switch The design is completed with some headers, stand-offs, screws, and a nylon watch strap. You’ll find detailed instructions with the list of parts, […]

TTGO T-CAN485
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TTGO T-CAN485 – An ESP32 board with RS485, CAN bus interfaces

LilyGO is regularly bringing ESP32 boards to market for specific applications, and their latest TTGO T-CAN485 connects ESP32 to CAN bus and RS485 industrial control interfaces. The board also takes 5 to 12V power input via a 2-pin terminal, comes with a microSD card for data storage, a USB Type-C port and CH340K serial chip for programming and debugging, plus a 12-pin GPIO header, some buttons, and an RGB LED. TTGO T-CAN485 board specifications: SoC – Espressif System ESP32 dual-core processor @ up to 240 MHz with 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2 LE connectivity Storage – 4MB flash, microSD card socket Industrial control interfaces CAN bus via 3-pin terminal block RS485 via 3-pin terminal block Expansion – Unpopulated 12-pin header with 8 GPIOs configurable as UART, SPI, I2C, plus VDD, GND Debugging – USB-C port for serial access via CH340K USB to TTL chip Misc- Reset and Boot buttons, WS2812 […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
Reolink Go Plus 4G LTE IP Camera
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Reolink Go Plus 4G smart security camera with solar panel – Unboxing and first setup

I’ve received several Reolink IP cameras either connected over WiFi or Ethernet, but the company has just sent me Reolink Go Plus 4G security camera together with a solar panel that would let me access the camera from anywhere with cellular network connectivity. Reolink Go Plus integrates a 4MP camera and supports person and vehicle detection, just like Reolink RLC-810A model I reviewed earlier this year. I have three Reolink cameras, and I’m somewhat satisfied except that the connection to WiFi cameras is often unreliable, and I have to rely on Cloud backup to play video captures most of the time. The Ethernet-connected Reolink RLC-810A has a much more reliable connection. So I’ll have to see if the Reolink Go Plus camera is more accessible over 4G LTE than WiFi cameras. I’ll start the review by checking out the packages and going through the initial setup for the Reolink Go […]

Inforce 68A1 QCS8250 module
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Inforce 68A1 SoM supports up to seven 4Kp120 cameras, dual 4Kp120 video encoding/decoding

SMART Wireless Computing has announced the Inforce 68A1, a compact system-on-module based on Qualcomm QCS8250 IoT processor with support for up to seven concurrent 4Kp120 camera inputs, and decode/encode two 4Kp120 video streams simultaneously. Equipped with 8GB PoP DDR5 memory, 64GB UFS storage, a wireless module supporting 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1, the module is designed for high-end IoT applications such as smart cameras, video collaboration, AI hubs, connected healthcare, and smart retail. Inforce 68A1 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm QCS8250 octa-core Kryo 585 processor up to 2.84 GHz (high-performance cores) or 1.8 GHz (low power cores) with Adreno 650 GPU, Adreno 665 VPU, Adreno 995 DPU, Hexagon DSP with quad HVX, NPU230 neural processing unit, Spectra 480 ISP; 15 TOPS AI processing power System Memory – 8GB LPDDR5 (PoP) Storage – 64GB UFS flash Wireless – Qualcomm QCA6391 with 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax Wi-Fi 6 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.1 Audio – […]

Boardcon LGA3576 Rockchip RK3576 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications