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Vorke Z3 Rockchip RK3399 TV Box Review – Part 2: Android 6.0 Firmware

Vorke Z3 is another mini PC / TV box powered by Rockchip RK3399 hexa core processor with two Cortex A72 cores, and two Cortex A53 cores making it theoretically one of the fastest TV boxes on the market, excluding NVIDIA Shield Android TV which is well ahead of the competition, albeit with poor worldwide availability. I’ve have already shown Vorke Z3 hardware inside out, so in the second part of the review, I’ll focus on testing the firmware including video playback, and the system performance, and see how it compares to the similar Yundoo Y8, which I reviewed last month. First Boot, Setup, and First Impressions One the selling point of Vorke Z3 is its SATA connector, so I connected a 1TB 3.5″ SATA drive first, as well as Seagate USB 3.0 drive (1TB) to the USB 3.0 port, I also added a USB hub to connect a USB keyboard, […]

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2017 Tevo Tarantula Dual Extruder 3D Printer Review – Part 1: Assembly and First Prints

Karl here. Going to review the Tevo Tarantula 3D printer a little differently this time. With this build process, I need to space over several days due to time and working on many projects at once. I am logging each session with dates and times. I rarely have big blocks of time to work on my projects with working a full time job, and 2 children. I think this is indicative of a lot of people so wanted to give it a try. If you like this format let me know. If you are new to 3D printing, I would suggest reading the 3D Printer Basics section from Raiscube R2 review. Tevo Tarantula Specs Bed Size – 200x280x200 Extruder – all metal dual color Bed Leveling – Auto Extruder Style – Bowden Materials – Metal Frame with some Acrylic parts Heated Bed – Yes Filament – 1.75 Filament Included – […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
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Linux 4.12 Release – Main Changes, ARM & MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 4.12: Things were quite calm this week, so I really didn’t have any real reason to delay the 4.12 release. As mentioned over the various rc announcements, 4.12 is one of the bigger releases historically, and I think only 4.9 ends up having had more commits. And 4.9 was big at least partly because Greg announced it was an LTS kernel. But 4.12 is just plain big. There’s also nothing particularly odd going on in the tree – it’s all just normal development, just more of it that usual. The shortlog below is obviously just the minor changes since rc7 – the whole 4.12 shortlog is much too large to post. In the diff department, 4.12 is also very big, although the reason there isn’t just that there’s a lot of development, we have the added bulk of a lot of new  header files […]

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Canonical Releases Ubuntu Core 16 for Raspberry Pi 3 Compute Module

Now that Canonical has refocused its development efforts on Cloud and IoT, Ubuntu Core has become even more important for the company, which has just released Ubuntu Core 16 for the Raspberry Pi 3 Compute Module, which is better suited for industrial projects than Raspberry Pi boards, for example thanks to the more resilient built-in storage of CM3 module. Ubuntu Core was already supported on Raspberry Pi 2 & 3, Intel Joule, DragonBoard 410c, Intel NUC, and Samsung Artik boards, as well as KVM to run Ubuntu Core in a virtual environment. One of the advantages of running Ubuntu Core is the availability of snaps and branded app stores, making it easy to provide updates, and promote app for the platform. Screenly is one commercial project that will take advantage of Ubuntu Core on CM3 module for their digital signage applications. You’ll find instructions to get started with Ubuntu Core […]

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Banana Pi BPI-R2’s U-boot & Linux 4.4 Source Code & MediaTek MT7623N Datasheet Released

Banana Pi BPI-R2 is a multimedia router board powered by MediaTek MT7623N quad core processor with 2GB RAM, 5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, up to two SATA ports, two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI output, and I/O headers. The board is not for sale yet, but the company has recently released the source code with U-boot and Linux 4.4.70, as well as a datasheet for MediaTek MT7623N processor. The source code can be found on Github, so let’s see if we can build it:

After a couple of minutes, the build would end with:

For the very last step, it asks you to login as root / sudoer, which it should not do… But we end up with the images, so at least it builds:

MediaTek has also been active by committing patchsets for MT7623 to the Linux Kernel Mailing List, so mainline Linux is an eventual possibility for […]

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InnSpire InnCable is an Android TV Box Embedded into an Ethernet Cable

We’ve got used to super small computer systems from TV boxes-in-a-plug to HDMI TV sticks, and tiny development boards such as Raspberry Pi Zero W. But InnSpire pushed the concept further with InnCable as the computer, or in this case the TV box, is placed inside an Ethernet cable, or more exactly a cable with Ethernet on one side (optional with PoE for power), and HDMI port on the other. Currently InnCable targets hotels, so it’s mainly designed as a TV box in a cable, rather than a computer as a cable. Some of InnCable smart cable’s key features and specifications include: SoC – “Blazing fast processor” Video Output – HDMI Networking – Ethernet and WiFi USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports Serial – RJ-12 port for serial connection to another device Power Supply – PoE (power over Ethernet) or 5V micro USB cable The cable can be controlled with […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
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Raiscube R2 3D Printer Review – Part 3: How to Install E3D Hotend Clone For Faster Prints

Karl here with the final article on Raiscube R2 3D printer for now. Going to talk about the challenges of this upgrade, and how to do it yourself. This has been one of the most frustrating projects that I have worked on. I set 3 goals for this upgrade: Simple as possible Least amount of modification to the printer ability to revert back I don’t feel like I met my goals but I feel like I made it 90%. Trying to meet the simple as possible with least amount of modifications is what caused me so much grief. What is needed E3D Hotend for $9.56 on GearBest Kapton Tape for $1.87 Thermal paste Rotary cutting tool (maybe hacksaw good luck with that) Shrink tube or electrical tape Wire 3 printed parts on Thingiverse Zip Ties & Velcro E3D Installation Steps Print 3 parts from Thingiverse above with 50% infill and .2 […]

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A95X R2 TV Box Review – Part 2: Android 7.1, Video & Audio Tests, and Benchmarks

In the first part of A95X R2 Rockchip RK3328 TV box review, I listed the specifications of the device, took a few photos, and reported about the chip used in the PCBA. I’ve now had time to play with the box, so I can report about my experience with Android 7.1, video & audio capabilities, and the performance of the device in the second part of the review. First Boot, Setup, and First Impressions I connected a USB 3.0 hard drive to the USB 3.0 port of the box, a USB keyboard to one of the USB port to take screenshots, and a USB hub with the RF dongles for my air mouse and gamepad in the remaining USB 2.0 port. I completed the hardware setup with Ethernet and HDMI cables, as well as the power supply. I then pressed the power button on the unit to start it up, […]

Boardcon CM3588 Rockchip RK3588 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications