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Review of Vorke Z3 Android Mini PC with SATA – Part 1: Unboxing & Teardown

After Yundoo Y8 review, I’ve received another Rockchip RK3399 mini PC for review: Vorke Z3, which was sent to me by GeekBuying. Both devices are quite similar for Vorke Z3 adds an external SATA interface, and two external high-gain antennas. I was also expecting Android 7.1 Nougat on Z3, but I’ve been told the current SDK has too many bugs, so the device still ships with Android 6.0.1. I’ll start the review by looking into the hardware inside out, before reporting on my experience with the firmware in the second part in a few weeks. Vorke Z3 Unboxing The retail package is quite bland, but most people will probably not care a bit about this little detail. The devices ships with a 12V/2A power supply, a simple IR remote control, a HDMI cable, a SATA cable, and Vorke Z3 “4K media player” user manual. The device feels of good quality […]

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A95X R2 (Rockchip RK3328) TV Box Review – Part 1: Specifications, Unboxing & Teardown

Rockchip RK3328 is a new TV box SoC competing with Amlogic S905(X) TV boxes thanks to its quad core Cortex A53 processor, Mali-450MP GPU, HDMI 2.0a, and its 4K VPU with HDR support. We’ve already seen a few products launched with the processor such as A5X Plus, and T98 4K Ultra HD TV boxes, but I’ve only just received my first RK3328 TV box – courtesy of GearBest – with A95X R2 model. In the first part of the review, I’ll go through the specifications, and check out the devices, and the hardware design, before testing the firmware in several weeks. A95X R2 TV Box Specifications SoC – Rockchip RK3328 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz with Mali-450MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 8 GB eMMC flash + micro SD card Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDR10 and […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
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Nordic Thingy:52 Bluetooth 5 IoT Sensor Development Kit Targets Mobile & Web App Developers

Some developers may be interested in providing solutions for the Internet of Things, but they may not have the skills or interest in making their own hardware, and/or develop firmware, and just want to create demos or prototypes quickly, focusing on app development instead. Nordic Semiconductors has recently launched Thingy:52 IoT Sensor Kit with Bluetooth 5 & NFC connectivity, and various sensors for those developers. Nordic:52 IoT Sensor development kit (nRF6936) hardware specifications: MCU – Nordic Semi nRF52832 ARM Cortex-M4F Bluetooth 5 System on Chip (SoC) Connectivity – Bluetooth 5 LE and NFC Sensors Temperature,Humidity, Air pressure, Air quality (CO2 and TVOC), color and light intensity 9-axis motion sensing – Tap detection, orientation, step counter, quaternions, euler angles, rotation matrix, gravity vector, compass heading, raw  accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass data Audio Speaker for playing prestored samples, tones, or sound streamed over BLE (8-bit 8 kHz LoFi) Microphone streaming (ADPCM compressed […]

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LyCOM shows off a range of Raspberry Pi Hats at Computex 2017

Taiwanese LyCOM, a maker of various I/O accessories showed off a range of Raspberry Pi compatible expansion boards at Computex. Some of them are rather unusual, such as the Pi-112 which adds M.2 drive support. LyCOM also offers modules that adds SATA and mSATA support. Common among all three modules is that they use a USB to SATA bridge chip, although unfortunately I wasn’t able to determine who the manufacturer of the bridge chip was, as all the hats were in a glass display case. All three hats have a micro USB connector that needs to be connected to one of the USB ports on the Raspberry Pi board, but they can also be connected via a pin-header. The M.2 adapter also has a second micro USB port for power and it’s of course only compatible with SATA based M.2 drives. LyCOM was also showing off a full-size SD card […]

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Compulab’s Miniature “Bend & Fold” UCM-iMX7 System-on-Module Could Fit into a Watch

Many companies are still releasing NXP – soon to be Qualcomm – i.MX 6/7 system-on-modules, but I don’t cover all of them, since we have already many to choose from. But Compulab’s latest UCM-iMX7 SoM differentiates itself by it size, using the company’s “Ultra-compact Multilevel Module” (UCMM) technology, to pack NXP i.MX7 processor, 2GB RAM, 64 GB eMMC flash, and a wireless module into a 30 x 27 x 8 mm volume that could potentially fit into something as small as a watch. The picture above clearly shows how UCMM technology works with the module comprised of two rigid PCBs and one flexible layer routing signals between the two allowing to bend and fold the rigid parts together to form a vertical stack. The principle could be extended to more PCBs and flexible layers, sof for example you could have four PCBs with three flexible layers in future / custom […]

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Windows 10 ARM Mobile PCs Demonstrated with Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC at Computex 2017

Windows on ARM has been tried before with Windows RT, but the systems were crippled, and it was not exactly a success. Microsoft and Qualcomm are now giving it another try with ARM mobile computers running the full version Windows 10 on Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, and Asus, HP, and Lenovo building devices based on the solution. There are plenty of inexpensive Intel PCs running Windows 10, so what would be the benefits of using Snapdragon 835 SoC? Qualcomm explains that it’s the first to coming integrate Gigabit LTE, it offers up to 50% longer battery life in specific use cases like watching videos and gaming, and thanks to big.LITTLE technology provides up to 4 to 5 times improvement in battery life compared to Intel’s solutions. Windows 10 does not have the same limitations as Windows RT had, and you can do pretty everything that you would on an Intel […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
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STMicro Unveils STM32L4 Discovery Kit for IoT with WiFi, BLE, NFC, Sub-GHz RF, and Plenty of Sensors

STMicro has recently introduced B-L475E-IOT01A Discovery kit powered by STM32L4 Cortex-M4 and targeting IoT nodes with a choice of connectivity options including WiFi, Bluetooth LE, NFC, and sub-GHZ RF at 868 or 915 MHz, as well as a long list of various environmental sensors. B-L475E-IOT01A Discovery kit key features and specifications: MCU – STM32L4 Series MCU based on ARM Cortex -M4 core with 1 MB Flash memory, 128 KB SRAM Storage – 64 Mbit (8MB)  Quad-SPI Flash memory (Macronix) Connectivity Bluetooth 4.1 LE module (SPBTLE-RF) Sub-GHz (868 or 915 MHz) low-power-programmable RF module (SPSGRF-868 or SPSGRF-915) Wi-Fi module based on Inventek ISM43362-M3G-L44 (802.11 b/g/n compliant) Dynamic NFC tag based on M24SR with its printed NFC antenna Sensors 2x digital omni-directional microphones (MP34DT01) Capacitive digital sensor for relative humidity and temperature (HTS221) 3-axis magnetometer (LIS3MDL) 3D accelerometer and 3D gyroscope (LSM6DSL) 260-1260 hPa absolute digital output barometer (LPS22HB) Time-of-Flight and gesture-detection […]

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FriendlyELEC Mailbag: NanoPi NEO OLED Starter Kit, NEO Station NS-120B, and NanoPi K2 Multimedia Kit

FriendlyELEC will send me some review samples from time to time, and normally I just ask for one item, but they aways send a bunch of their products instead. This time I asked for a NanoPi NEO NAS Kit v1.2 to play with, but I got clearly more than what I asked for… Let’s start with the box at the top. It contains “NanoPi NEO complete starter kit” selling for $29.99for $29.00 with the following items: NanoPi NEO board NanoHat OLED Heatsink and thermal pad kit Akuminum housing a Mico USB cable A micro SD card pre-loaded with NEO OLED Ubuntu firmware. Three buttons, and screws It’s actually not fully complete, as you’d need to provide and solder your own male headers to NanoPi NEO board. I did not have time for soldering that day, but the final results should be really neat based on pictures from their website. If […]

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