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U4 Quad Hybrid Android TV Box Unboxing and Teardown with DVB-T2, DVB-S2 and ATSC Tuners

Yesterday, I wrote about U4 Quad Hybrid Android Digital TV receiver based on HiSilicon Hi3796M processor, and supporting for DVB-T2/T/C, DVB-S2, and ATSC standards. Today, I’ve received the device, taken a few pictures, and torn it down to find out more about the hardware. The full review will come out in a few weeks. U4 Quad Hybrid Unboxing DHL did their job quickly as I received the set-top box in about two days in the following package. The box comes with a 12V/1.5Am AV and HDMI cables, a WiFi antenna, an IR remote control requiring two AAA batteries (not included), a user’s manual in Korean language only and… a separate tuner… So let’s check that tuner more in details… The demodulator chip is LG3390A, so an ATSC tuner is included in the package. Not very useful in Thailand, but it’s good to know it’s included. I also open the cover […]

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USB Power Delivery Advantages Explained (Video)

USB 3.0 and greater specifications not only promise higher speeds, up to 10Gbps for USB 3.1, but also the ability to deliver up to 100W over USB to power your laptop, display, and printer via equipment, usually a USB hub, that supports USB Power Delivery, or USB PD, via a USB Type C connector. So far very few products appear to support it, and I could only find the Macbook and ChromeBook Pixel, and a few USB PD chargers on Amazon. So basically in the future, the need for power supplies should decrease sharply, simplifying connections, and decreasing the cost of products and shipping since devices will only need a USB port that’s compatible with USB PD, meaning your computer, printer, and display won’t need an extra power supply as long as they consume less than 100 watts combined. The reasons I’m writing about this today, is that completely forgot […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
NavSpark_mini_BreadBoard
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Getting Started with NavSpark mini GPS Module

I noticed NavSpark mini GPS module a couple of weeks ago, and since it was free, not including $10 for shipping, I went ahead and ordered. Since the freebie got popular, SkyTraq took some time to ship it, and when they did they provide a “not trackable” tracking number, which I’m not sure what that means as I could track the parcel from Taiwan to Thailand using 17track website without issues. The packages included NavSpark mini and a USB to TTL module as described, so I insert both and connect VCC, GND, and UART as shown on the pictures on the product page. I also connected the GPS antenna from LinkIt ONE development kit to the uFL connector on NavSpark mini, as well as a micro USB to USB cable to my computer. If you don’t have such antenna, you’ll need to add the $9 GPS/GLONASS antenna on NavSpark website […]

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WAVIoT LPWAN Technology Powers Low Cost Smart Water and Electricity Meters

With the rise of IoT and M2M applications, more and more Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) standards have been launched or being worked on, such as Sigfox, LoRa, 802.11ah “Hallow”, Weightless, etc… with all promising long range, low power consumption, and support for a high number of nodes. WAVIoT, a US startup founded in 2011, has decided to create its own solution called WAVIoT Nb-Fi (Narrowband Fidelity) that works in ISM bands, offers up to 50km line-of-sight range, supports up to 2 million nodes by gateway, lasts over 20 years on a small battery, and with WAVIoT said to cost as low as $2 per node. The technology is already available in smart electricity and water meters, and modules as shown in the picture below. Here are some of WAVIoT Nb-Fi technical specifications: DBPSK on physical layer of signal transmission; End-nodes transmit radio signal in 10-500 kHz bandwidth Minimum […]

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Tronsmart Ara X5 Plus mini PC Comes with Faster Storage, 802.11ac WiFi, and Higher USB 3.0 Speeds

Tronsmart Ara X5 was one of the first Intel Atom Cherry Trail mini PCs to launch on the market. It came with an Intel Atom x5-Z8300, and the now typical 2GB RAM combined with 32GB flash. But in my review of Tronsmart Ara X5, I found out that the flash was quite slower than other Windows mini PC I tested, and the USB 3.0 port would not recognize my 1TB Seagate USB 3.0 hard drive. The company has now introduced an upgraded model simply called Tronsmart Ara X5 Plus with a faster Samsung eMMC 5.0 flash, faster USB 3.0 read and write speeds (and hopefully better compatibility), 802.11ac WiFi support by replacing Ampak AP6330 module by Intel Wireless-AC 3160 and adding an external antenna, as well as fixed some micro SD card compatibility issues, and an updated UEFI binary that should reduce blue screen of death appearances in Windows. The […]

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Ugoos UT4 Android 5.1 TV Box Review

Ugoos UT4 is one of many Rockchip RK3368 TV boxes available on the market today, but it’s one of the model with higher-end specifications including  2 GB RAM, and 16 GB flash, as well as Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11ac WiFi, Ugoos offers regular firmware updates for their devices, and as I found out in Ugoos UT4 specs and teardown post, the mini PC features a fan to keep the device cool at all times. Today, I’ll focus on reviewing the firmware including video playback capabilities, performance and whether advertised features work as they should. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions Before powering on the device, I connected some cables (Ethernet, HDMI, optical audio, AV to speakers), and made use of all four USB ports with a USB hard drive, a webcam, a keyboard, and a USB hub with two RF dongles for MINIX NEO A2 Lite air mouse and Tronsmart […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
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Sunchip CX-R9 Rockchip RK3229 Android TV Box Sells for $32 (Factory Price)

We’ve already seen Rockchip RK3229 quad core processor with 4K 10-bit H.264 and H.265, and 4K VP9 support announced at CES 2016. Sunchip CX-R9 will be one of the first devices on the market with the new processor, and includes 1GB RAM and 8GB storage. Sunchip CX-R9 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3229 quad core ARM Cortex A7 processor @ 1.5 GHz with  ARM Mali-400MP2 System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC + SD card reader Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K2K @ 60 fps Audio Output – HDMI, and optical S/PDIF Video Codec – 4K2K 10-bit H.265 @ 60 fps (Up to 200 Mbps),  4K 10-bit H.264 @ 30 fps (Up to 250 Mbps) and 4K 8-bit VP9 @ 30 fps (Up to 200 Mbps) Connectivity – 100Mbps Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 3x USB 2.0 host ports, including on OTG port […]

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AMD Launches 3 ARM based Opteron A1100 Server SoCs: A1120, A1150 and A1170

AMD Roadmap showed “Seattle” Cortex A57 server SoC were expected in H2 2014, which later became known as Opteron A1100, and the company unveiled their Optron A1100 development board in summer 2014, but since then there has been a few delays, the announcement of Huskyboard 96Boards EE development board, and finally they announced availability of three Opteron A1100 processors yesterday. So there’s one quad core Cortex A57 with Opteron A1120, and two octa-core with Opteron A1150 and A1170 clocked at respectively 1.7 and 2.0 GHz. I was surprised by the rather high TDP at 25W and 32W since one of ARM advantage is low power consumption. But since it is a server SoC it needs to be compared to Intel server SoC, and AnandTech did that against Intel Atom C2750 with eight Silvermont cores @ 2.4 GHz. On the three important metrics, i.e. price, performance and power consumption, AMD A1170 […]

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