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Element14 and Raspberry Pi Trading Launch a Raspberry Pi Customization Service

While the Raspberry Pi Foundation is the main face of the Raspberry Pi board, it only mainly promotes children’s education, and a subsidiary called Raspberry Pi Trading, funded in 2013, handles design, manufacturing and distribution of the Raspberry Pi boards, and puts profits back into the charity. Raspberry Pi Trading has now partnered with Element14 to offer customization services for the Raspberry Pi board. That means you’ll be able to remove or add interfaces and headers, replace the micro SD by a more reliable eMMC flash, add new functionalities to the board, and even re-design the layout in order to better match your project’s requirements. The companies “expect order quantities to start in the region of between 3,000 and 5,000 depending upon the nature of the customization”, so the service does not seem to be available , or cost effective, for smaller orders for a few hundred units. Element14 has […]

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ESP-14 WiFi Module Combines ESP8266 with STM8S MCU

ESP8266 WiFi modules can be purchased for less than $3, while some STM8S 8-bit MCUs board sell for just above $1. A.I. Thinker decided to combine both by adding an STMicro STM8S003 micro-controller to ESP-12E module and called that ESP-14. ESP-14 specifications: WiSoC – Expressif ESP8266-EX WiSoC MCU – STMicro STM8S003F3P6 8-bit MCU @ 16 MHz with 1KB RAM, 8KB flash, and 128 bytes EEPROM Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi I/Os – STM8: 15 GPIOs also supporting I2C, SPI, UART, and up to 5 10-bit ADC ESP8266: E_GPIO0 to select operating mode (running or download) Power Supply – 3.3V Power Consumption – System Standby mode 70 mA; 0.5 μA shutdown @3.3V Dimensions – 24 x 16 mm STM8S controls ESP8266 by AT commands, and all but one of the I/Os are directly connected to STM8S. I can see at least two advantages: 5 ADC inputs are available, and for battery […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
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Beelink X2 4K TV Box Powered by Allwinner H3 is Now Selling for $32

Allwinner launched Allwinner H3 in December 2014 for Android TV boxes supporting 4K resolution selling for $35 to $50, but the first devices that started showing up in January sold for about $80. As the year passed, prices became more reasonable such as the $59 Zidoo X1 TV Box or $35 Tronsmart Draco H3 TV stick , and when Orange Pi PC development board launched for $15 + shipping, it was clear Allwinner H3 was a dirt cheap processor.  The good thing is that you can now buy a 4K Android media player for just $31.99 shipped with Beelink X2 sold on GearBest. Beelink X2 specifications: SoC – Allwinner H3 quad core ARM Cortex A7 @ 1.2GHz with quad core Mali-400MP2 System Memory – 1 GB RAM Storage – 8 GB NAND flash + micro SD slot up to 32GB Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi Video Output – […]

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Kingnovel R8 Android TV Box Review (VLC Edition)

Kingnovel R8 is one of the many Rockchip RK3368 based TV boxes on the market, and since I’ve already provided the specs, as well as pictures of the device and board, I’ll carry on with the review today. While I’m usually testing video playback in Kodi, I’ve only spent a short time with Kodi 15.2 on this box, and instead switched to VLC (aka VideoLAN), an another open source media player, and my favorite program to watch videos in my Ubuntu computer. Of course, I’ve also tested most hardware features and performance of the device. First Boot, and First Impressions Since I like to test worst case scenarios, I also make sure I use all the ports of the devices, and connected a USB hard drive, USB RF dongles, USB webcam, and relevant cables to the device before powering it up. Once you connect the power, I recommend you have […]

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giggleBits Hackable ARM & FPGA Router Comes with an SFP Cage and 5 Gigabit Ethernet Ports (Crowdfunding)

Remember Snickerdoodle board? If you don’t, the board is one of the cheapest Xilinx Zynq available on the market, and the project is currently on CrowdSupply, and 75% funded with 28 days left. They’ve just posted an update about a new daughterboard that I found interesting: giggleBits which provides 5 Gigabit Ethernet and an SFP cage on top of WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth connectivity already found on Snickerdoodle board. giggleBits + snickerdoodle specifications: SoC/Memory/Storage/WiFi via Snickerdoodle board: SoC Xilinx Zynq-7010 dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 667 MHz + FPGA with 430K gates or Xilinx Zynq-7020 dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 866 MHz + FPGA with 1.3million gates (~430K ASIC gates) System Memory – 512MB or 1GB LPDDR2-800 Storage – micro SD card slot, 16MB boot flash Ti Wilink 8 –  single or dual band 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0 Expansion – 4x 40-pin TFM headers for access […]

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Inforce Computing 6401 Micro SOM is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 System-on-Module

Inforce Computing announced their 6501 Micro SOM system-on-module based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor in Q2 2015, and the company informed me that they had just unveiled a lower power version based on Snapdragon 600 processor called 6401 Micro SOM, and still featuring WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS connectivity on module. Inforce 6401 Micro SOM: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 (APQ8064) quad core Krait processor up to 1.7 GHz with Adreno 320 GPU, and Hexagon DSP v4 up to 500MHz System Memory – 2GB PoP LPDDR2 @533Mhz (Optional 3GB) Storage – 4GB eMMC v4.4.1/v4.5, with options up to 64GB Connectivity – BT 4.0 , dual band 802.11n/ac Wi-Fi (QCA6234), and GPS (WGR7640) with WiFi and GPS antennas on carrier board Peripherals and I/O via two 100-pin SoM connectors: Video / Display – 1x HDMI, 2x MIPI-DSI (4-lane) & touch screen Audio 4x Line out, 3x Mic-in, 1x headphone out 8-channel […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
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EzeeCube Linux Media Hub Unboxing and Teardown

EzeeCube is a Linux based Kodi Media Hub powered by Freescale i.MX6Quad processor with one internal 1TB hard drive and up to 8TB extra storage via four stackable 2TB hard drive module, as well as an option for a Blu-Ray player module. Beside playing video, it’s also designed to store your pictures and videos like a cloud service such as dropbox, but without privacy concerns since data is only stored in your own EzeeCube. The company launched an Indiegogo campaign in Q2 2014 which ended up being pretty successful having raised over $160,000, and as they are now shipping rewards to backers, I’ve also been sent a unit. Today, I’ll check out the hardware, and will review the unit probably sometimes next month. EzeeCube Unboxing The device came in a cardboard package with some EzeeCube branding, and some features like Freescale quad core processor, a 2TB hard drive (which finally […]

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Xiaomi Introduces Mi TV Bar TV Box Speakers Powered by Mstar 6A928 Processor

Xiaomi has introduced a few new products yesterday including Mi TV 3 60″ 4K UHD television,  a cheap Bluetooth voice remote, as well as Ninebot Mini self-balancing two-wheel scooter. But the company has also launched a product that looks like the offspring of a sound bar and a TV box with MI TV Bar, featuring Mstar 6A928 quad core Cortex A17 processor with 2GB RAM and running Android 5.1 Lollipop as well as built-in speakers with Dolby Audio technology. It’s actually designed to be the smart system for Mi TV 3, as Xiaomi found out that while TVs may last 10 years, the “smart” part in smart TV may need an update every couple of years. Mi TV Bar specifications: SoC – Mstar 6A928 quad-core ARM Cortex A17 processor @  1.4GHz with Mali-760 MP4  4 + 4 core GPU System Memory – 2GB  DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC 5.0 flash […]

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