CubieTruck’s DVK570 Daughter Board and Add-ons (GPS, Zigbee, Sensors, RS485, and SPI Flash)

CubieTruck is one of the development boards made by CubieTech. It is powered by AllWinner A20 with 2GB RAM, Gb Eternet, various ports, and supports Android and multiple Linux distributions. Waveshare Electronics has just launched DVK570 daughter board for the CubieTruck which adds support for TV in and out, a buzzer, and headers to connect modules such as GPS, RS485, an SPI flash, a Zigbee module, a magnetometer, or a temperature sensor. Hardware features of DVK570 daughter board: CubieTruck Headers – 1x 30-pin header and  1x 24-pin header for connection with the CubieTruck Video – TVIN in, and TV Out interfaces (CVBS) Audio – 3.5mm Line IN interface Debugging – UART interface, micro USB port with USB to UART chip (Profilic PL2303) Expansions for add-on modules: 1x 4-pin I2C interface to connect I2C modules such as PCF8563 RTC Module, MAG3110 Board, and more 2x 6-pin UART interfaces (UART4 and 7) […]

Raspberry Pi Compute Module Development Kit Is Now Available for $200

The Raspberry Pi foundation announced a computer-on-module which they called the (Raspberry Pi) Compute Module that will be mostly software compatible with the Raspberry Pi board, and sell for $30 in quantities. They have now announced the availability of the development kit that includes a baseboard (called Compute IO board), display & camera adapter boards, as well as a 5V power adapter, jumper wires, and a USB cable. As a reminder the Compute Module has the following hardware specifications: SoC – Broadcom BCM2835 ARM 11 processor @ 700 MHz with Videocore IV GPU System Memory – 512MB RAM Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash SoM Connector – DDR2 200-pins SODIMM Dimensions – 67.6x30mm board which fits into a standard DDR2 SODIMM connector The Compute IO Board come with two micro USB connectors (one reserved for power), a USB 2.0 host port, two DSI ports for display, two CSI ports for a […]

ARM Introduces DSP ‘Lab-in-a-Box’ For Education Combining STMicro STM32F4-Discovery Board and Wolfson Audio Card

DSP (Digital Signal Processing) courses at University have traditionally used software simulation packages (Matlab), or hands-on labs using development kits costing around $300 per student. In order to reduce costs, ARM University program and their corporate partners have launched a DSP ‘Lab-in-a-Box’ so that university students can learn DSP and audio systems with hardware selling for about $50, or over 80% cheaper than previous educational hardware. A typical DSP Lab-in-a-Box (LiB) would come with: STMicroelectronics ARM Cortex-M4-based STM32F4 Discovery MCU board Wolfson Microelectronics and Farnell element14 Wolfson Audio Card. ARM Keil MDK-Professional development tool with a 1-year renewable software license. Teaching materials such as lecture slides, code samples, and hands-on lab manuals. STM32F4-Discovery board features an STM32F407VGT6 MCU (ARM Cortex-M4F core) with 1 MB Flash, and 192 KB RAM, sensors (motion and accelerometer), a digital microphone, and audio DAC, a micro USB connector, and various buttons and LEDs. The Wolfson […]

Cypress PSoC 4100/4200 (ARM Cortex M0) Prototyping Kits Sell for $4

I just wrote about Cypress Semiconductor PSoC 4 ARM Cortex M0 MCUs last week, as well as their $25 PSoC 4 pioneer development board. I’ve just found out there are cheaper, albeit very basic, evaluation boards called PSoC 4100 Prototyping Kit (CY8CKIT-049-41xx) and PSoC 4200 Prototyping Kit (CY8CKIT-049-42xx) that sell for only $4. PSoC 4×000 boards specifications: MCU PSoC 4100 ARM Cortex M0 MCU @ 24 MHz with up to 32 kB of flash, Up to 4 kB of SRAM PSoC 4200 ARM Cortex M0 MCU @ 48 MHz with up to 32 kB of flash, Up to 4 kB of SRAM USB – USB port using CY7C65211 USB-serial controller for PC connectivity and serial interfaces such as USB-UART, USB-I2C, USB-SPI, and USB-GPIO Onboard CMOD capacitors to enable CapSense development A bypass capacitor to ensure the high quality ADC conversions Prototyping – Breadboard compatible through holes for access to power, GPIOs, UART, USB etc… Misc – User and power […]

MediaTek Unveils LinkIt Platform with MT2502 Aster SoC for Wearables and IoT Applications

After Ineda Systems Dhanush SoC and SHASTRA Devkit, here’s another Wearable SoC and development kit for today with Mediatek announcement of their LinkIt platform providing both hardware and software to develop wearables and IoT applications using their Aster SoC for wearables. Key features of LinkIt platform listed on Mediatek Labs: MediaTek Aster (MT2502) measures only 5.4 x 6.2mm and is specifically designed for wearable devices Developer platform supported by reference designs that enable creation of various form factors, functionalities and internet connected services Synergies between microprocessor unit and communication modules, facilitating development and saving time in new device creation Modularity in software architecture provides developers with high degree of flexibility Supports over-the-air (OTA) updates for apps, algorithms and drivers Plug-in software development kit (SDK) for Arduino and VisualStudio; planned (Q4 2014) support for Eclipse Hardware Development Kit (HDK) based on LinkIt board by third party No details have been provided for […]

Get Cypress PSoC 4 MCUs for $1 Delivered to Your Door by Fedex

How many times have you found a low cost MCU, or a development kit, ready to order, until shipping fees, sometimes several times the price of the item, curbed your enthusiasm, to the point you just decided to cancel your purchase? It happened to me several times, so I was pleased to find out Cypress Semiconductor will ship their PSoC 4 MCUs via Fedex anywhere in the world without actually charging for shipping. PSoC 4 are ARM Cortex M0 MCUs with up to 32 kB Flash, up to 4 kB SRAM, and analog and digital I/Os. CY8CKIT-042 PSoC 4 Pionner Kit is the corresponding kit development kit, which happened to be voted product of the year 2013 on Element14 community beating the BeagleBone Black, Freescale SABRELite, and PiFace Digital for the Raspberry Pi. Development can be performed using PSoC Creator, and there seems to be a developer community active enough to provide 100 projects in 100 days. So […]

Intel Unveils In-Vehicle Solutions and Development Kit for Assisted Driving and Autonomous Cars

Intel has announced their In-Vehicle Solutions (IIVS) for automakers comprised of hardware based on Intel’s industrial Bay Trail Atom 3800 series SoC, and software solutions relying on a Linux based operating system but it’s not clear whether it might be Wind River Linux, Tizen IVI, or another new OS. The solutions will first provide In Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) with assisted driving features such as , and over time it will allow semi-autonomous and self-driving cards. At the heart of the system, Intel will provide CM1050 computer-on-module that will be part of a development kit including a chassis with CAN, Ethernet, and USB ports, as well as audio and CVBS  multimedia I/Os, and radios and antennas for FM, AM, DAB, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular. A Blu-ray drive, and SSDs will be available as storage options. The complete system is designed to be upgradeable, and automakers can expected modules with faster […]

Boardcon EM4412 SBC Powered by Exynos 4412 SoC Targets Embedded & Industrial Applications

Boardcon Technology Limited, a Shenzhen based ODM specializing in industrial boards and modules, has announced their EM4412 single board computer featuring MINI4412 core board powered by Samsung Exynos 4412 quad core Cortex A9 SoC a few months ago. The board, with ports such as CAN, RS-485, and a DB9 RS-232 connector, appears to have been designed with industrial applications in mind, such as point-of-sales (PoS), slot machines, car-mounted systems, factory automation, traffic management, and more. Boardcon EM4412 specifications: SoC – Samsung Exynos 4412 quad core Cortex A9 cores @ up to 1.6GHz and ARM Mali-400MP4 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 4GB eMMC flash +  mini? / micro SD card slot Display HDMI 1.4 – Up to 1080p30 24-bit RGB parallel LCD interface Optional 4.3″, 7″, or 10.1″ch resistive or capacitive touchscreen Camera interfaces: MIPI-CSI slave (mipi2L CH) Optional 2x camera interfaces supporting ITU 601/656 I/F up […]

EDATEC Raspberry Pi 5 fanless case