UPX-Edge BrainFrame Edge AI DevKit Targets Smart Video Analytics

UPX Edge Embedded Computer

AAEON UP Xtreme Edge (UPX-Edge) is a rugged embedded computer built around the company’s UP Xtreme SBC with a choice of 15W Whiskey Lake-U processors ranging from Celeron 4305UE to Core i7-8665UE, and optional Intel Movidius X AI accelerator cards. We previously noted the company had launched UP Xtreme Smart Surveillance kit integrating Milestone video management software (VMS) and SAIMOS video analytics software to the embedded computer. AAEON has now partnered with another company – AOTU.AI – to announce the launch of the BrainFrame Edge AI Developers Kit (DevKit) aiming to help developers and system integrators to rapidly create and deploy Smart Vision applications. The solution relies on UP Xtreme Edge mini PC fitted with an Intel Core i5-8365UE processor and 16GB RAM, 64GB eMMC flash, and two Intel Movidius Myriad X VPUs. We’ve also gone through Up Xtreme Edge specifications, so let’s instead focus on the software. This is […]

Using an Old Cassette Tape to Enclose a Battery-powered Raspberry Pi Zero

Raspberry Pi Zero Cassette Tape Enclosure

If you’re old enough you may have a stock of old cassette tapes that may or may not work anymore. The good news is that if you have time on your hands, you could recycle those as a Raspberry Pi Zero enclosure, including even other components like a small battery, battery charging board, and display. That’s exactly what Martin Mander did with his Cassete Pi IoT scroller project that receives notifications via IFTTT service and displays them as scrolling text on a small display connected to the Raspberry Pi Zero W. Here’s the detailed list of components used in this project: Raspberry Pi Zero Wireless Pimoroni LiPo SHIM LiPo/LiIon power supply shim for Raspberry Pi boards Adafruit Micro Lipo charger board with micro USB port Pimoroni 11×7 LED Matrix 150 mAh Li-Polymer Battery Cassette Tape DPDT Slide Switch Vibration motor Once assembly is done, you can flash a Micro SD […]

MEGA-RTD Raspberry Pi HAT Offers up to 64 Resistance Temperature Detectors (Crowdfunding)

MEGA-RTD Raspberry Pi HAT

Sequent Microsystems like to make stackable Raspberry Pi HATs. After their stackable 4-relay board allowing for up to 32 relays controlled by a Raspberry Pi board, the company has now launched MEGA-RTD 8-channel RTD Raspberry Pi HAT enabling up to 64 resistance temperature detectors via 8x MEGA RTD board stacked on top of a Raspberry Pi board. If you haven’t heard about this type of temperature sensors, we wrote a post explaining the advantages and drawbacks of resistance temperature detectors last year. Basically, those temperature sensors contain a resistor that changes resistance value as their temperature changes, and support much wider temperature ranges than traditional temperature sensors such as DHT22 while keeping a <0.1°C accuracy. The price of the sensors themselves is similar to traditional sensors, but the total price is more expensive since they require extra hardware to measure the resistance/voltage value. MEGA-RTD key features and specifications: MCU – […]

IoTSDR Linux Board Targets the Development of IoT Gateways with Standard or Custom IoT Protocols (Crowdfunding)

iotSDR board

Xilinx Zynq-7010/-7020 powered iotSDR board by EmbedINN enables the development of IoT gateways with support for LoRa, SigFox, WeightLess, Bluetooth, BLE, 802.15.4, ZigBee, as well as custom IoT protocols. The board also supports GPS, Galileo, Beidou, and GLONASS navigation systems thanks to a Maxim Integrated MAX2769 GNSS chip. iotSDR key hardware features and specifications: SoC (one or the other) Xilinx Zynq-Z7010 (XC7Z010-1CLG400C) dual-core Arm Cortex-A9 processor with 256 kb on-chip memory, FPGA fabric with 28,000 logic cells, 17,600 LUTs, 2.1 Mb block RAM, 80 DSP slices Xilinx Zynq-Z7020 (XC7Z020-1CLG400C) dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor with 256 kb on-chip memory, FPGA fabric with 85,000 logic cells, 53,200 LUTs, 4.9 Mb block RAM, 220 DSP slices System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 Storage 128 Mbit QSPI flash memory for firmware Microchip AT24MAC602 SPI EEPROM for RF transceiver MCU firmware and data Radios “IoT” Radios RF Transceivers – 2x Microchip/Atmel AT86RF215 European band – […]

CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Learning Kit Review – Part 1 – Unboxing and First Boot

CrowdPi2 Unboxing Review

Last month, we wrote about Elecrow introducing CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 laptop and electronics learning kit for its launch on Kickstarter crowdfunding website. The company has now sent one of its kits to CNX Software for evaluation and review. I’ll start by checking out the content of the package, and boot it up, before publishing a more detailed review in a few weeks. The package is fairly big and highlights it’s made for kids over 8 years old with close to 100 course resources and over 20 electronics modules. The back of the package list the main features and package contents with for example a 11.6″ Full HD display, Raspberry Pi 4 4GB board running a customized (Linux) system or Retropie for game emulation, electronics components and modules like servos and motors, as well as some resources for gaming including two USB gamepads. The first things we get when opening […]

CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Laptop Doubles as Electronics Learning Kit (Crowdfunding)

CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Laptop with Detachable Keyboard

CrowPi portable learning kit for Raspberry Pi 3 B+ and Pi Zero boards was launched in 2018. It comes with a 7″ display, several sensors, buttons, a breadboard, and more all packed in a small suitcase. Elecrow has now started a new crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to fund the second generation portable electronics learning kit: CrowPi2 which looks much more like a laptop than a suitcase found in the first model thanks to a large display, and a detachable keyboard placed on top of the electronic prototyping/learning area. It’s also more powerful thanks to the latest Raspberry Pi 4 SBC. CrowPi2 specifications: Compatible Raspberry Pi boards – Raspberry Pi 3B/B+, Raspberry Pi 4 Display – 11.6-inch 1920×1080 IPS screen Camera – 2MP camera Audio – Built-in microphone and stereo speaker; 3.5mm audio jack Keyboard – 2.4GHz detachable wireless keyboard (QWERTY only) with touchpad Sensors and Modules under the keyboard: Displays […]

megaAI 4K AI Camera Board Features Movidius Myriad X VPU (Crowdfunding)

megaAI Myriad X board

megaAI 4K AI camera board reminds me of Kendryte K210 based boards such as Maixduino used for computer vision for tasks such as object tracking or face recognition, but instead of just handling QVGA at around 15 to 18 fps, megaAI can supports inference at 4K resolution up to 30 fps. The tiny board can achieve this feat by leveraging the 4 TOPS of AI processing power delivered by Intel Movidius Myriad X VPU (Vision Processing Unit) while consuming only around 2.5 Watts. megaAI board specifications: AI Accelerator – Intel Movidius Myriad X VPU delivering up to 4 TOPS (Trillion Operations Per Second) Camera – 12 MP 4056×3040 Auto-Focus (8cm-∞) camera with 81 degrees  horizontal Field of View (HFOV) Video RAW Output – 4K @ 60FPS or 12MP @ 30FPS (with USB3.1 Gen2 Host) Hardware Image Encoding – 12 MP JPEG encoding Hardware Video Encoding: 4K H.265 encoding at 30 […]

EasyDK Open Source Cloud Media Platform is Made for Raspberry Pi 3/4

EasyDK Raspberry Pi 3/4

French startup MMPhygital has developed EasyDK (Easy Digital Key) open-source, Python-based cloud media platform designed for Raspberry Pi 3 & 4 SBC’s that allows users to manage and view media content from local storage or cloud storage (2GB free) using a web management interface. The solution acts as a media center with the interface providing access to movies, video streaming, and photos, but you can also display documents such as Microsoft Office files or PDF presentations. Other features include: Dynamic display – manage a network of connected screens remotely (similar to Digital Signage solution) Remote office- Connect to a remote computer using AnyDesk plugin Add-Ons – Add your own module Cloud management – Control EasyDK remotely using the cloud platform to deploy media, launch content automatically, etc.. BLE / IP remote control – Use your smartphone as a Bluetooth or IP remote control Wireless external hard drive Secure Internet Access […]

EDATEC Raspberry Pi 5 fanless case