DDR4 memory is coming to one more TV box. We first discovered it in Yundoo Y7 TV box powered by Amlogic S905X processor, but now Vorke, which started with Vorke V1 Intel Braswell mini PC and then V2 Ultra earlier this year, has now launched Vorke Z1 TV box with an octa-core Amlogic S912 processor combined with 3 GB DDR4 memory with higher bandwidth than your typical DDR3(L) memory.

Vorke Z1 specifications:

• SoC – Amlogic S912 octo-core ARM Cortex A53 processor @ up to 1.5 GHz with ARM Mali-820MP3 GPU
• System Memory – 3GB DDR4
• Storage – 32GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot up to 32GB
• Video Output – HDMI 2.0a with HDR and CEC support up to 4K @ 60 fps, and 3.5mm AV jack for composite output
• Audio Output – HDMI, AV jack (stereo audio), and optical S/PDIF
• Video codecs – VP9, 10-bit H.265 up to 4K 60 fps, H.264 AVC up to 4K 30 fps, H.264 MVC up to 1080p60, and many other codecs up to  1080p60
• Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac + Bluetooth 4.0
• USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports, 1x micro USB OTG port
• Misc – IR receiver, power button
• Power Supply – 5V/2A
• Dimensions – 130 x 109 x 24 mm
• Weight – 214 grams

The TV box runs Android 6.0.1 with Kodi 17.0 (beta), and ships with an IR remote control, an HDMI cable, an power adapter for your country, and a user’s manual. While DDR4 should provide higher bandwidth (50% faster), it’s unclear how this impacts performance of apps used in TV boxes, and so far I have not seen any benchmarks, or actual apps comparison showing the user benefit of the faster RAM.

GeekBuying is now taking pre-order for Vorke Z1 for $99.99 shipped, with shipping scheduled in about 2 weeks.

Tweet DDR4 memory is coming to one more TV box. We first discovered it in Yundoo Y7 TV box powered by Amlogic S905X processor, but now Vorke, which started with…

I reviewed Rikomagic MK22 TV box about two weeks ago, and with the firmware I had, online firmware update was not enabled, and the company only released .IMG firmware for Amlogic USB Burning Tool, a windows only tools that’s not well designed, and requires some procedure that vary slightly from boxes to boxes which in some cases forces to buy a male to male USB cable.

I’ve now started reviewing R-Box Pro TV box also based on Amlogic S912 processor, online firmware update is not working either, and again I only managed to find .IMG firmware for the box on GeekBuying. However, I’ve been informed that “USB Burning Tool” firmware can now be flashed through a micro SD card, or USB flash drive with all recent Amlogic TV boxes, so I’ve tried this method instead of R-Box Pro, and decided to report my experience in this post following some instructions on Freaktab made by user Calc. I’ll show instructions in Linux (which could be further streamlined), and then Windows.

Linux Method

After downloading and extracting the rar’ed firmware file (twice), I ended up with a single img firmware files (aml_s912_q6330-R-BOX-PRO-3gddr-mac-20161015.img).

First we’ll need to have a tool to extract some files from the firmware. Create aml-upgrade-package-extract.c with the code below which I found on Freaktab too and slightly modified it to parse the firmware filename:

Now compile the tool with gcc:

and run the thing on the firmware file:

It will extract a bunch of files:

You’ll just need aml_sdc_burn.ini and aml_sdc_burn.UBOOT, plus the IMG file itself to create a bootable mass storage device.

Now find the device for your micro SD card (formatted with FAT32) with lsblk:

In my case it’s /dev/sdd, but I’ll use /dev/sdX in the instructions below, just change the command with yours.

and finally re-mount the SD card/flash drive, copy the firmware file and aml_sdc_burn.ini to the root of the device, and rename the firmware to aml_upgrade_package.img to match the string in aml_sdc_burn.ini:

Now make sure no other USB devices or SD card are inserted in the TV box, and insert your bootable (micro) SD card or USB flash drive into the TV box. If your TV box is fully bricked, you have nothing to do, and the update should start straightaway, but if it is partially bricked or just working fine, you still need to press the recovery button, apply power, and release the button in order to enter recovery mode. The upgrade should then start automatically as shown below.

Patiently wait for the update to complete and you should be all good. Please note that I first tried with a USB flash drive, and the method did not work. Once the update is complete, you’ll see the “Android success” logo.

At this point, remove the micro SD card, and power cycle the board to complete the final steps of the update, and within one or two minutes you should get the Android launcher. If instead the firmware ends with “Android failure” logo showing a red cross, verify your firmware MD5 (e.g. with md5sum in Linux) to make sure it’s not corrupted. If it is, re-download the file and/or re-copy the file to the micro SD card.

Windows Method

If you are a Windows user it’s much easier as you just need to use Burn_Card_Marker tool, which you can download here. The documentation show the interface as shown below.

But after starting the program in Windows 7, and changing language with the top menu, second option to English, it stayed in Chinese language and looked like the screenshot below instead.

[Update: After changing the Language to English, select the third option in the top menu to apply the change…

…restart the app, and it will be in English.]

It’s not really a big issue, but you can still select your SD card device (F: drive in my case), load the file, and press “Make” button to start create a bootable recovery (micro) SD card.

You’ll get a “Success!” pop-up window and the end, and the content of the SD card will show the firmware, and the two aml_sdc_burn files.

Now you can insert the micro SD card in the TV box, enter recovery menu with the pin hole or other method for your TV box, and firmware update will start automatically.

Good Luck!

Tweet I reviewed Rikomagic MK22 TV box about two weeks ago, and with the firmware I had, online firmware update was not enabled, and the company only released .IMG firmware…

I’ve recently started to write a bit more about long range LPWAN standards for IoT applications, especially LoRa and Sigfox, as commercial networks are being launched, and relatively low cost hardware platforms are being introduced to the market. There are also other highly expected standards such as Weightless and LTE Cat M that will bring more competition to the market. Ingenu RPMA (Random Phase Multiple Access) is another available standard that’s been in deployment for a while, and based on an earlier comparison of  long range LPWAN standards, it comes with long range, supports up to 384,000 nodes per “sector”, operates in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz ISM band, and offers high combined uplink and downlink bandwidth than competitors. Ingenu recently contacted me and provided some more details and information about their technology and development kit.

One of the documents includes an “independent analysis completed by ABI Research, Inc.” comparing features of Sigfox, LoRa, EC-GSM-IoT, MB-IoT, LTE Cat-M1,  and RPMA.

Click to Enlarge

All standards can have node powered by a battery for over 10 years, but based on that table RPMA does seems to have some advantages in terms of coverage, capacity, throughput, security level, scalability, and mobility support.

Click to Enlarge

Those charts are extracted from the Ingenu’s marketing documents, so they’ll obviously show RPMA in a positive light. However it does seems that if you have lots of nodes, and bandwidth requirements higher than what can be delivered by LoRa or Sigfox, RPMA appears to be a potentially better solution. The 2.4 GHz band is normally quite busy, so I wonder if there could be some limitations here, and some countries may also have restrictions on the emitted power. RPMA deployments started in 2011, so they already have an installed base on several continents for industrial, agricultural, and security applications, which includes 38 Private Networks as well as the “Machine Network” in North & South America, EMEA, and APAC regions.

Support in the Asia Pacific regions is certainly a plus, as this week a French company wanted to send me their Sigfox & LoRa sensors kits for evaluation, but they had nothing working in South East Asia, so it will be for a little later.

The company can provide RPMA devkit to their customers in order to get started and evaluate the technology.

Click to Enlarge

Ingenu RPMA development kit key features and specifications:

• MCU – NXP Kinetis K20 ARM Cortex-M4 MCU @ 50 MHz
• Connectivity
  • nanoNode RPMA radio module (NODE103)
    • Wireless Frequency – 2.4 GHZ ISM
    • Bandwidth – 1 MHz
    • Modulation – Dynamic Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (D-DSSS)
    • Access Point Capacity – Up to 64,000 nodes in star topology
    • Typical Power – Tx: 800 mW; Rx: 250 mW
  • u-Blox GPS module
• Expansion – Header with analog & digital GPIOs and UART
• Debugging – JTAG header, UART for serial debugging
• Battery Life – Up to 20+ years
• Power Supply – 5V/1A power supply to DC jack (J204), 2.2 to 3.6V DC batteries to J201 header
• Dimensions – 107 x 68 x 13 mm
• Temperature Range – 0°C to 85°C
• Certifications – FCC, IC, ETSI, and others (pending) for some specific countries

The rACM (reference Application Communication Module) tools are used to control the kit, and since they are written in Python it will work on Windows, Mac OS X or Linux. Communication occurs over a REST API or Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) open standard messaging protocol, and devices can be managed through a platform called Intellect. Quick Start Guides are also provided to customers to show how to set up pulse meters, UART, GPIO, and more…

You’d use the devkit with RPMA networks such as the Machine Network. You can check network coverage on Ingenu to find out if it is available in your location. If there’s no network in your location, but a network is expected soon, you can still evaluate RPMA technology by getting an Exploration Kit with two RPMA devkits and a rental RPMA access point. The latter gives some clue about about the use cases for RPMA, as while you can get one or two ~50 Euros LoRa nodes connected it to a LoRaWAN network or setup P2P communication, RPMA apparently requires an access point that expensive enough that it has to be rented. So RPMA is likely most suitable and cost effective for larger scale IoT deployments, and not for smaller or hobbyist’s projects.

You’ll get some more details about the hardware and software, as well as interesting case studies about existing implementations, on the Get Started page, or by directly downloading the Starter Pack with hardware design files, software tools, REST & AMQP source code examples, and documentation.

Tweet I’ve recently started to write a bit more about long range LPWAN standards for IoT applications, especially LoRa and Sigfox, as commercial networks are being launched, and relatively low…

With the launch of Raspberry Pi 3 based on Broadcom BCM2837 quad core Cortex A53 processor earlier this year, sales of Raspberry Pi 2 boards have suffering meaning the demand for Broadcom BCM2836 quad core Cortex A7 processor has also been reduced, and it appears the Raspberry Pi foundation has now launched Raspberry Pi 2 V1.2 with the faster BCM2837 processor.

The new Raspberry Pi 2 v1.2 runs BCM2837 CPU cores up to 900 MHz, instead of 1.2 GHz on RPi 3, and includes 1 GB PoP RAM. The main difference with Raspberry Pi 3 is the lack of the WiFi and Bluetooth module, which may also prevent some UART issues if you want to access the serial console or use an add-on board with UART.

Since both boards cost the same ($35), most people should probably stick with Raspberry Pi 3, unless you’d rather not have any wireless module on board for security reasons. You can purchase Raspberry Pi 2 v1.2 on Farnell, CPC Farnell, Newark and others.

Via Raspi.TV

Tweet With the launch of Raspberry Pi 3 based on Broadcom BCM2837 quad core Cortex A53 processor earlier this year, sales of Raspberry Pi 2 boards have suffering meaning the…

The vast majority of octa-core Android TV Boxes sold on the market comes with 2GB RAM, but Amlogic S912 based R-Box Pro TV box was interesting with its 3GB RAM option (aka R-Box Pro 3G), as I wondered if I would see any noticeable improvements during my tests with the extra RAM. We’ve already confirmed the the hardware comes with 3GB RAM using 2x 1GB + 2x 512MB RAM chips configuration in the first part of the review last month, and it’s now time to check out whether this translates to anything in Android, as well as go through the usual hard-to-get features to work like automatic frame rate switching and HD audio pass-through.

First Boot, Firmware Update, and First Impressions

One positive with the device is the four USB ports, so this time I did not need an USB hub at all, and connected a USB HDD, two RF dongles for an air mouse and gamepad, as well as a USB keyboard to take screenshots. I completed the hardware setup with Ethernet and HDMI cables, and plugged the power supply to boot the device. Boot time is rather slow compared to competitors at about one minute.

Click for Original Size

The launcher used is exactly the same as on Rikomagic MK22, and the list of apps is also quite similar with IPTV apps such as Mobdro, Netflix, FilmOn Live, and UkTVNow.

The setup is also exactly the same, so if you want to find out more about the interface and setup options you can read Rikomagic MK22 review, while you’ll find more details about the IPTV apps (Mobdro / Filmon) in MXQ Plus / M12N TV box review.

I had no troubles with the settings when configuring WiFi and Ethernet, and the system kept the video output resolution I set (3840x2160p60) even between reboot. Part of the 16GB flash is used for the operating system, and the user still get 11.38 GB to play with, and at the end of the review after installing apps and some copying files, I only had used 3.26 GB.

You can also see exFAT and NTFS file systems are supported as usual, and a FAT32 micro SD card could also be mounted.

The “About Media” box section shows R-BOX Pro 3G runs Android 6.0.1 with Linux 3.14.29, no surprise here. The firmware is rooted. I received the box early October, and when I first boot up the device the firmware was dated in September, so I checked for firmware update. They’ve done something pretty stupid as they’ve included both UPDATE&BACKUP and WirelessUpdate apps in the firmware, which is sure to confuse customers. But basically UPDATE&BACKUP app is not configured and trying to get an OTA firmware update will results in “Check Failed! Check Your OTA Servier Argent” (sic), while WirelessUpdate app appears to be configured, but can’t get any update firmware from the server, probably because they did not bother to copy any firmware… Finally, I could find new firmware on GeekBuying, but again on for “USB Burning Tool” with IMG extension, so I decided to try some new SD card method with Amlogic IMG firmware in Linux and Windows, and I finally managed to flash the firmware without using Amlogic USB Burning Tool. It took me nearly a full Saturday to make it work, but at least now I know how to do.

Nevertheless, this is 2016, and OTA firmware update is now working on most TV boxes, even some cheaper ones, so manufacturers should not expect end users to work with tools reserved to factory workers…

I had no problems using both Google Play and Amazon Underground to install apps. The remote control worked well enough up to 8 meters, and I could turn on and off the box with it.

Power handling is properly implemented with power off and standby modes, but the latter is pretty much useless based on the power consumption values I got on my power meter (with all USB devices connected as shown in top photo):

• Power Off – 0.0 watt
• Standby – 6.4 watts (USB HDD still on, Box LED is red)
• Idle – 6.2 watts (Box LED is blue)

The case top and bottom temperatures were  respectively 41 and 51 °C max after Antutu 6.x benchmark, and after 15 minutes playing Riptide GP2, they rose to 42°C and 60°C respectively. The game performance was constant over time, and about the same as on other Amlogic S912 with highest resolution settings, i.e. not perfect, but playable.

Since one of the first thing I do with a new box is to check for new firmware, not having OTA firmware update, nor a simple SD card or USB flash drive ZIP firmware is not a good way to start. Sadly, even after the frustration of flash a new firmware, I had sluggishness issues with some apps show the “App is not responsive window” aking to wait or kill the app a bit more often than I’m comfortable with, and as we’ll see below my Kodi experience was one of the worse with 4K videos and audio pass-through. I certainly did not feel any benefit of having 3GB RAM over 2GB RAM with this device, as I was hoping the extra read/write buffer for the storage might improve the performance, but the opposite happened, likely because of sub-optimized firmware.

4K and Audio pass-through in Kodi 17.0 and DRM Info

The firmware I used for review (October 13, 2016) comes with Kodi 17.0-Alpha3 built on July 31, 2016 with TVaddons installed. I connected to my video samples SAMBA share and started testing some 4K videos:

• HD.Club-4K-Chimei-inn-60mbps.mp4 (H.264, 30 fps) – OK
  
• sintel-2010-4k.mkv (H.264, 24 fps, 4096×1744) –  OK
• Beauty_3840x2160_120fps_420_8bit_HEVC_MP4.mp4 (H.265) –  OK
• Bosphorus_3840x2160_120fps_420_8bit_HEVC_MP4.mp4 (H.265) – OK
• Jockey_3840x2160_120fps_420_8bit_HEVC_TS.ts (H.265) – OK
• MHD_2013_2160p_ShowReel_R_9000f_24fps_RMN_QP23_10b.mkv (10-bit HEVC) – OK
• phfx_4KHD_VP9TestFootage.webm (VP9) – Won’t play, stays in UI
• BT.2020.20140602.ts (Rec.2020 compliant video; 36 Mbps; 59.97 Hz) – OK
• big_buck_bunny_4k_H264_30fps.mp4 – Started well, but after 30 seconds or so the image intermittently froze from time to time
• big_buck_bunny_4k_H264_60fps.mp4 – Not smooth, and audio delay (hardware does not support this type of video)
• Fifa_WorldCup2014_Uruguay-Colombia_4K-x265.mp4 (4K, H.265, 60 fps) – OK (although video did not seem as sharp as usual)
• Samsung_UHD_Dubai_10-bit_HEVC_51.4Mbps.ts (10-bit HEVC / MPEG-4 AAC) – OK
• Astra-11479_V_22000-Canal+ UHD Demo 42.6 Mbps bitrate.ts (10-bit H.265 from DVB-S2 stream) –  OK
• Ducks Take Off [2160p a 243 Mbps].mkv (4K H.264 @ 29.97 fps; 243 Mbps; no audio) – Not smooth
• tara-no9-vp9.webm (4K VP9 YouTube video @ 60 fps, Vorbis audio) – Won’t play, stays in UI
• The.Curvature.of.Earth.4K.60FPS-YT-UceRgEyfSsc.VP9.3840×2160.OPUS.160K.webm (4K VP9 @ 60 fps + opus audio) – Won’t play, stays in UI

Most people probably don’t have VP9 videos, but considering one of the key selling on Amlogic S912 over Amlogic S905 is hardware video decoding support for VP9, it’s quite an unexpected issue, especially it is working on other Amlogic S912 TV boxes I tested so far.

Unsurprisingly, automatic frame rate switching is not working either…

I continued testing Kodi with HDMI pass-through to Onkyo TX-NR636 AV receiver was quite a disaster:

• AC3 / Dolby Digital 5.1 – Audio OK (Dolby D 5.1), but video not smooth
• E-AC-3 / Dolby Digital+ 5.1 – OK
• Dolby Digital+ 7.1 – PCM 2.0
• TrueHD 5.1 – PCM 2.0
• TrueHD 7.1 – PCM 2.0
• Dolby Atmos 7.1 – PCM 2.0
• DTS HD Master – Black screen and no audio
• DTS HD High Resolution – Black screen and no audio
• DTS:X – Black screen and no audio (not supported by Onkyo TX-NR636, but should normally be heard as DTS-HD MA)

The box supports Widevine Security Level 3 DRM, which should allow for SD playback of some premium video services, but not HD or UHD.

Click to Enlarge

WiFi and Internal Storage Benchmark

I’ve copied a 278 MB file between the internal storage and a SAMBA server using ES File Explorer in both direction in order to estimate WiFi performance. R-Box Pro support 802.11n and 802.11ac WiFi, so I tested both on different routers, and the system achieved 1.4 MB/s throughput using 802.11n, and 2.0 MB/s for 802.11ac on average.

WiFi Throughput in MB/s

The chart makes is clear that neither 802.11n nor 802.11ac performance is very. I must note than in the case of 802.11ac download performance was much higher than upload performance averaging about 3.4 MB/s. The chart on the right shows both Download (Upload from TV box – top) and Upload (Download from TV box – bottom) shows the traffic shape for 802.11ac transfer. 802.11ac download shows the performance is not stable, but at least there are no stalls, but the upload shows mostly constant throughput with several 3 stalls during transfer, so the connection does not appear to be entirely stable.

I measure Internal storage performance with A1SD bench, and the eMMC flash used in R-Box Pro delivered 39.28 MB/s read speed, and 19.31 MB/s write speed. Not the best, but those values should be enough to have responsive firmware in most conditions. So the slow loading apps issue if most probably due to a firmware/software issue then a problem with the hardware itself.

R-Box Pro 3G System Info and Antutu Benchmark

The board name is q6330, exactly the same as Rikomagic MK22, so I’d expect the firmware between those models to be very similar. R-Box manufacturer releases different firmware with their 2GB and 3GB RAM version however. CPU-Z also reports Amlogic S912 is an octa-core Cortex A53 clocked at 1.51 GHz with a Mali-T820MP GPU. 3 GB RAM is detected, or more exactly 2810 MB taking into account the hardware buffers), with 11.38 GB storage available to the user.

Click to Enlarge

I ran Antutu 6.x to verify the performance, and 39,846 points is about what we’ve come to expect from Amlogic S912 TV boxes, with some devices getting as high as 42,000+ points.

Conclusion

I was intrigued with R-Box Pro 3G because of its 3GB RAM, but I ended getting the worse Amlogic S912 TV box of the six models I’ve reviewed so far.  OTA firmware is not working, the company does not seem to have a webpage for firmware, so I had to look on the Internet to find something on GeekBuying, with only IMG firmware requiring some Windows tools, or building your own parser in Linux in order to flash it. Clearly not user friendly. Kodi 17.0-alpha3 is installed in the box, and the list of issues is impressive: Vp9 videos can’t play, some 4K H.264 @ 30 fps video won’t play smoothly, automatic frame rate switching is not working either, and I only managed to get audio pass-through in Kodi work for a Dolby Digital 5.1 with some DTS-HD videos just showing a black screen. WiFi performance is rather weak both using 802.11n and 802.11ac WiFi, and the apps are not always loading very fast, leading the system to ask whether to wait or kill the apps. I’m pretty sure I missed some issues, but needless to say the company has a lot of work to do to make it a worthwhile device.

Kingnovel provided R-Box Pro 3G for review, and resellers & distributors can contact the company via their website. Individuals should probably not buy the device at this stage, but you can still purchase it for about $70 and up on GeekBuying,and Aliexpress. Note that the 2GB RAM version is often sold side-by-side with the 3GB RAM version, and price starts at $66.

Tweet The vast majority of octa-core Android TV Boxes sold on the market comes with 2GB RAM, but Amlogic S912 based R-Box Pro TV box was interesting with its 3GB…

I may just have finished Giveaway Week at the beginning of the month with my own review samples, but I have three new devices to offer courtesy of WeTek who asked me whether I could organize a giveaway for two WeTek Hub and one WeTek Play 2 Android & OpenELEC TV boxes on CNX Software.

WeTek Hub

For some reasons I’ve been unlucky with my attempted reviews of the two devices with my WeTek Hub review sample having severe stability issues, while my country’s customs office required time-consuming and expensive paperwork for WeTek Play 2, so I had to abandon the package. End of the day, I did not review either. Other reviewers were luckier, with – from what I’ve seen – positive reviews for both devices. For example, Mark Hodgkinson concluded his review of WeTek Hub on AV Forums as follows:

The Wetek Hub is a well-designed little device, both inside and out, that should serve the media needs of most for some time to come and, given its fairly low entry price, it’s one we’re happy to term as a Best Buy.

Kodi forum moderator wrxtasy tested WeTek Play 2, found the Android or OpenELEC firmware was comparable to the one of WeTek Hub (he gave an A mark, once the IR remote was excluded…), and also gave his opinions about WeTV App for the tuner with a good mark for live TV  playback and prompt channel switching, but he had some grievances with regards to some features like EPG presentation, the number of clicks required for some functions, and a few other issues. The device still got an decent B- for the DVB/PVR part as of October 29th.

WeTek Play 2

WeTek Hub is also getting Android 6.0 firmware with support for 4K streaming on services that offer 4K content, including Netflix.

If you are interested in either device, please leave a comment below. Complete rules as follow:

• Only one entry accept. I will filter out entries with the same IP.
• The contest is open for 48 hours, and comments will be closed after 48 hours, so you’ll know when the contest is over.
• Winners will be selected with random.org, and announced in the comments section.
  
• The first winner will get WeTek Play 2 (with tuner of his/her choice), and the second and third winner will receive WeTek Hub.
• I’ll contact the winners by email, and I’ll expect an answer within 24 hours, or I’ll pick another winner.
• Shipping – Free and handled by WeTek
• The contest is open to all humans living on planet Earth. Dogs, cats, and extraterrestrial lizards not allowed.
• If you have already won a device during giveaway week in November 2016, you can’t participate in order to give others a chance.

Good luck!

Tweet I may just have finished Giveaway Week at the beginning of the month with my own review samples, but I have three new devices to offer courtesy of WeTek…

Here comes one more LoRa board to play with. Badgerboard combines an Arduino compatible Atmel/Microchip AVR MCU with a Microchip RN2483 or RN2903 module in a breadboard compatible board powered via  micro USB port or an external battery.

Badgerboard specifications:

• MCU – Atmel ATmega32U4 MCU
• Connectivity – LoRaWAN via Microchip RN2483 (EU – 868MHz) / RN2903 (US – 915 MHz) modem with SMA connector and antenna
• USB – 1x micro USB port for power and programming
• Expansion – 2x 18-pin unpopulated headers with SPI, I2C, 13x GPIOs, 6x 10-bit ADC, 3.3V and GND signals; open drain output for relays up to 24V 100 mA
• Sensors – STM HTS221 temperature and humidity sensor
• Misc – Reset button; user and Tx/Rx LEDs; power on/off switch
• Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port, or Li-Ion/ Li-Po battery via JST connector
• Dimensions – 56 x 26 mm

The board can be programmed with the Arduino IDE and “tested and verified libraries for LoRaWAN communication”. You’ll find some code samples and libraries, pinout diagram and the board’s datasheet on Badgerboard.io website.

Nordic Automation Systems (NAS), the company behind the project, has experience with other wireless products based on Bluetooth Low Energy, ANT+, and IEEE 802.15.4 based protocols (6LoWPAN / ZigBee), and launched the project on Kickstarter aiming to raise 135,000 NOK (~$15,800) to fund mass production. Early bird rewards start at 365 NOK (~$43) and include the board, female and make pin headers, and an SMA antenna. Other rewards including multiple quantities of the basic kit, some kits with extra external sensors, up to Badgerboard Megapack for 5x boards with antennas, an outdoor gateway and 1-year NAS IoThub service for 12,270 NOK (~$1440 US). Shipping is included in the price, and delivery is scheduled for December 2016/January 2017 depending on the reward.

Tweet Here comes one more LoRa board to play with. Badgerboard combines an Arduino compatible Atmel/Microchip AVR MCU with a Microchip RN2483 or RN2903 module in a breadboard compatible board…

Voyo recently introduced one of an Apollo Lake mini PCs called Voyo VMac, and  powered by either Intel Celeron N3450 or Pentium N4200 processor combined with 4GB RAM and 32GB eMMC flash + 128 GB SSD storage. The company will soon launch an Apollo Lake laptop based on Intel Celeron N3450 quad core processor with the same 4GB RAM + 160 GB storage configuration, and an 11.6″ display with 1920×1080 resolution.

Voyo VBook A1 laptop specifications:

• SoC – Intel Celeron N3450 quad core “Apollo Lake” processor @ 1.1 GHz / 2.2 GHz (Burst frequency) and 12 EU Intel HD graphics 500 @ 200 MHz / 700 MHz (Burst freq.); 6W TDP
• System Memory – 4GB DDR3L
• Storage – 32GB eMMC flash + 128GB M.2 SSD (Supports dual SSD extension, up to 512GB) + micro SD slot up to 128 GB
• Display – 11.6″ IPS capacitive touch screen with 1920 x 1080 (FHD) resolution; rotatable by 360 degrees.
• Video Output – 1x micro HDMI 1.4 port
• Audio – HDMI, 3.5mm audio jack, built-in stereo speakers and microphone
• Connectivity – Dual band 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi, and Bluetooth 4.0.
• Camera – 2.0MP front-facing camera
• USB – 1 x USB 2.0 host port, 1 x USB 3.0 port
• Misc – Power and volume keys, 1x micro SIM card slot, lock key, G-sensor
• Power Supply – 12V DC / 2-3A
• Battery – 12,000 mAh Li-ion battery
• Dimensions – 29.0 x 19.6 x 1.6 cm
• Weight – 1.2 kg

The laptop will run Windows 10 Home, and ship with a power supply and a user’s manual. The laptop appears to be inspired from Lenovo Yoga models, with the expression “YOGA 2-in-1 tablet” being used in the marketing documents, and the hybrid laptop also supports tablet, tent, and stand modes. A SIM card slot is mentioned in the specs and GeekBuying blog post, but somehow 3G / 4G LTE connectivity is not discussed at all anywhere, and it is stated that “this machine has a SIM card slot, but it does not support SIM card to surf Internet or make phone call.”

GeekBuying has started to take pre-orders for $299 including shipping, with delivery scheduled in about 40 days.

Tweet Voyo recently introduced one of an Apollo Lake mini PCs called Voyo VMac, and  powered by either Intel Celeron N3450 or Pentium N4200 processor combined with 4GB RAM and…

Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2016 are coming up in the next few days, and while people living in the United States will surely have plenty of local deals, people living in the rest of the world can also benefit from the festival thanks to deals provided by Chinese online sellers. I’ll go through a list of event from some of the major shops for Black Friday 2016.

GearBest Black Friday 2016 will offer some discounts (but certainly not 80% off) as well as coupons:

• US Warehouse – 10% OFF with GBNY10 coupon – Validity: October 31 – December 31
• Site-wide (New Buyers Only) – 10% OFF with GBNEWNOV coupon – Validity: November 21 – 29
• Site-wide – 8% OFF with GBAFFNOV coupon – Validity: November 21 – 29
• EU Warehouse – 8% OFF with EUK10off coupon – Validity – November 11 – 29
•  2% discount for payment by Paypal (up to $2) – Validity – November  25 – 29

Geekbuying’s Black Friday “Crazy Discount” has started on November 14th, and will last until November 27th. BLACK6 coupon will give you 6% discount site-wide, and customers who purchase $350 or more in the last three month will be able to get a 10% disctoun by sharing the promotion on their social networks. They also have various discounts for all kind of devices for example Vorke V1 mini PC for $159.99 (ands lower for a 72-hour Shopping Carnival on Nov 24), KII Pro TV box with tuner for $74.99, and so on.

Three customers who purchased items during the promotion period will also be randomly selected to respectively win OnePlus X smartphone, GeekBox TV box, and N.01 D6 smartwatch.

DealExtreme Black Friday 2016 event consists of several sub-event:

• 10% MVP (Most Valuable Products) Refund – Validity: November 15 – 24
• Favorite free gifts for orders over  $40 (gift value $1 to $6 depending on day). Validity: Up to November 24th
• Brands Advantages – Mostly discounts for smartphone brands
• Black Friday Flash Sales on November 25th only.
• Cyber Monday with 4000+ desktop calendars given away

Finally, CyberWeek & Black Friday is taking place now in Aliexpress. Part of the activities include games from the mobile app only to win coins to exchange for $2 or $8 coupons.

The company also has promotions where you can get store coupons or discounts for categories such as Consumer Electronics or Phones Tablets & Accessories. The coupons I’ve seen range between $1 to $10.

Please free to comment if you know of other deals, or even specific deals that you’d think would be interesting to CNX Software readers.

Tweet Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2016 are coming up in the next few days, and while people living in the United States will surely have plenty of local deals,…

Open source hardware gives mostly full control over software and hardware, but there are different levels of openess, with some companies wrongly claiming their product to be open source hardware – with a nice accompanying logo – once they dump some source code somewhere and publish the PDF schematics, while others are doing it right with the release of schematics and PCB layout in source format, as well as software and proper documentation. However even for the latter group, the actual chips are closed source bought directly from silicon vendors or their distributors. So the good news is that you now have the opportunity to bring the meaning of open source hardware to a whole new level thanks to OnChip Open-V 32-bit  processor that is open source, and getting launched on Crowd Supply crowdfunding platform.

OnChip Open-V is based on RISC-V (pronounced “risk-five”), comes with peripherals, and should be competitive against ARM Cortex M0 based micro-controllers. The MCU would also be the first RISC-V chip available on the market.

Open-V chip specifications:

• Processor – RISC-V ISA version 2.1 @ up to 160 MHz
• Memory – 8 KB SRAM
• Clock – 32 KHz – 160 MHz; Two PLLs, user-tunable with muxers and frequency dividers
• Analog Signals
  • 2x 10-bit ADC channels, each running at up to 10 MS/s
  • 2x 12-bit DAC channels
• Timers
  • 1x general-purpose 16-bit timer
  • 1x 16-bit watch dog timer (WDT)
• General Purpose Input/Ouput
  • 16x programmable GPIO pins
  • 2x external interrupts
• Interfaces
  • SDIO port for example to add a micro SD slot
  • 2x SPI ports, I2C, UART
• Programming and Testing
  • Built-in debug module for use with gdb and JTAG
  • Programmable PRBS-31/15/7 generator and checker for interconnect testing
• 1.2 V operation
• Package – QFN-32

Open-V vs STM32L0 vs PIC32MX vs SAMD21 vs EFM32Z vs LPC812M vs MSP430F vs  ATMega-328p

You can find the complete OnChip Open-V design, including the RTL (register-transfer level) files for the CPU and peripherals, as well as the development and testing tools in Github, all released under the MIT license. The source can be used to teach silicon designs, debug and correct errors in the chip without asking the vendor, and if you plan to roll your own cut reducing costs by cutting out licensing fees.

Development Board for Open-V RISC-V MCU

Now most people would not be able to do much with just the MCU only, so the company will also develop an Open-V development board with the following specifications:

• MCU – 32-pin QFN Open-V microcontroller
• Storage – 32 KB EEPROM, microSD receptacle
• USB – 1x USB 2.0 controller + micro USB port for power and data
• Expansion – Breadboard-compatible breakout header pins
• Debugging – JTAG connector
• Power – 1.2 V and 3.3 V voltage regulators
• Dimensions: 55 mm x 30 mm

The board will be programmed with the Arduino IDE, so it should be not harder than programming any Arduino boards, or any platforms using the popular IDE.

However, getting silicon to market is an expensive endeavor, and the only way to bring prices down to to manufacture millions of units. OnChip is starting small with a first target of 70,000 chips, which still converts to a $480,000 funding target. There are several ways to help reach that goal starting with a $49 “Chip Pioneer” reward to get on of the first chips to be manufactured, but the most popular reward is likely to be Open-V development board going for $99. Shipping is free to the US and $7 to the rest of the world. You’ll also have to patient, quite understandably due to the task at hand,  as rewards are only expected to ship in April and May 2018, unless you pledge for one of the most expensive rewards giving access to early chips in May 2017.

Thanks to Nanik the tip.

Tweet Open source hardware gives mostly full control over software and hardware, but there are different levels of openess, with some companies wrongly claiming their product to be open source…

Zidoo X9S and X8 are Android 6.0 + OpenWrt TV boxes powered by Realtek RTD1295 processor with HDMI input supporting PIP, UDP broadcasting and video recording, which works reasonably well despite some 4K video decoding limitations. The company has now released a “digital signage SDK” – which I’d rather just call a digital signage demo – working on either device on github, but you can still study the source code in order to build your own.

Some of the possible features showcased in the demo include:

• Digital Signage (AD) player as shown above with video, picture and scrolling text
• Multi Views display (HDMI IN + Video playing + Web browsing)
• Multi Videos decode
• Screen rotation
• Screen zoom in / out
• Display output resolution switch
• HDMI IN player
• HDMI IN picture in picture (PIP)

So it’s not a total solution, just an “SDK” showing what can be done with media files, and you’d still have to write your own app managing content updates (from storage or network), as well as some content management software.

Two apks are used: ZidooDigitalDemo_1.0.apk whose Java source code is available as shown in the screenshot above, and zidoo_share_1.0.5.apk, closed source with not details provided, but that’s probably what ties the solution only to Zidoo X8 or Z9S hardware. I’m guessing it’s just a server/service between the demo and lower level functions.

Tweet Zidoo X9S and X8 are Android 6.0 + OpenWrt TV boxes powered by Realtek RTD1295 processor with HDMI input supporting PIP, UDP broadcasting and video recording, which works reasonably…

We now have so many Amlogic S912 Android TV boxes on the market, it becomes hard for companies to differentiate, but Geniatech is offering something different with their Geniatech/Mygica ATV1960 model thanks to a dual TV tuner support either ATSC or DVB-T2 and allowing you to watch a program, while recording another.

Geniatech/Mygica ATV1960 specifications:

• SoC – Amlogic S912 octa-core ARM Cortex A53 processor @ up to 1.5 GHz with ARM Mali-820MP3 GPU
• System Memory – 2GB DDR3
• Storage – 16GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot + 2.5″ SATA bay (cover on the bottom of the case)
• Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60 Hz
• Audio Output – HDMI, and optical S/PDIF
• Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual band WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac
• USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports
• Tuner – Dual Digital TV Tuner  (ATSC/T2); one for live watching, another for recording; EPG and PVR supported.
• Misc – IR receiver, reset pinhole
• Power Supply – 5V/2A
• Dimensions –  160 x 110 x 33 mm
• Weight – 237 grams

The exact specifications are of the device are hard to find since the people who updated the company’s website did not do such a good job. While all other Amlogic S912 TV boxes are running Android 6.0, ATV1960 is said to run Android 5.1, something that’s unlikely but possible in case the drivers for the tuners could not be re-built for Android 6.0.

We also could not see any demo of the device yet, and price and availability are not available yet. ATV1960 will likely be sold under the Mygica brand, possibly with some specifications tweaks, as the company has done in the past with other models. You can find more – but not-so-accurate – information on Geniatech ATV1960 product page.

Via ARMDevices

Tweet We now have so many Amlogic S912 Android TV boxes on the market, it becomes hard for companies to differentiate, but Geniatech is offering something different with their Geniatech/Mygica…

Long range LPWAN solutions have just started to hit the market, and there are so many standards such as Sigfox and LoRa that it’s difficult to know who will eventually be the winner, or if different standards will co-exist over the long term, and in a general sense it might not be so easy to decide which one is best suited to your project without experimenting first. Pycom has a solution to this problem, as they’ve made a board similar to LoPy with WiFi, Bluetooth, and LoRa, but instead included 5 long and short range IoT protocols: Sigfox, LoRa, LTE Cat M1 & Cat NB1, Bluetooth, and WiFi.

Pycom FiPy board specifications:

• SoC – Espressif ESP32 dual core Tensilica L108 processors @ up to 160 MHz with BT 4.2 and WiFi
• System Memory – 4MB RAM
• Storage – 8MB flash memory
• Connectivity
  • WiFi 802.11 b/g/n @ 16 Mbps up to 1 km range & Bluetooth 4.2 with common u.FL antenna connector and chip antenna
  • LoRa and Sigfox transceiver
    • common u.FL antenna connector, RF switch
    • Lora
      • 868 MHz (Europe) at +14dBm maximum
      • 915 MHz (North and South America, Australia and New Zealand) at +20dBm maximum
      • Node range up to 40 km, nano-gateway range up to 22 km (max 100 nodes).
      • Power Consumption – 10mA Rx, 28mA Tx
    • Sigfox
      • Maximum Tx power – +14dBm (Europe), +22dBm (America), +22dBm (Australia and New Zealand)
      • Node range up to 50km
      • Operating Frequencies
        • RCZ1 – 868MHz (Europe)
        • RCZ2 – 902MHz (US, Canada and Mexico)
        • RCZ3 – (Japan and Korea)
        • RCZ4 – 920 – 922MHz (ANZ, Latin America and S-E Asia)
      • Power Consumption
        • Sigfox (Europe) – 17mA in Rx mode, 47mA in Tx mode and 0.5uA in standby
        • Sigfox (Australia, New Zealand and South America) – 24mA in Rx mode, 257 mA in Tx mode and 0.5uA in standby
  • Cellular LTE CAT M1/NB1 transceiver
    • u.FL antenna connector and nano SIM socket
    • Operating frequencies – 34 bands supported from 699 to 2690MHz
    • 3GPP Release 13 LTE Advanced Pro
    • Peak power estimations – Tx current = 420mA peak @ 1.5Watt Rx current = 330mA peak @ 1.2Watt
• Expansion – 2x 14 pin headers with UART, 2x SPI, 2x I2C, I2S, SDIO, 8x 12-bit ADC, 2x 8-bit DACs, up to 16 PWMs, up to 22 GPIOs
• Misc – WS2812 RGB LED, reset switch, 32 KHz RTC (in SoC)
• Dimensions – 55 x 20 x 3.5 mm
• Temperature Range – -40 to 85 degrees Celsius
• Certifications – CE, FCC,  Sigfox network certification, LoRa Alliance certification, LTE-M CAT M1/NB1 cellular –  global networks

FiPy name is most probably derived from Five IoT protocols, and microPython support. As the board is compatible with WiPy, LoPy and SiPy you can use the usual Pymakr IDE and Pymate Mobile app to write your program and control the board. The company has also introduced two new add-on boards:

• PySense board with an ambient light sensor, a barometric pressure sensor, a humidity sensor, a 3-axis 12-bit accelerometer, and a temperature sensor, as well as a micro SD card, a micro USB port, and a LiPo battery charger
• PyTrack board with a GNSS + Glonass GPS and a 3-axis accelerometer, as well as a micro SD card, a micro USB port, and a LiPo battery charger. This can be very useful to track moving assets such as cars or bicycles.

FiPy and PyTrack

The project has just launched on Kickstarter as already surpassed its 25,000 Euros funding target. Most early bird rewards are gone, but you can pledge 39 Euros for FiPy board,  59 Euros (Early bird) for PySense Kit, 65 Euros (Early bird) for PyTrack kit, optionally adding 7 Euros for a Sigfox/Lora antenna, and 7 Euros more for an LTE-M cellular antenna. Shipping adds 8 to 25 Euros depending on the selected rewards, and delivery is scheduled for April 2017. Just a warning for users who are not based in the US or Europe: please make sure you comply with your country regulations, especially in terms of frequency used, as such nodes will have multiple kilometers range, and you may not want to break the law, and possibly get a visit from your local police or military…

Tweet Long range LPWAN solutions have just started to hit the market, and there are so many standards such as Sigfox and LoRa that it’s difficult to know who will…

Following up on Pine A64 board powered by Allwinner A64 quad core Cortex A53 processor, Pine64 has decided to work on a software compatible laptop based on the processor. PINEBOOK comes with 2GB RAM, 16 GB flash storage, a 11.6″ or 14″ display, and the usual ports you’d expect on such device.

PINEBOOK specifications:

• SoC – Allwinner A64 quad core ARM Cortex A53 processor @ 1.2 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU
• System Memory – 2GB LPDDR3
• Storage – 16GB eMMC 5.0 flash and micro SD slot up to 256 GB
• Display – 11.6″ or 14″ IPS LCD display with 1280 x 720 resolution (no touchscreen)
• Video Output – mini HDMI port for external display
• Audio – HDMI, 3.5 mm headphone jack, built-in microphone and stereo speakers
• Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 b/g/n + Bluetooth 4.0
• USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports
• Camera – 1.2 MP camera
• User Input Devices – Full size QWERTY keyboard, 5″ touchpad
• Power Supply – 5V/3A
• Battery – 10,000 mAh LiPo battery
• Dimensions – 352 x 233 x 18 mm
• Weight – 1.2 kg

The laptop is not based on Pine A64+ board, nor the upcoming SOPINE A64 module, and instead they had to design a custom board to meet the thickness requirements.

PINEBOOK should support most of the operating systems supported by PINE A64(+) boards including Android 5.1/7.0, Remix OS, Debian, Ubuntu, and others, but the firmware requires some (minor) modifications since the laptop is using LPDDR3 RAM.

The laptop is not available for sale right now, but we know the 11.6″ version will cost $89, the 14″ version $99, and you can register to get notified of the launch. You may also find a few more details on PINEBOOK product page.

Tweet Following up on Pine A64 board powered by Allwinner A64 quad core Cortex A53 processor, Pine64 has decided to work on a software compatible laptop based on the processor….

The majority of TV boxes sold today are running Android 4.4 to Android 6.0, but with the release of Android 7.0 for smartphones and tablets earlier this year, it was just a question of time before the OS got ported to TV boxes. Himedia appears to be the first company to have released Android 7.0 for their Hisilicon Hi3798CV200 based TV boxes, namely Q5 Pro and Q10 Pro.

The changelog for the new firmware includes:

1. Android N OS running stable and smooth
2. Support for Android N Google Play version
3. Support for Samba UPnP
4. System function perfectly upgraded from 5.1 to Android N with compatibility
5. Youtube updated to 4.10.7 and Netflix to 1.3.11
6. Homepage, Application Management, Media Center optimized, focus movement are more swift and smooth
7. Media Player upgraded and support mouse operation
8. Local Media Playback Improved; Certain rare videos black screen, display ratio of 3D to 2D abnormal, and occasional subtitle defect issues fixed
9. Blu-ray video slow loading conditions improved and speed up
10. Local Audio output improved and certain audio tracks unable to decode and output issue fixed
11. Revised some UI language
12. Support for Widevine L3

I assume most users are running Android 5.1.1 right now, but for those who are using an Android N beta version, a different firmware file is required

• Himedia Q10 Pro firmware
• Himedia Q5 Pro firmware

The update procedure is basically the same as most others Android TV boxes on the market:

• Download a new firmware and copy the file update.zip) to the root directory of a USB drive.
• Plug the USB drive into the TV box
• Go to Settings→System→System upgrade to select/click the letter of the USB drive.
• The TV box will then begin upgrading the firmware from the USB drive.
• Wait for the TV box to complete the upgrade. Please be patient, as it may take around 5 minutes to complete.
• The TV box will then automatically reboot, and boot to Android N Final

Just bear in mind that changing Android version often leads to some new bugs, even though the company claims “perfect compatibility” and that everything is running “stable and smooth”.

If you are interested in either devices Himedia Q5 Pro is sold for $199.99, and Q10 Pro for $299.99 on sites such as GeekBuying, Aliexpress, and W2comp.

Via AndroidPC.es

Tweet The majority of TV boxes sold today are running Android 4.4 to Android 6.0, but with the release of Android 7.0 for smartphones and tablets earlier this year, it…

You may have all sort of remote control devices around your home from the traditional IR remote control for your TV, air conditioner, audio system etc.., as well remote control apps for WiFi or Bluetooth objects such as smart light bulbs or water pumps running on your smartphone. Sevenhugs Smart Remote promises to replace them all, and all you have to do is to point the remote control to your devices, or setup virtual actions to your door or window to order a Uber drive or check the weather.

Sevenhugs Smart Remote specifications:

• MCU – ARM Cortex-M4 @ 200 MHz
• System Memory – 32 MB RAM
• LCD – 3.43″ touch screen IPS display; Dragontrail damage ans scratch resistant cover glass, anti-fingerprint & anti-glare
• Wireless Connectivity – IR transceiver, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1 LE connectivity
• USB – USB C port for charging
• Sensors – Indoor positioning sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, ambient light sensor
• Misc – Small speaker
• Dimensions – 135 x 41 x 9.7 mm

The remote comes with a charging base including a lost & found button to make the remote control ring in case you can’t locate it, as well as three room sensors to place close to the object/service your want to control, for example one close to your TV, the other on your door, and the last one next to your window. You’ll still need a smartphone running Android or iOS to install an app to configure the remote control for your devices, and currently 25,000 devices using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or Infrared are supported with more being added daily.
Once this simple setup is complete, simply point to remote to the device or service you want to control, and the screen interface will adapt to the objects pointed with for example volume control for an audio system, and weather forecast when pointing to a window. If you have several objects in a zone for example a TV with set-top box and AV receiver, you can use the carousel on the remote control to switch between each of them. This also means you can control other WiFi devices from any room in your home.

The company will also release a Lua SDK based in C/C++, first allowing to add new devices to be released in June 2017 but with an early release already available in github, and then allowing much more control over the remote such as developing custom gesture, screens, and menus. The Level 2 part of the SDK is scheduled for release at the end of 2017.
[embedded content]

The remote control has been launched in Kickstarter, and have been very successful so far having raised over $700,000. Most early bird rewards are gone, but you can still pledge $149 to get  Smart Remote Kit including the charging base and 3 room sensors. Shipping is free to the US and western Europe, but for other countries it will cost you $20 to $35 extra, and delivery is scheduled for July 2017. More details may be found on Sevenhugs Smart Remote microsite.

Tweet You may have all sort of remote control devices around your home from the traditional IR remote control for your TV, air conditioner, audio system etc.., as well remote…

ARM Cortex A72 class development boards are usually quite expensive, and cheaper boards like Mediatek X20 development board ($200) appears to be out of stock very often, and software support is limited to Android 6.0. But things look to improve soon, as T-Chip is about to release Firefly-RK3399 development board powered by Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core Cortex A72/A53 processor.

Click to Enlarge

Firefly-RK3399 (preliminary) specifications:

• SoC – Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core bit.LITTLE processor with dual core Cortex A72 up to 2.0 GHz and quad core Cortex A53 processor with ARM Mali-T860MP4 GPU with OpenGL 1.1 to 3.0 support, OpenVG 1.1, OpenCL and DX 11.
• System Memory – 2 to 4 GB DDR3
• Storage – 16 to 32 GB eMMC flash + micro SD card
• Video Output & Display Interfaces – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60 Hz, eDP 1.2 interface, YUV interface, 1x MIPI DSI interface
• Video Decode – 4K VP9 and 10-bit H.265 video codec support up to 60 fps
• Audio – HDMI, 3.5mm headphone jack, optical S/PDIF, built-in microphone
• Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet (RJ45) port, WiFi and Bluetooth
• USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x USB 3.0 port, 1x USB 3.0 type C port
• Camera – 2x MIPI CSI interfaces
• Debugging – 3-pin serial header
• Expansion
  • GPIO female header
  • mini PCIe 2.1 M.2 slot
  • SIM card slot
• Misc – RTC battery header; power, reset and recovery buttons; IR receiver
• Power Supply – 12V DC
• Dimensions and Weight – TBD

The board will support Android 6.0.1 and Ubuntu 16.04, and can achieve around 75,000 points in Antutu. I got all information above from the video embedded below.

[embedded content]

There’s a WIP Wiki page for the board currently in Chinese only, based on support for their previous Firefly-RK3288 board, we should soon have pretty good documentation and software support in English.

What I don’t know is pricing, but T-chip is not one of the Chinese manufacturers trying to cut price with almost zero margin, which explains why they can provide decent support for their board. For reference Firefly-RK3288 board is selling in 2GB/16GB and 4GB/32GB configuration on GeekBuying for respectively $159.99 and $219.99, so I’d expect the new board to go for less than $200 / $250 based on the same configurations. The end of the video also gives the clue that the board will be launched on Kickstarter, I just don’t know exactly when.

Thanks to Nanik for the tip.

Tweet ARM Cortex A72 class development boards are usually quite expensive, and cheaper boards like Mediatek X20 development board ($200) appears to be out of stock very often, and software…

Apollo Lake processors have been announced in mini PCs, laptops, development boards, systems-on-module, as well as in Intel’s own NUCs. A new leaked roadmap has now revealed that Intel plans to two Apollo Lake “Michigan City” compute sticks sometimes around Q2 2017.

There will be two yet-to-be-named models:

• Windows OS – 2GB RAM, 32GB eMMC flash
• No OS – 4GB RAM, 64 GB eMMC flash

Both devices will come with 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.2, a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and an HDMI port with CEC support, as well as a 1- year warranty.

That’s all we know from the leaked roadmap. Price should probably be only slightly higher than to the one of Atom Cherry Trail HDMI TV sticks, considering UP2 Board is selling for 89 Euros (Celeron N3350 dual core version) and 169 Euros (Pentium N4200 quad core version) , and performance of the Apollo Lake Celeron or Pentium processor used in the new sticks should be noticeably better than the Atom “Bay Trail” / “Cherry Trail” processor found in earlier sticks.

Via Liliputing

Tweet Apollo Lake processors have been announced in mini PCs, laptops, development boards, systems-on-module, as well as in Intel’s own NUCs. A new leaked roadmap has now revealed that Intel…

Thermal cameras can be really expensive pieces of equipment, and even the cheap 60×60 thermal cameras available on Aliexpress costs a little over $200. However, PURE Engineering has made an breakout board with Panasonic Grid-EYE infrared 8×8 array sensor that allows you to experiment with the technology, or integrate into your own projects for just $49.

Click to Enlarge

Grid-EYE breakout board features:

• Panasonic Grid-EYE AMG8834 64 pixel infrared / thermal camera sensor with 60 degree viewing angle using MEMS thermopile technology
• Pinout compatible with Arduino Zero,  ST-NUCLEO board, and other 3.3V boards with I2C, VDD, GND, INT, and AD pins
• PUREModules PCB edge connectors with UART, GPIO, to interface with the company’s IoT board
• Power Supply – On-board regulator handles 3 to 5V input

The Panasonic sensor transfers thermal presence, direction, and temperature values over I2C. The company wrote a demo for the module with an Arduino sketech and a Processing sketch both available on github, and you can see it in action in the video below using an ice pack and a hot coffee mug.
[embedded content]

Applications listed by Panasonic for this sensor include digital signage, security, lighting control, kiosk/ATM, medical imaging, automatic doors, thermal mapping, people counting, robotics, and others.

The board is now listed on Groupset for $49, and 100 boards need to be sold for the group buying campaign to be successful. More details may be available on the product’s page on Pure Engineering website. Alternatively, you could also get AMG8834EK Grid-EYE evaluation kit with the IR camera, an Atmel SAMD21G18A MCU, and Bluetooth Smart connectivity for about $95 on Newark.

Tweet Thermal cameras can be really expensive pieces of equipment, and even the cheap 60×60 thermal cameras available on Aliexpress costs a little over $200. However, PURE Engineering has made…