Battery powered Bluetooth speakers are very common, and Bluetooth earbuds even more, but both are normally designed for different use cases. Last year ZAGG decided to bring both into a single product that you wear around your neck: Flex Arc Wireless Bluetooth earbuds + speakers now selling for about $56. The obvious advantage is that it includes larger battery than you can fit in earbuds and most Bluetooth headsets.

LG TONE Studio

ZAGG will soon be getting some competition as LG has designed two Bluetooth audio products leveraging your neck with LG TONE Studio (HBS-W120) equipped with a Hi-Fi DAC, 4 speakers, and two earbuds, and LG TONE Free (HBS-F110) with 2 “true wireless” earbuds that can be storage and charged in their neckband. The latter can also vibrate for incoming calls and text messages. An extra charging cradle is also provided for use cases when the neckband might not be convenient.

LG TONE Free

LG will officially unveil both products at CES 2017, so we should learn more about them in a week time, possibly including how much they actually cost.

Via Liliputing

Tweet Battery powered Bluetooth speakers are very common, and Bluetooth earbuds even more, but both are normally designed for different use cases. Last year ZAGG decided to bring both into…

2017 is the year where the future starts. You’ll be wandering in your automated home or office where lights and heating system are fully handled by a gateway taking into account sensors values, and equipped with a CO2 level controlled ventilation systems, your eyes constantly looking at your phone, wearing neckband speakers likely connected to your Amazon Echo to let you know when it’s time to get up, eat, go to work, brush your teeth, and get back to bed again. All your life will be taken care of on your behalf by the Internet of Things, relieving you of the stress of taking routine daily decisions… Luckily, you’ll still be have an illusion of control thanks to your “IoT-ready” Samsung POWERbot VR7000 vacuum cleaner that can be controlled with your voice via that Echo thing, giving your life a purpose.

Click to Enlarge

Samsung Electronics’ latest POWERbot vacuum cleaner will be unveiled at CES 2017 in January with a slimmer design (97mm), and more powerful cleaning capabilities. POWERbot VR7000 vacuum cleaner will feature “Visionary Mapping Plus” and “FullView Sensor 2.0” in order to detect obstacles and generate a map of the room, its Intelligent Power Control feature will also automatically adjusts the level of suction power to surface type (hardwood, carpet, etc…). I think it’s also the first “IoT-ready” vacuum cleaner I’ve seen, and you can control it using a mobile app, or through voice commands thanks to its compatibility with Amazon Echo. TizenExperts also reports that the device will run Tizen, and can also be integrated with the SmartThings hub. I guess you could also have some sort of dust sensor(s) to decide when to start the vacuum cleaner, beside scheduling cleaning times.

Click to Enlarge

POWERbot VR7000 will be showcased on Samsung Electronics’ CES booth #15006, between January 5^th and January 8^th 2017.

Tweet 2017 is the year where the future starts. You’ll be wandering in your automated home or office where lights and heating system are fully handled by a gateway taking…

Yesterday Olimex wrote a blog post informing us that ESP32-CoreBoard was back in stock, one the many ESP32 boards launched late this year, but still hard to get. The company also mentioned they’d have limited quantity of the new ESP32-WROVER with JTAG and LCD display together with the picture below.

ESP32 is quite more powerful than ESP8266 so it makes sense to have an ESP32 development kit with an LCD display. A quick DuckDuckGo search led me to ESP-WROVER-KIT Getting Started Guide, where we can find more details including the overall specifications:

• Compatible with ESP-WROOM-32 and ESP32-WROVER modules based on ESP32 dual core Tensilica L108 processor clocked at up to 240 MHz with WiFi and Bluetooth LE connectivity
• Storage – Micro SD slot
• Display – 3.2″ LCD display connected via SPI
• USB – 1x micro USB port
• Expansion
  • 8-pin UART header
  • 6-pin SPI header
  • 48-pin header for I/Os and camera interface (standard OV7670 camera module supported)
• Debugging – JTAG through USB interface (FTDI FT2232HL) or 14-pin header
• Misc – CTS/RTS jumper; power selection (EXT or USB); RGB LED; boot & reset (EN) buttons
• Power Supply – 5V DC input; 5V to 3.3V LDO chip
• Dimensions – 85.2 x 79.0 mm

ESP-WROVER-KIT Block Diagram – Click to Enlarge

The rest of the getting started guide explains how to configure jumpers to set the power source, serial flow control, and JTAG. It also shows how to access the serial console with a typical 115200 8N1 connection, as well as compile and load a simple hello program with ESP-IDF SDK in Windows and Linux.

Image Source: HackerBoards

Beside the development kit itself, I also discovered the new ESP32-WROVER module with the same feature as ESP-WROOM-32 plus an extra 32Mbit pSRAM chip and an external antenna connector.

ESP32-WROVER Photo via ESP32 Twitter Account

The kit and module should be available in January based on Olimex’ blog post, but we don’t have any pricing info for either yet.

Tweet Yesterday Olimex wrote a blog post informing us that ESP32-CoreBoard was back in stock, one the many ESP32 boards launched late this year, but still hard to get. The…

Most SoCs have a very limited amount of internal SDRAM just enough to load the bootROM code, but a few integrated a few MB of RAM on-chip such as Renesas RZ/A1H with 10MB on-chip DRAM, in order to reduce costs for some applications that may not require external RAM. Allwinner V3s, designed for dual camera solutions, appeared to be such an SoC with 64MB (512Mbit) on-chip DDR2 RAM, but the block diagram seems to imply it is a System-in-Package (SiP) instead. Nevertheless you still get a single chip with an ARM Cortex A7 processor, two ISPs, a video engine, 64MB RAM, and more.

Click to Enlarge

Allwinner V3s main features & specifications:

• CPU – ARM Cortex-A7 @ up to 1.2 GHz
• Memory – Integrated 64MB DDR2 DRAM
• Storage I/F – SD 2.0, eMMC 4.41, SPI NAND flash, SPI NOR flash
• Audio Codec – 92dB audio codec supporting 2x ADC channels and 2x DAC channels, 1x low-noise analog microphone bias output, 1x microphone input and 1x stereo microphone output
• Video Processing Unit
• Video Input/Output
  • 8/10/12-bit parallel CSI and 4-lane MIPI CSI2
  • Up to 5M CMOS sensor
  • RGB/i80/LVDS LCD up to 1024×768 resolution
• Peripherals
  • 3x SD card controllers
  • LRADC/SPI/TWI/UART/PWM
  • USB 2.0 OTG
  • EMAC+PHY
• ISP
  • Integrated “Hawkview” ISP up to 5M pixels
  • Supports 2x channel outputs for display and encoding respectively
  • Supports various input and output formats
  • Supports AE/AF/AWB
  • Supports saturation adjustment/ noise reduction/ defect pixel correction/distortion correction
• Package – 128-pin eLQFP

The processor supports Camdroid, a lightweight operating system based on Android, as well as Linux just like its more powerful sibling (minus the built-in memory) Allwinner V3.

Block Diagram for a Typical Allwinner V3s Dashcam with Two Cameras

Beside Allwinner V3s product page, and the datasheet, there’s no that much info and talk about V3s in the Internet. Searching a bit more, I found out that Q3H-2 Sports Action Camera is based on the processor, and somebody did a short review of the thing with photo and video samples. Some people also did some hacking of the previous Q3H model based on Allwinner V3, but I’m not sure how much of that is usable on Q3H-2.

The makers of Lichee Pi One board have also designed an Allwinner V3s board named Lichee Pi Zero to sell for $6 in China, but I don’t have the full details, and only know some members of linux-sunxi have started to work on it. That still means there may be decent Linux support for the processor in a few months time.

Tweet Most SoCs have a very limited amount of internal SDRAM just enough to load the bootROM code, but a few integrated a few MB of RAM on-chip such as…

The last day of the year is a good time to look back at what the year brought us, and I have to say it has been a fun and interesting year on CNX Software. The TV boxes news cycle has been dominated by Amlogic products, but most products have now switched to 64-bit ARM SoC, with 4K and HDMI 2.0 support, and price have kept going down, so you can now get a 4K TV box for as low as $20, although many people will prefer spending a bit more for extra memory and support. Intel based Bay Trail & Cherry Trail mini PCs have continued to be released with Windows, and in some cases Ubuntu, but the excitement seems to have died off a bit, maybe with the expectation of upcoming Apollo Lake mini PCs that should be more powerful. The year have been especially fruitful in the IoT space with a dramatic reduction in costs and sizes from ESP8266 boards to GPS modules and microwave radar modules, and we’ve also seen LPWAN modules & boards, mostly based on LoRa, but also Sigfox, being brought to market, as well as an alternative to ESP8266 with Realtek RTL8710AF, and of course the launch of Espressif ESP32 SoC with WiFi and Bluetooth LE. We’ve also been spoiled with development boards this year with the launch of 64-bit boards such as Raspberry Pi 3, ODROID-C2, and Pine A64+, as well as more dirt cheap Orange Pi boards, joined by NanoPi boards later in the year, and made all the more useful thanks to armbian community.

I’ve compiled a list of the most popular posts of 2016 using the page views count from Google Analytics:

1. Amlogic S905 vs S812 Benchmarks Comparison (January 2016) – Amlogic S905 was probably the most popular SoC for TV boxes in 2016, thanks to a decent set of features, and aggressive pricing from manufacturers. So people wanted to find out if it was worth upgrading from S812 to S905, or maybe had to decide between purchasing a S905 or S812 TV box.
2. Raspberry Pi 3, ODROID-C2 and Pine A64+ Development Boards Comparison (February 2016) – 2016 was also the year of cheap 64-bit development board with the launch of Raspberry Pi 3, ODROID-C2 and Pine A64+ boards, more or less at the same time, so again people want have wanted to look at which one to buy through this comparison.
3. This is What a 16 Raspberry Pi Zero Cluster Board Looks Like (January 2016) – What can generated more buzz than the Raspberry Pi Zero? A cluster of Raspberry Pi Zero boards, as this post went viral the day after being posted. There was some talk about a crowdfunding campaign at one point, but it never happened.
4. Review of K1 Plus Android TV Box with Combo DVB-S2/DVB-T2 Tuner (February 2016) – My review of K1 PLus T2 S2 might not be the most viewed post on CNX Software, but it sure generated a lot of comments, as while the product offers a unique combination of DVB-T2 and DVB-S2 tuners in an Android TV box at an attractive price, the documentation and software may need some improvements. Unofficial OpenELEC firmware images later surfaced from the community.
5. How to Change Language to English and Install Apps Remotely on Xiaomi Mi Box 3 Enhanced (April 2016) – Xiaomi Mi Box 3 Enhanced is probably the most powerful TV box that can easily be purchased worldwide, but the caveat is that it has only been designed for the Chinese market. That post explains how to work around that limitation.
6. Amlogic S905 vs Amlogic S912 Benchmarks Comparison (September 2016) – Quad core vs octa core, yeah twice the performance! Well not quite, but people were still curious to find out how the latest octa-core Amlogic S912 SoC would perform against Amlogic S905, and the truth is that the performance difference is rather minor, except for 3D graphics.
7. NEXBOX A95X (Amlogic S905X) TV Box Review – Part 2: Android 6.0 and Kodi 16.1 (August 2016) – NEXBOX A95X was one of the first TV boxes based on Amlogic S905X processor, and my second review. The device is tiny an relatively cheap, so the review attracted some eyeballs.
8. Mini M8S II TV Box (Amlogic S905X) Review – Part 2: Android 6.0 Firmware (July 2016) – My first review of an Amlogic S905X TV box nearly had the same number of views as NEXBOX A95X post, and many of the same features, just in a different package.
9. Getting Started with Wemos D1 mini ESP8266 Board, DHT & Relay Shield (March 2016) – Wemos D1 mini is a great little ESP8266 board. It’s small, cheap ($4), and easy to use. The optional shields, just as cheap, make it a very attractive option for your IoT projects. Other people noticed it too, and then visited my review to get started.
10. Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Board Features a 64-Bit ARM Processor, Adds WiFi and Bluetooth Connectivity (February 2016) – The last post is the list if a Raspberry Pi 3 leak just one day before the actual announcement.

Stats

Traffic has been rather steady in 2016 over the months.

The blog got around 9.8 millions pageviews in 2016 compared to about 7.2 millions pageviews in 2015, a 36% growth in traffic that was likely helped by my not going on a 3 months trip this year…

“openwrt” and scoop.it, respectively the top keyword and referral in 2015, were replaced by “amlogic s912” and Facebook in 2016.  Google Analytics only shows the last three months for keywords, and the full year for referrals, with referrals excluding search engines such as Google where CNX Software gets most of its traffic.

The visitor mix of the blog per country as not changed much, with the top 10 countries of 2015 still there in 2016, and the top five order unchanged with United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, and France.

London still hold the top city spot, but Hong Kong and Moscow dropped of the list to be replaced by New York and Melbourne.

Windows is still the main operating system of CNX Software visitors, but its share, as well as the share of other desktop operating ssystems including Linux and “Macintosh”, keeps dropping, while Android and iOS are having a stronger and stronger presence. In the “browser war”, Chrome lead extended further from 52.93% in 2015 to 59.41% in 2016, and Firefox dropping from 23.54% to 18.90%. Microsoft Edge probably had the best growth going from 0.56% last year to 1.86% this year.

Some of the 2016 review samples and I wish all my readers a very happy, prosperous, and healthy new year 2017.

Click to Enlarge

Tweet The last day of the year is a good time to look back at what the year brought us, and I have to say it has been a fun…

I wrote about Jevois-A33 computer vision camera based on Allwinner A33 quad core Cortex A7 processor last week, and today, I’ve come across OpenMV Cam M7 open source computer vision board based on a much less powerful STMicro STM32F7 ARM Cortex M7 micro-controller, but with the advantage of consuming less power, and exposing some extra I/Os.

OpenMV Cam M7 board specifications & features:

• MCU – STMicro STM32F765VI ARM Cortex M7 @ up to 216 MHz with 512KB RAM, 2 MB flash.
• External Storage – micro SD slot
• Camera
  • Omnivision OV7725 image sensor supporting 640×480 8-bit grayscale images or 320×240 16-bit RGB565 images at 30 FPS
  • 2.8mm lens on a standard M12 lens mount
• USB – 1x micro USB port (Virtual COM Port and a USB Flash Drive)
• Expansion – 2x 8-pin headers with SPI, I2C CAN bus, asynchronous serial bus (Tx/Rx), 12-bit ADC, 12-bit DAC, 3x I/Os for servo control; interrupts and PWM on all I/O pins; 3.3V (5V tolerant)
• Misc – RGB LED and 2x 850nm IR LEDs
• Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port, 3.6 to 5V via VIN pin
• Power Consumption (@ 3.3V) – Idle: 110mA;  active no μSD Card: 190mA; active with μSD Card: 200mA
• Dimensions – 45 x 36 x 30 (H) mm
• Weight – 16 grams

Click to Enlarge

The camera board supports frame differencing (motion detection), marker tracking, face detection, eye tracking, color tracking (up to 32 colors at the same time), optical flow, edge/line detection, template matching, image capture (BMP/JPG/PPM/PGM), and video recording (MJPEG/GIF). Programming is done in OpenMV IDE using MicroPython language. You’ll find more details in OpenMV Cam’s documentation, and watch a description of the board and a QR code detection demo in the video below.

[embedded content]
The computer vision board can be pre-ordered now for $55 on the product page with shipping scheduled for March 2017.

Tweet I wrote about Jevois-A33 computer vision camera based on Allwinner A33 quad core Cortex A7 processor last week, and today, I’ve come across OpenMV Cam M7 open source computer…

Intrinsyc has unveiled a new smaller version of their Snapdragon 820 based Open-Q 820 system-on-module, simply called Open-Q 820 µSOM bringing the module size from 82 x 42mm to 50 x 25mm, while keeping many of the features of the large SoM with 3GB LPDDR4, 32GB UFS 2.0 flash, 802.11ac WiFi, and Bluetooth 4.1. It competes with other small Snapdragon 820 modules such as Inforce 6601 micro SoM.

Open-Q 820 µSOM specifications:

• SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad core Kryo cores with 2x cores @ up to 2.2GHz, and 2x cores @ up to 1.6GHz, Adreno 530 GPU,  Hexagon 680 DSP
• System Memory – 3 GB LPDDR4 @ 1866 MHz
• Storage – 32 GB UFS 2.0 1-lane gear3 flash
• Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n/ac 2×2 MU-MIMO, Bluetooth 4.1, Qualcomm IZat Gen 8C GPS
• 3x board-to-board connectors with the following interfaces:
  • Display
    • 2x MIPI-DSI 4-lane, 60fps, up to 2560×1600 (single port), 4096×2160 (dual port)
    • 1x HDMI 2.0 up to 4096×2160, 60fps
  • Audio – 3x I2S, 1x PCM, 6x Analog in, 6x Analog out, 3x Digital mic
  • Camera – 3x MIPI-CSI  4-lane, dual ISP, up to 28MP
  • USB – USB 3.0 client or host, 1x USB 2.0 host
  • 2x PCIe v2.1
  • 8x BLSP 4-pin port configurable as I2C, SPI, UART or GPIO
  • 1x SDIO
• Power Supply – 3.6V to 4.2V
• Dimension – 50 x 25mm
• Temperature Range – -10°C to +70°C

The company provide Android 7.x Nougat support for the module, as well as Open-Q µ820 Development Kit with the module and a baseboard to get started.

The baseboard exposes two USB 3.0 ports, one HDMI 2.0 port, a display connector, a mini PCIe slot+ SIM card slot, a PCIe 1x slot, three camera connectors, audio in and out headers, digital I/O expansion headers, a micro SD card and more.

Intrinsyc Open-Q 820 µSOM will sell for $239, Open-Q µ820 Development Kit for $579, and become available late February 2017. You’ll more more details on the company’s Open-Q 820 µSOM and Open-Q 820 µSOM Development Kit product pages.

Via HackerBoards

Tweet Intrinsyc has unveiled a new smaller version of their Snapdragon 820 based Open-Q 820 system-on-module, simply called Open-Q 820 µSOM bringing the module size from 82 x 42mm to 50…

Banana Pi BPI-R1 board was launched in 2014 with 5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, SATA interfaces, and powered by Allwinner A20 board. SinoVoip his now about to launch an updated version – Banana Pi BPI-R2 – powered by Mediatek MT7623A quad core Cortex A7 processor with 2GB RAM, 8GB flash, 5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, up to 2 SATA connectors, mPCIe, USB 3.0, and more.

BPI-R2 board specifications:

• SoC – MediaTek MT7623N quad-code ARM Cortex-A7 processor @ up to 1.3 GHz with Mali 450 MP4 GPU
• System Memory – 2GB DDR3 SDRAM
• Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (option 16/32/64GB), up to 2x SATA interfaces, micro SD slot up to 256GB expansion
• Video Output / Display  I/F – HDMI 1.4 up to 1920×1200, MIPI DSI connector
• Connectivity – 5x 10/100/1000 Mb Ethernet port (via MT7530), Bluetooth 4.1 & dual band 802.11b/g/n WiFi (MT6625L module)
• USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports, 1x micro USB 2.0 OTG port
• Expansion – Mini PCIE interface, 40-pin “somewhat Raspberry Pi 3 compatible” GPIO header with UART, I2C, SPI, PWM, I2S…
• Misc – Power, reset, uboot, and 2x user buttons; LEDs; IR receiver; 5V fan header; debug UART pins
• Power Supply – 12/2A via power barrel; 6-pin miniJST header for battery + built-in 3.7V Lithium battery charging circuit
• Dimensions – 148 x 100.5 mm

The company claims the board can run Android 5.1, OpenWrt, Debian, Ubuntu Linux, Raspbian and others operating systems. Some (limited) hardware information is available on the Wiki, but there’s nothing about software right now, apart from a few placeholder links.

There’s no info about availability nor pricing, except the hardware is ready, but the company has been working for the last month or so on operating systems and drivers. It’s not the first board to feature a Mediatek MT762x processor, but previous attempts like FireWrt, MQmaker WiTi board, and Geek Force did not end up being a commercial success. One of the reasons, at least for FireWrt, was the high cost of Mediatek processors in low quantities, but since SinoVoip has a close relationship with Foxconn, they may be able to leverage their purchasing power as the chip should be used in other hardware platforms manufactured by Foxconn.

Tweet Banana Pi BPI-R1 board was launched in 2014 with 5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, SATA interfaces, and powered by Allwinner A20 board. SinoVoip his now about to launch an updated…

Qualcomm first mentioned Snapdragon 835 processor in November, but at the time, they only disclosed it would be manufactured using 10nm process technology in partnership with Samsung, and claimed the obvious “faster and lower power consumption” compared the previous generation. The company has now provided much more info ahead of CES 2017.

Snapdragon 835 key features and specifications:

• Processor – 8x Kryo 280 cores used into two clusters:
  • performance cluster with 4x cores @ up to 2.45 GHz with 2MB L2 cache
  • efficient cluster with 4x cores @ up to 1.9 GHz with 1MB L2 cache
• GPU – Adreno 540 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0 full, Vulkan, DX12
• DSP – Hexagon 682 DSP with Hexagon Vector eXtensions and Qualcomm All-Ways Aware technology
• Memory I/F – dual channel LPDDR4x
• Storage I/F – UFS2.1 Gear3 2L, SD 3.0 (UHS-I)
• Display – UltraHD Premium-ready , 4K Ultra HD 60 Hz, 10-bit color depth, DisplayPort, HDMI, and USB Type-C support
• Video – Up to 4K @ 30 fps capture, up to 4K @ 60 fps playback, H.264, H.265 and VP9 codecs.
• Audio – Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec and speaker amplifier; Qualcomm aptX audio playback support: aptX Classic, aptX HD
• Camera – Spectra 180 ISP; dual 14-bit ISPs up to 16MP dual camera, 32MP single camera
• Connectivity – 802.11ad multi-gigabit, integrated 802.11ac 2×2 WiFi with MU-MIMO (tri-band: 2.4, 5.0 and 60 GHz); Bluetooth 5.0
• Modem – X16 LTE modem; downlink up to 1 Gbps, uplink up to 150 Mbps
• Location – GPS, Glonass, BeiDou, Galileo, and QZSS systems content protection
• Security – Qualcomm SecureMSM technology, Qualcomm Haven security suite, Qualcomm Snapdragon StudioAccess content protection
• Charging – Quick Charge 4 technology, Quacomm WiPower technology
• Manufacturing – 10nm FinFET (Samsung)

Snapdragon 835 will use about 25 percent less power than Snapdragon 820, while being 35 percent smaller, and delivering 25 percent faster 3D graphic rendering. The processor is expected to be found in premium consumer devices such as smartphones, VR/AR head-mounted displays, IP cameras, tablets, mobile PCs, and more. The first devices announced with Snapdragon 835 are Osterhout Design Group (ODG) R-8  augmented/virtual reality smartglasses and ODG R-9 smartglasses and devkit for wide field of view (WFOV) experiences

You’ll find more details on Snapdragon 835 product page.

Tweet Qualcomm first mentioned Snapdragon 835 processor in November, but at the time, they only disclosed it would be manufactured using 10nm process technology in partnership with Samsung, and claimed…

Tweet GreenPeak Technologies ultra-low power, short range RF communication technology company was acquired by Qorvo last year, and Qorvo has recently announced a GP695 system on chip (SoC) for smart…

Last summer, we discovered a cheap RTL8710AF WiFi module with many of the same function as ESP8266, but with an ARM Cortex M3 core instead. The only problem is that it was not quite as easy to play with as ESP8266 boards, as at the time I started by playing with AT commands with B&T RTL00 RTL8710AF module, and later on, I got a more convenient PADI IoT Stamp with breakout board, but if you wanted to change the firmware you had to play with the SDK and a J-Link SWD debugger. Realtek RTL8710AF did not offer the convenience of Arduino IDE program like its big brother “RTL8195AM” from the same Ameba family. I know mbed is being worked on, but in the meantime things have changed for the better, as kissste informed me that RtlDuino implementation added Arduino support to RTL8710AF and RTL8711AM modules, and an NodeMCU-like board with the same name was also sold for less than $10 including shipping.

RTLduino board specifications:

• WiSoC – Realtek RTL8710AF ARM Cortex-M3 micro-controller @ 83 MHz
• Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi
• USB – 1x micro USB port for programming and power
• Expansion – 2x 16-pin breadboard friendly headers with GPIOs, UART, SPI, I2C, PWM, I2S, power signals….
• Misc – Reset and test button, RGB LED
• Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port or Vin pin
• Dimensions – 49 x 24.5 mm (same as NodeMCU)

As you can see from the picture above,the board is actually based on the B&T RTL-00 module I previously tested. This is obviously quite easier to use since you don’t need to solder any cables to connect a USB to TTL board since RTLduino is equipped with CH340g and a micro USB port.

The Aliexpress page has some claims about 5 function that accordingly to kissste are not quite all correct:

1. Function 1 – “Mbed debugging mode” over micro USB cable -> you won’t get – this is a different board (at least for now)
2. Function 2 – “JTAG debugging mode” over micro USB cable -> you won’t get – this is a different board
3. Function 3 – “Simple & fast by OTA to upgrade debugging” -> you will get partially – no debugging, but you can OTA upload new sketch
4. Function 4 – “Serial data directly to the network transceiver function” (serial console via UART) -> OK
5. Function 5 – “Smartconfig mode” -> yes, will work – OTA upload new sketch

If you want to do debugging, I understand you’ll still need a JTAG or SWD programmer. If you want to get started with Arduino on the board:

• Install Arduino IDE and Ameba SDK
• Go to Arduino IDE installation directory
• Clone github.com/pvvx/RtlDuino into hardware/development/rtl87xx directory
• Restart Arduino

I could not find anything in English where other people tested the implementation, but you’ll find a forum thread (in Russian) on esp8622.ru, and other person mentioned the project on hackaday.io, but has not reported on details about it yet.

Beside Aliexpress, RTLduino board can also be found on ICStation for $9.99, and Amazon US for $10.99.

Tweet Last summer, we discovered a cheap RTL8710AF WiFi module with many of the same function as ESP8266, but with an ARM Cortex M3 core instead. The only problem is…

LeEco, better known for their smartphones, has unveiled two bicycles at CES 2017 that run BikeOS – a version of Android 6.0 operating system tailored to cyclists – on a 4″ display attached to the bicycles. The bicycle supports GPS/GLONAS navigation for cyclists, ride & fitness logging, and includes a compass, a barometer, a light sensors, as well as wheel speed and crank speed meters.

The bicycles can play music, and LeEco bike owners can talk to each other using the built-in walkie-talkie. The bicyckle’s display is powered by a Snapdragon 410 processor, includes a 6,000 mAh battery, and is rated IP54 against splashes and dust.

The two models also includes two wheels, pedals, and other stuff you’d expect from bicycles:

• LeEco Smart Road Bike
  • Aerodynamic Toray T700 carbon fiber frame, fork, seat post, handlebar and wheels
  • 8.4 kg
  • 11-speed one-by drivetrain
  • Single chain ring up front, wide-range cassette in back
  • Dual-pivot technology, shift/brake levers, lightweight carbon-fiber handlebar
• LeEco Smart Mountain Bike
  • Toray T700 carbon-fiber frame and handlebar
  • SR Suntour XCR Air front fork
  • 27.5-inch/650b diameter wheelset
  • 12.2 kg
  • 11-speed one-by drivetrain
  • Single chain ring crankset, rear derailleur
  • 11-42 tooth cassette
  • Hydraulic brake set

The company has not released pricing info, but plans to launch the bikes in the US in Q2 2017. It’s not the first time, we’ve seen Android on bicycles, but it was only stationary Peloton Exercise bike back in 2013.

Via CNet

Tweet LeEco, better known for their smartphones, has unveiled two bicycles at CES 2017 that run BikeOS – a version of Android 6.0 operating system tailored to cyclists – on a…

Regular readers may remember MQMaker MiQi board, a $35 (and up) development board powered by Rockchip RK3388 quad core ARM Cortex A17 processor, based on Raspberry Pi 3 form factor, but much faster according to benchmarks. Sadly, the board’s crowdfunding campaign was not that successful, possibly because of the “its’ a 2-year old processor” syndrome. But now, Minimachines has found that ASUS has designed a very similar board, dubbed Tinker Board, with an extra WiFi and Bluetooth LE module, audio jack, MIPI DSI connector, and a few other modifications.

Asus Tinker Board specifications (bold highlights and strike-through show differences with MiQi board):

• SoC – Rockchip 3288 quad core ARM Cortex A17 up to 1.8 GHz with Mali-T764 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 /3.0, and OpenCL 1.1
• System Memory – 2GB LPDDR3, dual channel
• Storage – 8 or 32 GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot
• Video output & Display I/F
• Audio – 1x 3.5mm audio jack; Realtek HD codec with 192KHz/24-bit audio
  
• Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 + EDR
• USB – 4x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB port (for power)
• Expansion Headers
  • 40-pin “somewhat Raspberry Pi compatible” header with up to 28x GPIOs, 2x SPI, 2x I2C, 4x UART, 2x PWM, 1x PCM/I2S, 5V, 3.3V, and GND
  • 2-pin contact point with 1x PWM signal, 1x S/PDIF signal
• Misc – Button, unpopulated fan header
• Power Supply – 5V/2A via micro USB port
• Dimensions – 85.6 x 54 cm

The company targets education, maker, and IoT markets for the board, with applications ranging from mini PC to portable game console and RC products like drones. The board supports Debian with Kodi.

ASUS also provided a quick comparison table with Raspberry Pi 3 model B, that mostly shows the advantages over the Tinker board. The table is mostly fine, and I got some Phoronix benchmarks showing RK3288 can be about three times as fast as BCM2837 processor for FLAC audio encoding. The last row with officially supported OS appears to show both boards on the same footings, but Raspberry Pi 3 model B will have a clear advantage here, although I’m not sure why Asus did not list Android OS support for their board. The table does not include any price information either.

The only information I could find was from the Slideshare presentation above, and there does not appear to be any official website or page on Asus website.

Thanks to Freire for the tip.

Tweet Regular readers may remember MQMaker MiQi board, a $35 (and up) development board powered by Rockchip RK3388 quad core ARM Cortex A17 processor, based on Raspberry Pi 3 form…

ZTE launched Project CSX last year in order to let anybody submit product ideas and/or vote for the best choices, and after several months, the winning entry was a phone with an adhesive backcover and eye-tracking function to control the phone without hands. The company has now named the phone ZTE Hawkeye launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to raise funds for the development and manufacturing of the smartphone.

Hawkeye smartphone preliminary specifications:

• SoC / Memory / Storage – TBD
• Display – 5.5″ FHD display
• Audio – Hi-Fi audio
• Camera – Dual rear cameras with enhanced image and zoom capabilities
• Connectivity – 2 SIM slots with support for common 2G and 3G bands around the world, and most likely LTE (4G) bands most common in North America.
• Sensors – Fingerprint sensor
• Battery – Large battery with quick charging capabilities

So the company is not quite ready to stick to full detailed specs at this stage of development, but is committed to fulfil the main requirements of the winning concept design, namely:

• Scrolling based on Eye-Tracking (Senseye) – Pages can scroll automatically up-down or left-right based on movement of your eyes.  Voice commands can be used to navigate between pages.
• Stick to Walls and Surfaces with Self-Adhesive Case – The phone can be mounted to a vertical surface using an optional case, freeing up the need to hold the phone.

The two features are demonstrated in what looks like a prototype.

The project might have a hard time reaching its $500,000 target, because of the relatively high funding target, unclear specifications, ZTE decided to launch the campaign right during CES 2017 when many people are flooded by tech news, and this type of hands-free smartphone might be only useful for a limited number of users. If you’d like to contribute to this smartphone with design inputs from the community, you can do so by pledging $199 for the phone and the adhesive case. Shipping is free worldwide, and backers should be sent their rewards around September 2017.

Via Liliputing

Tweet ZTE launched Project CSX last year in order to let anybody submit product ideas and/or vote for the best choices, and after several months, the winning entry was a…

The HDMI Forum has just announced they’ve been working on HDMI specification Version 2.1 adding new video resolutions and refresh rates including 8K60 and 4K120, as well as dynamic HDR, and increased bandwidth up to 48 Gbps for uncompressed 8K videos with HDR.

The new specification also includes support for eARC (enhanced audio return channel) with support for advanced audio formats such as object-based audio, and advanced audio signal control capabilities including device auto-detect. Game Mode VRR is another new feature from HDMI 2.1 with variable refresh rate to enable a 3D GPU to display the image at the moment it is rendered in order to reduce lag and frame tearing.

Beside 4K120 and 8K60, the new specification also handles 4K, 5K, 8K, and even 10K resolutions at various frame rates between 50Hz to 120 Hz, up to 10K @ 120 Hz. Higher resolutions and frame rates (>=4K @ 120Hz; >= 8K @ 60 Hz) will require the purchase of new HDMI 2.1 cables, and it’s not marketing scam like for 4K/HDMI 2.0 cables, as the increased bandwidth will indeed require new 48G cables. New cables with be backward compatible with earlier versions of the specification, so if you have a new 48G HDMI cable, it will work with your existing TV, set-top box, receiver, etc…

The new specification will be available to all HDMI 2.0 adopters when it is released early in Q2 2017. You’ll find a bit more info including a FAQ on HDMI 2.1 page.

Tweet The HDMI Forum has just announced they’ve been working on HDMI specification Version 2.1 adding new video resolutions and refresh rates including 8K60 and 4K120, as well as dynamic…

Fasetto LINK is a wireless portable storage for your smartphone, camera, or other device, includes 256GB, 512GB, or 2GB SSD storage, and – for some reasons – is based on a rather powerful Samsung Exynos 7420 octa-core processor coupled with 4GB RAM. The device can also take expansion blocks to add extra battery or/and LTE connectivity via pogo pins.

LINK specifications:

• SoC – Samsung Exynos 7420 octa core big.LITTLE processor with 4x Cortex A57 core @ 2.1GHz + 4x Cortex A53 cores @ 1.5Ghz, and Mali-T760 MP8 GPU
• System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4
• Storage – 256GB, 512GB, or 2TB Samsung NVMe SSD
• Connectivity – 802.11ac WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0, optical LTE via expansion block
• Expansion – 17-pin ball connector
• USB – USB type C port
• Battery – 1,300 mAh battery (2 weeks standby; 5 hours streaming); optional 1120mAh expansion block (total: 4 weeks standby; 8 hours streaming)
• Dimensions – 5.08 x 5.08 x 2.54 cm
• Weight – 85 grams and up
• Ingress Protection Rating – IP68
• Anti-shock – Military standard 810g

The specs seems a bit over the top just to securely (2048-bit encryption) store files, but at least the SSD makes the box pretty light, and easy to carry around. I could not find info about the mobile app to access and control the mini NAS. We do know that the box runs Linux based LinkOS, and the company can provides an LDK (LINK SDK) to developers to extend its functionality.

The LINK unit shops with a removable base, a coin plug, and one meter long USB-C cable.

Fasetto LINK will sell this spring for $349.99 with a 256GB SSD, and up to $1,149 with a 2TB SSD, while the battery expansion costs $29.99, and LTE expansion $149.99. You can pre-order LINK, and find further details on Fasetto LINK website.

Via TechNutty

Tweet Fasetto LINK is a wireless portable storage for your smartphone, camera, or other device, includes 256GB, 512GB, or 2GB SSD storage, and – for some reasons – is based…

Intel has just introduced their Compute Card, the name likely originating from their Compute Stick & Module series, integrating all main components you’d find in a computer such as a processor, memory, storage, and wireless connectivity into an standardized ultra thin business card sized module that can be used in compatible devices from smart kiosks to security cameras and IoT gateways, as well as computers and laptops.

Intel has some demos at CES 2017, but has not announced any specific models yet. We still have some of the key features for the Compute Cards:

• Processor up to 7th Gen Intel Core, memory, storage and wireless connectivity are all included in the card
• Intel Compute Card-based device will provide the power, cooling and the optimized user I/O for that particularly solution
• Connection to devices will be done via an Intel Compute Card slot with a new standard connector (USB-C plus extension)
• USB-C plus extension connector will provide USB, PCIe, HDMI, DP and additional signals between the card and the device
• Dimensions – 94.5 mm x 55 mm x 5 mm

It’s not the first time company have created compute module for upgradeability and modularity, as with, for example, EOMA68 CPU card going into a mini computer and laptop, just like BBC demo of Intel Compute Card below featuring Core-M processor.

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Intel is now working with early partners such as Dell, HP, Lenovo, Sharp, and InFocus to develop products taking Compute Card. More details, including pricing, will be made available in Q2 2017 just before the Compute Card and compatible devices should start to hit the shelves around the middle of the year. You’ll find a few more details on Intel’s Compute Card product page and press release.

Tweet Intel has just introduced their Compute Card, the name likely originating from their Compute Stick & Module series, integrating all main components you’d find in a computer such as…