Nintendo NES Classic Mini is a smaller replica of Nintendo NES with an HDMI output, and powered by an Allwinner R16 SoC. Nintendo has released a model with the same or similar hardware, but a different case for the Japanese market called Famicom Mini. Those two consoles are pre-loaded with about 30 games, and in theory you can’t add any more games. But as everything with an Allwinner processor, it can be hacked to match your needs, and people have already managed to add games using the micro USB connection and Hakchi2 script. What’s new is that you can now run RetroArch on the consoles, and probably on other Allwinner R16 platform such as the upcoming Banana Pi BPI-M2 Magic board, provided it’s connected to an LCD display.

Nintendo NES Classic Edition (Left) and Famicom Mini (Right)

To achieve that, first you’ll need to install the latest Hakchi 2.12 tool with the procedure, clearly explained (with an older version) on this YouTube video, involving getting a micro USB to USB cable connected between your game console and your computer.

Once this is done, you can go to the next step with the installation of RetroArch mod for hakchi, based on LibreRetro work, and that comes with the following cores:

• fceumm (NES, many mappers, UNIF support)
• nestopia (NES, FDS)
• snes9x2010 (SNES)
• gambatte_libretro (GB, GBC)
• mednafen_gba (GBA)
• genesis_plus_gx (SMS/Genesis/MD)
• mupen64plus (N64)

Watch the video below, if you want to check out how it performs on NES Mini Classic Edition console before trying it on your own device.

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Thanks to Harley for the tip.

Tweet Nintendo NES Classic Mini is a smaller replica of Nintendo NES with an HDMI output, and powered by an Allwinner R16 SoC. Nintendo has released a model with the…

Android is great to consume content, but is a real pain to create content, as operation like copy/paste and multi-tasking you take for granted in desktop OS like Ubuntu or Windows are not well supported in Android. But Jide Technology saw an opportunity and many users are familiar with Android on their phones and tablets, and some on Android TV boxes, so they created Remix OS, based on Android, but with desktop optimization such as better multi-tasking, multi-window support, improved mouse and keyboard integration and so on. They started with a tablet, and then also worked on ARM based Android TV boxes and laptops, as well as support for x86 computers. The company has now unveiled Remix Singularity which aims to bring Remix OS to smartphones in a similar manner to Windows Continuum or Ubuntu Convergence.

But beside just mobile and desktop (PC) modes, Remix Singularity will also allow to use your smartphone in TV modes, meaning it will be a smartphone on the go, a computer when connected to a monitor, mouse and keyboard, and a media player while connected to your TV. The company also mentions that you can use Remix Singularity on your smartphone with your laptop, but did not provide much other details so far, apart from a short demo video.
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Remix Singularity, aka Remix OS for Mobile will become available this summer, likely for a limited number of popular smartphones.

Tweet Android is great to consume content, but is a real pain to create content, as operation like copy/paste and multi-tasking you take for granted in desktop OS like Ubuntu…

Samsung Electronics has just announced the launch of its latest Exynos application processor (AP), with Exynos 9 Series 8895 octa-core processor with four second generation custom designed ARMv8  CPU cores, and four Cortex A53 cores, as well as a Mali-G71 3D GPU, and a Gigabit LTE modem.

The LTE modem delivers data throughput at up to 1Gbps (Cat.16) downlink with 5CA (five carrier aggregation), and 150Mbps (Cat.13) uplink with 2CA. The SoC also embeds an “advanced MFC” (multi-format codec) for recording and playback at up to 4K UHD at 120 fps, a Vision Processing Unit for video tracking, image process, and machine vision technology, and another processing unit allows for mobile payments using iris or fingerprint recognition.

Exynos 8895 is also the first application processor manufactured with 10-nanometer (nm) FinFET process technology and improved 3D transistor structure, which according to Samsung, allows for up to 27% higher performance, while consuming 40% less power when compared to 14nm technology.

Samsung Exynos 9 Series 8895 is currently in mass production, and could be found in the next Galaxy S8 smartphone.

Tweet Samsung Electronics has just announced the launch of its latest Exynos application processor (AP), with Exynos 9 Series 8895 octa-core processor with four second generation custom designed ARMv8  CPU…

Rockchip RK3288 may have launched over two years ago, but the quad core 32-bit processor is still much more powerful than many 64-bit platforms on the market, and ASUS selected the processor for their upcoming – and not officially launched – Tinker Board. The processor was found in several Android TV boxes, but people also installed Linux on the devices, and ported Kodi 14.2 Linux to RK3288 with hardware video decoding back in 2015. The news here is that Omegamoon has recently started working on LibreELEC 8.0 port for RK3288 with a Linux 4.4 kernel, and tested it on Ugoos UT3+ TV box.

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Full HD movie playback is said to be smooth, Ethernet, and sound work, but WiFi still needs to be worked on.

Omegamoon has released an update.img firmware which can be flashed with upgrade_tool in Linux, or AndroidTool in Windows, replaces whatever operating system you have on the eMMC flash, and works only on Ugoos UT3+ at this time.  If you own another Rockchip RK3288 device, it’s a bit more complicated. First, you need a computer running Linux, make sure you get a working kernel with the right device tree file, and download this tarball with system and kernel images, and somehow manage to boot it up on your device as explained here.

If you want to contribute to the development of LibreELEC on Rockchip RK3288 processor, you can retrieve the code from github, and run the script build_rk3288_ugoos-ut3s.sh to build LibreELEC from source, and generate a flashable firmware image. If you happen to own PopMetal development board, build_rk3288_popmetal.sh script might work, but has not been tested.

Separately, Marc Rissewijck, who worked on the initial Kodi port for RK3288, has also published a Kodi debian package (kodi_v0.2.deb) very recently, so if you have a RK3288 hardware platforms running running Ubuntu or Debian, this might be worth a try. I could find a reference in #linux-rockchip IRC logo, explaining the changes:

<mac-l1> hi guys. just made a first kodi .deb package for vpu/mpp including zerocopy/eglimage to test. can somebody check if it works?

<mac-l1> just download http://www.mac-l1.com/kodi/kodi_v0.2.deb and dpkg -i the deb package and then apt-get install -f

If you are like me, and have no clue about MPP, it stands for Media Process Platform, and appears to be a new method to handle video decoding on Rockchip SoCs.

Tweet Rockchip RK3288 may have launched over two years ago, but the quad core 32-bit processor is still much more powerful than many 64-bit platforms on the market, and ASUS…

Realtek RTD1295 SoC is so far found in devices running Android & OpenWrt, and equipped with an HDMI input port for recording, PiP, and UDP broadcasting. I have already reviewed Zidoo X9S with an external SATA port, and Eweat R9 Plus with a 3.5″ SATA bay, and I’ve now received Beelink SEA I offering another option thanks to 2.5″ SATA bay, and a lower price of $98.99 and up using coupon GBSEA16 with the 2GB/16GB version, or GBSEA32 with the 2GB/32GB version. As usual, I’ll start with some photos and a teardown in the first part of the review, before testing the firmware in more details.

Beelink SEA I Unboxing Photos

I’ve received the box in the retail package below showing some of the features like 4K video playback, picture-in-picture thanks to the HDMI input, and supports for games and apps.

Beelink SEA I comes with either 16GB or 32GB eMMC flash for storage, and I received the 16GB version.

The box ships with a 12V/1.5A (18 Watts) power supply, anHDMI cable, an IR remote control with IR learning function, and a short user’s manual.

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Contrary to its competitors which are all equipped with a metal case, SEA I comes in a plastic case, slightly wider than typical TV boxes to accommodate for the 2.5″ SATA bay.

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The front panel includes an LCD display, an IR window, and power LED, one of the side comes with a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 host port, and an SD card slot, while the rear panel features one HDMI 2.0 output, one HDMI 2.0 input, a Gigabit Ethernet port, optical S/PDIF, and the power jack.

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If you want to insert an hard drive, you can do so by turning the box around, pushing out the cover, and inserting a 2.5″ hard drive up to 6TB in the slot.

It’s very easy to do, and does not require any tools.

Beelink SEA I Teardown

In order to open the device, we’ll need to remove the two rubber pads at the bottom of the case, loosen the two screws underneath, and use some ridig plastic tool to pop out the bottom cover.

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There’s no much to see on the back side of the PCB, so we can loosen 6 screws, then pull out the board around the LCD area in order to take it out from the plastic enclosure. We can see cooling is achieved with a thermal pad placed on top of RTD1295DD SoC and stuck on a metal shield, which is then in contact with another thermal pad placed on top of a thick metal plate. We’ll have to see how effective it is during testing…

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The company used a 16GB Samsung KLMAG1JENB-B041 eMMC 5.1 flash for storage with 285/40 MB/s read/write sequential performance, and 8K/10K random R/W IOPS, so they did not cut costs on that part, since the theoretical numbers are pretty good. The board also comes with two Samsung K4A8G165WB-BCRC DDR4 SDRAM  chips (2GB RAM). Networking is implemented with an 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0 LE module based on Realtek RTL8821AU, and H2403N transformer for Gigabit Ethernet connectivity. There’s also a chip marked S342 2227, but I’m unclear what it is for, maybe some sort of PMIC. Beelink SEA I is also one of the rare TV boxes with an RTC battery, and if you’re interested in working on the board, for example for RTD1295 mainline Linux kernel, the serial console is clearly marked on an unpopulated header on the right of “Beelink” silkscreen.

The front panel display is controlled via “AIP1618E0” display controller, but I could not find any references online.

I’d like to thank Beelink for sending the review sample. If you are interested in the device, you could purchase it on GearBest as mentioned in the introduction, while if you plan to purchase in quantities, you may want to contact Beelink directly instead.

Tweet Realtek RTD1295 SoC is so far found in devices running Android & OpenWrt, and equipped with an HDMI input port for recording, PiP, and UDP broadcasting. I have already…

ODROID-XU4 development board powered by Samsung Exynos 5422 octa-core processor launched in summer 2015, but even after two years, it’s one of the fastest, if not the fastest, low cost development board on the market. It is also equipped with Gigabit Ethernet and USB 3.0 ports, but so far at $74, it was quite much expensive than slower peers. Hardkernel has now decided to lower the price to $59 plus shipping, which is really a good deal in terms of price/performance, and you’ll also benefit from close to two years development, as the board now supports Linux 4.9 with updates promised until early 2019.

Here’s a reminder of the technical specifications:

• SoC – Samsung Exynos 5422 quad core ARM Cortex-A15 @ 2.0GHz + quad core ARM Cortex-A7 @ 1.4GHz with Mali-T628 MP6 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.0 / 2.0 / 1.1 and OpenCL 1.1 Full profile
• System Memory – 2GB LPDDR3 RAM PoP (750 MHz, 12GB/s memory bandwidth, 2x32bit bus)
• Storage – Micro SD slot (up to 64GB) + eMMC 5.0 module socket (16, 32, and 64GB modules available)
• Video Output – HDMI 1.4a port up to 1080p
• Audio Output – HDMI, optional S/PDIF out via USB module
• Network Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, and optional USB Wi-Fi dongle with antenna
• USB – 2x USB 3.0 host port, 1x USB 2.0 ports
• Expansion – 30-pin header for access to GPIO, IRQ, SPI and ADC signals + 12-pin headers for GPIOs, I2S, and I2C
• Debugging – Serial console header
• Misc – Power and RGB LEDs, cooling fan header, power button, RTC
• Power Supply – 5V/4A power adapter (recommended) using 5.5/2.1mm barrel.
• Dimensions – 82 x 58 x 22 mm
• Weight – 60 grams with fan; 38 grams without cooler

One reason why the price is cheaper, is that the 5V/4A power adapter is not included by default, and if you don’t have your own, it will add $5.50.You’ll also find a list of accessories such as eMMC modules, enclosure, Cloudshell NAS kit, expansion boards, displays, etc… on the product page linked in the introduction.

The board can run various official or community-developed operating systems such as Ubuntu 16.04 + OpenGL ES + OpenCL, Android 4.4 to Android 7.0, Debian Jessie, Kali Linux 2.0, Arch Linux ARM, etc… and it is also supported by the Yocto Project. You’ll find the images and documentation on the Wiki, the source code is available on Github, and support in the active odroid forums and/or #odroid IRC channel.

Tweet ODROID-XU4 development board powered by Samsung Exynos 5422 octa-core processor launched in summer 2015, but even after two years, it’s one of the fastest, if not the fastest, low…

We’ve already seen Neil Armstrong, part of BayLibre, worked on adding Amlogic SoC (S905/S905X/S912) to mainline Linux via our virtual schedule for the Embedded Linux Conference & OpenIoT Summit 2017. But at the time, although we could see some activity in Linux 4.10 including support for Nexbox A95X and Nexbox A1, they did provide that much details the work that had been done, but since then, ELC 2017 videos have been released, and BayLibre wrote a short post about 3D Graphics support in mainline Linux.

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We can see that I/Os, USB host, composite video output, Ethernet, eMMC/SDIO, and PSCI and SCPI features have already been added to Linux 4.10. but some important features have not yet including HDMI, Mali support, Audio, and high speed eMMC modes. HDMI is actually planned for Linux 4.12, which could be released in about 18 weeks if we keep the 10 weeks kernel release schedule we had in the past. WeTek Hub and Play 2 devices tree files have been submitted for Linux 4.11. Beside TV boxes, development boards such as ODROID-C2 and Khadas Vim will also be supported and benefit from this work.

While Mali is not supported in mainline Linux yet, the patchsets for Mali-450 GPU are available on github in order to enable 3D graphics acceleration in Amlogic S905, S905X and S905X. If you are interested to get more details, you may want to watch Neil Armstrong presentation at ELC 2017 which explains the status of Amlogic Linux before working on mainline, the work achieved, the work in progress, and an overview of the community.

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You may also want to download the presentation slides for an overview of the talk, and check out linux-meson.com and BayLibre blog for future updates.

Thanks to Space Invader, theguyuk, and Harley for the tips.

Tweet We’ve already seen Neil Armstrong, part of BayLibre, worked on adding Amlogic SoC (S905/S905X/S912) to mainline Linux via our virtual schedule for the Embedded Linux Conference & OpenIoT Summit…

While you can install Linux on most laptops by yourself, it’s not always easy to find a laptop pre-installed with Linux, especially for the cheaper models. So it’s encouraging to see products like Litebook, a laptop with Elementary OS based on Ubuntu, and powered by an Intel Celeron N3150 “Braswell” processor with 4GB RAM, a 512GB hard drive, and a 14.1″ Full HD display.

Litebook Laptop with Elementary OS (Photoshopped).

Litebook laptop specifications:

• SoC – Intel Celeron N3150 quad core “Braswell” processor @ 1.60 / 2.08 GHz with Intel HD graphics
• System Memory – 4GB RAM (soldered)
• Storage – 512GB hard drive (upgradeable), micro SD slot, optional 32GB mSATA SSD
• Display – 14.1″ display with 1920×1080 resolution
• Video Output – HDMI 1.4 port
• Audio – 3.5mm audio jack, stereo speakers
• Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0
• USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports
• Camera – 720p front-facing camera
• Battery – Replaceable battery (capacity unstated) with an estimated 9 hours of battery life
• Dimensions – 341.2 x 235 x 21.6 mm
• Weight – ~1.5 kg

One worry is that Litebook is a completely new company, but they did not design the model themselves, as the laptop is/was available for sale on sites like Aliexpress or DHGate but pre-loaded with Windows 8.1 or 10 instead. We know because the promotional photos looks the same, as the first picture at the top was photoshopped, replacing Windows by Linux based Elementary OS.

That’s both positive and negative, as it means the hardware has been used in the past, but it raises question about software support. The latter concern is somewhat alleviated, as Liliputing reports, since the company openly answered comments on Reddit here and there, where they explain they’ve updated the Linux kernel to version 4.8 for wireless support, and the laptop comes with PlayonLinux and Wine for Windows programs support,WPS/Kingsoft Office, and Firefox as the default web browser. If you find out you don’t like Elementary OS, you’ll be able to install any other Linux distributions with Linux 4.8, or even Windows on the laptop.

Litebook is now for sale for $249 with the 512GB hard drive, or $269 with the 512 GB HDD and an extra 32GB mSATA SSD (Hybrid storage option), where the operating system is installed for better performance. Shipping is not included in the price, and the laptop appears to ship to North America and Europe, but none of the countries I tried in Asia.

Tweet While you can install Linux on most laptops by yourself, it’s not always easy to find a laptop pre-installed with Linux, especially for the cheaper models. So it’s encouraging…

Embedded World 2017 will start in about one week, and take place in March 14 – 16 in Nuremberg, Germany, so we can expect interesting embedded news coming soon. Arrow has written a blog post with plans to announce three 96Boards at the event: Meerkat based on NXP i.MX 7Dual, Chameleon96 based on Intel/Altera Cyclone V FPGA + ARM SoC, and Systart Oxalis 96Boards EE board powered by NXP LS1020A single core ARM Cortex A53 SoC. I’ll start with Chameleon (Chameleon96) today, as it’s the first with FPGA fabric, and I could find some technical details and photos about the board.

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Chameleon96 board specifications:

• SoC – Intel PSG / Altera Cyclone V SE 5CSEBA6U19I7N with a dual core ARM Cortex A9 processor @ up to 800 MHz and FPGA fabric with 110K Logic Elements
• Chips, Ports and Features connected to FPGA:
  • Integrated USB-Blaster II JTAG cable
  • Configuration sources: SD Card, JTAG
  • HDMI display output
  • WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n + Bluetooth 4.1 module interface
• Chips, Ports & Features connected to ARM system (HPS)
  • 512MB DDR3 SDRAM (16 bit data bus)
  • 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG port
  • Micro SD card interface
  • Serial UART
  • User LEDs
  • Warm reset button
• Expansion Connectors
  • 2x 20-pin Low speed expansion connector with UART, SPI, I2C, I2S, GPIO connectivity
  • 2x 30 High speed expansion connector with USB 2.0 Host, SPI, I2C, GPIO, and MIPI CSI-2 connectivity
• Debugging – 3-pin UART connector
• Misc – User LEDs, power button, reset button
• Power Supply – 12V DC (8~18V supports as per 96Boards CE specifications)
• Dimensions – 85 x 54 mm

The company will provide a Linux image and source code at launch with the board shipping with a 12V DC power supply, a USB to serial cable, a USB 2.0 AB cable, and a micro SD card pre-loaded with a Linux distribution with a graphical user interface, and source code.

One of the first use of the FPGA will be IoT security with the board including a “quantum-resistant” Ironwood Key Agreement Protocol, and WalnutDSA Digital Signature Algorithm reference design from SecureRF.

Block Diagram for Chameleon96 Board – Click to Enlarge

The board is not yet listed on Arrow Electronics website, but you can get some extra details on Rocketboard’s Chameleon96 Wiki page.

Tweet Embedded World 2017 will start in about one week, and take place in March 14 – 16 in Nuremberg, Germany, so we can expect interesting embedded news coming soon….

I reviewed my first and only Android VR headset last year, and while it was fun to use for short periods, I found it very uncomfortable to my eyes and head for periods of usage over 15 minutes, and would definitely not watch an entire movie on such device. Avegant’s engineers worked for a headset for the military that had to be used for long periods of time, and they found they could adapt their product for consumer use and create Avegant Glyph, and alternative to VR headset that looks like a stereo headset, but also includes two 720p DLP projectors placed right in front of your eyes, hereby creating your own private, and portable – home theater.

Avegant Glyph specifications:

• Resolution – 1280x720p per eye via 2 million micro-mirrors
• Aspect Ratio – 16:9
• Field of view – ~40° diagonal
• Diopter Adjustment – +1 to -7 range
• Adjustable IPD, and projectors vertical position.
• Head Tracking – 9 Axis IMU
• Video & Audio Input – micro HDMI
• Audio-Only Input – 3.5mm TRRS (standard AUX)
• Frequency Response: 20Hz-20kHz; Dynamic Range: 95 dB
• USB – 1x micro USB port for charging
• Battery – 2,060 mAh Li Ion battery with up to 4 hours video playback, and unlimited passive audio
• Dimensions – 190.5 x 190.5 x 101.6 mm
• Weight – 411 grams

The device weight is about the same as the virtual reality headset I used, but I can still believe it might be more comfortable due to the different weight distribution. It’s also not a standalone device, so you need to connect a source via the micro HDMI port and/or audio jack, which in many cases means purchasing a XXX to micro HDMI adapter. The Glyph firmware can be upgraded for “enhanced features and capabilities”. Beside watch 2D and 3D movies, it can also be used for 3D gaming, flying drones, private mode while connected to laptop, etc…  Note that contrary to VR headset, you still have peripheral vision, which may be an downside since it’s less immersive, and an upside, as you are still aware of the environment around you.

Charbax interviewed a company’s representative as they showcased the Glyph at Mobile World Congress 2017.

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Avegant Glyph first started to sell in the US last year, and some larger blog already reviewed it, such as Wired and Engadget, and while they really liked the video and audio experience, they still found it to be a little uncomfortable to use for longer duration, although it was an improvement over VR headsets. Customer feedback on Amazon, where is it sold for $499, is positive on average, but with many mixed reviews, possibly because the company made some adjustments to their product since they fist launched it. You’ll find more information on Avegant website.

Tweet I reviewed my first and only Android VR headset last year, and while it was fun to use for short periods, I found it very uncomfortable to my eyes…

There are many examples of Internet of Things projects, but more often than not the implementation is not secure, either because the device is exposed to the Internet with minimum or no security (worst case), or a gateway (hopefully) provides secure connection to the Internet, but the communication between sensor nodes and the gateway in the local network is not secure, due to memory limitation of the nodes, for example it might be challenging to implement security on ESP8266. Mongoose OS is an open source operating system for the Internet of Things developed by Cesanta working on ESP32, ESP8266, STM32, and TI CC3200, and the developers have demonstrated a secure solution with Mongoose OS running on ESP8266 connecting over a TLS connection to AWS IoT (Amazon Web Service IoT) and using TLS credentials stored in Microchip ATECC508A CryptoAuthentication Device.

NodeMCU with ATCRYPTOAUTH-XPRO (Left) or barebone ATECC508A (Right)

The addition of ATECC508 chip either using “XplainedPro extension board for crypto products” (ATCRYPTOAUTH-XPRO) or ATECC508A chip itself, is to avoid storing private TLS credentials in NodeMCU’s flash memory, as anybody with physical access to the device could steal private keys and get access to the cloud. ATECC508A is connected via the I2C interface of the target board.

So I guess the crypto chip truly makes sense if you have sensor nodes on the field with information important enough that third parties may be interested in getting access to your sensor to try read your private key from ESP8266’s flash. It costs less than $1, so you may consider it anyway, although you can still get a secure TLS connection between NodeMCU and AWS IoT without it, but it adds another level of security.

Once you are done with the hardware connections, you’ll need to install Mongoose OS on the board, and follow the MQTT + AWS IoT tutorial to get started. Nothing complicated need to be done to leverage the crypto chip, as the command mgos aws-iot-setup should automatically detect ATECC508A chip and use it.

Tweet There are many examples of Internet of Things projects, but more often than not the implementation is not secure, either because the device is exposed to the Internet with…

This is a guest post by Promwad, an electronics design house with development centers in Belarus and Russia, as well as sales offices in Europe and North America. They also evaluated Baikal T1…

NVIDIA has just announced an upgrade to to their Jetson TX1 module, with Jetson TX2 “Embedded AI Computer” with Tegra X2 Parker SoC that either doubles the performance of its predecessor,…

This is the third part of Xtream-Codes IPTV Panel review. IPTV Panel Professional Edition is a software to build your own IPTV Server from scratch. It supports all common Streaming Protocols as an…

If you have many ESP8266 modules to flash with your own firmware this may be time-consuming, but Wing Tang Wong’s ESP8266 Pogo Jig Programming Board could greatly streamline the process, as it…

NVIDIA Shield Android TV may only be available in a limited number of countries, but if you happen to live in a country where it’s officially sold, it can be one of the best options due its…

Remix OS, Phoenix OS, LightBiz OS… are all Android based operating systems with desktop optimizations, but so far they mostly work on TV boxes, computers or tablets. If you want something that…

Axiomtek has recently introduce PICO312, a fanless pico-ITX single board computer powered by either Intel Pentium N4200 quad core processor or Celeron dual code N3350 processor N3350 part of…

Linaro Connect Budapest 2017 is taking place this week in Hungary, and during George Grey – Linaro CEO – keynote, he provided a status updates for the Linaro group, addressed some of…

We’ve already covered LicheePi One board powered by Allwinner A13 processor, but it was not for sale out of China, and the developers are now back with LicheePi Zero board/module, slightly bigger than a micro SD card, featuring Allwinner V3s processor, and offered for as low as $6, or $8 with WiFi via an Indiegogo campaign.

LicheePi Zero specifications:

• SoC – Allwinner V3s ARM Cortex A7 processor @ up to 1.2 GHz with an ARM Mali-400 GPU, 512Mbit (64MB) DDR2 on-chip
• Storage – micro SD card slot, SPI flash (not 100% clear if it will be populated when shipped to backers)
• Display – FPC40 RGB Connector with support for 800×480 RGB LCD
• Audio – Audio codec
• USB – micro USB OTG port
• Expansion
  • 2x 15 headers with 2.54mm pitch, breadboard friendly with GPIOs, 2x UART, 1x SPI, 2x I2C,ADC, 1x PWM
  • 2x  30 half-holes with 1.27mm pitch with OTG USB，MIPI CSI，EPHY，RGB LCD, more GPIOs
  • RGB connector can take add-on boards for GPIO, LVDS, HDMI, VGA, etc…
• Misc – RGB LED
• Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port, or 5V/GND header
• Dimensions – 44.6×25.5mm

Pinout Diagram

Most development board come with SDK using older version of Linux, but LicheePi Zero supports the latest Linux 4.10 kernel, as well as buildroot, Debian, and Raspbian Jessie with Pixel (experimental). The source code and hardware documentation can be found on Github.

Another selling point of this tiny board is the number of add-boards, with a WiFi board that be either plugged into the micro SDcard slot, or soldered along some of the 2.54mm pitch header, several converter using the RGB interface for VGA, LVDS, HDMI, DVP camera) or even some extra GPIOs.

The company also provide a baseboard for LicheePi Zero module giving access to a 3.5mm audio jack, a built-in microphone, and Ethernet, as well as I/O ports for even more add-ons such as cameras, OLED or TFT displays, speakers, LoRa modules, and so on.

The modularity and options of Lichee Pi Zero is well summarized in the diagram below.

To get started easier, the developers also worked on some projects or bundles like a portable Linux handheld computer, a mini DIY laptop, VGA or HDMI computer bundles, “LoRa Netgate”, wireless speakers, etc… You can watch the demo of some of those, and more details about the board and modules in the video below.
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While LicheePi Zero and ZeroW models are respectively $6 and $8 per unit, you can’t buy one only at price, as the minimum order is two, so $12 for Zero, and $16 for ZeroW, except for the developer edition (shipped ASAP) that’s $12 for one ZeroW. ZeroW mini laptop DIY suit rewards with a LicheePi Zero, a micro SD wifi card, an OTG adapter, a 5″ 800×480 LCD, a wireless keyboard, a LiPo battery, and other accessories as shown at the start of the video above is just $49, while the LoRa Netgate suite with 2 A.I Thinker LoRa modules and a custom protocol (not LoRaWAN) goes for $40. There are many other rewards that you can checked in the Indiegogo page. Shipping is not included by only adds $5, and delivery is planned for May to June 2017 depending on perks. You can ask your question on on Indiegogo, as well as iLichee Forums.

Thanks to Freire for the tip.

Tweet We’ve already covered LicheePi One board powered by Allwinner A13 processor, but it was not for sale out of China, and the developers are now back with LicheePi Zero…