Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft), Author at CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

February 3, 2025February 4, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Roboreactor – A Web-based platform to design Raspberry Pi or Jetson-based robots from electronics to code and 3D files

Roboreactor Web based interface to design robots

Roboreactor is a web-based platform enabling engineers to build robotic and automation systems based on Raspberry Pi, NVIDIA Jetson, or other SBCs from a web browser including parts selection, code generation through visual programming, and generating URDF models from Onshape software. You can also create your robot with LLM if you wish. The first step is to create a project with your robot specifications and download and install the Genflow Mini image to your Raspberry Pi or NVIDIA Jetson SBC. Alternatively, you can install Gemini Mini middleware with a script on other SBCs, but we’re told the process takes up to 10 hours… At this point, you should be able to access data from sensors and other peripherals connected to your board, and you can also start working on the Python code using visual programming through the Roboreactor node generator without having to write code or understand low-level algorithms. Another […]

February 3, 2025February 3, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

AAEON GENE-MTH6 3.5-inch Meteor Lake SBC offers up to 96GB of DDR5, 9-36V wide power input, PCIe Gen4 FPC connector

AAEON GENE-MTH6 Intel Meteor Lake-powered 3.5-inch “Subcompact” SBC takes up to 96GB DDR5, offers an ERP-compliant 9V-36V wide power input range, and includes an unusual PCIe Gen4 x4 FPC connector to add an M.2 expansion module, or other custom modules. The board also features two 2.5GbE and one GbE port, supports WiFi 6 and 5G via M.2 sockets, a SATA port and an M.2 socket for storage expansion, four display interfaces, a few USB ports, four internal COM ports for RS232 and/or RS485, and more. It is offered with either 15W U-Series (Intel Core Ultra 5 125U / Core Ultra 7 155U) or 28W H-series (Intel Core Ultra 5 125H / Core Ultra 7 155H) processors. AAEON GENE-MTH6 specifications: Meteor Lake SoC (one or the other) Intel Core Ultra 7 155H 16-core/22-thread processor up to 4.8 GHz with 24MB cache, Intel 8Xe LPG graphics @ 2.25 GHz, Intel AI Boost […]

February 3, 2025February 3, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

RP2350-USB-A – A Raspberry Pi RP2350 board with an extra USB Type-A port using a PIO implementation

Raspberry Pi RP2350 board with USB-A port

Waveshare RP2350-USB-A is a small Raspberry Pi RP2350 board with a USB-C port for power and programming and a USB-A port to use the board as a USB device or host through a programmable IO (PIO) implementation. The board also features an RGB LED and two GPIO headers, which could make it useful for controlling GPIO/I2C/UART/SPI-connected devices when connected to a USB keypad or similar input. Alternatively, it could emulate a keyboard, mouse, or other USB device when connected to a host. RP2350-USB-A specifications: SoC – Raspberry Pi RP2350A MCU CPU Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 @150MHz with Arm Trustzone Dual-core 32-bit Hazard3 RISC-V @ 150MHz Up to two cores can be used at the same time Memory – 520KB SRAM Storage – 2MB SPI flash for firmware USB USB Type-A port connected to GPIO12, GPIO13, 5V, and GND USB 1.1 Type-C port for power and programming Expansion – 2x 9-pin 2.54mm […]

February 2, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Khadas Mind 2 AI Maker Kit Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 24.10 and the importance of power limits

Khadas Mind 2 AI Maker Kit Ubuntu 24.10 Review

I’ve already reviewed the Khadas Mind 2 AI Maker Kit with Windows 11 Home, and today, I’ll report my experience with Linux on the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V mini PC using Ubuntu 24.10 operating system. I would usually review systems with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS OS, but considering the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V SoC is so new, I installed Ubuntu 24.10 when I tested whether disabling VT-d (IOMMU) would improve Intel Arc GPU performance (it does to some extent), and it turns out it was a good decision because Ubuntu 24.04 requires lots of fixes and workarounds to work the Khadas Mind 2 AI Maker Kit, at least until Ubuntu 24.04.2 is released later this month with a more recent kernel. Khadas Mind 2 AI Maker Kit – Ubuntu 24.10 system information My Ubuntu 24.10 installed has both Linux 6.11 (default) and Linux 6.13 kernels, but I did most […]

February 1, 2025February 1, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Credit card-sized quad relay board runs Tasmota firmware on ESP32 module (Crowdfunding)

Credit card-sized ESP32 quad relay board

The “ESP32 IoT Relay Board” is a credit card-sized ESP32 board with four small 250VAC/30VDC 7A relays that runs Tasmota open-source firmware and supports Alexa & Google Assistant for voice control. There are so many ESP32-based relay boards on the market that I don’t usually feel the need to cover new ones, but Igor Mileshin’s ESP32 IoT Relay Board is smaller than most so I thought it might be interesting to some. The smallest quad-channel relay board I’ve seen so far is the one by Seeed Studio using an STM32 MCU and solid-state relays that measures just 60 x 40mm, but the relays only support up to 2A. ESP32 IoT Relay Board specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-WROOM-32D SoC – Espressif ESP32-D0WD dual-core Tensilica LX6 processor @ 240 MHz Storage – 32Mbit SPI flash Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n up to 150 Mbps, Bluetooth 4.2/5.x LE Relays 4x “industrial-grade” relays supporting […]

January 31, 2025January 31, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

UP Squared 7100 fanless SBC Review – Part 1: Unboxing and first boot to Ubuntu Pro 24.04

AAEON sent me a sample of the UP Squared 7100 fanless industrial SBC for review. The board is powered by an Intel N97 or N100 Alder Lake-N SoC (Amston Lake processors will be offered soon), and is equipped with up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB eMMC flash, plus two M.2 sockets for wireless and storage expansion. You’ll find the full specifications in our earlier article. I’ll start the review with an unboxing to check out the hardware, before booting it to Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS to check out some basic system information. In a few weeks, I’ll report my experience after in-depth testing in Ubuntu in the second part of the review which will include features testing from gigabit Ethernet to GPIO, some benchmarks, and power consumption measurements. UP Squared 7100 unboxing I received the UP Squared 7100 board in a retail package that reads “Are you UP for […]

January 31, 2025February 3, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Brodboost-C is a USB Type-C breadboard power supply board with adjustable 3.3V or 5V voltage (Crowdfunding)

BrodBoost-C USB C power supply breadboard

Axiometa BrodBoost-C is a USB Type-C breadboard power supply with a simple design that powers both rails of a breadboard with voltage adjustable between 3.3V or 5V. It also includes an on/off switch, an LED indicator, and built-in fuse protection. BrodBoost-C specifications: Output voltage – Adjustable: 3.3V or 5V DC Maximum current – 1A Ports USB Type-C connector for power input 2x 2×5 2.54 mm breadboard-compatible power and ground rails 2x 3-pin 2.54 mm selection headers with 2x jumper caps Safety – Short circuit protection Input filtering – Ferrite bead for noise suppression and decoupling capacitors Misc – Red Power LED, ON/OFF power switch Voltage regulation: 5.0 V selected by USB CC Pins (5.1 k resistors) 3.3 V step-down regulation via AMS1117-3.3 Dimensions – 54 x 19.5 x 11.4 mm Weight – About 20 grams We’ve written about several breadboard power supplies over the years including the Toaster board with […]

January 31, 2025January 31, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Silicon Labs unveils low-cost BG22L BLE 5.4 and BG24L BLE 6.0 SoCs

Silicon Labs has unveiled the BG22L and BG24L SoCs for low-cost, ultra-low-power Bluetooth LE connectivity. These are Lite versions of the company’s BG22 and BG24 SoC families introduced in 2020 and 2022 respectively. The 38.4 MHz Silabs BG22L Arm Cortex-M33 SoC targets high-volume, cost-sensitive Bluetooth 5.4 applications like asset tracking tags and small appliances. In comparison, the 78 MHz BG24L Cortex-M33 SoC offers an affordable entry-level solution with AI/ML acceleration and Bluetooth 6.0 Channel Sounding to locate items or implement access control in crowded areas such as warehouses and multi-family housing. Since the specs for the BG22L and BG24L are similar to the ones for the BG22 and BG24 chips I won’t reproduce those here, and instead highlights the main features and cost-saving measures. Silicon Labs BG22L Bluetooth LE 5.4 SoC Silicon Labs BG22L highlights: MCU – Arm Cortex-M33 @ 38.4 MHz with DSP and FPU (BG22 is clocked at […]