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

October 4, 2014May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

How to Upgrade Allwinner A80 OptimusBoard Firmware

After informing Allwinner I had some rather slow write speed (3MB/s) to the NTFS partition of my USB drive on my A80 OptimusBoard, they kindly provided a new compressed Android firmware image (sun9iw1p1_android_optimus_v1.2_20140930.img.7z) with some NTFS optimizations that can be downloaded from baidu (password: x2tz), mega.co.nz or simos.info (please only use this link, if the other two do not work as it’s a private website and monthly bandwidth may be limited). I vaguely remember tools like LiveSuit (Linux) or PhoenixSuite (Windows), and I ended up on sunxi-linux Livesuit wiki as I’m running Ubuntu 14.04 on my PC, but you should be able to flash the firmware with PhoenixSuite if you run Windows. The instructions below can also be used for other Allwinner based devices. First you need to install LiveSuit, and build Allwinner USB drivers as follows:

sudo apt-get install dkms git build-essential
git clone https://github.com/linux-sunxi/sunxi-livesuite.git
cd sunxi-livesuite/awusb
make
sudo cp awusb.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/
sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe awusb
cd..

sudo apt-get install dkms git build-essential

git clone https://github.com/linux-sunxi/sunxi-livesuite.git

cd sunxi-livesuite/awusb

make

sudo cp awusb.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/

sudo depmod -a

sudo modprobe awusb

cd..

In order to use LiveSuit as a normal user, you also have […]

October 3, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments

Review of Tronsmart Orion R28 Meta 4K/H.265 Android TV Box

It’s been a little while since I unboxed Tronsmart Orion R28 Meta Android TV box, but since the product was still consider “beta” by GeekBuying, I wanted to wait for a OTA firmware update (109k4), which was released at the beginning of the week. Since I’ve already listed the technical specifications, and showed pictures of the board and device, I’ll focus on feature tests and benchmarks results in the review. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions I quickly tried the basic infrared remote control, inserting two AAA batteries, and it does the job, but for Android, you really need a pointing device, so I switched to Mele F10 Deluxe air mouse during testing. I’ve connected a whole bunch of cable, and peripherals to the box including an HDMI cable, a USB hard drive, an Ethernet cable, a USB webcam, and a USB hub with RF dongles for my air mouse […]

October 2, 2014October 2, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Tronsmart T2000 EZCast Pro Dongle Supports MHL, Split Screen, Improves Wi-Fi Performance

EZCast dongles, tiny HDMI streaming Wi-Fi stick with support for Airplay, Miracast, DLNA, and their own proprietary EZCast protocol first appeared about a year ago. I’ve reviewed a few including Tronsmart T1000 and MeLeCast S1, and found them to work relatively well, with some caveats, in Android. There’s now a new EZCast Pro wireless adapters that adds features such for four split screens display, conference control via web browser, and content broadcast to multiple screens, as well as improved wireless performance thanks to 2T2R Wi-Fi. Tronsmart T2000 is the first device I’ve heard of, that’s EZCast Pro capable. Tronsmart T2000 hardware specifications: SoC – Action Semi AM8251 @ 500MHz (MIPS) System memory – 256 MB DDR3 RAM Storage – 128 MB NAND Flash Video output – HDMI 1.2 / MHL 2.0 Wi-Fi – Single band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi 2T2R up to 300 Mbps Standards – Miracast, Airplay, DLNA, and EZCast […]

October 2, 2014October 2, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Atmel Introduces SAMA5D4 Embedded MPUs With 720p Video Decoder And TrustZone Support

Atmel has expanded its SAMA5 Cortex A5 embedded processor family with SAMA5D4 series adding an optional video processing unit capable of decoding H264, VP8 and MPEG4 at 720p / 30fps, as well as support for ARM NEON and TrustZone technology. There are also some other changes with regards to connectivity: no Gigabit Ethernet, more UART interfaces, less SPI interfaces, etc… Key features listed of Atmel SAMA5D4 series:: ARM Cortex-A5 core up to 528MHz (840DMIPS) with NEON & TrustZone support, 2x 32KB L1 cache, and 128KB L2 cache. Optional 720p hardware video decoder supporting H264/263, VP8, JPEG, and MPEG4. Graphic LCD TFT controller with overlays for image composition, resistive touchscreen controller. CMOS image sensor interface. Three high-speed USB ports (configurable as three hosts or two hosts and one device port). Dual EMAC 10/100 with IEEE1588 support (Precision Time Protocol). Other I/Os – 8x UART, 8x SPI, 4x TWI, 2 HS SDIO/SD/MMC, […]

October 2, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

STMicro STM32F4 (Cortex M4) vs STM32F7 (Cortex M7) Graphics Demo

STMicro announced their latest STM32F7 micro-controller family based on ARM Cortex M7 last week. As ARM Techcon 2014 is now taking place, the company has uploaded an infomercial on their YouTube account, where STMicro and ARM representatives are interviewed about the new family, and talk about its performance, power consumption, target applications, business prospects, and so on. But there’s also an a short demo with two development kits one with a STM32F4 cortex M4 micro-controller, and the other with a STM32F7 micro-controllers. Since both MCU families are pin-to-pin compatible, the hardware is identical except for the MCU. Both kits are pre-loaded with a 3D graphics demo (ray tracer), and the board with STM32F7 completes the demo in about half the time of the one with STM32F439, allegedly with about the same power consumption (7 coremarks / mW). The video is about 8 minutes long, and the demo starts at 1:25. […]

October 1, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

CALAO Systems Introduces PInBALL Industrial Board Based on Raspberry Pi Compute Module

CALAO Systems has just launched an industrial single board computer (SBC) for professional Raspberry Pi developers called PiNBALL or, if you prefer, PAC-1210-S200-B2835-EXX…. The board is powered by the Raspberry Pi Compute Module, features interfaces such as two mini PCIe slots (for USB, I2C, GPIOs,…), fast Ethernet, HDMI, opto-isolated inputs and outputs, etc., +6 to +36V power input, and can operate in -20°C to +70°C temperature range. PInBALL industrial SBC specifications (Items marker with ‘*’ are optional, and depend on model): SoC / Memory / Storage – Via Raspberry Pi Compute Module – Broadcom BCM2835, 512MB RAM, 4GB eMMC Flash. Other Storage – 1x 2Kb I²C EEPROM with EUI-48 MAC Address & 128 bit Serial Number (AT24MAC402). Video Output – 1x HDMI Out, 1x CVBS Out (BCM2835) Audio Output – 1x HDMI, 2x S/PDIF Out / Optical & RCA (WM8804), Connectivity – 1x Fast Ethernet (LAN9514), 1x Micro-SIM Socket USB […]

October 1, 2014July 28, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

HydraBus is an Open Source Hardware STM32 Devkit with Support for NFC via HydraNFC Shield

Recently, I wrote about the public availability of a MicroPython board based on STMicro STM32F4 Cortex M4 support that can easily be programmed with Python. It turns out there’s another STM32 board called HydraBus, also supporting Micro Python firmware, or another embedded firmware based on ChibiOS, together with an optional HydraNFC shield capable of sniffing, reading/writing or emulating any 13.56MHz NFC tags. HydraBus Specifications: MCU – STMicro TM32F405RG micro-controller @ 168 MHz with 1MB flash, 192KB SRAM, and an FPU. External Storage – Micro SD card slot up to 48MHz (~24MB/s) Expansion Headers – 4 headers with access to 44 I/Os (some already used by micro SD and USB 1 & 2). USB – 2x micro USB connector including 1x OTG port, and 1x device/host port, both with ESD protection. Misc – Reset and user button, user LED, Power – 5V via micro USB port. Dimensions – 60mm x […]