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

March 12, 2025March 12, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

congatec unveils acetone-based heat pipe cooling solution for embedded systems operating in freezing temperatures

congatec heat pipe cooling solution freezing temperatures

Consumer-grade heat pipe cooling solutions typically rely on water as a working fluid. This works great until a system needs to be used in freezing conditions, since the water could turn into ice and damage the pipe or even parts of the computer. That’s why congatec has unveiled a heat pipe cooling solution that relies on acetone as a working fluid in the heat pipes instead of water. It will work reliably at extreme sub-zero temperatures down to -40°C, and the company also claims the solution is insensitive to mechanical stresses such as shock and vibration. The acetone-based cooling solution will be used in conjunction with Computer-on-Module (COMs) from the company such as the COM Express Type 6 conga-TC675 or rugged-version conga-TC675r powered by up to 45W Intel Raptor Lake processor, as well as COM HPC Mini, Client or Server modules. Congatec explains that it will lower the cost of […]

March 12, 2025March 11, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Tips to use a touchscreen display with Raspberry Pi OS in 2025

I’ve just reviewed the SunFounder 10.1-inch touchscreen display with Raspberry Pi 5 running Raspberry Pi OS, and the experience was not quite as smooth as I had expected, so I’ll report some tips to save people time. The first is the software keyboard. Matchbox keyboard used to be the go-to solution, but two years ago, my preferred keyboard became the Onboard keyboard. Sadly, it’s not working so well with the latest Raspberry Pi OS using labwc Wayland window-stacking compositor, so now Raspberry Pi recommends squeekboard. It was not installed by default, but installation is fairly easy:

sudo apt install squeekboard

1	sudo apt install squeekboard

It did not show up automatically when trying to type in a text field, maybe because I’m using a third-party touchscreen keyboard, but going to Raspberry Pi Configuration and setting On-screen Keyboard to Enabled always in the Display tab fixed that. I was able to type a URL/web search terms in the URL […]

March 11, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Smart Home News – ESPHome 2025.2.0 Firmware, Home Assistant gets Matter certified, and (some) ChromeCast devices hit troubles

Smart Home news ESPHome Firmware Home Assistant Matter ChromeCast

When I wrote about the Home Assistant 2025.3 release last week, it was pointed out to me that ESPHome firmware had its own release on February 19th, and in other Smart Home news, Home Assistant got Matter certified, and some ChromeCast devices temporarily stopped working which impacted video/audio streaming and integration with Google Home. Let’s have a quick look at all three pieces of news. ESPHome 2025.2.0 firmware ESPHome 2025.2.0 was released on February 19 implements audio components improvements with support for new components/hardware for better support of Espressif’s S3-Box products, new speaker components for advanced functionality when using Voice Assistant, a new speaker media player component for announcements and music streams, and a mixer speaker component to combine the two streams. The new release also supports alpha-blending images when using LVGL, and the Online Image Component was updated to add support for both BMP and JPEG image formats. It […]

March 11, 2025March 12, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Sapphire Edge+ VPR-5050 “AMD Embedded+” mini-ITX motherboard combines AMD Ryzen V2748 CPU and Versal AI Edge VE2302 SoC FPGA

Right in time for Embedded World 2025, Sapphire Technology has introduced the Edge+ VPR-5050 “AMD Embedded+” mini-ITX motherboard with AMD Ryzen V2748 octa-core CPU, and AMD Versal AI Edge VE2302 adaptive SoC that combines Cortex-A72 hard core with FPGA fabric. It’s an update to last year’s VPR-4616-MB mini-ITX motherboard with the same Versal VE2302 adaptive SoC, but a lower end AMD Ryzen R2314 quad-core processor. Two versions of the Edge+ VPR-5050 are available: the VPR-5050-MB and VPR-5050A-MB with the only obvious difference from the specifications being a 64GB eMMC flash on the “A” model, and the different RAM capacities (2x 4GB LPDDR4 vs 2x 8GB LPDDR4). Sapphire Edge+ VPR-5050 specifications: AMD Embedded+ Architecture Adaptive SoC Subsystem Main IC – AMD Versal AI Edge VE2302 with dual Arm Cortex-A72 core processor @ up to 1.6 GHz, dual-core Arm Cortex-R5F, 23 TOPS AI engine, FPGA fabric, etc… System Memory VPR-5050-MB – 2x […]

March 11, 2025March 12, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Review of SunFounder 10.1-inch touchscreen display for SBCs using Raspberry Pi 5 and Radxa ROCK 5B

SunFounder 10.1-inch RPI Touchscreen Display Review

SunFounder has just sent us one of their 10.1-inch touchscreen display designed for single board computers (SBCs) for review. It supports the Raspberry Pi family, but not only, thanks to a flexible design that allows mounting all sorts of boards with mounting holes that fit within an 85x70mm area. All you need is a board with HDMI output, a spare USB port for the touchscreen, and 5V USB-C input (up to 5A). So I’ll first test the SunFounder 10.1-inch touchscreen display with a Raspberry Pi 5 (85x56mm), then a larger Radxa ROCK 5 Model B Pico-ITX SBC (100 x 72mm). Since the display can also be used as an external touchscreen monitor, I’ll also try it with my laptop in Ubuntu 24.04 and Windows 11. SunFounder 10.1-inch touchscreen display specifications Key features and specifications: Display Type – IPS LCD Resolution – 1280×800 (16:10 aspect ratio) Touchscreen – 10-point capacitive Viewing […]

March 10, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Hidden proprietary Bluetooth HCI commands in ESP32 microcontroller could pose a security risk

Security is hard. Just as Espressif Systems announced PSA Level 2 for the ESP32-C6 microcontroller, Spain-based cybersecurity company Tarlogic published their findings about a hidden Bluetooth functionality that can be used as a backdoor in the previous generation ESP32, and gave a presentation in Spanish at Rootedcon 2025. Specifically, they found hidden proprietary Bluetooth HCI (Host Controller Interface) commands used to read & write controller memory, and typically used for debugging. However, they could also facilitate supply chain attacks, the concealment of backdoors in the chipset, or the execution of more sophisticated attacks. Tarlogic initially called it a “backdoor”, but some disputed the claim (more on that later), and the company eventually issued an update downgrading it to a “hidden” feature: We would like to clarify that it is more appropriate to refer to the presence of proprietary HCI commands—which allow operations such as reading and modifying memory in the […]

March 9, 2025March 9, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

UP Squared 7100 Review – Part 2: An Intel N100 fanless SBC preloaded with Ubuntu Pro 24.04

I’ve already checked out the hardware of the UP Squared 7100 fanless SBC in the first part of the review with an unboxing and first boot to Ubuntu Pro 24.04. I’ve now had time to test the features of the Intel N100 SBC with Ubuntu Pro, so I’ll report my experience with the system in this second part of the review.

I’ll report my experience with Ubuntu Pro features, test hardware features of the board including GPIOs, check out BIOS options, run a few benchmarks, and measurement power consumption.

March 8, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 26 Comments

Orange Pi RV2 – A $30+ RISC-V SBC powered by Ky X1 octa-core SoC with a 2 TOPS AI accelerator

While the Orange Pi RV RISC-V SBC introduced at the Orange Pi Developer Conference 2024 last year is yet to be launched (should be up in a few days), the company has just launched the Orange Pi RV2 powered by the Ky X1 octa-core RISC-V SoC with a 2 TOPS AI accelerator, up to 8GB LPDD4X, optional eMMC flash moduyle, two M.2 sockets for storeage, dual gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 5, and more. While RISC-V has made a lot of progress over the years, Linux RISC-V SBCs were often synonymous with relatively expensive hardware for developers, since software is often unsuitable for production, at least for applications using graphics. The Orange Pi RV2 addresses the cost issue since the octa-core RISC-V SBC sells for just $30 to $49.90 depending on the configuration. Orange Pi RV2 specifications: SoC – Ky X1 CPU – 8-core 64-bit RISC-V processor GPU – Not mentioned VPU […]