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

January 28, 2025January 30, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Meshtastic Designer helps you build custom Meshtastic solutions with RAKwireless Wisblock components

RAKWireless introduced the Wisblock IoT Modular System in 2020 to let developers easily create LoRaWAN IoT solutions with various core modules, baseboards, and sensor/IO modules. The company kept adding new Wisblock modules year after year, and there are now over 120 modules part of the Wisblock ecosystem. While the large choice of modules makes designing IoT prototypes more flexible, customers often face challenges in checking compatibility and selecting the right modules for the right slots. That’s why RAKWireless has been working on web-based online designer tools for the Wisblock ecosystem. The first release is the Meshtastic Designer used to quickly configure and create their own Meshtastic devices from the module to enclosure, and place an order from there once the design is complete. I’ve given it a quick try myself. I wanted a Meshtastic device with a display, a keyboard, a GNSS module, and an air quality sensor since the […]

January 28, 2025March 29, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

anyon_e DIY laptop features Rockchip RK3588 SoC, 13.3-inch 4K AMOLED display, aluminum chassis

We’ve already seen several Rockchip RK3588 laptops with the Cool Pi laptop and GenBook RK3588, as well as the open-source hardware MNT Reform Next. anyon_e is another open-source DIY laptop based on Rockchip RK3588 octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 SoC but with higher-end specifications compared to competitors. The anyon_e features a 13.3-inch 4K AMOLED display, a wireless QWERTY mechanical keyboard, a custom aluminum chassis that keeps the thickness of the laptop to just 18mm, and a battery good for about 7 hours. It’s based on the FriendlyELEC CM3588 core board found in the CM3588 NAS Kit. anyon_e laptop (preliminary) specifications: SoM – FriendlyELEC CM3588 SoC – Rockchip RK3588 CPU – 4x CortexA76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x CortexA55 core @ 1.8 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G610 MP4 GPU Video decoder – 8Kp60 H.265, VP9, AVS2, 8Kp30 H.264 AVC/MVC, 4Kp60 AV1, 1080p60 MPEG-2/-1, VC-1, VP8 Video encoder – 8Kp30 H.265/H.264 video encoder […]

January 27, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

Importing a single router in Thailand now requires an NBTC license

We’ve been reviewing routers sent to us from China from time to time including Xiaomi Mi AX6000, GL.iNet GL-MT6000, NanoPi R5S, and others. In late 2024, I was offered to review the OpenWrt One and GL.iNet GL-X2000 “Spitz Plus” WiFi 6 and 4G LTE routers, but neither review will happen due to changes in regulations, or rather enforcement, that now makes it more complicated and expensive to import a router in Thailand since an NBTC (National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission) license is now required. The Software Freedom Conservancy sent an OpenWrt One router through UPS at the end of October 2024, and received an email from the courier on November 2 that read in part: Due to your shipment is ROUTER, must use import license from. Therefore, UPS we unable to apply import license for customers. Please find the other agent to clear this shipment form Thai Customs detail below. […]

January 27, 2025February 16, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

GEEKOM A6 Ryzen 7 6800H mini PC review – Part 1: specifications, unboxing, and teardown

GEEKOM A6 is a mid-range mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H octa-core/sixteen thread processor with AMD Radeon Graphics 680M, up to 64GB dual-channel DDR5, up to 2TB NVMe (PCIe 4.0 x4) SSD storage, 2.5Gbos Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. It also features several USB4, USB 3.2, and USB 2.0 ports, supports up to four separate 4K monitors via HDMI 2.0 ports and USB Type-C ports, and comes with Windows 11 Pro pre-installed. GEEKOM sent us a sample of the A6 mini PC for review, and we’ll start with a look at the specifications, an unboxing, and a teardown in the first part of the review, before testing Windows 11 and Ubuntu 24.04 in more detail in the next parts. As its name implies, it should offer a middle ground between the Ryzen 7 5800H-powered GEEKOM A5 and the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS-based GEEKOM A7 mini PCs […]

January 25, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Intel floats Modular PC design proposal for repairable laptops and mini PCs

Intel has published an article proposing a modular PC design that would improve the repairability/right-to-repair of laptops and mini PCs and reduce e-waste through the replacement of motherboard, display, and M.2 or FPC add-on modules for the user-facing ports. Making repairable, modular electronic devices is not a new idea, and the Framework laptops are probably the best-known option now, but they do come at a premium. But most projects are limited success, for instance, Project Ara modular smartphone from Google eventually died off. We’ve also covered modular or open-source hardware solutions from smaller companies over the years such as Firefly Station P3D modular Arm mini PC with swappable cards, or Olimex Teres-I DIY and open-source hardware laptop. It’s good news that a large company like Intel is taking the repairable, modular PC topic seriously, but as we’ll see below it’s currently a high-level proposal with few technical details. Most laptops […]

January 24, 2025January 24, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

WL-AC1000 AP controller can manage large fleets of wireless routers and access points

Wallys Tech WL-AC1000 is an access point (AP) controller designed to manage and optimize the operation of multiple access points (APs) within large-scale wireless networks that you may find in factories, airports, hotels, train stations, etc… The WL-AC1000 is powered by a quad-core Arm processor coupled with 1GB RAM, 8MB NOR flash, and 256MB NAND flash. It is equipped with four GbE ports and one 2.5GbE port to connect the access points through switches. It’s available as a desktop version and a 1U enclosure to mount in a rack. Wallys Tech WL-AC1000 specifications: SoC – Quad-core ARM 64-bit A53 @ 1 .8 GHz processor (likely some Qualcomm QCS part) System Memory – 1GB (2x 512MB) DDR3L Storage 8MB NOR flash 256MB NAND Flash Networking Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port with PoE 3x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports 2.5Gbps Ethernet RJ45 port Power Supply – 24V DC Dimensions WL-AC1000-E – 192 x 122 […]

January 23, 2025January 23, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Cincoze DC-1300 is a stackable embedded computer powered by Intel Processor N97 or Core i3-N305 Alder Lake-N SoC

Cincoze DC-1300 stackable embedded computer

Cincoze DC-1300 is an Intel Processor N97 or Core i3-N305 Alder Lake-N embedded computer designed for smart manufacturing that supports stackable expansion boxes (SEBs) that leverage the built-in dual M.2 B Key slots of the system to support various I/O, CAN Bus, and Fieldbus modules. The fanless rugged PC supports up to 16GB DDR5 and M.2 and 2.5-inch SATA storage (no NVMe SSD). It features DisplayPort video output, two 2.5GbE ports, four USB Type-A ports, 3.5mm microphone and line-out audio jacks, and two RS232/RS485 DB9 connectors, and additional display, networking, USB, or DIO interfaces can be added through three CMI module on the main unit and four MEC M.2 card through the optional SEB. Designed for industrial applications, the system supports a wide 9 to 48V DC input and up to -40°C to 70°C temperature range without throttling under load. Cincoze DC-1300 specifications: Alder Lake N-series SoC (one or the […]

January 23, 2025January 23, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

MAIWO K2024 USB4 M.2 enclosure takes up to four M.2 NVMe SSD, serves as a 1-to-3 SSD duplicator

There are many M.2 USB4 or Thunderbolt enclosures on the market, but the MAIWO K2024 USB4 enclosure is a little different as it takes up to four M.2 NVMe 2230 to 2280 SSDs and features a button to use the device as 1-to-3 SSD duplicator. Based on the ASMedia ASM2464PDX USB4 controller, the MAIWO K2024 is suitable for people needing lots of NVMe SSD storage with high-performance random I/Os, for instance for video editing, and users needing to duplicate SSDs quickly and easily, e.g. to duplicate a Raspberry Pi OS installation on several SSDs. MAIWO K2024 key features: Chipset – ASMedia ASM2464PDX USB4/Thunderbolt 3 to PCIe/NVMe controller with USB 3.2 and USB 2.0 backward compatibility Storage Up to 4x M.2 NVMe M-Key SSDs 2230/2242/2260/2280 sizes supported Up to 32TB storage when using 4x 8TB SSDs Transfer rate of 16 Gbps with one SSD (PCIe Gen4 x1), 10 Gbps each with […]