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

May 27, 2024May 26, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Use your Nintendo Wii Nunchuk as a USB controller with ANAVI Handle open-source hardware adapter (Crowdfunding)

Wii Nunchuck USB port Raspberry Pi 4 retro gaming console

Leon ANAVI has launched another open-source hardware project with the ANAVI Handle that transforms the Nintendo Wii Nunchuck into a USB controller meaning the Wii controller can now be used with any common hardware such as computers, laptops, single board computers, retro-gaming consoles, and so on. The ANAVI Handle is built around the Seeed Studio XIAO RP2040 module based on Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller and converts the Wii Nunchuck with a custom port carrying I2C signals into a standard USB HID device that works without any extra drivers. ANAVI Handle specifications: MCU module – XIAO RP2040 MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0 processor at 133MHz and 264kB RAM. Storage – 2MB SPI flash USB – 1x USB type C port for power and data Misc – Reset button, boot button, some LEDs PCB Nunchuck connector with I2C signal Dimensions – 35.0 x 33.3 mm OSHWA certification – BG000134 ANAVI […]

May 26, 2024May 26, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

ODROID-H4 Plus review – Part 2: Intel N97 NAS Kit and fanless SBC tested in Ubuntu 24.04

In the first part of the ODROID-H4+ kit review, I checked out the hardware and showed how to install the Intel N97 SBC into the H4 Type 3 case taking up to four 2.5-inch SATA drives. I’ve now had time to test the ODROID-H4 Plus with Ubuntu 24.04 both as an actively cooled NAS kit and a fanless SBC and will report benchmark results, 2.5GbE and storage test results, 4K and 8K YouTube video playback capability, check IBECC memory support, measure power consumption, and more in the second part of the review. Ubuntu 24.04 installation on ODROID-H4 Plus The ODROID-H4 Plus SBC does not come with any preinstalled OS since there’s no storage by default, so I installed Ubuntu 24.04 on the 128GB M.2 NVMe SSD I inserted into the board. The installation went relatively smoothly, but in hindsight, I would have probably installed the OS before installing the SBC […]

May 25, 2024July 5, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Pironman 5 is a fancy tower PC case for the Raspberry Pi 5 with NVMe M.2 SSD, oversized fans, RGB LEDs

SunFounder Pironman 5 is an enclosure for the Raspberry Pi 5 SBC that looks like a small Tower PC equipped with two RGB LED fans and a tower cooler with a PWM fan for cooling, and support for an NVMe SSD drive through the company’s Pironman 5 NVMe PiP HAT+ expansion board. The case also includes a small OLED information display, a power button for safe shutdown, two full-size HDMI ports, a spring-loaded microSD card socket for easy insertion and removal, an IR receiver for media center applications, and externally accessible 40-pin GPIO header so users can still play with GPIO while the Raspberry Pi 5 is inside the case. Pironman 5 key features and specifications: Designed for the Raspberry Pi 5 SBC (a board like Radxa Rock 5C could be installed instead, but software for OLED display, RGB LEDs, fan control, etc… might be an issue) Storage Pironman 5 […]

May 24, 2024May 24, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

50W high-power wireless charging boards target industrial, medical, and smart home applications

STMicro has introduced a combo of 50W wireless charging transmitter and receiver boards, namely the STEVAL-WBC2TX50 transmitter board and the STEVAL-WLC98RX receiver board, for the development of high-power wireless charging solutions such as medical and industrial equipment, home appliances, and computer peripherals. The transmitter board, based on the STWBC2-HP transmitter system-in-package (SiP), supports up to 50W of output power using the STMicro’s proprietary Super Charge (STSC) protocol, as well as the Qi 1.3 5W Baseline Power Profile (BPP) and 15W Extended Power Profile (EPP). The receiver board, based on the STWLC98 wireless power receiver IC, can handle up to 50W charging power through STSC, supports Qi BPP and EPP charging, and implements features such as Adaptive Rectifier Configuration (ARC) to extend charging distance by up to 50% and accurate voltage and current measurement for Foreign Object Detection (FOD). STEVAL-WBC2TX50 transmitter board highlights: STWBC2-HP wireless power transmitter chip MCU – STM32G071 […]

May 23, 2024May 23, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

EdgeCortix SAKURA-II Edge AI accelerator deliver up to 60 TOPS in an 8W power envelope

SAKURA-II M.2 and PCIe Edge AI accelerators

EdgeCortix has just announced its SAKURA-II Edge AI accelerator with its second-generation Dynamic Neural Accelerator (DNA) architecture delivering up to 60 TOPS (INT8) in an 8Watts power envelope and suitable to run complex generative AI tasks such as Large Language Models (LLMs), Large Vision Models (LVMs), and multi-modal transformer-based applications at the edge. Besides the AI accelerator itself, the company designed a range of M.2 modules and PCIe cards with one or two SAKURA-II chips delivering up to 120 TOPS with INT8, 60 TFLOPS with BF16 to enable generative AI in legacy hardware with a spare M.2 2280 socket or PCIe x8/x16 slot. SAKURA-II Edge AI accelerator SAKURA-II key specifications: Neural Processing Engine – DNA-II second-generation Dynamic Neural Accelerator (DNA) architecture Performance 60 TOPS (INT8) 30 TFLOPS (BF16) DRAM – Dual 64-bit LPDDR4x (8GB,16GB, or 32GB on board) DRAM Bandwidth – 68 GB/sec On-chip SRAM – 20MB Compute Efficiency – […]

May 23, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Firefly AIO-3562JQ – A Rockchip RK3562 SBC for industrial applications with isolated I/Os, RS485, RS232, and more

Firefly AIO-3562JQ is an industrial SBC built around the company’s iCore-3562JQ system-on-module with a Rockchip RK3562(J) processor, designed to operate in the -40 to +85°C temperature range, and equipped with a 24-pin isolated terminal block with digital inputs and outputs (relays), RS485, RS232, CAN Bus, and UART. The board ships with up to 8GB RAM and 64GB eMMC flash and features a MIPI DSI interface, two MIPI CSI camera connectors, microphone and speaker connectors, two Ethernet ports, several USB interfaces, and more. Firefly AIO-3562JQ specifications: SoM – Firefly iCore-3562JQ SoC – Rockchip RK3562J CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.2 GHz (against 2.0 GHz for the Rockchip RK3562) GPU – Arm Mali-G52 EE with support for OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.1, OpenCL 2.0 AI accelerator – None listed in the specs (Rockchip RK3562 comes with a 1 TOPS NPU) VPU – 4Kp30 H.364, H.264, VP9 video decoding, […]

May 23, 2024May 23, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Cincoze DV-1100 is a rugged embedded computer with Raptor Lake or Alder Lake SoC for industrial and railway applications

Cincoze DV-1100 Rugged Embedded Computer

Cincoze DV-1100 is a rugged embedded computer powered by a choice of Intel 13th Gen Raptor Lake or 12th Gen Alder Lake S Series embedded processors with up to 32GB DDR5 DO-DIMM memory, various NVMe and SATA storage options, up to three display interfaces, 2.5GbE and GbE networking, optional WiFi, Bluetooth, 4G LTE, and/or 5G wireless connectivity, six USB ports for expansion, and more. The system is housed in a fanless enclosure made of extruded aluminum with heavy-duty metal that’s good enough for 35W processors, but an additional fan kit is required for 65W processors. As a rugged embedded system designed for industrial environments, the Cincoze DV-1000 takes 9 to 48V DC input, integrates two RS232/RS422/RS485 COM ports, complies with the MIL-STD-810H shock and vibration standard plus various other industrial and railways standards, and can operate in a wide -40°C to 70°C temperature range. Cincoze DV-1100 specifications: SoC (multiple options) […]

May 22, 2024May 22, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Tiny XIAO ESP32C6 WiFi, BLE, and 802.15.4 IoT board offers up to 16 GPIO pins

Seeed Studio has added yet another member to their XIAO board family with the XIAO ESP32C6 powered by an ESP32-C6 WiFi 6, Bluetooth LE 5, and 802.15.4 (Thread/Zigbee) RISC-V microcontroller and offering up to 16 GPIOs (headers + pads) in a tiny 21 x 17.5 mm form factor that’s smaller than a typical stamp and makes it one of the smallest ESP32-C6 boards around. The company started the XIAO family with the Seeeduino XIAO (Microchip SAMD21G18) in 2020, and since then they’ve made several other variants with different processors including the XIAO RP2040, XIAO ESP32C3, and XIAO ESP32S3. The XIAO ESP32C6 is the latest (10th) iteration of the board and the first to support WiFi 6, BLE, and 802.15.4 wireless connectivity. XIAO ESP32C6 specifications: Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-C6 CPU Single-core 32-bit RISC-V clocked up to 160 MHz Low-power RISC-V core @ up to 20 MHz Memory – 512KB […]