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

February 20, 2025February 20, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

Solar-powered LLM over Meshtastic solution may provide live-saving instructions during disasters and emergencies

People are trying to run LLMs on all sorts of low-end hardware with often limited usefulness, and when I saw a solar LLM over Meshtastic demo on X, I first laughed. I did not see the reason for it and LoRa hardware is usually really low-end with Meshtastic open-source firmware typically used for off-grid messaging and GPS location sharing. But after thinking more about it, it could prove useful to receive information through mobile devices during disasters where power and internet connectivity can not be taken for granted. Let’s check Colonel Panic’s solution first. The short post only mentions it’s a solar LLM over Meshtastic using M5Stack hardware. On the left, we must have a power bank charge over USB (through a USB solar panel?) with two USB outputs powering a controller and a board on the right. The main controller with a small display and enclosure is an ESP32-powered […]

February 20, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Raspberry Pi Pico SDK 2.1.1 release adds 200MHz clock option for RP2040, various Waveshare boards, new code samples

The Raspberry Pi Pico SDK 2.1.1 has just been released with official 200 MHz clock support for the Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU, several new boards mostly from Waveshare, but also one from Sparkfun, as well as new code samples, and other small changes. Raspberry Pi RP2040 gets official 200 MHz clock support When the Raspberry Pi RP2040 was first released along with Raspberry Pi Pico in 2021, we were told the default frequency was 48 MHz, but the microcontroller could also run up to 133 MHz. Eventually, I think the Cortex-M0+ cores were clocked at 125 MHz by default, although some projects (e.g. PicoDVI) would boost the frequency up to 252 MHz. Frequencies higher than 133 Mhz were not officially supported so far, but the Pico SDK 2.1.1 changes that since the Raspberry Pi RP2040 has now been certified to run at a system clock of 200MHz when using a […]

February 20, 2025February 19, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Kontron 3.5″-SBC-AML/ADN 3.5-inch Amston Lake/Alder Lake-N single board computer offers three DisplayPort video outputs

Kontron 3.5"-SBC-AML/ADN single board computer

Kontron 3.5″-SBC-AML/ADN is a 3.5-inch single board computer powered by either Intel Amston Lake (Industrial grade) or Alder Lake-N (commercial grade) processor and designed for applications such as automation, healthcare, smart city, and smart retail. It builds upon the smaller Kontron 2.5”-SBC-AML/ADN Pico-ITX SBC with many of the same features, but replaces eMMC flash storage with an M.2 SATA/NVMe socket and a SATA connector, features DDR5 SO-DIMM memory instead of soldered-on LPDDR5, and the larger PCB size allows it to gain an extra DisplayPort connector, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, additional serial ports, and a board-to-board (B2B) connector for expansion. It also supports a wider 9 to 36V DC range. Kontron 3.5″-SBC-AML/ADN specifications: SoC Standard Intel Atom x7211RE dual-core processor up to 3.2GHz with 6MB cache, 16EU Intel UHD graphics; TDP: 6W Intel Atom x7433RE quad-core processor up to 3.4GHz with 6MB cache, 32EU Intel UHD graphics; TDP: 9W Intel […]

February 19, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Xcrhom T4S WiFi outdoor smart socket features power meter function, Tasmota open-source firmware

Xcrhom T4S Tasmota outdoor wifi smart socket

ESPHome is the favorite open-source firmware of Smart Home devices, but Tasmota is another option that’s been available for many years. We’ve just seen fewer products based on Tasmota (previously Sonoff-Tasmota) in recent years, but it recently showed up on a credit card-sized quad relay board, and I’ve just come across Maker Go’s Xcrhom T4S WiFi Outdoor Smart Socket that also ships with Tasmota firmware and sells on AliExpress for $24.88 shipped. The Xcrhom T4S exposes two sockets with dust and rainproof covers to be used safely outdoors, integrates a power meter, and the Tasmota firmware enables MQTT support, Home Assistant compatibility, and support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Xcrhom T4S specifications: Two EU sockets Max load – 3680W in total (16A x 230V) Rated Current – Up to 16A in total Power Input – 100 to 240V AC 50Hz Wireless – 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4; Tx power […]

February 19, 2025February 19, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Bapaco is a mechanical keyboard PC with an ultra-wide 12.3-inch touchscreen display (Crowdfunding)

Bapaco mechanical keyboard PC with integrated touchscreen display

Made by Shenzhen SIDIQIAO Technology, the Bapaco is a mechanical keyboard PC powered by an Intel Core i5-1235U 10-core Alder Lake SoC and equipped with a 12.3-inch ultra-wide touchscreen display with 1920×720 resolution. The keyboard PC is offered as a barebone model without memory or storage but supports up to 32GB RAM, an M.2 2280 NVMe SSD, and/or an M.2 2242 SATA 3.0 SSD. It also features an HDMI output to connect an extra display, WiFi 6 connectivity, a few USB ports, and a 3.5mm audio jack and stereo speakers. Bapaco specifications: SoC – Intel Core i5-1235U CPU – 10-core/12-thread hybrid Alder Lake U-Series processor with 2x Performance cores @ 1.3/4.4GHz, 8x Efficient cores @ 0.9/3.3GHz Cache – 12 MB Intel Smart Cache GPU – 80EU Iris Xe Graphics @ 1.2 GHz BPB: 15W System Memory – Up to 32GB DDR4 3200MT/s SO-DIMM single-channel memory Storage M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe […]

February 18, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

exo software – A distributed LLM solution running on a cluster of computers, smartphones, or SBCs

You’d typically need hardware with a large amount of memory and bandwidth and multiple GPUs, if you want to run the latest large language models (LLMs), such as DeepSeek R1 with 671 billion parameters. But such hardware is not affordable or even available to most people, and the Exo software works around that as a distributed LLM solution working on a cluster of computers with or without NVIDIA GPUs, smartphones, and/or single board computers like Raspberry Pi boards. In some ways, exo works like distcc when compiling C programs over a build farm, but targets AI workloads such as LLMs instead. Key features of Exo software: Support for LLaMA (MLX and tinygrad), Mistral, LlaVA, Qwen, and Deepseek. Dynamic Model Partitioning – The solution splits up models based on the current network topology and device resources available in order to run larger models than you would be able to on any […]

February 18, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

ADLINK OSM-MTK510 – An OSM Size-L module with MediaTek Genio 510 AI SoC, up to 8GB RAM and 128GB eMMC flash

ADLINK OSM-MTK510 is an OSM Size-L compliant module powered by a MediaTek Genio 510 hexa-core Arm Cortex-A78/A55 SoC with a 3.2 TOPS AI accelerator and equipped with up to 8GB LPDDR4 and 128GB eMMC flash. The OSM module supports HDMI 2.0, MIPI DSI, and eDP display interfaces, up to 30MP cameras, and I/O options such as gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, and PCIe Gen2 x1. The OSM-MTK512 is available in either commercial or industrial (-40°C to 85°C) temperature grades and the company offers at least a 10-year lifecycle for long-term use. ADLINK OSM-MTK510 specifications: SoC – MediaTek Genio 510 (MT8370) CPU – Hexa-core processor with 2x Cortex-A78 cores @ up to 2.2 GHz and 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G57 MC2 GPU VPU for visual processing Encoding up to 4Kp30 with H.265/HEVC or H.264 Decoding up to 4Kp60, AV1, VP9, HEVC, H.264 codecs supported AI […]

February 17, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Wall-mountable Intel N100 mini PC features three HDMI outputs, three USB ports, GbE and WiFi 6 connectivity

Mekotronics R58-N100 is an Intel Processor N100 mini PC whose main differentiating feature is its metal enclosure with four holes suitable for direct wall mounting. The computer supports DDR5 SO-DIMM memory and M.2 MVMe SSD storage. It also features three 4K-capable HDMI video outputs, gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6, three USB 3.0 ports, a USB Type-C port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Mekotronics R58-N100 specifications: SoC – Intel Processor N100 CPU – Quad-core Alder Lake-N processor @ up to 3.4 GHz (Turbo) GPU – 24EU Intel HD graphics @ 750 MHz Cache – 6MB cache TDP – 6W System Memory – 8GB or 16GB DDR5 Storage – 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB M.2 MVMe SSD Video Output – 3x HDMI 2.0 ports up to 4Kp60; up to at least 3x independent displays supported Audio – 3.5mm headphone+mic jack, digital audio output via HDMI Connectivity Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports Dual-band 802.11b/g/n/ac/ax WiFi 6 […]