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

January 22, 2024February 18, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

GEEKOM Mini IT12 review – Part 2: Windows 11 Pro tested on an Intel Core i7-12650H Alder Lake mini PC

We first checked out the GEEKOM Mini IT12 with an unboxing and teardown of the Intel Core i7-12650H Alder Lake mini PC in the middle of December 2023, and we’ve now had plenty of time to test the mini PC with Windows 11 Pro since the device was out of stock for a while and we were asked to postpone the review… Now that the mini PC is for sale again, we will report our experience with the Windows 11 Pro operating system in the second part of the review of the Mini IT12. This will include an overview of the software, features testing, various benchmarks including storage and networking performance, 4K and 8K YouTube video streaming, cooling performance, fan noise, and finally, we will provide some power consumption numbers. Software overview and features testing The System->About menu wrongly shows we have a “Mini Air12” mini PC instead of a […]

January 19, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

$16 Grove Vision AI V2 module features WiseEye2 HX6538 Arm Cortex-M55 & Ethos-U55 AI microcontroller

Grove Vision AI V2 XIAO ESP32-C3 OV5647 camera

Seeed Studio’s Grove Vision AI V2 module is based on the HiMax WiseEye2 HX6538 dual-core Cortex-M55 AI microcontroller with an Arm Ethos-U55 microNPU and features a MIPI CSI connector for an OV5647 camera. It is designed for AI computer vision applications using TensorFlow and PyTorch frameworks and connects to hosts such as Raspberry Pi SBCs, ESP32 IoT boards, Arduino, and other maker boards over I2C. We tested the previous generation Grove Vision AI module based on the 400 MHz HX6537-A DSP-based AI accelerator using the SenseCAP K1100 sensor prototype kit with LoRaWAN connectivity, and managed to have the kit perform face detection and send the data over LoRaWAN. The Grove Vision AI V2 builds on that but with a modern Arm MCU core and more powerful AI accelerator that can run models such as Mobilenet V1/V2, Efficientnet-lite, and Yolo v5 & v8 using the SenseCraft low-code/no-code platform. Grove Vision AI […]

January 19, 2024January 19, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

8 Euros ESP32-H2-DevKit-LiPo is an open-source hardware Bluetooth 5 LE and 802.15.4 (Zigbee/Thread/Matter) board

Olimex ESP32-H2-DevKit-LiPo is an open-source hardware board based on ESP32-H2-MINI-1-N4 wireless module with Bluetooth 5 Low Energy (LE) and an 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee, Thread, and Matter connectivity, and that can be powered by a LiPo battery. The ESP32-H2 RISC-V microcontroller is coupled with 4MB flash in the wireless module, and the board comes with two rows of 15 pins for up to 19 GPIOs with alternate functions such as ADC, SPI, UART, I2C, etc… plus pUEXT and Qwiic/Stemma connectors for expansion modules. The board also features two USB-C ports, one for connected directly to the ESP32-H2 and the other for USB to UART programming/debugging. ESP32-H2-DevKit-LiPo specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-H2-MINI-1-N4 MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-H2 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller at up to 96 MHz with 320 KB SRAM, 128 KB ROM, 4 KB LP memory, Bluetooth 5.2 LE/Mesh and 802.15.4 (Zigbee/Thread/Matter) radios. Storage – 4MB flash storage PCB antenna Dimensions […]

January 18, 2024January 18, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Raspberry Pi 5 gets a PoE HAT+ kit that doubles as a cooling solution

Waveshare PoE HAT(F) is an 802.3af/at-compliant 24W Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) HAT+ board designed for the Raspberry Pi 5 that also cools the SBC with its embedded fan, a heatsink, and two thermal pads. The Chinese company has beaten Raspberry Pi to it as the UK company is working on releasing the L-shaped 25W “PoE+ HAT(+) for Raspberry Pi 5” a little later. The existing official Raspberry Pi PoE+ HAT delivers up to 25.5 Watts which would be enough to power the Pi 5, but since the PoE header has been moved to another location, it’s not compatible anymore, so new solutions are needed such as the Waveshare PoE HAT(F). Waveshare PoE HAT(F) specifications: Supported SBC – Raspberry Pi 5 only Connected via 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header and 4-pin PoE header PoE (Power Over Ethernet) IEEE 802.3af/at-compliant Input voltage – 37V-57V DC input Output 2-pin header – 12V/2A max GPIO header […]

January 18, 2024January 17, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Raspberry Pi 5 industrial HMI displays gain M.2 NVMe SSD, RS232/RS485 interfaces, audio input/output jacks

Raspberry Pi 5 industrial HMI with RS232/RS485 audio input/output jacks

EDATEC ED-HMI3020 is a family of Raspberry Pi 5-based industrial HMI displays that build upon the earlier ED-HMI3010 panel PCs by adding an M.2 socket for NVMe SSD, RS232 and RS485 interfaces, as well as 3.5mm audio input and output jacks. The new models are still offered with either a 7-inch (1024×600) or 10.1-inch (1200×800) touchscreen display, a Raspberry Pi 5 with 4GB or 8GB RAM with all main ports (HDMI, Ethernet, USB) accessible externally, and support for an optional 8MP front-facing camera. ED-HMI3020 specifications with differences again ED-HMI3010 highlighted in bold or strikethrough: SoC – Broadcom BCM2712 CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A76 processor @ 2.4 GHz with crypto extensions, 512KB per-core L2 caches, 2MB shared L3 cache GPU – VideoCore VII GPU @ 800 MHz with support for OpenGL ES 3.1, Vulkan 1.2, 4Kp60 HEVC decoder System Memory – 4GB or 8GB LPDDR4X-4267 SDRAM Storage MicroSD card socket M.2 […]

January 17, 2024November 26, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

GEEKOM Mini Air12 mini PC review – Part 3: Ubuntu 22.04 Linux

GEEKOM Mini Air12 mini PC Review Ubuntu 22.04 Linux

After going through an unboxing and teardown for the GEEKOM Mini Air12, we tested the Intel Processor N100 mini PC with Windows 11 Pro, and we’ve now had time to check Ubuntu 22.04 on the device and will report our experience with Linux in the third part of the review. We tested the hardware features, networking and storage performance, YouTube video streaming, and ran some benchmarks in Ubuntu 22.04, before checking out the cooling performance, fan noise, and power consumption of the GEEKOM Mini Air12 in Linux. We installed Ubuntu 22.04 alongside Windows 11, after having shrunk the Windows 11 partition by about half before inserting a USB drive with Ubuntu 22.04.3 ISO, and the installation went smoothly with no drivers missing. Ubuntu 22.04 system information The About window in the settings confirms we have a mini PC with a quad-core Intel Processor N100 SoC, 16GB of RAM, and a […]

January 17, 2024January 17, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

ECS LIVA X3A – A Rockchip RK3588-powered fanless Android 12 mini PC with four HDMI ports

LIVA X3A Rockchip RK3588 fanless mini PC

Powered by a Rockchip RK3588 processor, ECS LIVA X3A fanless Android 12 mini PC is designed for digital signage and self-service kiosks with its four HDMI output ports capable of driving three 4K displays and an additional Full HD display. ECS is better known for its x86 mini PCs, but the company also introduced Rockchip Arm-based platforms in the past with the LIVA Q1A (RK3288/RK3399) and LIVA M300-W (RK3399K) mini PCs as well as the ECS-RK3568 3.5-inch SBC. The latest LIVA X3A fanless mini PC features the most powerful Rockchip processor, namely the RK3588 octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 SoC. ECS LIVA X3A specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588 CPU – Octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G610 GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.2, and Vulkan 1.2 support VPU – 8Kp60 video decoder for H.265/AVS2/VP9/H.264/AV1 codecs, 8Kp30 […]