Author: Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments on Beelink SEi12 i7-12650H mini PC review – Part 2: Windows 11 Pro

Beelink SEi12 i7-12650H mini PC review – Part 2: Windows 11 Pro

Beelink SEi12 i7-12650H mini PC review Windows 11 Pro

We’ve already listed the specs and done an unboxing and teardown for the Beelink SEi12 i7-12650H Mini PC powered by a 10-core Intel Core i7-12650H processor with 32GB DDR4 and a 500GB M.2 SSD preloaded with Windows 11 Pro. In the second part of the review, we will test the Beelink SEi12 i7-12650H with the Windows 11 Pro operating system in detail with a software overview and feature testing, benchmarks, networking and storage testing, thermal efficiency, fan noise, and power consumption. Since we also reviewed the GEEKOM Mini IT12 with the same processor last month, we’ll try to compare both in this review and list the pros and cons for each system. Software overview and features testing The System->About menu confirms that we have a “SEi” Mini PC powered by a 12th Gen 1.5 GHz (base frequency) Intel Core i7-12650H processor and  32GB of RAM, running Windows 11 Pro operating […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on Android 15 Developer Preview released – What’s New?

Android 15 Developer Preview released – What’s New?

Android 15

Google has just released the first Android 15 Developer Preview with some improvements related to privacy and security, the addition of the partial screen sharing feature, camera and audio improvements, and some new performance optimization that developers can leverage when running games or other demanding applications. User privacy and security in Android 15 Android 15 features the latest version of the Privacy Sandbox on Android to improve user privacy while enabling personalized advertising experiences for mobile apps, the Heatlth Connect by Android adds support for new data types related to fitness, nutrition, and more, and the File integrity manager implement new APIs making use of the fs-verity feature that was added to the Linux 5.4 kernel so that files can be protected by custom cryptographic signatures. Partial screen sharing is a completely new feature in Android 15 that allows users to share or record an app window rather than the […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Digi IX40 5G edge computing industrial IoT cellular gateway is designed for Industry 4.0 use cases

Digi IX40 5G edge computing industrial IoT cellular gateway is designed for Industry 4.0 use cases

Digi IX40 5G industrial cellular IoT gateway

Digi IX40 is a 5G edge computing industrial IoT cellular router solution designed for Industry 4.0 use cases such as advanced robotics, predictive maintenance, asset monitoring, industrial automation, and smart manufacturing. The IIoT gateway is based on an NXP i.MX 8M Plus Arm processor running a custom Linux distribution, and besides 5G and 4G LTE cellular connectivity, offers gigabit Ethernet networking with 6 RJ45 and SFP ports, GNSS for geolocation and time, as well as digital and analog I/Os and an RS232/RS422/RS485 serial interface supporting Modbus. Digi IX40 specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Plus Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.6 GHz with 2.3 TOPS NPU System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 8GB eMMC flash Wireless Cellular  IX40-05 5G NSA, 5G SA, 4G LTE-ADVANCED PRO CAT 19 5G NR bands – n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n12, n13, n14, n18, n20, n25, n26, n28, n29, n30, n38, n40, n41, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments on Comparing the latency of various wireless standards

Comparing the latency of various wireless standards

Wireless Latency

If you’ve ever wondered which wireless standard may deliver the smallest lag (latency) when transmitting small packets, we’ve now gotten an answer thanks to Scott at Electric UI who benchmarked various wireless links in common MCU development boards. More specifically the following hardware and wireless standards were tested: SiliconLabs 10×0-GM RF+8051 microcontroller with 240–960 MHz EZRadioPRO transceiver running SiK firmware HopeRF RFM95W LoRa module (on an Adafruit Breakout board) connected to an STM32F429 MCU Nordic Semi nRF24L01 2.4GHz transceiver module ESP32 board for ESP-NOW and WiFi testing is shown as ESP32 WS (WebSockets) or ESP32 TCP in the chart below. Raspberry Pi boards were also used for comparison ESP32-C6 board for 802.15.4 transfers (Thread) ESP32 and HC-05 modules for Bluetooth SPP (Serial Port Profile) ESP32 board with NimBLE and Bluedroid stacks and nRF52 for Bluetooth LE testing Here are the results for 12 bytes, 128 bytes, and 1024 bytes data transfers. […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Luxonis OAK Thermal – A PoE thermal camera with Myriad X AI accelerator, waterproof M12 and M8 connectors

Luxonis OAK Thermal – A PoE thermal camera with Myriad X AI accelerator, waterproof M12 and M8 connectors

Luxonis OAK Thermal camera

Luxonis has announced its first thermal camera with the OAK Thermal (OAK-T) based on the company’s OAK-SoM Pro AI module featuring an Intel Movidius Myriad X, and two waterproof ports with an M12 PoE/Ethernet connector and an M8 auxiliary connector. Luxonis has been making AI cameras based on Myriad X AI accelerator and its Depth AI solution at least since 2019, and its module is also found in third-party cameras as we’ve recently found out with the Arducam PiNSIGHT AI camera. But they had never made a thermal model, and following customers’ requests to fuse thermal and RGB data, they’ve now developed the OAK Thermal, or OAK-T for shorts, that is suitable for detecting leaks and fires or more accurately detect humans & animals than traditional vision-only based cameras. OAK Thermal camera specifications: System-on-Module – Luxonis OAK-SoM Pro with AI accelerator – Intel Movidius Myriad X AI vision processing unit […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Waveshare RP2040-GEEK USB development board features RP2040 MCU, 1.14-inch color display, UART/I2C/SWD ports

Waveshare RP2040-GEEK USB development board features RP2040 MCU, 1.14-inch color display, UART/I2C/SWD ports

RP2040-GEEK

Waveshare RP2040-GEEK is a development board that looks like a USB flash drive but is based on a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller with a 1.14-inch 65K color LCD and some expansion ports all housed in a white plastic case. The device comes with a 4MB flash to store the firmware, a microSD card slot for data storage, a BOOT button to enter bootloader mode, two 3-pin connectors for UART and SWD debug, and a 4-pin I2C port. Waveshare RP2040-GEEK specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller clocked up to 133 MHz with 264 kB SRAM Storage – 4MB flash (W25Q32JVSSIQ) and microSD card slot Display – 1.14-inch 240×135 pixel 65K color IPS LCD display USB – 1x USB Type-A female port for power and programming Debugging – 3-pin SWD port for connecting a target board; the standard CMSIS-DAP interface can be used to debug most Arm-based microcontrollers; […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on Flipper Zero gets a Raspberry Pi RP2040-powered video game module

Flipper Zero gets a Raspberry Pi RP2040-powered video game module

flipper zero video game module

Flipper Zero hardware & wireless hacking tool can now be used as a proper game console thanks to a Raspberry Pi RP2040-powered video game module that mirrors the display of the device on a larger monitor or TV via DVI/HDMI video output, and also adds a 6-axis motion tracking sensor. The Flipper Zero has been in the news in recent days, notably with Canada’s government banning the device due to car theft (although it only seems feasible on older cars), and today the company has announced the launch of a video game module developed in collaboration with Raspberry Pi Ltd. Video game module specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller clocked up to 133 MHz with 264 kB SRAM Video Output – DVI-D at 640х480 with 60 Hz refresh rate. It also supports HDMI. USB – USB Type-C port connected to the microcontroller. Acts as a USB device […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on Vivid Unit is a low-profile Rockchip RK3399 SBC with an integrated touchscreen display

Vivid Unit is a low-profile Rockchip RK3399 SBC with an integrated touchscreen display

Rockchip RK3399 SBC integrated touchscreen display

UUGear’s Vivid Unit is a low-profile SBC with an integrated 5.5-inch 1280×720 touchscreen display powered by the older Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core Cortex-A72/A53 SoC coupled with 4GB RAM and a 32GB eMMC flash. The board also comes with gigabit Ethernet and WiFi 4 connectivity, supports M.2 NVMe storage, offers HDMI output and a MIPI CSI camera input,  integrates a speaker and a stereo microphone, and allows for expansion through a 40-pin GPIO header and other headers for ADC and USB. Vivid Unit specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 CPU – Hexa-core big.LITTLE processor with 2x Arm Cortex-A72 cores up to 1.8GHz, 4x Arm Cortex-A53 cores up to 1.4GHz GPU – Arm Mali-T860MP4 GPU AI accelerator – 6 TOPS NPU System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage 32GB eMMC flash M.2 socket for NVMe SSD Display – 5.5-inch touchscreen display with 1280×720 resolution Video Output – HDMI port Camera Input – MIPI CSI camera […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC