Hardware Category - Page 564 of 1132 - CNX Software

December 2, 2018April 13, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Particle Mesh Networking Review – Part 2: Getting Started Guide with Argon & Xenon

Particle Mesh Network Argon Xenon Success

I’ve recently received a Particle Mesh IoT Development Kit with one Argon WiFi + Mesh (802.15.4) board acting as gateway, three Xenon Mesh boards, and various sensors and accessories. I’ve already showcased the hardware in the first part in the review, so in this post I’ll post my experience getting started with Particle Mesh networking using the kit. Beside the kit, you’ll need a few micro USB cables, a mobile phone running Android or iOS, a reliable Internet connection (more on that later), and a host PC for programming and debugging potential issues. Setting Up Particle Argon & Xenon boards First we’ll need to configure / setup the boards. Go to https://setup.particle.io to login or create an account if you don’t already have one, and you should be brought the following page. Select Mesh, and you’ll be asked to setup a gateway first. Any of the boards from Particle Mesh […]

November 30, 2018March 7, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Ambiq Apollo2 Blue Ultra Low Power MCU adds Bluetooth Connectivity

Ambiq Micro unveiled their ultra-low power Apollo MCU back in 2015 with claims of Cortex-M4 performance at Cortex-M0+ energy efficiency by leveraging SPOT (Subthreshold Power Optimized Technology) technology that allows operating the microcontroller at very low voltages (less than 0.5V). Since then the company introduced Apollo2 MCU with 10 μA/MHz power consumption, but still a generic purpose microcontroller. Earlier this year, the company unveiled a new version of Apollo2 microcontroller adding Bluetooth connectivity, and allowing Bluetooth applications that last years on a charge. Meet Apollo2 Blue. Apollo2 Blue key features and specifications: Arm Cortex-M4 Processor up to 48 MHz with FPU, MMU, wake-up interrupt controller with 32 interrupts Ultra-low power memory Up to 1 MB of flash memory for code/data Up to 256 KB of low leakage RAM for code/data 16kB 1 or 2-way Associative Cache Bluetooth 5 Low Energy RF sensitivity – -95 dBm TX: 5mA @0 dBm; RX: […]

November 30, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

QNAP HS-453DX Fanless NAS Features Gemini Lake Processor, 10GbE, HDMI 2.0

Intel Gemini Lake processors are usually found in consumer products such as motherboards, mini PCs, tablets, and laptops, but QNAP has just announced a fanless NAS – QNAP HS-453DX – targeting home users, and equipped with an Intel Celeron J4105 Gemini Lake processor, the same chip as found in the recently launched ODROID-H2 SBC. The NAS comes with 4 to 8GB RAM, supports two 3.5″ hard drives, two M.2 SSD, and includes interfaces like HDMI 2.0 outputs and 10Gb Ethernet, making it not only suitable as a high-speed NAS, but also as a 4K media player. Two versions of the NAS are available: QNAP HS-453DX-4G and HS-453DX-8GB only differing by the amount of RAM. Specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron J4105 quad-core processor @ 1.5 GHz / 2.5 GHz with Intel UHD Graphics 600 System Memory – 4 or 8GB via 2x SO-DIMM DDR4 sockets Storage 4GB eMMC flash for firmware […]

November 30, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Necuno Mobile Open Source Linux Smartphone is Powered by NXP i.MX 6 Processor

A few years ago, various companies tried to develop other Linux based mobile operating systems, but most failed with Mozilla Firefox OS discontinued, Samsung Tizen is not being used in smartphones anymore, and Sailfish OS giving up the consumer market focusing on governmental and corporate customers instead. There’s still a niche market however for privacy-focused, open source Linux smartphones, and we’ve already covered NXP i.MX 8M based Purism Librem 5 smartphone scheduled to launch next year with GNOME based PureOS operating system, and the ability to switch to PureOS with KDE Plasma Mobile or Ubuntu Touch. Necuno Mobile will be another Linux smartphone based on an NXP processor, but instead of relying on a 64-bit i.MX 8M processor, it will be equipped with the older 32-bit i.MX 6Quad processor, and according to the company be “100% open source device, from metal to pixel, from hardware to software”. Necuno Mobile preliminary […]

November 29, 2018March 8, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

MiniNodes Raspberry Pi 3 CoM Carrier Board Takes up to 5 Compute Modules 3

mIninodes raspberry pi com carrier board

Mininodes is known for their hosting services based on Arm development boards such as Cubieboard2, 96Boards Hikey, or Raspberry Pi 3, but the company unveiled their own hardware platform at Arm TechCon 2018 with miniNodes Raspberry Pi CoM (Computer-on-Module) carrier board that takes up to five Raspberry Pi Compute Modules 3. Beside the five sockets for CM3 / CM3L modules, the carrier board is also equipped with a gigabit Ethernet switch and RJ45 connector, as well as a DC jack to power the whole setup. The white round logo on the board most certainly means mininodes designed the board with Gumstix Geppeto web platform that allows you to fairly easily design your own custom boards in a web browser without having to draw schematics, and then handle the PCB layout. The company explains the Raspberry Pi 3 CoM Carrier Board can be used to provide edge compute capacity in remote […]

November 29, 2018November 29, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Ugoos Clever Canvas Cube TV Dongle Makes Digital Signage Easy

When I was first informed about Ugoos Clever Canvas Cube, I ignored it because it just looked like an another “old” Amlogic S905 TV stick running Android 5.1. But I came across it again today, and I realized the device is not designed to stream video per se, but instead it’s loaded with digital signage software that makes it easy to compose layout from photos, and text directly from your mobile phone, with the content then uploaded to the stick over the cloud. Ugoos Clever Canvas hardware is actually Ugoos AM2 with the following specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905 quad core Cortex A53 processor with penta-core Arm Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB flash, micro SD card slot up to 32GB Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4k @ 60 fps, 3.5mm AV output with composite and stereo audio Connectivity – Dual band […]

November 28, 2018November 28, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Sony PlayStation Classic Teardown Reveals MediaTek MT8167A Processor

Miniature versions of popular game consoles from earlier decades have been all the rage recently, but they all have one thing in common: the inability to add games by default. But eventually, people find ways. For example, when it was found Nintendo NES Classic Mini was found to be powered by an Allwinner R16 processor, enthusiasts found ways to run RetroArch on the device with some efforts. One of the latest announcement was Sony PlayStation Classic, and as reviewers got hold of early sample of the miniature gaming console, it got torn down by HDBlog Italia. That means we now have a good idea of the technical specifications of the console: SoC – MediaTek MT8167A quad core Arm Cortex-A35 processor @ 1.5 GHz with PowerVR GE8300 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3-1866 (Samsung K4B4G1646E-BYMA) Storage – 16GB eMMC 5.1 flash (Samsung KLMAG1JETD-B041) Video Output – HDMI port up to 720p […]

November 28, 2018November 28, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Wistrio LoRa Tracker RK5205 Complies with 96Boards IoT Edition Specification

It’s not hard to find a LoRa GPS tracker board such as Rak Wireless RAK811 these days, but if for some reasons, you’d also like your board to comply with 96Boards IoT Edition form factor, Rak Wireless just launched Wistrio LoRa Tracker RK5205 for $49.50 plus shipping on Aliexpress and Amazon. Wistrio specifications: LoRa Module – RAK5205 module with SX1276 LoRa chipset, STM32L1 Arm Cortex-M3 microcontroller LoRa Connectivity LoRaWAN 1.0.2 protocol OTAA/ABP activation Programmable bitrate up to 300 Kbps Support for global bands: EU433, CN470, EU868, US915, AS923, AU915, KR920, and IN865 SMA & iPEX antenna options Location – Quectel L76-L GNNS chip supporting GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and QZSS system (pin-to-pin compatible with u-blox Max7) Sensors – LIS3DH 3-axis accelerometer, BME680 environmental sensor reporting gas, pressure, humidity and temperature data Expansion Header – I2C, GPIOs, UART and ADC Power Supply – Rechargeable battery via micro USB port, or 5V […]