Pi-Zero-UpTime is an UPS for Raspberry Pi Boards and Clones

Pi-Zero-UpTime UPS for Raspberry Pi

Since for a headless Raspberry Pi it makes no sense to use a large UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) to keep it running in case of power failure,  I bought and tested a Raspberry Pi battery kit a couple of years ago. The kit included an acrylic case,  a battery charging board, and LiPo battery and it worked most of the time as a UPS. “Most of the time” means the switch from mains to battery would not occur fast enough maybe 10% of the time (it depends on the load), so the Raspberry Pi board would reboot. The kit also did not include a GPIO / I2C interface to report the charge level of the battery, so you would not be able to safely power the board when the battery is almost fully depleted. In recent years, it’s become more and more difficult to get batteries shipped from overseas, so […]

Xiaomi Mi Box International Sold for $49.99 Shipped (Promo)

Xiaomi Mi Box (International) is one of the recommended TV boxes as it runs the official Android TV OS with support for Netflix and Amazon Prime HD/4K, and normally sells around $60. But Banggood currently has a promotion until July 24, 2018, where it offers the TV box for just $49.99 shipped. Stocks are limited to around 100 units for this promotion however. The device was released in 2016, so a little reminder of the specifications is in order: SoC –  Amlogic S905X-H quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.5 GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750 MHz System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDCP 2.2 and CEC support Audio Output – HDMI, optical S/PDIF and 3.5mm audio jack Video Codecs – VP9 Profile-2 & H.265 MP-10 up to 4K @ 60 fps, […]

Firefly Baidu Face Recognition Kit Comes with Monocular, Binocular, or Structured Light Camera

Baidu Face Recognition Kit

Firefly AIO-3399J industrial board comprised of a Rockchip RK3399 SoM and a baseboard offering plenty of I/O & connectivity options has been bundled with various  other accessories including a 10.1″ touchscreen display, and cameras to create a development platform for Baidu AI offline (aka “at the edge”) face recognition technology. The development kit is available in different variants with either a monocular camera, a binocular camera, or a structured-light camera. There’s also a deluxe kit with WiFi and a stand. Baidu Face Recognition Kit key specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core big.LITTLE processor with dual core ARM Cortex A72 up to 2.0 GHz and quad core Cortex A53 processor, ARM Mali-T860 MP4 GPU with OpenGL 1.1 to 3.1 support, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL and DX 11 support System Memory – 2GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 16GB eMMC 5.1 flash, micro SD card slot Display – 10.1″ 1280×800 capacitive touch display Connectivity – […]

Build an ESP8266 IR Remote Control with LOLIN IR Controller Shield for D1 Mini Board

LOLIN IR Controller

Infrared remote control are still widely with TVs, set-top boxes, air conditioners, and all other sort of appliances with the end result of having many remote control around the house. If you want to cut on the number of remote controls, there are several solutions: Get a smartphone with a Built-in IR transmitter like Xiaomi Mi A1. Add an IR transmitter to your smartphones’s headphone jack using ZazaRemote or USB type C port with ROCK USB type C IR transmitter. Get a WiFi IR blaster in order to control devices remotely, or maybe buy several try control any IR devices from anywhere DIY your own solution for more flexibility, for example using ANAVI Infrared pHAT and a Raspberry Pi board. The smartphone solutions (1 & 2) works as long as you are in the room, but the WiFI IR blaster allows you to control devices even if you are not […]

Faytech 15″ to 17″ Capacitive Touch PCs Ship with Ubuntu 16.04

Faytech Ubuntu Touch PC

Although many can support Ubuntu or other Linux distributions, most Intel based products ship with some version of Windows by default, and the end users may have to install Linux by themselves. While watching a Computex 2018 video on Armdevices.net, I found out FayTech, a company specializing in  the design, development, manufacturing and marketing of touchscreen monitors & PCs, showed a 15″ Touch PC powered by an Intel Celeron J1900 “Bay Trail” processor and running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. So I had a look on the company website, and the 15″ capacitive touch PC (FT15J1900W4G64GCAP) showcased in the video – embedded at the end of this article – comes with the following key features and specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron J1900 quad core processor @ 2.0 / 2.4 GHz with Intel HD Graphics; 10W TDP System Memory – 4GB DDR3L-1333 via 1x SO-DIMM slot, expandable to 8GB Storage – Industrial 64GB […]

$400 UGEE UG-2150 21.5″ Drawing Monitor Comes with a 2048-Level Pressure Sensitivity Pen

UG-2150 Drawing Monitor

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a 7″ HDMI touchscreen display, and today when I first come across UGEE UG-2150 monitor, I thought I had found something similar but with a bigger display size. However, the 21.5″ monitor has a different target applications, and is specifically designed for drawing as it ships with a 2048-level pressure sensitivity stylus. UGEE UG-2150 monitor specifications: Display Resolution – 1920 x 1080 Colors – 16.7M Drawing / touch Pressure Sensitivity – 2048 levels Accuracy – 0.25 mm Report Rate – 220 reports/per second Response Time – 14ms Video Input – VGA, DVI, HDMI USB – 1x USB 2.0 port Power Supply – Yes… Dimensions Full device – 517x 321.89 x 30mm excluding the stand Active Area – 476.64 x 268.11mm The monitor ships with a P50S rechargeable pen, two pen holders, 8 different tips, a remove ring, a USB cable, a power adapter […]

LAPIS ML62Q1622 is a General Purpose 16-bit MCU with an LCD Driver

LAPIS ML62Q1622 Evaluation Board

So this morning I received an email about some seminar & workshop about LAPIS microcontroller, including a free ML62Q1622 evaluation board. OK, good. But wait. Who is LAPIS? I have certainly never seen any projects with Lapis MCUs, and probably have never heard of them. It turns out OKI SEMICONDUCTOR Co.,Ltd. established in 2008 from a spin-off of Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd, changed the company name in to LAPIS Semiconductor Co.,Ltd in 2011. LAPIS is also part of ROHM Semiconductor group. Anyway, it was a good opportunity to find out more about ML62Q1622 micro-controller, and related evaluation boards & tools. Lapis Semi ML62Q1622 is part of ML62Q1600 group of 16-bit microcontrollers whose block diagram is shown above. ML62Q1622 MCU key features & specifications: CPU – 16-bit RISC CPU (CPU name: nX-U16/100) clocked @ up to 32 MHz Coprocessor for multiplication and division Program Memory – 64Kbyte Data Memory – […]

Alldocube X Tablet with a Super AMOLED Display to Launch for $199 and Up (Crowdfunding)

Allcodube has been making Android tablets at least since 2012, although recently they’ve launched an Intel Gemini Lake Tablet with their Knote5 model running Windows 10. The company is still working on Android tablets however, as they are about to launch Alldocube X tablet with a Mediatek processor, and a 10.5″ Super AMOLED display on Indiegogo. Alldocube X tablet preliminary specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT8176 hexa core processor with 2x Arm Cortex A72 cores @ 2.1 GHz, 4x Arm Cortex A53 cores @ 1.7 GHz, and Imagination PowerVR GX6250 GPU System Memory – 4GB Storage – 64GB flash Display – 10.5″ Samsung Super AMOLED display with 2560×1600 resolution Audio – AKM Hi-Fi chip Camera – 8MP front-facing camera, 8MP rear camera Connectivity – 802.1ac WiFi and Bluetooth USB – 1x USB Type-C port Sensor – Fingerprint scanner Battery – 8,000 mAh with Pump Express 2.0 quick charging Dimensions – 6.9mm […]

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