Hardware Category - Page 596 of 1132 - CNX Software

July 5, 2018July 5, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

$10 Nordic Semi nRF52840 USB Dongle Supports Bluetooth 5, Thread, ZigBee, 802.15.4, ANT and 2.4GHz Proprietary

Several weeks ago, as I noticed the lack of Bluetooth 5 USB dongles, I found MakerSpot CC2640 Bluetooth 5 USB stick based on Texas Instrument CC2640R2F Arm Cortex-M3 WiSoC. It’s not exactly a consumer products, and instead it’s more like a development kit, but it can still be inserted into the USB port of your computer or development board. Today, I found out Nordic Semi also made their own Bluetooth 5 – or is it Bluetooth 5.0 now, I’m really confused at this point – USB dongle for evaluation & development based on nRF52840 WiSoC. It’s not only for Bluetooth 5 though, as the multi-protocol SoC also supports Bluetooth Low Energy, Bluetooth Mesh, Thread, Zigbee, 802.15.4, ANT(+), and 2.4 GHz proprietary solutions. nRF52840 USB dongle (PCA10059) key features: Wireless Connectivity – Bluetooth 5, Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread, Zigbee, 802.15.4, ANT/ANT+, and 2.4GHz USB – USB 2.0 ports Expansion – 15x […]

July 5, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 8″ Tablet Comes with Snapdragon 660 Processor, 4G LTE Connectivity

Android tablets are not as popular as they used to be, and the choice of tablets has come down as a results. However, Xiaomi still keeps on updating their Mi Pad family every year or two years. After NVIDIA based Mi Pad in 2014, Intel based Mi Pad 2 in 2015, and Mediatek powered Mi Pad 3 last year, the Chinese company has now launched Mi Pad 4 with a Qualcomm 660 octa-core processor and an 8″ Full HD display. Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 octa-core Kryo 260 processor @ up to 2.2 GHz (1.8 GHz for the low power cluster), Adreno 512 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0 full,Vulkan, DX12, and Hexagon 680 DSP with Hexagon Vector eXtensions (HVX) System Memory – 3 or 4GB LPDDR4x Storage – 32 or 64 GB eMMC 5.1 flash, micro SD card slot up to […]

July 4, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

DFRobot 7″ HDMI Display with Touchscreen Sells for $69

There are plenty of HDMI displays, but if you want a smaller size it become more complicated although some 7″ HDMI displays are available. However, if you want to add touchscreen support, then the choice becomes even more scarce, especially if you want a neatly packaged solution. That’s why DFRobot’s 7″ HDMI display with a 5-point touchscreen may be interesting, and as a bonus it also features mounting holes for Arduino & Raspberry Pi boards. Specifications: Display – 7″ display with 1024×600 resolution @ 43 Hz (60Hz is possible, but not recommended as it will not be full screen) Interfaces – HDMI input for video, micro USB port for touchscreen Voltage & current – 5V @ 160 mA with HDMI connection (1.2A max) Dimensions – 183 x 100mm; mounting hole size: 3.1 x 6mm Weight – 328g Despite the 1.2A maximum current, the company claims an external power supply is […]

July 4, 2018July 9, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Top 10 Best Selling TV Boxes (on GearBest)

I’ve already written articles such as the “Best Android TV boxes in 2018” to help people select a TV box that matches their requirements, but today it will be a little different. GearBest provides a speadsheet with discount and coupons to bloggers and YouTube reviewers (sadly not shareable link here), and this time I noticed they also list the top 10 best sellers in the TV box category. Those may not necessarily the best TV boxes, but at least many other people bought them, and you may get unofficial support via communities such as Freaktab or LibreELEC. Withoutany further delay, here’s the list in no particular order and with prices for reference only as listed in the spreadsheet: Mecool M8S PRO L 4K TV Box (Buy Link) – Amlogic S912, 3GB RAM, 32GB flash, Android 7.1 – $75.99 W95 TV Box (2GB) (Buy Link) – Amlogic S905W, 2GB RAM, 16GB flash, […]

July 4, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

BOSON Kits Feature LEGO Compatible Building Blocks for STEM Education

Last year, DFRobot successfully introduced BOSON Kit “Powerful Building Blocks For LEGO STEM”via Kickstarter, and I’ve just noticed the company is now selling two BOSON Kits on their website: BOSON Science Kit for $149 BOSON Inventor Kit for $249 The kits are plug and pay and do not require coding, nor soldering. The modules come with built-in magnets, or they can be attached with screws, Velcro or to LEGO parts. BOSON modules are based on Intel Curie BLE modules, but those are being phased out, so you may want to inquire DFRobot if long term availability / appropriate stock is a concern. BOSON Science Kit As its name gives away, the kit is a set of exploration tool for aspiring young scientist with the following items: 8 scientific sensors for physics, chemistry and biology: Light sensor Humidity sensor Soil moisture sensor Temperature sensor Waterproof temperature sensor pH sensor (That’s the […]

July 4, 2018July 7, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Differences Between RS232, RS422 and RS485 (Video)

RS232, RS422, and RS485 are pretty old serial communication interfaces, and I was not even born when RS232 was specified in 1962, but there are still commonly used today in various applications such a points-of-sales, multi-meters, industrial equipment like PLC or HMI, as well as medical devices. Maxim Integrated shared a video – embedded at the end of this article – on social networks today explaining the fundamentals of serial transmitter devices and the differences between RS232, RS422, RS485, and Profibus. The video goes into more details with a glossary of terms, discussion of cable length and bitrate, hand-shaking, and auto-shutdown, but I’ll provide a quick summary below: RS232 supports one transmitter and one receiver, and operates between -15 and +15V (with input tolerance of up to -/+ 25V). A logic zero is between +3 and +15V and a logic one between -15 and -3V on the receiver side RS422 […]

July 3, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Connect Multiple Rotary Encoders to Arduino, ESP8266, Raspberry Pi, etc… with I2C Encoder V2 (Crowdfunding)

Rotary encoders are pretty common devices that convert the angular position of a shaft to analog or digital output signals with quadrature-encoded A / B pulses the most common way of reporting the position to the micro. So for each encoder you’d need 2-pin, and if your project use many of those you may quickly run out of pin, interrupts, etc… Simone Caron has decided to tackle this issue by creating an I2C encoder board, which works with various encoders, and whose second revision is now offered on Kickstarter. The I2C Encoder V2 board supports standard mechanical encoders, illuminated RGB encoders, and clickable rotary encoders, each of which may be with or without dent. The board also comes with 3 GPIOs following RGB LED footprint, but also usable as PWN, GPIO, or ADC, and each board’s I2C address can be configured with some soldering on A0 to A6 pins. Finally, […]

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

Qotom Q180P/Q190P Mini PC Comes with Four RS-232 DB9 Connectors

Earlier today, I covered Beelink KT03 “Client Computer”, an Apollo Lake barebone mini PC with two COM ports . But as you must already know, people on the Internet are hard to please, so some readers may have thought “meh, no Thunderbolt”, “lol, Apollo Lake… so old”, “where’s the NVMe socket?”. I won’t be addressing those concerns in this post, and instead I will focus on the “meh, only two COM ports, I need four!” crowd. So I went a little web search, and found another low power compact mini PCs with not two, but four COM ports. Qotom Q180P/Q190P are Cherry Trail mini PCs based on Intel Celeron J1800 / J1900 dual/quad core processor respectively. Qotom Q180P/Q190P specifications: SoC (one of the other) Intel Celeron J1800 dual core processor @ 2.41 GHz (base) / (turbo) 2.58 GHz with Intel HD graphics; 10W TDP Intel Celeron J1900 Quad core processor […]