Hardware Category - Page 607 of 1133 - CNX Software

May 30, 2018June 5, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

My Sonoff TH16 Wireless Switch is Dead – Postmortem Analysis

Back in November 2016, I connected Sonoff TH16 WiFi switch to my water pump, and since then it worked fairly well, except for the occasional “offline error” in eWelink app, which was usually solved with a power cycle. But in the last couple of days, I noticed the pump would not start at the set time, and I could not control it using the Android app either, even after turning on and off the power. So I took it out to have a look, and one component indeed burnt. ITEAD Studio released the schematics in the Wiki, and the dead component is connected to a GND as well as to a transistor, so it must be R2 4.64 Ohm resistor [Corrected from R3 resistor after checking board with multimeter]. But what may have caused this? Resistors burn because too high of a current flows through them. We often have micro […]

May 30, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

MakerSpot CC2640 is a $20 Bluetooth 5 LE USB Dongle

Bluetooth 5 was announced in May 2016 with four times the range, twice the speed of Bluetooth 4.0. Since then SoCs, development boards, and smartphones have been announced with Bluetooth 5, but so far I had not seen any Bluetooth 5 USB dongle to add the new Bluetooth version to existing computer or boards. While I’ve not been able to find a consumer grade Bluetooth 5 USB dongle yet, today I found out something close it to with MakerSport CC2640 USB dongle / board based on TI CC2640 chip. GT-Tronics CC264BPA-UDOG (actual name) USB dongle specifications: MCU – Texas Instrument CC2640R2F Arm Cortex-M3 SimpleLink Wireless SoC with Bluetooth 5.0 Connectivity – Bluetooth 5 Low Energy BLE including built-in antenna; backward compatible with BLE 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 Silabs CP2110 HID to UART bridging device Debugging – 10-pins JTAG connector for CC2640 debugging and firmware flashing The dongle is enumerated as generic HID […]

May 29, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

Orange Pi 3G-IoT SBC Launched for $24.90

We had two Arm Linux SBCs with cellular connectivity from Shenzhen Xunlong so far: Orange Pi 2G-IoT for 2G connectivity, and Orange Pi 4G-IoT with LTE support in Asia and Europe. But what if you needed 3G connectivity, and did not want to spend $45 on the 4G board? There was no option until today, but the company has just launched Orange Pi 3G-IoT with WCDMA (UMTS), TD-CDMA and CDMA2000 support. Orange Pi 3G-IoT-B board specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT6572 dual core Cortex A7 processor @ up to 1.2 GHz with Arm Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 512MB DDR2 Storage – 4GB eMMC flash, micro SD slot Display I/F – FPC connector for FWVGA display (854×480) Camera I/F – MIPI connector Audio – 3.5mm audio jack, built-in microphone, 2x solder pads for optional speakers Connectivity Cellular Nano SIM card slot 2G GSM – 850/900/1800/1900 MHz 3G WCDMA -(B1/B2/B5/B8), TD-CDMA, CDMA2000 […]

May 29, 2018May 29, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Vivo Y83 Mid-Range Smartphone Features MediaTek Helio P22 (MT6762) Processor with AI Acceleration

Last week, MediaTek unveiled their Helio P22 SoC for “mid range premium” smartphones manufactured with a 12nm FinFET process, and equipped with hardware blocks to accelerate artificial intelligence applications. Smartphones were expected later in Q2 2018, but it did not take long for the first announcement, as Vivo Y83 is one of the first Helio P22 smartphones. Vivo Y83 specifications: SoC – MediaTek Helio P22 (MT6762) eight-core Cortex A53 processor clocked up to 2.0 GHz with Imagination PowerVR GE8320 GPU System Memory – 4 GB RAM Storage – 64 GB storage, micro SD card slot up to 256 GB Display – 6.22″ multi-touch IPS display with 1520×720 resolution Camera – 8MP front-facing camera, 13MP rear camera with auto focus and flash; 1080p mp4 video recording Cellular Connectivity Dual SIM Dual Standby SIM card slot 2G GSM – 850/900/1800/1900MHz 3G – WCDMA: B1/B5/B8; TD-SCDMA: B34/B39;CDMA: BC0 4G – FDD-LTE: B1/B3/B5/B8; TDD-LTE: […]

May 27, 2018June 26, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

ACEPC GK1 is an Intel Celeron N4100 mini PC Cooled by a Fan

Last year, we shortly reviewed ACEPC AK1 mini PC powered by an Intel Celeron J3455 Apollo Lake processor, and greatly inspired from HP Elite Slice enclosure design. The company is now back with a upgraded model – ACEPC GK1 – that brings another Intel Celeron N4100 mini PC to the market, but with a 4GB/32GB RAM/storage configuration, and a detachable 2.5″ SATA drive bay. ACEPC GK1 specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N4100 quad core Gemini Lake processor clocked @ 1.10 GHz / 2.40 GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD Graphics 600; 6W TDP System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 32GB eMMC flash, 2.5″ SATA bay, M.2 SSD slot, micro SD card slot Video Output – 2x HDMI 1.4 ports (but the processor supports HDMI 2.0 natively…) Audio – Via HDMI, 3.5mm audio jack Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2 USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports, 2x […]

May 26, 2018May 26, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

UP AI Edge Enables Artificial Intelligence on the Edge with Intel CPU, GPU, VPU and FPGA Solutions (Crowdfunding)

Back in February of this year, AAEON introduced their UP AI Edge family of products with UP AI Core mini PCIe card based on Intel Movidius Myriad 2 VPU (Vision Processing Unit), and UP Core Plus board powered by a choice of Apollo Lake processors, and supporting AI Plus FPGA and AI Net Ethernet expansion boards. The company has now launched a Kickstarter campaign for those boards, and added several new products including Vision Plus with three Movidius Myriad 2 VPUs, AI Core M2 with two Movidius Myriad2 VPU in M.2 2280 form factor, as well as the Up Squared AI vision development kit for OpenVINO toolkit. I won’t go through the products announced in February, but let’s have look at the new boards and cards. Vision Plus Board Vision Plus Specifications: VPU – 3x Intel Movidius Myriad 2 VPUs with 512 MB DDR Connectivity – 1x Gigabit Ethernet USB […]

May 25, 2018May 25, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Khadas Tone High Resolution Audio Board is Designed for Khadas VIM/VIM2, PCs, and Other SBCs

Khadas VIM and Khadas VIM2 are development boards powered respectively by Amlogic S905x and S912 processors that come with decent software support. The company also provides application specific add-on boards for their SBCs, and a while ago, I reviewed VIM2 with their dual tuner board and showed how to stream videos from my satellite dish or terrestrial antenna to the local network. Their latest solution is Khadas Tone board for high-quality audio applications. Khadas Tone “VIMs Edition” specifications: Multicore MCU – XMOS XU208-128-QF48 with 8x xCORE-200 cores up to 500 MIPS DAC – ES9038Q2M 32-Bit Stereo Mobile Audio DAC THD+N – ≤ 0.000337% @1KHz SNR – ≥ 120dB @ 10Hz~20KHz DNR – ≥ 120dB @ 10Hz~20KHz Crosstalk – ≥ 127dB @ 10Hz~20KHz Frequency Response – ±0.08 dB @ 10Hz~20KHz Sampling Frequency PCM: Up to 768KHz @ 32bit DSD: Up to DSD256 @ 1bit Clock Jitter Reference Clock Jitter < 3ps […]

May 25, 2018May 25, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Xiaomi Mi Router 4 is a $60 AC1200 Router with Three Gigabit Ethernet Ports

Xiaomi Mi Router 3 AC1200 router based on Mediatek MT7620A processor was launched in 2016 for just under $40 on online retailers. It had at least one caveat however, since it only supported Fast Ethernet. The company has now launched an upgraded version – Xiaomi Mi Router 4 -, still an AC1200 router, but equipped with a faster Mediatek MT7621A processor, and three Gigabit Ethernet ports. The new router sells for 199 RMB ($31 US) in China, but it’s also found for under $60 including international shipping on sites like Banggood or GearBest. Mi Router 4 (Miwifi 4) specifications: WiSoC – Mediatek MT7621A dual core MIPS processor @ 880MHz System Memory – 128 MB DDR3-1200 Storage – 128 MB SLC NAND Flash Wi-Fi 2.4GHz – 2X2 MIMO up to 300Mbps 5GHz – 2X2 MIMO up to 867 Mbps Wireless Security – WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK encryption, wireless access control (black and white list), […]