Hardware Category - Page 754 of 1132 - CNX Software

December 20, 2016December 28, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

ESP8266 based Wireless Air Quality & Environmental Monitors Teardown – Sonoff SC and vThings CO2 Monitor

The mailman delivered two parcels today, and interestingly enough they have a similar functionality measuring air quality and environmental data such as temperature. The first package was ITEAD Studio Sonoff SC environmental sensor with ESP8266, an Atmel MCU, DHT11 temperature & humidity sensor, a dust detector, a light sensor, and a microphone, while the second was v-Air Monitor vThings CO2 monitor v3 also based on ESP8266 with a CO2 sensor and other optional sensors. I’ll test both with their stock firmware later on, but today I’ll have a look at the hardware design. v-Air Monitor vThings CO2 monitor specifications While I’ve already written about Sonoff SC, it’s the first time I cover v.Air Monitor products, so let’s start with the specifications of vThings CO2 Monitor v3: SoC – Espressif ESP8266 WiSoC Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n WiFi Optional RF315 / 433 MHz RF module Sensors CO2 Sensor (one of them) CM1106 NDIR […]

December 20, 2016December 20, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Second Generation NVIDIA Shield Android TV Box Photos Leaked Ahead of Launch

NVIDIA Shield Android TV box may have launched in the first part of 2015, but even at the end of 2016 it’s still one of the best Android TV boxes with a powerful Tegra X1 processor, 3GB RAM, 4K video support, HD audio pass-through, the fastest GPU found in TV boxes so far, Netflix HD & 4K certified, and more. The company is allegedly preparing to launch a new model, and some photos have been leaked to Android Police. The design of the box looks basically identical to the new model, but it comes in two different sizes maybe because of extra ports and internal storage, and the game controller has been re-designed with a mix of triangular shapes. What we don’t know are the specifications. The company may have done a simple refresh, keeping Tegra X1 processor, increasing the memory and storage capacity, and possibly adding some extra interfaces, […]

December 20, 2016May 23, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Vorke Z3 Rockchip RK3399 TV Box to Launch in February 2017

I was expecting devices based on Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor to launch by the end of this year, that is about right now, but finally it looks like products will only start the show by the end of Q1 2017, as Firefly-RK3399 development board is scheduled to ship to backers in March 2017, while GeekBuying has started teasing us with their Vorke Z3 TV box powered by Rockchip RK3399 with 4GB RAM slated to launch in February 2017. [Update: Vorke Z3 is now up for sale for $169.99 including shipping] Vorke Z3 preliminary specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor with 2x ARM Cortex A72 cores at up to 2.0GHz, 4x Cortex A53 cores, and an ARM Mali-T860MP4 GPU System Memory – 4GB LPDDR3 Storage – 32GB eMMC flash, external SATA interface (hopefully implemented via the PCIe interface), micro SD slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ […]

December 19, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Pycom To Sell WiFi, BLE, LoRa and Sigfox OEM Modules for Your Own Hardware Projects

Pycom is the company making some relatively popular IoT boards programmable with Python such as WiPy, LoPy, SiPy, and soon FiPy, supporting respectively WiFi+BLE, LoRa+WiFi+BLE, Sigfox+WiFi+BLE, and for the latter all four plus LTE CAT M1/NB1. Those little boards are great for personal projects and/or to experiment, but for those of you who would like to integrated IoT connectivity into your own hardware projects, Pycom will soon launch three OEM module for corresponding to WiPy, SiPy and LoPy connectivity featues with respectively W01, S01 and L01 modules. Key features: W01 WipY 2.0 OEM Module – Dual network BLE and WiFi – 7.95 Euros L01 LoPy OEM module – LoRa, WiFi and Bluetooth – 14.95 Euros S01 SiPy OEM module – Sigfox, WiFi and Bluetooth; Available in both 14dB (for Europe) and 22dB (outside Europe) version for respectively 14.95 and 19.95 Euros All three models have basically the same functionality as […]

December 18, 2016March 7, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Ambiq Micro Introduces Ultra-Low Power Apollo 2 Cortex-M4F MCU Consuming Less than 10 μA/MHz

Last year Ambiq Micro unveiled their Apollo Cortex-M4F MCU with Cortex M0+ energy efficiency thanks to operation in sub-threshold voltage (< 0.5 V), and the MCU is said found in Matrix Powerwatch, a fitness tracker powered by body heat that you never need to charge. The company has recently announced a new version of the micro-controller with Apollo 2 MCU with better maximum performance thanks to a higher maximum clock speed (48 MHz vs 24 MHz), and higher efficiency (10 μA/MHz vs 30 μA/MHz @ 3.3V). Apollo 2 MCU key features and specifications: Ultra-low supply current <10 μA/MHz executing from flash at 3.3 V <10 μA/MHz executing from RAM at 3.3 V 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 […]

December 17, 2016December 17, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

NXP LPC Microcontrollers Roadmap for 2017 – LPC800 and LPC54000 Series

With the acquisition of Freescale, NXP now has both Kinetis and LPC ARM Cortex M micro-controller families. The company has kept selling both so far, but it’s unclear whether they’ll keep developing new Kinetis MCU family in the future. There’s no such doubt about LPC family with the company having published a 2017 roadmap for ARM Cortex M0+ based LPC 800 series, and ARM Cortex M4 based LPC54000 series. LPC800 series MCUs are promoted as 8-bit MCU alternatives, and three new models are expected next year: LPC84x ARM Cortex M0+ @ 30 MHz with 64KB flash, 8 to 16KB RAM available in QFN and LQFP packages. LPC802 ARM Cortex M0+ @ 15 MHz with 16KB flash, 2KB RAM available in TSSOP packages LPC804 ARM Cortex M0+ @ 15 MHz with 32KB flash, 4KB RAM available in QFN or TSSOP packages There will be new models of the more powerful LPC54000 […]

December 16, 2016January 21, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 31 Comments

Review of Mecool BB2 Pro TV Box with DDR4 Memory – Part 1: Specs, Unboxing and Teardown

Mecool BB2 Pro is yet another Amlogic S912 Android 6.0 TV box, but after Eweat R9 Plus, it’s my second TV box with DDR4 memory that should deliver much higher bandwidth compared to DDR3 memory used in most TV boxes. But so far, it’s clear how much performance can be extracted from the system with higher memory bandwidth in actual use, and that’s exactly what I hope to find out in the second part of the review, but in this post I start by going through the specs, check the box and its accessories, as well as the hardware design. Mecool BB2 Pro specifications Apart from the DDR4 memory, BB2 Pro has pretty common specifications: SoC – Amlogic S912 octo-core ARM Cortex A53 processor @ up to 1.5 GHz with ARM Mali-820MP3 GPU System Memory – 3 GB DDR4 Storage – 16 GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot up […]

December 16, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Kunbus RevolutionPi RevPi Core Raspberry Pi based Industrial Computer Sells with Digital I/O Modules and Fieldbus Gateways

Kunbus, a German company specialized in industrial network solution, has decided to design an industrial system based on Raspberry Pi Computer module supporting variable power supply, a wide temperature range, DIN rail mounting, etc, as well as corresponding digital I/O modules and fieldbus gateways. RevolutionPI RevPi Core specifications: SoC – Broadcom BCM2835 ARM11 processor @ 700 MHz System Memory – 512 MB Storage – 4GB flash Video Output – Micro HDMI port Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet port USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB port Misc – RTC, 3x status LEDs (2 programmable) Power Supply – 10.7 V to 28.8 V; polarity protection; 4 kV / 8 kV ESD protection & EMI passed (according to EN61131-2 and IEC 61000-6-2), surge and burst tests passed Power Consumption – Max: 10 Watts including 2 x 450 mA USB load; typ.: 4 watts. Dimensions – 96 x 22.5 x 110.5 […]