Hardware Category - Page 949 of 1114 - CNX Software

October 13, 2014October 18, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

Allwinner H64 based Nobel64 Could the First Affordable 64-bit ARM Development Board

Based on the comments I read on this blog many people are early waiting for 64-bit ARM boards. There are already ARMv8 server boards by Applied Micro, AMD and others, but these cost several thousand dollars and are not sold to individuals, and ARM recently launched Juno development board, but it should be well over the budget of most hobbyists too. But the wait may soon be over, as Padnews found out Allwinner and Merrii Technology showcased Nobel64 development board powered by a yet to be announced Allwinner H64 64-bit ARM SoC at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair. Nobel64 development board specifications: SoC – Allwinner H64 quad core 64-bit ARM processor, most probably based on Cortex A53 cores. System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16 GB eMMC + micro SD card slot Video / Audio Output – HDMI 1.4 + AV port. Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual band Wi-Fi, […]

October 13, 2014October 13, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Waxberry Pi3 Rockchip RK3188 Development Board Includes a SATA Port

Development boards based on Rockchip RK3188 are a rarity, and until today, I only knew about Radxa Rock boards. Waxberry, a Chinese based company, already made some development boards such as Waxberry Pi2 based on Rockchip RK3066, and recently they’ve launched Waxberry Pi3 development board powered by Rockchip RK3188 processor, with 1 GB RAM, 8 GB flash, a SATA port, expansion headers and more. Waxberry Pi3 (aka WB-RK3188) specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3188 ARM Cortex-A9 quad core @ 1.6Ghz + Mali-400 MP4 GPU System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 8GB NAND Flash (SK Hynix H27UCG8TETR) + micro-SD slot + SATA port Video Output – HDMI, LVDS connector, and AV output (TBC) Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet port, 802.11b/g/n WiFi Audio I/O – HDMI, AV?, mic IN Camera – 24-pin CSI connector USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG Misc – IR sensor, RTC with battery slot […]

October 12, 2014May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

Allwinner A80 Android TV Boxes Coming Soon, Starting with Zero Devices Z8C Alice

Allwinner A80 based tablets such as Onda V989, and development boards such as A80 OptimusBoard started to ship one to two months ago, but there was absolutly no news about Android mini PCs / media player based on the latest Allwinner processor. This is about to change as ZeroDevices twitted about their Z8C Alice TV Box, apparently designed by Sunchip, and in collaboration with a UK based digital signage company called Eclipse Digital Media. Preliminary technical specifications that we can infer from the picture above: SoC – AllWinner Ultra Core A80 4x Cortex 15, 4x Cortex A7 big.LITTLE processor with Imagination Technologies PowerVR GC6230 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.0, Directx 9.3 System Memory – N/A Storage – ?? GB eMMC + SD card slot + SATA port (most probably via a USB 2.0/3.0 bridge) Video Output – HDMI + AV port Audio – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF […]

October 11, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

MT87 Digital Clamp Multimeter Hands On

When you want to measure power/current on electrical device, a kill-a-watt is the easiest method, but it’s not always possible for items like air conditioner, water pumps, etc… because they may simply be no plug to disconnect. Luckily, current clamps are made just for this purpose, where you simply place one of the two wires in a clamp / loop, and it magically measures the current. You can’t put both wires inside the loop or measurement will not work at all. The good news is that such devices are very inexpensive, and I bought MT87 digital clamp multimeter, which is also a multimeter adding voltage and resistance measurement capability, for just $11.33 on DealExtreme. MT87 comes with measurement leads (voltage/resistance only), and a user’s manual. The linked user’s manual is not exactly the same document, but very similar, and also refers to MT87C model which adds temperature measurement. There are […]

October 11, 2014July 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 143 Comments

MXQ S85 Android TV Box (Amlogic S805) Review

MXQ S85 (aka MXQ OTT TV box) and EM6Q-MXQ are two main Full HD H.265 Android media players based on Amlogic S805 currently selling on Chinese online stores. I’m lucky enough to have received both, and I’ve already completed the review for EM6Q-MXQ, so today I’ll complete MXQ S85 review and compare both devices. I’ve already taken picture of the device, accessories, and checked out the board’s components in my unboxing post, so in this post, I’ll focus on the user interface, evaluate performance, and test most hardware features of this media player. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions I’ve started by a quick test of the IR remote control, and it works as expected after inserting two AAA batteries, before switching to Mele F10 Deluxe air mouse for convenience. I’ve connected all ports of the device except the S/PDIF output: Ethernet cable, HDMI and AV cables, micro SD card, […]

October 10, 2014November 23, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

ZSun Wireless USB Flash Drives Add up to 32GB to Your Mobile Device

Yesterday, I wrote about the Egg personal cloud storage device which allows you to easily store and share your files without having to rely on cloud services, and also includes a touchscreen display. But it might be possible to achieve the main selling point of that product, that is keeping your data private, while accessing it from anywhere, at a fraction of the cost, by using a Wireless USB flash drive instead. Some well known companies such as Kingston (rather expensive), and Sandisk (much more affordable) already offer such products, but I’ve been informed Zsun, a Chinese company, was also manufacturing such devices with up to 32 GB capacity. The company calls its wireless flash drive “Apple Disks” showing how much money you could save with their device, by showing the ridiculous price different between apple devices with difference storage capacity, but they can also work with Android devices, as […]

October 9, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Camera Not Working on Your Smartphone? No problem, Massage It!

I bought ThL W200 last year as my main (and only) phone, and my review was rather positive, because after testing the phone for a week or so I did not encounter some of the issues. After a short while I found GPS was not working very reliably, so I had to find instructions to fix GPS on Mediatek phones, then the first battery died after about 8 months, maybe that’s normal for my usage, but I was expecting it to last longer. Finally, after a while both front and rear cameras started to have issues such as green screen, color lines, or simply refusing to work with the message: “can’t connect to camera”. In all of this the good news (for me) was I was not alone, and I saw some instructions saying, you had to terminate the camera app, clear all data, and restart the phones. It seemed […]