Giveaway Week – Mekotronics R58 mini PC

Mekotronics R58 USB ports

Let’s end Giveaway Week 2022 with a bang, and more exactly a rather powerful Rockchip RK3588 mini PC: Mekotronics R58 (mini). The device comes with 8GB RAM and 64GB flash storage, two 8K capable HDMI 2.0 output ports, one DisplayPort output,  one HDMI input, Gigabit Ethernet and WiFI 6 connectivity,  as well as a few USB 3.0/2.0 ports, plus support for a SATA drive. I reviewed the Rockchip RK3588 mini PC with Android 12 last July, and I was impressed by the CPU and GPU performance, 4K video playback capabilities, except for AV1 which was not stable at the time, and support for HDMI audio passthrough. Android 12 was quite stable at that early stage as well. Some downsides included the lack of a useful HDMI input app and USB 3.0 performance that could be improved. I always test samples before adding them to the giveaway, and I initially thought […]

NanoPi R6S Review – Part 1: Unboxing, Teardown, OpenWrt 22.03, and iperf3

NanoPi R6S routing benchmark

NanoPi R6S is a Rockchip RK3588S powered device that can not only work as a router with two 2.5GbE ports, but also as a mini PC with HDMI and USB ports, and an Edge AI computer thanks to the 6 TOPS NPU found in the processor. FriendlyElec has just sent me two samples of the NanoPi R6S for review. Today, I’ll start with an unboxing, a teardown, and install OpenWrt 22.03 to run some iperf3 benchmarks. I’ll try other features with either Debian or Ubuntu Desktop in a few weeks. NanoPi R6S unboxing The router/mini PC ships with 6 rubber feet (3M), and nothing else. The front panel comes with four LEDs for the system and Ethernet ports, a USB 2.0 port and a USB 3.0 port, as well as an IR receiver “window” (under the USB 3.0 port). The rear panel includes a USB Type-C port that supports 5V […]

Arduino Lab for MicroPython – An experimental cross-platform MicroPython IDE for Arduino boards

Arduino Lab for MicroPython

Arduino boards have traditionally been programmed with C-like language in the Arduino IDE, but with the Arduino Lab for MicroPython, Arduino added MicroPython to several official Arduino boards. In the words of the Arduino Team, “not an official product yet, an experimental tool”, but I would not be surprised if it becomes an official IDE eventually as the company collaborated with Damien George, the creator of MicroPython, to port the official the virtual machine to a number of Arduino products, and Murilo Polese to develop the Arduino Lab for MicroPython cross-platform IDE for MicroPython.   The IDE looks familiar… Oh yes, I see it now, it’s basically the Arduino IDE, but for MicroPython… 😉  and many of the same features including supporting connection with a board, code upload, file transfer, plus a Python-specific interactive REPL shell. Arduino Lab for MicroPython features so far: MicroPython’s Read Eval Print Loop (REPL) Enter […]

Orange Pi 5 Rockchip RK3588S SBC launched for $60 and up

Orange Pi 5

Orange Pi 5 (LTS) is a single board computer powered by Rockchip RK3588S cost-down octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor that offers one of the best cost/performance ratios on the market with pre-order pricing starting at just $60. The SBC was initially unveiled with up to  32GB RAM and 32GB eMMC flash, but at launch, Shenzhen Xunlong Software offers models with 4GB and 8GB RAM, and no flash storage. The board supports dual 8K display setups thanks to HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 Type-C video outputs and also features up to two MIPI DSI display interfaces, three camera interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet, and WiFi 6 connectivity, and a few USB ports plus a GPIO header. Orange Pi 5 LTS specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588S octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz, Arm Mali-G610 MP4 GPU, 6 TOPS AI accelerator System Memory – […]

Weibu N10 Review – An OEM Mini PC tested with Ubuntu 22.04, Windows 11

Weibu N10 industrial mini PC

Weibu is a B2B company offering total solutions and OEM/ODM services. Their target clients are computer manufacturers like Acer and Hisense as they don’t sell directly to end users. With their products both the specifications and accessories can be customized according to their customer’s requirements. One of their product lines is mini PCs and they have sent a pre-production sample of their N10 design to showcase their capabilities. In this review, I will look at the various options available for the N10 and briefly look at performance running both Windows and Ubuntu. Weibu N10 hardware overview The key selling feature of this mini PC is the wide range of ports suitable for commercial/industrial usage together with various options for the processor. The N10 is an actively cooled mini PC and the device is 145 x 128 x 54mm (5.71 x 5.04 x 2.13 inches) large with a metal top that […]

MediaTek unveils Dimensity 9200 Octa-core Cortex-X3/A710/A510 5G mobile processor

MediaTek Dimensity 9200

MediaTek has just launched the Dimensity 9200 octa-core flagship 5G mobile processor with one Cortex-X3 core, two Cortex-A710 cores, and four Cortex-A510 cores, as well as the latest Arm Immortalis-G715 GPU. Manufactured for a TSMC 4nm processor for efficiency, the new flagship processor supports mmWave 5G and sub-6GHz cellular connectivity, LPDDR5x 8,533 Mbps memory, UFS 4.0 storage, and embeds a faster MediaTek APU 690 AI processor   MediaTek Dimensity 9200 specifications: Octa-core CPU subsystem 1x Arm Cortex-X3 core at up to 3.05 GHz 3x Arm Cortex-A710 cores at up to 2.85 GHz 4x Arm Cortex-A510 cores up to 1.80GHz 8MB L3 cache 6MB system cache GPU – Arm Immortalis-G715 with support for Vulkan 1.3, hardware-based ray tracing engine AI Accelerator – MediaTek APU 690 AI processor with MDLA (MediaTek Deep Learning Accelerator), MVPU (MediaTek Vision Processing Unit), SME (I don’t know what that is), and DMA Memory I/F – LPDRR5x 8,533 […]

Giveaway Week 2022 – Sonoff NSPanel Pro and Zigbee modules

SONOFF NSPanel Pro Zigbee Devices Added

The fourth prize of Giveaway Week 2022 is the Sonoff NSPanel Pro control panel with four Zigbee modules including a temperature & humidity sensor, a door/window sensor, a switch, and a PIR motion sensor. The controller is based on a Rockchip PX30 quad-core Cortex-A35 processor running Android 8.1 and acts as a Zigbee 3.0 gateway allowing users to add all sorts of Zigbee modules. It also works with the eWelink app to add security cameras which can be some of your old smartphones. We reviewed the SONOFF NSPanel Pro control panel & Zigbee gateway last month together with Zigbee modules and the SONOFF Slim Cam indoor security camera and found it worked reasonably well, although some advanced features required us to use the eWelink app in our phones instead of the touchscreen on the display. We also found one bug with the Zigbee switch that the company promised to fix […]

GL.iNet GL-MT2500A security gateway review – Part 1: Unboxing and teardown

Brume 2 Review

The Brume 2 security gateway/router is powered by a MediaTek MT7981B (Filogic 820) dual-core processor @ 1.3 GHz and is available as the GL-MT2500A with a metal enclosure or the GL-MT2500 with a plastic case. GL.iNet sent me the GL-MT2500A for review. In the first of the review, we’ll have a look at the device and accessories, and tear it down to check out the hardware design and main components. I’ll then need some time to test OpenWrt 21.02 and features such as WireGuard and OpenVPN, AdGuard Home, Tor Anonymity, and soon. GL.iNet GL-MT2500A (Brume 2) unboxing The router ships with a short Ethernet cable, a 5V/2A USB Type-C power supply with EU, US, and UK plug adapters, and some minimal documentation that points to the users to more detailed online documentation and support on the company’s Facebook page. There’s not much too see on the front panel and right […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC