Category: Broadcom BCMxxxx

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments on RisingHF IoT Discovery is a LoRaWAN Evaluation Kit for Raspberry Pi

RisingHF IoT Discovery is a LoRaWAN Evaluation Kit for Raspberry Pi

There are many current and upcoming long range low power wireless protocols for the IoT, but this morning I learned that South Korea launched a LoRa network (aka LoRaWAN), after another launch in the Netherlands earlier this year. While there are also some LoRa hobbyist kits such as LoraONE and LoPy being worked on, I decided to look on Aliexpress, but only got two products were listed: a LoRaWAN temperature and humidity sensor, and a LoraWAN USB modem. Both of them are made by a company called RisingHF. Among the products offered by the company, there’s a potentially interesting development kit called RisingHF IoT Discovery with the following components: 1x Raspberry Pi board 1x RHF0M301 LoRa Gateway based on Semtech SX1301 1x RHF4T002  adapter for Raspberry Pi and RHF0M301 1x RHF3M076 LoRaWAN USB AT Modem End point to connect to computer. It operates at 434MHz, 470MHz,868MHz, and 915MHz 3x RHF76-052 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac Wave 2 Products Support MU-MIMO, 160 MHz Channels, and More

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac Wave 2 Products Support MU-MIMO, 160 MHz Channels, and More

802.11ac WiFi is now found in many routers and devices, and the Wi-Fi alliance has so far certified close to 3,000 “Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac” products. I understand that certification is not mandatory, but if you want to make sure a device works well, the certification at least means the devices have been tested for interoperability, security and application specific protocols, and found to work in a satisfactory manner. Now the Wi-Fi alliance has announced Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac Wave 2 certification program with the following new requirements: MU-MIMO (Multi-user Multiple Input Multiple Output) in order to send data to multiple devices at once to improve overall  network efficiency and throughput 160 MHz channels support (not only 80 MHz) potentially doubling transmission speeds Four spatial streams instead of just three spatial streams. Extended 5 GHz channel support by adding more channels in the 5 GHz to reduce interference and congestion. Currently the […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Raspberry Pi Zero Based Google’s Project Bloks Aims to Teach Programming to Young Children

Raspberry Pi Zero Based Google’s Project Bloks Aims to Teach Programming to Young Children

Visual programming development tools such as Scratch or Blockly are now becoming more popular to introduce school children to programming, and Google Research is now working on bringing the software visual programming concept to physical blocks “programming” though Project Bloks targeting younger children who may not be able to write or read yet. It might also help older children grasping programming concepts faster than when programming by typing on a keyboard. Project Bloks is comprised of three main hardware components connected together: Pucks – Those are the buttons, dials, switches, and other inputs from the project. Pucks have no active electronics, and even a piece of paper with some conductive ink could be a Puck. Base Boards –  They read a Puck’s instruction through a capacitive sensor, and forward a Puck’s command to the Brain Board.  Each Base Board is also fitted with a haptic motor & LEDs, and can […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on DIY Wireless Window/Glass Mounted Camera Based on Raspberry Pi Zero Board

DIY Wireless Window/Glass Mounted Camera Based on Raspberry Pi Zero Board

A few weeks ago, the Raspberry Pi foundation announced a new version of the Raspberry Pi Zero with a CSI camera connector. Since the solution is quite lightweight, Steven Cassidy had the idea to make a WiFi enabled window camera by soldering a USB WiFi module and fitting the hardware to a plastic part with two suction cups. Once the assembly is done, you can stuck the hardware to a window or glass of your choice in your home, car, aquarium, etc… If you like the concept but would like to have something working out of the box instead of making your own, the Pi Hut has design ZeroView on the same principle, and which will sell for 7 GBP (~$10.3). Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Raspberry Pi 3 To Get ARM TrustZone Support with Linaro OP-TEE Port

Raspberry Pi 3 To Get ARM TrustZone Support with Linaro OP-TEE Port

If you ever wanted to experiment with ARM Trustzone, and IoT security, you’ll soon be able to do so with the Raspberry Pi 3 board thanks to a port of Linaro OP-TEE (Open Portable Trusted Environment Execution) by Sequitur Labs. Broadcom BCM2737 SoC found in Raspberry Pi 3 board already had TrustZone hardware for isolation and protection for sensitive material such as cryptographic keys, algorithms and data, but the upcoming software release will mean the feature can now be used, and it’s free for trial/evaluation, and  education. Trustzone is also used for DRM (digital rights management), but in the case of Raspberry Pi 3 it will most likely used to teach how to secure the Internet of Things (IoT). The release is scheduled for July 11, with source code and documentation to be available in OP-TEE github account. All you’ll need to get started is a Raspberry Pi 3 board, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments on Android TV 6.0 Ported to Raspberry Pi 3 with 2D/3D GPU Acceleration, but no Hardware Video Decoding (Yet)

Android TV 6.0 Ported to Raspberry Pi 3 with 2D/3D GPU Acceleration, but no Hardware Video Decoding (Yet)

Google might be working on Android or Brillo for Raspberry Pi 3, with a new repository created in AOSP, meaning that, if that’s Android,  you won’t probably get the Google Mobiles Services by default, but those can be side-loaded to get access the the Play Store, Youtube, etc… In the meantime, a group of developer have been working Android 6.0 TV port for Raspberry Pi 3. That’s the same team who worked on previous images for Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi 2 boards using “peyo” port, and that did not have any support for 2D/3D graphics acceleration, nor hardware video decoding. But they’ve made some improvements for their Android TV 6.0.1 release for Raspberry Pi 3, as 2D/3D GPU acceleration is enabled using the Mesa drivers, and Kodi user interface, game emulators, WelGL in Chrome browser all work relatively well using 1280×720 frame buffer resolution as you can see from […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Raspberry Pi 3 Repository Has Been Added to Android Open Source Project

Raspberry Pi 3 Repository Has Been Added to Android Open Source Project

Android has been ported to the Raspberry Pi boards in the past, but the images were not really usable because the implementation lacked 2D & 3D graphics support. The good news is that Raspberry Pi 3 is likely to officially support the latest version of Android soon, because rpi3 repository has been created in AOSP about 5 weeks ago. That’s all we know for now. Raspberry Pi 3 could then be part of the second wave of boards officially supported in Android “mainline”, as currently 96Boards Hikey is the only supported board in AOSP. However, If we go down in the git repo to android/device, we can also see MIPS Creator CI40, Aaeon Upboard, i.mx6ul picoimx board, Intel Edison and Minnowboard, and a few others. Some of the boards will run Brillo instead of Android however, or it could be a different project, so we’ll have to see what happens […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on Preliminary Open Source Bootloader for Raspberry Pi Boards Released

Preliminary Open Source Bootloader for Raspberry Pi Boards Released

Raspberry Pi boards require a closed-source binary to boot. I understand it this is handled by VideoCore IV GPU,  and so  far the Raspberry Pi foundation are not release source code for the bootloader, possibly due to legal reason (e.g. NDA to Broadcom). But I noticed people chatting about an open source bootloader for Raspberry Pi on sunxi-linux IRC channel. The bootloaded called rpi-open-firmware has been developed by Kristina Brooks (christinaa), who previously did some work on the VideoCore IV GPU, as you can see on her blog and github account. Kristina describe the project as follows: This is a small firmware for RPi VPU (VideoCore4) versions 1/2/3 that is capable of initializing VPU PLL (PLLC), UART, SDRAM and ARM itself. It’s intended to be used instead of stock bootcode.bin on RPi’s SD card. You need to have UART to see anything meaningful as far as output goes. This has […]

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