Companies like Freescale and Texas Instruments provide good software support, and documentation, which is why they can be found in many embedded devices, because without documentation or source code low-level customization is nearly impossible or extremely time consuming. They also usually open most of the documentation and code, because they understand this can foster the use of their chips. On the other hand, Chinese-based SoC manufacturers focus on high-volume platforms such as tablets and smartphones, and usually management don’t understand the advantage to make documentation and GPL source code available, or even may consider it bad for business. Some individuals and small companies do not see it that way however, and they either want to access to the source code to improve existing mobiles devices, or use low cost Chinese SoCs to provide highly customizable hardware and software solutions. So source code and documentation have started to leak, and tools […]
Control your DSLR Camera via Wi-Fi using an Android mini PC and a Tablet
DSLR Controller is a paid Android app (beta) that uses your Canon EOS DSLR camera USB port in order to control it and access the camera live view with a tablet or smartphone. That may be useful, but it’s much better if you can roam a bit, and are not limited by the USB cable length. That’s why the application has been improved some time ago in order to use 2 Android devices, usually smartphones or tablets. One device is connected via USB to the DSLR camera, and act as a Wi-Fi access point, and the other device connects via Wi-Fi to allow full control of the camera. However, you don’t really need a screen on a Wi-Fi access point, so instead of using mobile devices, the developers decided to use an Android mini PC, specifically CX-919, which is just one of the many RK3188 mini PC available today, coupled […]
Hacking MK908 mini PC for Serial Console Access
Thanks to Omegamoon (and this brother) we already have instructions to connect the UART pins on MK808 in order to access the serial console. He’s done it again with MK908 mini PC featuring Rockchip RK3188. Tx and Rx pads are located on the RAM chips side, and he has connected the green wire to Tx (Going to Rx on TTL debug board), and a yellow wire to Rx (Tx on debug TTL board). A ground pad is available on the other side of the board. Since I got a sample for review from Geekbuying, I decided to give a try myself. The pad are quite small, so this may require patience, but it’s perfectly feasible. I wanted to keep the device closed, so I passed the wires through the ventilation holes (enlarging them a bit with a precision screwdriver), put back the main heatsink on RK3188, and reassembled the enclosure. […]
MINIX NEO X7 Quad Core Set-top Box Redesigned, Available Soon
When MINIX unveiled their RK3188 based MINIX NEO X7 at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair in April, they showcased a new enclosure design. Many people seemed to dislike the new “Lamborghini” casing, but the company listened to complains, and redesigned it to a more traditional casing, very similar to the one used for NEO X5. The company also disclosed the official specifications. SoC- Quad core Cortex A9 processor with quad core Mali-400 GPU (Rockchip RK3188) System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB NAND Flash + SD/MMC card reader (SD 3.0, MMC V4.41) Connectivity: 802.11 b/g/n Dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4 / 5GHz) with external antenna 3G support via external USB dongle (not provided) 10/100M Ethernet (Supports hotspot sharing via Wi-Fi) Bluetooth V4.0 Video Output – HDMI 1.4a, full HD 1080p, 3D movie file format supported Audio Output/Input – HDMI 1.4a two channels, optical S/PDIF AC3 multi-channel, headphone and microphone jacks USB – […]
Kaiboer F4 Rockchip RK3188 Powered Set-top Box with Two External Wi-Fi Antennas
We’ve got a another full-sized Android set-top box featuring Rockchip RK3188 quad core processor, this time with not one, but two external Wi-Fi antennas, as well as the usual 2GB RAM, and Android 4.2 operating system. Here are the specifications of the device: SoC – Rockchip RK3188 up to 1. 8 GHz with Mali-400 MP4 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8 to 16GB Flash + 1x SD card Video Output – HDMI, and AV Audio Output – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with 2 external Wi-Fi antennae USB – Micro USB OTG + 4x (or is it 2x?) USB host ports Power & reset buttons The device should be available within 20 days in China, but the product looks very similar to another Kaiboer STB based on RK3066 and selling for 519 RMB ($84), so it’s unlikely it will […]
Rockchip RK3168 Powered Tablets Are Starting to Show Up for Sale
Rockchip first showcased a tablet prototype with RK3168 dual core processor at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair in April, showing lower power consumption compared to RK3066. At the time, tablets based on this processor were still in development, but this has changed as a few RK3168 tablets are now showing up in Aliexpress. Prices for 7″ Android tablets such as Cube U25GT PRO, are now about $110 as low as $75 including shipping, but this should come down as more sellers provide the devices. Cube U25GT PRO is an updated version of the U25GT pictured above. Here are the specifications of the PRO version: SoC – Rockchip RK3168 @ 1.2 GHz with PowerVR SGX540 GPU System Memory – 512 MB RAM Storage – 8GB NAND Flash + micro SD card slot Display – 7″ 5 point touch capacitive screen (1024×600) Camera – 0.3MP front camera Connectivity – Wifi 802.11b/g/n + […]
Ubuntu 12.04 Now Boots on Rockchip RK3188 mini PCs (T428, MK908, Rikomagic MK802 IV…)
After the release of the RK3188 Linux kernel source code last week, Ian Morrison (Linuxium) has managed to boot Ubuntu 12.04 with XFCE desktop on Tronsmart T428. However, as Tronsmart refused to release their source code, further Linux development is likely to happen on Rikomagic MK802 IV, because Rikomagic released the code for their device, so development work will be easier. AFAIK, this is the first time Linux boots natively on RK3188 devices, so it’s still early stage (no Wi-Fi, Bt or graphics acceleration), but if you still want to give it a try here are the instructions (for T428):] Create a SDCARD with an Ubuntu 12.04 root file system on it and ensure it is labeled as “linuxroot” (Visit Slatedroid for details) Flash your RK3188 minipc with rooted stock 4.1.1 ROM. (May not be needed if you ROM is already rooted) Boot Android, and install Android Terminal Flash t428-3.0.36-linuxium-test+-kernel.img […]
Rockchip RK3188 Based Giayee TVB103 Android TV STB Features VGA and HDMI Video Output
Although there are now many Rockchip RK3188 mini PCs, full sized quad core Android STB are not so common, especially with VGA output, and Giayee TVB103 is the only quad core media player providing both HDMI and VGA output that I know of. Here are Giayee TVB103 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3188 ARM Cortex A9 28nm Quad core 1.8GHz CPU + Quad-core GPU Mali400 System Memory – 1 to 2GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 8/16/32GB NAND Flash + micro SD card slot (up to 64GB) Connectivity: Built-in WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n module supporting dual band (2.4GHz & 5GHz) 10/100 Base-T Ethernet Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR Video Output – HDMI, VGA, and AV (Note the latter can’t be seen on any pictures) Audio – L and R Output (RCA), S/PDIF, earphone jack & MIC input USB – 2x USB Host ports, and 1x Mini USB OTG port Dimensions – 155 x 90 […]