MA8-4K is a $19 Android TV Box based on Rockchip RK3229 Processor (Promo)

MA8-4K is yet another TV box running Android 5.1 on Rockchip RK3229 quad core Cortex A7 processor, but it might one of the cheapest right now, as GearBest offers it for $18.99 shipped with GBMA87 coupon instead of $27.99 “flash sale” price. This is likely valid for only a few hundred boxes. MA8-4K specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3229 quad core ARM Cortex A7 processor @ 1.5 GHz with ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB flash + micro SD card slot up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K2K @ 60 fps, and 3.5mm AV output (composite) Audio Output – HDMI, AV, and coaxial S/PDIF Connectivity – 10/100 Mbps Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi (AP6051 chip); Bluetooth is mentioned in title, but not in description, so it’s unclear whether it’s implemented. USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports Power Supply – 5V/1.5A Dimensions – […]

How to Install RKMC “Kodi for Rockchip” App in your TV Box

I’ve started playing with Vorke Z3, an Android 6.0 TV box based on Rockchip RK3399 , and saying that Kodi 17.3 – installed from the Google Play Store – is not working so well is an understatement. The other Rockchip TV boxes I’ve recently reviewed with Android 6.0.1 such as Yundoo Y8 and A95X R2 are all using TVMC, a fork of Kodi 16.1 specifically designed for Rockchip devices. However, there’s no source code for that app, but a Rockchip engineer is maintaining his own fork of Kodi, with the code and some binaries libraries released on Github. The project is called RKMC. I did install the app, but I misunderstood part of the instructions at first, and the device would not boot anymore. I lost many hours of work, as I had to reflash the firmware. So I’ll show how I installed it in Vorke Z3 TV box. You […]

Linux 4.12 Release – Main Changes, ARM & MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 4.12: Things were quite calm this week, so I really didn’t have any real reason to delay the 4.12 release. As mentioned over the various rc announcements, 4.12 is one of the bigger releases historically, and I think only 4.9 ends up having had more commits. And 4.9 was big at least partly because Greg announced it was an LTS kernel. But 4.12 is just plain big. There’s also nothing particularly odd going on in the tree – it’s all just normal development, just more of it that usual. The shortlog below is obviously just the minor changes since rc7 – the whole 4.12 shortlog is much too large to post. In the diff department, 4.12 is also very big, although the reason there isn’t just that there’s a lot of development, we have the added bulk of a lot of new  header files […]

Husarion CORE2 STM32 Board for Robotics Projects Works with ESP32, Raspberry Pi 3, or ASUS Tinkerboard

Husarion CORE2 is a board designed to make robotics projects simpler and faster to complete with pre-configured software and online management. Projects can start using LEGOs, before moving to 3D printed or laser-cut version of the mechanical parts without having to spend too much time on the electronics and software part of the project. Two versions of the board are available: CORE2 combining STM32 MCU with ESP32 WiFI & Bluetooth module, and CORE2-ROS with STM32 instead coupled to a Raspberry Pi 3 or ASUS Tinkerboard running ROS (Robot Operating System). Both solutions share most of the same specifications: MCU -STMicro STM32F4 ARM CORTEX-M4 MCU @ 168 MHz with 192 kB RAM, 1 MB Flash External Storage – 1x micro SD slot USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port with 1A charging capability; 1x micro USB port for debugging and programming via FTDI chip Expansion Headers hRPi expansion header for CORE2-ROS […]

Android Things Developer Preview 4 Released with Google Assistant SDK Support

Earlier this month, Google released a preview of the Google Assistant SDK that works on boards running Debian like the Raspberry Pi 3, and even launched AIY Project Voice Kit for the later. You can now play with Google Assistant on Android Things as the company has just released Android Things Developer Preview 4 with support for Google Assistant SDK. The operating systems works on any Android Things certified devices, but the example instructions  for Google Assistant API on Android Things also include steps to use Raspberry Pi 3 board together with AIY Projects Voice kit. The developer preview 4 also adds I2S to the peripheral I/O API and is demonstrated in the aforementioned example, and new hardware support with NXP i.MX7D based Pico Board equipped WiFi & Bluetooth, Ethernet, USB ports, an audio jack, and an I/O expansion port. Android Things DP4 also brings the ability for developers to […]

Rockchip Android TV Boxes Promotion Starting at $13.99 (US Only)

GearBest is organizing a promotion for its US warehouse, and there are three good deals for  TV boxes, especially with Rockchip RK3229 based SCISHION V88 going for $13.99 (limited to 30 units). Make sure you only buy one, as usually, the company will cancel orders with more than one piece for this type of promotion. If the 1GB RAM in V88 is too little for you, you may consider V88 Plus model with 2GB selling for $17.99, or Dolamee D5. There’s also a $10 discount$10 discount on Yundoo Y8 RK3399 TV Box. They also have some other discounts for 3D Printers, and drones/rc toys. All you need is a physical address in the US. 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 full time later in 2011. www.cnx-software.com

MQMaker MiQi & ASUS Tinker Boards Get Linux 4.11 with 3D Graphics Acceleration

One day after the release of Linux 4.11, developer “Miouyouyou” has released Linux 4.11 for Rockchip RK3288 platforms such as MQMaker MiQi and ASUS Tinker boards with some patchsets for ARM Mali r16p0 kernel drivers, ARM fbdev, and to improve performance. The kernel has been tested with the Mali User-space r12p0 drivers for fbdev and wayland written for Firefly-RK3288, and some OpenGL ES 3.1/3.2 samples could successfully run on the board. 3D graphics acceleration does not work in X11 however. Miouyouyou also plans to add support for Rockchip VPU code, as well as ARM gator, and document how to use ARM DS-5 Streamline for OpenGL ES 2.x/3.x debugging. If you have a MiQi or Tinker board running Debian, you can try the kernel by adding beta.armbian.com Debian repository to your apt source file, and installing the following packages:

Via linux-rockchip G+ community. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in […]

Linux 4.11 Release – Main Changes, ARM & MIPS Architecture

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 4.11: So after that extra week with an rc8, things were pretty calm, and I’m much happier releasing a final 4.11 now. We still had various smaller fixes the last week, but nothing that made me go “hmm..”. Shortlog appended for people who want to peruse the details, but it’s a mix all over, with about half being drivers (networking dominates, but some sound fixlets too), with the rest being some arch updates, generic networking, and filesystem (nfs[d]) fixes. But it’s all really small, which is what I like to see the last week of the release cycle. And with this, the merge window is obviously open. I already have two pull request for 4.12 in my inbox, I expect that overnight I’ll get a lot more. Linux 4.10 added Virtual GPU support, perf c2c’ tool, improved writeback management, a faster initial WiFi connection […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC