Banana Pi BPI-F2S Industrial SBC Launched for $58 with Linux 4.19 based Debian or Fedora OS

Banana Pi BPI-F2S

Last month we covered Banana Pi BPI-F2S single board computer (SBC) for industrial, IoT, and smart audio application that was powered by the intriguing SunPlus SP7021 “Plus1” processor featuring four Cortex-A7 cores, one ARM9 ARM9 real-time core, and one 8051 I/O controller core, as well as up to 512MB built-in DDR3 RAM. At the time, the board was not available, and we had limited information about software support, except the company would provide a Yocto-based Linux distribution. The good news is that you can now buy Banana Pi BPI-F2S industrial SBC on Aliexpress for $58 and Taobao for 390 RMB, and the company released source code and OS images for the board. Here’s a reminder of Banana Pi BPI-F2S specifications: SoC – Sunplus SP7021 “Plus1” with a quad-core Cortex-A7 processor @ 1.0 GHz, one Arm A926 microprocessor, an 8051 core to handle I/Os, and 128MB or 512MB DDR3 DRAM. Storage […]

Beelink T45 Review with Windows and Linux, and Tweaking BIOS Power Limits

beelink t45 temperature

[Update December 23, 2019: We’ve been informed by Beelink that the T45 has been updated to the 6W Celeron N4200 processor instead, and the system is now cooled with a fan. The model reviewed in this post is the fanless version with a 10W Intel J4250 processor, which was never sold] [Update January 30, 2020: We’ve now posted a review of the new model at Beelink Gemini T45 Pentium N4200 Mini PC Review] Beelink have further extended their ‘Gemini’ range of mini PCs by adding the T45. This is a passively cooled mini PC that is effectively a companion to the J45 as it again uses the slightly older Apollo Lake Intel Pentium J4205 CPU which is a quad-core 4-thread 1.50 GHz processor boosting to 2.60 GHz with Intel’s HD Graphics 505. Although the T45 is a ‘NUC’ style mini PC physically consisting of a 119 x 119 x 17.7 […]

ANAVI Miracle Controller WiFi Board Drives Addressable LED strips (Crowdfunding)

ANAVI Miracle Controller

Last year, we wrote a tutorial showing how to control an RGB LED strip Control ANAVI Light ESP8266 controller. The board only works with standard non-addressable 12V LED strips however, and Leon ANAVI received requests to support 5V and 12V addressable LED strips such as NeoPixels, WS2811, WS2812, or TM1804. So he updated ANAVI Light Controller design and has now launched a new open-source hardware certified board based on ESP8266 WiFi chip: ANAVI Miracle Controller. ANAVI Miracle Controller specifications: MCU – Espressif Systems ESP8266 Tensilica L106 32-bit processor Connectivity – Wi-Fi 4 802.11 b/g/n LED Strips Support – Up to two 5V or 12 V addressable LED strips; Supported models include WS2812, WS2812B, WS2811, TM1804, etc. (LED strip chipsets supported by the FastLED library) Expansion 4x I2C header for mini OLED display, sensors, and others 4-pin “GPIO” header with 1x GPIO, GND, 3.3V, and 5V signals Misc – Reset button, […]

Nebula Cosmos Max 4K Video Projector is Powered by Amlogic T962X2 Processor (Crowdfunding)

Cosmos Max 4K Projector with Amlogic T962X2

Amlogic recently launched its first Cortex-A55 processors for TV boxes with S905X3, S905Y3 & S905D3 quad-core processors, but as noted by one commenter Amlogic already had some other Cortex-A55 processor specifically designed for TVs and projectors: T950X2 for full HD systems, and T962X2 for 4K UHD systems. Most smart TVs and projectors don’t advertise which chip they are using internally but I’ve just come across Anker Nebula Cosmos Max 4K home theater/video projector featuring Amlogic T962X2 processor. Based on the illustration below they also have a Full HD model based on the same processor. But I’ll focus on the 4K model in this post. Anker Nebula Comos Max key features & specifications: SoC – Amlogic T962X2 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ 1.9 GHz with Arm Mali-G31MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB eMMC flash Projector 0.47″ DMD chip 4K UHD resolution (3840×2160) 30″ to 150″ display 1500 ANSI […]

NORVII IIoT ESP32 Industrial Controller Comes with Built-in OLED or TFT Display, DIN Rail Mount

NORVI IIOT ESP32 Industrial Controller

We’ve previously covered at least one ESP32 industrial controller with TECHBASE Moduino X equipped with digital and analog I/O terminals, a 0.96″ OLED display,  and support for various expansion cards for RS-485, LoRa, Sigfox… beside Ethernet, WiFi, and Bluetooth connectivity offered by the Espressif Systems chip. NORVII IIOT industrial controller – based on ESP32-WROOM-32 module – offers many of the same options as the TECHBASE model, but also integrates a choice of 0.96″ to 1.44″ OLED or TFT display, and comes with plenty of LED’s to ease troubleshooting. There are five variants from three series (AE01, AE02, and AE03) sharing the following specifications: Wireless Module – ESP32-WROOM32 with ESP32 dual-core processor @ 160 MHz,  520 Kbytes SRAM / 4 Mbit Flash, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth 4.2 Storage – Optional microSD card slot Display -Built-in 0.96″ OLED display. 0.96″ TFT display or 1.44″ TFT display Communication – RS-485, WiFi, Bluetooth, optional […]

OpenWiFi Open-Source Linux-compatible WiFi Stack Runs on FPGA Hardware

OpenWiFi

WiFi is omnipresent on most connected hardware, and when it works it’s great, but when there are issues oftentimes they can not be solved because the firmware is a closed-source binary. I understand companies do that either to protect their IP and/or make sure end-users do not break FCC compliance. OpenWiFi project aims to deliver a completely open-source SDR (Software Defined Radio) WiFi implementation compatible with Linux and running on FPGA hardware. OpenWiFi currently supported features: 802.11a/g; 802.11n MCS 0~7; 20MHz Mode tested: Ad-hoc; Station; AP DCF (CSMA/CA) low MAC layer in FPGA Configurable channel access priority parameters: duration of RTS/CTS, CTS-to-self SIFS/DIFS/xIFS/slot-time/CW/etc Time slicing based on MAC address Easy to change bandwidth and frequency: 2MHz for 802.11ah in sub-GHz 10MHz for 802.11p/vehicle in 5.9GHz The developers tested OpenWiFi on Xilinx ZC706 FPGA evaluation kit coupled Analog Devices fmcomms2/fmcomms4 RF board to form an access point, and connected it to […]

Onion Omega2 Dash Enables Touch-based UI’s, Features Omega2S WiFi Module (Crowdfunding)

e Omega2 Dash is a Wi-Fi-enabled Linux computer with a built-in touchscreen

Onion, the team behind the Omega2 series self-styled computing modules has launched the Omega2 Dash a self-contained Omega2S module with a touchscreen. Unlike some modules integrating with a display that mostly comes in the form of a HAT (in the case of Raspberry Pi), USB, HDMI, or some unique data lines. The Omega2 Dash is a stand-alone 3.2″ TFT touchscreen display running a Linux OS, comes with a Micro USB, and boots in less than a minute, thanks to the Omega2S module attached to the back of the display screen. The Omega2S is the latest in the series of computing modules from Onion after succeeding the Omega2+.  Targeted to the IoT industry in its 24x20x2.8mm form factor, the Omega2S was designed for mass production and people interested in integrating IoT solutions into their products. Integrating a display to the Omega2S will be tricky. It will require investing in a custom […]

HackEEG Arduino Shield Reads Signals from Your Brain (EEG), Muscles (EMG), and Heart (EKG)

Biosignals Measurements (EEG) Arduino + Raspberry Pi 4

Biosignals are signals from living beings that can be continually measured & monitored, and some common methods to measure those biosignals include electroencephalogram (EEG) to monitor the electrical activity in your brain, electromyography (EMG) for recording the electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles, and electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG) to measure electrical activity of your heartbeat. Those can be used for brain interfaces which according to a recent Ericsson’s report may become commonplace by 2030 with users just thinking about commands, prosthetic arms, health and disease monitoring, and so on. Starcat has designed the HackEEG shield to experiment with all those three methods using an Arduino board and electrodes. HackEEG features and specifications: TI ADS1299 8-Channel, 24-Bit ADC for biopotential measurements SPI EEPROM for storing configuration data 8x analog-digital conversion (ADC) channels, each with a 24x programmable-gain amplifier (PGA). Up to 4x shields can be stacked on one Arduino Due for […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC