Tail it is a Family of WiFi & Cellular GPS Trackers for Things, Pets, and Bicycles (Crowdfunding)

Tail It Cellular GPS Tracker

We’ve previously written about Ping, a tiny Cellular GPS tracker that promised to last 3 months on  a charge. The raising money part of the crowdfunding campaign itself was successfully with over one million dollars raised, but as with many such campaigns there have been delays, and some people still have to receive theirs, not to mention people complaining about poor battery life and other issues. But there seems to be another option now with Tail It Technologies now offering four different “Tail it” cellular GPS trackers (with WiFi too) for things, pets, and even one designed specifically for bicycles. The company has already sold their devices to thousands of customers in Norway, so they should be working, and on-time delivery should hopefully not be an issue. All four GPS trackers come with 2G, 3G, 4G, and WiFi connectivity,  a 5-meter accuracy, and share the same electronics and firmware. Here’s […]

NoCAN IoT Platform Leverages Raspberry Pi & Arduino for CAN Bus Projects (Crowdfunding)

Many IoT projects rely on wireless connectivity through WiFi or Bluetooth, but in some cases it may be more reliable and convenient to use wired connectivity. The CAN Bus is a little like a low bandwidth Ethernet PoE solution for IoT, as it allows to transfer data over a serial connection while provided power at the same time, and can be daisy chain to support multiple boards. Omzlo’s NoCAN IoT platform provides a CAN bus solution leveraging Raspberry Pi 3 board through their PiMaster HAT acting as a CAN bus gateway, and Arduino compatible CANZERO boards to which you can connect sensors and actuators. Omzlo PiMaster HAT specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32F042 Cortex-M0 32bit ARM MCU – 48Mhz. Networking –  125000 bps CAN bus up to 300 meters range GPIO – Communicates with Raspberry Pi through SPI + GPIOs Security – Smart power switch with over-current protection. Power Supply – […]

Firewalla is a Tiny Firewall Appliance Based on NanoPi NEO Board

Firewalla NanoPi NEO Firewall

FriendlyELEC Nanopi NEO and NEO2 boards are really cool and inexpensive little Arm Linux boards suitable for all sort of headless application. I’ve reviewed one with their NAS Kit, and run one around the clock as a Domoticz/MQTT server. So it should come as no surprise that some people want to leverage the hardware in their own products, and Firewalla most likely relies on a NanoPi NEO board for their cute firewall/parental control/VPN appliance.Firewalla specifications: SoC – Unnamed quad-core Arm processor @ 1.0 GHz System Memory – 512 Megabyte DDR RAM Storage – 16GB MicroSD Storage Connectivity – 100 Mbit Software Packet Processing Power – 5V via micro USB port Dimensions – 2.8 cm thick The device ships with a flat Ethernet cable, a USB power cable and US type power adapter, and a one year limited manufacturer warranty. The company does not actually mention NanoPi NEO board anywhere, but the specifications […]

YouTube Streams 1 & 2 Update, Plus Quick Fix for Uneven X Gantry

3D-Printer-X-Gantry-Fix

Hey Karl here with an update on the YouTube Live streams from last week. Live Streams Update The 1st stream went about as well as I expected….Not very well. I was really nervous and I broke the live link that was posted on here at the last minute. My whole reasoning for the Livestream was to show the processes in real time and not do too much footwork ahead of time. On the first one I was planning on migrating from Marlin 1.1.6 to Marlin 1.1.8 but I had already done lol… So I ended up migrating to the bugfix branch which presented additional challenges. Overall it was successful and I hope I conveyed the process. I was able to get it to print but I ended up going back to 1.1.8 due to some error in the bugfix branch that caused weird jittery movement. I will in the future […]

Dual Display Laptop Made Possible with DUO Add-on Display (Crowdfunding)

DUO Dual Display Laptop

I’m using a dual monitor setup at home since it’s just more convenient and increases productivity, but when I’m on the go, I have to revert to the single screen on my laptop. The guys at Mobile Pixels decided it was not good enough, and worked on providing a solution that allows you to take that dual display setup on the go. This gave birth to DUO, a screen that attaches to the back of your laptop, and that you can slide to the left or right of your laptop’s screen to add another display whether you may happen to be. DUO display specifications: Display Size & Resolution – 12.5″, 1920×1080 pixels Rotation – 270º full rotation, 180° presentation mode Connection – USB type C for power and video signal Power Consumption – 1.6 Watts; 0.3W in “rest mode”. Dimensions – 32.5 x 21.8 x 1.2 cm (ABS plastic) Weight […]

ALLDOCUBE KNote5 Gemini Lake Tablet Runs Windows 10 on a 11.6″ Display

Gemini Lake Tablet

Intel Gemini Lake processors have already been seen in several mini PCs such as Intel June Canyon NUCs, as well as some laptops from Acer, Jumper, and others, but ALLDOBUCE brings us what looks to be the first Gemini Lake tablet with KNote5 model equipped with a Intel Celeron N4100 processor, 4GB RAM, 128 GB storage, and a 11.6″ display. ALLDOCUBE KNote5 specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N4100 quad core Gemini Lake processor @ 1.10 GHz / 2.40 GHz (Boost) with Intel UHD graphics 600 ; 6W TDP System Memory – 4 GB LPDDR4 Storage – 128 GB internal storage (SSD?), micro SD card slot up to 128 GB Display – 11.6″ FHD (1920×1080) IPS display with 10-point capacitive touchscreen Audio – Dual speaker, microphone, 3.5mm audio jack Connectivity – Dual band 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x USB type C port Camera – 2.0MP front-facing camera […]

ESP8266 RGB LED Strip Control with ANAVI Light Controller, Arduino, MQTT, and HTML5

Anavi-Light-Controller-Starter-Kit-Assembly

A few months ago I reviewed ANAVI Light pHat for Raspberry Pi which allows you to control an LED RGB strip from the popular development board. However, if all you need is to switch the RGB LED light on and off, or change the color, the hardware is clearly overpowered for the tasks. So Leon ANAVI designed another board based on ESP8266 – ANAVI Light Controller – which does the same thing with lower cost and more power efficient hardware. Leon sent me a sample for review, so let’s see what we’ve got. ANAVI Light Controller Starter Kit Unboxing I received a package for the Starter kit that’s offered for $39 on CrowdSupply. We’ve got the main board, a USB debugging, an acrylic enclosure with screws and spacers, a one meter RGB LED strip, and some stickers inside the package. If we have a close look at the board we […]

Allwinner T7 Automotive SoC Complies with AEC-Q100 Grade 3 Specifications

Allwinner T2 Car Dashboard Dual Display

Allwinner T-series processors such as Allwinner T2 are designed for the transportation / automotive market for products like smart rear-view mirrors,  infotainment systems, and navigation systems. While the company’s offered wide-temperature range support, AFAIK they did not have a part that had an actual automotive certification so far. This changes with their Allwinner T7 processor which is said to be the first Chinese processor achieving AEC-Q100 Grade 3 qualification. AEC-Q100 is a “failure mechanism based stress test qualification for integrated circuits” brought out by the Automotive Electronics Council. The chip must pass various tests within their specified temperature range (grade): Grade 0: -40°C to +150°C ambient operating temperature range Grade 1: -40°C to +125°C ambient operating temperature range Grade 2: -40°C to +105°C ambient operating temperature range Grade 3: -40°C to +85°C ambient operating temperature range Grade 4: 0°C to +70°C ambient operating temperature range Allwinner T7 comes with an […]