ODB-II Bluetooth adapter and head-up displays to monitor and diagnose your car have been around for a while. I actually got two models to use with a Toyota Avanza and Torque Lite app, but never managed to make it work with my phone. Macchina M2 board is doing much of the same thing and more, as it is open source hardware, and supports more communications protocols including GPS, WiFi, 3G/LTE, BLE, and Ethernet using XBEE boards. Macchina M2 specifications: MCU – Atmel SAM3X8E ARM Cortex M3 processor @ 84 MHz (also used on Arduino DUE) with 96 KB SRAM, 512KB flash Storage – micro SD card socket, 32KB EEPROM via I2C USB – 1x micro USB port (USB device or host mode) Wireless XBee Socket – For Bluetooth LE, WiFi, GSM, 3G, LTE, I/Os 6x automotive level I/O pins to control 12V devices (Examples: relays, fans, lights, etc) OR act […]
Linux 4.10 Release – Main Changes, ARM & MIPS Architectures
Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 4.10: So there it is, the final 4.10 release. It’s been quiet since rc8, but we did end up fixing several small issues, so the extra week was all good. On the whole, 4.10 didn’t end up as small as it initially looked. After the huge release that was 4.9, I expected things to be pretty quiet, but it ended up very much a fairly average release by modern kernel standards. So we have about 13,000 commits (not counting merges – that would be another 1200+ commits if you count those). The work is all over, obviously – the shortlog below is just the changes in the last week, since rc8. Go out and verify that it’s all good, and I’ll obviously start pulling stuff for 4.11 on Monday. Linus Linux 4.9 added Greybus staging support, improved security thanks to virtually mapped kernel stacks, […]
Dride is a Voice Controlled Dashcam Driving Assistant Powered by a Raspberry Pi Board (Crowdfunding)
Next Thing introduced Dashbot Car Dashboard Assistant based on CHIP Pro module late last year, and it will get some competition with Dride, a driving assistant powered by Raspberry Pi, that can also be voice controlled like Dashbot, but includes a Pi camera to record videos, and alert the users of dangers using computer vision, for example when they drive too close to the car in front. The system leverages Raspberry Pi board and Pi Camera, and adds an outer shell, Dride’s Raspberry Pi HAT, and a car charger & cable. Some of the key features listed for the Dride include: Cloud support – Upload and store driving videos to your Dride profile ADAS – Safety alerts in case of lane deviation or frontal collision Voice – Voice commands for navigation & messaging Connectivity – Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPS The developers also provide “Dride – Passenger Seat Driver” app for […]
Supermicro A2SAV mini-ITX Board Powered by Intel Atom E3940 SoC Features 6 SATA Ports, Dual GbE, and Up to 9 USB Interfaces
Intel introduced three Atom E3900 series Apollo Lake processors last fall that target IoT, industrial and automotive applications, and Supermicro has designed A2SAV mini-ITX board powered by Atom x5-E3940 SoC that comes with lots of interfaces include 6 SATA ports, two Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports, and up to 9 USB interfaces accessible from connectors or headers. Supermicro A2SAV motherboard specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x5-E3940 quad core “Apollo Lake” processor @ 1.6 / 1.8 GHz with 2MB L2 cache, 12 EU Intel HD graphics (6.5W TDP) System Memory – 1x 204-pin DDR3 SO-DIMM socket for 2, 4, or 8GB 1866/1600/1333MHz Unbuffered non-ECC 204-pin SO-DIMM DDR3 Storage 6x SATA3 ports include 2x from SoC, and 4x via Marvel 88SE9230 controller 1x SATA DOM (Disk on Module) power connector 64Mb SPI Flash EEPROM with AMI UEFI BIOS supporting Plug and Play (PnP), DMI 2.3, ACPI 5.0, USB Keyboard, SMBIOS 2.7.1, and UEFI mSATA […]
FOSDEM 2017 Open Source Meeting Schedule
FOSDEM (Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting) is a 2-day free event for software developers to meet, share ideas and collaborate that happens on the first week-end of February, meaning it will take place on February 4 & 5, 2017 this year. FOSDEM 2017 will features 608 speakers, 653 events, and 54 tracks, with 6 main tracks namely: Architectures, Building, Cloud, Documentation, Miscellaneous, and Security & Encryption. I won’t be there, but it’s always interesting to look at the schedule, and I made my own virtual schedule focusing especially on talks from “Embedded, mobile and automotive” and “Internet of Things” devrooms. Saturday 4, 2017 11:00 – 11:25 – Does your coffee machine speaks Bocce; Teach your IoT thing to speak Modbus and it will not stop talking, by Yaacov Zamir There are many IoT dashboards out on the web, most will require network connection to a server far […]
Junsun H552C Android 4.4 Car DVR and GPS Navigation System Comes with a 7″ Display
There are plenty of Android car systems for sale with DVR and/or GPS navigation capabilities on the net, but sometimes they lack some features, or come in a 2 DIN form factor, which is nice if you know how to disable your car dashboard, but it might be a little complicated if you don’t. An alternative is to get an Android rear view mirror, but obviously the display is much smaller, and it reduces the usable space on the rear view mirror to see what’s going on behind. However, this morning I’ve come across Junsun H552C Android 4.4 system with a 7″ display, rear and front cameras, and GPS navigation system that might be easier to install since it sits on top of the dashboard, and is selling for $118.54 on Dealextreme. Junsun H552C specifications: Processor – Quad core CPU @ 1.3 GHz System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – […]
Hack Autonomous Driving into Your Car with Open Source Hardware Comma Neo and Open Pilot Software
George Hotz setup Comma.ai company and worked on a commercial project called Comma One to add autonomous driving to some car models, but then the US highway authorities started to ask questions and promised ever increasing fines if he could not comply with some specific safety regulations/requirements, and eventually he decided to cancel the project due to the regulatory burden. A few weeks passed since the cancellation, and he has now released Open Pilot auto-pilot software and Comma NEO a work-in-progress open source hardware platform connecting to Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 powered OnePlus 3 smartphone to run the software. The system is said to implement “Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS) for Hondas and Acuras”, and performs about the same as “Tesla Autopilot at launch, and better than all other manufacturers”. Open Pilot currently only supports the Acura ILX 2016 with AcuraWatch Plus and the Honda Civic […]
$49 Dashbot Car Dashboard Assistant is Powered by C.H.I.P Pro Allwinner GR8 Module (Crowdfunding)
Most companies specializing in development boards may sell a few accessories for their boards, but usually leave product design to their customers. Next Thing Co. does that too, but the company also produces some products like PocketCHIP portable Linux computer & retro game console, and more recently Dashbot, a voice controller assistant for your car’s dashboard powered by CHIP Pro module. Dashbot hardware specifications: CPU Module – CHIP Pro with Allwinner GR8 ARM Cortex A8 processor @ 1.0 GHz, 512MB NAND flash, 256 DDR3 RAM, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2 External Storage – micro SD slot Display – Red LED display Audio – 32-bit audio DSP for beamforming & noise suppression; fairfield audio pre-processor with 24-bit ADC; high fidelity MEMS microphone array (106 dB dynamic range) USB – 1x USB host port Power Supply – 5V via USB port or 12V via power port (aka cigarette lighter) + backup LiFePo4 […]