crowd supply News - Page 5 of 26 - CNX Software

September 21, 2023October 18, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

AI in a box offline LLM solution leverages Rockchip RK3588S’ NPU (Crowdfunding)

Useful Sensors “AI in a box” LLM (large language model) solution works offline with complete privacy and leverages the NPU in Rockchip RK3588S processor for conversational AI similar to ChatGPT but without an internet connection or registration required. The AI box prototype currently relies on off-the-shelf hardware, specifically the Radxa ROCK 5A SBC with 8GB RAM, housed in a plastic enclosure, and the code relies on open-source models like Whisper speech-to-text model and Llama2 language models. Besides conversational AI where you can interact with the box as if you were talking to a person, the AI in a Box can also be useful for other use cases: Live Captions – The box can display subtitles/closed captions for a live event or help in situations where people have trouble hearing a conversation using the audio input. Live Translation – It can also translate various languages close to real-time. Simply select […]

September 12, 2023September 12, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

SwiftIO Circuit Playground relies on Apple Swift programming for IoT projects (Crowdfunding)

A few years ago, Mad Machine introduced the SwiftIO board powered by an NXP i.MX RT1052 Arm Cortex-M7 crossover processor and programmable with Apple Swift programming language. The company has now launched a smaller version of the board named the SwiftIO Micro along with the SwiftIO Circuit Playground baseboard with plenty of modules to play with the SwiftIO Micro’s GPIO, and that reminds me of the Arduino Sensor Kit Base but with even more modules. SwiftIO Micro specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX RT1052 Arm Cortex-M7 crossover processor @ 600MHz System Memory – 32 MB SRAM Storage – 16MB flash, microSD card slot USB – 1x USB-C connector for power and programming Expansion – 3x 20-pin headers with up to 44 GPIOs, analog inputs, PWM, UART, SPI, I2C, I2S, CAN Bus, etc… See the pinout diagram below for details Misc – RGB LED, download and reset buttons Power Supply – 5V […]

September 7, 2023September 6, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Haxophone – A Raspberry Pi-based electronic saxophone with mechanical keys (Crowdfunding)

The Haxophone is an unusual Raspberry Pi expansion board that transforms the popular SBC into a travel saxophone using mechanical keys. The hackable musical instrument is open-source hardware and OSHWA certified and comes with mechanical keys which makes it easily repairable, customizable by changing keycaps or the firmware, and at a price point cheaper than commercial digital saxophones with custom molded keys. Haxophone key features and specifications: Custom Raspberry Pi HAT PCB Tactile-feedback 5-pin mechanical switches Mechanical keycaps Airflow pressure sensor Built-in audio amplifier compatible with Raspberry Pi Zero and Zero W Serial console for hacking Weight – 180 grams OSHW certifications – PT000005 You’ll find KiCAD hardware design files, assembly instructions, documentation, and the software and firmware used with the Haxophone on GitHub. There are two main software components, first haxo-rs Rust-based driver for detecting key presses and breath in order to convert them into notes, and fluidsynth synthesizer […]

August 15, 2023August 16, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Mini review of GGtag e-paper display programmable through sound or USB serial

GGtag is a 3.52-inch e-paper display based on the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller and programmable through sound or USB serial from your web browser, plus it also supports emulation of 125 kHz RFID tags (ASK and FSK). When Radoslav Gerganov contacted me about the upcoming Crowd Supply campaign for the GGtag e-paper badge, I happened to have just discussed using an e-paper display to sell some samples on Facebook Groups where requirements include using the seller’s name and date in the photos. So I asked for a sample if any were available, and I just received it today… GGTag specifications: MCUs Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 133 MHz with 264KB SRAM Microchip ATtiny85 8-bit AVR microcontroller (used for RFID) Storage – 2 MB flash Display – 3.52-inc e-paper display with USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and serial programming Sensor – PDM digital microphone for data-over-sound […]

July 13, 2023July 22, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Affordable RTK GNSS receiver supports USB or/and Ethernet interfaces (Crowdfunding)

HYFIX’s RTK Rover is an affordable, centimeter-accurate RTK (Real-time Kinematic) GNSS receiver with either a USB interface or/and Ethernet connectivity with the latter relying on a Raspberry Pi 4 SBC. As a reminder, RTK relies on traditional GNSS networks like GPS and works with a Base station at a fixed location and a Rover station that can be fitted to a drone or mobile robot in order to determine the position with up to one-centimeter accuracy. The RTK Rover from HYFIX is equipped with a dual-band LC29H GNSS module from Quectel and an onboard IMU sensor that tracks position through dead reckoning when GNSS connectivity is lost. RTK Rover specifications: MiniPCIe card with Dual-Band L1/L5 RTK Receiver (Quectel LC29H) Antenna – External antenna (6x5x2 cm) connected to SMA connector Sensor – IMU Interfaces USB Type-C port for power and serial Interface Ethernet Rover Kit only – Gigabit Ethernet and USB ports […]

July 6, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Diabolic Drive is a penetration testing USB key with 64GB storage, ESP8266 and ATmega32U4 microcontrollers

Diabolic Drive may look like a 64GB USB flash drive and show as such when you insert it into your computer, but it’s actually a wireless keystroke injection tool with a Microchip ATmega32U4 8-bit AVR microcontroller and an Espressif Systems ESP8266 WiFi SoC. Egypt-based UNIT 72784 says their cyber security tool enables Red Teaming – the practice of rigorously identifying an attack path to breach a device’s security – as it behaves like a flash drive while being able to deploy keyboard strokes wirelessly through the ESP8266 WiFi MCU. Diabolic Drive specifications: MCUs Microchip ATmega32U4 microcontroller @ 16 MHz (5V) acting as a Serial Bridge Espressif Systems ESP8266EX microcontroller @ 160 MHZ (3.3V) with WiFi 4 support ATmega32U4 and ESP8266 are connected via Serial and I2C protocols thanks to an LDO regulator. Storage 64 GB flash storage up to 20MB/s read, 10MB/s write 4MB W25Q32 SPI flash memory o Antenna […]

July 3, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

AntSDR E200 – Gigabit Ethernet connected SDR with Xilinx Zynq SoC FPGA supports 70 MHz – 6 GHz range (Crowdfunding)

We’ve just written about the uSDR M.2 SDR module on Crowd Supply, but it turns out the crowdfunding platform is hosting another SDR (Software-Defined Radio) project with the AntSDR E200 board equipped with an AMD Embedded Zynq 7020 SoC FPGA and an Analog Devices AD9363 or AD9361 RF chipset, and providing Gigabit Ethernet connectivity to the host. The board can operate in the 70 MHz – 6 GHz range with the AD9361 chipset, and the 325 MHz – 3.8 GHz range with the AD9363, supports 2×2 MIMO with two SMA antenna connectors and two U.FL connectors, and also features expansion interfaces for GPIOs. AntSDR E200 specifications: SoC FPGA – AMD Embedded/Xilinx Zynq 7020 dual-core Arm Cortex-A9 processor and FPGA with 85K logic cells, 4.9Mb Block RAM, 220 DSP slices System Memory – 512MB DDR3 Storage – 256 Mbit QSPI flash for firmware; microSD card slot (bottom side) RF Chipset – […]

June 30, 2023February 7, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 25 Comments

64-core RISC-V motherboard and workstation enable native RISC-V development (Crowdfunding)

There’s now a microATX motherboard and workstation for native RISC-V development based on the SOPHON SG2042 64-core RISC-V C920 processor with up to 128GB DDR4 memory, various SATA and M.2 NVMe interfaces for storage, three PCIe x16 slot for expansion and more. I remember a few years ago, there was a lot of talk about making a workstation for native Arm development instead of relying on x86 machines, cross-compilation, and emulation. So we got hardware like the HoneyComb LX2K, Ampere eMAG, and more recently the ADLINK Ampere Altra Dev Kit to achieve this goal. The RISC-V ecosystem is now getting something similar thanks to the Milk-V Pioneer microATX motherboard and the Pioneer Box that provides a complete 64-core RISC-V workstation with DIMM memory, SATA and NVMe storage, a graphics card, 10GbE networking, a 350W power supply, and more. Pioneer board specifications: SoC – Sophgo SOPHON SG2042 64-core RISC-V processor (T-Head […]