$6 LicheePi Zero ARM Board Runs Linux 4.10, Supports Lots of Add-On Boards (Crowdfunding)

We’ve already covered LicheePi One board powered by Allwinner A13 processor, but it was not for sale out of China, and the developers are now back with LicheePi Zero board/module, slightly bigger than an SD card, featuring Allwinner V3s processor, and offered for as low as $6, or $8 with WiFi via an Indiegogo campaign. LicheePi Zero specifications: SoC – Allwinner V3s ARM Cortex A7 processor @ up to 1.2 GHz with an ARM Mali-400 GPU, 512Mbit (64MB) DDR2 on-chip Storage – micro SD card slot, SPI flash (not 100% clear if it will be populated when shipped to backers) Display – FPC40 RGB Connector with support for 800×480 RGB LCD Audio – Audio codec USB – micro USB OTG port Expansion 2x 15 headers with 2.54mm pitch, breadboard friendly with GPIOs, 2x UART, 1x SPI, 2x I2C,ADC, 1x PWM 2x  30 half-holes with 1.27mm pitch with OTG USB,MIPI CSI,EPHY,RGB […]

HiKey 960 Development Board Powered by Hisilicon Kirin 960 Cortex A73/A53 Processor To Sell for $239

LeMaker is about to launch a successor to Hikey board with a new 96Boards compliant development board with HiKey 960 featuring the powerful Hisilicon Kirin 960 processor found in Huawei Mate 9 smartphone, as well as 3GB LPDDR4 memory, 32GB UFS storage, HDMI, USB 3.0 ports and so on. Hikey 960 board specifications: SoC – Kirin 960 octa-core big.LITTLE processor with 4x ARM Cortex A73 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x Cortex A53 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz, and a Mali-G71 MP8 GPU System Memory – 3GB LPDDR4 SDRAM Storage – 32GB UFS flash storage + micro SD card slot Video Output / Display Interface – 1 x HDMI 1.4 up to 1080p, 1x 4-lane MIPI DSI connector Connectivity – Dual band 802.11 b/g/n/ac? WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1 with two antennas USB – 2 x USB 3.0 type A host ports, 1x USB 2.0 type C OTG port […]

FriendlyELEC NanoPi M1 Plus Allwinner H3 Board Adds Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi & Bluetooth, and an 8GB eMMC Flash

FriendlyELEC has introduced an update to NanoPi M1 board, aptly named NanoPi M1 Plus with a similar form factor and Allwinner H3 processor, but adding Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi & Bluetooth, and an 8GB eMMC flash, at the expense of one USB port that had to go to make place for the new features, and it got a little wider too.NanoPi M1 Plus board specifications:   SoC – Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 @ 1.2 GHz with an ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU up to 600 MHz System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI and 3.5mm jack for CVBS (composite + stereo audio) Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 dual mode (classic + low energy) with chip antenna and IPEX/u.FL connector USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x 4-pin USB 2.0 […]

Compulab IOT-GATE-iMX7 is an NXP i.MX7 IoT Gateway for Industrial Applications

CompuLab has introduced IOT-GATE-iMX7 compact fanless IoT gateway and industrial controller built around the company’s CL-SOM-iMX7 system-on-module, and offering Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G and Zigbee connectivity.Compulab IOT-GATE-iMX7 gateway specifications: SoC –  NXP i.MX 7 dual ARM Cortex-A7 processor @ up to 1GHz with ARM Cortex-M4 core @ 200Mhz, 2D graphics engine System Memory – Up to 2GB DDR3L-1066 Storage – Up to 32GB on-board eMMC + micro-SD socket Connectivity Dual Gigabit Ethernet Dual band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n Bluetooth 4.1 BLE Optional 3G cellular module via mini PCie socket Optional ZigBee NXP JN5168 module Display – DVI up to 1920×1080 using a HDMI connector Audio – 3.5mm jacks for stereo line out, stereo line in USB – 4x USB2.0 host ports, type-A connectors Serial – 1x RS485 / RS422 port, RJ11 connector; 1x RS232 port, ultra-mini serial connector; 1x serial console via UART-to-USB bridge, micro-USB connector Expansion mini-PCIe socket, full-size embedded […]

How to Use CHIP Board as a Linux Printer & Scanner Server

We have a Canon Pixma MP250 series multi-function USB printer connected to a Windows 10 laptop at home, and for several years, I had no problems printing from my Ubuntu computer to that printer. However, this setup recently stopped to work, and whatever I would do, printing would never start from my Ubuntu PC, even though the file was (allegedly) successfully transfered to the Windows 10 laptop connected to the printer. So I decided to setup my own printer server, as well as a scanner server since it’s a multi-function printer, using one of the boards from my collection. As I opened my cabinet, I wondered whether I would use an Orange Pi board, Raspberry Pi board, or Nano Pi board, but I needed WiFi since there’s no Ethernet in the office where the printer is located, and I found that Next Thing CHIP board was the ideal candidate as […]

ASUS Tinker Board’s Debian & Kodi Linux Images, Schematics and Documentation

We discovered ASUS Tinker Board powered by Rockchip RK3288 processor earlier this year via some slides hidden in a dark corner of the Internet… ASUS has been incredibly quiet about it, but as the board has finally started to sell in Europe on sites like CPC Farnell UK, Proshop (Denmark), or Jimm’s (Finland)  for the equivalent of $57.5 without VAT or $69 including VAT, and more technology sites have started to write about it. So people have been buying the board, and one even uploaded an unboxing video. One interesting part is the the top comment from the uploader in that video: Currently, a £55 paperweight as I can’t seem to find a link to the OS image anywhere. And indeed, ASUS appears to have launched a board without any support website, firmware image and documentation. Maybe that’s why they are quiet about it. But after using some of my […]

Inforce 6309L Board is Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 410E Processor with 10-year Availability

Inforce Computing launched 6309 micro single board computer powered by Snapdragon 410 processor, and compatible with 96Boards Dragon 410c board, a little over a year ago. The company has sent a newsletter promoting the launch of cost-down version with long term support equipped with Snapdragon 410E processor, and named Inforce 6309L. Comparison table between Inforce 6309L board and DragonBoard 410C provided by the company: Inforce 6309L Dragonboard 410C SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 410E quad core ARM Cortex A53 processor with Adreno 306 GPU Dimensions 54mm x 85mm Memory Storage 1GB LPDDR3 8GB eMMC Micro SD Connectivity Wi-Fi/BT/GPS Video 1080p HD video 720p HEVC playback Camera Dual cameras 13MP on MIPI-CSI Interfaces Micro USB, USB, Micro HDMI, MIPI-CSI, expansion header Micro USB, USB, HDMI, expansion header Operating System Android Lollipop 5.1 Linux (Debian) Win10 IoT core Both boards are pretty similar, except Inforce 6901L replaced the HDMI port with a mico HDMI […]

How to Install Domoticz Home Automation System in NanoPi NEO and Other ARM Linux Boards

I’ve recently started experimenting with IoT projects, and the first hurdle is to select the hardware and software for your projects are there are simply so many options. For the hardware your first have to choose the communication protocols for your sensors and actuators, and if you are going to go with WiFi, ESP8266 is the obvious solution, used together with your favorite low cost Linux development board such as Raspberry Pi or Orange Pi to run some IoT server software locally or leveraging the cloud. But the most difficult & confusing part for me was to select the server software / cloud services as there are just so many options. I prefer having a local server than something running only in the cloud, as my Internet goes a few hours a month, so I started with a solution combining ThingSpeak with MQTT gathering data from Sonoff power switches running […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC