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September 2, 2023September 19, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Review of CrowView 14-inch portable monitor with laptops and mini PCs

I received an early sample of the CrowView 14-inch laptop monitor for review a few weeks ago, and regular readers may have seen me already use it in some mini PC reviews, but I’ve yet to review the monitor itself, so I’ll report my experience using both laptops and mini PCs running Windows 11 and Ubuntu 22.04. CrowView laptop monitor unboxing The display ships in a retail package highlighting the main features of the display such as its Full HD resolution, compatibility with 13 to 16.5-inch laptop displays, 160° viewing angle, and its mechanical clamping mechanism. The CrowView display ships with a 12V/2A power supply, USB-A to USB-C and USB-C to USB-C cables, an HDMI to mini HDMI cable, a velcro tie, some stickers, and a user manual in English. The clamping mechanism can be found on the back of the display. There are also four buttons on the bottom […]

August 3, 2023September 1, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

CrowView adds a 14-inch portable monitor to your laptop for $115 and up (Crowdfunding)

CrowView 14 inch laptop monitor extender

Elecrow CrowView is a lightweight 14-inch portable monitor designed to be attached to your laptop adding a secondary monitor to it through a clamping structure that works with laptops having a 13-inch to 16.5-inch display. We’ve seen this type of laptop monitor extension for years, and you’ll find various models on Amazon. But the Elecrow is now offering the CrowView at a significantly lower price than competitors especially if you pledge $114.90 for the super early bird reward on Kickstarter. The regular price ($179) can still be interesting as in this price range you’d usually get an 11-inch or 12-inch display. CrowView specifications: 14-inch IPS display with 1920×1080 resolution, 60 Hz refresh rate, 400 nit brightness Compatible with 13-inch to 16.5-inch laptops with 4 to 8mm thick displays thanks to a telescopic snap 230° hinge enabling face-to-face mode. Ports Mini HDMI port for video input 2x full-featured USB Type-C port […]

June 3, 2023December 27, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

CrowVision review – An 11.6-inch 1366×768 touchscreen display that works with multiple SBCs

Raspberry Pi 4 CrowVision Touchscreen Display Tester

CrowVision is an 11.6-inch IPS capacitive touchscreen display with 1366×768 resolution that is designed to work not only with the Raspberry Pi but most single board computers with mounting holes within a 100 x 80 mm rectangle. Elecrow sent me a sample so I’ll try it out with a Raspberry Pi, a Windows 11 mini PC, and a Ubuntu 22.04 laptop to make sure it works well with those operating systems. CrowVision unboxing The packages include the display module itself, a 12V/2A power adapter, USB Type-C and micro USB cables, an HDMI to mini HDMI cable, a micro HDMI to mini HDMI cable, two “ribbons” for cable management, a screwdriver, an OSD control board with five keys, and a user manual. The display does not come with an enclosure, so it’s better suited for DIY projects where users design their own enclosure or mounting solution. The control board is based […]

December 5, 2022December 5, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Getting Started with CrowBot BOLT smart robot car

Elecrow CrowBot BOLT & Game Controller Assembled

CrowBot BOLT is a smart robot car based on an ESP32 wireless microcontroller and designed for the education market with the ability to program the robot with visual programming, Arduino, or MicroPython. Elecrow sent me a sample of the CrowBot BOLT kit for evaluation so I’ll have a look at the hardware, show how to assemble it, showcase the features of the built-in firmware, and demonstrate how to program the robot with visual programming, Arduino, and MicroPython using some of the provided code samples. CrowBot BOLT unboxing The package lists some of the highlights with 16 teaching courses, support for multiple programming platforms, scalability with Grove connectors, and the inclusion of the Joystick that’s also programmable. The CrowBot BOLT comes as a kit so there will need to be some work to do to assemble the robot, but no soldering is required (in normal cases, more on that later). The […]

August 11, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

CrowPi L Review – Part 2: Learn programming and electronics with a Raspberry Pi 4 laptop

CrowPi L review learn programming electronics

In the first part of our review of CrowPi L Raspberry Pi 4 laptop for education, we checked the hardware and accessories such as the CrowTail starter kit with various sensors and other electronics modules, and showed how to install or remove the Raspberry Pi 4 SBC from the laptop shell. I’ve now had more time to play with the educational software, so I’ll report my experience with the laptop when learning game design and hardware control with Letscode visual programming IDE, as well as the Python lessons for more advanced students. Reinstalling CrowPi OS image It’s the rainy season here in Thailand meaning it’s both hot and humid, and even though I’m not entirely sure it’s related, I recently had to reinstall Raspberry Pi OS on one of my Raspberry Pi with a corrupted SD card. It happened again with the CrowPi L after I left it in its […]

July 19, 2022August 11, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

CrowPi L Raspberry Pi 4 laptop review – Part 1: Unboxing and teardown

CrowPi L Raspberry Pi Education Laptop Review

Elecrow CrowPi L is an 11.6-inch laptop shell based on Raspberry Pi 4 designed for STEM education with optional electronics modules and tutorials. That’s an evolution of the CrowPi 2 laptop I reviewed in 2020 with a thinner design and more flexible since the electronics modules are optional, so it can serve the market of people just wanting a Raspberry Pi 4 laptop. The company has sent me a full “CrowPi L Advanced Kit” for review with the CrowPi L laptop fitted with a Raspberry Pi 4, as well as the Crowtail Starter Kit for Raspberry Pi. CrowPi L Advanced Kit Unboxing Let’s check out the laptop package first. Since in this design, the laptop comes with a battery, and mine already had a Raspberry Pi 4 installed, I could just turn it on immediately. Accessories include a wireless mouse, a 12V/2A power supply (with USB Type-C plug… this should […]

June 17, 2022July 19, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

CrowPi L is a $200 laptop shell for Raspberry Pi 4

Two years ago, we reviewed CrowPi 2 Raspberry Pi 4 laptop designed for STEM education with embedded electronics modules and Letscode software with step-by-step tutorials to learn Scratch and Python programming. I found it quite good, but many people were mostly interested in having a Raspberry Pi 4 laptop, and the price tag was a bit high at the time. That’s probably why Elecrow has now designed for CrowPi L laptop shell for Raspberry Pi 4 based on the CrowPi 2 but without all the electronics modules, and with a built-in battery to operate more like an actual laptop. CrowPi L laptop shell specifications: Compatible SBC’s – Raspberry Pi 4 Model B only Storage – Full-size SD card slot Display – 11.6-inch 1366×768 IPS screen (CrowPi 2 was 1920×1080) Video Output – HDMI output for external monitor Camera – 2MP camera Audio – Built-in microphone and stereo speaker; 3.5mm audio […]

August 24, 2021August 24, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

An ESP32-based BBC Micro:bit clone – Meet Mbits

A few years ago, we noted a BBC Micro:bit clone based on ESP32 WiSoC with Banana Pi ‘s BPI:bit board with an array of 25 RGB LEDs and WiFi & Bluetooth LE connectivity. There’s now another such clone with Elecrow Mbits designed in a way that resembles the BBC Micro:bit v2 board, but replacing the Nordic Semi nRF52833 2.4GHz/BLE SoC with the ESP32 dual-core wireless chip with support for both WiFi and BLE. The specifications between Elecrow Mbits and BBC Micro:bit v2 are close enough, although ESP32 is a more powerful processor, and the MBits board comes with more memory and storage. Power consumption of the BBC Micro:bit v2 should be much better, so if anything needs to run on battery for an extended period of time, it may be a better choice, or you’re gonna need a bigger battery. The GPIO pinout looks different too, so not all Micro:bit […]