hack News - Page 9 of 14 - CNX Software

August 8, 2016August 8, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

ESP8266 Gets USB Support Thanks to ESPUSB Software Stack

Neither ESP8266 nor ESP32 support USB, so what am I babbling about? No, ESP8622 did not suddenly grow a USB PHY, but cnlohr decided to implement virtual USB support using two GPIOs (12 & 13) for the D+/D- USB signals, meaning you can connect any ESP8266 module through USB, or even update the firmware through USB without external hardware, apart from a single extra resistor. The source code is available on espusb repo on github. Please note that the code is currently work in progress, and USB implementation currently only works at 1.5 Mbit/s, with potentially future support for 12 Mbit/s. That’s the demo, and an explanation about the design process. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011. www.cnx-software.com

June 22, 2016June 22, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

DIY Wireless Window/Glass Mounted Camera Based on Raspberry Pi Zero Board

A few weeks ago, the Raspberry Pi foundation announced a new version of the Raspberry Pi Zero with a CSI camera connector. Since the solution is quite lightweight, Steven Cassidy had the idea to make a WiFi enabled window camera by soldering a USB WiFi module and fitting the hardware to a plastic part with two suction cups. Once the assembly is done, you can stuck the hardware to a window or glass of your choice in your home, car, aquarium, etc… If you like the concept but would like to have something working out of the box instead of making your own, the Pi Hut has design ZeroView on the same principle, and which will sell for 7 GBP (~$10.3). Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews […]

May 25, 2016May 25, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Pebble 2 & Time 2 Smartwatches, and Pebble Core for Runners and Hackers Launched on Kickstarter

Pebble launched one of the first smartwatches in 2012, and is now one of the most famous name for wearables. The company has now launched another crowdfunding campaign for three wearables: Pebble 2 & Time 2 watches, and Pebble Core which can be either be used as a fitness tracker for runner, or by hardware hacker to play with IoT apps. Pebble 2 and Time 2 can receive notifications from your Android or iOS smartphone, include a built-in HRM for activity tracking, and a microphone for voice record and SMS, and are waterproof of up to 30 meters. To me the two key features of Pebble wearables are always-on displays, and long battery life, and the two new watches have a black & white (Pebble 2) or color (Time 2) always-on display, and up to one week of battery life for Pebble 2, and 10 days for Time 2. Pebble […]

April 19, 2016April 19, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

AAduino Arduino Compatible Board Fits Neatly into an AA Battery Holder

Johan Kanflo has been using Arduino compatible boards based on Tiny328 MCU with an ISM radio module (wireless Arduino clone), but he found that finding a case was not easy, and was quite not ready to to design its own and print it with a 3D printer. So instead he shrank the board to fit into an AA battery case bought on Ebay with two AA batteries taking the remaining slots. That’s the result. AAduino board specifications: MCU – Atmel ATMega328p clocked at 8 MHz to save power Radio – RFM69C ISM transceiver module Sensors – Two DS18B20 temperature sensors Misc – Indicator LED Keystone battery terminals rotated 180° to act as positive and negative terminals. Power – 2x AA batteries The project is also open source hardware, with all hardware files released under the MIT license on Github, where you’ll also find a demo sketch for the board. Via […]

February 26, 2016 by Karl Johnson - 20 Comments

Eny EM95 Amlogic S905 TV Box Review

CNXSoft has already taken some pictures of Eny EM95 Amlogic S905 TV box, so I’ll take over from here as I received my ENY EM95 today and I was excited. I have not got a new Android device in a while. First Impressions I opened it up to find a tiny box that has a display on it. Seems interesting. While booting it says boot and the rest of the time it shows the time in 24 hour format and a few other indicators that I didn’t find particularly useful. In the retail box is the device remote and HDMI cable and power supply. I noticed no micro or mini USB port to flash firmware. I don’t have a type A to type A cable so will need to pick one up. I was working from home today so I was able to open immediately and play with it for […]

February 8, 2016February 8, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

You Can Now Connect ESP8266 Module to Your Color Television (Sort of)

You can do lots of things with ESP8266 WiFi modules, but CNLohr did something rather unexpected as he managed to use GPIO3/RX pin to broadcast NTSC signals first in black & white, and now in color, to his television’s channel 3. On the hardware side, he did have to disconnect the WiFi antenna, and connected a wire antenna to GPIO3/RX pin. He then set I2S to run at 80 Mbps, and pushed data out using DMA buffers, so he could achieved the 61.25 MHz frequency required for NTSC luminance data, and the color data, 3.579MHz higher up. Once the demo is running, you can alter it on the fly using a web neat interface. This is all explained on channel3’s github repository, as well as one a 15-minute video showing the capabilities and limitations, and explaining how you can play around with the parameters. Via ESP8266COM’s Tweet. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc […]

February 5, 2016February 5, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

How to Use Your Old Laptop Screen with Raspberry Pi or Your Computer

After reading an article on Liliputing about using Raspberry Pi Zero with Motorola Lapdock, I decided to look for clones for the device since Motorola Lapdock is now hard to buy at a decent price, if at all, since the product has been discontinued for a while. I did not find anything similar, but instead I came across M.NT68676.2A LCD driver HDMI kit selling for $37.99 on eBay that allows you to re-use your old laptop screen with any development board or computer that comes with HDMI, DVI, or VGA output. The kit is comprised of a monitor control board (M.NT68676.2A), an “inverter” board which depends on your LCD panel model number, a keypad board, an LVDS cable, and a cable to connect all three boards together. M.NT68676.2A monitor control board specifications: Chipset – NT68676 (UFG) Supported Panel – LED/LCD, Single/Dual LVDS (8bit) up to 2048×1152 resolution Video Input “PC-RGB […]

January 25, 2016February 13, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

Zsun Wifi Card Reader Can Now Run OpenWrt

Zsun Wifi card reader is a tiny micro SD card reader with WiFi connectivity, and while people managed to access the device serial console a few months ago, the plan was to eventually run OpenWrt since it’s based on the popular Atheros AR9331 WiSoC combined with 64MB RAM and 16MB SPI Flash. It would also be one the smallest OpenWrt capable device with dimensions of 30 x 33 mm. A team of Polish managed this feat, and have now posted instructions to install OpenWrt, as well as other documentation, for example a description of the board’s GPIOs. There are four methods to flash OpenWrt: Solder on an Ethernet jack and flash from the original uboot (hard but safe) Reflash the bootloader from the original firmware to one that supports upload over serial (less soldering but fatal if you mess up) Reflash the firmware from the original firmware using mtd_write (easy […]