kickstarter News - Page 16 of 46 - CNX Software

July 14, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Wainlux K6 & Alfawise C50 Mini Laser Engravers Offered for $130 and Up

A few days ago I saw Wainlux K6 “most compact, powerful and simple-to-use” laser engraver on Kickstarter for about $159. I did not think too much of it at the time, but this morning I thought it already showed up for pre-order on GearBest for $129.99 as Alfawise C50. But I was mistaken, as both products are different, albeit sharing some of the same attributes. Nevertheless, this brought back my curiosity about these types of devices, especially with Wainlux K6 having already managed to raise over $200,000 from close to 1,400 backers so far. So let’s look at both. Wainlux K6 Laser Engraver Key features and specifications: Laser Source – OSRAM Semiconductor blue color laser Laser Power – Up to 3,000 mW, 100 adjustable levels of power Engraving area – 8 x 8 cm Routing Speed – 1500 mm/min maximum Resolution – 508 dpi adjustable Lifetime Estimation – 10,000 hours […]

July 14, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Brume-W Pocket-Sized Wireless Gateway Runs OpenWrt or Ubuntu (Crowdfunding)

GL.iNet Brume-W (GL-MV1000W) is a “pocket-sized wireless gateway for edge computing” that supports high-speed VPN up to 280Mbps with WireGuard, AdGuard ad-blocking software (AdGuard), and Tor. The device features three Gigabit Ethernet ports and built-in 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 connectivity, but it also supports Alfa AWUS036AC and AWUS036ACS USB WiFf USB dongles for users wanting dual-band WiFi 5 (AC) networking. The router ships with OpenWrt pre-installed, but also supports Ubuntu. Brume-W specifications: SoC – Marvell ARMADA 88F3720 (aka ARMADA 3720) dual-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.0 GHz with packet processor/network accelerator System Memory – 1GB DDR4 Storage – 16MB NOR flash and 8GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card slot up to 256GB Connectivity 3x Gigabit Ethernet ports (1x WAN + 2x LAN) Built-in 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 up to 300 Mbps with external WiFi antennas Support for external 802.11ac WiFI 5 USB dongles USB – 1x USB host port, 1x USB-C […]

June 27, 2020July 24, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

SC-10 SHARK is a Faster 3D Printer with Optional Laser Engraving, Bicolor, and Auto-leveling (Crowdfunding)

Printing a 3D model usually takes hours, if not days, so anything that can speed up the printing time while keeping the same quality should be welcomed. LOTMAXX SC-10 SHARK 3D printer promises to reduce the standard print time by up to 30%. How did they exactly make a faster 3D printer? Thanks to “Aeolus Heat Dissipation system” (AHDS) with four fans to cool the nozzle and “S Move System” (SMS) helping the motors travel at a high speed. The printer also happens to be a multifunction printer with support for laser engraving and bicolor printing. SC-10 SHARK launched on Kickstarter several weeks ago and raised over $200,000 US from around 620 backers with 12 days to go. SC-10 SHARK 3D printer key features & specifications: Molding technology – FDM Print Speed – Up to 200mm/s; normal speed: 45-90mm/s Printing Accuracy – +/-0.1mm Layer thickness – 0.1 to 0.4 mm […]

June 20, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Getting a 3-inch Smartphone in 2020? You can with Unihertz Jelly 2 (Crowdfunding)

Most smartphones have 5″ or larger displays these days as it’s just more convenient to read emails, browse the web, or play games, than the smaller displays we had ten years ago. But some people may still prefer smaller smartphones that are lighter and really fit into any pockets. Those are just pretty hard to find, luckily some companies such as Unihertz are filling the needs for this niche market. Two years ago, the company introduced the Unihertz Atom smartphone with a 2.4″ display, and earlier this year launched Atom XL 4″ smartphone, but the company is now preparing to launch a new crowdfunding campaign for Jelly 2 smartphone powered by a MediaTek Helio P60 processor and equipped with a 3-inch display. Unihertz Jelly 2 specifications: SoC – MediaTek Helio P60 octa-core with four Arm Cortex-A73 up 2.0 GHz and four Arm Cortex-A53 up to 2.0 GHz, Arm Mali-G72 MP3 […]

June 17, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

AirTab 15.6″ Portable Display Provides 2x USB-C Inputs (Crowdfunding)

While portable displays have been available as far back as at least 2012, they’ve become more popular in recent years as they can both offer a secondary display to your laptop, or add a larger screen to your smartphone. In the last two years, we’ve already covered BlitzWolf BW-PCM1, T-bao T15A, TAIHE Gemini (which ended up being a failure), Airview, and Desklab among others. But apparently, there’s room for more with the launch of AirTab, a 15.6″ portable touchscreen or non-touch monitor, on Kickstarter that’s already surpassed its $10,000 funding target. AirTab specifications: 15.6″ display with 1920×1080 resolution up to 60 Hz refresh rate; 4ms response time; 256 cd/m2 brightness Touchscreen – Air Touch model only USB – 2x USB-C ports Power Supply – Dimensions – 335 x 245 x 4.9 mm Weight – 500 grams AirTab comes with a foldable magnetic cover that allows the display to be used […]

June 16, 2020August 24, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Laptop Doubles as Electronics Learning Kit (Crowdfunding)

CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Laptop with Detachable Keyboard

CrowPi portable learning kit for Raspberry Pi 3 B+ and Pi Zero boards was launched in 2018. It comes with a 7″ display, several sensors, buttons, a breadboard, and more all packed in a small suitcase. Elecrow has now started a new crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to fund the second generation portable electronics learning kit: CrowPi2 which looks much more like a laptop than a suitcase found in the first model thanks to a large display, and a detachable keyboard placed on top of the electronic prototyping/learning area. It’s also more powerful thanks to the latest Raspberry Pi 4 SBC. CrowPi2 specifications: Compatible Raspberry Pi boards – Raspberry Pi 3B/B+, Raspberry Pi 4 Display – 11.6-inch 1920×1080 IPS screen Camera – 2MP camera Audio – Built-in microphone and stereo speaker; 3.5mm audio jack Keyboard – 2.4GHz detachable wireless keyboard (QWERTY only) with touchpad Sensors and Modules under the keyboard: Displays […]

June 7, 2020June 6, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

STM32 based Indoor Air Quality Sensor Connects to Raspberry Pi or Arduino (Crowdfunding)

Indoor Air Quality Sensor Raspberry Pi Arduino

Even before the COVID-19 lockdown, people spent most of their time indoors (around 90% according to some studies), so it’s important to monitor air quality and other metrics like light and sound levels in our homes, workplaces, schools, cars, etc… Metriful Sense indoor environment monitor does just that by reporting multiple metrics such as temperature, humidity, particle concentration, etc… over I2C to microcontroller or processor boards such as Arduino or Raspberry Pi. Sense hardware specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32G071KB Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 64 MHz with 128 KB Flash, 36 KB SRAM Sensors Bosch Sensortec BME680 4-in-1 air quality sensor with relative humidity, barometric pressure, ambient temperature, and gas (VOC). Vishay VEML6030 ambient light sensor Knowles SPH0645LM4H-B MEMS microphone Optional – Shinyei PPD42 particle sensor unit I/Os – 10-pin unpopulated header with air particles sensor input, light and sound interrupt outputs, I2C, VPU pin for 3.3V/5V selection, GND, VDD, VIN […]

May 21, 2020May 21, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

MARK AI Robot Kit Aims to Teach AI & Robotics to 12+ Years Old (Crowdfunding)

We’ve written about Kendryte K210 RISC-V AI processor, and Sipeed M1 module several times including in our getting started for Maixduino and GroveAI HAT boards for low-power AI inference such as object recognition or face detection using Arduino and Micropython programming. Shenzhen-based Tinkergen, a STEM Education owned by Seeed Studio, has now leveraged the low-cost processor to design MARK AI robot kit, where MARK stands for Make A Robot Kit, in order to processor an educational AI Robotics platform for children ages 12 years old and more. MARK will ship as a kit with the main parts and components including a chassis, a cover, two wheels, stepper motors, a pan-tilt camera with K210 processor, a 2.4″ LCD display, Grove & Arduino compatible MARKduino interface board, some sensors, and six AA batteries. Tinkergen offers pre-trained model to recognized objects like humans, books, pens, or smartphones, as well as traffic signs, numbers […]