NanoPi Fire2A & Fire3 Boards Released with Samsung/Nexell Quad & Octa Core Processors

FriendlyElec previously launched NanoPi 2 Fire board powered by Samsung (Nexell) S5P4418 quad core Cortex A9 SoC, mostly interesting because of its small form factor, camera and LCD interfaces. The company has now launched two new boards based on S5Pxx18 processors, namely NanoPi Fire2A powered by S5P4418 SoC, and NanoPi Fire3 based on S5P6818 octa-core Cortex-A53 SoC. Both boards share the same form factor, which remains quite similar to the one of NanoPi 2 Fire, except the HDMI connector now makes place for a micro HDMI port, the USB 2.0 has moved into vertical position, and a few other tweaks have been made to positions of buttons and components. NanoPi Fire2A / Fire3 specifications: SoC Fire2A – Samsung S5P4418 quad core Cortex A9 processor @ up to 1.4GHz, Mali-400MP GPU Fire3 – Samsung S5P6818 octa core Cortex A53 processor @ up to 1.4 GHz, Mali-400MP GPU System Memory Fire2A – 512MB DDR3 […]

$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 […]

ESP32-WROVER-KIT Devkit Supports Espressif ESP32 Modules, Includes a 3.2″ LCD Display

Yesterday Olimex wrote a blog post informing us that ESP32-CoreBoard was back in stock, one the many ESP32 boards launched late this year, but still hard to get. The company also mentioned they’d have limited quantity of the new ESP32-WROVER with JTAG and LCD display together with the picture below. ESP32 is quite more powerful than ESP8266 so it makes sense to have an ESP32 development kit with an LCD display. A quick DuckDuckGo search led me to ESP-WROVER-KIT Getting Started Guide, where we can find more details including the overall specifications: Compatible with ESP-WROOM-32 and ESP32-WROVER modules based on ESP32 dual core Tensilica L108 processor clocked at up to 240 MHz with WiFi and Bluetooth LE connectivity Storage – Micro SD slot Display – 3.2″ LCD display connected via SPI USB – 1x micro USB port Expansion 8-pin UART header 6-pin SPI header 48-pin header for I/Os and camera […]

LicheePi One Allwinner A13 ARM Linux Board is Equipped with LCD Display and Camera Interfaces

Allwinner A13 – repackaged as Allwinner R8 – single core Cortex A8 processor is used in $9 C.H.I.P board with 512MB, 4GB storage, WiFi and Bluetooth, and I/Os. Now a Chinese company has created a new Allwinner A13 board called Lichee Pi that appears especially suited to drive LCD displays thanks to its 40-pin LCD RGB connector, but it also comes with WiFi & Bluetooth, a micro SD slot, and some I/Os. Lichee Pi One board (preliminary/tentative) specifications: SoC – Allwinner A13 ARM Cortex A8 processor @ 1.0 GHz with Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 512MB DDR3 RAM Storage – 2x micro SD slot Display Interface – 40-pin RGB LCD connector, with 8080 interface, VGA and LVDS supported via add-on board Camera – 24-pin CSI interface Audio – 3.5mm audio jack Connectivity – Optional 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth via RTL8723BU module (Multiplexed with USB 2.0 host port) USB – […]

Getting Started with RabbitMax Flex IoT and Automation Hat for Raspberry Pi

At the beginning of the month I showed how to assemble RabbitMax Flex, a Raspberry Pi HAT compliant add-on board for Raspberry Pi boards with 40-pin header, that targets IoT and home automation project with its relay, IR transmitter and receiver, I2C headers for sensors, buzzer, RGB LED, and more.  Since I’ve already described the hardware, I’ve spend some time this week-end following the user’s guide to play around with the board using a Raspberry Pi 2 board, and try various features. The user’s manual explains that you need the latest version of Raspbian, but I’d not played with my Raspberry Pi 2 board for a while, so the kernel and firmware were quite old:

So the first thing I had to do was to upgrade Raspbian. There are basically two options to upgrade, either downloading and dumping the latest Raspbian firmware image to your micro SD card, and […]

NanoPi S2 Quad Core ARM Linux Board Comes with WiFi & BT Connectivity, HDMI, LVDS, and LCD Interfaces

FriendlyARM has released a bunch of Allwinner based NanoPi Allwinner boards recently, but they also have some Samsung/Nexcell S5P ARM Cortex A9 boards in their portfolio, and the latest is NanoPi S2 with Samsung S5P4418 quad core processor, three display interfaces, a camera interface, wireless connectivity through WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0, a 40-pin “Raspberry Pi” header, and more. NanoPi S2 specifications: SoC – Samsung/Nexcell S5P4418 quad core Cortex A9 processor @ 400 MHz to 1.4 GHz with Mali-400MP GPU System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash  + micro SD slot Video Output / Display I/F – micro HDMI port up to 1080p60, 24-pin LCD RGB interface, 24-pin LVDS interface Audio – 3.5mm audio jack, micro HDMI Camera – 24-pin DVP camera interface Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0 classic & LE (AP6212 module); IPEX/u.FL antenna connector USB – 1x USB 2.0 Host, 1x micro […]

4Duino-24 is an Arduino compatible 2.4″ Color IoT Display Module with Atmel MCU and ESP8266 Module

I played with ITEAD Studio NEXTION serial color displays for Arduino boards and the likes a few months ago, and while the hardware seems good and the company offer a large choice of 2.4″ to 7″ models at a very affordable price, I didn’t find the Windows software to create the user interface to be very user-friendly. 4D Systems, an Australian company specializing in “graphics solutions”, will soon launch a similar 2.4″ display, but integrated into an Arduino compatible board also featuring an ESP8266 module for WiFi connectivity. 4Duino-24 “LCD  IoT Display Module” specifications: MCU – Atmel ATmega32U4 micro-controller with 32KB flash, 2.5KB SRAM, 1KB EEPROM Storage – micro SD card slot (FAT16 support) for data and logging WiFi Module – ESP8266 based with 802.11 b/g/n connectivity, 1MB flash, support for Wi-Fi Direct (P2P), soft-AP Display – 2.4” LCD-TFT resistive touch display module with 240×320 resolution, 65K colors, and powered […]

$249 TI AM437x Starter Kit for Industrial Design Launched by Element14

Element14 has recently launched their “Texas Instruments AM437x Starter Kit” based on Sitara AM4378 Cortex A9 processor, including a board and touch screen LCD, and targeting industrial, HMI (Human Machine Interface) and networking applications. Element14 Texas Instruments AM437x Starter Kit specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM4378 ARM Cortex A9 processor @ 1 GHz with PowerVR SGX530 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3L SDRAM (2x 4-Gb Micron chips). Storage – 64MB SPI NOR Flash (MX66L51235FMI), serial EEPROM with board specific data, 1x micro SD slot Display – 4.3″ Capacitive Touch LCD Connectivity – 2x 10/100/1000M Ethernet RJ45 ports (Micrel KSZ9031RN transceivers), support for COM8 form-factor wireless boards via J20 Samtec card edge connector. USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 2x micro USB ports Camera – 2x 12 header for custom-made camera module from TI Audio – TLV320AIC3106 audio codec, 2x audio jacks for headphone out, and Line In Sensors […]

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