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November 26, 2020November 26, 2020 by Abhishek Jadhav - 3 Comments

DevTerm with ClockworkPi v3.14: a modular, portable computer

After the launch of ClockworkPi GameShell in Q4 2018, now ClockworkPi has come with yet another exciting product. DevTerm is a portable computer that comes with a 6.8-inch IPS screen, a keyboard with 67 keys, and a battery module, all connected to ClockworkPi v3.14 carrier board and a choice of core modules. It will also come with an optional built-in thermal printer. ClockworkPi v3.14 Mainboard and the Core boards The mainboard ClockworkPi v3.14 uses a compact design and comes with a reduced size of 95x77mm. With a modular design, it gives you a choice of “core board” modules for various applications. Moreover, ClockworkPi v3.14 is now compatible with the Raspberry Pi CM3 series, which means that your work on the Raspberry Pi can be “teleported” to a portable terminal without hassle. It has integrated 5GHz WIFI (802.11ac) and Bluetooth 5.0 which makes it suitable for wireless communication applications as well. […]

November 24, 2020November 24, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

Pine64’s PINECIL RISC-V soldering iron launched for $25

We’ve previously mentioned PINECIL RISC-V soldering iron during Pine64’s release of PineCube open-source IP camera development kit, and the good news is the soldering iron is now available for $24.99 on Pine64 store together with optional sets of gross or fine soldering tips compatible with the one used with TS100 model The soldering iron is powered by GigaDevice GD32VF103TB 32-bit RISC-V general-purpose microcontroller and features a small display and two buttons for user interaction, as well as changeable tips. It can be powered by a USB-C power adapter or a 12 to 24V power brick such as the ones you’d found with laptops. PINECIL soldering iron key features and specifications: MCU – GigaDevice GD32VF103TB 32-bit RV32IMAC RISC-V “Bumblebee Core” @ 108 MHz with 128KB flash, 32KB SRAM Display – 0.69-inch OLED monochrome display with 96×16 resolution Tip – 106mm long, Type B2 Temperature range – 100°C to 400°C; reaches operating […]

November 24, 2020November 24, 2020 by Abhishek Jadhav - 7 Comments

Hantro H1 hardware accelerated video encoding support in mainline Linux

With the increasing need for video encoding, there are some breakthrough developments in hardware-accelerated video encoding for Linux. Bootlin has been working on the implementation of Hantro H1 hardware accelerated video encoding to support H.264 encoding on Linux which follows the company’s work on the previously-released open-source VPU driver for Allwinner processors. Hantro H1 Hardware Hantro H1 is a common hardware H.264 encoder, it can also do VP8 and JPEG. It is found in a few ARM SoCs including a lot of Rockchip (RK3288, RK3328, RK3399, PX30, RK1808) and NXP (i.MX 8M Mini). Depending on the version, it can support up to 1080p at 30 or 60 fps. Here we can see different blocks used for encoding. Hantro H1 is a stateless hardware implementation which means it has no microcontroller or firmware running. As can be seen in the diagram, it has a pre-processor that can do things like cropping, […]

November 23, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

$89 Lite3DP resin 3D printer fits in the palm of your hand (Crowdfunding)

I thought Selpic A-star 3D printer we recently covered was already small, but if you’re looking for an ultra-portable printer, it will be hard to beat the Arduino-based, open-source hardware Lite3DP resin 3D printer that can fit in the palm of your hand, and weighs just around 350 grams. That also means a pretty small build volume of just 45.1 x 33.8 x 70 mm, so it’s really for small objects, and for instance, a typical Raspberry Pi case could not be printed. But let’s have a look. Lite3DP printer’s key features and specifications: Electronics – All-in-one PCB with Arduino Pro Mini, a driver for the stepper motor, a module for a microSD card, and a screen with dual-functionality. Technology – MSLA // LCD-SLA Resolution – XY: 0.14 mm; Z: 0.05 and 0.1 mm Build volume (W x L x H) – 45.1 x 33.8 x 70 mm Tray volume […]

November 21, 2020November 26, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Khadas VIM3 & VIM3L SBC’s become Android reference boards

Khadas VIM3 & VIM3L Android Reference Boards

If you need to work on the very latest development version of Android or AOSP, you can either get one of the supported phones such as Google Pixel 5, one of the reference boards for Android which should be better for development and also fairly cheaper. We previously reported about Hikey, Hikey960, and DragonBoard 845c single board computers being part of the short list of reference boards for the Android Open-Source Project (AOSP), but Amlogic powered Khadas VIM3 and VIM3L have recently been added to the official devices page which makes them the first AOSP reference boards with a dedicated NPU / AI accelerator. As a quick reminder, Khadas VIM3 is the most powerful board with an Amlogic A311D hexa-core Cortex-A73/A53 processor with up to 4GB RAM and 32GB flash, and Khadas VIM3L is the light version with an Amlogic S905D3 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB flash. […]

November 16, 2020 by Abhishek Jadhav - 1 Comment

LibIIO – Library for interfacing Linux industrial I/O devices

For more than 6 years, the LibIIO library has existed to ease the development of software interfacing Linux Industrial I/O (IIO) devices. It is part of the Linux Kernel and a subsystem that provides support for devices like analog to digital or digital to analog converters (ADCs, DACs). This subsystem includes ADCs, accelerometers, pressure sensors, color, light and proximity sensors, temperature sensors, RF transceivers, and many more. You can use LibIIO natively on an embedded Linux target. It is cross-platform, supporting Linux, Windows, and Mac OS. Analog Devices Inc. was the main company behind LibIIO development, which is currently an active open-source library, which many people have contributed to. What does LibIIO do? LibIIO will identify the channels that belong to each device. It will assign specific attributes, one for the channels and one for the devices. Then, it will also create a context that is a place where all […]

November 14, 2020November 14, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments

Turn $1.5 Blue Pill STM32 board into a Sigrok compatible logic analyzer

“Blue Pill” is a popular STM32 development board thanks to its low cost – now as low as $1.50 on Aliexpress – and Arduino compatibility via the STM32duino project. People have created all sorts of projects around the tiny STM32 board, but I find Mark (aka thanks4opensource) buck50 test and measurement firmware very interesting as it turns the Blue Pill board into a logic analyzer compatible with the open-source Sigrok command-line tool and PulseView GUI. Mark explains the firmware is still at the beta stage, so bugs will most likely have to be fixed. Nevertheless, Buck50 firmware should enable the following key features on the Blue Pill board: 8 channel, 6+ MHz logic analyzer Approx. 5K sample buffer depth Samples stored only at signal edges for efficient memory usage Complex triggering via user-defined state machine supporting combinations of sequential (“A then B then C”) and logical-OR (“A or B or […]

November 3, 2020December 15, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Precursor is a mobile, open hardware, dual FPGA development kit (Crowdfunding)

Precursor mobile open-source dual FPGA devkit

Sutajio Ko-usagi PTE LTD has launched some interesting hardware on Crowd Supply over the years include Novena open-source hardware Arm laptop, and Fomu FPGA USB board. The company is now back with another project: Precursor, a mobile, open-source hardware devkit powered by not one, but two FPGA with Xilinx Spartan 7-Series FPGA, plus a super-low-power Lattice iCE40 UP5K FPGA for deep-sleep system management. The device also comes with a display, battery, and keyboard that make it looks like older Palm or Blackberry phones. Precursor FPGA devkit specifications: FPGA Xilinx XC7S50 primary System on Chip (SoC) FPGA with -L1 speed grade for longer battery life; tested with 100 MHz VexRISC-V, RV32IMAC + MMU, 4k L1 I/D cache Lattice Semi iCE40UP5K secondary Embedded Controller (EC) FPGA for power, standby, and charging functions; tested with 18 MHz VexRISC-V, RV32I, no cache System Memory – 16MB external SRAM Storage – 128MB flash Display -536 […]