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January 26, 2016May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Rhombus Tech 15.6″ Libre Laptop is User-Upgradeable with EOMA68 CPU Cards

When the first Raspberry Pi model launched, there was just not enough boards to fill the demand, and as people kept waiting they were also investigating alternatives, and a growing community worked on Allwinner based platforms. At the time (2012), the main hardware project was EOMA68 CPU card using a PCMCIA connector, with ended up inside Improv development board, and aimed at providing user replaceable and upgradeable CPU cards. Sadly the initiative got some issues, and things did not quite work out as expected, but the person who launched the whole project, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton (LKCL), did not give up on the idea, and has kept on working on EOMA68 standard with CPU cards from Allwinner and other SoC vendors. Recently, he’s been working on a Libre Laptop based on an Allwinner A20 EOMA68 CPU module, and will showcase the prototype at FOSDEM 2016 in Brussels this coming week-end. […]

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

Autonomous Deep Learning Robot Features Nvidia Jetson TK1 Board, a 3D Camera, and More

Autonomous, a US company that makes smart products such as smart desks, virtual reality kits and autonomous robots, has recently introduced a deep learning robot that comes with a 3D camera, speaker and microphone, Jetson TK1 board, and a mobile base. The robot appears to be mostly made of the shelves parts: 3D Depth camera – Asus Xtion Pro 3D Depth Camera Speaker & Microphone Nvidia Jetson TK1 PM375 board – Nvidia Terra K1 quad-core Cortex A15 processor @ 2.3 GHz with a 192-core Kepler GPU, 2GB RAM, 16 GB flash Kobuki Mobile Base – Kobuki is the best mobile base designed for education and research on state of the art robotics. Kobuki provides power supplies for external computer power as well as additional sensors and actuators. Its highly accurate odometry, amended by calibrated gyroscope, enables precise navigation. The robot is designed for research in deep learning and mobile robotics, […]

January 17, 2016February 6, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

AsteroidOS is an Open Source Operating System for Your Android (Wear) Smartwatch

If you own an Android or Android Wear smartwatch, but would like more control over its functionality or simply prefer a truly open source operating systems for your watch, AsteroidOS could be the answer. Like alternative mobile operating systems such as Sailfish OS or Ubuntu Touch, AsteroidOS leverages existing Android drivers via libhybris library, and the user interface relies on Qt5 and QML running on top of OpenEmbedded, while Bluetooth is handled by BlueZ 5 library. There’s no company behind the project, and it is purely community driven. Currently only the LG G watch is supported, and you can give AsteroidOS a try by following the instructions. The Wiki provides information about the boot process, how to build the OS, creating an Qt5/QML app. etc.. and also explains how to port AsteroidOS to other watches, so if the project gets traction more devices will be supported. There are several ways […]

January 13, 2016January 13, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

BeagleBone Blue Board is Designed for Robots and UAVs

Beagleboard.org organization already tried to go Blue with BeagleBone BlueSteel-Basic that was supposed to a the single board computer to be used by OEM to integrate into their design instead of BeagleBone Black development board. For some unknown reasons this never happened, but they’ve now reused the color to introduce BeagleBone Blue board designed for robotics and UAVs. BeagleBone Blue specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM3358 Cortex A8 @ 1 GHz + PowerVR SGX530 GPU System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 Storage – 4 GB 8-bit on-board flash storage Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 LE USB – USB 2.0 client and host Motor Control – 8x 6V servo out, 4x DC motor out, 4x quad enc in Sensors – 9 axis IMU, barometer “Easy connect Interfaces” – GPS, DSM2 radio, UARTs, SPI, I2C, analog, buttons, LEDs Power / Battery – 2-cell LiPo support with balancing, 6-16V charger input […]

January 13, 2016June 18, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

FOSDEM 2016 Schedule – Open Source Hardware and Software Event in Europe

FOSDEM (Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting) is a 2-day event that usually takes place on the first week-end of February in Brussels, but this year it will be on January 30-31. The event brings thousands of developers, hackers, and other person interested in open source technology who present their projects and share ideas. FOSDEM 2016 schedule is now available, and There will be 557 speakers, 612 events, and 50 tracks this year including 7 main tracks: Distros, Enterprise, Hardware, Communications, Miscellaneous, Office, Systems Administration, and Virtualization. So I’ve had a look at some of the talks, especially out of “Embedded, Mobile and Automotive” and “IoT” devrooms, and prepared my own virtual schedule although I won’t be able to attend. Saturday 10:30 – 10:55 – MIPS, the other side of the embedded by Alexjan Carraturo For many years MIPS processors have been involved in the embedded market, particularly […]

December 29, 2015December 29, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

uRADMonitor Aims to Crowdsource Air Pollution Measurements Worldwide (Crowdfunding)

Some projects such as the World Air Quality Index project are already generating a pollution world map using data from the countries’ respective “Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)”, but a Romanian startup aims to allow individuals to monitor pollution around the world with their uRAMonitor project, effectively crowd-sourcing pollution monitoring. For this purpose, the company created environmental monitors with various features and price points, include the higher-emd Model D with the following specifications: Color LCD with touchscreen LND712 made in the USA for Alpha, Beta and Gamma Radiation Bosch BME680 to measure air temperature, barometric pressure, humidity and VOC (volatile organic compounds) Sharp photoelectric sensor to measure dust, pollen, soot, smoke and other particulate matter 1500mAh rechargeable battery for 8 hours of continuous use Wireless 802.11b/g/n connectivity mini USB connector for charging or data Internal audible alarm when pollution readings are high There’s also model A measuring temperature and radiation, connected […]

December 28, 2015December 29, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

ODROID-C2 Amlogic S905 Development Board is in the Works

Hardkernel ODROID-C1 and later ODROID-C1+ boards, both based on Amlogic S805 SoC, have been a popular alternatives to Raspberry Pi 2 board this year. But now that Amlogic S905 quad core 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 processor has been available for a few months, people have been wondering whether the Korean company would launch an Amlogic S905 board, and it looks like ODROID-C2 might not be too far off based on firmware files on odroid.in website. The firmware includes a device tree file, which combined with other files give some clues about ODROID-C2 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with penta-core (3+2) Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 1GB RAM (in doc), 2GB RAM (in Device tree) Storage – 1x micro SD card Video Output – 1x HDMI out USB – 1x USB hub, 1x USB OTG I don’t have much more information […]

December 11, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Light Biz OS Firmware, Android and Ubuntu Image, and Android SDK Released for GeekBox (RK3368)

GeekBox is an upcoming Android TV box based on Rockchip RK3368 octa-core processor that doubles as a system-on-module and development board. The company has now uploaded the Android 5.1 SDK, including Linux 3.10.79 kernel, on github. It’s not for the Android SDK for RK3368, but at least it’s not just an outdated tarball, and will hopefully be regularly updated directly on github. Beside the source code, the company also released three firmware image including Rockchip’s Light Biz OS desktop operating system based on Lollipop: Biz OS for GeekBox – V151208 (8th of December 2015) Android and Lubuntu dual boot image – V151129 (29th of November 2015) Android 5.1 image – V151129 (29th of November 2015) It’s quite possible those images will also work on other Rockchip RK3368 platform with some modifications, e.g. an updated device tree file for a given hardware. I’ve downloaded Biz OS adn the dual boot image, […]