openwrt News - Page 34 of 36 - CNX Software

January 28, 2015March 6, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

TCL T1 (SL-WR5028J) is a $46 Wi-Fi Router with a 2.5″ SATA Bay

Many routers now come with one or more USB ports to let you connect 3G dongles or/and storage device(s) to share the data on your local network. If you want to go with a fully integrated solution, and obvious solution is to go with a NAS, but these usually cost a bit more, so instead TCL SL-WR5028J (aka TCl T1) router could make a low cost (and low performance) NAS alternative thanks to its internal 2.5″ SATA bay, and it can be had for just $45.99 on DealExtreme. [Update: GearBest sells it for $35.98 with coupon TCLT1] TCL T1 specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT7260 MIPS WiSoC @ 580MHz System Memory – 64MB DDR2 Storage – 8MB Flash for firmware + SATA bay for 2.5″ HDD (5, 7.5 or 9mm thick hard drives are supported). Max capacity: unlimited… 🙂 Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi up to 300 Mbps with two external antennas […]

January 28, 2015January 28, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Black Swift is a Tiny OpenWRT Wi-Fi Board Powered by Atheros AR9331 (Crowdfunding)

In case you thought there were not enough Wi-Fi board in the market already, here’s another one with Black Swift. The board runs OpenWRT, is a little larger than Vocore, and quite smaller than WRTnode, is powered by Atheros AR9331, provides access to I/Os via headers, and comes with two micro USB ports which should make it easy to use, and allow some interesting applications with USB devices. Black Swift specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Atheros AR9331 32-bit MIPS 24K CPU core @ 400 MHz, or 200 MHz in energy-saving mode selectable by software System Memory – 64 MB DDR2 SDRAM Storage – 16 MB NOR flash Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi (1×1, up to 150 Mbps) with PCB antenna USB – 1 x microUSB for power, 1x microUSB 2.0 port Expansion – Headers for 26x GPIO, 2x Fast Ethernet, SPI, I²C, 1x 16550 UART, 1x USB 2.0 Misc – Factory reset […]

January 23, 2015January 23, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Vonets VM300 Wi-Fi & Ethernet IoT Board with Mediatek MT7620 Runs OpenWRT

Mediatek MT760 is a recent Wi-Fi SoC found in some Nexx WT3020 routers, and WRTnode development board. Both run OpenWRT and costs $17 to $30 depending on the amount of flash, and ports with the former featuring two Ethernet ports, and the latter access to GPIOs. You could probably open the case of the Nexx routers and solder some wires to get access to GPIO, and you can hack an Ethernet cable for WRTnode, but another options could be Vonets WM300 kit that includes a board with Wi-Fi and Ethernet, a cable for USB / Ethernet connection, headers for GPIOs, and two external antennas for less than $30. An OpenWRT SDK is also provided for the kit. Specifications listed for VM300 board: Processor – Mediatek MT7260N MIPS processor @ 580MHz Storage – 4MB SPI Flash (option: 8MB/16MB) for firmware System Memory – 32MB or 64MB SDRAM Connectivity Wi-Fi Single band […]

October 29, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Zero+ IoT Wi-Fi Board is Programmable with Lisp (Crowdfunding)

There have been so many low cost Wi-Fi modules and boards with GPIO headers announced this year, especially on crowdfunding sites, and from the hardware point of view, Zero+ (Zero Plus) board looks very much like many other Ralink RT5350 boards such as Vocore or AsiaRF AWM002, but what makes it different is that it can be programmed with Lisp from a web-based IDE. But let’s go through Zero+ board specifications first: SoC – Ralink/Mediatek RT5350 MIPS processor @ 360MHz with dual band 802.11n Wi-Fi with data Rate up to 150Mbps System Memory – 32 MB RAM Storage – 8MB to 16 MB SPI Flash (for firmware) Expansions Headers – 2x headers with access to I2C, SPI, USB, 2x UART, JTAG, and 14x GPIOs USB – 1x USB host port, 1x micro USB for power Misc – 2x buttons Dimensions – 36 x 25mm (possibly module dimensions only, not full board). I’m […]

October 6, 2014November 28, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Freescale LS1021A-IOT IoT Gateway Reference Design Powered by QorIQ LS1021A Dual ARM Cortex A7 SoC

Freescale has just launched a an IoT gateway reference design powered by their QorIQ LS1021A communication processors running Linux/OpenWRT, designed in partnership with TechNexion, and targeting various IoT applications such as building/home management, smart cities, networked industrial services, etc… Beside the dual core Cortex A7 QoirIQ processor, the board features six Gigabit Ethernet ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a SATA 3 port, two mini PCIe connector, an LVDS interface, HDMI output, Arduino UNO compatible headers, and various others expansions headers. LS1021A-IOT IoT gateway Specifications: SoC – Freescale QorIQ LS1021A dual core Cortex A7 communication processor @ 1 GHz (5,000 coremarks) MCU – Freescale Kinetis K20 Cortex M micro-controller System Memory – 1 GB DDR3L Storage – 1 Gb QSPI NOR Flash, SDHC slot (up to 32 GB) populated with a 4GB SD card, 1x mSATA 3 slot Connectivity – 6x Gigabit ports via SGMII (Serial Gigabit Media Independent Interface) and […]

September 18, 2014September 18, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Getting Started with WRTnode OpenWRT Development Board

Seeed Studio sent me two nice little boards that can be used for IoT development: WRTNode and LinkIt ONE. Today, I’ll show pictures of WRTNode and accessories, and go through the “starting guide“, and will test LinkIt ONE board a few days later. WRTnode Unboxing I’ve received WRTnode by Fedex, and the board is stored in a plastic box. Inside the box, you’ll find the board, a “special” USB used to power the board and as an OTG adapter, a piece of paper with useful links (Wiki), and some WRTnode stickers. Any micro USB to USB cable can be used to power the board, but this cable is useless to connect USB devices such as flash drives, webcams (OpenCV is supported), Bluetooth dongles, and so on. You could even connect a USB hub to connect multiple USB devices as shown below. I’ve also taken a picture of both sides of […]

August 25, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

$25 GL.iNet 6416A is an Hackable OpenWRT Router with Easy UART and GPIO Access

There are plenty of low cost routers supporting OpenWRT, but GL.iNet 6416A has several advantages compared to devices like TP-Link WR703N. Both are based on Atheros AR9931, but GL.iNet router has more memory and storage (64MB RAM + 16MB Flash vs 32MB RAM + 4MB Flash), two Ethernet ports instead of just one, and 6 GPIOs, the serial pins, and power signals (5V, 3.3V and GND) are all easily accessible via though holes or headers. Gl.iNet 6416A can be purchased for about $25 on DealExtreme or Amazon US, and it used to be listed on eBay, but is now out of stock. Gl/iNET 6416A specifications: Wi-Fi SoC – Atheros AR9331 MIPS processor @ 400 MHz System Memory – 64MB RAM Storage – 16MB Flash Connectivity – 2x 10/100 Mbit Ethernet ports, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-FI up to 150Mbps USB – 1x USB 2.0 port, 1x micro USB port for power Debugging […]

August 20, 2014August 20, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

WRTNode is a Hacker-Friendly Open Source Hardware OpenWRT Wi-Fi Module Selling for $25

There are now some tiny and low cost ($15 to $20) Wi-Fi modules supporting OpenWRT such as VoCore and AsiaRF AWM002. However due to their small size they may not be that hacker’s friendly as they can’t have 2.54mm headers due to heir small size, and I’ve recently received AsiaRF AWM002 only to find out it not only needs 3.3V supply voltage, but also 1.8V and 1.2V. So I’d need to make my own power circuit with the required LDOs, or purchase a $20 base board to use the module. Here comes WRTnode another larger Wi-Fi module but with more usable 2.54mm headers, and based on the more powerful Mediatek MT7620N processor @ 600MHz. WRTnode hardware specifications: Processor – Mediatek MT7620N 600MHz MIPS CPU (MIPS24KEc) System Memory – 64MB DDR2 Storage – 16MB SPI flash Connectivity – Wi-Fi 2T2R 802.11n 2.4 GHz up to 300Mbps Expansion Headers – 2x with […]