Announced last year, Rockchip RKi6000 SoC promised WiFi connectivity at Bluetooth 4.0 LE power consumption levels, and the company has recently showcased the technology with a demo board controlling four lightbulbs. The chart above shows Rorkchip solution can transmit data at 802.11b speeds (11 Mbps) while still keeping power consumption low at around 10mW, similar to BT LE, and good enough to run on batteries. Peak Tx and Rx power has gone up a little since the first announcement, as the company now claims 66mW @ 11 Mbps instead of just 60mW. While there’s basically zero information about the chip on Rockchip website, you may have noticed a QR code on the product brochure in Charbax video linking to Rockchip IoT Club, which you can join as long as you work for a company with a specific project in mind. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a […]
LoPy Tiny IoT Developer Board Runs MicroPython, Supports LoRa, WiFi and Bluetooth (Crowdfunding)
Pycom launched WiPy last year, a WiFi IoT board based on Texas Instruments CC3200 ARM Cortex M4 SoC, and a few months after sending rewards to their Kickstarter backers, they are back on the crowdfunding platform to launch LoPy, another IoT development board that runs MicroPython and offers LoRa, WiFi and Bluetooth LE connectivity. LoPy board hardware specifications: SoC – Dual processor @ 160 MHz with WiFi & BLE radio with 400 kB RAM, 1MB flash External Storage – 4MB flash Connectivity 802. 11b/g/n @ 16Mbps with WEP, WPA/WPA2 WiFi security; SSL/TLS support; AES encryption engine. Bluetooth Classic and Low Energy LoRaWAN Semtech LoRa transceiver SX1272 @ 868 MHz (Europe) or 915 MHz (North America). Range – Node: Up to 40km; Nano-Gateway: Up to 5 km Nano Gateway Capacity – Up to 100 nodes. Internal chip antenna and u.fl connectors for external antennas Headers – 2x 14-pin headers for: Up […]
Ugoos AM1 4K TV Box Review
Ugoos AM1 is yet another TV box based on Amlogic S905. I’ve already published specifications and uploaded some pictures of the nice looking cyan box and its board, so today I’ll report on my experience after actually playing with the device, where I mostly focused on known problems found on other S905 mini PCs, and some extra features added to Ugoos firmware. First Boot, Settings, and First Impressions I filled all three USB ports with a USB webcam, a USB hard drive, and a USB hub with RF dongles for MINIX NEO A2 Lite air mouse, Tronsmart Mars G01 wireless gamepad, and a USB keyboard (convenient for screenshots), and connected Ethernet, HDMI and power cables. A boot will usually take around 30 seconds. Before going through the user interface, I’ll mention that OTA firmware upgrade worked very well, and it was one of the first thing I did before the […]
FriendlyARM NanoPC-T2 Board Gets More Storage, WiFi & Bluetooth, Stays Cool, and Costs Less
FriendlyARM NanoPC-T1 board powered by Samsung Exynos 4412 processor with 1GB RAM and 4GB eMMC flash was unveiled at the start of 2014 for $69. The company has now announced NanoPC-T2 with Samsung S5P4418 processor with 1GB RAM, and 8GB Flash, as well as WiFi and Bluetooth, as Gigabit Ethernet all of which were missing in the first version. NanoPC-T2 also has a power management chip, and a larger heatsink, meaning that it does not suffer from overheating like NanoPi2 according to FriendlyARM. NanoPC-T2 specifications: SoC – Samsung S5P4418 quad core Cortex A9 processor @ up to 1.4GHz with Mali-400MP GPU System Memory – 1GB 32bit DDR3 RAM Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, and 1x SD card slot (on the bottom of the board) Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth LE 4.0 (Ampak AP6212) with on-board chip antenna and 1x IPX antenna connector Video Output / Display […]
Zsun Wifi Card Reader Can Now Run OpenWrt
Zsun Wifi card reader is a tiny micro SD card reader with WiFi connectivity, and while people managed to access the device serial console a few months ago, the plan was to eventually run OpenWrt since it’s based on the popular Atheros AR9331 WiSoC combined with 64MB RAM and 16MB SPI Flash. It would also be one the smallest OpenWrt capable device with dimensions of 30 x 33 mm. A team of Polish managed this feat, and have now posted instructions to install OpenWrt, as well as other documentation, for example a description of the board’s GPIOs. There are four methods to flash OpenWrt: Solder on an Ethernet jack and flash from the original uboot (hard but safe) Reflash the bootloader from the original firmware to one that supports upload over serial (less soldering but fatal if you mess up) Reflash the firmware from the original firmware using mtd_write (easy […]
Renesas GR-PEACH mbed Board Features RZ/A1H Processor with 10MB On-chip Memory
Renesas RZ/A1 ARM Cortex A9 processors were unveiled in 2013, and one of the differentiating feature was the large amount of on-chip SRAM with up to 10MB for RZ/A1H model. The following year, Renesas’ RZ/A1 professional development kit, and some RZ/A1H modules were launched, and I’ve now just seen a tweet about Renesas GR-PEACH development board that is mbed compatible, feature Renesas RZ/A1H processor, and happens to be pink. There are actually two models based on the same PCB: GR-PEACH normal without header, and a “WiFi” connector, and GR-PEACH Full with female headers and an Ethernet port. Both basically share the same specifications: SoC – Renesas RZ/A1H ARM Cortex-A9 Core @ 400 MHz with 10MB on-chip RAM, NEON and FPU, and 128KB L2 cache Storage – 8MB FLASH + micro SD slot Connectivity – Normal: Optional BP3595 WiFi module; FULL: 1x 10/100M Ethernet(Microchip LAN8710A); Both: Xbee connector (unpopulated) USB – […]
Ugoos UT4 Android 5.1 TV Box Review
Ugoos UT4 is one of many Rockchip RK3368 TV boxes available on the market today, but it’s one of the model with higher-end specifications including 2 GB RAM, and 16 GB flash, as well as Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11ac WiFi, Ugoos offers regular firmware updates for their devices, and as I found out in Ugoos UT4 specs and teardown post, the mini PC features a fan to keep the device cool at all times. Today, I’ll focus on reviewing the firmware including video playback capabilities, performance and whether advertised features work as they should. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions Before powering on the device, I connected some cables (Ethernet, HDMI, optical audio, AV to speakers), and made use of all four USB ports with a USB hard drive, a webcam, a keyboard, and a USB hub with two RF dongles for MINIX NEO A2 Lite air mouse and Tronsmart […]
PixiePro Board Combines NXP i.MX6Q Processor with WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, GPS, and a 3G Modem
Saying that the market now provides a wide range of development boards is probably an understatement, but Code Ing has found out that most hobbyist boards had limited on-board wireless connectivity with WiFi and Bluetooth basically the best you could expect, with any extra wireless functionality requiring USB dongles. So the company designed PixiePro single board computer powered by NXP i.MX6Q quad core Cortex A9 processor with on-board wireless connectivity including WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/GLONASS, NFC and a 3G module. PixiePro board specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX6Q quad core Cortex A9 processor @ 1 GHz with Vivante 2D and 3D GPUs System Memory – 2GB 64-bit DDR3 Storage – 2x UHS-I micro SD card slot up to 104 MB/s Video Output – micro HDMI up to 1080p60 Audio Output – HDMI and 3.5mm mini TOSLINK optical port/Line Out Connectivity WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2×2 MIMO with two antenna connectors Bluetooth […]