CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

September 18, 2014May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

$39 PcDuino3 Nano ARM Linux Development Board Features HDMI, SATA, Gigabit Ethernet, Arduino Headers…

Linksprite recently announced PcDuino3 Nano development board powered by AllWinner A20 dual core processor. PcDuino3 Nano is, as you can expect, a smaller and cheaper version the company’s PcDuino3 board without Wi-Fi module, LVDS header, and I2S interface. The board does not appear to support Li-Po batteries either, but it adds one extra USB host port compared to its big brother. pcDuino3 Nano specifications: SoC – AllWinner A20 dual core ARM Cortex A7 @ 1.0 GHz with Mali 400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB DRAM Storage – 4GB NAND Flash, SATA connector, and microSD card slot (up to 32GB) Video Output – HDMI 1.4 with HDCP support Audio Out – 3.5mm analog audio interface Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet USB – 2x USB host, 1x USB OTG Expansion Headers – Arduino UNO extension interface with 14xGPIO, 2xPWM, 6xADC, 1xUART, 1xSPI, 1xI2C. Camera – MIPI camera support Misc – IR receiver Power […]

September 17, 2014November 12, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

MXQ S85 Android TV Box Based on Amlogic S805 is Available for $50

Android media players powered by Amlogic S805 quad core processor such as TV110 are already pretty cheap at around $60, but there’s currently a deal on Gearbest where you can get MXQ S85 for less than $50 without Bluetooth and about $55 with Bluetooth by using BackToSchool8 coupon to get 8% discount. Prices include shipping. MXQ S85 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S805 quad core ARM Cortex A5 @ 1.5GHz with quad core Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage – 8 GB NAND flash + micro SD slot (up to 32GB) Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and optional Bluetooth 4.0. Video Output – HDMI 1.4, AV output Audio Output – HDMI, AV, optical S/PDIF USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports + 1 x micro USB OTG port Misc – IR sensor Power Supply – 5V/2A Dimensions – 11.4x 11.4 x 2.3 cm Weight – 137 grams […]

ArmSoM CM5 Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

September 17, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

VIA ARTiGO 1300 Quad Core x86 Rugged Digital Signage Player

VIA has recently announced ARTiGO 1300, a rugged digital signage player powered by a VIA quad core E-Series x86 processor with VX11PH media processor, provides two HDMI outputs for independent displays, USB 3.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet and more. Beside digital signage applications, it can also be used for kiosks, menu boards, HMIs, and other IoT applications. ARTiGO A1300 Specifications: Processor – VIA QuadCore E-Series @ 1.0 GHz Chipset – VIA VX11PH Media System Processor with Chrome 645/640 GPU for 2D/3D, and hardware video decoding support (MPEG-2, WMV9, VC-1 and H.264) System Memory – 1x DDR3 1066/1333 SODIMM socket (up to 8GB) Storage – Support 1x 2.5” SATA SSD/HDD, 1x mSATA SSD. 32Mbit Flash memory for AMI Aptio UEFI BIOS. Video Output – 2x HDMI ports supporting resolutions up to 1920 x 1080 pixels. Dual independent HDMI display support. Audio – VIA VT2021 High Definition Audio Codec, Line-in and Line-out Connectivity […]

September 17, 2014May 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Creating and Flashing an Android Image from Rockchip RK3288 SDK

Following up on my post explaining how to build Android for RK3288 TV box, I’ve generated a firmware image, and flashed it to Tronsmart Orion R28 Meta TV box to see if it could boot properly. There’s basically no information in the Andoird SDK explaining how to do basic things like building from source, and generating and flashing the resulting image, so I’d like to thanks Linuxium, Droidmote and Naobsd for their various tips. Since I’ve built everything from source, I’m using a Linux machine, but you should be able to create and flash the Android image in Windows using tools in RKTools/windows folder. First let’s copy the required, and freshly built, files to create the firmware:

cp rockdev/Image-rk3288/* RKTools/linux/Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.2/rockdev/Image/
cp RKTools/rk3288-3.10-uboot-data1G.parameter.txt RKTools/linux/Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.2/rockdev/parameter
cp RKTools/bootloader/uboot-emmc/RK3288Loader_uboot_Apr212014_134842.bin RKTools/linux/Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.2/rockdev/
cd RKTools/linux/Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.2/rockdev/

cp rockdev/Image-rk3288/* RKTools/linux/Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.2/rockdev/Image/

cp RKTools/rk3288-3.10-uboot-data1G.parameter.txt RKTools/linux/Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.2/rockdev/parameter

cp RKTools/bootloader/uboot-emmc/RK3288Loader_uboot_Apr212014_134842.bin RKTools/linux/Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.2/rockdev/

cd RKTools/linux/Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.2/rockdev/

We’ll also need to edit package-file follows (I only had to change the bootloader field):

# NAME Relative path
#
#HWDEF HWDEF
package-file package-file
bootloader RK3288Loader_uboot_Apr212014_134842.bin
parameter parameter
misc Image/misc.img
kernel Image/kernel.img
boot Image/boot.img
recovery Image/recovery.img
system Image/system.img
backup RESERVED
#update-script update-script
#recover-script recover-script

# NAME Relative path

#HWDEF HWDEF

package-file package-file

bootloader RK3288Loader_uboot_Apr212014_134842.bin

parameter parameter

misc Image/misc.img

kernel Image/kernel.img

boot Image/boot.img

recovery Image/recovery.img

system Image/system.img

backup RESERVED

#update-script update-script

#recover-script recover-script

And now create the firmware file:

./mkupdate
start to make update.img...
Android Firmware Package Tool v1.0
------ PACKAGE ------
Add file: ./package-file
Add file: ./RK3288Loader_uboot_Apr212014_134842.bin
Add file: ./parameter
Add file: ./Image/misc.img
Add file: ./Image/kernel.img
Add file: ./Image/boot.img
Add file: ./Image/recovery.img
Add file: ./Image/system.img
Add CRC...
Make firmware OK!
------ OK ------
********RKImageMaker ver 1.61********
Generating new image, please wait...
Writing head info...
Writing boot file...
Writing firmware...
Generating MD5 data...
MD5 data generated successfully!
New image generated successfully!
Making update.img OK.
Press any key to quit:

./mkupdate

start to make update.img...

Android Firmware Package Tool v1.0

------ PACKAGE ------

Add file: ./package-file

Add file: ./RK3288Loader_uboot_Apr212014_134842.bin

Add file: ./parameter

Add file: ./Image/misc.img

Add file: ./Image/kernel.img

Add file: ./Image/boot.img

Add file: ./Image/recovery.img

Add file: ./Image/system.img

Add CRC...

Make firmware OK!

------ OK ------

********RKImageMaker ver 1.61********

Generating new image, please wait...

Writing head info...

Writing boot file...

Writing firmware...

Generating MD5 data...

MD5 data generated successfully!

New image generated successfully!

Making update.img OK.

Press any key to quit:

The firmware file update.img can be flashed with upgrade_tool […]

September 17, 2014September 17, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Android TV Overview – Linaro Connect US 2014

Google announced Android TV and ADT-1 devkit last June, as the company wants to bring user-friendly Android user-experience to TVs, set-top boxes and game consoles. Mark Gregotski, head of the Linaro Digital Home Group (LHG), has provided a technical overview of Android TV during the on-going Linaro Connect US 2014. You find a summary of yesterday sessions on Linaro’s blog, and the even will last until Friday, where several demos will be showcased. SoC companies currently involved in Android TV include Nvidia, Marvell, Qualcomm, Mediatek, Intel, Broadcom, and ST micro, so none of usual Chinese Android TV Box players (Rockchip, Amlogic, AllWinner…) are represented. Android (for smartphone) currently support video playback but you may experience dropped frame from time to time, where in the STB market requirements are not stringent. For example, NTT is said to only allow one frame dropped per month! So Android TV aims to improve video […]

September 16, 2014June 15, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

How to Build Android 4.4 for Rockchip RK3288 Devices (Tronsmart Orion R28)

After blowing up my ATX power supply, and learning such things as “FULL” power supplies do exists, I finally managed to build Android for Tronsmart Orion R28 using the provided SDK. I haven’t tried to load it on the device yet, but the build could complete successfully after following the steps below in Ubuntu 14.04. The SDK is probably not specific to one device, so it might just also work on other RK3288 TV boxes and tablets. First download Android 4.4 SDK for RK3288, or use the one in the micro SD card provided with the Beta version of R28 Pro and Meta. Install some dependencies:

sudo apt-get install git-core gnupg flex bison gperf libsdl1.2-dev libesd0-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev \
squashfs-tools build-essential zip curl libncurses5-dev zlib1g-dev pngcrush schedtool libxml2 \
libxml2-utils xsltproc lzop libc6-dev schedtool g++-multilib lib32z1-dev lib32ncurses5-dev \
lib32readline-gplv2-dev gcc-multilib libswitch-perl gcc-arm-linux-gnueabi lzop libncurses5-dev \
libssl1.0.0 libssl-dev

sudo apt-get install git-core gnupg flex bison gperf libsdl1.2-dev libesd0-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev \

squashfs-tools build-essential zip curl libncurses5-dev zlib1g-dev pngcrush schedtool libxml2 \

libxml2-utils xsltproc lzop libc6-dev schedtool g++-multilib lib32z1-dev lib32ncurses5-dev \

lib32readline-gplv2-dev gcc-multilib libswitch-perl gcc-arm-linux-gnueabi lzop libncurses5-dev \

libssl1.0.0 libssl-dev

Extract the SDK:

tar xvf Orion_R28_SDK_doc.tar.gz

1	tar xvf Orion_R28_SDK_doc.tar.gz

And build the kernel first: Enter the kernel directory:

cd RK3288_R-BOX_ANDROID4.4.2-SDK_V1.0.0/kernel/

1	cd RK3288_R-BOX_ANDROID4.4.2-SDK_V1.0.0/kernel/

Change arch/arm/boot/dts/Makefile to use RK3288 device tree file instead of an RK3188 (may not be needed, but the build failed for me without that change…):

dtb-$(CONFIG_ARCH_ROCKCHIP) += rk3288-box.dtb

1	dtb-$(CONFIG_ARCH_ROCKCHIP) += rk3288-box.dtb

It’s also quite […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs abd SoMs

September 16, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

WeIO is an Open Source Hardware IoT Board Programmable from a Web Browser (Crowdfunding)

WeIO is an open source hardware board for the Internet of things with Wi-Fi connectivity and lots of I/Os designed by nodesign, a French based startup, in collaboration of 8devices, the makers of the Carambola boards. WeIO is powered by an Atheros AR9331 SoC running OpenWRT as well as an NXP LPC MCU for faster handling of I/Os and support for analog I/Os. One interesting aspect of this board is that it can be programmed via a web browser using HTML5 or Python, and it does not rely on the Cloud to store data. WeIO hardware specifications: SoC – Atheros AR9331 MIPS 24K Wireless SoC @ 400 MHz MCU – NXP LPC11xx ARM Cortex M0 MCU for analog I/O and real-time H/W interfaces System Memory – 64 MB DDR2 Storage – 16 MB flash + micro SD slot Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi with on-board antenna (AP and STA modes), […]

September 15, 2014September 15, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Infineon XMC 2Go Cortex M0 Development Kit Sells for 5 Euros

Infineon brought another tiny, portable, and cheap ARM Cortex M0 board to market with XMC 2Go development kit featuring XMC1100 ARM Cortex M0 micro-controller with 16KB RAM, 64KB Flash, and tow breadboard friendly headers to access various serial interfaces and ADC pins. Key features listed on Infineon website: MCU – Infineon XMC1100 ARM Cortex-M0 MCU @ 32 MHz with 64KB flash, 16KB RAM. Debugger – On-board J-Link Lite Debugger using an XMC4200 Microcontroller. Headers – 2×8 pin headers suitable for Breadbord with access to 2x USIC (Universal Serial Interface Channel: UART, SPI, I2C, I2S, LIN), 6x 12-bit ADC, external interrupts (via ERU), 4x 16-bit timers Misc – 2 x user LED, RTC Power – 5V Micro via USB, or 3.3V external power. ESD and reverse current protection Dimensions – 14.0 x 38.5 mm The board is programmed via USB using the same Dave IDE I tried with XMC4500 Relax […]