CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

January 8, 2024January 8, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

NanoPC-T6 LTS SBC adds USB ports, 32MB SPI flash, drops 4G LTE support

NanoPC-T6 LTS is an update to the Rockchip RK3588-powered NanoPC-T6 SBC introduced in May 2023, which removes the mini PCIe socket and SIM card slot for 4G LTE connectivity, but adds two USB 2.0 ports, a USB-C debug port, a 10-pin header with UART and USB 2.0, and comes with 32MB SPI flash by default. The single board computer is offered with up to 16GB RAM and 256GB eMMC flash and also features M.2 sockets for NVMe storage and a wireless module, two 2.5GbE RJ45 ports, two HDMI 2.1 output ports, one HDMI 2.0 input port, MIPI DSI and CSI interfaces, and a 40-pin GPIO header for expansion. NanoPC-T6 LTS specifications with changes in bold or strikethrough: SoC – Rockchip RK3588 CPU – Octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G610 MP4 GPU with support for OpenGL […]

January 8, 2024 by Kumpee Teeravech - 2 Comments

Review of Elecrow’s 3.5-inch and 7.0-inch ESP32 display modules using Arduino programming

Using the ESP32 7.0-inch display as a dashboard

Hello, I’m excited to review the ESP32 display modules and HMI touchscreens from Elecrow with sizes ranging from 2.4 to 7.0 inches. For this review, Elecrow kindly provided me with both 3.5-inch and 7.0-inch models. While their screens differ in size, both modules share several components, such as the ESP32 microcontroller, making them adaptable options for a variety of projects. The Elecrow 7.0-inch display module is powered by the ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N4R8 module equipped with an ESP32-S3 dual-core LX6 32-bit microprocessor, 4 MB of flash, 384 kB of ROM, and 512 kB of SRAM. This microcontroller supports both WiFi and Bluetooth for wireless communication. The 7.0-inch display itself is a capacitive touch screen with a resolution of 800×480 pixels. The display is controlled by the EK9716BD3/EK73002ACGB driver and is compatible with LVGL for additional functionality. In the case of the 3.5-inch display module, the main difference is the use of the ESP32-WROOM-32-N4 […]

ArmSoM CM5 - Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

January 8, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Linux 6.7 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 6.7, following Linux 6.6 LTS a little over two months ago: So we had a little bit more going on last week compared to the holiday week before that, but certainly not enough to make me think we’d want to delay this any further. End result: 6.7 is (in number of commits: over 17k non-merge commits, with 1k+ merges) one of the largest kernel releases we’ve ever had, but the extra rc8 week was purely due to timing with the holidays, not about any difficulties with the larger release. The main changes this last week were a few DRM updates (mainly fixes for new hw enablement in this version – both amd and nouveau), some more bcachefs fixes (and bcachefs is obviously new to 6.7 and one of the reasons for the large number of commits), and then a few random […]

January 7, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

ESPHome compatible “Smart Powermeter” supports up to 6 CT clamps

J.G.Aguado’s “Smart Powermeter” is an ESP32-S2 board with a 2.9-inch e-paper display designed to measure power consumption through up to six CT clamps, or Current Transformer clamps, that are each attached to one of the AC lines of a house or appliance. I used an MT87 Digital Clamp Multimeter nearly 10 years ago to easily and safely measure the power consumption of a whole house by simply clamping it on one of the cables outside and reading the results on the display. The Smart Powermeter works in the same way but can perform measurements for up to six devices, and besides seeing the results on the display the ESP32-S2 can also send the data to the cloud or local server for data gathering and analysis using ESPHome or Arduino firmware. Smart Powermeter specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-S2-MINI-1-N4R2 SoC – Espressif ESP32-S2FH4 CPU Single-core 32-bit LX7 microcontroller @ up to 240 […]

January 6, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

NanoPi R2S Plus dual GbE SBC and router gets 32GB flash, USB-C debug port, M.2 socket for WiFi

NanoPi R2S Plus dual GbE SBC and router is an update to the Rockchip RK3328-powered NanoPi R2S SBC that was introduced in 2020 with the new model adding a 32GB eMMC flash, a USB-C debug port for easier debugging without having to open the enclosure, and an M.2 socket for an optional SDIO WiFi module. The NanoPi R2 Plus still comes with 1GB DDR4 memory, a microSD card, two gigabit Ethernet ports implemented through the RK3328’s GMAC and a USB 3.0 controller, adds one extra USB 2.0 port, and ditches the micro USB port used for power with a USB-C port. NanoPi R2S Plus specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3328 quad-core Cortex-A53 @ 1.5 GHz with Arm Mali-450MP2 System Memory – 1GB DDR4 RAM Storage – 32GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card slot, SPI flash footprint Connectivity 1x Gigabit Ethernet (WAN) up to 941 Mbps (measured) via Realtek RTL8211F gigabit Ethernet controller […]

January 5, 2024January 5, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Watch ESP32’s GPIO status in real-time in a web browser

GPIOViewer is an open-source Arduino library allowing users to monitor the GPIO pins status of their ESP32 board in real-time in a web browser for troubleshooting or fun. It’s different than the Wokwi ESP32 simulator that works entirely in a web browser since the GPIOViewer library sends GPIO status data of the actual hardware over WiFi to display the pin status as they change in a page rendered in a web browser from a choice of popular ESP32 development boards. The GPIOViewer library relies on the ESPAsyncWebServer Async web server for ESP8266 and ESP32 and the AsyncTCP asynchronous TCP library for ESP32 microcontrollers. The first two must be manually downloaded and installed, and the latter can be installed directly from the Arduino IDE’s Library Manager by searching for it. GPIOViewer has a 50 KB footprint, works with digital, analog, and PWM, and supports various ESP32-VROOM-32 development boards, Olimex ESP32-EVB and […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

January 5, 2024January 6, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

TerraMaster unveils F2-424 and F4-424 2-bay/4-bay NAS systems powered by Intel Processor N95 SoC

We have already covered NAS systems based on the Alder Lake-N processor such as the 2-bay AAOSTAR R1 and the 6-bay ZimaCube both powered by an Intel Processor N95. But both are made by smaller companies, and TerraMaster has now introduced the 2-bay F2-424 and 4-bay F4-424 NAS systems equipped with an Intel Processor N95 quad-core processor. The two models ship with 8GB DDR5 memory by default, upgradable to 32GB, and feature two M.2 2280 sockets for NVMe SSDs, dual 2.5GbE networking, and two 10 Gbps-capable USB 3.2 host ports, one being a USB Type-A port, and the other a USB Type-C port. The multimedia capabilities of the Processor N95 CPU can be used through an HDMI 2.1 video output. TerraMaster F2-424 and F4-424 specifications: SoC – Inte Processor N95 quad-core Alder Lake-N processor @ up to 3.4 GHz with 6MB cache, 16 EU Intel UHD graphics @ up to […]

January 5, 2024January 4, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Xiaomi Router AX1500 WiFi 6 router sells for $25

Xiaomi Router AX1500 is an inexpensive WiFi 6 router with four antennas delivering up to 1201Mbps at 5 GHz and 300 Mbps at 2.4GHz and selling for just around $25 including shipping on Aliexpress. We had already cheap WiFi 6 solution with the Banana Pi BPI-WiFi 6 router based on Triductor Technology TR6560 dual-core Cortex-A9 router SoC and TR5220 WiFi 6 chipset going for $26, but that was the board only, and a complete system went for around $40. Xiaomi Router AX1500 is a complete WiFi 6 router selling for just $25 with an enclosure and power supply. Xiaomi Router AX1500 specifications: SoC – Unspecified Networking Wireless 2.4GHz WiFi 2×2 802.11n up to 300Mbps Channels – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11, 12, 13 5GHz WiFi 2×2 802.11ax (WiFi 6) up to 1201Mbps Channels – 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64,149, 153, 157, 161, […]