CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

February 14, 2014August 7, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Fin is a Bluetooth Ring That Let You Control Your Devices with Your Fingers (Crowdfunding)

We’ve already seen smart rings with NFC rings that can be used for authentication and share small amount of data (e.g. business card data) with smartphones. Fin is a completely different type of smart ring that fits onto your thumb, and let you control Bluetooth enabled devices by tapping different phalanges on your fingers, and/or the palm of your hand. Here are some of Fin smart ring specifications: MCU – N/A Connectivity – Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and 4.0 Sensors – No details, but Fin can track accurate movement of your thumb on the palm and detect each phalanx of your finger where you are touching. IP Rating – IP67 (Dust and Waterproof) Battery – Li Po custom battery with micro-USB charging dock ; One charge will last for 1 week; more than one year durable. Misc – LED indicator The ring will work with Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Windows […]

February 14, 2014November 23, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

STMicro To Launch $24 M24SR Discovery Kit for NFC Applications at Embedded World 2014

STMicro will unveil an a new development board called M24SR Discovery Kit absed on the company’s M24SR dynamic NFC tags to help designers easily add NFC connectivity to different kind of electrical devices such as fitness bands, loudspeakers, washing machines, water meters, and more. There are two models for MS24SR Discovery kits: Standard and Premium editions. The Premium editions adds a headset and a Bluetooth module to pair it with a smartphone via NFC. Here are the key features of MS24SR-Discovery board: MCU – STM32F103RGT6 64LQFP 32-bit microcontroller, with 1Mbytes of Flash memory NFC – M24SR64-Y Dynamic NFC/RFID tag Antenna – 31 mm x 30 mm, 13.56 MHz double layer inductive antenna etched on the PCB (ANT14) Display – LCD Color Screen (320 x 200 pixels) Misc – Different color LEDs, Joystick for menu selection Debug – JTAG connector for microcontroller firmware upgrade and debug Power – +5V via USB microB […]

February 13, 2014May 10, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 37 Comments

4K2K Android TV Boxes with AMLogic S802 SoC – Tronsmart Vega S89 and Eny ES8

For nearly a year, we’ve been waiting for Android TV media players based on the latest AMLogic quad core Cortex A9 SoC, that’s been known as AML8726-M8, then M801/M802, and there’s AMLogic S802, which is the set-top box version of the SoC. M must probably stands for MID, and S for STB. Geniatech ATV1800 seems to never become available, and instead I’ve found out about two other Android TV boxes powered by S802 called Tronsmart Vega S89 and Eny ES8 that should sell very soon. The specs look great, but if you are into rather standard enclosures you may be disappointed… Tronsmart Vega S89 The first one is Vega S89. It will be sold on Geekbuying, and has with the following specifications: SoC – AMLogic S802 quad core ARM Cortex A9r4 at 2.0GHz with ARM Mali-450MP6 GPU System Memory – 2G DDR3 Storage – 16 GB NAND Flash + micro […]

February 13, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Webee Boss is Both an Android TV Box and an Home Automation Gateway (Crowdfunding)

Lots of Android TV Boxes and HDMI dongles have hit the market last year, and low cost home automation systems have been launched, or are in development, such as Ninja Sphere. Webee Boss combines both to make your TV and your Home smart, as part of the Webee home automation platform, also composed of “Bees” (Smart Plug, Smart Lamp Holder, Smart Host, Presence Tag, Open/Closed sensors, etc…), Hive m3 development board, and an Android app. Webee Boss specifications: SoC – ARM Cortex A9 Microprocessor @ 800MHz System Memory – 1 GB RAM Storage – 2 GB NAND Flash, micro SD card slot up to 32GB Connectivity 10/100M Ethernet 802.11 b/g/n WiFi IEEE 802.15.4 – ZigBee. Mesh networking. Home Automation profile. Z-Wave. Mesh networking. Home Automation standards compatible in most countries. Wireless Range – Outdoor: 45 to 90 meters, Indoor 45 – 60 meters Video Output – HDMI 1.3 (up to […]

February 12, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

Telechips TCC892X/TCC893X Android 4.2.2 SDK Leaked

I’ve been informed that an Android 4.2.2 SDK for Telechips TCC892x and the newer TCC893x (TCC8930, TCC8933, TCC8935) dual core SoCs has been leaked on the Internet. The file (v13.03_r1-tcc-android-4.2.2.tar.bz2) is a 2.7GB tarball, and appears to be a full SDK. You can download the file here if you are interested. After extraction, there’s 6.7 GB of data in the following directories: 40M ./libcore 5.8M ./docs 31M ./ndk 5.0M ./gdk 1.2G ./frameworks 324K ./pdk 95M ./development 18M ./bionic 544M ./kernel 228M ./device 106M ./hardware 24M ./bootable 295M ./packages 55M ./sdk 151M ./cts 2.4G ./prebuilts 1.7G ./external 40M ./dalvik 9.1M ./system 108K ./libnativehelper 6.9M ./build 104K ./abi 47M ./vendor The linux kernel is based on Linux 3.1.10, and there are a few config files to choose from with configs forh HDMI TV dongles, micro PCs, STBs, and evaluation boards for TCC8930, TCC8935, TCC8920 and TCC8925.

kernel/arch/arm/configs$ ls tcc*
tcc8920st_defconfig          tcc8935st_dongle_single_defconfig
tcc8925st_dongle_defconfig   tcc8935st_upc_defconfig
tcc8925st_upc_defconfig      tcc8935st_upc_single_defconfig
tcc8925st_yj8925t_defconfig  tcc8935st_yj8935t_defconfig
tcc892x_defconfig            tcc8935st_yj8935t_single_defconfig
tcc8930st_defconfig          tcc893x_defconfig
tcc8930st_single_defconfig   tcc893x_single_defconfig
tcc8935st_dongle_defconfig

kernel/arch/arm/configs$ ls tcc*

tcc8920st_defconfig tcc8935st_dongle_single_defconfig

tcc8925st_dongle_defconfig tcc8935st_upc_defconfig

tcc8925st_upc_defconfig tcc8935st_upc_single_defconfig

tcc8925st_yj8925t_defconfig tcc8935st_yj8935t_defconfig

tcc892x_defconfig tcc8935st_yj8935t_single_defconfig

tcc8930st_defconfig tcc893x_defconfig

tcc8930st_single_defconfig tcc893x_single_defconfig

tcc8935st_dongle_defconfig

YJ8925T boards supports HDMI and […]

February 12, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Review of Huawei MediaQ M310 Android TV Box

Huawei MediaQ M310 is an Android set-top box powered by HiSilicon K3V2 quad core SoC. AndroidPC.es have just written a review of the device in Spanish, and since it’s one of the only media player based on this processor, which also include a Vivante GC4000 GPU, I’ll translate some of the most interesting bits, but you can find many more pictures and screenshots on the original article. MediaQ M310 Unboxing Let’s remind us of the specifications first: SoC – Hisilicon K3V2 Quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor with Vivante GC4000 GPU System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 4GB Flash + microSD card slot Video I/O – 1x HDMI In,1x HDMI Out Audio I/O – HDMI, SPDIF, 3.5mm stereo jack, Mic mono USB – 2x USB 2.0 (1 extension from Y cable) + 1x micro USB Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n 2.4G/5G 2×2MIMO, Bluetooth 4.0 Beside the device and the Bluetooth remote […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

February 11, 2014February 11, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

ARM Unveils Cortex A17 Processor, First Used in Mediatek MT6595 and Rockchip RK3288 SoCs

Finally all these ARM Cortex A17 marketing materials for Rockchip RK3288 were not some typos, but Rockchip marketing team may just have not received the memo reading “Confidential”, as ARM has now officially announced Cortex A17 processor based on ARMv7-A architecture, with support for big.LITTLE with Cortex A7, and that can be coupled with Mali-T720 mid-range GPU and Mali-V500 VPU. After Cortex A15, and Cortex A12, you may wonder “Why? But Why did ARM had to launch yet another new core?”. Here’s the company answer to that question: The Cortex-A17 processor offers 60% performance uplift over the Cortex-A9 processor, the current leader in mid-range mobile market, and betters the best efficiency enabling optimized solutions to address existing and new products. The Cortex-A17 processor is based on the popular ARMv7-A architecture, today’s most successful architecture in the mobile market. With over 1M apps supporting the ARMv7-A architecture, the Cortex-A17 processor is […]

February 11, 2014April 3, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

How to Convert Your HDTV into a Massive Touchscreen Enabled Android Tablet

Thanks to Android mini PCs, it’s now very easy and cheap to run Android on your HDTV, but most of the time touchscreen functionality is missing. There are already full products such as AIO Android PCs, and Smart Displays that brings Android to large display with touchscreen, and PQ Labs iStick A200 HDMI TV stick supports directly their overlay touch frames so you can “touchscreenize” your TV with their mini-PC and correct frame connected via USB. If you’d rather use another model of infrared touch frame for your TV and own Android device, Hardkernel has just explained how to do in the February edition of ODROID magazine using their ODROID-XU development board. In the magazine, they explain some details about the difference between capacitive and infrared touchscreens, and provide instructions to choose the right IR touch frame, how-to modify the software if necessary, and how to connect the touch frame to […]