Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments on Gechic On-Lap Monitor 2501M Portable Battery Powered Display

Gechic On-Lap Monitor 2501M Portable Battery Powered Display

Gechic is a relatively new company offering what it calls “On-Lap monitors”, i.e. light weight monitors that you can easily carry around. One of those monitors is the On-Lap Monitor 2501M that is peculiar thanks to its 9300 mAh Li-Po battery, which allow you to use it anywhere. You just need to connect your smartphone, camera, laptop (for 2nd display), etc… via the monitor’s HDMI/MHL/VGA inputs. Here are the specifications of this portable & battery-powered monitor: Screen size – 15.6″ HD LCD. Aspect Ratio – 16:9 Resolution – 1366×768 Inputs – MHL, HDMI-D, VGA (Optional Cable Required) and audio Jack Battery – Li-Po 9300mAh battery Speakers – 1.0W (Max.) x 2 Power – 5V/2.0A (Max.) Dimension – 387mm x 260mm x 12.8mm (without cover) Weight – 1088g (1312g with cover) The monitor is sold with a protection cover, a Micro HDMI cable, a VGA cable, a 5-pin MHL cable, a […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on $56 MK809 II Android Jelly Bean mini PC based on Rockchip RK3066 Processor

$56 MK809 II Android Jelly Bean mini PC based on Rockchip RK3066 Processor

Kimdecent announced it started to sell MK809 II mini PC with Rockchip RK3066, 1GB RAM, 8GB Flash and built-in Bluetooth. This HDMI TV dongle is very similar to Rikomagic MK802 IIIs in terms of specs, and I’ve been told the user interface is also nearly identical. Here are the specs of the device: SoC – Rockchip RK3066 Dual ARM Cortex-A9 processor clocked @ up to 1.6 GHz with Mali-400MP4 Quad-core GPU, System Memory – 1GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 8GB NAND Flash + micro SD card slot (Up to 32 GB) Connectivity: Wifi – 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth 2.1 3G support via external 3G USB dongle USB – 1x USB 2.0 Host,  2x micro USB Host Video Output – HDMI Video Codecs – MPEG1/2/4, H.264, VC-1, Divx, Xvid, RM8/9/10, VP6 Video Containers – MKV, TS, TP, M2TS, RM/RMVB, BD-ISO, AVI, MPG, VOB, DAT, ASF, TRP, FLV etc full formats Audio Codecs […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments on $135 ARMBRIX Zero Exynos 5 Development Board Is Now Available for Pre-order

$135 ARMBRIX Zero Exynos 5 Development Board Is Now Available for Pre-order

Ten days ago, I wrote about ARMBrix Zero, the cheapest Cortex A15 board (soon to be) available based on Samsung Exynos 5250 processor. It is now available for pre-order, and the company organizes a raffle to send a free ARMBRIX Zero board to the winner. I’ve received some updated specifications, although we don’t learn much more: CPU – Exynos 5 Dual  ARM Cortex A15 Dual GPU – Mali T604  Embedded GPU Memory –  2GB DDR3  X32, 800MHz Storage – MicroSD  slot Audio – ALC5631Q  Line In/Out, SPDIF  Coaxial type Video – HDMI A Type External Ports: 2x USB2.0 Host 1x USB3.0 Host 1x USB2.0 Device 1x SATA 1x Ethernet RJ45 Expansions – 3 Headers (Further details should be available later this week) CON16 – MIPI Master/Slave, 1x I2C, GPIO CON19 – 3x serial interfaces, 2x I2C, 2x ADC, JTAG, USB, MMC, and reset CON20 – I2S, Interrupt and GPIO pins, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 38 Comments on MK802 II Mini PC Now Costs as Much as Raspberry Pi Model B. Let’s Compare Them!

MK802 II Mini PC Now Costs as Much as Raspberry Pi Model B. Let’s Compare Them!

MK802 mini PC quickly went viral as it launched in May 2012 for $74 US, and since then many Chinese manufacturers have jumped into the market bringing both new faster devices, and the price down. AllWinner A10s, a low cost version of AllWinner A10 used in MK802, was also launched specifically for this market to bring costs even lower. Today, I’ve been informed an HDMI TV dongle based on AllWinner A10s that sells for $36.55 on Tinydeal.com which is a very good price, but decided to check on Aliexpress to look for comparable deals, and found one shop selling MK802 II for $34.91 including shipping via China Post, which makes it cheaper than the Raspberry Pi model B selling for $35 excluding shipping. Both products target 2 different markets, as MK802 is oriented to the consumer market, and Raspberry Pi targets the educational market, but in practice, it appears people […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments on $6.80 Easycap DC60 USB Video Capture Card

$6.80 Easycap DC60 USB Video Capture Card

You may have some old VHS tapes that you want to digitize to play on your computer or media player, or don’t feel like spending money on an HD recorder for your satellite or cable TV box, but still would like to record your favorite programs. It’s actually possible to do so for less than $7 thanks to USB video grabbers. Those USB capture cards are nothing new, but I did not know the price had come down that much. One of the cheapest capture card is Easycap DC60 (clone?) that sells for $6.80 on Aliexpress, and runs on Windows, and (if you are lucky) in Linux. The device provides stereo audio input, composite input and S-Video input. It is sold with a USB cable to connect it to your computer. CD is normally provided with Windows drivers and program. All you need is a Windows 2000/XP computer with a […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Toradex Open Sources Oak USB Sensors & Interface Boards

Toradex Open Sources Oak USB Sensors & Interface Boards

Toradex Oak product family is a range of USB sensors enabling measurement of humidity, temperature, motion, orientation… and USB expansion boards with relays, digital I/O and more. Following feedback from customers who needed to customize the designs, Toradex decided to fully open source those sensors and interfaces by releasing hardware files and the source code under Creative Commons License ‘Attribution CC BY’. This release brings 13 USB sensors to the open source community: Oak USB Sensor Atmospheric Pressure Oak USB Sensor 3 Axes Acceleration Oak USB Sensor Angular Rotation Oak USB Sensor Humidity Oak USB Sensor IR Distance Triangulation (10-60cm) Oak USB Sensor IR Motion Detection Oak USB Sensor Luminosity (LUX) Oak USB Sensor Orientation (3-Axes Accelerometer & Magnetometer) Oak USB Sensor 3 Axes Tilt/Inclination Oak USB Sensor IR Distance Triangulation (10-80cm) Oak USB Sensor 2 Channels Thermocouple Oak USB Sensor 4 Channels Capacitive Proximity Switch Oak USB Sensor RGB […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Ramos W32 Android Tablet Powered by Intel Atom Z2460

Ramos W32 Android Tablet Powered by Intel Atom Z2460

One of my reader, Alex, pointed me to Ramos W32 Tablet, which appears to be the first Android tablet built around Intel Atom Z2460 (Medfield), although the processor has been unveiled in January 2011, and smartphones such as Lenovo K800  have been available for nearly half a year. I suppose the delay between tablets and smartphones releases is because whereas the first smartphones could be based on Android 2.3.x (gingerbread), tablets would have to use Android 4.0.x (ICS) or greater to have a proper large screen interface. Here are Ramos W32 Tablet PC specifications: SoC – Intel Atom Z2460 @ 1.6GHz with PowerVR SGX540 GPU System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 16GB Nand Flash, microSD card socket (Up to 32GB) Display – 10.1″ Capacitive Screen IPS Display (1280×800) Connectivity: Bluetooth WIFI 802.11 b/g/n 3G via external 3G dongles such as E1916, ZTE AC2736, HUAWEI E1750, HUAWEI EC122, HUAWEI EM770W […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Olimex A13-OLinuXino-MICRO Development Board Unboxing And Review

Olimex A13-OLinuXino-MICRO Development Board Unboxing And Review

Every Friday, Olimex organizes an online competition where they give away one of their board. They’ll ask a (usually simple) technical question on their twitter account at 22h00 (GMT+7), and all you have to do is to reply to their tweet with the correct answer within one hour. The winner is then selected randomly with random.org. There are usually 50 to 100 respondents so the odds are pretty good. I played a few times, and finally, I was lucky enough to win an A13-OLinuXino-MICRO development board at the beginning of December. I received it yesterday, after UPS took a whooping 15 days to deliver the board (Way to go UPS!). The board can be purchased on Olimex for 35 Euros plus shipping and taxes, or even lower if you order larger quantities. A13-OLinuXino-MICRO is a stripped down version of A13-OLinuXino-WIFI with the following specs: SoC – AllWinner A13 Cortex A8 […]

Boardcon Rockchip and Allwinner SoM and SBC products