CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

August 12, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Coin cell-powered boards provide an easy way to test USB-C cables

The A2C caberQU and C2C caberQU boards enable the quick and easy testing of respectively USB-A to USB-C and USB-C to USB-C cables without external hardware. Powered by a CR2032 coin cell battery, the boards apply a voltage to all pins of a cable and measure which ones are connected to the other end. The results can be visualized immediately through various LEDS on the board. The C2C caberQU board comes with a dedicated LED for each of the 24 USB pins and the shield, and it’s possible to test the USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable in several different modes: USB 2.0/1.1 USB Power Delivery USB 3.0/3.1/3.2 Alternate Mode Debug Accessory Mode Audio Adapter Accessory Mode The A2C caberQU board has fewer pins and LEDS for testing USB-A to USB-C cables specifically, but it works the same way. Peter Traunmüller (aka petl) has shot a video showing one of […]

August 11, 2023August 11, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

TerraMaster F2-212 is a 2-Bay NAS powered by Realtek RTD1619B Arm Cortex-A55 SoC

TerraMaster F2-212 is a 2-bay NAS powered by Realtek RTL1619B quad-core Cortex-A55 processor with support for support TRAID flexible disk array management tool, BTRFS file system, Snapshot, and TFSS disaster recovery tool. If you’ve never heard about TRAID (TerraMaster RAID) and TFSS (TerraMaster File System Snapshot) that may be because those are developed internally by TerraMaster as respectively a RAID solution with an automatic combination of disk space, hard disk failure redundancy protection, and automatic capacity expansion, and a BTRFS snapshot tool with support for COW (copy-on-write), filesystem level snapshots, custom snapshot schedules, and more. TerraMaster F2-212 specifications: SoC – Realtek RTD1619B quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 1.7 GHz System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage 2x SATA bays for 3.5-inch SATA HDD and/or 2.5-inch SATA SSD/HDD for up to 2x 22TB drives; hot swapping support File systems Internal Drive – BTRFS, EXT4 External Drive – EXT3, EXT4, NTFS, FAT32, […]

August 11, 2023August 11, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Lo-Fi ESP32-S3 board features LoRa module for low-power long-range connectivity (Crowdfunding)

SB Components’ Lo-Fi is an ESP32-S3 board equipped with a LoRa module for low-power long-range connectivity, and the company has also introduced two LoRa USB dongles with either Type-A or Type-C connectors. Lo-Fi specifications: Wireless module ESP32-S3-WROOM-1: SoC – ESP32-S3 dual-core LX7 microprocessor @ up to 240 MHz with Vector extension for machine learning, WiFi 4 & Bluetooth 5 LE/Mesh Memory – 8MB OSPI PSRAM Storage – 8MB QSPI flash PCB antenna Dimensions – 25.5 x 18.0 x 3.1 mm Unnamed LoRa module Tx power of up to 22dBm (160mW) adjustable by software Rx sensitivity of up to -138 dBm ISM bands – 433MHz, 868MHz, and 915MHz Range – Up to 5km range Data rates – 300 bps to 62.5 kbps RoHS compliance External LoRa antenna Display – 1.14-inch TFT display with 240×135 resolution USB – 1x USB Type-C port for programming and power Expansion – 2x 20-pin GPIO headers […]

August 11, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Chart confirms higher level of Raspberry Pi restocks

Earlier this month, we noted that Raspberry Pi supplies were improving mostly from tweets from Eben Upton who provided data about shipped boards since the beginning of the year. But there are also third-party data that confirm this since RPILocator provides statistics for restocks of Raspberry Pi hardware from approved resellers. The chart below shows weekly data of restocks since January 2022 until today, and we can clearly see a jump in restocks in recent weeks, especially for the Raspberry Pi 4, so there’s no need to steal old boards from discarded scooters anymore 😉 The ramp-up really started on week 25 (June 19-25) and peaked on week 28 (July 10-16) possibly to fill back orders, and restocks have been going down in recent weeks but still at a higher level than previously. While the improvement is mostly visible for the Pi 4, the Raspberry Pi 3 and Raspberry Pi […]

August 10, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

myCobot Pro 600 Raspberry Pi 4-based robot arm supports 600mm working range, up to 2kg payload

Elephant Robotics has launched its most advanced 6 DoF robot arm so far with the myCobot Pro 600 equipped with a Raspberry Pi 4 SBC, offering a maximum 600mm working range and support for up to 2kg payloads. We’ve covered Elephant Robotics’ myCobot robotic arms based on Raspberry Pi 4, ESP32, Jetson Nano, or Arduino previously, even reviewed the myCobot 280 Pi using both Python and visual programming, and the new Raspberry Pi 4-based myCobot Pro 600 provides about the same features but its much larger design enables it to be used on larger areas and handles heavier objects. myCobot Pro 600 specifications: SBC – Raspberry Pi 4 single board computer MCU – 240 MHz ESP32 dual-core microcontroller (600 DMIPS) with 520KB SRAM, Wi-Fi & dual-mode Bluetooth Video Output – 2x micro HDMI 2.0 ports Audio – 3.5mm audio jack, digital audio via HDMI Networking – Gigabit Ethernet, dual-band WiFi […]

August 10, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Radxa ROCK 5B SBC goes fanless with metal case

The Radxa ROCK 5B was one of the first Rockchip RK3588 SBCs, and when we reviewed the developer edition of the board in July 2022 it came with an heatsink and 5V fan that was always on. That’s probably fine for testing, but many people will prefer a fanless solution. It turns out a metal case turning the ROCK 5B SBC into a fanless device has been available since the end of last year, but I’ve only come across it today. The black part is made of metal and the front and back plates are made of green plastic. As with all cases, there are always questions about compatibility with accessories, and for metal cases in particular, whether it’s actually used to cool the processor. Since it’s been around for many months, other users have already tested it out including Radxa forum’s user Deadmeat user who confirmed the SSD and […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

August 10, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Raspberry Pi CM4-powered outdoor gateway supports GbE, WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, 4G LTE, LoRaWAN, and GPS connectivity

EDATEC ED-GWL2110 is an IP24-rated outdoor gateway based on Raspberry Pi CM4 and supporting Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, 4G LTE cellular, LoRaWAN, and GPS connectivity, as well as Power over Ethernet (PoE). The weatherproof gateway also comes with two microSD cards for the OS (CM4 Lite) and data, an HDMI 2.0 output port, a serial console, and features such as an RTC with backup battery, a watchdog, an ATECC608 secure element, and a user-programmable RGB LED. EDATEC ED-GWL2110 specifications: SoM – Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 SoC – Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Arm Cortex-A72 processor @ up to 1.5GHz with VideoCore VI GPU System Memory – 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB RAM Storage – Optional 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB eMMC flash Wireless – Optional WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 Storage – Dual micro SD card slot for OS (Raspberry Pi CM4 Lite) and data Video Output – 1x HDMI […]

August 9, 2023August 9, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Intel Downfall (Gather Data Sampling) vulnerability impacts AVX2/AVX-512 workloads

After vulnerabilities like Spectre and Meltdown were discovered in 2018, Intel processors have more vulnerabilities with the Downfall attacks that target the Gather instruction part of AVX2/AVX-512 and impact 6th generation Skylake up to 11th generation Tiger Lake processors introduced as far back as 2014. It does not affect more recent processors, and as somebody who has just purchased a laptop based on a 13th Raptor Lake processor, I guess I can breathe a sigh of relief until the next vulnerability is discovered, but people using hardware with older Intel processors will have to update the OS and suffer from a performance impact, at least for tasks leveraging AVX2 or AVX-512. The website about the Downfall vulnerability explains: Downfall attacks targets a critical weakness found in billions of modern processors used in personal and cloud computers. This vulnerability, identified as CVE-2022-40982, enables a user to access and steal data from […]