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ASUS VivoWatch BP is a Fitness Tracker that Measures Blood Pressure

If you need to monitor your blood pressure regularly, you may have used one of those blood pressure monitors that you wraps around your upper arm, and display results on an LCD display, and in some cases, synchronize the data with your smartphone Bluetooth. Those devices do the job, but they may be inconvenient to use daily, and some people just forgo measurements. Omron first introduced a more user-friendly solution with their Project Zero BP6000 blood pressure monitor-in-a-watch in 2016, further refined with Project Zero 2.0 watch in 2017. That’s all good, except for the same details that neither versions of the watch – to be called Heartvue – are for sale, as the company is still working on FDA approval… ASUS has filled the void with VivoWatch BP watch, and IMHO has taken a more clever approach to launching their product, since the watch will be available in Asia […]

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Android P Beta Released. What’s New?

Last March, Google released Android P developer preview with new features such as indoor positioning with WiFi RTT, support for display notch, HDR VP9, HEIF image compression, a new API to access two or more camera simultaneously and so on. Google I/O 2018 has just gotten started, and the company announced the release of Android P beta with yet more features,  and support for phones from more manufacturers. Some of the most notable features include: Adaptive Battery uses machine learning to prioritize access to system resources for a user’s most commonly run apps, and places each app in four “buckets” ranked from “active” to “rare”. Apps will change buckets over time, and apps not in the “active” bucket will have restrictions for jobs, alarms, network and high-priority Firebase Cloud Messages. App Actions will also use machine learning to show actions for specific apps depending on context. For example highlighting “Taylor Swift” […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
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Ubuntu 18.04 Released – What’s New?

Canonical should release Ubuntu 18.04 “Bionic Beaver” long term support distribution later today. One of the most obvious change compared to Ubuntu 16.04 is the switch from Unity to GNOME 3.28 resulting in a fairly different user interface, although the company tried to keep the look-and-feel are close of the Unity version as possible. There are still some differences such as the dash now appearing on the top center of the screen. Eventually, Ubuntu 18.04 Desktop ISO file will be found on Ubuntu website, but in the meantime, I could update an Ubuntu 17.10 virtual machine to Ubuntu 18.04 using the following commands:

I’ll update my main machine a little later, maybe after the dot release in July, and my server after that, just in case some bugs have gone unnoticed. You’ll be greeted with a “What’s new in Ubuntu” window after upgrade showing the main part of the […]

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TinyFPGA BX is a Tiny Open Source Hardware iCE40 FPGA Board that Fits into a Breadboard (Crowdfunding)

Last Friday, I wrote about Fipsy, a $10 breadboard-friendly FPGA board powered by Lattice Semi MachXO2 FPGA with 256 LUTs, but I then remember I had covered a board somewhat similar with TinyFPGA board last year based on either the same MachXO2-256 (TinyFPGA A1), or a slightly more powerful  MachXO2-1200 FPGA (TinyFPGA A2). It happens the developer is now running a crowdfunding campaign on Crowdsupply for TinyFPGA BX board, which can be used with a breadboard, and is powered by Lattice Semi ICE40LP8K FPGA that will offer more flexibility thanks to 7,680 LUTs. TinyFPGA BX specifications: FPGA – Lattice Semi ICE40LP8K FPGA with 7,680 four-input look-up-tables, 128 KBit block RAM, Phase Locked Loop Storage – 8 MBit of SPI Flash Expansion 2x 14-pin header for I/Os, GND and Vin 21x solder pads on back of the board USB – 1x micro USB 2.0 FS port for programming Oscillator – 16 […]

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Gumstix Chatterbox is a Customizable, AVS-Ready Development Platform based on Toradex Colibri i.MX7 SoM

There are several official Amazon Voice Service (AVS) development kits, and we’ve already covered a few of them with the likes of Allwinner 3-Mic Far Field AVS Development Kit or Intel Speech Enabling Developer Kit, but you can also design your own board conformant to Amazon’s Alexa Voice Service functional design guide. That’s exactly what Gumstix has done with Chatterbox carrier board for Toradex Colibri i.MX7 system-on-module powered by NXP i.MX7 Arm Cortex A7 processor. Designed in Geppeto, the board includes a 2.5-Watt speaker driver, an on-board microphone, and Line IN and headphone jacks, as well as WiFi, Bluetooth and Ethernet for connectivity.   Gumstix Chatterbox specifications: Colibri iMX7 SO-DIMM socket Storage – microSD card slot Audio – On-board microphone; 2.5W speaker driver; Line-in & headphone jacks Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi & Bluetooth 4.1 LE (TI WiLink8 WL1831) with u.FL antenna connector USB – 1x micro USB […]

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JGAURORA A5 Review – A Large Build 3D Printer That Works (Mostly) Out of the Box

Karl here and today we are going to look at the JGAURORA A5. I specifically asked Gearbest for this printer. Features and specs looks good. Not to mention that you can go from opening the box to printing in 20 min. Nice large build volume of 305 x 305 x 320mm. Color touch screen. Filament runout sensor. Power Fail feature. Power Fail is so nice. I have lost some long prints due to power going out. I have not lost any for filament because I have always been conscious of it but it’s nice to have peace of mind. The A5 has an assisted leveling feature that is nice. When using this feature there are 5 point that it will go to. One in each corner and one in the center and you adjust the bed. It saves a little time and I believe is standard feature in Marlin now. […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
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BASpi I/O is a Raspberry Pi HAT Expansion Board for Building Automation (BACNet)

BACNet is a data communication protocol for Building Automation and Control Networks that has been developed, supported and maintained by ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) Standing Standard Project Committee since 1987, and used as building automation standard in the US, Europe, and more than 30 other countries. It’s used for HVACs, lightings, elevators, fire safety, and other systems used in buildings. It’s also known as ISO 16484-6 standard. I had never heard of it, but this afternoon, I’ve come across Contemporary Controls BASPi I/O, a Raspberry Pi add-on specifically designed for BACNet, and providing 12 physical I/O points including 6 Universal Inputs and 6 Relay Outputs. BASPi I/O specifications and features: BACnet/IP Server – 12 physical points and 24 virtual points BACnet/IP over Ethernet or Wi-Fi Resident Sedona Virtual Machine (SVM) Input/Output — 12-points of physical I/O 6x configurable Universal Inputs: Analog Input, Binary Input, Resistance, […]

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How to Use 3G and GPS on Raspberry Pi with ThaiEasyElec 3G HAT Expansion Board

Venus Supply is an embedded systems company based in Bangkok, Thailand that sells products through their ThaiEasyElec website/brand, as well as a act as a local distributor for popular DIY electronics items. I previously tested their ESPino32 ESP32 board, and the company has now send me another of their new product called “3G HAT Expansion for Raspberry Pi” and based on Quectel UC20-G that support 3G and GPS/GLONASS connectivity globally, meaning it should work in any country with 2G or 3G coverage. After listing the specifications, going through unboxing and assembly with a Raspberry Pi 2/3 board, I’ll write some quick start guide to show what I had to do to use GPS and connect to 3G with a Hologram SIM card. 3G HAT Expansion for Raspberry Pi Specifications Quectel UC20-G wireless module supporting Cellular 3G – UMTS @ 800/850/900/1900/2100 MHz 2G – GSM @ 850/900/1800/1900 MHz Data – HSPA+ […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC