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UP 7000 SBC review – Part 2: Ubuntu 22.04 on a fanless Intel N100 single board computer

The UP 7000 is a credit card-sized Alder Lake-N single board computer that can be used as an alternative to the Raspberry Pi 5 for industrial applications. AAEON sent me a model with an Intel Processor N100 CPU, 8GB LPDDR5, and a 64GB eMMC flash, and I went through an unboxing in the first part of the review, compared its mechanical design to the earlier UP 4000 and Raspberry Pi 5 SBC , and also installed Ubuntu 22.04 since the UP 7000 board did not come with any OS and would initially boot to the UEFI shell. I’ve now spent more time with the board and I will report my experience with the UP 7000 SBC running Ubuntu 22.04 in this article checking out features, performance, video playback, power consumption, and so on using the UP 4000 review with Ubuntu 22.04 I did last year as a template plus some […]

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M5Stack releases local server implementations of UIFlow visual programming Web IDE

Visual programming is now a very popular method to teach programming to kids and M5Stack relies on UIFlow for their ESP32-based IoT development kit. Like most other companies, M5Stack provides either a Web IDE accessible from their server or a desktop program available for Windows, MacOS, or Linux, but the company has now released a local server implementation that allows users to run a Web IDE instance in their local network. The local server is available for Windows 11 x64, MacOS, Ubuntu 22.04, and Linux Arm (e.g. Raspberry Pi), so I downloaded the Ubuntu version to give it a try on my laptop. Somehow the Ubuntu release is full of Windows DLLs, but let’s ignore that for now, and the README.txt tells us to install one dependency and run the program as follows:

A window pops up letting us start or stop the server. It can be accessed with […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
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Review of SONOFF BASICR4 Smart Switch and S-MATE2 Smart Remote Control

We’ve received two new devices from SONOFF for testing, namely the BASICR4 Smart Switch and the S-MATE2 Smart Remote Control. For those familiar with SONOFF devices, the Basic series is well-known as it was one of the initial products SONOFF introduced to the Smart Home market. It’s a Wi-Fi switch that can be used for various purposes, including controlling lights, fans, and other electrical devices. The BASICR4 model enhances capabilities while reducing costs compared to its predecessor. The S-MATE2, on the other hand, is the second version of a simple Remote Controller powered by batteries. It wirelessly connects to other SONOFF devices that support the eWeLink Remote Gateway feature, enabling full control within the same ecosystem. This expands its usability across different devices. Let’s delve into the details. SONOFF BASICR4 Introduction The Basic series has been a long-standing Wi-Fi Switch family allowing control of electrical devices through the eWeLink app […]

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UP 7000 Intel Processor N100 fanless SBC review – Part 1: Unboxing and first boot

AAEON has sent us an UP 7000 single board computer equipped with an Intel Processor N100 Alder Lake-N CPU, 8GB RAM, and 64GB eMMC flash for review. The business card-sized SBC is an update to the UP 4000 SBC that we reviewed last year with an Intel Atom x7-E3950 Apollo Lake processor, 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC flash, and should also provide an x86 alternative to the Raspberry Pi 5 for industrial application. We’ve already written about the UP 7000 specifications with N100, N97, or N50 processor in an earlier article, so in the first part of the review, we’ll check out the hardware, compare its design to other small form factor, yet relatively powerful, single board computers, and install Ubuntu 22.04,  before testing the Linux OS on the board in more details in the second part of the review. UP 7000 Unboxing We received a package with two boxes, one […]

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WP-DLC01 USB RGB LED controller supports dynamic lighting (in Windows 11 for now)

WisdPi WP-DLC01 dynamic lighting controller is a small USB board that can drive RGB LED strips and supports the Dynamic Lighting feature just introduced in the latest Windows 11 23H2 release. The board comes with a WisdPi RGB213-5 chip, a button, a USB-C port for control, and a 3-pin header designed to connect an ARGB LED strip which the user can place inside a PC or along a desk or table to personalize the user experience beyond the screen. Right now this works in Windows 11 23H2, but as we’ll see further below it should (eventually) work with other operating systems. The first step is to connect the controller either externally via a USB-C to USB-A/C cable or internally using the 15cm USB 2.0 internal motherboard header to USB Type-C cable provided with the WP-DLC01 board by default. WisdPi also offers a full kit that adds a 1-meter USB 2.0 […]

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International Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2023 deals and coupon codes

We’ve been writing about international Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals and coupon codes since 2014, as US-centric promotions such as Amazon’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are not always available to the international audience of CNX Software. So once again, we’ve searched at Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2023 international promotions and discount codes from specific manufacturers as well as popular online stores such as Aliexpress, Banggood, and others. Aliexpress Black Friday and Cyber Monday event Aliexpress will have a Black Friday (and Cyber Monday) event in 2023, but we have limited details at this time since it will only start on November 23, contrary to some of the other deals we’ll feature below which are already up and running. But the event will have two periods: Nov 20-22 PT – Warm Up event where users can find and add items to the cart before purchasing during the […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
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Nordic introduces nRF7002 EK WiFi 6 Arduino Shield, nRF7000 SSID-based Wi-Fi locationing chip

Nordic Semi has launched the nRF7002 EK based on the company’s nRF7002 dual-band WiFi 6 IoT chip and in the form of an Arduino shield that works with other Nordic development kits such as the nRF52840 DK, nRF5340 DK, and nRF9160 DK, and separately, the company launched the nRF7000 SSID-based Wi-Fi locationing chip. nRF7002 EK Earlier this year, the company launched the nRF7002 DK, a complete development kit with the nRF7002 WiFi 6 chip and the nRF5340 dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 wireless microcontroller, but for developers who already own nRF devkits, they’ve now introduced the nRF7002 EK Arduino Shield. nRF7002 EK specifications: Wireless chip – Nordic Semi nRF7002 Dual-band Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) WiFi station mode Target Wake Time (TWT) 20 MHz channel bandwidth Antenna – 2.4 and 5 GHz antenna for WiFi SWF port for RF measurement Host interface – SPI or QSPI interfaces Dimensions – Arduino shield form factor The […]

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Renesas RZ/G2UL Arm Cortex-A55/Cortex-M33 industrial system-on-module sells for as low as $17 in volume

MYiR Tech MYC-YG2UL is a tiny (39x37mm) system-on-module based on the Renesas RZ/G2UL SoC with a 1GHz Arm Cortex-A55 application core and 200MHz real-time Cortex-M33 cores designed for industrial HMIs and gateways, and the company has also launched the MYD-YG2UL development board with the module and interfaces such dual gigabit Ethernet, RS485, RS232, CAN Bus, and more. MYC-YG2UL Renesas RZ/G2UL CPU module Specifications: SoC – Renesas RZ/G2UL (Type-I) CPU – Arm Cortex-A55 processor at up to 1 GHz MCU – Arm Cortex-M33 clocked at up to 200 MHz GPU – 2D graphics (Image Scaling Unit) System Memory – 512MB DDR3L Storage – 4GB eMMC flash, 4KB EEPROM 1.0mm pitch 140-pin castellated holes and 50-pin LGA Display – RGB LCD interface Camera – MIPI CSI interface Networking – 2x RGMII (gigabit Ethernet) USB – 2x USB 2.0 Analog – 2x ADC Other I/Os – 5x SCIF, 2x SCI, 2x CAN FD, 4x […]

Boardcon Rockchip and Allwinner SoM and SBC products