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ZBMINI Extreme Zigbee smart switch review with Home Assistant

SONOFF has rolled out smart switches in the market for years, and for each iteration, they make their devices smaller and more capable. The latest ZBMINI Extreme Zigbee Smart Switch or ZBMINIL2 or ZBMINI Extreme for shorts is what we will review today. Take note that there are both Zigbee and Wifi versions that come with the same form factor, we will walk through the Zigbee version first and we will review the WiFi version – SONOFF MINI Extreme (MINIR4) – later on. The ZBMINI Extreme is designed to work without a Neutral (N) line. Those who have difficulty wiring the N line to the switch will definitely love this. In many locations, the Neutral (N) line is not wired and would require a lot of work and expenses for cabling. SONOFF ZBMINI Extreme eases that challenge since there’s no need for the Neutral wire at all. This review will […]

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TrueNAS Mini R rack-mountable system supports TrueNAS CORE or Debian-based TrueNAS SCALE

iXsystems’ TrueNAS Mini R rack-mountable system powered by an Intel Atom C3758 processor running TrueNAS CORE or the new TrueNAS SCALE and equipped with up to 64GB RAM and twelve lockable and hot-swappable 3.5-inch drive bays for more than 200TB of capacity when populated with 18TB drives and 2.5-inch SSD adapters can be provided as well. The TrueNAS Mini R also offers two 10GbE RJ45 interfaces and an optional dual 10GbE SFP+ card can also be added to the system., an IPMI out-of-band management interface, and the company says it’s mostly suitable for small and home offices, as well as enterprise deployments for remote sites, backup, labs, and non-critical departmental applications.   TrueNAS Mini specifications: SoC – Intel Atom C3758 octa-core Denverton processor clocked at up to @ 2.2 GHz with 16MB cache; 25W TDP System Memory – 32 or 64GB ECC RAM Storage 12 x 3.5-inch hot-swappable bays (can […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
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Embit EMB-LR1280-mPCIe-4x is a 2.4GHz LoRa mPCIe module based on Semtech SX1280 chipset

Embit EMB-LR1280-mPCIe-4x is an mPCIe (mini PCIe) module based on four Semtech SX1280 2.4 GHz LoRa transceivers and designed for OEM gateways that can work worldwide thanks to the use of the 2.4GHz ISM band and supports ranging. We first covered 2.4GHz LoRa and the SX1280 transceiver two years ago as a solution to design region-independent products specially suited to maritime and intercontinental logistics applications. We haven’t seen it used that much although we covered an ESP32 board with SX1280 last year, and it turns out that Italian company Embit has also made a mPCIe module based on the SX1280 chipset. Embit EMB-LR1280-mPCIe-4x specifications: LoRa connectivity Chipsets – 4x Semtech SX1280 transceiver with 3x LoRa Rx Channels + 1x LoRa Tx Modulation – LoRa Spread Spectrum Frequency – 2.4 GHz ISM band Frequency Range – 2400 to 2500 MHz RF Output power – Up to +12 dBm Sensitivity -129 dBm […]

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KiCad 7.0.0 release – Custom fonts, text boxes, SpaceMouse, crash reporting, and much more

KiCad 7.0.0 open-source EDA software has just been released with a range of new features from custom fonts to 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse integration to opt-in Sentry crash reporting, and many more. It took over three years between KiCad 5.0.0 and KiCad 6.0.0 announcements, but only a little over a year for the release of KiCad 7.0.0. Did KiCad developers acquire superhuman abilities or did AI get involved in the development somehow? Most probably not, and instead they change the release schedule to a yearly one, so we should get annual releases of the open-source EDA suite going forward, with KiCad 8.0.0 to be released in Q1 2024. Some notable changes to KiCad 7.0 include: Custom Fonts support is now available in the schematic, PCB, and worksheet editors to allow the use of any system font. Text box support was added in both the schematic and PCB editors. 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse support in […]

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Hands-on experience with StarFive VisionFive 2 RISC-V SBC using Debian 12

StarFive sent me one of their VisionFive 2 RISC-V SBC for evaluation and review. I got the model with dual Gigabit Ethernet and 8GB RAM, and I’ll report my experience with the Debian 12 “bookworm” image. But note that won’t exactly be a review since the board is unreviewable at this time. It’s really for early adopters and there are many issues to solve, and in this post, I’ll report what works and what doesn’t, and some of the challenges I encountered just to install the OS… VisionFive 2 unboxing The board comes in a package that reads “Embrace change, embrace the future”. The bottom side has some useful links and QR codes, and what you’ll want is the GitHub repository with the source code and instructions to build the image from source (Note: Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, or 20.04 x86_64 recommended), as well as the RVspace forum section for the […]

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Balthazar – An open-source hardware modular RISC-V, Arm, or FPGA laptop

The Balthazar Personal Computing Device (BPCD) is an open-source hardware 13.3-inch laptop with a RISC-V, Arm, or FPGA module and designed to be upgradable, expandable, and sustainable. The developers say the laptop is based on a few concepts inspired by the EOMA68 project. The EOMA68 is a CPU module based on the PCMCIA form factor, and an Allwinner A20 EOMA68 module was showcased in a prototype of the Rhombus Tech 15.6-inch Libre Laptop but I don’t think the project was ever manufactured. Balthazar laptop features: SoM with RISC-V, FPGA, or Arm Cortex-A7x processor plus memory and flash Storage – SATA SSD, eSATA connector, microSD card socket Display – 13.3-inch non-glare display Video Output – HDMI Audio – Speakers, detachable microphone array Camera – Detachable webcam Connectivity – Ethernet, WiFi USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports, Micro USB OTG port, Micro USB port User input Waterproof keyboard with an illuminated track-point […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
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Arduino Plant Watering Kit combines Nano RP2040 Connect with moisture sensor and submersible pump

You’ve probably seen a few plant watering projects based on Arduino over the years, and now the company has decided to launch its own Arduino Plant Watering Kit based on the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect board and everything you need to get started to water your indoor plants. Arduino Plant Watering Kit content: Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect board (ABX00053) with Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU, ESP32 module for WiFi, and Bluetooth LE connectivity. Arduino Nano Screw Terminal Adapter (ASX00037) Open-ended USB cable with on/off switch 5V submersible pump 1-meter of plastic hose Grove moisture sensor Grove relay module with cable Grove LED button module with cable Grove cables 50 cm 10x Jumper wires (15 cm) 12x screw connectors Simply connect the moisture sensor and the water pump (through the relay) to the Nano RP2040 Connect board, insert the moisture sensor in a flower pot, and put the pump in a recipient […]

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WinLink E850-96Board SBC is powered by Samsung Exynos 850 Octa-core Cortex-A55 SoC

WinLink E850-96Board is a 96Boards CE Extended-compliant single board computer (SBC) based on a Samsung Exynos 850 octa-core Cortex-A55 processor plus 64GB flash and 4GB RAM found in a single eMCP (embedded Multi-Chip Package) chip. While the Samsung Exynos 5422 based ODROID-XU4/XU4Q was one of the most popular SBCs when it launched in 2015 thanks to its features set and affordable pricing, we haven’t really seen other interesting Samsung Exynos SBCs in recent years. I did notice a WinLink E850-96Board based on Exynos 850 in the Linux 5.17 release last March, but there was not enough information then. The good news is that the board has now launched so let’s have a closer look. WinLink E850-96Board “All-in” board specifications: SoC – Samsung Exynos 850 CPU – Octa-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 2.0GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G52 MP1 GPU supporting OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.2, OpenCL 2.0 Full Profile, and Vulkan 1.0/1.1 […]

Boardcon Rockchip and Allwinner SoM and SBC products