CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

December 3, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

PiTalk 4G HAT for Raspberry Pi / 4G USB dongle targets M2M and IoT applications (Crowdfunding)

PiTalk is a 4G cellular connectivity solution based on Quectel EG25-G LTE Cat 4 module intended for M2M and IoT applications, and available either as a Raspberry Pi HAT or as a USB dongle. There’s also a PiTalk 2G HAT, but we’ll focus on the 4G hardware in this article. PiTalk supports data rates up to 150 Mbps downlink and 50 Mbps uplink, integrates GNSS support, and as its name implies you can also make and receive calls, or send/receive SMS messages for the device provide you connect a display, speaker, and microphone to the Raspberry Pi or other host device. PiTalk 4G IoT HAT specifications: Quectel EG25-G 4G LTE cellular module: Cellular 3G and 4G LTE with 2G fallback Max. 150Mbps DL/ 50Mbps UL Global bands support 4G LTE-FDD: B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B12/B13/B18/B19/B20/B25/B26/B28 4G LTE-TDD: B38/B39/B40/B41 3G WCDMA: B1/B2/B4/B5/B6/B8/B19 2G GSM: B2/B3/B5/B8 GNSS – Qualcomm IZat location technology Gen8C Lite (GPS, GLONASS, […]

December 2, 2022December 2, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

PineBuds Pro ANC & TWS Bluetooth earbuds with open-source firmware launched for $70

Pine64 has just started taking orders for the PineBuds Pro ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) & TWS (True Wireless Sound) earbuds based on the Bestechnic BES2300-YP dual-core Arm Cortex-M4F Bluetooth audio microcontroller found in the PineSound development board. There are plenty of TWS earbuds on the market, but the PineBuds Pro earbuds are hackable thanks to an open-source firmware that could pave the way to interesting features, and potentially the development of open-source firmware transforming the earbuds into hearing aids. PineBuds Pro specifications: WiSoC – Bestechnic BES 2300YP dual-core Arm Cortex-M4F @ up to 300 MHz with HW DSP instruction, 992KB SRAM, 4MB flash, Bluetooth 5.2 dual mode. Supports hybrid ANC (active noise cancellation) and TWS (true wireless stereo). Wireless Bluetooth 5.2 dual-mode connectivity Bluetooth Profile: A2DP, AVRCP, HFP Audio 3x microphones: FeedForward, FeedBack, Talk with Hybrid Adaptive ANC technology blocking out background noise up to 45dB 6 mm dynamic transducer […]

December 2, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Arducam OCam AI camera adds context to video streams in real-time with the PhysicO platform

Arducam OCam, whose name stands for Object Camera, is an AI camera with 3 TOPS of AI performance and designed to work with OStream‘s PhysicO Edge AI media platform that adds context to MP4 video streams in real-time. The camera supports resolutions from QVGA to 2K, takes USB or PoE power, comes with a drag-and-drop AI pipeline for easy programming/configuration, and is also compatible with common AI tools such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, Edge Impulse, and others. Arducam OCam specifications: Resolution – QVGA up to 2K Frame Rate – Up to 60 fps FoV – 80° Audio – Dual beamforming AI processing power – Up to 3 TOPS Power Supply 5V via USB PoE Power Consumption – Up to 5 Watts Dimensions – 10 cm Φ x 3 cm Weight – 400 grams As I understand it, the AI pipeline – named ObjectAgent – runs on the camera itself, and adds […]

December 2, 2022December 2, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 75 Comments

$6 Pine64 Ox64 SBC features BL808 64-bit/32-bit RISC-V multi-protocol WiSoC with 64MB RAM

Pine64 Ox64 is a single board computer powered by Bouffalo Lab BL808 dual-core 64-bit/32-bit RISC-V processor with up to 64MB embedded RAM, multiple radios for WiFi 4, Bluetooth 5.0, and 802.15.4 (Zigbee), as well as an AI accelerator. The board also features up to 16MB XSPI NOR flash, a MicroSD card socket, a USB 2.0 OTG port with support for a 2-lane MIPI CSI camera module, and two 20-pin GPIO headers for expansion. It measures just 51 x 21mm, or in other words, is about the size of a Raspberry Pi Pico W. Pine64 Ox64 specifications: SoC – Bouffalo Lab BL808 with: CPU Alibaba T-head C906 64-bit RISC-V core @ 480MHz Alibaba T-head E907 32-bit RISC-V core @ 320MHz Alibaba T-head E902 32-bit RISC-V @ 150MHz Memory – 728KB SRAM, 64MB embedded DRAM AI accelerator – NPU BLAI-100 (Bouffalo Lab AI engine) for video/audio detection/recognition Wireless 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n […]

December 1, 2022December 1, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Inkplate 2 is a 2.13-inch WiFi ePaper display programmable with Arduino or MicroPython (Crowdfunding)

Inkplate 2 wireless ePaper display is by far the smallest display from Soldered Electronics with a 2.13-inch 3-color ePaper display while previous Inkplate models rely on 6-inch to 9.7-inch ePaper displays. The tiny display board integrates an ESP32 dual-core wireless microcontroller that drives the display, provides WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity plus some I/Os, and can be programmed with the Arduino IDE or MicroPython. Inkplate 2 specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-WROVER-E module with ESP32 dual-core microcontroller with Wi-Fi 4 & Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, 8MB PSRAM, 4MB flash (Note: The product’s description lists 8MB flash, and 4MB RAM, but there’s no ESP32-WROVER-E in this configuration) Antenna- External IPX antenna Display – 2.13-inch ePaper display with 212×104 resolution (111 DPI) Red, black, and white colors 15 seconds full refresh time (no partial update) USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and programming via CH340 USB to TLL chip Expansion 20-pin header with […]

December 1, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

NanoPi R5C mini router features two 2.5GbE ports, supports M.2 wireless modules

FriendlyElec NanoPi R5C is a smaller version of the NanoPi R5S router with the same Rockchip RK3568 processor, but only two 2.5GbE ports and support for an internal M.2 WiFi and Bluetooth module, instead of just USB dongles for the earlier NanoPi R-series routers. The mini router can also be used as a mini PC thanks to a built-in HDMI 2.0 video output port and two USB 3.2 ports and is offered in two versions with either 1GB RAM and 8GB eMMC flash, or 4GB RAM and 32GB storage for just $10 more. NanoPi R5C specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568B2 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with Arm Mali-G52 MP2 GPU, 0.8 TOPS AI accelerator, 4Kp60 H.265/H.264/VP9 video decoder, 1080p60 H.264/H.265 video encoder System Memory & Storage 1GB LPDDR4X and 8GB eMMC flash or 4GB LPDDR4X and 32GB eMMC flash MicroSD card socket Video Output – 1x HDMI […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

December 1, 2022December 1, 2022 by Leo Zachary - 1 Comment

Sipeed Maix-III devkit features AXERA AX620A SoC for AI vision applications

Sipeed Maix-III development kit is composed of a core board equipped with AXERA AX620A AI processor and a carrier board exposing several interfaces such as Ethernet, USB, and camera connectors. resources. As noted in our earlier article about the AXERA AX620A chip, it is a quad-core Arm Cortex-A7 chip with an NPU offering a maximum of 14.4 TOPS @ INT4 or 3.6TOPSs @ INT8, and as such, this development board mainly targets AI vision applications. The board is an upgrade to the earlier Speed Maix II with an Allwinner V831 processor. Thanks to the low power consumption of the AXERA AX620A SoC, the Sipeed Maix-III board can be powered directly through its USB port as the system consumers 5W (5V@1A) with the carrier board, the system-on-module, WiFi, Ethernet, a camera, and a 5-inch display. Using the display does not require am additional heatsink or fan, nor does it require an […]

November 30, 2022June 4, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Rikomagic RKM V7 – A Rockchip RK3568-powered Android 11 HDMI TV stick

Rikomagic RKM V7 is an HDMI TV stick running Android 11 on a Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor with 2GB RAM, 16GB flash, Gigabit Ethernet and WiFi 5/6 connectivity, as well as HDMI female port, and two USB ports. While the device could be used as a general-purpose Android mini PC, it is also suitable as a digital signage player with features such as RTC for time on/off control, screen rotation support, and a watchdog timer to ensure continuous operation even if a software crash occurs. Rikomagic RKM V7 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with Arm Mali-G52 2EE GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.1, 0.8 TOPS NPU for AI acceleration, 4Kp60 H.265/H.264/VP9 video decoding, and 1080p100 H.265/H.264 video encoding System Memory – 2 GB or 4 GB LPDDR4 Storage – 16 GB or 32 GB eMMC flash, […]