CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

November 27, 2022April 15, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

Brume 2 router review with WireGuard, OpenVPN, Tor, and Adguard Home

We started the review of GL.inet GL-MT2500A security gateway, aka Brume 2, with an unboxing and teardown, and I’ve now had time to test the router in more detail so I’ll report my experience using the router with OpenVPN and WireGuard VPN, Tor, Adguard Home, and more. In a nutshell, it’s super easy to use, unless your ISP causes troubles, which it did in this case. Brume 2 connection and initial setup I connected the WAN port of the Brume 2 router to 3BB’s modem router (3BB is an ISP in Thailand), the LAN port to my laptop, and finally the USB-C power supply (power draws is 2.3 Watts at idle). Let’s now go to the dashboard using the default IP (192.168.8.1). This will take us through the configuration wizard to select the language and set up the admin password. I was then immediately greeted by an “Upgrade Reminder” and […]

November 26, 2022November 29, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

RAK2560 WisNode LoRaWAN & BLE Sensor Hub ships with a choice of sensor modules

RAK Sensor Hub ProbeIO Sensor Probe Probe Splitter

RAKwireless RAK2560 WisNode Sensor Hub is a modular sensor gateway based on the RAK4630 WisDuo Stamp module with Nordic Semi nRF52840 Bluetooth 5.0 LE MCU and Semtech SX1262 LoRa/LoRaWAN transceiver and equipped with two sensor probe ports to connect a range of sensors. It ships with various sensors from a temperature and humidity sensor to a water level sensor, and is designed for outdoor operation with an IP66 design, waterproof probe connectors, and the ability to support a solar panel as the power source. RAK2560 WisNode Sensor Hub specifications: Core module – RAK4630 WisDuo Stamp Module with LoRa/LoRaWAN and BLE 5.0 connectivity through nRF52840 MCU and SX1262 radio chip Wireless Connectivity BLE – Bluetooth LE 5.0 with Long Range and High Speed (2 Mbps) support LoRaWAN – Full LoRaWAN band support, high-efficiency embedded LoRa antenna 860~930 MHz Cellular IoT – Optional RAK5860 NB-IoT module NFC tag for power on and […]

November 25, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

AIoTBOX-3568GK industrial control box offers six USB ports, RS232, RS485, CAN Bus, LVDS, and more

SMDT AIoTBOX-3568GK is an industrial control PC powered by a Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 AIoT processor and offering plenty of interfaces including six USB ports, four RS232 ports, and terminal blocks with RS485 and CAN bus interfaces. The embedded computer ships with 2GB RAM and 16GB eMMC flash by default, and also features HDMI and LVDS display interfaces, 3.5mm jacks for headphones and microphone, as well as network connectivity through a Gigabit Ethernet port, WiFi, and optional Bluetooth and/or 4G LTE. AIoTBOX-3568GK specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568A quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 2.0GHz with Arm Mali-G52 2EE GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2, Vulkan 1.1, OpenCL 2.0, 0.8 TOPS NPU, and VPU with 4Kp60 H.265/H.264/VP9 video decoding, 1080p60 H.265/H.264 video encoding System Memory – 2GB RAM by default Storage – 16GB or 32GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card slot, optional 2KB EEPROM Video Output HDMI port up to 4Kp60 […]

November 25, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

TinyLlama x86 retro computer uses the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W as a MIDI synthesizer

The TinyLlama x86 retro computer board is designed to run DOS games on a DM&P Vortex86EX 32-bit x86 processor and integrates a MIDI synthesizer based on Raspberry Pi Zero 2 running MT32-Pi firmware. Growing up playing games on 386/486-era computers, Eivind Bohler looked for similar recent hardware to play DOS games and after discovering the 86Duino x86 Arduino-compatible board, he decided to use the SOM-128-EX module powering the board to create the TinyLlama board with a Sound Blaster Pro-compatible Crystal CS4237B sound chip and a MIDI synthesizer. TinyLlama specifications: D&MP SOM-128-EX system-on-module with Processor – DM&P Vortex86EX 32-bit x86 processor @ 60 to 500 MHz System Memory – 128MB DDR3 Storage – 8MB SPI flash Storage – MicroSD card socket Video Output – VGA up to 1024×768 @ 60 Hz using the Vortex86VGA module running off an x1 PCI-e lane Audio Crystal CS4237B all-in-one audio chip MIDI synthesizer with Raspberry Pi […]

November 25, 2022November 25, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Sony ALT1350 5G cellular IoT chip supports NTN connectivity, integrates sub-GHz and 2.4GHz radios

Sony ALT1350 is a new ultra-low-power 5G LPWA LTE-M/NB-IoT chip that supports Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) for satellite connectivity and also integrates sub-GHz and 2.4 GHz radios for short-range communication and improved efficiency. The chip is comprised of an Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller core as well as an Arm Cortex-M0+ always-on core for sensors and will be upgradable to 3GPP Release 17 to support higher bitrates for Cat-M1 (eMTC) and Cat-NB2 (NB-IoT). It also implements GNSS, cellular and wifi-based location, supports AI acceleration, and embeds a secure element for secure communication. Sony ALT1350 specifications: MCU cores Arm cortex-M4 with 1MB NVRAM and 752KB RAM Arm Cortex-M0+ low power always-on sensing hub Memory & Storage I/F – Quad SPI flash and PSRAM Wireless Cellular 3GPP Release 15, future proof to support 3GPP up to 17 through SW upgrade CAT-M1: Up to 588 Kbps in DL, and 1119 Kbps in uplink (up to 1.2mbps […]

November 24, 2022November 24, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Optimize your thermal design with code_saturne open-source CFD software

code_saturn open source CFD software heatsink

code_saturne is a free, open-source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software developed primarily by EDF that can be useful to check and optimize the thermal design of your projects. From time to time, we come across hardware platforms that do not perform to their best due to overheating leading to CPU throttling, and over time it may also impact the lifetime of the device. I’ve heard about computational fluid dynamics (CFD) before, but I always assumed the software was prohibitively expensive and Formula 1 even has a cost cap for CFD testing. But it turns out there’s an open-source program to do just that: code_saturne. As a utility company, EDF designed the software to simulate the flows around and inside the buildings, pipes, and pumps used in power plants, but Lukas Henkel found out he could also use the free and open-source code_saturne program for analyzing the air currents caused by […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

November 24, 2022November 28, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Innodisk EXMU-X261 FPGA Machine Vision Platform is based on AMD Xilinx Kria K26 SoM

Innodisk, better known for its embedded storage and memory chips, had announced its intention to turn to the AI market earlier and started with the launch of USB camera modules last month, but the company has gone a step (or two, or three) further with the introduction of the EXMU-X261 FPGA machine vision platform. The EXMU-X261 is powered by an AMD Xilink Kria K26 system-on-module and features HDMI 1.4 video output, Gigabit Ethernet, four USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports for the cameras and other peripherals, as well as two M.2 sockets and a terminal block for expansion. EXMU-X261 specifications: System-on-module – AMD Xilinx Kria K26 FPGA module powered by a Zynq UltraScale+ XCK26 FPGA MPSoC with a quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor, up to 250 thousand logic cells, and a H.264/265 video encoder/decoder Storage – MicroSD card socket Video Output – HDMI 1.4 port Networking – Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port USB […]

November 23, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC gets upstream Linux support

Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile platform just a few days ago, but Linaro has just announced that Linux was already upstreamed to the premium mobile SoC featuring a 3.2 GHz Arm Cortex-X3 “Prime” core, four performance cores at up to 2.8 GHz, and three Efficiency cores clocked at up to 2.0 GHz. Most of the work was done by Linaro Engineers Abel Vesa and Neil Armstrong with initial support posted on November 16th on the Linux kernel mailing list, and with the set of patches released so far, it is even possible to boot a minimal AOSP image on a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 development kit shown below which should be manufactured by Lantronix, if history is any guide. The following features are enabled in mainline Linux for the Qualcomm 8 Gen 2 processor, codenamed SM8550: Qualcomm Kryo CPUs with DVFS and Power Control support System – […]