CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

September 8, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Pantera Pico PC ultra-compact mini PC ships with Windows 10 or Ubuntu (Crowdfunding)

The Pantera Pico PC is an ultra-compact Gemini Lake Refresh mini computer similar to the Chuwi Larkbox Pro, that was supposed to launch in December 2020 through an Indiegogo campaign. Let’s say there have been delays, and the company – XDO Tech – has only just launched the Pico PC on Kickstarter for $149 and up. Pantera Pico PC specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron J4125 quad-core Gemini Lake Refresh @ 2.0 / 2.7 GHz (Turbo) / 2.4 GHz (Turbo all cores) with Intel UHD Graphics 600 @ 250/750 MHz; 10W TDP System Memory – Dual-channel 4GB or 8GB LPDDR4 Storage – 64 GB to 1TB M.2 2242 SSD, MicroSD card socket Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4Kp60 Audio – 3.5mm speaker/microphone jack, digital audio via HDMI Connectivity Dual-Band WiFi (allegedly WiFi 6, but limited to 422 Mbps?), Bluetooth 5.1 USB – 3x USB3.0, 1x USB2.0 Misc – Power button, […]

September 8, 2021September 8, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

25-key ESP32 Touch Matrix makes good use of ESP32’s touch sensor interface

Besides the addition of Bluetooth, there are many differences between ESP8266 and ESP32 and one of the lesser-known interfaces may be ESP32’s touch sensor interface. India-based Electro Point’s ESP32 Touch Matrix makes good use of the touch sensor interface with 25 touch pads arranged in a 5×5 matrix creating a wireless keypad that could connect over WiFi or Bluetooth to a host. ESP32 Touch Matrix board specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-WROOM-32U with Espressif ESP32-D0WD dual-core Tensilica processor, 32Mbit SPI flash, 2.4 GHz WiFi, and Bluetooth LE connectivity 25 keys arranged in a 5×5 matrix Expansion – 4-pin I2C header for expansion, e.g. an OLED display Programming – Programming headers Misc – RGB status indicator, EN button Power Supply – 5V input via 2-pin header; built-in 3.3v regulator for ESP32 Dimensions – TBD When a capacitive load, such as a human hand) is in close proximity to the sense-pad, the sensor […]

ArmSoM CM5 - Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

September 7, 2021September 9, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Intel NUC P14E Laptop Element features Intel NUC 11 Compute Element

Intel NUC P14E Laptop Element is a 13-9-inch modular laptop equipped with the same Intel NUC 11 Compute Element found in the Intel NUC 11 Enthusiast Phantom Canyon NUC11PHKi7C. The NUC 11 Compute Element “Elk Bay” is a U-Series Compute Element (95 x 65 x 6 mm) offered with a choice of Tiger Lake processors ranging from an Intel Celeron 6305 chip to a Core i7-1185G7 processor combined with up to 16GB RAM. The card also includes a WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 module, a Gigabit Ethernet transceiver, and supports PCIe x4 Gen 3 and Thunderbolt 4. Intel NUC P14E Laptop Element (CMCN1CC) specifications: Computer module – NUC 11 Compute Element with 11th generation Tiger Lake Celeron to Core-i7 processor 4 GB to 16 GB LPDDR4x 4266 MHz 256 Mbit Flash EEPROM with Intel Platform Innovation Framework for EFI Plug and Play Intel AX201 wireless module for WiFi 6 up […]

September 7, 2021 by Karl Johnson - 2 Comments

Longer LK5 Pro 3D printer review & speed printing

Hey, Karl here with a 3D printer review. We are going to be looking at the Longer LK5 Pro. I have known of the brand Longer for a little while, and when I think of Longer I associate the brand to resin 3D printers but today we are looking at one of their FDM offerings. Spoiler alert. The LK5 Pro is exceptionally ordinary. In late 2021 the state of hobby 3D printing seems to have plateaued. Most of the requirements that I want in a single machine are being met. The LK5 meets these basics. Easy build Silent drivers Nice print surface Touchscreen Out of box calibration Adequate motion system Rigid Frame Good Print quality With that said, nearly all new printers I see now look and perform similarly. Today my only real desire is to print faster and think speed can be one of the shorter-term goals I can […]

September 7, 2021September 7, 2021 by Sponsored Post - Comments Off

Viomi V3 Max – A 3-in-1 sweep, mop and vacuum cleaner robot (Sponsored)

The Viomi V3 Max Robot Vacuum offers more than your typical Lidar robot vacuum cleaner as it features three functions, namely sweep, mop, and vacuum cleaner. It can even combine sweep & mop modes to thoroughly remove dust, dirt, water stains, crumbs, pet hair, and footprints on diversified floors. The Viomi V3 Max is born for mopping with an exclusive deep cleaning algorithm running on the Cortex-A35 processor powering the appliances, mimicking the manual way of mopping with 97.5% of cleaning coverage in order to ensure stubborn stains are removed without damaging the floor. An Auto Boost Mode enables perfect carpet cleaning with suction power automatically boosted to 2700Pa. The vacuum cleaner can either be fitted with 2-in-1 dust and water tank (400ml dust bin + 200ml water tank) to enable sweeping and mopping at the same time or an optional super-sized 700ml water tank that is large enough to […]

September 6, 2021September 10, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

Your VGA monitor may be easier to repair than you think

When a VGA monitor does not start at all, a common reason is that one or two capacitors are damaged. All you need to do to repair it is to replace them, and you’re good to go. It’s quite easier than you think, and I’ll show you how. I was tasked with repairing a VGA monitor, namely an LG Flatron W1934S, that would not turn on anymore. All I could see what the blue power LED blinking regularly, about every two seconds. Since so far, I had a 100% success rate in failing to repair TVs, I was not confident, and I thought maybe the monitor is some special state making it not turn on, as it happened to me with another monitor a few years ago. But a web search revealed the problem was probably a power supply board issue with one of the capacitors damaged and, in theory, […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

September 6, 2021September 6, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Jetson Nano & Xavier NX carrier board offers 3x M.2 sockets, 10x RS232/RS485 interfaces

Geniatech NVJ100AI/NVJ100AIX is a carrier board fitted with either Jetson Nano or Jetson Xavier NX SoM with good expansion capabilities thanks to three M.2 sockets and ten RS232 and/or RS485 interfaces, plus the usual Gigabit Ethernet, USB ports, HDMI video interface, etc… Geniatech NVJ100AI/NVJ100AIX specifications: SoM Geniatech NVJ100AI – NVIDIA Jetson Nano with CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex A57 MPCore processor @ up to 1.43 GHz GPU – Maxwell GPU, 128 CUDA core up to 512 GFLOPS (FP16) System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash AI Performance – Up to 472 GFLOPS in 10 Watts mode Geniatech NVJ100AIX – NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX CPU – Hexa-core NVIDIA Carmel ARMv8.2 64-bit CPU with 6MB L2 + 4MB L3 cache GPU – 384-core NVIDIA Volta GPU with 48 Tensor Cores Dedicated AI accelerators – 2x NVDLA Engines, 7-Way VLIW Vision Processor System Memory – 8GB LPDDR4 Storage – 16GB […]

September 6, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 28 Comments

OpenWrt 21.02 released with WPA3, HTTPS, TLS enabled by default

OpenWrt 21.02 has just been released with higher security with WPA3, HTTPS & TLS enabled by default, as well as initial support for the Distributed Switch Architecture (DSA), the Linux standard for configurable Ethernet switches. OpenWrt is the most popular open-source Linux distribution for routers and entry-level Linux-capable embedded systems, and the latest release includes over 5800 commits since the release of OpenWrt 19.07 in January 2020. WPA3 was already supported in OpenWrt 19.07, but not enabled by default, OpenWrt 20.02 changes that, together with TLS thanks to trusted CA certificates from Mozilla. That means LuCi interface, wget, opkg package manager can all support HTTPS out-of-the-box. Note that HTTPS redirection can be disabled for LuCI in the configuration files. Another security change is that SELinux is now supported by OpenWrt, but not enabled by default. OpenWrt 21.02’s DSA implementation replaces the current swconfig system, but not all targets have been […]