CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

November 6, 2021November 8, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 140 Comments

Giveaway Week – Arduino Sensor Kit Base

Day 6 of giveaway week 2021 will be for the Arduino Sensor Kit Base, a large board with six Arduino modules with Grove connector plus an Arduino shield with Grove connector. You could use it directly on top of an Arduino UNO or compatible to have a massive shield with multiple modules connected with Grove cable, or you could break it out into smaller modules as you see fit. The kit ships in a protective carrying plastic case with six Grove cables to connect the six Arduino modules to the Grove shield in the middle of the board. I told Seeed Studio I would not have time to review it, but they still sent it to me last December. So I’m here with a kit that I’m probably never going to use so better just give it away. You can enter the draw by simply leaving a comment with your […]

November 5, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

TQ Embedded launches NXP i.MX RT1170 SoC module and SBC

TQ Embedded (aka TQ) has just announced the availability of the TQMa117xL system-on-chip module based on NXP i.MX RT1170 crossover processor family, and as well as MBa117xL single board computer (SBC) based on the 31×31 mm module. TQMa117xL’s small size has been achieved thanks to a 277-pad LGA design, with the module still integrating LP-SDRAM, Quad-SPI NOR flash and EPROM, a PMIC, as well as an optional security chip. TQMa117xL i.MX RT1170 SoM Specifications: Crossover processor (one or the other) NXP i.MX RT1171 with Cortex-M7 @ up to 1 GHz (Consumer) or 800 MHz (industrial), 1 GbE (AVB) NXP i.MX RT1172 with Cortex-M7 @ 800 MHz/ 1 GHz, graphics accelerators and camera/display interfaces, 1GbE (AVB) NXP i.MX RT1173 with Cortex-M7 @ 800 MHz (industrial only), Cortex-M4 @ 400 MHz, 1GbE (AVB), graphics accelerators and camera/display interfaces, tamper inteface NXP i.MX RT1175 with Cortex-M7 @ 800 MHz / 1 GHz, Cortex-M4 […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

November 5, 2021November 7, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 148 Comments

Giveaway Week – Bluetrum AB32VG1 RISC-V board

The next prize for our once-in-a-year giveaway week is Bluetrum AB32VG1 RISC-V development board based on Bluetrum AB5301A MCU. The board is designed for Bluetooth audio applications as well as general-purpose applications and comes with Arduino headers for expansion. A USB Type-C cable is also included for power and programming. I tested the RISC-V board with RT-Thread open-source operating systems, and let’s say it was quite challenging because development tools need to be improved, but RT-Thread developers are committed to providing a better experience to developers. What’s important is that in the end, after some efforts, I managed to blink an LED and play some music through a pair of speakers connected to the 3.5mm audio jack, and the USB port for power. At the time of review, there was no Bluetooth sample, and a quick look at the documentation shows it may not be available just yet. If you’d […]

November 5, 2021November 21, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Playing with Sonoff Zigbee & WiFi automation – Part 1: Hardware overview

Sonoff T2 Switch Zigbee Bridge Motion Sensor

I don’t think I’ve ever used Zigbee, but I’ll soon have the opportunity as ITEAD sent me the Sonoff ZBBridge gateway, a Sonoff T2 2-gang WiFi switch as well as a Zigbee motion sensor. I had reviewed several Sonoff devices in the past, but it had been over three years that I hadn’t. ITEAD recently contacted me basically telling me I could select whatever I wanted from their product list for a review on CNX Software. Since I had reviewed several of the company’s WiFi smart sockets, smart switches, and a light bulb, I had less to play with, and then I thought it might be fun to play with Sonoff Zigbee products. But I did not own any Zigbee hardware, so I had to think about a use case. I have a small annoyance in the house I rent. When we come back at night, we have to leave […]

November 4, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

PICO-EHL4 Pico-ITX SBC features Elkhart Lake CPU for IoT Edge applications

AAEON PICO-EHL4-Pico-ITX SBC Elkhart Lake

AAEON PICO-EHL4 is a Pico-ITX single board computer based on Intel Atom x6000E, Celeron and Pentium “Elkhart Lake” processors designed for IoT edge applications. The SBC supports up to 16 GB LPDDR4 RAM via two SO-DIMM sockets as well as eMMC and SATA storage, offers two HDMI 2.0b video outputs, dual Gigabit Ethernet, two USB 3.0 interfaces, as well expansion capabilities via mini PCIe and M.2 sockets. AAEON PICO-EHL4 specifications: Elkhart Lake SoC Atom x6425RE quad-core @ up to 1.9GHz; 12W TDP Atom x6414RE quad-core @ up to 1.5GHz, 9W TDP Atom x6212RE dual-core @ up to 1.2GHz; 6W TDP Atom x6425E quad-core @ up to 1.8GHz, up to 3GHz; 12W TDP Atom x6413E quad-core @ 1.5GHz, up to 3GHz; 9W TDP Atom x6211E dual-core @ 1.2GHz, up to 3GHz; 6W TDP Pentium J6426 quad-core @ 1.8GHz, up to 3GHz; 10W TDP Pentium N6415 quad-core @ 1.2GHz, up to 3GHz; […]

November 4, 2021March 5, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 340 Comments

Giveaway Week – Orange Pi R1S Kit

Day 4 of giveaway week will be another product sent directly from the manufacturer, as Shenzhen Xunlong Software agreed to send an Orange Pi R1 Plus kit for free to a randomly selected winner. Just like the FriendlyELEC’s NanoPi R2S we’ve offered earlier this week, Orange Pi R1 Plus comes with a Rockchip RK3328 processor and dual Gigabit Ethernet, as well as 1GB RAM. The kit also includes a plastic enclosure. While I did not have the opportunity to test the board myself, James Dawson did, and found both Ethernet ports to achieve close to Gigabit Ethernet speed, with the processor delivering decent performance. Software-size, Shenzhen Xunlong Software provides Ubuntu, Debian, OpenWrt, and even Android images on the resources page, but some people also managed to run the Armbian image for NanoPi R2S or RockPi E boards. To enter the draw simply leave a comment with your country and whatever […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025

November 4, 2021November 4, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

LattePanda 3 Delta SBC combines Celeron N5105 SoC with Arduino (Crowdfunding)

LattePanda 3 Delta is the new version of the x86 + Arduino board introduced in 2015 with an Intel Atom x5-Z8300 processor, and followed by LattePanda Alpha/Delta in 2017 with respectively Kaby Lake and Gemini Lake processors. The new LattePanda 3 Delta brings some serious performance boost with an Intel Celeron N5105 quad-core Jasper Lake processor that doubles the CPU performance, triples the GPU speed, and enables smooth 4K HDR video playback. Plus no vaccine is required that for that delta variant! 😉 LattePanda 3 Delta specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N5105 quad-core Jasper Lake processor @ 2.0GHz / 2.9GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD graphics 605; 10W TDP System Memory – 8GB LPDDR4 @ 2933 MHz Storage 64GB eMMC flash M.2 M Key socket for NVMe SSD M.2 B Key socket for SATA SSD MicroSD card socket MCU – Arduino Leonardo compatible Video Output HDMI 2.0 DisplayPort via USB Type-C […]

November 3, 2021November 3, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Conexio Stratus – An nRF9160 board with solar energy harvesting capability (Crowdfunding)

Conexio Stratus board is equipped with Nordic Semi nRF9160 System in Package (SiP) with LTE-M (eMTC) & NB-IoT cellular IoT connectivity as well as GPS support through a pair of u.FL connectors for antennas, together with 500MB of mobile data valid for ten years. Designed for battery operation, the devkit comes with built-in battery charging, monitoring, and energy-harvesting circuitry, plus an accelerometer and a temperature and humidity sensor that makes it ideal for prototyping cellular IoT systems such as asset-tracking applications, environmental monitoring, and smart-meter monitoring, among others. Conexio Stratus board Conexio Stratus specifications: SiP – Nordic Semi nRF9160 system-in-package with Arm Cortex M33 MCU, 1 MB Flash, 256 kB RAM, cellular IoT modem, and GPS. Cellular Connectivity 3GPP LTE release 13 Category M1 and NB1 compliant 3GPP release 14 NB2 compliant RF Transceiver for global coverage supporting bands: Cat-M1: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B8, B12, B13, B14, […]