CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

September 3, 2021September 25, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

OpenRemote fully open-source IoT platform targets OEMs and DIY projects

OpenRemote claims to be a 100% open-source IoT platform suitable for DIYs as well as OEMs. The asset management platform can help with the tracking of vehicle fleets, energy systems, or crowds, help to build smart cities, smart buildings, smart airports, and more. While most cloud IoT platforms rely on open-source tools, the software hosted on the providers’ servers is usually closed-source as we’ve seen in our comparison between Microsoft Azure IoT, Balena, and Particle, but OpenRemote is different will the full stack being released under an AGPLv3 open source license. OpenRemote 3.0 software is comprised of four main blocks: The Frontend is comprised of Consoles (native iOS and Android apps), Web components and Templates, as well as a System Administration interface used to create dashboards and control panels. Manager – headless Java application to capture the current asset states and includes Asset Management, State & Historical Data, Event Processing […]

September 3, 2021October 8, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

M5Stamp Pico ESP32-PICO-D4 module ships with a heat-resistant plastic shell

Most WiFi IoT modules are designed to be integrated into products with an enclosure, but the M5Stamp Pico module based on ESP32-PICO-D4 SiP comes with a removable heat-resistant plastic shell that protects the 3D antenna and components, while leaving space to solder headers and/or a Grove connector. The tiny module also comes with a button and RGB LED, and like other ESP32-based M5Stack hardware, M5Stamp Pico is programmable with UIFlow graphical programming platform and compatible with Arduino, MicroPython, and the ESP-IDF. M5Stamp Pico specifications: System-in-Package – Espressif Systems ESP32-PICO-D4 SiP with dual-core processor @ 240MHz, 520KB SRAM, 4MB flash, and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 4 up to 150 Mbps and Bluetooth 4.2 BR/LE connectivity Antenna – 2.4 GHz 3D antenna I/Os – 2.54mm pitch header with ADC, DAC, touch sensor, SD/SDIO/MMC host controller, SPI, SDIO/SPI slave controller, EMAC, PWM, UART, I2C, I2S, IR remote controller, up to 12x GPIO, pulse counter […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

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

Geniatech XPI-iMX8MM SBC offers NXP i.MX 8M Mini processor in Raspberry Pi form factor

Geniatech XPI-iMX8MM is a new member of the company’s XPI SBC family following Raspberry Pi 3 form factor and equipped with the 14nm NXP i.MX 8M Mini quad-core Cortex-A53 processor. The new board follows XPI-S905X (Amlogic S905X), XPI-3128 (Rockchip RK3128), and XPI-3288 (Rockchip RK3288) single board computer introduced over the last three years with many of the same features including HDMI output, four USB ports, Ethernet, and so on. Geniatech XPI-IMX8MM specifications: SoC –NXP i.MX 8M Mini quad-core Arm Cortex A53 processor @ up to 1.8 GHz with Cortex-M4 real-time core, 2D and 3D Vivante GPUs, 1080p60 H.265/H.264 video decoder, 1080p60 H.264 video encoder System Memory – 1GB (default) to 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 8GB (default) to 128GB eMMC 5.x flash, MicroSD card slot Video & Audio Output HDMI 1.4 up to 4Kp30 3.5mm AV jack with composite video and stereo audio 2-lane MIPI DSI connector Camera – 2-lane MIPI […]

September 2, 2021September 2, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

ClusBerry Rack houses up to four hot-swappable Raspberry Pi CM4 modules

TECHBASE ClusBerry Rack supports up to four Raspberry Pi CM4 based modules which can be added and removed on the fly thanks to a lockable mechanism that reminds me of hot-swappable drives found in NAS. Using the same ClusBerry I/O mainboards as found in the earlier ClusBerry 9500-CM4 and ClusBerry-2M industrial systems, each Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 inside the ClusBerry Rack offer one Gigabit Ethernet port, one USB host, one micro USB service port, and an RS-232/485 serial port. TECHBASE is not the best company when it comes to describing its products, possibly because those are customizable, and in this case, they don’t show the other side of the enclosure with all ports… But based on the PDF we’ve received, you should be able to create a system with four modules offering the following features each: Optional video output – HDMI Networking – 1x Gigabit Ethernet port (option for […]

September 2, 2021December 18, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Windows 11 can run on Arm SystemReady ES platforms like Raspberry Pi 4, Solidrun SBC’s, etc…

While Windows 11 may have some problems running some x86 machines, I previously saw Windows 11 Arm on Raspberry Pi 4 with instructions telling you to download the images from UUP Dump and flash the ISO with Windows on Raspberry Pi Imager. At the time, I did not look into details, and it seemed was some hack involved, but I’ve just been told Windows 11 could also run without modification on some SolidRun’s single board computers, namely MacchiatoBin and CN913x CEx7 evaluation board. Marcin Wojtas explains Windows 11 Pro (version 22000.168) could be installed unmodified on an Arm computer based on MacchiatoBin mini-ITX board equipped with an NVIDIA Geforce GT630 GPU (using EFI Frame Buffer), a SATA SSD, connected through Ethernet (via USB2ETH), plus a mouse and keyboard. So what’s the trick, and what do Raspberry Pi 4 and a board like MacchiatoBin have in common? Answer: Arm SystemReady ES […]

September 2, 2021September 19, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

Gearbest’s parent company is in “bankruptcy review”

Gearbest parent’s company appears to be in serious financial troubles, with “bankruptcy review” documents filled in Guangdong court for Global Top E-Commerce Co., Ltd, after several years of losses. Gearbest.com is one of the most popular online websites based in China selling to overseas markets. It is owned by Global Top E-Commerce Co. Ltd (previously Shenzhen Globalegrow Electronic Commerce Co. Ltd) and was launched around 2014. At the time, it was all fun and games with a growth strategy meaning they’d send products to anyone with a platform, and here at CNX Software, we got plenty of TV boxes, mini PCs, and 3D printers for review. But eventually, samples dried out as the company switched to focus on profitability, Google started promoting YouTube reviews rather than written reviews, and a new law in Thailand prevented me from importing TV boxes in a time and cost-effective manner. In recent years, I’ve […]

September 2, 2021September 2, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Armbian 21.08 for Arm boards ships with latest Linux 5.10 LTS

Armbian provides stable releases four times a year, and Armbian 21.08 has just been released offering minimal, server or XFCE, Cinnamon and Budgie desktop Linux 5.10 LTS images for Arm boards, as well as a build system to customize your own image. If you’ve been using an Arm SBC that is NOT a Raspberry Pi board, you’ve probably been told to use Armbian, as the community is providing Debian and Ubuntu images for over 100 Arm boards that are either “Supported”, “WIP” (suitable for testing), or “CSC” (no official support, aka you’re on your own). Armbian 21.08 highlights (Note: EDGE are daily builds following daily builds of the Linux kernel and fresh packages from Debian sid, Ubuntu 21.04 “hirsute” or Ubuntu 21.10 “impish” userland): Based on Linux 5.10.59 released on August 15, 2021 Minimal, server or XFCE, Cinnamon, and Budgie desktop Fast automated language selection on the first run Regular […]

September 1, 2021May 6, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Allwinner V833 AI video development board runs Tina Linux or Melis RTOS

Allwinner V833 AI camera development board

Lindenis V833 is an AI video/camera development board based on Allwinner V833 single-core Cortex-A7 processor with a 400 MOPS AI accelerator (NPU) and running OpenWrt-based Tina Linux or Melis RTOS based on the RT-Thread kernel. The board comes with up to 3GB RAM, a MicroSD card socket, MIPI DSI, MIPI CSI, and BT1120 interfaces for video output and input, Gigabit Ethernet, 2.4 GHz WiFi, and a few other I/Os. Lindenis V833 specifications: SoC – Allwinner V833 single-core Arm Cortex-A7 processor @ up to 1.2 GHz with H.265/H.265 1080p video encoder, MJPEG 1080p video encoder, 400 MOPS AI accelerator (See PDF datasheet) System Memory – Up to 3GB DDR3/DDR3L Storage – MicroSD card slot with support for SDHC and SDXC, SPI NOR flash Display Interfaces 4-lane MIPI-DSI up to 1080p BT1120 output Touch panel header Video In 4-lane MIPI-CSI camera interface BT1120 input Audio – 3.5mm Line-in jack, built-in microphone Connectivity […]

Boardcon CM3588 Rockchip RK3588 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications