Review of SONOFF SNZB-06P human presence and SNZB-04P door/window Zigbee sensors

SONOFF has been gradually refreshing its Zigbee product lineup since August 2023, and CNX has recently written about the Temperature/Humidity Sensor (SNZB-01P), Switch/Button (SNZB-02P) and Motion Sensor (SNZB-03P), and the SONOFF SNZB-06P human presence sensor. I’ve now had the opportunity to review both the SONOFF SNZB-06P and the new Door/Window Sensor (SNZB-04P). After we keep trying them out for a few weeks, we think reliability is much improved, especially with the Door/Window Sensor, the materials made as well as the appearance look better than the previous models. As for the Human Presence Sensor, it’s the first generation, which is quite impressive considering its price and features. Let’s take a closer look. Door/Window Sensor (SNZB-04P) review Unboxing Obviously, the rounded design differs from the previous rectangular version. It integrates better with the surroundings than the previous model. Additionally, the lithium battery capacity is larger (CR2450 @550mA vs. CR2477 @1000mA), resulting in […]

Raspberry Pi 5 vs Intel N100 mini PC comparison – Features, Benchmarks, and Price

The Raspberry Pi 5 Arm SBC is now powerful enough to challenge some Intel systems in terms of performance, while Intel has made the Intel Alder Lake-N family, notably the Intel Processor N100, inexpensive and efficient enough to challenge Arm systems when it comes to price, form factor, and power consumption. So we’ll try to match the Raspberry Pi 5 to typical Intel processor N100 mini PCs with a comparison of features/specifications, performance (benchmarks), and pricing with different use cases. That’s something I’ve been wanting to look into for a while but I was busy with reviews and other obligations (Hello, Mr. Taxman!), and this weekend I had some spare time to carry on the comparison. Raspberry Pi 5 vs Intel N100 mini PC specifications I’ll start by comparing the specifications of a Raspberry Pi 5 against the ones for typical Intel Processor N100-based mini PCs also mentioning optional features […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC

Nuvoton NuMicro MA35D0 is a low-cost dual-Core Arm Cortex-A35 microprocessor for industrial edge applications

The Nuvoton NuMicro MA35D0 series is a cost-effective, dual-core Arm Cortex-A35 MPU designed specifically for edge IoT applications. The specifications of this MPU are very similar to the Nuvoton MA35H0, and it looks more like a low-power low-cost version of the NuMicro MA35D1. The MPU features integrated, stacked DDR SDRAM options (128MB or 256MB) to reduce PCB complexity and BOM costs. It also offers some security options with Arm TrustZone, secure boot, cryptographic accelerators, and a True Random Number Generator, making it ideal for industrial applications. The MPU also offers various peripherals and connectivity options including 2x Fast Ethernet (IEEE 1588 v2) interfaces, high-speed USB, SD3.0/eMMC, three CAN FD, eleven UART, and more. Additionally, the MA35D0 MPU supports touchscreens and a TFT LCD controller with resolutions up to 1280×800. Nuvoton NuMicro MA35D0 Series specifications: CPU Sub-system  2x Arm Cortex-A35 cores running at up to 650 MHz L1 Cache – 32 Kbytes instruction […]

QNAP TS-216G 2-bay NAS features a quad-core Arm processor with NPU for image sorting and searching

QNAP TS-216G 2-bay NAS features a quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor with an NPU for AI-powered photo management, 4GB RAM, 2.5GbE and GbE networking ports, two hot-swappable 3.5-inch SATA bay, and a few USB ports. It looks to be an update to the Rockchip RK3566-powered QNAP TS-133/TS-223 with more memory (4GB vs 2GB) and more advanced networking capability (2.5GbE+GbE vs GbE only), while still keeping the object and face recognition capabilities. QNAP TS-216G specifications: SoC – Unnamed but likely Rockchip RK3566 CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A55 clocked at up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Mali-G52 Neural Processing Unit (NPU) Hardware-accelerated Transcoding Encryption Engine System Memory – 4 GB RAM Storage 4 GB eMMC flash (dual boot OS protection) 2x 3.5-inch SATA III bay also supporting 2.5-inch SATA SSDs; hot-swappable Networking 2.5GbE RJ45 jack Gigabit Ethernet jack Wake-on-LAN (WoL) and Jumbo Frame support Number of Concurrent Connections (CIFS) – Up to 200 USB […]

Azulle Access Pro Intel N100 PC stick ships with Windows 11, Linux, or Zoom

Azulle Access Pro is a PC stick based on an Intel N100 quad-core Alder Lake” processor with up to 8GB RAM, 128GB eMMC flash, and a male HDMI port which is offered with Windows 11 Pro, Linux, or “Zoom” operating systems (more on that below). The mini PC also provides a microSD card slot, gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 with an external antenna, USB 3.0 Type-A and Type-C ports, and a 3.5mm audio jack. We’ve written about pocket-sized mini PCs based on Alder Lake-N processors before, for instance, the MeLe PCG02 Pro N100 or the slightly wider MeLe Quieter4C, but the Azulle model is different since it comes with a male HDMI connector which would allow users to connect it directly into a TV or monitor without a cable. Azulle Access Pro specifications: SoC – Intel Processor N100 quad-core Alder Lake-N processor @ up to 3.4 GHz (Turbo) […]

Pivistation 5 – A Raspberry Pi 5 Camera Kit to quickly get started with computer vision (Crowdfunding)

Arducam Pivistation 5 is an all-in-one Raspberry Pi 5 camera kit that aims to provide a turnkey hardware and software solution to quickly get started with computer vision applications and offered with a choice of camera sensors designed for various applications. The system looks like a Raspberry Pi 5 SBC housed in the official case fitted with a camera. Three models are available, namely the “Hawkeye” featuring a high-resolution 64MP autofocus camera, the “Darksee” with an 8MP camera sensor with ultra low-light sensitivity, and the “Klarity” with a 20MP camera with fixed focus and a large 1-inch sensor. Pivistation 5 specifications All the cameras above rely on a rolling shutter, but the company is also working on the upcoming Arducam Pivistation 5 Swift model that includes a global shutter for robotics applications. Besides the pre-assembled hardware, the Arducam Pivistation 5 family aims to quicken the development process with pre-installed software […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS “Noble Numbat” released with Linux 6.8, up to 12 years of support

Canonical has just released Ubuntu 24.04 LTS “Noble Numbat” distribution a little over two years after Ubuntu 22.04 LTS “Jammy Jellyfish” was released. The new version of the operating system comes with the recent Linux 6.8 kernel, GNOME 46, and a range of updates and new features we’ll discuss in this post. As a long-term support release, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS gets a 12-year commitment for security maintenance and support, with five years of free security maintenance on the main Ubuntu repository, and Ubuntu Pro extending that commitment to 10 years on both the main and universe repositories (also free for individuals and small companies with up to 5 devices). This can be extended a further 2-year, or 12 years in total, for Ubuntu Pro subscribers who purchase the Legacy Support add-on. Canonical explains the Linux 6.8 kernel brings improved syscall performance, nested KVM support on ppc64el, and access to the […]

Firefly AIBOX-1684X compact AI Box delivers 32 TOPS for large language models, image generation, video analytics, and more

Firefly AIBOX-1684X is a compact AI Box based on SOPHON BM1684X octa-core Arm Cortex-53 processor with a 32 TOPS AI accelerator suitable for large language models (LLM) such as Llama 2, Stable Diffusion image generation solution, and traditional CNN and RNN neural network architectures. Firefly had already released several designs based on the SOPHON BM1684X AI processor with the full-featured Firefly EC-A1684XJD4 FD Edge AI computer and the AIO-1684XQ motherboard, but the AIBOX-1684X AI Box offers the same level of performance, just without as many interfaces, in a compact enclosure measuring just 90.6 x 84.4 x 48.5 mm. AIBOX-1684X AI box specifications: SoC – SOPHGO SOPHON BM1684X CPU – Octa-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 2.3 GHz TPU – Up to 32TOPS (INT8), 16 TFLOPS (FP16/BF16), 2 TFLOPS (FP32) VPU Up to 32-channel H.265/H.264 1080p25 video decoding Up to 32-channel 1080p25 HD video processing (decoding + AI analysis) Up […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC