CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

October 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

KM8 Pro Amlogic S912 Android Box Sells for $49.99 (Promo)

We’ve seen several Amlogic S912 octa-core TV boxes for under $60 in the past such as Beelink GT1, but KM8 Pro is the first one I see sold for less than $50, as it’s now offered on GearBest for $49.99 shipped with coupon KM8Pro. I’ve been told there are 200 units at this price, so it’s a stock limited promotion. Videostrong KM8 Pro TV box specifications: SoC – Amlogic S912 octa-core ARM Cortex A53 processor @ up to 1.5 GHz with ARM Mali-820MP3 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot up to 32GB Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0 and AV ports Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual band WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac + Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports Misc – IR receiver, power button Power Supply – 5V DC Dimensions – 98x98x21 mm Weight – 108 grams The device […]

October 7, 2016October 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

How to Write ESP8266 Firmware from Scratch (using ESP Bare Metal SDK and C Language)

CNXSoft: This is a guest post by Alexander Alashkin, software engineer in Cesanta, working on Mongoose Embedded Web Server. Espressif’s ESP8266 had quite an evolution. Some may even call it controversial. It all started with ESP8266 being a WiFi module with a basic UART interface. But later it became clear that it’s powerful enough for embedded system. It’s essentially a module that can be used for running full-fledged applications. Espressif realized this as well and released an SDK. As first versions go, it was full of bugs but since has become significantly better. Another SDK was released which offered FreeRTOS ported to ESP. Here, I want to talk about the non-OS version. Of course, there are third-party firmwares which offer support for script language to simplify development (just Google for these), but ESP8266 is still a microchip (emphasis on MICRO) and using script language might be overkill. So what we […]

ArmSoM CM5 - Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

October 7, 2016October 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

RabbitMax Flex IoT & Home Automation Board and Kit for Raspberry Pi

RabbitMax Flex is an add-on board for the Raspberry Pi boards with 40-pin headers, namely Raspberry Pi Model A+ and B+, Raspberry Pi 2, Raspberry Pi 3 and Raspberry Pi 0, destined to be used for Internet of Things (IoT) and home automation applications thanks to 5x I2C headers, a relay, an LCD interface and more. I’ve received a small kit with RabbitMax Flex boards, a BMP180 temperature & barometric pressure I2C sensor, and a 16×2 LCD display. RabbitMax Flex specifications: Relay – Songle SRD-05VDC-SL-C supporting 125V/250VAC up to 10A, 30VDC up to 10A Storage – EEPROM with some system information for identification IR – IR LED, IR receiver Misc – Buzzer, Button, RGB LED Expansion Header for LCD character display + potentiometer for backlight adjustment 5x 4-pin headers for I2C sensors Dimensions – Raspberry Pi HAT compliant The assembly of the kit is child’s play as you don’t even need […]

October 6, 2016October 10, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Meet NXP i.MX8 Processor Families: i.MX 8 for High performance, i.MX 8M for Audio/Video & i.MX 8X for Low Power

Freescale and then NXP have been talking about i.MX8 processors for several years, and this spring unveiled i.MX 8 Multisensory Enablement Kit without giving much details about the processor except it would include both Cortex A72 & A53 cores. But NXP put out a press release yesterday about “Multisensory Automotive eCockpit Platform to Advance Multimedia Experiences in Future Cars” which appears to be the same news but with different words, except the content of the PR has more interesting bits such as: The new family, which is based on up to six 64-bit ARMv8-A technology processor cores and includes a HiFi 4 DSP, LPDDR4 and DDR4 memory support as well as dual Gigabit Ethernet with audio video bridging (AVB) capability, is designed to advance automotive dashboard graphics such as instrument clusters, infotainment visuals, heads-up displays, rear-seat screens and more. Capable of driving four HD screens with independent content or a […]

October 6, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Hacking ARM TrustZone / Secure Boot on Amlogic S905 SoC

Amlogic S905 processor used in many Android TV boxes and ODROID-C2 development board implements ARM TrustZone security extensions to run a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) used for DRM & other security features. However, Frédéric Basse, a security engineer, worked with others and managed to bypass secure boot in one Amlogic S905 powered Android TV box, namely Inphic i7, but any other device based on the processor would have made the same thing possible. He explains the steps they went through and how they managed to exploit vulnerability to bypass secure boot in a detailed technical blog post. They first started by looking for info in Amlogic S905 datasheet, but most info about TrustZone had been removed from the public version. So not that much help here except a potential address for BOM Root (ROMBOOT_START 0xD9040000). The next step was to connect the UART pins in order to access the […]

October 6, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

VoCore2 WiFi IoT Board Launched with Audio, PoE & “Ultimate” Docks (Crowdfunding)

Vocore WiFi IoT board was popular at its launch in 2014 because affordable WiFi boards with I/Os were not common at the time, and it came with an Ethernet dock making it a complete router within a tiny and cute cube. The developers have been working on VoCore2 (aka Vocore V2) with a faster processor, more memory, a lower power consumption, a better WiFi signal, and more I/Os for several months, and have now launched the board on Indiegogo aiming to raise at least $6,000 for mass production. Vocore2 board specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT7628AN MIPS processor @ 580 MHz System Memory – 128 MB DDR2 Storage – 16MB NOR FLASH, 1x SDXC via I/O pins Connectivity WiFi 802.11n 2T2R up to 300 Mbps with either 2 u.FL connector or 1 u.FL connector + on-board chip antenna (Max signal output >19.5dbm peak) 2x 10/100M Ethernet interfaces via I/O pins I/Os […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

October 6, 2016March 19, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 45 Comments

Routers, IP Cameras/Phones & IoT Devices can be Security Risks even with the Latest Firmware, and a Strong Admin Password

I’ve just read an interesting article entitled “who makes the IoT things under attack“, explaining that devices connected to the Internet such as router, IP cameras, IP Phones, etc.. may be used by Botnet to launch DDoS attacks, and they do so using the default username and password. So you may think once you’ve updated the firmware when available, and changes the default admin/admin in the user interface, you’d be relatively safe. You’d be wrong, because the malware mentioned in the article, Mirai, uses Telnet or SSH trying a bunch of default username and password. That made me curious, so I scanned the ports on my TP-Link wireless router and ZTE ZXHN F600W fiber-to-the-home GPON modem pictured below, and installed by my Internet provider, the biggest in the country I live, so there may be hundred of thousands or millions of such modems in the country with the same default […]

October 5, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

V-Bridge Muses Digital TV Modulator Boards Let You Broadcast Your Own TV Channel for $199 and Up (Crowdfunding)

I wrote about VATek VMB8202D Enmoder SoC handling both DVB, ATSC, DTMB and ISDB modulation and H.264 hardware encoding earlier this summer, and at the time, the company also planned to launch a crowdfunding campaign for two open source hardware DTV modulation boards in a couple of weeks. Weeks turned into months, but finally V-Bridge Muses boards and video input & RF daughterboards have now launched on Kickstarter where you can get your own live video broadcasting board for $199 and up. MUSES-α board MUSES-α board is the cheapest of the two boards, and features a header for the RF daughter board, and a USB port to connect to a computer. MUSES-α board specifications: SoC – VATek A1 32-bit RISC modulator chip Storage – SPI flash (unclear whether it can be accessed/modified by user) Modulation – DVB-T/C, ATSC/QAM, DTMB; RF header Video Encoding – N/A (handled by PC via USB […]