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SH72 Soldering Iron Looks Similar to TS100, Sells for around $10

TS100 is a popular soldering iron in the shape of a pen, and whose temperature is controlled by an STM32 microcontroller. Parameters such as temperature, temperature steps, sleep time and others can be setup over USB, and the soldering is powered by a standard 19V power supply often used with laptops. TS100 sells for around $50, while the more recent USB-C powered version (TS80) sells for a little over $70. But a new model that looks similar to TS100 minus the OLED display is now selling for around $10 on Banggood. SH72 soldering iron features and specifications: Temperature range – 220-400℃ Temperature control knob Available/supported tips – SH-B2/SH-BC2/SH-C4/SH-D24/SH-I/SH-K/SH-Ku (Hakko types) Power Supply 12-24V DC input up to 65 Watts via 5.5 x 2.5 mm barrel jack Modes of operation – 12V >=1.5A (18W);  16V >=2A (32W); 19V >=2.1A (40W); 24V >=2.7A (65W) Dimensions Control handle – 110 x 16 x […]

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Desklab Ultrathin, Lightweight 15.6″ 4K Portable Touchscreen Display Comes HDMI, USB-C, Stereo Speakers (Crowdfunding)

We’ve already seen a fair amount of portable displays launched in recent years which are often supposed to be brought along with your laptop or smartphone, including DUO add-on display, TAIHE Gemini 15.6″ FullHD/4K display, and the low-cost BlitzWolf BW-PCM1 11.6″ display among many others. Another option is Desklab 15.6″ portable display available either in Full HD or 4K resolution and which comes with stereo speakers in a similar fashion to the TAIHE model but with different ports, and no battery. Desklab key features and specifications: Display 15.6″ IPS touchscreen display with FullHD (1920×1080) or 4K (3840×2160) resolution 10ms response time 400 cd/m2 luminance 183° viewing angles Ports mini HDMI input 2x USB typ-C ports 3.5mm audio jack Micro USB port Audio – Stereo speakers Misc – Power button, volume rocker Battery – None, used the host battery Thickness – ~0.6 cm Weight – 595 grams Since the display comes […]

ArmSoM CM5 Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC
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Linux 5.4 Release – Main Changes, Arm, MIPS & RISC-V Architectures

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 5.4: Not a lot happened this last week, which is just how I like it. And as expected, most of the pull requests I got were for the 5.5 merge window, which I’ll obviously start working through tomorrow. What little there is here is mostly some networking updates (mix of network drivers and core networking), and some minor GPU driver updates. Other than that it’s a small collection of random other things all over. The appended shortlog is small enough that you might as well just scroll through it. Anyway, this obviously opens the merge window for 5.5. It’s not ideal timing with Thanksgiving week coming up, but it hopefully shouldn’t be too much of an issue. If I fall behind (not because I’m all that big of a fan of the indiscriminate and relentless turkey-killing holiday) it’s because we’ve got […]

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BlitzWolf BW-PCM1 is an Inexpensive 11.6″ Portable Display

The BlitzWolf Portable Display The BlitzWolf BW-PCM1 is an 11.6″ portable monitor designed for function and performance. The versatile screen has a number of features that other portable monitors, don’t have. This expanded ability seems to usher in a new era of portable monitors.        The Idea Behind the Portable Display The BW-PCM1 was designed to a greater extent to use a gamer’s model for resolution at Full HD for 1920 x 1080 and auto-refresh at a range of 24 – 60 Hz. It is inexpensive and has a number of positive features and some negatives as well. Power Access The screen needs to be plugged into a power source and there is no indication that there will be a battery option. That is not to say never,  just at this time there is no battery available for the unit. The BW-PCM1 Cons The display is designed to […]

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Khadas VIM3L (Amlogic S905D3) Benchmarks, Settings & System Info

Khadas VIM3L is the first Amlogic S905D3 SBC on the market and is sold as a lower-cost alternative to the company’s VIM3 board with a focus on the HTPC / media player market. Shenzhen Wesion was kind enough to send me a sample for review, and I’ll start by checking out benchmarks and system information in Android 9.0 Pie operating system. I also plan to perform a more detailed review with Android 9.0 and CoreELEC with a focus on media playback. I received the bare board only, and the first thing I did was to install it the heatsink I received for VIM3 and in turn, install it in the acrylic case. The company told me the heatsink is not really necessary “for normal purpose using like watch TV”, but it should be installed for performance tests and heavy workloads. I’d still recommend purchasing the heatsink to make sure it […]

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PIS2 DIY Handheld PS2 Game Console Uses Raspberry Pi 2 SBC as SMB Server

It’s a Handheld PS2 Game Console The PIS2 is a handheld PS2 game console that has the chopped-up insides of PS2 game system stuffed into a small console, along with a display, controllers and a Raspberry Pi 2 to access the games from the Ethernet to load directly to the hardware.  Sony has officially discontinued all handheld PSs as of March 2019, so these DIY consoles are popping up regularly. This one is quite an accomplishment. It Took a Long Time The creator of the PIS2, a hacker named Darkwing, started work on the unit in 2013. He stopped for some time, then started documenting his work on the system in 2017.  The ambitious first design specs looked like this PS2 scph-79002 5.6″ Dalian Good Display and VGA chip Genius MaxFire Blaze 2 controller 11.1V 6200mAh made of 6 ncr18650a cells Texas instrument ptn78020 switching regulator IBM Lenovo 05K5494 Laptop […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs abd SoMs
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Huawei Kirin 990 & Samsung Exynos 980 are the First Mobile SoCs with Integrated 5G Modem

[Update: post edited on September 6, 2019 with more details about Kirin 990 5G following the official launch of the processor] We’ve already seen mobile phones and laptops with the latest 5G cellular connectivity such as Samsung Galaxy S10 5G or Lenovo Project Limitless 5G laptop, which internally are designed with an Arm SoC plus a separate 5G modem chip. But as IFA 2019 is about to start, both Huawei and Samsung claim to have introduced the world’s first SoC with an integrated 5G modem with respectively Huawei Kirin 990 and Samsung Exynos 980. We should note that MediaTek is working on their own 5G SoC as well. Samsung Exynos 980 Samsung has already made the announcement so we have Exynos 980 key features and specifications: CPU – Octa-core processor with two Arm Cortex-A77 cores @ 2.2GHz, six Arm Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8GHz GPU – Mali-G76 MP5 GPU Integrated NPU […]

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Philips Crowdfunds PicoPix Max Android Pico Projector with Autofocus

PicoPix Extra Connectivity The latest entrant into the miniprojector market is the Phillips PicoPix Max Pico Projector in two versions, x10 and x100, a very versatile projector with many features and large aspirations. The mini projector is nothing new and we have reported on it in depth for units that came out some time ago such as the Rikomagic RKM R1 or Doogee Smart Cube P1. The fact that a major electronics manufacturer is launching a mini projector through a crowdfunding campaign is somewhat unusual, but let’s have a look at the details. Portable Native Full HD Phillips is calling the PicoPix Max Pro a premium, portable cinematic experience. The unit is made to go anywhere and not need a phone or laptop to function but has a large number of ports and options for each port. The LED light bulb is said to last 30K hours, and the source […]

Boardcon Rockchip RK3588S SBC with 8K, WiFI 6, 4G LTE, NVME SSD, HDMI 2.1...