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Patched Android 4.4 SDK Supports Beelink R89 & Hotack T031 Boards

The first batch Tronsmart Orion R28 Pro/Meta Android TV boxes where ships with a micro SD card loaded with Android 4.4 SDK, so I tried it myself, and posted instructions to build an RK3288 Android image, but when I flashed the image to my device, I quickly realized it was an older firmware (106k4), so the SDK would not be so useful, since all the recent bug fixes were not included. Luckily, more recent Android 4.4 SDK were released or leaked, and naobsd decided to port it to Hotack T031 and Beelink/Netxeon R89 boards that are found in many RK3288 Android TV boxes. Since he does not own any devices based on Netxeon R89, he asked me to try, and I did so on Tronsmart Orion R28 Meta. Bear in mind these are images built from a patched SDK, so not everything may work, there’s no Google Play Store, and […]

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Updated Android 4.4 Beta and Ubuntu Images for pcDuino8 / A80 OptimusBoard Boards Released

pcDuino8 and A80 OptimusBoard are the only two Allwinner A80 development boards currently “somewhat” available, and albeit the PCB color is different, every else is basically identical, and pcDuino8 firmware should probably run on A80 OptimusBoard and vice versa. If you own any of these boards, you may interested in two images, one with Android 4.4 (beta), and one with Lubuntu, recently released by pcDuino / Linksprite. Android 4.4 (beta) 2014-10-08 – sun9iw1p1_android_optimus.img to be flashed with PhoenixCard (Windows) or Livesuit (Linux) Lubuntu 14.04? 2014-10-08 is comprised of two files: Kernel – pcduino8_kernel_livesuit_20141008.img to be flashed with PhoenixCard or Livesuit first. See instructions to use Livesuit with A80 OptimusBoard. Rootfs – pcduino8_ubuntu_20141008.rar. First extract the rar files to the root of an SD card or USB flash drive. There should be two files: pcduino8_ubuntu_20141008.img and update.sh. Now connect the mass storage device to pcDuino3 / A80 Optimusboard, and reboot the […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
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How to Upgrade Allwinner A80 OptimusBoard Firmware

After informing Allwinner I had some rather slow write speed (3MB/s) to the NTFS partition of my USB drive on my A80 OptimusBoard, they kindly provided a new compressed Android firmware image (sun9iw1p1_android_optimus_v1.2_20140930.img.7z) with some NTFS optimizations that can be downloaded from baidu (password: x2tz), mega.co.nz or simos.info (please only use this link, if the other two do not work as it’s a private website and monthly bandwidth may be limited). I vaguely remember tools like LiveSuit (Linux) or PhoenixSuite (Windows), and I ended up on sunxi-linux Livesuit wiki as I’m running Ubuntu 14.04 on my PC, but you should be able to flash the firmware with PhoenixSuite if you run Windows. The instructions below can also be used for other Allwinner based devices. First you need to install LiveSuit, and build Allwinner USB drivers as follows:

In order to use LiveSuit as a normal user, you also have […]

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OpenELEC Ported to TBS 2910 Matrix Board Supports DVB T/S/C, DVR and IPTV Server Functions

TBS 2910 Matrix, also simply called TBS Matrix, is a board powered by Freescale i.MX6 Quad SoC with 2GB RAM, 16 GB eMMC, and supporting various TBS USB DVB tuners. The company provides images for Ubuntu, Android, and something called Matrix TV. The company also releases the source code for the boards, and two OpenELEC developers, namely Ovi and Vpeter, though it could be a nice idea to port OpenELEC to TBS Matrix, and that’s exactly what they did. The video demo below shows online video streaming via 1channels add-on, which can be done with any Android or Linux media player running XBMC or OpenELEC, but the second part is more interesting, as it shows Live TV from a Cable TV USB tuner connected to the board. Ovi also confirmed the system supports DVR, and you can also use the board as a micro IPTV server. DVR function is supported […]

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Firefly-RK3288 Development Board To Support Android and Lubuntu

We’ve already got a long list of upcoming Rockchip RK3288 based Android media players, but no low cost development boards have been announced to date. We can certainly expect a Radxa Rock 2 board with the Cortex A17 processor, but it might not be the only one, as Firefly-RK3288 development board powered by Rockchip RK3288 is currently being developed by another Chinese team. Current specifications for Firefly-RK3288 board: SoC – Rockchip 3288 quad core ARM Cortex A17 up to 1.8 GHz with Mali-T764 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 /3.0, and OpenCL 1.1 System Memory – 2G DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot Video I/O HDMI 2.0 up to 3840×2160@60p VGA out (D-SUB connector) VGA in is available via the expansion headers. LCD, MIPI and LVDS Audio Output / Input – HDMI, optical S/PDIF, microphone header, and built-in MIC Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual band 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi with external antenna, and Bluetooth […]

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33 Euros Olimex A20-OLinuXino-LIME Open Source Hardware Board Supports Linux and Android

Last year, Olimex launched A10-OLinuxXino-LIME powered by AllWinner A10, and it became quite popular due to its Linux and Android support, its open source hardware, and a price tag of just 30 Euros that made it cost competitive with BeagleBone Black and Raspberry Pi boards. The company has now designed an upgrade with A20-OLinuXino-LIME powered by AllWinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 processor, that sells for just 3 Euros more. A20-OLinuXino-LIME specifications: SoC – AllWinner A20 dual core ARM Cortex-A7 @ 1GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 512MB DDR3 Storage – microSD card slot, SATA, and optional 4GB NAND Flash Video Output – HDMI 1080p USB –  USB-OTG + 2x USB Hosts Connectivity – 10/100Mbit Ethernet Expansions – 200 GPIOs on 0.05″ connectors Misc – Lipo battery management and connector, buttons Power – 5V Dimensions – 84 x 60 mm The specifications are exactly the same expect for the […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
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SolidRun HummingBoard Raspberry Pi-Like Board is Now Available for $45 and Up

HummingBoard is a board made by SolidRun that’s mechanically compatible with the Raspberry Pi, and offering the same expansions connectors, and a few extras. The board is comprised of a baseboard and a microSoM powered by Freescale i.MX6 Solo, Dual Lite or Dual. At first it looked like an internal project,  but the board went viral together with the Banana Pi, and the company has now announced availability for the HummingBoard with pricing starting at $45 for the single core version up to $100 for the dual core version with extra options. There are currently three models: HummingBoard-i1 ($44.90) – Freescale i.MX6 Solo with GC880 GPU, 512 MB RAM, 10/100M Ethernet HummingBoard-i2 ($74.99) – Freescale i.MX6 Dual Lite with GC880 GPU, 1GB RAM, 10/100M Ethernet HummingBoard-i2ex ($99.99) – Freescale i.MX6 Dual with GC2000 GPU, 1GB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, LVDS output, mSATA II interface, PCI Express Gen 2 slot, RTC with […]

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Toradex Customized Single Board Computers Powered by Freescale Vybrid and i.MX6 Sell for 39 Euros and Up

Toradex has launched what they call “Customized SBCs” (Single Board Computers) comprised of the usual carrier board an computer-on-module (CoM) combination, using their Apalis & Colibri families. The company offers various combination of Freescale i.MX6 and Vybrid VF50 single board computers, with price starting at 39 Euros for 1k order, or 49 Euros for samples. I’ve already featured Toradex Colibri VF50 (and VF61) modules in another post, but to summarize Colibri VF50 is a computer modules based on Freescale Vybrid VF50 ARM Cortex A5 CPU with 64 to 128MB DDR3, and 128MB NAND flash that targets industrial applications requiring long term availability (15 years). VF50 sells as low as 19 Euros per unit for 10k orders. Viola is a new open source hardware carrier board with the following features: Compatible with all Toradex Colibri CoMs External Storage – microSD interface Video – RGB LCD Interface, 4 wire resistive touch interface […]

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