Posted on

V-Bridge Muses DTV Modulator and Video Encoder Review – Part 2: Muses-β Turnkey Solution Demo

V-Bridge Muses-α and Muses-β boards can be used to respectively broadcast video to DTV standard from your PC, and as a turnkey solution taking any HDMI, CVBS, or USB inputs. The VATek SoC used in those  board support various DTV standards including DVB-T, DVB-C, ATSC/QAM, DTMB, ISDB-T/TB up to full HD resolution. I’ve received an early prototype for each, and I’ve already taken pictures and show how to assemble both Muses-α and Muses-β kits in the first part of the review. Today, I’ll show a demo with Muses-β turnkey solution taking HDMI input from an Android TV box (R-Box Pro), encoding and modulating the video to DVB-T, before broadcast it to an Android STB with a DVB-T/T2 tuner (U4 Quad Hybrid). This tool could be useful to test STB featuring ATSC or ISDB-T too, as those two standards are not supported in my country, and I could instead generate signals […]

Posted on

Microchip Atmel ATtiny417/814/816/817 tinyAVR MCUs Include Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs)

Microchip’s latest Atmel tinyAVR MCUs combine Atmel 8-bit AVR core with CIPS (Core Independent Peripherals) normally found in the company’s PIC MCUs. Since Atmel’s purchase by Microchip, I believe this is the first time the company leverages features from both MCU families. The four new ATtiny MCUs come with 4 to 8 KB flash, and up to 24 pins: ATtiny417 – 8-bit Atmel AVR MCU with 4KB Flash, 256 bytes SRAM, 128 bytes EEPROM, 20MHz/20 MIPS, two 16-bit timer/counters, one 12-bit timer/counter, RTC, USART, SPI, Two-wire Interface (I2C), 10-bit ADC, 8-bit DAC, analog comparator, accurate internal oscillators and multiple calibrated voltage references, Custom Logic, 10-bytes unique ID, and 24 pins ATtiny814 – Same as above but with 8KB flash, 512 bytes SRAM, Peripheral Touch Controll (PTC), and 14 pins ATtiny816 – Same key features as ATtiny814 but with a 20-pin package with more I/Os ATtiny817 – Same key features as […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
Posted on

Allwinner H2 Linux & Android SDK, and Allwinner XR819 WiFi Driver Released

Orange Pi Zero is an interesting little ARM Linux board thanks to its low price, but also because it features a new Allwinner H2 / H2+ quad core Cortex A7 processor very similar to Allwinner H3 minus the 4K video decoding part, as well as Allwinner XR819 WiFi module, which I have not seen on any other boards so far. But hardware without software is pretty much useless, so developers will be happy to find out that Allwinner H2 SDK with Linux (lichee) and Android has been released or leaked, and it also includes the Allwinner XR819 WiFi driver. You’ll find the SDK on Zoobab server with three main directory / files: Android folder – Android 4.4.2 SDK lichee folder – Linux 3.4.39 source code. However you’d probably better use Linux 3.4.113 currently released by sunxi-linux, or Linux mainline. The latter does have some limitations, and may or may not […]

Posted on

8Devices Rambutan Qualcomm Atheros QCA9557 / QCA9550 GbE & WiFi Modules and Development Kit Run OpenWrt

8Devices, a Lithuanian company specialized in the development and manufacturing of electronic equipment, is known for their Carambola and Carambola2 WiFi modules powered by Ralink and Qualcomm Atheros WiSoCs. The company has now introduced a new dual band WiFi module called Rambutan that comes in commercial and industrial temperature range through respectively Qualcomm Atheros QCA9557 & QCA9550 SoCs. Rambutan and Rambutan-I modules specifications: SoC Rambutan – Qualcomm Atheros QCA9557 MIPS processor @ 720 MHz Rambutan-I – Qualcomm Atheros QCA9550 MIPS processor @ 720 MHz System Memory – 128 MB DDR2 Storage – 128 MB Flash Connectivity WiFi – 802.11 a/b/g/n, 2.4 or 5 GHz, 2×2 MIMO, 300 Mbps data rate, 21 dB per chain output power; 2x u.FL connectors Ethernet – Atheros AR8032 10/100M Ethernet PHY 68x half holes with 2 x USB 2.0 host port 2 x serial port 1x 100 Base-T Ethernet port;  1000 Base-T Ethernet port  (SGMII […]

Posted on

Embedded Linux Conference and OpenIoT Summit Europe 2016 Videos are Now Available Online

The Embedded Linux Conference and OpenIoT Summit Europe 2016 conferences took place on October 11 – 13 in Berlin, Germany, with many interesting talks about Linux, development boards, power management, embedded systems, software optimization, tools, and so on, as well as a few keynotes. The Linux Foundation has recorded most talks and keynotes, and made the videos available on their website. A free registration is required, and will redirect you to the full unlisted playlist on YouTube. Tim Bird keynote can be watch directly without registration. You can also download the slides for each presentation. Thanks to Harley for the tip.

Posted on

Nintendo NES Classic is Powered by Allwinner R16 SoC, Likely Hackable

Nintendo NES Classic Edition is a small replica of Nintendo NES, both adapted to modern times with an HDMI output, and keeping with nostalgia thanks to connectors for original game controllers, and pre-loaded with 30 classic games. If you planned to add your own games however, the lack of USB ports, micro SD card slot, or any other storage or network interface could make it impossible. But based on a recent photo tweeted by Peter Brown, senior review editor at GameSpot, there may be light out of the tunnel, as while the main storage device (4Gbit NAND flash) is soldered to the board, the main board is powered by Allwinner R16 quad core Cortex A7 processor with a Mali-400MP2, and it’s quite likely UART / serial console and/or FEL interfaces are exposed on the board, making it possible to hack the device and potentially load your own games. The other […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
Posted on

Rikomagic MK22 Review – Part 2: Android Firmware, Video & Audio in Kodi, Benchmarks…

Rikomagic MK22 is one of the many Android TV boxes powered by Amlogic S912 octa-core processor with typical hardware specifications such as 2GB RAM, 16GB flash, Gigabit Ethernet and dual band WiFi. I’ve already taken the box apart to check out the hardware in the first part of the review, so I’ll focus on the firmware, but I’ll keep it short focusing on typical problem areas, as I’ve already reviewed a bunch of other Amlogic S912 TV boxes such as Qintaix Q912 or Beelink GT1. First Boot, Firmware Update, and First Impressions After having connected all usual cables and  accessories include a 1TB USB hard drive, and RF dongles for my air mouse and wireless gamepad, I booted the device, and after around 45 seconds (typically), I got to the main launcher. Since I received the device about a month ago, I decided to go to the UPDATE&BACKUP app to […]

Posted on

Sonoff POW and Sonoff TH16 WiFi Relays Review – Part 1: The Hardware

Sonoff TH16 is a WiFi 16A relay that can take external sensors via a 2.5mm jack, while Sonoff Pow is a WiFi relay capable of measuring power consumption. Both have been designed by ITEAD Studio, and feature Espressif ESP8266 WiSoC. The company sent me both items for review, and I’ll start by checking out the hardware a little more closely than what is possible during the product announcement. I received Sonoff TH16 together with Sonoff AM2301 temperature and humidity sensor, which I’ll use to use to control an outdoor water pump and gather temperature and humidity data, as well as two Sonoff POW relays,which I plan to use to measure power consumption in my office, both from the power outlets and my aircon. All three WiFi relays support 3500 Watts, and 85 to 250V input. The packages have three QR codes for eWeLink iOS app, the Android app (coolkit.apk), and […]

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