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Measy U4K – AllWinner A31 Powered Mini PC for 4K2K Video Playback

Apart from CS868, I had not seen other HDMI TV sticks based on AllWinner A31, the main reason being the performance to price ratio, with RK3188 devices cheaper than AllWinner A31 ones, and benchmarks such as Antutu showing better score for RK3188. 2D/3D performance is about the same as RK3188 (based on Antutu benchmark), despite A31’s PowerVR SGX544 MP2 GPU. So the only remaining advantage of A31 over RK3188 is 4K2K (UHD) video playback, which is probably why Measy called their A31 mini PC “Measy U4K”. Measy U4K Specifications: SoC –  Allwinner A31 quad-core cortex A7 @ 1.0GHz + PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB dual channel 64-bit DDR3 Storage – 8GB Nand dual channel 16-bit Flash + micro SD card slot (Up to 32 GB) Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (Ralink8188) + Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x micro USB OTG for power, and 1x USB 2.0 host Video Output […]

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Rockchip RK3188 Linux Source Code is Now Available

Good news! I’ve just read Rockchip RK3188 Linux source code has just been released via Rikomagic, and Alok Sinha, the main maintainer of RK3066 source code, has already imported into github, and we should soon see a PicUntu image for RK3188 mini PCs. Let’s have a look:

[Update: you may have to run “sudo apt-get install libc6-i386” before running make_kernel_ruikemei.sh below, as mkkrnlimg is a 32-bit binary] Usually, I immediately look into arch/arm/configs, but this time, there’s a “funny” script called make_kernel_ruikemei.sh, and .config already have some CONFIG_RK3188, so let’s run it:

After just over a minute, success!:

This kernel image is for Android only, and there’s a little work to modify it as a “pure” Linux kernel, so that it can be used to boot PicUnutu for RK3188. Let’s go back to arch/arm/configs, and we’ll find several RK3188 configs: rk3168_86v_defconfig rk3188_dongle_defconfig rk3188_ds1006h_defconfig rk3188_ds1006h_v1_0_defconfig rk3188_hotdog_defconfig rk3188_LR097_defconfig rk3188_magicwand_defconfig […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
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Bluetooth Versions Walkthrough, and Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy Development Resources

I’ve seen more and more Bluetooth 4.0 LE devices in the last few months including RFDuino, Wimoto Motes, TI SensorTag, and Scadanu Scout, so I thought it would be good to write a bit about Bluetooth. First, I’ll write about the different version of Bluetooth, since I was still confused with the practical implications between the versions, and then I’ll show some development kits and software resources to play around and/or develop Bluetooth 4.0 LE applications both on devices and hosts. Bluetooth Versions Bluetooth v1.0 and v1.0B The Bluetooth 1.0 Specification was released in 1999, and according to an entry in Wikipedia, 1.0 and 1.0B devices had many issues, mainly interoperability issues. You won’t find any Bluetooth 1.0 device today. Bluetooth v1.1 Bluetooth v1.1 was ratified as IEEE Standard 802.15.1-2002 in 2002. It fixed many issues found in the previous specifications, added the option to use non-encrypted channels, as well […]

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Scanadu Scout Medical Tricorder for Android and iOS

Low cost personal medical tricorders have the potential to dramatically bring down the cost of health care, and avoid unnecessarily wasted time in hospitals, which is probably the XPRIZE Foundation has launched a competition for  medical tricorders, where the winners will get 10 millions US dollars in funding. Scanadu Scout is one of the entry, and they currently have an indiegogo campaign, already oversubscribed, for their medical grade tricorder which gather data by placing it on your forehead for 10 seconds, and display medical data transferred via Bluetopoth Low Energy (Bluetooth SMART) on your iOS and smartphone. The company did not disclose full specifications, but they still revealed the device runs 32-bit Micrium RTOS, which is already FDA approved (pre-market 510K notification and PMA approval), it supports Bluetooth 4.0 SMART, and a micro USB port is included to recharge the battery. I fired up few Google image searches to look […]

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$60 MK805 II Android STB Features AllWinner A20 SoC, HDMI and AV Outputs

Almost exactly one year ago, I wrote about MINI X (aka MINI XPlus H24, or MK805), an Android 2.3 media player powered by AllWinner A10 with 4GB flash and 512MB Flash, and it sold for $77.50. Today, I’ve come across an updated version, called MK805 II or MINI XPlus H34, with AllWinner A20 dual core SoC, 1GB RAM, 4GB Flash, and running Android 4.2.2. Here are the specifications of the device: SoC- AllWinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 processor @ 1.2GHz + Mali-400 MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 4GB NAND Flash + micro SD card slot Connectivity – Built-in WiFi 802.11b/g/n, and firmware is said to support external USB Ethernet and 3G dongles. Video Output – HDMI 1.3 (1080p) + AV Video Codecs – MPEG1/2/4, H.264, HD AVC, VC-1, Divx, Xvid, RealVideo8/9/10, VP6 Video Container Formats – MKV, TS, TP, M2TS, RM/RMVB, AVI, MPG, VOB, […]

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Emcraft Systems STM32F4 SoM and Starter Kit Run uCLinux From On-Chip Flash

Emcraft has recently announced a new system-on-module based on STMicro STM32F437 Cortex M4 micro-controller, as well as a starter kit based on the module that can run uCLinux directly from STM32F437’s 2MB on-chip flash, allowing a faster boot time, and AFAIK, this is the only Linux-ready STM32 platform available on the market. Here are the specifications of Emcraft Systems SOM-STM32F4: MCU – STMicro STM32F437 Cortex M4 @ 168 MHz with 256KB RAM and 2MB flash External Memory – 16MB PSRAM External Storage – 16MB NOR Flash Ethernet PHY (Optional) Connectors – 2x SoM Connectors with access to I/Os: USB, Ethernet, I2C, SPI, UART, LCD I/F, ADC, DAC, GPIO… Dimensions – 30 mm x 46 mm To speed-up development and for evaluation, the company also provides a starter kit composed of the STM32F4 SoM, and a baseboard (SOM-BSB-EXT) with the following main features: USB interface using USB-UART bridge connected to UART […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
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G-Box Midnight MX2 Giveaway

I reviewed Matricom G-Box Midnight MX2 Android set-top box about a month ago, and I was pretty happy with the device with regards to performance, stability, and XBMC support. During my initial review, Wi-Fi was really excellent, the best, by far, I had seen in the dozen of devices I had tested, although an upgrade to my router firmware somehow changed that. This is also one the rare device that will support OTA firmware update. There were still some problems in the firmware I tested: some videos could not play, composite output did not work…, but overall I find it’s a pretty good device. The company also seems committed to fix issues, as they even have a public bug tracking system for the MX2. If you plan to use Android app, and not only XBMC, the IR remote provided may not be the ideal input device, and you’ll probably need […]

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$32 iPush Wi-Fi DLNA / Miracast Adapter for Android

Last time I wrote about Miracast / DLNA dongles, the price was about $55, but today I’ve found a new device closer to my target price ($25) with IPUSH Miracast adapter that sells for $31.90 on DealExtreme. [Update: Several users report it’s only a DLNA dongle, and it does not support Miracast yet] Here are the specifications according to DealExtreme: SoC – Allwinner A10s Cortex A8 + Mali-400 GPU Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n USB – 1x micro USB port for power Video Output – HDMI 1.4 Supports DLNA and Miracast mode Power – 5V / 0.5A The device comes with an HDMI cable and a micro USB cable used to connect the device to your TV HDMI and USB ports, or if your TV lacks USB, a USB power adapter. However, I’ve done a little more research, and it turns out iPush is also a product designed by Action Semi, that just […]

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