SBC News

LibreELEC 11 lightweight media center Linux distribution based on Kodi 20 “Nexus” has just been released with various improvements on x86 and Arm platforms. Kodi 20 was released and available for download in January with AV1 hardware video decoding in Android and x86 (VAAPI) platforms with AV1-capable GPU or VPU, FFMPEG 4.4, Pipewire support in Linux, and a few others. LibreELEC 11 enables you to have a dedicated, and fast booting, HTPC based on a mini PC, a Raspberry Pi SBC, or an Arm-based TV box with all features from the latest Kodi release. LibreELEC 11 supports Raspberry Pi 2 to 4 SBCs, 64-bit x86 hardware, various Allwinner, Rockchip, and Amlogic SBCs and TV boxes …

Lichee Pi 4A is a single board computer (SBC) powered by Alibaba T-Head TH1520 quad-core RISC-V Xuantie C910 processor @ 1.8 GHz with an Imagination GPU and a 4 TOPS NPU for AI that can compete against the Raspberry Pi 4 in terms of performance and features. We previously mentioned the Lichee Pi 4A (LPi4A) in our article about the Sipeed LM4A RISC-V system-on-module, but at the time we only had some benchmarks for the board and no photos and specifications about the SBC. Sipeed has now released photos and more detailed specifications and is taking “pre-orders”. So let’s have a look. Lichee Pi 4A specifications against the ones for Raspberry Pi 4. The TH1520 used to be …

When Sipeed first introduced the Lichee RV module with Allwinner D1 RISC-V SoC last November, they also teased the Lichee RV-86, an “86 Box” with a 4-inch 480×480 touchscreen display, an XR829 WiFi and Bluetooth module, Ethernet (via USB), two microphones, a GPIO header, and support for WAFT (WebAssembly Framework for Things). I’ve just noticed the Lichee RV-86 has been for sale for several months, so it may be interesting to have a closer look, and now there’s also an option to get a 720×720 touchscreen display. Lichee RV-86 specifications: SoM – Sipeed Lichee RV Nezha compute module with Allwinner D1 RISC-V processor @ 1 GHz, 512MB or 1GB DDR3, microSD card slot, and US…

Light sensors are used to turn on/off lights, adjust the brightness of displays, and more. But I’ve come across a use case I never thought of: object presence detection. In the digital signage work, such features if called “lift and learn”, and light sensors are used to detect when an object is present and play a video or display information about the product. That concept came to my attention when I saw a photo of Mekotronics R29 digital signage player with several cables coming out of the device and attached to what looked like white hockey pucks and turned out to be light sensors. Apart from the light sensors, Mekotronics R29 specifications are pretty standard: SoC – R…

Qualcomm unveiled a new Wireless AR Smart Viewer Reference Design powered by the Snapdragon XR2 platform last week with very few details, but the company has now demonstrated the system to some members of the press, so let’s have a closer look. The reference design aims to provide a similar level of performance as a headset connected to PC or premium smartphone, but with some of the processing offloaded to the Snapdragon XR2 processor, thereby eliminating the need for a cord while still achieving lag-free experiences in combination with the Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 solution. It is supposed to offer a 40% thinner profile and a more balanced weight…

LILYGO T-Display K230 is a handheld dev kit based on Canaan’s Kendryte K230 dual-core 64-bit RISC-V processor. The kit features a 4.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen and supports an optional detachable keyboard with battery and optional nRF9151 cellular and GNSS connectivity. The device also comes with 1GB LPDDR4 RAM, a 2MP camera, HDMI output, Ethernet, WiFi 4, and either an SX1262 or LR2021 LoRa transceiver. These features make this kit suitable for remote monitoring, wireless communication, and other embedded applications. LILYGO T-Display K230 Kit specifications: SoC – Kendryte K230 CPU 64-bit RISC-V processor @ 1.6GHz with RISC-V Vector Extension 1.0, FPU 64-bit RISC-V proce…

LILYGO T-Halow P4 is a compact M.2 development board that combines an ESP32-P4 MCU, an ESP32-C6 wireless co-processor, and a Taixin TX-AH WiFi HaLow module for long-range wireless connectivity. The board measures just 80 x 22mm (M.2 2280) and uses an M.2 B-key connector to expose GPIO pins and other interfaces for integration into custom carrier boards. It also supports MIPI CSI cameras and MIPI DSI displays, along with hardware H.264 video encoding at up to 1080p30, making it suitable for compact IoT gateways, remote cameras, and industrial monitoring applications. LILYGO T-Halow P4 specifications: SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-P4NRW32X CPU Dual-core RISC-V @ 400 MHz wi…

HC32L110 Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU is found in a minuscule 1.59 x 1.436 mm CSP16 package that should make it the world’s smallest MCU. LilyGO T-HC32 is one of the first boards with the HC32L110B6 microcontroller, and it is now available for $8.98 on Aliexpress including shipping. The board offers really basic features with two buttons, a WS2812 RGB LED, and two-row of ten pins each for GPIOs and power signals, plus a 4-pin header for SWD programming. There’s nothing really special about the board or its price, except for the MCU’s size that’s barely discernable from a discrete component, and much smaller than the 7x7mm ESP32-PICO-D4 system-in-package shown in the photo below for…

LilyGO T-PicoC3 is a small development board combining Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core microcontroller with ESP32-C3 RISC-V MCU to add WiFi and Bluetooth LE connectivity and adds a 1.14-inch color display to the mix, plus several I/Os. We had previously other designs merging ESP32 and RP2040 with UDOO KEY. Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, or the Pico Wireless Pack among others, but as far as I know, the T-PicoC3 board is the first to use Raspberry Pi RP2040 and ESP32-C3 RISC-V processor. LilyGO T-Pico3 specifications: Microcontrollers Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ MCU with 264 KB of embedded SRAM Espressif Systems ESP32-C3 RISC-V processor with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth…

LILYGO T-QT Pro is an ESP32-S3 WiFi and BLE IoT board with a 0.85-inch color display, 4MB flash, 2MB PSRAM, a USB-C port, a few GPIOs, and support for LiPo battery with charging. It is an upgrade to the ESP32-S3-based LILYGO T-QT V1.1 board that also supports LiPo battery power but lacks a charging circuit, so you had to remove the battery and charge it manually each time. The T-QT Pro adds a charging circuit and switches from an ESP32-S3 with an 8MB flash design to one using ESP32-S3FN4R2 with 4MB flash and 2MB PSRAM. LilyGO T-QT Pro specifications: Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3FN4R2 dual-core Tensilica LX7 @ up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acce…

LILYGO must be churning out at least one new “ESP32” board every month, but I don’t think they’ve ever made one with ESP32-S3. LILYGO T-QT V1.1 board changes that and combines the dual-core WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5.0 AI microcontroller with a 0.85-inch color display. The board also happens to be rather small and cute with a 33 x 18 mm form factor, offers some I/O via headers and a 4-pin connector, and can be powered via its USB Type-C port or a battery, but lacks a charging circuit. LILYGO T-QT V1.1 specifications: Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3 dual-core Tensilica LX7 @ up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration, 512KB RAM, wireless connectivi…

LILYGO T-RGB is a wireless 2.1-inch round color touchscreen display based on ESP32-S3R8 dual-core microcontroller with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, 8MB PSRAM, and 16MB flash storage. The device also includes a microSD card socket for data storage and a Grove I2C connector for expansion and supports LiPo battery power. The company also says it can be charged through USB, so the board must include a battery charging circuit contrary to some other boards from LILYGO. LILYGO T-RGB specifications: SoC – Espressif ESP32-S3R8 dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration, 8MB PSRAM, WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE + Mesh…

LILYGO T-RSC3 is a relatively compact ESP32-C3 board with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5.0 connectivity, support for RS232 and RS485 communication protocols through a DB9 connector and a terminal connector respectively, and a wide 5V to 24V DC power input. LILYGO had already made an ESP32 board with CAN Bus and RS485 interfaces called the T-CAN485, but without any isolation. The new T-RSC3 offers both RS232 and RS485 interfaces, but no CAN Bus, protected by isolated transceiver modules that should make it safer to use in industrial environments. LILYGO T-RSC3 board specifications: Wireless module – Espressif Systems ESP32-C3-MINI-1U module with ESP32-C3 RISC-V microcontroller …

ESP32-S3 has been in the news recently and we just wrote about the Bee S3 and BPI-PicoW-S3 boards yesterday, but there’s more, and LilyGo T-SIMCAM ESP32-S3 is another interesting ESP32-S3 board with a 2MP camera as well as support for an optional 4G LTE module. The board can make use of the AI capabilities from the ESP32-S3 microcontroller through the built-in camera and microphone and offers two options for power with 5V through a USB Type-C port, as well as a 2-pin JST connector for connecting a battery. T-SIMCAM ESP32-S3 CAM board specifications: Wireless MCU – ESP32-S3R8 dual-core Xtensa LX7 microcontroller with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE and Mesh connectivity with 8…

After the T-Display-S3 AMOLED board, LILYGO has launched another ESP32-S3 board with an AMOLED display named the T-Track that features a smaller 1.1-inch AMOLED display and a trackball that allows the user to navigate any menu or user interface shown on the display. The rest of the board’s specifications are very similar with an ESP32-S3R8 dual-core chip with 8MB PSRAM providing WiFi and BLE connectivity, a 16MB SPI flash for storage, two rows of pins for up to 18x GPIOs, a Qwicc connector for module expansion, and support for USB-C charging and a LiPo battery for power. T-Track specifications: Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3R8 dual-core Tensilica LX7 @ up to 24…

LILYGO T-TWR is an ESP32-S3 development board fitted with an SA868 Walkie-Talkie module and a UHF or VHF antenna, a speaker, a microphone, a small 0.96-inch OLED, and a 18650 battery holder, plus some I/Os for expansion. Equipped with an ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-16NR8 module, the T-TWR offers WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, a dual-core processor with 16MB flash and 8MB PSRAM, and enables users to design their own Walkie-Talkie, while its expansion capabilities allow the control of devices. LILYGO T-TWR specifications: Wireless module – Espressif ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R8 module with ESP32-S3 dual-core LX7 microprocessor @ up to 240 MHz with Vector extension for machine learni…

The LimeSDR Mini is an open-source hardware full-duplex USB SDR board based on Intel Altera Max 10 Altera FGPA that was introduced in 2017 on Crowd Supply and raised close to $2 million US dollars. Since it has been used in various projects including digital TV transmitters. Lime Microsystems is now back on Crowd Supply with the similar-looking LimeSDR Mini 2.0 replacing the MAX 10 FPGA with 16K logic gates with a more powerful and capable Lattice Semiconductor ECP5 FPGA with 44K logic gates while keeping the company’s LMS7002 RF transceiver. LimeSDR Mini 2 specifications: FPGA – Lattice Semi ECP5 (LFE5U-45F) with 44K logic gates, 108 sysMEM blocks (18kb), 1,944 Kb embed…

Linkstar H68K is a Rockchip RK3568 multimedia router with two 2.5GbE ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, an optional WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 module, a few USB ports, and an HDMI 2.1 port supporting up to 4Kp60. Rockchip RK3568 was initially introduced as a solution for NVRs, but I’ve yet to see any, Instead, we’ve gotten some SBCs and mini PCs, as well as several routers such as NanoPi R5S, FastRhino R68s, and the upcoming Radxa E25 that will be announced next week. Linkstar H68K specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with Arm Mali-G52 MP2 GPU, 0.8 TOPS AI accelerator, 4Kp60 H.265/H.264/VP9 video decoder, 1080p60 H.264/H.265 v…

Linux 5.18 is out! Linus Torvalds has just announced the release on lkml: No unexpected nasty surprises this last week, so here we go with the 5.18 release right on schedule. That obviously means that the merge window for 5.19 will open tomorrow, and I already have a few pull requests pending. Thank you everybody. I’d still like people to run boring old plain 5.18 just to check, before we start with the excitement of all the new features for the merge window. The full shortlog for the last week is below, and nothing really odd stands out. The diffstat looks a bit funny – unusually we have parsic architecture patches being a big part of it due to some last-minute cache flu…

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 5.19. It should be the last 5.xx version, with Linux 6.0 coming for the next cycle: So here we are, one week late, and 5.19 is tagged and pushed out. The full shortlog (just from rc8, obviously not all of 5.19) is below, but I can happily report that there is nothing really interesting in there. A lot of random small stuff. In the diffstat, the loongarch updates stand out, as does another batch of the networking sysctl READ_ONCE() annotations to make some of the data race checker code happy. Other than that it’s really just a mixed bag of various odds and ends. On a personal note, the most interesting part here is tha…

Linux 6.0 has just been released by Linus Torvalds: So, as is hopefully clear to everybody, the major version number change is more about me running out of fingers and toes than it is about any big fundamental changes. But of course there’s a lot of various changes in 6.0 – we’ve got over 15k non-merge commits in there in total, after all, and as such 6.0 is one of the bigger releases at least in numbers of commits in a while. The shortlog of changes below is only the last week since 6.0-rc7. A little bit of everything, although the diffstat is dominated by drm (mostly amd new chip support) and networking drivers. And this obviously means that tomorrow I’ll open the merge…

Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux 6.1, an LTS kernel, last Sunday: So here we are, a week late, but last week was nice and slow, and I’m much happier about the state of 6.1 than I was a couple of weeks ago when things didn’t seem to be slowing down. Of course, that means that now we have the merge window from hell, just before the holidays, with me having some pre-holiday travel coming up too. So while delaying things for a week was the right thing to do, it does make the timing for the 6.2 merge window awkward. That said, I’m happy to report that people seem to have taken that to heart, and I already have two dozen pull requests pending for tomorrow in my inb…

The exFAT file system is about to get faster in Linux 6.2, at least when creating files and directories, with the performance boost especially noticeable on low-end processors. Microsoft released the exFAT specification and announced Linux support in August 2019, which was followed by a new exFAT implementation in Linux 5.7 (June 2020) from Samsung. But people are still working on improving exFAT Linux support, and Yuezhang Mo, an engineer at Sony, committed a patchset for Linux 6.2 that reduces repeated traversal of directory entries to boost the performance of exFAT: After traversing all directory entries, hint the empty directory entry no matter whether or not there a…

Linux 6.2 has just been released with Linus Torvalds making the announcement on LKML as usual: So here we are, right on (the extended) schedule, with 6.2 out. Nothing unexpected happened last week, with just a random selection of small fixes spread all over, with nothing really standing out. The shortlog is tiny and appended below, you can scroll through it if you’re bored. Wed have a couple of small things that Thorsten was tracking on the regression side, but I wasn’t going to apply any last-minute patches that weren’t actively pushed by maintainers, so they will have to show up for stable. Nothing seemed even remotely worth trying to delay things for. And this obviousl…

Linux Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 6.3 on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML): It’s been a calm release this time around, and the last week was really no different. So here we are, right on schedule, with the 6.3 release out and ready for your enjoyment. That doesn’t mean that something nasty couldn’t have been lurking all these weeks, of course, but let’s just take things at face value and hope it all means that everything is fine, and it really was a nice controlled release cycle. It happens. This also obviously means the merge window for 6.4 will open tomorrow. I already have two dozen pull requests waiting for me to start doing my pulls, and I app…

Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux 7.3 on LKML last Sunday: It’s Sunday afternoon, and this week I somehow kept my wits together long enough to keep track of the day of the week, so the release isn’t randomly delayed. Will wonders never cease? Anyway, nothing very special seems to have happened this last week, so as expected the final 7.3 is out, and thus tomorrow the merge window for 7.4 opens. Except I’m on my annual family vacation, so instead of merging anything first thing in the morning, I’ll spend most of the day on a boat and under water. I’ll get back to merging in the afternoon, but I expect my schedule to be a bit unusual for a while. I hope I can st…

I’ve spent a bit more time with Ubuntu 22.04 on Khadas VIM4 Amogic A311D2 SBC, and while the performance is generally good features like 3D graphics acceleration and hardware video decoding are missing. But I was pleased to see a Linux hardware video encoding section in the Wiki, as it’s not something we often see supported early on. So I’ve given it a try… First, we need to make a video in NV12 pixel format that’s commonly outputted from cameras. I downloaded a 45-second 1080p H.264 sample video from Linaro, and converted it with ffmpeg: [crayon-6289ed6d13e21975150960/] I did this on my laptop. As a raw video, it’s pretty big with 3.3GB of storage used for a 45-second vi…

AAElectronics’ LocalDot is an open-source replacement mainboard that converts a 3rd-generation Amazon Echo Dot into a local voice assistant compatible with Home Assistant. The board replaces one of the two original PCBs while reusing the existing microphones, speaker, buttons, LEDs, and enclosure, so the device works without relying on Amazon’s cloud services. The board combines an ESP32-S3 for WiFi connectivity and device control with an ESP32-P4 for audio processing. It supports the original four-microphone array with beamforming, on-device wake-word detection, and local voice commands through Home Assistant. Installation requires no soldering or enclosure modifications…

LOLIN C3 Pico is a tiny (25.4×25.4mm) ESP32-C3 RISC-V board with 2.4 GHz WiFi and Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity, a few I/Os, and LiPo battery support including charging circuitry. I tend to like Wemos/LOLIN boards, because of their small form factor, support for equally tiny shields, and low price. The LOLIN C3 Pico is no exception, and even adds a few features such as an RGB LED, an I2C connector, and support for battery power and charging. LOLIN C3 Pico specifications: SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-C3FH4 single-core 32-bit RISC-V (RV32IMC) microcontroller up to 160 MHz with 400 KB SRAM, 4MB Flash Connectivity – 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE (in SoC) Expansion …

LOLIN S3 Mini is a tiny ESP32-S3 WiFi and Bluetooth IoT development board that follows the Wemos D1 Mini form factor and supports its equally tiny stackable shields to add relays, displays, sensors, and so on. Wemos/LOLIN introduced their first ESP32-S3 board last year with the LOLIN S3 board with plenty of I/Os and an affordable $7 price tag. But I prefer the company’s Mini form factor because of its size and the ability to select add-on boards to easily add a range of features to your projects. So I’m pleased to find out the company has now launched the LOLIN S3 Mini following the ESP32-C3 powered LOLIN C3 Mini board unveiled in March 2022. LOLIN S3 Mini specifications…

LOLIN S3 Pro is a WiFi & Bluetooth LE IoT board built around the ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 modules with various I/Os including a display port, a microSD card slot, and a LOLIN I2C connector. The wireless module ships with 16MB QSPI flash and 8MB PSRAM, and the board also features two 16-pin headers with ADC, DAC, I2C, SPI, UART, etc…, a USB Type-C port, and support for a LiPo batteries with 500mA charging. LOLIN S3 Pro specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 module with: Espressif Systems ESP32-S3 dual-core Tensilica LX7 @ up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration, 512KB RAM, 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE with support for long-range, up to 2…

8-bit MCUs are still found in many designs, but with the new low-cost 48MHz STM32C0 32-bit Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller, STMicrocontroller aims to displace 8-bit microcontrollers thanks to “a limited impact on the cost structure” and the improved support provided by the STM32 ecosystem. The cheapest ever STM32 microcontroller offers up to 32 KB flash, 6 or 12 KB RAM, and I/O interfaces such as UART, I2C, SPI, 12-bit ADC, and so on. The STM32C0 MCUs are available in 8- to 48-pin packages such as WLCSP12, UFQFPN, and the ridiculously tiny 3×3 mm UFQFPN20 package. STMicro STM32C0 key features and specifications: MCU Core -Arm 32-bit Cortex-M0+ CPU @ up to 48 MHz Memory – 6…

Lumissil Microsystems IS31CS9202 and IS32CS9202 are 50 MHz Cortex-M0+ microcontrollers for industrial, consumer, and automotive applications with a serial video bus (SVB), a LumiBus LED controller, and a capacitive touch-key controller. Both chips come with 16KB RAM, 256KB flash, a CAN FD controller, SPI master/slave, I2C master/slave, two enhanced UART interfaces, a quadrature encoder, a 14-bit sigma-delta ADC, a 12-bit SAR ADC, an 8-bit DAC, up to 42 GPIO pins, and more. The only differences are that the IS32CS9202 is designed for automotive applications and benefits from a wider -40°C to 125°C temperature range and AEC-Q100 and ASIL-B qualifications. Lumissil IS31CS920…

Luxonis OAK-D Series 2 are the second-generation of USB or PoE cameras with 3D depth and a built-in AI accelerator mostly used for computer vision in robotics applications. We first wrote about Luxonis’ DepthAI module for Raspberry Pi based on the Intel Myriad X AI accelerator in 2019, and later found the module integrated into OpenCV AI Kit Lite, aka OAK-D Lite camera. The second-generation OAK-D cameras replace the module with a Robotics Vision Core 2 (RVC2) “chip-down design” equipped an SoC and Myriad X AI accelerator for up to 4 TOPS of processing power, including 1.4 TOPS for AI inference. Luxonis OAK-D Series 2 specifications and features: Robotics Vision Core 2 ba…

Lyra V2 is an update to the open-source Lyra audio codec introduced last year by Google, with a new architecture that offers scalable bitrate capabilities, better performance, higher quality audio, and works on more platforms. Under the hood, Lyra V2 is based on an end-to-end neural audio codec called SoundStream with a “residual vector quantizer” (RVQ) sitting before and after the transmission channel, and that can change the audio bitrate at any time by selecting the number of quantizers to use. Three bitrates are supported: 3.2 kps, 6 kbps, and 9.2 kbps. Lyra V2 leverages artificial intelligence, and a TensorFlow Lite model enables it to run on Android phones, Linux, a…

ATOMS3 Lite is the latest ESP32-S3 IoT platform from the M5Stack Atom series wireless programmable controllers, doing without the 0.85-inch display and IMU sensor found in the ATOM S3 development kit simply using an RGB LED instead. M5Stack ATOM S3 Lite features the ESP32-S3FN8 WiFi and Bluetooth SoC with 8MB SPI flash, an infrared transmitter, a USB-C port for power and programming, a few I/O pins, user and reset buttons all in just a 24x24x9.5mm housing. ATOMS3 Lite specifications: Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3FN8 dual-core 32-bit Xtensa LX7 microcontroller with AI vector instructions up to 240MHz, RISC-V ULP co-processor, 512KB SRAM, 2.4GHz WiFi 4 (802.11…

M5Stack CM4Stack is a tiny Arm Linux mini PC based on Raspberry Pi CM4 that measures 59 x 44 x 46mm and integrates a 2-inch touchscreen display for information and control, as well as the usual ports you’d expect from a mini PC such as HDMI, USB 3.2 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, and so on. We’ve previously written about M5Stack Core and Atom controllers based on ESP32 microcontrollers, an optional 2.0-inch display, and a few GPIOs. The company has now decided to provide a similar solution with a jump in performance and interfaces with the CM4Stack development kit. CM4Stack specifications: SoM – Raspberry Pi CM4 (CM4104032) with SoC – Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 proce…

M5Stack’s Core Matrix is an ESP32-C61-based IoT controller with a 16×16 white LED matrix for displaying icons, animations, device status, and notifications. It supports 2.4 GHz WiFi 6 connectivity and is designed for IoT applications, sensor data monitoring, and interactive displays. It also includes a 6-axis BMI270 IMU, a microSD card slot, a passive buzzer, three user buttons, a power button, and a USB-C port. The board supports external modules and sensors through M5-Bus and Grove interfaces, with battery-power management circuitry that lets it run on either USB power or an external battery. M5Stack Core Matrix specifications: SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-C61HR8 CPU –…

M5Stack has released the PaperDIY series, an updated version of its 2020 M5Paper ESP32 development kit, featuring an ESP32-S3 MCU and a 4.7-inch e-paper display with 16 levels of gray. It comes in two versions: the PaperDIY Complete Kit, which ships factory-assembled in a 3D-printed enclosure, and the PaperDIY Assembly Kit, which is designed to be integrated into custom projects. Both boards also include a microSD card slot for extended storage, a built-in 140mAh battery, and a custom M5PM1 low-power management chip. M5Stack PaperDIY specifications: Core module – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R8 SoC – ESP32-S3 CPU – Dual-core LX7 processor with up to 240MHz Memory…

M5Stack T-Lite is a Wi-Fi thermal imager with the same MLX90640 IR array thermal camera found in the M5Stack Thermal Camera 2 Unit plus a 1.14-inch color display to visualize the results on the device itself. Based on the ESP32-PICO-D4 system-in-package with WiFi and Bluetooth, the solution allows the user to access the 32×24 pixels thermal image either on the built-in display, or streamed to the local network or the cloud. M5Stack T-Lite specifications: SiP – ESP32-PICO-D4 system-in-package with ESP32 dual-core Tensilica LX6 microcontroller with 448 KB ROM and 520 KB SRAM, 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 4.2, and a 4MB SPI flash Thermal camera – Melexis MLX90640 infrared (…

We’ve already seen the ESP32 used with a thermal camera (Flir Lepton 3.5) in the tCam-Mini IR board, but M5Stack Thermal Camera 2 Unit offers a more affordable ESP32 thermal camera solution thanks to the MLX90640 IR array thermal camera with a 32×24 resolution. Based on the ESP32-PICO-D4 system-in-package (SiP) with a dual-core microcontroller offering WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, the camera module offers a field of view of 110°x75°, and a temperature measurement range of -40°C to 300°C. M5Stack Thermal Camera 2 Unit specifications: SiP – ESP32-PICO-D4 system-in-package with ESP32 dual-core Tensilica LX6 cores, 448 KB ROM, 520 KB SRAM, 4MB SPI flash, 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 an…

M5Stamp S3, aka M5Stamp ESP32S2 or Stamp S3, is a tiny ESP32-S3 WiFi & Bluetooth LE (BLE) IoT module with a USB Type-C port, over 20 I/Os available through 2.54mm and 1.27mm pitch headers and castellated holes, and a heat-resistant cover. Many of the “new” ESP32-S3 hardware platforms launches these days are often updates from an ESP32 design, and the M5Stack’s M5Stamp S3 is no exception building on the original M5Stamp Pico, and its ESP32-C3 variants, namely M5Stamp C3 and C3U. M5Stamp S3 specifications: WiSoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3FN8 dual-core 32-bit Xtensa LX7 microcontroller with AI vector instructions up to 240MHz, RISC-V ULP co-processor, 512KB SRAM, 2.4GH…

Avnet MaaxBoard 8ULP will be one of the first single board computers (SBC) based on the new NXP i.MX 8ULP Cortex-A35/M33 processor designed for Edge audio and HMI applications, and featuring NXP’s EdgeLock for device-to-cloud security. The board will come with 2GB RAM, 32GB eMMC flash, a MIPI DSI display connector, a MIPI CSI camera connector, Fast Ethernet and WiFi 5 connectivity, a digital microphone, and a 3.5mm stereo audio jack, and provide expansion capabilities via a 40-pin header for Raspberry Pi HATs and a 16-pin Shuttle Click header for MikroE Click add-on boards. MaaXBoard 8ULP SBC specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8ULP processor with 2x Arm Cortex-A35 core @ 1.0 …

Makeblock Ultimate 2.0 is an educational robot kit that can be used to easily create up to 10 different types of robots. An Arduino-compatible Mega 2560 MCU board serves as the main controller and there are over 550 mechanical parts and electronic modules. The robot can drive up to 4 encoder and stepping motors, control up to 10 servo motors to work simultaneously, and can also be connected to Arduino and Raspberry Pi boards for more complex projects. The review/tutorial is fairly long, so if you are short on time, you can jump to different sections by clicking on some of the links below: MegaPi control board and main modules description mBlock 5 visual-programming IDE in…

Cytron Make Feather AIoT S3 is an ESP32-S3 board compatible with the Adafruit Feather form factor and suitable for makers and STEM education with features like LEDs for GPIOs, a buzzer, expansion headers and connectors, and support for CircuitPython & Arduino. The WiFi and Bluetooth LE IoT board also supports LiPo and Li-Ion batteries, includes a USB Type-C port for power/charging and programming, and a few buttons. It’s suitable for machine learning thanks to the vector extensions found in the ESP32-S3 microcontroller. Maker Feather AIoT S3 specifications: Wireless module – Espressif ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N8R8 module with ESP32-S3 dual-core LX7 microprocessor @ up to 240 …

Cytron’s Maker Pi Pico Mini is an add-on board for the Raspberry Pi Pico and the latest Raspberry Pi Pico W with a battery port, GPIO status LEDs, a WS2812B Neopixel RGB LED, passive piezo buzzer, user and reset button, as well as “Maker” ports for expansion. It comes with most of the features found in the company’s Maker Pi Pico board, but in a much more compact form factor, since the add-on board is only slightly larger than the Raspberry Pi Pico to allow for soldering using the castellated holes. Maker Pi Pico Mini specifications: Fitted with Raspberry Pi Pico / Pico W LEDs – 6x Status indicator LEDs for GPIOs, 1x RGB LED (WS2812B Neopixel) Audio – 1x Passive piezo buz…

Makerfabs has launched a 3.5-inch TFT touchscreen display with built-in WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity through an ESP32-S3 dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller clocked at 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration. This display offers a 320×480 resolution through the ILI9488 LCD driver, uses a 16-bit parallel interface for communication with ESP32-S3 clocked at up to 20 Mhz making it suitable for smooth graphics user interface, and the company also claims it is smooth enough for video displays, but more on that later. Specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R2 with Espressif Systems ESP32-S3 dual-core Tensilica LX7 @ up to 240 MHz with vector i…

Hey Karl here. The first thing I need to do is thank the manufacturer of the brand Ace Magician for sending over a unit of their AMR5 gaming mini PC to more or less play with. I did a tiny bit of benchmarking along the way. This is the last time you will see the system in this state 😀 Story time. I have been really wanting a Steam Deck. But we purchased a Nintendo Switch about a year ago and it has barely been used. As soon as my son picked it up he asked why it was so laggy and has shown very little interest in it. So that got me worried about purchasing essentially a one-trick device. There have been a couple of good attempts at a DIY Steam Deck and I wanted to experime…

I’ve just repurposed an empty XYLITOL gum bottle into a DIY camera mount for the Raspberry Pi Camera Module with privacy mode to boot… In order to avoid confusion, while Xylitol is a chemical compound, it’s also a Japanese brand of chewing gums that is sold in Thailand and other countries. I’m specifically talking about the latter in this post. Raspberry Pi Trading has just sent me a bunch of Raspberry Pi Camera Modules 3 for review, and since I don’t have any camera mount I initially thought maybe I’ll laser cut some mount or use some LEGOs as I did with the e-CAM20_CURB camera for Raspberry Pi 4. But then I saw some empty XYLITOL gum bottles, noticed the cap would open …

Cytron’s Maker Pi Pico Mini comes with a Raspberry Pi Pico or Raspberry Pi Pico W microcontroller board. It has the same features as the larger Maker Pi Pico including a GPIO LED, WS2812B Neopixel RGB LED, a passive piezo buzzer, programmable push buttons, and a reset button. I would like to thank Cytron for sending the Maker Pi Pico Mini board fitted with a Raspberry Pi Pico W as well as a character RGB LCD and a 3.7V Lithium Polymer battery. In this tutorial, we will show how to make a weather station with the Maker Pi Pico Mini board using Arduino code and the OpenWeather API. We’ve already covered the Maker Pi Pico Mini board, so we’ll have a closer look at the access…

MangoPi MQ Quad is an Allwinner H616 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 SBC following Raspberry Pi Zero W form factor, and the company’s earlier MangoPi MQ Pro RISC-V SBC featuring the Allwinner D1 processor. The MangoPi MQ Quad also comes with 1GB RAM, a mini HDMI output, two USB Type-C ports, WiFI 4 and Bluetooth connectivity, a microSD card, as well a 40-pin Raspberry Pi-compatible GPIO header and an FPC connector with USB, Ethernet, and more GPIOs for expansion. MangoPi MQ Quad specifications: SoC – Allwinner H616 quad-core Cortex-A53 @ 1.5GHz with Mali-G31 MP2 GPU with OpenGL 3.2, Vulkan 1.1, OpenCL 2.0 API support System Memory – 1GB DDR3L Storage – MicroSD card slot, a footp…

Espressif Systems has just announced the Matter-compatible ESP-ZeroCode modules with Wi-Fi and/or Thread (802.15.4) wireless connectivity that are designed as plug-and-play solutions for LED lights, outlets, switches, dimmers, relays, fans, and other lighting and electrical devices. I was only recently introduced to no-code programming in a recent post by Ninephon Kongangkab explaining how to use SenseCraft firmware for no-code programming on Wio Terminal. Basically, there’s no need to know Arduino, MicroPython, or any programming language, as the user just has to press a few buttons to configure an IoT device to meet his/her requirements. With the ESP-ZeroCode modules, E…

MaxLinear has just announced the availability of the first three AnyWAN broadband SoCs featuring Intel Atom cores with the MxL25641, URX850, and URX851 processors designed for 5Gbps and 10 Gbps broadband routers and gateways, usually referred to as CPEs (customer premise equipment). When I first read the news of MaxLinear releasing Intel Atom SoCs, I could not quite compute how it was possible, as I can’t remember any third-party releasing Intel processors and I thought it might be a system-in-package instead. But MaxLinear keeps calling those Intel Atom SoCs, and the reason is that the company acquired Intel’s Home Gateway Platform Division in 2020. MaxLinear AnyWAN x86 …

MaxLinear has unveiled its first Wi-Fi 7 SoCs with the MxL31712 and the MxL31708 single-chip solutions targeting service provider gateways, Wi-Fi routers, and access points, and delivering more than 70% higher tri-band throughput compared to Wi-Fi 6. The MxL31712 aims at the premium 4×4 tri-band market with a throughput of up to 18.6 Gbps and up to 12 spatial streams, while the MxL31708 will be integrated into mid- to high-range 4×4 dual-band access points and gateways with a throughput of up to 17 Gbps, and up to 8 spatial streams. MaxLinear MxL31712 and MxL31708 share the following features: Single-chip WFA Wi-Fi 7 R1 certifiable Based on IEEE 802.11be (aka WiFi 7 or …

Maxtang ALN-10 is an upcoming mini-ITX motherboard based on Alder Lake-N processors from the Processor N50 up to the Core i3-N305 SoC and specifically targetting industrial applications with a -20 to +60°C temperature range, six RS232/RS485 serial ports, and 12V to 19V DC input among other features. Since the latest Alder Lake N-Series processors were announced, we’ve seen a range of mini PCs based on the new series, some laptops, as well as a camera devkit and one single board computer, but so far no actual motherboards. Maxtang ALN-10 changes that with the industrial mini-ITX motherboard soon expected to launch for B2B customers. Maxtang ALN-10 specifications: Alder Lak…

Wilderness Labs Meadow F7v2 Feather is an STM32F7 Arm Cortex-M7 development board following the Adafruit Feather form factor and programmable with C# through a lightweight implementation of the .NET framework. We had previously seen the .NET Framework running on Android and Linux thanks to Xamarin’s Mono, but I don’t think I had ever a microcontroller-class board supporting the .NET framework and C# programming. But that’s exactly what the Meadow F7v2 Feather does. Meadow F7v2 Feather specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32F7 Arm Cortex-M7 microcontroller @ 216 MHz with 2D graphics and JPEG accelerators Memory – 32MB RAM Storage – 64MB flash Connectivity – 2.4 GHz WiFi and BL…

Elephant Robotics MechArm Pi 270 is a six-axis robotic arm with a 270mm working radius, support for up to 250 grams payload, and that runs Debian/Ubuntu + ROS on a Raspberry Pi 4 single board computer. The robotic arm was introduced last year in two separate crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo organized by MechArm, which has now joined Elephant Robotics, and now supports myStudio software to upgrade the software, provide video tutorials on how to use the robot, as well as maintenance and repair information. MechArm Pi 270 key features and specifications: Controller – Raspberry Pi 4 Model B SBC with quad-core Cortex-A72 processor, dual-band WiFi 5 & Blu…

MECOOL KM7 Plus is a TV box powered by an Amlogic S905Y4 quad-core Cortex-A35 processor and running Google TV OS based on Android 11 TV OS, instead of just the more common Android 11 TV OS. Amlogic S905Y4 quad-core Cortex-A35 processor was first unveiled in January 2021 for 4K Android TV dongles with AV1 support, but we had not seen many hardware platforms with the process apart from Khadas VIM1S SBC for which we just published a review with Ubuntu 22.04. MECOOL KM7 PLUS specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905Y4 quad-core Arm Cortex-A35 @ up to 2.0 GHz with Arm Mali-G31 MP2 GPU System Memory – 2 GB LPDDR4-2400 Storage – 16 GB eMMC flash, micro SD slot Video Output HDMI 2.1 up …

In the first part of MECOOL KP1 smart projector review, I checked out the package content, projector design, and integrated HDMI stick running Android 11 TV, before going through the setup wizard, and trying the projector with Android 11. I’ve now spent more time with the device, so I’ll report my overall experience. The best way to install the projector is probably to mount it on a ceiling or a wall, but in my case, I just placed it on top of a shelf itself placed on top of a table to adjust the height for a comfortable viewing experience from our comfy seats. As we’ve seen before, the projector will boot directly to the Android 11 TV launcher from the included MECOOL KD…

I’ve just received a review sample of the MECOOL KP1 smart projector with Full HD resolution that ships with an integrated “MECOOL KD5” Android 11 for TV HDMI stick powered by an Amlogic S805X2 processor. The company sent me a sample for review, and in this first post, I’ll check out MECOOL KP1 hardware and give it a first try, before reporting my experience in more detail in the second part of the review. MECOOL KP1 unboxing First, it’s not one of those mini projectors, as the package is fairly large… The device with with HDMI and AV (RCA composite + stereo audio) cables, a remote control, the power cord, and a quick starter guide. The right side of the side comes with t…

MECOOL KP1 is a Full HD projector equipped with the MECOOL KD5 HDMI dongle powered by an Amlogic S805X2 quad-core Cortex-A35 processor with 1GB RAM and 8GB flash and running Android 11 for TV. Most Android projectors are equipped with a low-end processor accompanied by an outdated version of Android, and while the Amlogic S805X2 SoC found in the KP1 is not a workhorse, Android 11 for TV OS should make it useable for a few more years, and it might even be possible to upgrade the TV stick down the road. MECOOL KP1 specfications: TV Stick – MECOOL KD5 with SoC – Amlogic S805X2 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with Arm Mali-G31 MP2 GPU, 1080p60 10-bit AV1, H.265, VP9 P-2, H…

Manufactured with a 4nm processor, the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 is an octa-core Armv9 processor designed for mainstream smartphones. with two Cortex-A715 cores, six Cortex-A510 cores, a Mali-G610 MC4 GPU, as well as 5G, WiFi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity. So far, I had only seen Armv9 SoCs with a mix of Cortex-A510 “LITTLE” cores, Cortex-A710/A715 “big” core, and Cortex-X2 or Cortex-X3 “flagship cores” as found in the Dimensity 9200 processor, but the Dimensity 7200 is one of the first Armv9 processors – one other being the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 – without a Cortex-X core in order to provide a more affordable solution. MediaTek Dimensity 7200 specifications: CPU 2x Arm C…

I first heard about WiFi 7 (802.11be) when MediaTek demonstrated some unknown Filogic solutions to customers, but few details were known at the time. The company has now formally announced the Filogic 880 and Filogic 380 WiFi 7 solutions designed for access points and clients respectively. MediaTek Filogic 880 for WiFi 7 access points, gateways, and routers Filogic 880 specifications: CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A73 application processor @ up to 1.8 GHz (about 30K DMIPS performance) AI accelerator – Advanced NPU (previously called “packet accelerator” or “off-load engine” :)) with HW NAT/IPv6 acceleration, QoS acceleration, (EIP-197) crypto engine for accelerating IPSec, S…

ADLINK Technology has just unveiled the SMARC 2.1 compliant LEC-MTK-I12000 system-on-module (SoM) powered by MediaTek Genio 1200 octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 AIoT processor coupled with up to 8GB RAM and 256GB UFS storage, as well as the I-Pi SMARC 1200 development kit designed for robotics and AIoT applications. LEC-MTK-I1200 MediaTek Genio 1200 system-on-module LEC-MTK-I1200 SoM specifications: SoC – MediaTek Genio 1200 (MT8395) octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A78 cores @ 2.2GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ 2.0GHz with penta-core Arm Mali-G57 GPU @ 880MHz with support for OpenGL ES 3.2/2.0/1.1, Vulkan 1.1/1.0, OpenCL 2.2, 4.8 TOPS NPU, HiFi 4 audio DSP, etc… System Memory – 4 …

MediaTek Genio 700 is an octa-core Arm processor with two Cortex-A78 cores, six Cortex-A55 cores, a Mali-G57 GPU, and a 4 TOPS AI accelerator designed for consumer and industrial IoT applications. The new processor is a cost-down version of the Genio 1200 premium AIoT processor introduced last year with four Cortex-A78 and four Cortex-A55 cores. The Genio 700 offers many of the same features but with lower performance/capabilities, including a 3-core GPU and an AI accelerator limited to 4.0 TOPS, as well as support for dual displays up to 4K + Full HD (instead of 2x 4K), and 32MP single cameras (instead of 48 MP). MediaTek Genio 700 specifications: CPU – Octa-core process…

MediaTek Kompanio 520 and Kompanio 528 octa-core Arm processors are designed for entry-level Chromebooks with all-day battery life and a display up to 2520 x 1080 resolutions. As time passes “entry-level” gets a new meaning as the new SoCs are equipped with two Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.2 GHz, six Cortex-A55 cores @ 2.0 GHz, and an Arm Mali-G52 GPU. That’s almost Rockchip RK3588 territory although not quite… MediaTek Kompanio 528 and 520 specifications: Octa-core CPU 2x Arm Cortex-A76 cores up to 2.2GHz (Kompanio 520 is limited to 2.0 GHz) 6x Arm Cortex-A55 cores up to 2GHz GPU – Arm Mali G52 MC2 2EE AI accelerator – Dual-core AI processing unit (APU) Memory – LPDDR4x u…

MediaTek T830 is a consumer premise equipment (CPE) SoC with a quad-core Cortex-A53 processor, an integrated Sub-6GHz 5G modem, hardware-based network acceleration engines,and optional support for Wi-Fi 6/6E, and son the new WiFi 7. It’s unrelated to the MediaTek Filogic 830 WiFi router SoC and instead, offers an upgrade to the MediaTek T750 5G chipset for higher performance multi-gigabit CPE products, such as fixed wireless access (FWA) routers and mobile hotspots (Mi-Fi) with up to 7 Gbps 5G speeds. MediaTek T830 specifications: CPU – 4x Arm Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 2.2 GHz GPU – Unnamed 3D GPU Networking accelerators MediaTek Network Processing Unit QoS Acceleration an…

MediaTek has just launched the Dimensity 9200 octa-core flagship 5G mobile processor with one Cortex-X3 core, two Cortex-A710 cores, and four Cortex-A510 cores, as well as the latest Arm Immortalis-G715 GPU. Manufactured for a TSMC 4nm processor for efficiency, the new flagship processor supports mmWave 5G and sub-6GHz cellular connectivity, LPDDR5x 8,533 Mbps memory, UFS 4.0 storage, and embeds a faster MediaTek APU 690 AI processor MediaTek Dimensity 9200 specifications: Octa-core CPU subsystem 1x Arm Cortex-X3 core at up to 3.05 GHz 3x Arm Cortex-A710 cores at up to 2.85 GHz 4x Arm Cortex-A510 cores up to 1.80GHz 8MB L3 cache 6MB system cache GPU – Arm Immortalis-G71…

MediaTek has introduced the Genio platform for AIoT devices, and unveiled the first chip of the Genio family with the Genio 1200 Octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 processor with a 4.8 TOPS NPU, 4K video support, and designed for premium AIoT products. The chip is manufactured with a 6nm processor, is said to consume less than 8W, supports dual 4Kp60 video output and up to 48MP @ 30 fps video capture, and WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 and 5G connectivity can be added through add-in chips. Targets applications include Smart Home appliances, HMI, industrial IoT, robotics, and more. MediaTek Genio 1200 key features and specifications: CPU – Octa-core processor with four Cortex-A78 cores @ up…

Pentium and Celeron brands are officially dead with Intel introducing the Alder Lake-N family comprised of “Intel Processor” and Core-i3 N-series processors based on the Gracemont “Efficiency” cores found in Alder Lake hybrid processors. Some of the details about the Intel Processor N100 and N200 processors were leaked last fall, followed by the Core i3-N300 and Core i3-N350, but at least it is now official, and we have more details so let’s dig into it. Alder Lake N-series key features and specifications: CPU – Up to 8x Gracemont Efficient cores for Core i3 N-series processor, and up to 4x with Intel Processor processor GPU – Intel UHD graphics with AV1 decode support Me…

KinCony IoT’s KC868-A566 is an ESP32 WiFi & BLE IoT board with a massive 512 GPIOs, more specifically with 256 12V/24V digital outputs and 256 digital inputs that should meet most people’s requirements, except for its price, as it is currently selling for $1,000 on Aliexpress. The board is based on ESP32-WROOM-32E, and besides the massive numbers of GPIOs, also adds four analog input ports, an Ethernet port, and an RS485 connector. The company also made sure it can run ESPHome open-source firmware and integrates well with Home Assistant open-source home automation framework. KinCony IoT KC868-A566 board specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-WROOM-32E with ESP32 dual…

Mekotronics LS1200 is a mini PC powered by a MediaTek Genio 1200 (MT8395) octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 processor with a 4.8 TOPS NPU, and especially suited to live streaming applications. The system, housed in a metal enclosure, is offered with an unspecified amount of LPDDR4x memory and eMMC flash, HDMI input and output, an eDP (Embedded DisplayPort) interface, a Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, and four USB host ports. Mekotronics LS1200 specifications: SoC – MediaTek Genio 1200 (MT8395) octa-core processor with CPU – 4x Cortex-A78 cores @ 2.2GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ 2.2GHz GPU – Penta-core Arm Mali-G57 GPU @ 880MHz with support for OpenGL ES 3…

Mekotronics R58 is a single board computer based on Rockchip RK3588 processor that will also be sold as a mini PC with an enclosure, and offers a cheaper alternative to the company’s R58X embedded mini PC with up to 16GB RAM, dual Gigabit Ethernet, dual SATA, etc… The R58 comes with fewer ports notably only one Gigabit Ethernet port, one SATA interface, and the RS485/RS232 terminal block and M.2 socket are gone, but it does add an extra HDMI output port, meaning it could support up to four independent displays. It still features up to 16GB RAM and 64GB eMMC flash. Mekotronics R58 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588 octa-core processor with four Cortex-A76 cores @ 2.4 GH…

Mekotronics R58 is a cost-optimized Rockchip RK3588 mini PC and SBC that sells for as little as $169 with 4GB and 32GB eMMC flash. The company has now sent me a model with 8GB RAM and 64GB flash for evaluation, and in the first part of the review, I’ll do an unboxing, check out the hardware more closely, and boot it up for a quick check. Mekotronics R58 Unboxing There’s no retail package so to speak with just a white box and a sticker reading “MINI 8+64G” indicating the RAM and storage capacity for the device. The mini PC ships with a 12V/3A power adapter and cord, an IR remote control with two AAA batteries, two WiFi antennas, an HDMI cable, and a USB-A to USB-C cable pr…

I’ve written the first part of Mekotronics R58 review last month with an unboxing, teardown, and first boot with 3D graphics benchmarks. I’ve now had more time to play with Android 12 on the Rockchp RK3588 mini PC, so I’ll report my experience with the device. User interface and settings As already mentioned, the box ships with Android 12 for TV and the stock launcher. The Google Play store is working, and I had no troubles installing all apps I needed for the review. Most of the settings are pretty much standard. While the first time, I used Ethernet, and also tried WiFi 6 connecting the R58 to Xiaomi Mi AX6000 router. It worked but not without some effort, as initially,…

Mekotronics R58X-4G is an update to the company’s R58X Rockchip RK3588 mini PC with support for 4G LTE mini PCIe modules and PoE power. The computer is sold with up to 16GB RAM, up to 128 GB eMMC flash, support SATA and NVMe storage, offers two 8K capable HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs, one 4K HDMI input, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, a WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 module, a few USB ports, and a terminal block with RS232 and RS485 interfaces. Mekotronics R58X-4G specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588 octa-core processor with four Cortex-A76 cores @ 2.4 GHz, four Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8 GHz, an Arm Mali-G610 MP4 GPU, a 6TOPS NPU, 8K 10-bit decoder, 8K encoder System Memory – 4…

Mele PCG02 Pro is a mini PC stick / PC-on-a-stick powered by either an Intel Celeron J4125 Gemini Lake processor or a more recent Celeron N5105 Jasper Lake processor, with support for M.2 NVMe/SSD storage, but only for the Gemini Lake model. The computer is also equipped with 8GB LPDDR4 memory, 128GB to 512GB eMMC flash, two HDMI 2.0 ports capable of driving two independent displays, a Gigabit Ethernet port, WiFi 5 or 6 connectivity, and more. MeLE PCG02 Pro specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Celeron J4125 quad-core Gemini Lake Refresh processor @ 2.0 / 2.7 GHz (Boost) with 12EU Intel UHD 600 graphics @ 250 / 750 MHz; 10W TDP Intel Celeron N5105 quad-core Jasp…

MeLE has launched a new ‘stick’ mini PC called the PCG02 Pro. It comes in two models featuring either a mobile Gemini Lake Refresh or a Jasper Lake processor. Both models appear physically similar however the memory, WiFi, Bluetooth, and USB ports differ plus only the lower-powered model includes an M.2 NVMe or SATA slot. MeLE kindly sent both models for review and I’ve looked at the performance running both Windows and Ubuntu. MeLE PCG02 Pro hardware overview The MeLE PCG02 Pro physically consists of a 146 x 61 x 20mm (5.75 x 2.40 x 0.79 inches) rectangular plastic case that ‘wraps’ around a plastic inner frame. The outside of the case has a knurled or cross-hatched patt…

MeLE has launched a new range of passive mini PCs known as the ‘Quieter HD Series’ and first in the lineup is the Quieter HD3Q. Not only does this new mini PC address the main criticism of their earlier models by now including dual-channel memory, but it is also slightly larger allowing the ability to add a 2.5” SATA drive, and also has a higher power limit to improve performance. MeLE kindly sent one for review and I’ve looked at performance running both Windows and Ubuntu. MeLE Quieter HD3Q hardware overview The MeLE Quieter HD3Q consists of a 150 x 105 x 37mm (5.91 x 4.13 x 1.46 inches) rectangular plastic case with a metal base plate. Gone are the faux heat spreader f…

Barring barebone models, most mini PCs sell with Windows 10 or Windows 11 pre-installed, and that’s not ideal for people wanting to run Linux only since they also pay extra for the license of an operating system they are not going to use. But MeLE is now selling the Quieter2D mini PC with an Intel Celeron N4000 dual-core processor, 4GB RAM, and 64GB or 128GB eMMC storage for $139.99 and up without an operating system or a Windows key. The ultrathin fanless mini PC also features M.2 2280 SATA/NVMe socket, a microSD card reader, two HDMI 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet and WiFi 5 connectivity, four USB 3.0 ports, and takes 12V power input through a USB Type-C port. MeLE Quieter…

MeLE’s newly launched Quieter3C is an update to their earlier Quieter3Q product which replaces one of the Type-A USB ports with a Type-C USB port and includes both power delivery and video display output, together with changing one of the HDMI ports to a mini DisplayPort. MeLE kindly sent one for review and given these are the only differences I’m only going to take a cursory look at performance benchmarks together with looking at these new features. MeLE Quieter3C hardware overview The MeLE Quieter3C is physically the same size as the Quieter3Q and consists of a 131 x 81 x 18.3mm (5.16 x 3.19 x 0.72 inches) rectangular plastic case with a metal base plate. The top half o…

MeLE has released a new and updated version of the Quieter mini PC called the Quieter3Q. Like before, it is a passive mini PC but now features the latest low-powered Intel Celeron Jasper Lake CPU and an upgraded PCIe 3.0 x2 M.2 2280 NVMe SSD slot. MeLE has kindly sent one for review and I’ve looked at performance running both Windows and Ubuntu and connecting an eGPU. MeLE Quieter3Q Hardware Overview The MeLE Quieter3Q is physically the same as before consisting of a 131 x 81 x 18.3mm (5.16 x 3.19 x 0.72 inches) rectangular plastic case with a metal base plate. The top half of the case is finely grooved to mimic the fins of a heat spreader but is made of plastic rather th…

paperd.ink Merlot is a tricolor E-paper display with an open-source hardware control board based on ESP32 wireless SoC that is programmable with Arduino, MicroPython, or the ESP-IDF framework. We first wrote about the paperd.ink 4.2-inch ESP32-based monochrome e-Paper display last year, but the company has now refined its design with the “paperd.ink Classic” replacing the 3D printed enclosure with a vacuum cast enclosure and adding a 1,900 mAh battery. They also launched a new model, the Merlot, based on the same design but with a display supporting three colors: black, white, and red. Merlot specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-WROOM-32 module with ESP32 dual-core pro…

I was informed about the “CM4 IO Computer” based on the official Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 IO board housing in a metal enclosure along with the Raspberry Pi CM4 module. I initially thought it was new, but it’s been out at least since 2021. Nevertheless, it turns out there are at least two of this type of metal enclosures for the CM4 IO board, and when buying full systems, they may provide a way to source Raspberry Pi CM4 system-on-modules since individual modules are so hard to purchase if you are not a company with some minimum monthly production volume. As a development platform, the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 IO board is not optimized for cost or size, but there…

MicroBlocks is a visual programming IDE for 32-bit microcontrollers currently supporting the BBC Micro:bit V1/V2, Calliope mini (aka the German Micro:bit), Adafruit Circuit Playground Express and Bluefruit, Raspberry Pi Pico and Pico W, and various other boards including ESP32 and ESP8266-based boards. I discovered MicroBlocks in the list of talks for FOSDEM 2023, and although it did not make it to my virtual schedule, I thought it was interesting to look into and write about it. In their upcoming FOSDEM talk, Bernat Romagosa and Kathy Giori refer to MicroBlocks as small, fast, and human-friendly with development guided by four guiding principles: liveness, parallelism, p…

Microchip has just announced the 1 GHz SAMA7G54 single-core Arm Cortex-A7 microprocessor (MPU) with MIPI CSI-2 and parallel camera interfaces, as well as up to four I2S, one SPDIF transmitter and receiver, and a 4-stereo channel audio sample rate converter. The company specifically launched a single-core processor to offer a lower power solution for AI camera and audio solutions, and the chip is coupled with the MCP16502 power management IC that has been optimized to provide the best power/performance ratio for the SAMA7G54. Microchip SAMA7G54 specifications: CPU – Arm Cortex-A7 based MPU @ up to 1GHz with 256KB L2 cache Memory – DDR2/DDR3/DDR3L/LPDDR2/LPDDR3 up to 533MHz…

Microchip has introduced a range of industrial-grade Single Pair Ethernet (SPE) devices for IIoT and industrial Operational Technology (OT) networks for low-speed Ethernet edge devices and a simplified cabling infrastructure for latency-sensitive applications. Microchip LAN8650/LAN8651 10BASE-T1S single pair Ethernet Controllers The LAN8650 and LAN8651 10BASE-T1S MAC-PHY Ethernet controllers come with an SPI for integration into basic microcontrollers rather than higher-end MCUs with a MAC. They can be used to connect sensors, actuators, and other devices over a simple twisted-pair cable. Microchip LAN8650/LAN8651 specifications: High-performance 10BASE‑T1S single-pair Et…

Damien George has recently announced the release of MicroPython 1.20 with support for the Raspberry Pi Pico W board., a new lightweight package manager called mip, a smaller footprint thanks to the use of compressed type structs, and many other changes. mip package manager The new mip package manager uses a custom protocol optimized for embedded systems to query and install packages, and intends to replace upip for installing packages from micropython-lib or any URL. Mip can be run directly on a device, as long as it has network connectivity, or via mpremote from a host computer. Damien explains all pure-Python drivers have been moved from the micropython repository to th…

MikroTik KNOT Gateway HL9 is an IP66-rated outdoor IoT gateway that combines 915 MHz Wi-Fi HaLow (802.11ah), Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi 6, LTE Cat 1 bis, Gigabit Ethernet, and GNSS. The gateway supports asset tracking, remote sensor monitoring, industrial IoT, and agricultural applications. Built around a dual-core Qualcomm IPQ-5010 ARM64 processor, it features 256MB RAM and 128MB NAND flash. It relies on a Morse Micro MM6108 Wi-Fi HaLow SoC for sub-GHz connectivity, with Gigabit Ethernet, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 6, and LTE Cat 1 bis cellular for backhaul. MikroTik KNOT Gateway HL9 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm IPQ-5010 dual-core 64-bit Arm processor @ 800 MHz Memory – 256MB RAM Storage…

Last year, we wrote about the Made-in-Russia Mikron MIK32 RISC-V microcontroller with features similar to STM32L0 Arm Cortex-M0+, and I was recently told that the first fully packed samples are expected for the end of autumn. But it turns out there’s another Russian company that makes RISC-V microcontrollers, and for instance, the Milandr MDR32F02FI features the open-source BM-310 RISC-V MCU core and is specially designed for electricity meters. It is the second generation of the microcontroller with the first being based on Arm Cortex-M0 core and produced for over 5 years. Milandr MDR32F02FI specifications: CPU – CloudBEAR BМ-310S 32-bit RISC-V core @ 60 MHz Memory – 112…

Last week, when I saw LilyGO T-Keyboard based on ESP32-C3, I didn’t think much of it and did not expect many people to be interested, so I skipped it. But earlier today I also noticed Solder Party launched a very similar-looking product – the BB Q20 Keyboard with Trackpad – based on Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU. So after all, it might be worthwhile to look into those mini keyboards for makers. LilyGO T-keyboard Hardware specifications: SoC – ESP32-C3 single-core RISC-V processor with Wi-Fi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE connectivity Display – 0.99-inch TFT color LCD QWERTY keyboard Battery – 400mAh built-it battery Power Supply – 5V via USB port Dimensions – 6.9 x 5.3 x 1.7 cm The com…

Rockchip RK1808 SoC with a built-in 3.0 TOPS AI accelerator has been around since 2019, and we’ve seen it in USB compute sticks, SBCs, and even in Pine64 SoEdge-RK1808 SO-DIMM module, but somehow never in the more widely used M.2 or mPCIe form factors. Toybrick TB-RK1808M0 changes that and offers Rockchip RK1808K SoC coupled with 1GB RAM and an 8GB eMMC flash in a mini PCIe module that exposes USB 3.0, USB 2.0, UART, and GPIO signals. Toybrick TB-RK1808M0 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK1808K CPU – Dual-core Cortex-A35 processor @ up to 1.4 GHz AI Accelerator – 3.0 TOPS NPU for INT8 inference (300 GOPS for INT16, 100 GFLOPS for FP16) VPU – 1080p60 H.264 decode, 1080p30 H…

Mini Pupper 2 is an improved version of the Mini Pupper robot dog powered by a Raspberry Pi 4 introduced last year. The new model support either the Raspberry Pi 4 SBC or CM4 module, adds an Arduino programmable ESP32 wireless MCU, support for ROS2, and servo feedback. Two variants are offered with the Mini Pupper 2 implementing position servo feedback, and the Mini Pupper 2 Pro position, velocity, and torque servo feedback. Other changes common to both variants include the addition of an IMU, microphone & speaker, a touch sensor, support for autocalibration, as well as a new mobile app for control. Mini Pupper 2 specifications: CPU module – Raspberry Pi 4 SBC or Rasp…

ORICO has sent me a sample of a USB 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD enclosure for review, which was timely as I did not have a fast USB storage option for testing. In this post, I’ll check out the hardware, show how to install an NVMe SSD, and test performance in UP Xtreme i11 mini PC since it happens to come with a USB 4.0 port. ORICO USB 4.0 M.2 SSD enclosure specs and unboxing The exact model I received is the ORICO M234C3-U4 with a Rose Gold aluminum enclosure (107x50x17mm), supporting M.2 M-Key and B+M Key 2230, 2242, 2260, 2280 SSDs (more on that later), and offering up to 40 Gbps through its USB 4.0 port. The device ships with a USB Type-C to USB Type-C/Type-A cable, a thermal pa…

Raspberry Pi Trading has just launched the 1.6MP Raspberry Pi Global Shutter Camera which can capture rapid motion without introducing artifacts usually experienced with rolling shutter cameras such as the earlier Raspberry Pi Camera modules, including the latest Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3. The company sent me Raspberry Pi Global Shutter Camera sample together with a 16mm C-mount lens for review, and I’ll report my experience after going through the specifications of the new camera. Raspberry Pi Global Shutter Camera specifications Sony IMX296LQR-C Sensor Resolution: 1.58 megapixels (color) Sensor size: 6.3mm sensor diagonal Pixel size: 3.45μm x 3.45μm Output – RAW10 Ba…

Flex Logix has just announced the InferX Hawk mini-ITX motherboard equipped with an AMD Ryzen Embedded R2314 SoC and two InferX X1 AI accelerators from the company in order to help customers customize, build and deploy edge and embedded AI systems easily and quickly. The motherboard features up to 32GB RAM, supports SATA and M.2 MVMe/SATA storage, provides dual Gigabit Ethernet and optional WiFi/4F LTE connectivity, plus the usual USB 3.2, DisplayPort, and serial interfaces, and is meant to compete directly against solutions based on NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier. InferX Hawk specifications: SoC – AMD Ryzen Embedded R2314 quad-core processor @ 2.1/3.5 GHz (Turbo) with hexa-c…

Z3 Technology has introduced several miniature dual-camera encoder boards with the PoE-capable FV2K-13A and FV4K-13A boards capable of handling two visible and/or thermal cameras at Full HD or 4K resolution respectively, along with the FV2K-15A and FV4K-15A variants equipped with low-profile connectors. All four models enable H.265/H.264 video streaming of a single or dual camera system, support ONVIF Profile S and T profile, and comply with the NDAA law in the US. This set of features as well as low power consumption and the lightweight designs make the boards suitable for UAV, inspection, surveillance, and other weight-constrained applications. Z3 Technology FV2K-13A an…

Mirek Folejewski’s (aka Mirko Electronics) PicoBerry is an open-source hardware, miniature Raspberry Pi CM4 carrier board with just a USB Type-C port for power, a 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header, and barely anything else. At just 70x20mm, the 2-layer board only adds a few LEDs, namely the ACT/PWR LEDS and two user LEDs, and supports any Raspberry Pi CM4 module with eMMC flash, but not the Raspberry Pi CM4 Lite since the board does not include a microSD card slot. PicoBerry specifications: Supported system-on-modules – Raspberry Pi CM4 with eMMC flash, and possibly compatible SoMs such as Radxa CM5 or Pine64 SoQuartz64 USB – USB Type-C for power Expansion – 40-pin GPIO hea…

Most Intel processors do not come with a MIPI CSI camera, but some Alder Lake-N processors do, and Leopard Imaging has designed the LI-ADL-ADP-IMX415-MIPI-081H MIPI CSI camera module that is compatible with the Intel ADL-N CRB (Alder Lake-N Customer Reference Board) and custom Alder Lake-N boards equipped with a compatible MIPI CSI connector. The 13MP camera supports resolutions up to 3864 x 2176 and works with boards and embedded systems based on Intel Atom processors x7000E Series, Intel Core i3-N processors, and Intel Processors N-Series processors. LI-ADL-ADP-IMX415-MIPI-081H specifications: Sony IMX415 CMOS image sensor Diagonal – 6.43 mm (Type 1/2.8) Active Pixels –…

MIPS is dead, right? Well, there’s now very little done on the architecture itself, MIPS (the company) has decided to switch to RISC-V architecture, and unveiled the eVocore product lineup currently comprised of the eVocore P8700 and I8500 multiprocessor IP cores. The 64-bit cores are scalable from single-core multi-thread to a single cluster with multiple cores, and up to a multi-cluster, and target high-performance, real-time compute applications such as networking, data centers, and automotive. The eVocore P8700 comes with a 16-stage deep pipeline with multi-issue Out-of-Order (OOO) execution and multi-threading. MIPS claims it has single-threaded performance greater t…