Tronsmart Draco AW80 (click for full specs) is the first octa core Android TV box / mini PC thanks to Allwinner A80 processor. Draco AW80 Meta model comes with 2GB RAM / 16GB eMMC, and the upcoming Draco AW80 Telos will feature 4GB RAM and a 32GB eMMC. Geekbuying sent me the Meta version for review, and since I’ve already posted pictures of the device and board, today I’ll post my findings after testing the unit. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions I’ve inserted two AAA batteries in the provided remote control, and it works as expect, but as usual, I’ve used Mele F10 Deluxe air mouse to control the device during my testing, since it’s impossible to use most apps with an IR remote control, XBMC/Kodi being one exception. I’ve connected an HDMI cable, a USB 3.0 hard drive…
After the Raspberry Pi foundation officially announced Raspberry Pi Model B+ board, it was natural to expect a Model A+ to come soon after. Based on a webpage on Element14, an update of the cheapest version of the Raspberry Pi could get announced very soon, maybe as soon as Monday. It has specifications very similar to Model A, but replaces the 26-pin GPIO connector, by a 40-pin connector, a micro SD slot takes the place of a full-sized SD slot, and power management has been improved so that it’s more efficient, and can support “power hungry” USB devices. I’ve drawn a comparison table between the latest two boards: Model B+ vs Model A+. Raspberry Pi Model B+ Raspberry Pi Model A+ SoC Broadcom BCM2835 ARM11 processor @ 700MHz with VideoCore IV GPU System Memory 512 MB (PoP) 256 MB (PoP)…
GeekBuying sent me a sample of their Tronsmart Draco AW80 mini PC powered by Allwinner A80 octa core processor. I’ve received the Meta version with 2GB RAM, and 16GB eMMC, but next month Telos version will ship with 4GB RAM and 32GB eMMC instead. Today I’ll show some pictures of the product and the internal boards, and in a few days I’ll write a full version with the Android 4.4 firmware. Later, I’ll most certainly review the Ubuntu beta image that’s scheduled for released by the end of the month. Tronsmart Draco AW80 Unboxing I’ve received the device by DHL in the black and gold package below. I was surprised by the size of the box (16.4 x 16.4 cm) which quite larger than what I’m used to with other TV boxes, and all cables and accessories are stored in…
NetBSD is an open source Unix-like Open Source operating system running on a wide range of platforms, from servers and desktop systems to embedded devices. The operating system has supported ARM since 1996, with more recent ports for ARM Cortex A8 and Raspberry Pi, but until recently it did not support SMP (Symmetric multiprocessing) to support more than one core. But NetBSD has now fixed this “anomaly” and the following Allwinner A20/A31 and Freescale i.MX6 boards are now supported: Banana Pi (BPI) Cubieboard 2 (CUBIEBOARD) Cubietruck (CUBIETRUCK) Merrii Hummingbird A31 (HUMMINGBIRD_A31) CUBOX-I NITROGEN6X You can give it a try on Allwinner boards by creating an SD card following instructions on NetBSD / Allwinner Wiki. There does not seem to be documentation for the Freescale boards yet. If Allwinner documentation is up-to-date, this is a headless image, as framebuffer, HDMI, etc……
Before the BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black boards based on TI Sitara processor, there were BeagleBoard (-xM) boards powered by TI OMAP3 processors, and Beageboard.org and Texas Instruments are now working on their next open source hardware board with BeagleBoard-X15 powered by TI Sitara AM572 dual core Cortex A15 SoC. Since Beagleboard-X15 has not been formally announced, there’s no picture, and we don’t have the full details yet, but here are the expect technical specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM5728 dual core Cortex A15 processor @ 1.5 GHz, with PowerVR SGX544-MP2 3D GPU, Vivante GC320 2D GPU, 2x Cortex M4 cores, dual core C66x DSP, and IVA (Image and Video Accelerator) for 1080p video decode (H.264, VC-1, MPEG 1/2/4, AVS, etc..) System Memory – 2GB DDR3L with dual 32-bit buses Storage – 4GB eMMC, micro SD slot, and eSATA interface…
I’ve just noticed some Mediatek MT6592 octa-core Android smartphones are selling for a little over $100. The cheapest phones seem to be THL T6 Pro and AXGIO Neon N2Q both selling for exactly $116.99, the former on sites like GeekBuying or BuyInCoins, and the latter only selling on Tinydeals, so AXGIO may be a re-branded phone. Let’s compare both phones. Since most phones now look pretty much alike, we’d better look at the hardware specifications instead to eventually decide is better value for money. ThL T6 Pro AXGIO Neon N2Q SoC Mediatek MT6592M Octa core Cortex A7 @ 1.4 GHz with Mali-450MP4 GPU System Memory 1 GB RAM Storage 8 GB + micro SD slot (up to 32GB) Display 5.0” IPS display, 1280×720, 5 Points multi-touch 5.0” IPD display, 960 x 540, 5 points multi-touch Cellular Connectivity GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz WCDMA:…
I’ve come across several robotic projects this week, so instead of picking one up, or writing a post for each, I’ll summarize the three products into one post. Two of the projects are educational robots based on Arduino, with the sub $50 Hack-E-Bot, or the more advanced RiQ robot, and Maker Club is a company providing the electronics for robotics kit, and you print the plastic parts with your 3D printer. Hack-E-Bot Robot Hack-E-Bot is an affordable open source robot that hopes to encourage children to learn about engineering, electronics, and programming. The robot is powered by Adafruit’s Trinklet Arduino compatible board, connected to a breadboard, and some add-on boards sensors. The basic version comes with a Sonar sensor, but more add-on boards are on the way including bump sensors, a buzzer, colored lights, a claw, a servo scanner, and…
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