In recent years, tools such as the FlipperZero have become quite popular amongst hobbyists and security professionals alike for their small size and wide array of hacking tools. Inspired by the functionality of the FlipperZero, Project Hub user ‘andreockx’ created a similar multi-radio tool named the CapibaraZero, which has the same core abilities and even a little more.

The project uses an Arduino Nano ESP32 as its processor and as a way to provide Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low-Energy, and human interface features. The chipset can scan for nearby Wi-Fi networks, present fake captive portals, prevent other devices from receiving IP addresses through DHCP starvation, and even carry out ARP poisoning attacks. Andre’s inclusion of a LoRa radio module further differentiates his creation by letting it transmit information in the sub-GHz spectrum over long distances. And lastly, the PN532 RFID module can read encrypted MiFare NFC tags and crack them through brute force.

This collection of the Nano ESP32, wireless radios, and a LiPo battery + charging module were all attached to a custom PCB mainboard while five additional buttons were connected via secondary daughterboard before the entire assembly was placed into a 3D printed case.

For more details about the CapibaraZero, you can read Andre’s write-up here on the Project Hub.

The post Meet the CapibaraZero, a multifunctional security and hacking tool based on the Nano ESP32 appeared first on Arduino Blog.

Selecting a microSD card, and to a lesser extent an SSD, for your Raspberry Pi may feel like walking through a landmine field with fake microSD cards that may perform poorly and severely impact the performance and/or reliability of your Raspberry Pi, and you’ll find plenty of articles helping you select a good microSD card for your Raspberry Pi. That’s probably why Raspberry Pi Holdings decided to launch its own Raspberry Pi-branded class A2 microSD cards and NVMe SSDs, so users can be sure they got a certified storage device that should perform as advertised as long as they purchase those from some authorized resellers. The company sent me 32GB and 64GB Raspberry Pi microSD cards and a 256GB Raspberry Pi SSD kit for testing, so I’ll test those in this review and compare them against other SSDs and microSD cards I’m currently using. Since we’ve not covered the new [...]

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We’ve already checked the hardware of the GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite mini PC with an unboxing and teardown in the first part of the review. It is a low-cost mini PC based on an Intel Processor N100 CPU, coupled with 8GB DDR4-3200 memory, a 256GB M.2 SATA SSD, dual Display output through HDMI and DisplayPort connector, GbE, WiFi 6E, and a 9-pin expansion header port – as found in some NUC model – to access an external power button, reset button, and LEDs when housed in a cabinet or kiosk. You’ll find the full Mini Air 12 Lite specifications in our previous article about it. We’ve now had more time to test the mini PC, so we’ll report our experience with the Mini Air12 Lite running Windows 11 Pro operating system in the second part of the review. We’ll go through a software overview, test most of the features, run [...]

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I’ve already gone through the specifications, an unboxing, and a teardown of the GEEKOM GT1 Mega AI mini PC powered by an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H “Meteor Lake” processor with 32GB DDR5 RAM and a 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD in the first part of the review. I’ve now had more time to play with the GEEKOM GT1 Mega, so I will report my experience with Windows 11 Pro operating system in the second part of the review testing features, running benchmarks including an AI benchmark, evaluating networking and storage performance, testing the thermal design while under stress, and taking measurements for fan noise and power consumption. Software overview and features testing Going to the System->About window in the Settings confirms we have a GT1-Mega mini PC powered by a 2.50 GHz (base frequency) Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor with 32GB of RAM running Windows 11 Pro 23H2 build [...]

The post GEEKOM GT1 Mega Review – Part 2: An Intel Core 9 Ultra 185H Meteor Lake “AI” mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

We’ve already checked out the hardware of the Maxtang T0-FP750 mini PC with an unboxing and a teardown in the first part of the review, before thoroughly testing the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS mini PC in Windows 11 Pro. The time has now come to report our experience with Ubuntu 24.04, and more exactly Ubuntu 24.04.1 “dot” release, with the Maxtang T0-FT750 mini PC in the final part of the review. This will include a software overview, feature tests, benchmarks, storage and USB performance evaluation, 2.5Gbps Ethernet and WiFi 6 network performance tests, a stress test to check for thermal and/or power throttling, and fan noise and power consumption measurements. We will also compare the results of the Maxtang T0-FP750 mini PC in Ubuntu 24.04 against the ones for the earlier Maxtang MTN-FP750 mini PC using AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS CPU which we tested with Ubuntu 22.04. Ubuntu 24.04 system [...]

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GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite is a mini PC based on Intel Processor N100 CPU whose unique feature is to include an external 9-pin expansion header port for expansion to add an external power button, a reset button, and a few LEDs. As its name implies, it’s also a cheaper version of the GEEKOM Mini Air12 that ships with 8GB DDR4-3200 memory and a 256GB NVMe SSD. The mini PC also features  HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3, and six USB 3.2/2.0 ports. GEEKOM sent us a sample of the Mini Air12 Lite for review. So today, we’ll start by checking out the hardware with an unboxing and teardown, before trying to boot it up, and we’ll then test the system in more detail with Windows 11 and Ubuntu 24.04.1 in the next parts of the review. GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite unboxing We received the [...]

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iKOOLCORE R2 Max is an Alder Lake-N mini PC, server, and soft router equipped with two 10GbE and two 2.5GbE ports and offered with either an Intel Processor N100 quad-core CPU, or a more powerful Intel Core i3-N305 octa-core processor. When iKOOLCORE offered me an R2 Max sample for review, I explained I did not own any 10GbE networking gear. So the company decided to send me two samples for testing 10 Gbps Ethernet networking: a fanless Intel N100 model and an actively-cooled Core i3-N305 model. Since we’ve already gone through the specifications in the first article, I’ll start the iKOOLCORE R2 Max review with an unboxing, a teardown, and a first boot. In the second part of the review, I’ll use Proxmox, OpenWrt, Ubuntu, and/or other operating systems to test the devices using one as a DUT (Device Under Test) and the other as a 10GbE server. iKOOLCORE R2 [...]

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GEEKOM GT1 Mega is an AI mini PC based on the latest Intel Core Ultra 5/7/9 Meteor Lake processor. We received a review sample from the company with an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H SoC, 32GB DDR5 memory, and a 2TB NVMe SSD as well as an Intel BE200 WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 module. As usual, we’ll do a three-part review starting with an article with the specifications, an unboxing, and a teardown followed by a thorough review with the pre-installed Windows 11 Pro operating system, and finally with the latest Ubuntu 24.04.1 OS. GEEKOM GT1 Mega specifications GEEKOM provides the following specifications for the GT1 Mega mini PC and motherboard: Meteor Lake SoC (one or the other) Intel Core Ultra 9 185H 16-core (6P+8E+2LPE) processor @ 2.5 / 3.8 / 5.1 GHz (Turbo) with 24MB cache, 8x Xe-cores Intel Arc graphics @ 2.35 GHz, Intel AI Boost NPU; [...]

The post GEEKOM GT1 Mega AI mini PC Review – Part 1: Specifications, unboxing, teardown, and first boot appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Hello everyone. This week mostly involved a lot of chasing stuff around (sometimes in vain), so while there was not much headline work, this post might end up a bit longer than usual. Let’s get started without delay.

BeagleConnect Freedom Adventures

I started the week by trying to add IEEE802154 subg socket support in MicroPython for BeagleConnect Freedom. However, I quickly learned that it would not be simple. For some reason, BeagleConnect Freedom would completely lock up after starting.

Initially, I thought it might be a MicroPython issue, so I tried tracking down where the freeze happened. This, however, led to a dead end since, for some reason, the program would not be able to read from the UART console. While doing this, I also remembered a similar issue I encountered while working on BeagleConnect Freedom rc car demo. At the time, I fixed it by just removing unused config items like ADC and PWM from config, but forgot about it after the OOSC conference.

After some experimenting with PWM, ADC, and IEEE802154 subg radio, I figured out that the problem is reproducible in other Zephyr samples like echo_cliet, etc. For some reason, if both PWM pins (MB1 PWM and MB2 PWM) are enabled alongside the subg radio, everything freezes. If one or both of the PWM are disabled, everything works fine. This seems to be an issue with timers but it needs further investigation.

I have created a Zephyr issue and a Ti E2E question for the same.

Code Composer Studio Theia Adventures

With the MicroPython issue and a bricked BeagleConnect Freedom, I thought it is a good time to setup and learn Ti’s Code Composer Studio.

I use Fedora Sway Atomic as my daily driver, and thus mostly rely on flatpaks or podman containers. However, running Code Composer Studio inside a podman container (created using toolbox) was not a great experience for me. It would randomly stutter (maybe a hardware acceleration problem?) and freeze. Additionally, while udev can make it almost painless to handle device permissions, it can occasionally cause hiccups with flashing. In fact, one of the primary reasons I switched to neovim was that my emacs GUI kept having weird performance problems inside the container.

So, I finally went ahead and installed CCS Theia on my base system. The install procedure is a bit weird since there is no rpm or deb package. Instead, there is an installer which installs everything in $HOME/ti folder. It also creates an uninstall, which seems to work. All in all, while I prefer a flatpack or app image, it wasn’t too bad.

I hit a snag quite early on when I was unable to flash the cc1352p1 on my launchpad. I tried various things and opened a Ti E2E question for the same. However, the solution turned out to be quite weird. I was not saving my workspace since, well, nothing was working anyway, and CCS Theia would open the unsaved workspace. But everything magically worked once I saved my workspace because I was tired of the dialog on exit. Not really sure why.

Once I could flash the launchpad, I tried using the xds110 in launchpad with my BeagleConnect Freedom. I was able to flash a simple blinky on it and even set up breakpoints.

Now, I need to figure out how to use openocd and add instructions in Beagle docs and Zephyr docs for the same.

KUnit Adventures

I have been working on kernel patches that require writing some unit tests. So I was trying to get KUnit to work. However, kunit run kept on failing for some reason, even with the default config. The output was not very clear either. However, after following some debugging instructions, I found out that I could not execute the user mode kernel from inside the podman container. I have created an issue in Fedora toolbox regarding the same.

MicroPython

I have added MicroPython support for BeaglePlay cc1352p7 in my draft PR. It supports IEEE802154 subg sockets and also helped me ensure that MicroPython networking should work fine on BeagleConnect Freedom as well once the timer issue is resolved.

Since BeaglePlay cc1352p7 Zephyr support was merged after the 3.7.0 release, the MicroPython support will continue to live in the draft PR until MicroPython supports a newer Zephyr version.

Zephyr

Zephyr support for BeagleBoard boards continues to improve. We will continue to work to make Beagle one of the best-supported platforms for Zephyr development.

BeagleBone AI-64

Thanks to the work by Andrew Davis, Zephyr support for R5 cores in BeagleBone AI64 was merged this week. Here is the Zephyr page for BeagleBone AI 54. This adds one more board to the growing list of BeagleBoard boards that support Zephyr.

BeagleY-AI

A PR for Zephyr support was opened by Andrew Davis after BBAI-64 support was merged. Anyone interested should feel free to try it out. Hopefully, it can get merged upstream soon.

BeagleBoard Imager Rust Updates

While working on BeagleY-AI, I found a bug in the sha256 handling of the Rust-based imager while translating the old bb-imager config. So, I have created release 0.0.2 for the imager. I probably should implement changelogs before the next release.

Ending Thoughts

This was it for this week. Hopefully, this helps bring transparency regarding where the development efforts are concentrated, and how the community can help. Look forward to next update.

Helpful links

• BeagleBoard
• BeagleBoard Imager Rust Port
• Code Composer Studio
• BeagleConnect Freedom
• BeaglePlay
• BeagleBone AI-64
• BeagleY-AI

The post This Week in Beagle #2 appeared first on BeagleBoard.

We have received another Zigbee device from SONOFF for review, namely the ZBMINIR2 which we’ll review with both eWelink adn Home Assistant. Many people may be familiar with the first-generation mini Zigbee Switch that SONOFF released in 2020, known as the ZBMINI. ZBMINI was one of the early Zigbee Switch models, which also acted as a Zigbee Router. The ZBMINIR2 is SONOFF’s second-generation mini Zigbee Switch including both software and hardware upgrades compared to its predecessor. Improvements include a smaller size, better signal quality, an increase in the number of supported devices (2x), wider coverage (5x), and additional features. Let’s dive into the details. Unboxing ZBMINIR2 Zigbee switch Inside the box, you’ll find a small user manual and the ZBMINIR2 device as usual. It is notably smaller than the predecessor model, which makes installation much easier in many cases. For example, it can now fit into the wall box behind [...]

The post SONOFF ZBMINIR2 review – A mini Zigbee switch & Zigbee router tested with eWeLink and Home Assistant appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Hey, Karl here and I am getting old. I guess middle age is more accurate. Two wonderful kids and I want to stick around for a while. I have not been feeling well and as a result, I picked up strength training as a form of exercise. I started with an adjustable bench and a set of adjustable dumbbells. I trained with them for about 3 months in my office. I had just enough space. I was hooked. I dove in and learned as much as I could on current best practices, and developed a spreadsheet for tracking progress. I started to outgrow the 55lb/25kg adjustable dumbbells with several exercises and the next step was a squat rack, bar, and Olympic weights. My problem was the lack of space. I had a building that was poorly organized. After a bit of organizing, I was able to carve enough space for [...]

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Today I’ll be reviewing the BeagleY-AI open-source single-board computer (SBC) developed by BeagleBoard.org for artificial intelligence applications. It is powered by a Texas Instruments AM67A quad-core Cortex-A53 processor running at 1.4 GHz along with an ARM Cortex-R5F processor running at 800 MHz for handling general tasks and low-latency I/O operations. The SoC is also equipped with two C7x DSP units and a Matrix Multiply Accelerator (MMA) to enhance AI performance and accelerate deep learning tasks. Each C7x DSP delivers 2 TOPS, offering a total of up to 4 TOPS. Additionally, it includes an Imagination BXS-4-64 graphics accelerator that provides 50 GFlops of performance for multimedia tasks such as video encoding and decoding. For more information, refer to our previous article on CNX Software or visit the manufacturer’s website. BeagleY-AI unboxing The BeagleY-AI board was shipped from India in a glossy-coated, printed corrugated cardboard box. Inside, the board is protected by [...]

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We already looked at the Radxa X4 kit featuring an Intel N100 SBC with a design similar to the Raspberry Pi 5 and accessories including a Radxa Power PD 30W power adapter, an NVMe SSD, and a USB-C to USB-C cable, in the first part of the review, before installing Ubuntu 24.04 on the board.

In the second part of the review, we will test Ubuntu 24.04 in more detail with some benchmarks and power consumption measurements to show how well it works (or not) compared to a Raspberry Pi 5. We will also test the 40-pin GPIO header on the Radxa X4 controlled through a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller.

The post Radxa X4 review – An Intel N100 alternative to Raspberry Pi 5 tested with Ubuntu 24.04 appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.