Post-rampocalyptic Chip-Swap Provides Desktop Memory at Laptop Prices

When you can buy something at a low price in one location, and sell it at a higher price somewhere else, you’re engaged in what economists call “arbitrage”. We’re not sure if desoldering DDR5 chips from laptop SO-DIMMs to populate a custom PCB to create much-more-expensive desktop memory counts as arbitrage, but it certainly counts as a hack. [VIK-on], who built the cards, claims he’s getting DDR5 performance at almost DDR3 prices. Nice!

Installed, the RAM apparently works well, though [VIK-on] has not shared benchmarks.Specifically, he’s put together a 32 GB UDIMM from donor chips from two 16 GB SO-DIMMs. The...

MaixCAM2 modular 4K AI camera is based on Axera AX630 SoC with 3.2 TOPS NPU (Crowdfunding)

Designed for makers and researchers, Sipeed’s MaixCAM2 is a modular AI camera built around an Axera AX630 AI SoC with 3.2 TOPS (INT8) to 12.8 TOPS (INT4) of AI performance, yet delivering 10 to 20x higher performance on OpenMV-N6 and Raspberry Pi 5, and about the same performance (140 FPS) as a 33 TOPS Jetson Orin Nano 4GB Super in YOLO11n. The camera comes with 1GB or 4GB RAM, a 32GB eMMC flash, and a microSD card slot for storage, a 2.4-inch touchscreen display, and an 8MP / 4Kp30 camera sensor with LED flash, as well as two microphones and...

Lanner EAI-I351 – An NVIDIA Jetson Thor Edge AI computer with 100GbE QSFP28 port and 8x GMSL2 camera

Lanner EAI-I351 is a rugged edge AI computer built around the NVIDIA Jetson Thor platform, featuring a 100GbE QSFP28 port for high-bandwidth networking and 8x GMSL2 camera inputs for low-latency vision processing. The system supports up to 128 GB of 256-bit LPDDR5X memory, features up to four 25GbE lanes via a QSFP28 port, a 5GbE RJ45 port, HDMI 2.0, four USB 3.2 Gen1 ports, two RS232/422/485 serial interfaces with optional CANBus, digital I/Os, and audio interfaces. Three expansion sockets are offered with an M.2 NVMe slot, an M.2 E-Key for Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, and an M.2 B-Key for 4G LTE/5G cellular with...

Meterbit Pixlpal – An open-source ESP32-S3 smart display with 128×64 RGB LED matrix, Hi-Fi audio output (Crowdfunding)

Designed by Meterbit Cybernetics in Nigeria, the Pixlpal is an open-source, ESP32-S3-based 11.25-inch 128×64 RGB LED matrix display designed as a customizable ticker for news, crypto, and smart home notifications, while also offering Hi-Fi audio playback. The device also includes a multi-function rotary encoder for local control, a digital MEMS microphone, and a 3.5 mm headphone output driven by a TI PCM5102A DAC for Hi-Fi audio playback. Pixlpal also provides a USB Type-C OTG port for power and programming, and a USB Type-A adapter port for firmware updates and peripherals. The device targets Smart Home dashboards, desktop information displays, and...

SONOFF Dongle Max (Dongle-M) Review – A Zigbee/Thread PoE, USB, and WiFi adapter tested with Home Assistant

SONOFF sent us a sample of the SONOFF Dongle Max (also known as Dongle-M) Zigbee/Thread adapter with PoE support for review. It is based on Espressif ESP32-D0WDR2-V3 and Silicon Labs EFR32MG24 SoCs, and can serve as both a Zigbee coordinator and Thread Border Router, with connectivity options including Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and USB. The dongle is specifically designed for popular smart home platforms like Home Assistant, Zigbee2MQTT, ioBroker, and OpenHAB. Key advantages of the Dongle Max over the recently reviewed Dongle Plus MG24 include built-in Wi-Fi and Ethernet support (in addition to USB), Power over Ethernet (PoE), and a convenient Web...

Recapping My 5 Year Old Studio Monitors

A few weeks ago, I started hearing a slight crackle at the loudest parts of whenever sound was playing through my PreSonus Eris E3.5 speakers. It was very faint, but quite annoying, especially when editing my YouTube videos.

For a few days I thought it could be a hearing problem (at this point in my life, every year brings a new health adventure...), but after testing my wired headphones and another small computer speaker on the same output, I determined the problem was, indeed, coming from the PreSonus speakers.

Hiwonder WonderLLM – An ESP32-S3 smart chat module with 2-inch touch display, 2MP camera, and dedicated voice chip

Hiwonder has introduced the WonderLLM, an ESP32-S3-based smart chat module that combines a 2MP camera, a 2.0-inch touch display, a speaker, and a microphone array to support both offline computer vision tasks and cloud-based Large Language Models (LLMs) via the XiaoZhi AI platform. The device ships with a dedicated voice chip (CI1302) that enables always-on wake-word detection, and a 4-pin I2C interface allows it to act as a smart vision/voice sensor for external controllers like Arduino, STM32, or other ESP32 boards. Typical applications include small robots, STEM education kits, interactive assistants, and vision-enabled projects where this device handles perception and...

Innodisk EXEC-Q911 COM-HPC Mini kit is powered by a Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ-9075 Edge AI SoC

Innodisk has recently introduced the EXEC-Q911, a COM-HPC Mini starter kit designed for edge AI applications powered by a Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ-9075 System-on-Chip (SoC), also known as the QCS9075, which delivers up to 200 TOPS of AI performance. The platform includes 36GB LPDDR5X memory and 128GB UFS 3.1 storage, supports dual 2.5GbE, two 4-lane MIPI CSI-2 camera interfaces, DisplayPort 1.2 and eDP outputs, and multiple expansion options via M.2 (PCIe Gen4 x4/x2) slots. Designed for industrial applications, it operates in a wide -40°C to 85°C operating temperature range, accepts 9–36V DC input, integrates TPM 2.0 security, and offers various I/Os,...

Raspberry Pi CM5-based outdoor PoE security camera features 12.3 MP IMX500 sensor, IP66 enclosure

Arducam recently launched the All-in-One Raspberry Pi AI Camera Kit with CM5, a Raspberry Pi CM5-based PoE outdoor security camera featuring a 12.3MP Sony IMX500 AI vision sensor housed in an IP66-rated enclosure. The camera combines pixel-level sensing and AI inference on a single chip, reducing the need for cloud processing while improving efficiency and privacy. The security camera supports operation from -20°C to +75°C, although image stability is only guaranteed in the 0 to 50°C range, potentially making it unsuitable for locations where temperatures drop below freezing. It can be used for perimeter security, construction site safety monitoring, traffic...

Challenger+ T3217 Packages 8-bit ATtiny3217 in a Compact, Battery-Ready Board

The Challenger+ T3217 is a compact development board based on Microchip’s ATtiny3217, combining the tinyAVR 1-series platform with a small, battery-ready form factor for low-power embedded applications. The board is based on the ATtiny3217, an 8-bit AVR microcontroller running at up to 20 MHz from its internal oscillator. It integrates 32 KB of Flash, 2 […]