Free Stuff - April 2025

The belated April 2025 recipient for the Great Scott Gadgets Free Stuff Program is Ashen Chathuranga from Sri Lanka! Ashen is a university student who plans to use the HackRF One we are sending him for multiple academic projects, including an open source satellite monitoring station and researching radio wave penetration. We are glad we could provide Ashen with equipment to further his education and support his academic journey!

Orange Pi AI Studio Pro – A Huawei Ascend 310 AI box with up to 352 TOPS, 192GB RAM

Orange Pi AI Studio is a USB4 box designed for artificial intelligence applications, equipped with up to two Huawei Ascend 310 AI octa-core ARM 64-bit processors, delivering up to 176 TOPS per chip, as well as up to 192GB RAM. This follows the Orange Pi AIPro introduced last year, with an unnamed Huawei Ascend SoC delivering up to 20 TOPS NPU. The basic version of AI Studio has up to 96GB of LPDDR4X memory and 32MB of SPI Flash. The interface of the device is very simple, featuring a 12V 10A DC power interface, a USB 4.0 Type-C port, a...

The AI Emperor Has No Clothes

The AI Emperor Has No Clothes

If the size of the current AI bubble can be estimated by how many

I receive per day... then I'd say we're nearing the pop.

There is no way the trillions of dollars of valuation placed on AI companies can be backed by any amount of future profit.

Intel N97 mini-ITX motherboard targets industrial automation, digital signage, networking appliances

The Jetway DMTX-ADN1 is a mini-ITX industrial motherboard built around the Intel N97 Alder Lake-N SoC with support for DDR5 memory, multiple displays, and a wide temperature range. It targets applications in industrial automation, kiosks, digital signage, and networking appliances. The motherboard supports up to 32GB DDR5 4800MHz memory, triple display setups via HDMI 2.0b, DP 1.4, and a 24-bit dual-channel LVDS/eDP interface, and offers a SATA III port and two M.2 M-Key sockets for NVMe or SATA drives. It also features an M.2 E-Key 2230 socket for wireless expansion with CNVi support, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, and a range...

Not all OCuLink eGPU docks are created equal

Not all OCuLink eGPU docks are created equal

I recently tried using the Minisforum DEG1 GPU Dock with a Raspberry Pi 500+, using an M.2 to OCuLink adapter, and this chenyang SFF-8611 Cable.

After figuring out there's a power button on the DEG1 (which needs to be turned on), and after fiddling around with the switches on the PCB (hidden under the large metal plate on the bottom; TGX to OFF was the most important setting), I was able to get the Raspberry Pi's PCIe bus to at least tell...

Free Stuff - March 2025

The belated March 2025 recipient for the Great Scott Gadgets Free Stuff Program is Mrinal Kumar from India! Mrinal is currently running a small, free cybersecurity learning group for young adults aged 18-21 who come from financially limited backgrounds. Currently, there are about 15 students who actively participate in regular meetings to study the fundamentals of cybersecurity, ethical hacking, and responsible digital security practices.

We will be sending Mrinal and his students a HackRF One so he can introduce them to software-based cybersecurity and the world of wireless and RF security. He tells us that they will explore signals, learn about...

Linux 6.17 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 6.17 has just been released on LKML: No huge surprises this past week, so here we are, with kernel 6.17 pushed out and ready to go. Below is the shortlog for just the last week – not the full 6.17 release – as usual. It’s not exciting, which is all good. I think the biggest patch in there is some locking fixes for some bluetooth races that could cause use-after-free situations. Whee – that’s about as exciting as it gets. Other than that, there’ the usual driver fixlets (GPU and networking dominate as usual, but “dominate” is still pretty...

Почему он такой длинный? Возможно это провал

В предисловии В своём посте на Хабре «Возможно это провал» я пообещал, что буду регулярно делиться новостями по проекту Atmy (ранее — Nebo) и не оставлять всё за кадром. Habr Ниже — очередной отчёт о том, что нового происходит.

Olimex RP2350-PICO2 open hardware boards expose all 48 GPIOs for breadboard prototyping

Olimex RP2350-PICO2-BB48 and RP2350-PICO2-BB48R open hardware development boards are built around the Raspberry Pi RP2350B MCU, and expose all 48 GPIOs in a 0.6-inch dual-inline PCB layout. Compared to the earlier PICO2-XL and PICO2-XXL boards, this new board features a breadboard-friendly design with options for PSRAM and microSD on the BB48R version. Other features include USB-C power/data, BOOT and RESET buttons, a 2A 3.3V regulator, UEXT and Qwiic/Stemma connectors, status LED, and debug pads. With pre-soldered headers, it can be plugged directly into a breadboard, making it ideal for DIY projects, IoT, retro computing, and hardware prototyping. Olimex RP2350-PICO2-BB48 and...

Tiny RISC-V Development Board with WCH CH32V317WCU6 Available from $6.80

The nanoCH32V317 is a compact development board created by MuseLab to simplify prototyping and embedded system development. It integrates USB connectivity, Ethernet support, and a straightforward programming interface through USB Type-C, providing an accessible platform for engineers and hobbyists working with RISC-V microcontrollers. The board is powered by the WCH CH32V317WCU6, a RISC-V microcontroller capable […]