Recently Raspberry Pi released the 2GB version of the Raspberry Pi 5 with a new BCM2712 SoC featuring the D0 stepping. As expected, [Jeff Geerling] got his mitts on one of these boards and ran it through its paces, with positive results. Well, mostly positive results — as the Geekbench test took offence to the mere 2 GB of RAM on the board and consistently ran out of memory by the multi-core Photo Filter test, as feared when we originally reported on this new SBC. Although using swap is an option, this would not have made for a very realistic SoC benchmark, ergo [Jeff] resorted to using sysbenchinstead.
Naturally some overclocking was also performed, to truly push the SoC to its limits. This boosted the clock speed from 2.4 GHz all the way up to 3.5 GHz with the sysbench score increasing from 4155 to 6068. At 3.6 GHz the system wouldn’t boot any more, but [Jeff] figured that delidding the SoC could enable even faster speeds. This procedure also enabled taking a look at the bare D0 stepping die, revealing it to be 32.5% smaller than the previous C1 stepping on presumably the same 16 nm process.
Although 3.5 GHz turns out to be a hard limit for now, the power usage was interesting with idle power being 0.9 watts lower (at 2.4 W) for the D0 stepping and the power and temperatures under load also looked better than the C1 stepping. Even when taking the power savings of half the RAM versus the 4 GB version into account, the D0 stepping seems significantly more optimized. The main question now is when we can expect to see it appear on the 4 and 8 GB versions of the SBC, though the answer there is likely ‘when current C1 stocks run out’.
A spare monitor and keyboard are handy things to have around, but they’re a bit of a hassle. They are useful for hardware development, plugging in to headless servers, or firing up a Raspberry Pi or similar single-board computer (SBC). If that’s something you do and portability and storage space are important to you, then you may be interested in the CrowView Note.
I got an opportunity to test and provide feedback on an early version of this unusual device, which is functionally a portable spare monitor plus keyboard (and touchpad) without the bulk and extra cables. Heck, it’s even giving me ideas as the guts of a Cyberdeck build. Let’s take a look.
What It Is
It really looks like a laptop, but it’s actually a 14″ 1920 x 1280 monitor and USB keyboard in a laptop form factor.
There is also an integrated trackpad, speakers and mic, and a rechargeable battery. That makes it capable of providing its own power, and it can even function as a power bank in a pinch. There’s an HDMI input on one side, and on the other is a full-featured USB-C port that accepts video input via the DisplayPort altmode.
Pictured here is a Raspberry Pi 5 with optional PCB adapter to eliminate cables. The three ports (HDMI in, USB-C 5 V out, and USB-A for peripherals) provide all the board needs.
The CrowView Note is a pretty useful device for a workbench where one is often plugging hardware in for development or testing, because there’s no need to manage a separate monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
It is not a laptop, but attaching an SBC like a Raspberry Pi makes it act like one. The three ports conveniently located on the left-hand side (HDMI in, USB-C out for power to the SBC, and USB-A in for peripherals like keyboard and trackpad) are all that are needed in this case. Elecrow offers a “cable eliminator” PCB adapters to make the process of connecting a Raspberry Pi 5 or a Jetson Nano as simple as possible. The result is something that looks and works just like a laptop.
Well, almost. The SBC will still be a separate piece of hardware, whether connected by cables or by one of Elecrow’s PCB adapters. The result is OK for bench work, but especially in the case of the PCB adapter, not particularly rugged. Still, it’s a nice option and makes working on such boards convenient and cable-free.
What It Isn’t
Visually the CrowView note looks so much like a laptop that it bears repeating: this is not a laptop. There are no processing brains whatsoever inside. It’s a portable and rechargeable monitor, keyboard, mic, and speakers in a laptop form factor.
Also, it is not a laptop kit. It’s got all the right hardware to act like one, but there’s no way to truly securely or semi-permanently attach an SBC. Attaching an SBC like a Raspberry Pi 5 can be done with cables or one of Elecrow’s PCB adapters, but the result is more a convenience than something that would survive being loaded into a bag or backpack and carried around.
Use Cases, and Video Input Options
A device like this is handy for any situation that would require a spare monitor and keyboard, like configuring headless systems or working with development kits. An HDMI and USB cable are all that’s really needed to provide monitor and keyboard/touchpad functionality in this way, and the built-in rechargeable battery means it can power itself as well as attached hardware.
The USB-C port on the left is a 5 V output for exactly this purpose, but the one on the right side is a full-featured port that supports modes such as power delivery (PD) and DisplayPort video over USB-C. Devices that support video in this way include some mobile phones, and portable devices like Valve’s Steam Deck (shown here.)
The only catch for video over USB-C is that both the device and the cable must support it. The DisplayPort altmode is one of USB-C’s high-speed interfaces and requires the cable to have the right pairs connected, or it won’t work. (Since cables all look the same from the outside, this is where a USB cable tester comes in handy.)
The Electrow Note is rechargeable, light, and charges and handles just like a laptop. It’s far less bulky than a standalone monitor and keyboard/mouse. This makes it attractive for use on a crowded workbench, or in field work where portability is key.
Limitations and Quirks
In my testing of an early version of the device, I found a couple quirks that are worth keeping in mind.
One is that this device is a monitor and keyboard/mouse all in one, and they aren’t really completely independent devices. That is to say, if the monitor isn’t getting a useable video signal, the display goes to sleep and seems to take the keyboard and touchpad functionality with it.
For example, pressing CAPS LOCK won’t toggle the caps lock indicator light because the keyboard isn’t “awake” without a video signal. I was unable to use the device just as a USB keyboard/mouse and ignore plugging in the monitor. Similarly, with no valid input video signal functions like brightness adjustment or using the monitor’s OSD menu are inaccessible. (Input switching and battery level display do work, however.)
Related to the above, the interface for adjusting monitor functions is basic, and understanding how it works may save time and frustration. As with many laptops, the function key row doubles as device controls with F1 for video input selection, F5 and F6 adjusting brightness down and up, and so on. On the version I tested, the default configuration is to have the function key row act as monitor controls. To send a literal F1 keypress from the keyboard, one must press Fn+F1. It’s possible to swap this behavior, but the setting reverts at the next power cycle, which led to some head-scratching on my part while troubleshooting.
The CrowView Note’s interface — while functional — isn’t completely obvious at first. On a workbench, one might be plugging a device like this into hardware that may not be working as it should, and its quirks can compound troubleshooting headaches unless one knows what to expect.
Does It Have a Place On Your Workbench, Or In Your Next Project?
Tabletop space and storage space are at premiums for most of us. The CrowView Note is an attractive all-in-one alternative to separate devices, especially with its rechargeable battery. That it includes speaker and mic and can work as a USB power bank in a pinch is a nice touch.
How often do you find yourself needing to break out a monitor and keyboard, and what’s your favorite solution? Do you see a device like this as a space-saving tool, or more the basis of a hardware project like a cyberdeck build? Could you or have you DIYed something like this on the cheap? Let us know in the comments.
We live in a time where there’s virtually no excuse not to have some kind of oscilloscope. As [IMSAI Guy] shows in a recent video, for what you might expect to pay for a decent meter, you can now get one that includes a scope. There are several options out there but it is hard to know how much to spend to get the best possible product. The Zoyi ZT-702S that he looks at costs under $80. But is it worth it?
Scopes that connect to your PC are often very inexpensive. You can also find little toy scopes that use a microcontroller and a little LCD screen. Even though the specs on these are usually appalling, they will still let you visualize what’s happening in a circuit. Sure, you want an expensive bench scope with lots of channels sometimes, but often, you just need to see a signal in broad strokes. Having a scope and a meter together is very handy.
The little meter claims 10 MHz bandwidth and 48 megasamples per second in scope mode. The meter claims true RMS and 9999 counts. The internal battery charges from USB-C. As you might expect, the meter portion works well enough for a basic meter. The scope reacts well up to 5 MHz. It isn’t necessarily the best scope in the world, but for $80 it seemed quite adequate. The probe compensation wasn’t able to quite make a square wave square, but you still got the idea.
As commenters on the video pointed out, there is a newer model that has two channels (at a slightly higher price tag). They also point out that there are dozens of similar devices at different price points, and everyone has their favorite.
If you have hobby-level cash, we’d suggest a higher-end scope meter like an OWON or Hantek since the professional brands are still very expensive. We wonder what the designer of 1983’s Pocket-O-Scope would think of these modern devices.
Poco después de que varios medios y creadores de contenido publicaron sus previews y videos de gameplay de Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft ha detallado los requisitos oficiales de PC para 1080p, 1440p y 4K a través de su sitio oficial.
Tal como habían anunciado Ubisoft y Nvidia previamente, el juego contará con soporte para DLSS, Frame Generation, Ray Tracing (RTX Direct Illumination), Reflex y Ray Reconstruction. Seguramente también tenga soporte para XeSS 1.3 de Intel y FSR 3.1 de AMD en su lanzamiento.
Requisitos Mínimos para 1080p/30 FPS/Bajo con Escalado en Modo Calidad:
SO: Windows 10, Windows 11 (versiones de 64 bits)
Procesador: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 @ 3.6 GHz, Intel Core i7-8700K @ 3.70 GHz o superior
Memoria: 16 GB (en modo Dual-Channel)
Gráficos: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (6 GB), AMD RX 5600XT (6 GB), Intel Arc A750 (8 GB, con ReBAR activado) o superior
DirectX: Versión 12
Almacenamiento: 65 GB de espacio disponible
Requisitos Recomendados para 1080p/60/Alto con Escalado en Modo Calidad:
SO: Windows 10, Windows 11 (versiones de 64 bits)
Procesador: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X @ 3.7 GHz, Intel Core i5-10400 @ 2.9 GHz o superior
Memoria: 16 GB (en modo Dual-Channel)
Gráficos: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (8 GB), AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (12 GB) o superior
DirectX: Versión 12
Almacenamiento: 65 GB de espacio disponible
Requisitos para 1440p/60/Alto con Escalado en Modo Calidad:
Gráficos: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 (16 GB), AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (24 GB) o superior
DirectX: Versión 12
Almacenamiento: 65 GB de espacio disponible
Star Wars Outlaws se lanzará para Xbox Series X|S, PS5 y PC a través de Ubisoft Connect el 30 de agosto y se podrá jugar hasta tres días antes, a partir del 27 de agosto, con una suscripción a Ubisoft+ Premium o al reservar las ediciones Gold o Ultimate. Por tiempo limitado, los nuevos suscriptores obtienen cuatro meses gratis con Ubisoft+ Premium – Anual y juegan la Edición Ultimate de Star Wars Outlaws.
La oferta dura hasta el 11 de julio y se puede adquirir aquí. Es posible reservar Star Wars Outlaws ahora en la Ubisoft Store y recibir el Kessel Runner Bonus Pack, que incluye elementos cosméticos para el speeder de Kay y su nave Trailblazer. Para más noticias de Star Wars Outlaws, ve nuestras opciones de accesibilidad y visita el sitio web oficial del juego.
Edición Standard – US$ 69.99
Juego base.
Edición Gold – US$ 109.99
Juego Base.
Pase de temporada (con dos DLCs: la misión exclusiva «Jabba’s Gambit», en el lanzamiento, y el paquete cosmético de Kessel Runner.
Edición Ultimate – US$ 129.99
Juego Base.
Pase de temporada (con dos DLCs: la misión exclusiva «Jabba’s Gambit», en el lanzamiento, y el paquete cosmético de Kessel Runner).
Paquete Sabacc Shark (incluye elementos cosméticos para Kay, su pistola, Nix, el speeder de Kay y la nave Trailblazer).
Paquete Infiltrador Rebelde (cuenta con elementos cosméticos para Kay, Nix, el speeder de Kay y la nave Trailblazer).
Libro de arte digital: una selección de arte conceptual y visuales del juego, incluyendo storyboards cinematográficos exclusivos.
Acerca de Star Wars Outlaws
Disfruta del primer juego de mundo abierto de Star Wars, ambientado entre los acontecimientos de El Imperio contraataca y El retorno del Jedi. Explora planetas diversos de todos los rincones de la galaxia, tanto nuevos como emblemáticos.
Arriésgalo todo como Kay Vess, una bribona que anhela la libertad y los medios para comenzar una vida nueva con su compañero Nix. Pelea, roba y engaña a todos los sindicatos del crimen de la galaxia y termina en la lista de los más buscados.
Características principales:
Explora un mundo abierto con ubicaciones nuevas y emblemáticas – Explora lugares únicos con ciudades y cantinas bulliciosas. Recorre paisajes exteriores vastos en tu speeder. Cada ubicación trae aventuras nuevas, desafíos únicos y recompensas tentadoras si te atreves a arriesgarte.
Vive la historia original de una bribona – Vive la vida arriesgada de una forajida. Revierte cualquier situación con ayuda de Nix, lucha con tu bláster, derrota a los enemigos con sigilo y artilugios o encuentra el momento adecuado para distraerlos y ganar ventaja.
Emprende misiones de alto riesgo – Embárcate en misiones arriesgadas de los sindicatos del crimen de toda la galaxia y obtén grandes recompensas. Roba objetos valiosos, infíltrate en ubicaciones secretas y engaña a tus enemigos jugando como una de las forajidas más buscadas de la galaxia. Todas las elecciones que tomes influirán en tu reputación.
Lucha en el espacio mientras viajas por el Borde Exterior – Conduce tu nave, la Pionera, en combates espaciales emocionantes contra el Imperio y otros enemigos. Encuentra el momento oportuno para perseguir, esquivar, atacar y ganar ventaja.
It is one of Murphy’s laws, we think, that you can’t get great things when you need them. Back in the heyday of shortwave broadcasting, any of us would have given a week’s pay for even a low-end receiver today. Digital display? Memory? Digital filtering? These days, you have radios, and they aren’t terribly expensive, but there isn’t much to listen to. Making matters worse, it isn’t easy these days to string wires around in your neighborhood for a variety of reasons. Maybe you don’t have a yard, or you have deed restrictions, or your yard lacks suitable space or locations. This problem is so common that there are a crop of indoor antennas that seem attractive. Since I don’t often tune in shortwave and I don’t want to have to reset my antenna after every storm, I decided to look at the Tecsun AN-48X along with a YouLoop clone from China. Let’s start with the Tecsun.
In the Box
The Tecsun in a more or less diamond shape
The antenna is not terribly cheap at about $50 or so, but there’s a lot in the box. The business end looks like something you’d wear around your neck. A small box has a switch for three bands — LW, AM, and SW. the two wires coming out of that box form a loop. You can stick the loop to something using a suction cup or a hook. There’s also a little bar that looks like a standard telescoping antenna but it has two plastic clips on the end. You use this to form the loop into a diamond shape with the telescoping rod about halfway.
At the bottom of the box with the switch is a standard 1/8″ jack. A cable connects that jack to a similar jack on the control unit which is about the size of a large pack of gum and has two AAA batteries inside. That box has a switch, two knobs, and a pigtail with another 1/8″ jack.
If your radio takes a 1/8″ plug for an antenna, that’s where you connect it. If it doesn’t, you have a few options. The box contains pigtails that convert the plug to BNC, RCA, alligator clips, or a ferrite bar that can couple to a radio’s internal antenna. You probably need SMA for a modern radio, so you’ll need an adapter. There’s also a plastic stand that can hold your radio and the ferrite bar if you are using it.
The knobs on the control box control the gain and tune the frequency of the antenna. Other than the switch close to the loop, all the other controls are on the control box, which stays close to your radio. So, as long as you don’t care about jumping between LW, AM, and SW, you don’t need to access the loop part during operation.
A Few Tests
I decided to try the antenna at a few different times a day in a few different locations. I used an old portable DAK shortwave receiver and also a more modern SDR receiver.
The Tecsun control box.
For the first test, I hung the loop on my upstairs stair rail and let the cable drop down to the first floor. During the day, WWV was barely audible, and there was little else to hear outside of noise. Granted, this was indoors. The signal level control didn’t seem to do much. The tuning frequency knob reminded me of a regenerative receiver control. You could hear the device oscillate, and just past the oscillation, you’d get the best signal. It made me wonder if the inner circuit was, in fact, a regenerative amplifier.
The portable shortwave uses a regular jack, but for the Malachite, I had to use a BNC to SMA adapter. Neither radio could pull much out. Nighttime reception was a little better, but not much.
The Great Outdoors
Unsurprisingly, the device worked a little better outdoors. I hung it from an exposed beam on a pergola, and at night, there were a few fairly clear signals. During the daylight hours, WWV was elusive, but the Voice of America and Radio Havana — not too far from Houston — were easy to copy, especially if you understand French. I even managed to catch a few faint snags of WWVH.
The video below shows a few audio clips of the results. Forgive the outdoor glare on the screen in the first clip. I omitted the clips with music that YouTube might flag, but you get the idea.
I also tested a YouLoop clone. This worked almost as well as the Techsun, but not quite as well. However, there was nothing to fidget with on the frequency.
The YouLoop
The YouLoop has an interesting idea. It uses coax for the loop and configures it like a Mobius strip so that it is kind of, an infinite loop. At the bottom is a balun with three connectors, and at the top is a phase inverter. That sounds fancy, but it really is just a box that connects the inside of one cable to the outside of the other. The antenna came with a powered preamp, although if your radio has a preamp, you probably don’t need it.
It is handy that it just works, and the coax sections are stiff enough to be easy to handle when you want to hang it from a branch, for example. However, it also doesn’t pack down as tightly, and the boxes are metal, which adds to the weight but is probably better for shielding.
Signals on this loop were almost always lower in volume than the same signal from the Tecsun, even with the preamp. On the other hand, if you don’t need the preamp, this antenna takes no batteries. It is simple enough that you can try it and see if you like it without a major investment.
Observations
The Tecsun control board revealed
While the Tecsun is light, I can’t help but wonder if the shielded feedline might not have helped it. For both antennas, having the preamp close up to the feed point might pay off, although maybe some of the wire between the antenna and the control boxes or preamp becomes part of the antenna. It isn’t, after all, a tuned antenna.
The Tecsun’s control box frequency knob is maddeningly sensitive, but it does seem to help things. Inside the box is a tiny PCB, and I didn’t find any online schematics.
Should you run out and get either of these antennas? If you have other options, probably not. But if you need something, both of them are better than nothing.
Recently Radxa released the X4, which is an SBC containing not only an N100 x86_64 SoC but also an RP2040 MCU connected to a Raspberry Pi-style double pin header. The Intel N100 is one of a range of Alder Lake-N SoCs which are based on a highly optimized version of the Skylake core, first released in 2015. These cores are also used as ‘efficiency’ cores in Intel’s desktop CPUs. Being x86-based, this means that the Radxa X4 can run any Linux, Windows and other OS from either NVMe (PCIe 3.0 x4) or eMMC storage. After getting his hands on one of these SBCs, [Bret] couldn’t wait to take a gander at what it can do.
Installing Windows 11 and Debian 12 on a 500 GB NVMe (2230) SSD installed on the X4 board worked pretty much as expected on an x86 system, with just some missing drivers for the onboard Intel 2.5 Gbit Ethernet and WiFi, depending on the OS, but these were easily obtained via the Intel site and installed. The board comes with an installed RTC battery and a full-featured AMI BIOS, as well as up to 16 GB of LPPDR5 RAM.
Using the system with the Radxa PoE+ HAT via the 2.5 Gbit Ethernet port also worked a treat once using a quality PoE switch, even with the N100’s power level set to 15 Watt from the default 6. The RP2040 MCU on the mainboard is connected to the SoC using both USB 2.0 and UART, according to the board schematic. This means that from the N100 all of the Raspberry Pi-style pins can be accessed, making it in many ways a more functional SBC than the Raspberry Pi 5, with a similar power envelope and cost picture.
At $80 USD before shipping for the 8 GB (no eMMC) version that [Bret] looked at one might ask whether an N100-based MiniPC could be competitive, albeit that features like PoE+ and integrated RPi-compatible header are definite selling points.
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