Jun 3, 2023
GPIO on the MangoPi MQ-Pro —
One of the last aspects I wanted to explore and get working on my MangoPi MQ-Pro. For this experiment, like my previous endeavor trying out Bluetooth on my MangoPi MQ-Pro, I used the Ubuntu 22.10 RISC-V image for the SiPeed LicheeRV Dock image.
No extra configuration is needed to get GPIO working with this image on the MangoPi MQ-Pro. I tried out three different ways of accessing the GPIO pins; using legacy sysfs-based access, using the userspace GPIO driver, and lastly using lgpio from Python.…
Mar 25, 2023
Setting up Bluetooth on the MangoPi MQ-Pro, and testing it out with a Bluetooth access point —
I received my MangoPi MQ-Pro a few months ago, and was very eager to test out all the hardware which I use the most on SBC’s. Bluetooth is not one of the features I use a lot on SBC’s. But after having tested out a lot of operating systems and hardware features of the board, I decided to also try and see what the status of Bluetooth on the board was.…
Oct 31, 2022
Exploring non-Linux Based Operating Systems on Allwinner D1 —
Introduction As of writing this article, there are a few choices of operating systems to choose from for the Allwinner D1. In the future, more choices will probably become available. In this article we will take a closer look into FreeBSD and xv6 for the Allwinner D1. I will use a MangoPi MQ-Pro to test these operating systems.
FreeBSD For many people, FreeBSD won’t need an introduction. FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system first released in 1993.…
Sep 19, 2022
Running x86_64 Software on RISC-V Using Box64 —
In this post I will give an overview on how a ran some software compiled for x86_64 on my RISC-V SBC, a MangoPi MQ-Pro. We will be using an awesome piece of software called Box64. Basically this software runs x86_64 binaries through an emulator, but with a twist; it uses the native versions of some “system” libraries, like libc, libm, SDL, and OpenGL, like described in the README of the project:…
Aug 28, 2022
How to Use a Raspberry Pi Instead of a USB Console Cable —
As the title says, this article will be about using a Raspberry Pi SBC (whatever model), instead of a USB Console Cable to debug another SBC, router, microcontroller… The need for this came when I received my MangoPi MQ-Pro, I wanted to try different operating systems for this SBC, but I didn’t have access to a USB Console Cable, at least not one that was 3.3V tolerant. I wanted to have access to the serial console because a lot of OS images for the MangoPi, at the time of writing this article, didn’t have HDMI drivers.…
Nov 30, 2019
How to run the Apache webserver on a five year old Android smartwatch —
The first question you might ask yourself when reading the title of this article is; why would you want to this. My answer to that question is, why wouldn’t you?
I like using technology in ways that makes my live easier. That’s why I bought my Motorola Moto 360 in the first place, more than five years ago. It has indeed made my life easier in a few ways, quickly reading a message, discarding when necessary, or pulling out my phone when I need/want to reply.…
Jul 27, 2019
How I Run My Blog Using Github Pages and Hugo —
For my blog I’m using Github pages to host the static content generated by Hugo. Hugo is a static site generator which creates web pages from markdown files you write. That way, when you don’t want to be bothered with styling your blog, you can just choose a theme from a vast collection, and you’re done. Just write some posts in markdown run the hugo command, and you will find all the static content in the public directory, ready to deploy to a web server, or, in my case, Github pages.…
Apr 24, 2019
My First Post —
Hello there, this is my first blog post. Let me first start by saying a few words about myself, my name is Bram Oosterlynck and I was born in Belgium. In my free time I like to do a lot of stuff, camping, hiking, road trips, etc. But this blog will be about something else I love doing in my free time. I love playing around with technology, and that is what this blog will be about.…