Edge 2 Kit is built around the Edge 2 single-board computer, adding more capabilities such as a customizable enclosure and two external Wi-Fi antennas for rich wireless connectivity. The edge computing device, Edge 2 Kit provides a high-performance ready-to-run IoT edge computer with a 3.5-inch form factor, 6 reserved Antenna ports, expandable with mini-PCIe and M.2 modules, and preload Android 11 and Linux container. It is stable and can be an off-the-shelf product with your application software. 
 
The compact size of the ARM SBC-based Edge 2 Kit makes it applicable for a wide variety of small-scale applications and diverse possibilities. Additionally, it offers various interfaces supporting the expansion of dual hard drives, dual network ports, or Hi-Fi music decoding and other functions. It meets the needs of a variety of application scenarios at a low cost.
 

Technical Specifications

Technical Details
  • CPU: Rockchip Quad-core Cortex-A55 SoC Processor RK3568
  • NPU: 1 Tops
  • Memory: 2/4GB LPDDR4 DRAM Memory and 16/32GB eMMC
  • HDMI interface: HDMI2.0 / eDP / MIPI-DSI + TP / MIPI-DSI / MIPI-CSI
  • Video encoder: 1080P100 H.264/H.265 video encoder
  • Video decoder: 4KP60 H.265/H.264/VP9 video decoderStorage expansion:
  • Micro-SD 3.0 Flash Expansion Socket,  M.2 Socket: PCIe 3.0, USB2.0, SIM Socket.
  • Other expansions: Mini-PCIe Socket: USB2.0, I2C, U.2 Extension Socket: SATA or PCIe 2.0, SATA, Gigabit Ethernet.
  • USB: Three USB3.0 ports
  • GPIOs: One RS485 and two TTLDigital I/O, SPDIF, I2C, DMIC
  • Wireless Technology: WiFi 6 802.11ax, Bluetooth 5.0, Support 4G/5G module
  • Power: 12V DC / SATA power socket, Type-C PD3.0 Power input（max 3A @ 20V)
  • Clock: Real-Time Clock with Battery Backup
  • Operating temperature: 0 to +80°C
Block Diagram
Documents
Datasheet_Edge_2_Kit_v1.2 Usermanual_Edge_2_Kit_v1.3

Mixtile Edge 2 Kit provides flexibility for the embedded developers with customization needs and hardware capabilities through its reserved CAN, I2C, and UART internal interfaces.

The onboard system-on-module provides a multi-purpose operating clock frequency of up to 2.0GHz, a neural processing unit with performance up to 0.8 TOPS, a 1080P100 H.264/H.265 video encoder, and 4KP60 H.265/H.264/VP9 video decoder. It enables industry-standard interface RS-485 to meet the compatibility needs of other peripheral expansion and facilitate the connection of various industrial equipment, embedded systems, and edge AI applications. Mixtile’s ARM SBC-based Edge 2 Kit supports various power supply methods such as Type-C PD2.0 power input and SATA power input which can work well with the extended battery pack or centralized power supply.

Under high load/high-frequency situations, Edge 2 kit devices run quietly with no fan inside, this fanless hardware design allows the device to be less disturbed by mechanical parts or dust, enhancing reliability and durability.

Superb Multifunction Composite Interface

U.2 Extension Socket: SATA or PCIe 2.0, SATA, Gigabit Ethernet.

Battery Pack

For remote IoT applications, developers usually require long battery life and better power consumption circuitry. To aid IoT developers and solution providers, the battery pack add-on has built-in battery management circuits along with Li-ion battery compatibility.

It connects with the Mixtile Edge 2 Kit via SATA power connector and uses the SMBus to transmit control signals. The 20000 mAh power capacity enables edge developers to deliver long battery hours of up to 12 hours on the Mixtile Edge 2 Kit.

Router Add-On

Another add-on device is the Router that has built-in 4-port gigabit Ethernet switch and 2-bay 2.5-inch hard drive cage extending the Mixtile Edge 2 Kit into a multifunctional network router. With this add-on, Mixtile Edge 2 Kit can support more devices to the Internet via a cable uplink, Wi-Fi uplink, or a LTE uplink. The developer can also store the data locally with the hard disks that can be installed in the add-on device.

Hi-Fi Add-On

To make your Mixtile Edge 2 Kit a high-definition streaming player, you might want to get this Hi-Fi add-on. The built-in 32-bit 768kHz DAC connects the Mixtile Edge 2 through I2S interface in the U.2 connector, which helps player applications output crystal-like sound via the RCA sockets. The add-on also features a S/PDIF input connector for compatibility with your existing digital players for back compatibility with legacy architecture.

 

Application Scenarios

Combining off-the-shelf functionality with leading commercial processors delivers the performance, scalability, and interoperability for your most demanding applications.

NAS (Network Attached Storage)

The home NAS system built with Edge 2 Kit can act as a home backup device, a media streamer, a mail server, a website-hosting device, a BitTorrent box, or a video-surveillance recorder.

Autonomous Vehicles

Edge 2 kit supports high-speed data transfer rates at low power in a real-time context, along with its leading-edge AI technology. Real-time AI-based driving decisions can be efficiently handled by Edge 2 kits in autonomous vehicles with compatible interfacing platforms.

AI & Deep Learning

Computational extensive applications including facial recognition, object detection, and natural language processing can be deployed on Edge 2 kit for efficient processing. Data-intensive mobile applications can be connected to a faster network of neural networks at low power using the ARM SBC Edge 2 kit.

Sensor Networks

The comprehensive WiFi connectivity of the ARM SBC-based Edge 2 Kit is ideal for intensive interconnections of the sensor nodes for large-scale cost-sensitive sensor networks. The connectivity can be further expanded to LoRa networks by adding suitable supporting LoRa modules.

Router Add-On

Another add-on device is the Router that has built-in 4-port gigabit Ethernet switch and 2-bay 2.5-inch hard drive cage extending the Mixtile Edge 2 Kit into a multifunctional network router. With this add-on, Mixtile Edge 2 Kit can support more devices to the Internet via a cable uplink, Wi-Fi uplink, or a LTE uplink. The developer can also store the data locally with the hard disks that can be installed in the add-on device.

IoT Gateway

When equipped with the 4G module and LoRa module expansion, the Edge 2 Kit can be used as a LoRa gateway, which serves as the connection point between the cloud and the IoT Sensor.

IoT Edge Server

Edge 2 Kit can be used as an IoT edge server. For example, equipped with a battery pack and disk expansion, it can be installed as a maintenance-free server in an unmanned warehouse to monitor and regulate the temperature and humidity of the warehouse, and process security data such as access control and cameras. Compared with traditional servers, this solution saves considerable maintenance costs.

Usage and Benefits

Edge 2 Kit is an interface-rich IoT edge computer, with a huge possibility of applications that can be developed with high performance, low power consumption, and at a low cost. It has two external Wi-Fi antennas and reserved space for 6 antennas. Utilizing these antennas it opens up a lot of opportunities for integrating wireless technologies. In this technically advanced era, ARM SBC-based Edge 2 kit provides the much-needed support for the expansion of wireless modules. It makes for an ideal computing unit as especially with its Wi-Fi connectivity features it provides developers an interruption-free network anytime, anywhere.