Orange Pi One board was unveiled at the end of last year as a cheaper alternative to Orange Pi PC with Allwinner H3 quad core processor, 512 MB RAM, an Ethernet Port and HDMI output. I’ve already compared it to C.H.I.P and Raspberry Pi Zero, and found that it was both much more powerful and cheaper to use as an Internet connected board with HDMI output than the two more well-known competitors. The good news is that Orange Pi One is now selling for $9.99 + shipping on Aliexpress, which in my case would be $13.38 in total.
Orange Pi One technical specifications:
- SoC – Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 @ 1.2 GHz with an ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU up to 600 MHz
- System Memory – 512 MB DDR3
- Storage – micro SD card slot
- Video & Audio Output – HDMI with CEC support
- Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet
- USB -1x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB port (data only, not for power)
- Camera – CSI Interface
- Expansions – 40-pin Raspberry Pi compatible header
- Debugging – 3-pin UART header for serial console (unpopulated)
- Misc – Power button; Power and status LEDs
- Power Supply – 5V/2A via power barrel
- Dimensions – 69mm × 48mm
- Weight – 36 grams
Just like Orange Pi PC, the board supports Android 4.4, Ubuntu, Debian, and “Raspberry Pi” Images. The latter does not mean you install the exact same image you use on Raspberry Pi, but instead that a Raspbian port is available for Orange Pi One. Many people had issues with Orange Pi PC, simply because they got confused, and although did not realize their were several Orange Pi boards. The image should soon be available on the Download page, and should be slightly different from Orange Pi PC at least due to a different way to handle power. Orange Pi Lite, the version with WiFi instead of Ethernet, is scheduled for a little later.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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