Onion Omega2 and Omega2+ are tiny WiFi IoT development boards powered by Mediatek MT7688 MIPS processor running LEDE – OpenWrt fork – that sold for just $5 and up in Kickstarter, but are now selling for $7.50 and $9 respectively. The board also support various add-on boards, and a great for evaluation and various projects. But they may not be ideal for people who want to integrate the technology into their products, and that’s why the company have just launched Omega2S and Omega2S+ with about the same specifications, but in a package more suitable to be integrated into products for mass production.
Onion Omega2S/2S+ specifications:
- WiSoC – Mediatek MT7688 MIPS processor @ 580 MHz
- System Memory / Storage
- Omega2S – 64MB DDR2 / 16MB flash
- Omega2S+ – 128MB DDR2 / 32 MB flash
- Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi with u.FL antenna connector
- Baseboard Interface – Half holes (aka castellated holes) with GPIOs, I2C, I2S, SPI, SDIO, serial, PWM, USB, Ethernet, PCIe, reset, antenna, and power signals: 3.3V VIN, 3.3V VINFLASH, GND)
- Power Supply – 3.3V
- Dimensions – 34 x 20 x 2.8mm
- Certifications – FCC and CE
- Temperature Range – Operating: -10 to 55 °C; storage: -20 to 80 °C
Software support will be the same as for the hobbyist boards with mainline LEDE support, the staging tree on Github, and Linux 4.4 kernel. You’ll also find Omega2S datasheet on the product page. Bear in mind that the download is integrated into their store system. so it’s a (free) purchase, and you’ll receive an invoice with the download link… The main differences between the modules and the boards are the smaller dimensions, higher number of I/Os (42 in total), no SD card slot on the plus version, and no WiFi chip antenna.
Since the customers for the module could use any of the interfaces for their product, the company also designed two versions of Omega2S Development Kit which differ only by their storage:
- OM2S-DK-SD: SD Card Slot version (with 8GB Micro SD Card Included)
- OM2S-DK-EM: 8GB eMMC Memory version
The rest of the specification for the devkit are identical:
- Easy insertion socket for the Omega2S Module
- Wired Connectivity – Ethernet (RJ45) connector
- USB – USB and Micro-USB ports
- Expansion – Headers for all I/Os
- Misc – Dual Reset Functions
- Power Supply – Barrel power jack
The development kit will start selling for $249 on August 1st with the baseboard of your choice, two Omega2S modules, two Omega2S+ modules, an SD card (OM2S-DK-SD model only), a u.FL antenna, and various cables.
Pricing and availability for the module themselves have not been made public, so you’d have to contact the company for this type of information.
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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The problem with Onion is that their hardware is very nice, however software is just terrible. Currently there’s only a handful of kernel modules that can be installed (as they haven’t bothered to compile them all), so if you need support for any hardware not on their list you’re out of luck. It is possible to install vanilla LEDE, however the WiFi driver is highly unstable, since Onion uses a closed source, proprietary driver for their board.
Check-out the forums. There’s zero support form the development team.
http://community.onion.io
@Antonio
That’s unfortunate, but isn’t it a linkit chipset? Is there no support from mediatek either?
I’m seeing a lot of these spring pin boards for modules, anyone know a PCBA that does them?
@Antonio
I second that, support from Onion is abysmal… they have not released the source for their standard firmware and the vanilla LEDE that they recommend gives WiFi speeds about 30 (thirty!) times slower than the proprietary driver. I compared it side by side with a Linkit Smart 7688 and I see no reason why anyone would go with the Onion Omega2 instead of a Linkit Smart 7688 at this point. If you’re looking for an OEM module, Seeedstudio sells it https://www.seeedstudio.com/AI7688H-p-2739.html .