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October 2, 2015November 2, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 123 Comments

Orange Pi PC Not Booting? You Are Not Alone…

Orange Pi PC development board launched at the end of August, and quickly went viral thanks to low $15 price tag. The company, Shenzhen Xunlong Software, is fairly small, with just over 10 employees, so when they started getting several thousands customers in a short time, they may have been overwhelmed, and this likely resulted in delays with regards to shipping, and acceptance into Orange Pi forums. Several people have now received their boards, and while many found it to work fine, I’ve been informed several people apparently got a non booting device. People on Youtube and Orange Pi Forums also complained about a booting issue until Ethernet lights up, or Ethernet not working, while other reports Linux is working, but not Android. Unless there was a bad batch during manufacturing, it’s hopefully mostly a firmware issue. The person who reports Ethernet not working, first used the images from Orange […]

September 26, 2015November 3, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 44 Comments

Status of Orange Pi Boards GPIO Support

Yesterday, one person asked me to make a video showing GPIO control on Orange Pi 2 mini on YouTube, and since I have just completed a post about Orange Pi camera, I thought it might be fun to check GPIO support too. This post focuses on Allwinner H3 boards, but the instructions and status should be very similar for Allwinner A20 and A31s versions. One of the first things you want before starting playing with GPIOs is the expansion header’s pinout chart, and I could not find any until I had the idea to check for schematics, which are available on Orange Pi resources page. I downloaded the schematics for Orange Pi 2, which should be the same as for Orange Pi 2 mini as the only difference is the lack of WiFi module. Orange Pi PC is a little different, and the schematics are nowhere to be found, but […]

September 26, 2015July 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 40 Comments

How to Use Orange Pi Camera in Linux (with Motion)

Earlier this month, I wrote a Quick Start Guide for Orange Pi Allwinner H3 boards such as Orange Pi PC, and showed how to install and configure Debian on the boards. I’ve also received the $5.90 Orange Pi camera, which when combined an Orange Pi PC, costs around $27 including shipping. So today, I’ve attached the CSI camera to my Orange Pi 2 mini board, and used it with motion to transform for the board into an IP camera. First, you’ll need to insert the camera into CON1 connector with the camera facing the ceiling, and close the black clip to keep it in place. Now connect all cable and power on your board. First, I studied the steps described on that forum thread, and modified Allwinner configuration files, but after one or two hours, I found out some work at been done since May, and it was now much […]

September 18, 2015May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Own-Mailbox is a Tiny, Secure, and Open Source Hardware Mail Server (Crowdfunding)

Email encryption has been around for a while, but virtually nobody uses it, because it’s quite complex to setup, and your recipients email clients, apps or browsers must also support encryption. Revolutek aims to simplify the setup and usage of encrypted email with their “Own-Mailbox” based on open source hardware and software technology. The hardware solution could have been based on the Raspberry Pi board in theory, but the popular board requires a closed source binary to boot, documentation about part of the hardware is lacking, and once the enclosure, and required accessories are included the price would have been higher. So instead they decided to design their own hardware based on an Allwinner processor: SoC – Allwinner A13 Cortex A8 processor @ 1GHz System Memory – 256 MB RAM Storage – (micro?) SD card slot with 16GB card included Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet (Lan9500A controller) USB – USB host […]

September 6, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Marsboard AM335X Development Board Features a TI Sitara AM335x SoM

Haoyu Electronics brought us several Allwinner and Rockchip Marsboard in the past few years, and now they’ve released a version based on Texas Instruments AM335x processor, with a form factor and features similar to the Beaglebone Black, but comprised of a baseboard and system-on-module. Marsboard AM335x board specifications: CM-AM335x System-on-module: SoC – Texas Instrument AM335x (AM3358) ARM Cortex A8 processor @ 1Ghz with SGX530 3D GPU System Memory – 512MB DDR3 SDRAM Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet PHY (LAN8710A) SoM Connectors – two 50×2 pin headers, 1.27mm pitch Misc – Power Indicator LED Power Management Unit – TPS65910 SIM-AM335X Baseboard Video Output – HDMI type A socket (via TDA19988 LCD to HDMI converter) Storage – mircro SD slot (bottom of the board) Connectivity – RJ45 connector for Fast Ethernet USB – 1x USB 2.0 Host port, 1x micro USB port Debugging – 14-pin JTAG interface (not […]

September 2, 2015September 2, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Debian 8 on Orange Pi mini 2 Board (Video)

Yesterday, I wrote a quick start guide for Orange Pi PC / 2 / Plus showing how to install Linux distributions on the board, and build your own image. With the launch of the $15 Orange Pi PC, Xunlong Software has taken over 1,500 orders for the board on their Aliexpress store, and probably sold a few hundreds or thousands in China via Taobao. So the board got relatively popular in a short time, considering it’s only selling via these two channels. I tested my tutorial with Orange Pi mini 2 ($23), a very similar board also based on Allwinner H3, but just a little larger and with an extra USB hosty port, but apart from that it’s similar to Orange Pi PC, and software compatible. I had already wrote about my test results in the previous article, where I did not recommend using the board in Linux as a […]

September 2, 2015September 2, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Scaleway C1 Dedicated ARM Server Price Drops to 3 Euros Per Month

Scaleaway launched their hosting services with dedicated ARM servers based on Marvell Armada 370/XP quad core ARM Cortex A9 processor this spring for 10 Euros per month, or 0.02 Euro per hour, and at the time, some people found it was not that attractive, as similarly priced plans provided by Linode or DigitalOcean with Intel server were also available, and it might have only been really compelling for people who specifically required an ARM server to play with. The company has now slashed its price, and it has become very attractive at 2.99 Euros (~$3.37 US) per month or 0.006 Euro per hour, excluding VAT. The server technical specifications and features are still the same: Server based on Marvell Armada 370/XP quad core ARMv7 processor Memory – 2 GB Memory Storage – 50 GB SSD Disk (extra space available for 1 Euro per 50GB) 1x Reserved public IPv4 200Mbit/s – Unmetered […]

September 1, 2015March 13, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 66 Comments

Getting Started with Orange Pi PC, Pi 2 and Pi Plus Development Boards

I’ve recently received a kit based on Orange Pi mini 2 development board powered by Allwinner H3 quad core processor, but contrary to most other devices or boards I reviewed, this one what sent to me by one of my reader (thanks Jon!) as for various reasons he did not need to get it shipped to him. Today, I’ll start by showing off the kit I received, before writing a quick start guide showing how to install a Debian, and build your own Linux image. The instructions will work for all Orange Pi Allwinner H3 boards, including Orange Pi 2, Orange Pi Plus, and the recently launched Orange Pi PC, which has been rather popular thanks to its low $15 price tag. Orange Pi mini 2 Board Kit and CSI Camera This is what I got in the package… The board with a regulatory compliance and safety information sheet, as […]