orange pi

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 35 Comments on Orange Pi Plus 2E Development Board with Gigabit Ethernet, 2GB RAM & 16GB eMMC Flash to Sell for $35

Orange Pi Plus 2E Development Board with Gigabit Ethernet, 2GB RAM & 16GB eMMC Flash to Sell for $35

Shenzhen Xunlong has been pretty busy churning out new boards over the last few months and years, but is still not active on the software side. However these days, it’s not that bad thanks to Armbian community which provides Debian based images, and supports Allwinner H3 boards pretty well. The company is now about to launch Orange Pi Plus 2E, based on Orange Pi Plus 2 which comes with 2GB RAM, but at a lower cost, by removing SATA, the need for a USB hub chip, and the camera connector, while still managing to upgrade the eMMC flash capacity to 16 GB. Orange Pi Plus 2E specifications with differences in bold or stricken through: SoC – Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 @ 1.3 GHz with ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU up to 600 MHz System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC, micro SD card slot, SATA interface (via a […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 25 Comments on Android and Linux Benchmarks on MiQi Development Board

Android and Linux Benchmarks on MiQi Development Board

MiQi is an upcoming low cost development board powered by Rockchip RK3288 SoC that will sell for $35 with 1GB RAM and 8GB storage, and $69 for the version with a  2GB / 32GB combination. Since Rockchip RK3288 was launched in 2014, most available benchmarks were made on Android 4.4, and since MiQi is the first low cost board based on the processor, other RK3288 based board such as FireFly have not been that popular. So I’ve decided to run updated benchmarks in MiQi both in Android 5.1 and Linux (Lubuntu 14.04), which was easy since a dual boot image is pre-installed. But since I received an early sample without heatsink, I found a spare heatsink added some thermal paste and placed it on top of the processor and partially on RAM and eMMC flash. MiQi Board Android 5.1 Benchmarks I ran Antutu both using 1080p60 and 2160p30 video output, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments on Low Cost Development Boards Linux Benchmarks – Raspberry Pi vs Banana Pi vs Orange Pi vs ODROID

Low Cost Development Boards Linux Benchmarks – Raspberry Pi vs Banana Pi vs Orange Pi vs ODROID

LoveRPi, a distributor and reseller of electronic boards and accessories, has run benchmarks from the Phoronix Suite on several low cost development boards: $46* Banana Pi M2  based on Allwinner A31s quad core Cortex A7 processor @ 1.0 GHz with Armbian (Ubuntu 14.04) $74* Banana Pi M3 based on Allwinner A83T octa core Cortex A7 processor @ 1.80 GHz with Debian 8.3 $32 ODROID-C1+ based on Amlogic S805 quad core Cortex A5 processor @ 1.5 GHz with Ubuntu 14.04 $40 ODROID-C2 based on Amlogic S905 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 2.0 GHz with Ubuntu 16.04 $74 ODROID-XU4 based on Samsung Exynos 5422 quad core ARM Cortex-A15 @ 2.0GHz quad core ARM Cortex-A7 @ 1.4GHz with Ubuntu 15.10 $10 Orange Pi One based Allwinner H3 Cortex A7 processor @ 1.2 GHz with Armbiam (Debian 8.3) $15 Orange Pi PC based on Allwinner H3 Cortex A7 processor @ 1.3 GHz with […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments on Orange Pi Brick is a $1 Raspberry Pi Zero Compatible Smart Block

Orange Pi Brick is a $1 Raspberry Pi Zero Compatible Smart Block

Shenzhen Xunlong Orange Pi boards are popular with some developers and hobbyists thanks to their low price, but the company is also aware that some are critical of their products. Some of the complaints include that their boards are too difficult to use due to lack of proper firmware and documentation, they are called “Orange Pi”, but aren’t even made with orange color, with some people even going as far as saying their boards are just bricks just good enough to collect dust. The company has taken all remarks into consideration, and has come up with a product that’s simple to use and orange, while breaking the price barrier, as it will be sold for just $1. Yep. You read that right. One Dollar. I’ve worked with the company to get the exclusive, believe me you won’t find this on any other sites, and they’ve sent me an early sample. […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on RPi-Monitor is a Web-based Remote Monitoring Tool for ARM Development Boards such as Raspberry Pi and Orange Pi

RPi-Monitor is a Web-based Remote Monitoring Tool for ARM Development Boards such as Raspberry Pi and Orange Pi

It can be pretty useful to monitor the CPU load, memory and storage usage, and network traffic of your boards, and they are already graphical tools like System Monitor on Ubuntu providing most of the information, and monit can be used on server, but I’ve recently been introduced to RPi-Monitor utility for Raspberry Pi and Orange Pi boards (patched version), that very easy to install, and provide neat chart of many different variables. Since I’m currently playing with Orange Pi One board running armbian, so that’s the platform I’ve used to run RPi-Monitor (OPi-Monitor). The usage should be exactly the same on Raspberry Pi, but the installation steps are little different. To install RPi-Monitor on Orange Pi One, open a terminal or access the serial console, and you can install and start the service with a single command line:

It actually took around 8 minutes on my board, as […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments on Accelerated 3D Graphics, Hardware Video Decoding, and Network Performance on Orange Pi One Board (Video)

Accelerated 3D Graphics, Hardware Video Decoding, and Network Performance on Orange Pi One Board (Video)

I’ve just written Getting Started Guide for Orange Pi One, a $10 development board based on Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 processor, where I explain how to install and configure Armbian distribution on the board. As promised, I’ve also tested 3D graphics acceleration, and hardware video decoding, and also included some Ethernet benchmarks. Since ARM Mali-400 GPU found in Allwinner H3 is only capable of OpenGL ES, as in most ARM SoCs, you can test 3D graphics acceleration by using es2gears (and not glxgears as I’ve seen some other do in the past):

The log shows the utility is using Linux-r3p0 Mali driver, and the gears are display at a high frame rate close to 300 fps. If I switch to full screen, the frame rate drops to about 43 fps, which should still be acceptable. CedarX is the infamous closed source and GPL violating media library released […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments on Orange Pi One Board Quick Start Guide with Armbian Debian based Linux Distribution

Orange Pi One Board Quick Start Guide with Armbian Debian based Linux Distribution

Orange Pi One board is the most cost-effective development board available on the market today, so I decided to purchase one sample on Aliexpress to try out the firmware, which has not always been perfect simply because Shenzhen Xunlong focuses on hardware design and manufacturing, and spends little time on software development to keep costs low, so the latter mostly relies on the community. Recently, armbian has become popular operating systems for Linux ARM platform in recent months, so I’ve decided to write a getting started guide for Orange Pi One using a Debian Desktop image released by armbian community. Orange Pi One Unboxing But let’s start by checking out what I received. The Orange Pi One board is kept in an anti-static bag, and comes with a Regulatory Compliance and Safety Information sheet, but no guide, as instead the company simply asks users to visit www.orangepi.org to access information […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 30 Comments on Received Your Orange Pi One Board? You’ll Need to Tweak Your FEX File / script.bin

Received Your Orange Pi One Board? You’ll Need to Tweak Your FEX File / script.bin

[Update: I’ve been informed that for some unknown reasons the voltage regulator outputs 1.3 and 1.5V instead of 1.1 and 1.3V on Orange Pi One with the settings and FEX file below, which could lead to overheating, and possibly damage the board under heavy load. A workaround is available here] [Update2: And the temperatures reported by the kernel are wrong (too low), so it’s better not to use the higher voltage at all. More details and tests @ http://forum.armbian.com/index.php/topic/617-wip-support-for-the-upcoming-orange-pi-one/page-4#entry5261] Orange Pi One is arguably the cheapest ARM Linux development board with networking available today for $9.99 plus shipping. It is very similar to Orange Pi PC with an Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 processor, Ethernet, and HDMI, but has less memory as it comes with 512MB RAM instead of 1GB, and comes with a few less features too. The bad news is that Shenzhen Xunlong did not release any […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC