Pieter Posted September 22, 2016 Posted September 22, 2016 Hi..i am a new user here and interested in developing electronics things using this type of boards only. I want to know if H5 is only 4 A53 cores, what's the difference from A64? That question has already been asked and answered in this thread. See post #9 and #10
tkaiser Posted September 26, 2016 Posted September 26, 2016 Finally Orange Pi Zero arrived Looks like NanoPi NEO but is larger (most probably 48x48mm) and connectors have 13/26 pins instead of 12/24. Seems also powering through Micro USB (or GPIO pins / 4 pin header) is necessary... H2 is obviously a H3 cost down variant (missing the GbE MAC according to product brief). Do you know whether there's another DRAM module on the lower PCB side and which WiFi chip is used? Like Nano Pi NEO a single bank DRAM configuration is used but it remains unclear what the 40 pin chip between Pulse Ethernet magnetics and ANT1 connector is responsible for (WiFi? ZigBee? Something else?) 2
Igor Posted September 26, 2016 Author Posted September 26, 2016 I forgot that I got a back side too Added. 2
pzw Posted October 12, 2016 Posted October 12, 2016 Looks like it will work with passive POE. (See tracks coming from pin 4/5 & 7&8 of RJ45) 1
tkaiser Posted October 12, 2016 Posted October 12, 2016 Looks like it will work with passive POE. (See tracks coming from pin 4/5 & 7&8 of RJ45) Ha! Totally overseen that. And that might also explain external Magnetics? Anyway: If OPi Zero really supports passive PoE then this would be the 2nd or even 3rd time (bootable SPI flash) that Xunlong silently listens to community and reacts on our demands 1
hojnikb Posted October 14, 2016 Posted October 14, 2016 Any info on the release ? We've been teased long enough
Igor Posted October 14, 2016 Author Posted October 14, 2016 1-2 weeks for PC2, the rest I don't know. But we also don't have those boards yet. It should be around soon.
tomter Posted November 2, 2016 Posted November 2, 2016 ​Zero is out: https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/New-Orange-Pi-Zero-H2-Quad-Core-Open-source-development-board-beyond-Raspberry-Pi/1553371_32760774493.html 1
neomanic Posted November 3, 2016 Posted November 3, 2016 I've ordered 4 of the Zeros (2 for a friend). If the POE works well, they'll make great little access points.
lanefu Posted November 3, 2016 Posted November 3, 2016 i'm super excited about the POE.... combine that with a cheap h264 USB camera module and a cheap network camera appears.
zador.blood.stained Posted November 3, 2016 Posted November 3, 2016 According to OPi Zero schematic PoE is (optionally) wired directly to power input without any extra protection or voltage regulation.
tkaiser Posted November 3, 2016 Posted November 3, 2016 i'm super excited about the POE.... combine that with a cheap h264 USB camera module and a cheap network camera appears. Please keep in mind that this is just 'passive PoE' so you just save $2 each (no PoE splitter needed). And in case you want to avoid step-down converters distance between power source and board can't be that large. And since we're able now/soon to use HW accelerated video encoding on Allwinner platforms using an Orange Pi One with 2MP or 5MP camera module might be the cheaper option...
moondeck Posted November 3, 2016 Posted November 3, 2016 I kinda think Zero is overpriced. I mean you get 256M RAM in the standard one, no HDMI, no 4K (anyone even using that?) and no full-size header, and for 3 more dollars you get double RAM, HDMI, and the full size header. No wifi or PoE thou, so the Zero would *really* make a good access point. Would compile OpenWRT/DDWRT if i had one.
moondeck Posted November 3, 2016 Posted November 3, 2016 But the layout on the H5 board looks like someone got really drunk xD. Why didnt they do it normally?
tkaiser Posted November 3, 2016 Posted November 3, 2016 Schematic for OPi PC 2 (H5 based) has been uploaded to linux-sunxi wiki. Still SY8106A voltage regulator (good news since fine grained voltage regulation is possible) but RTL8211E GbE PHY and SPI NOR flash (I hope already populated). So with bootloader on SPI flash OPi PC2 would be a nice netbooted desktop (since Gigabit Ethernet is the fastest interface on this board anyway), on the other hand we get 4 useable USB 2.0 ports so PC2 could also be a nice (and cheaper) replacement for OPi Plus 2E as long as neither Wi-Fi nor eMMC are needed. Still no H5 datasheet or user manual available and the only source code I know of is here (I would assume H5 is sun50iw2 -- based on looking through sun50iw*p1.dtsi sun50iw2 is the only platform with support for both gmac0 and sun50i-tsc)
tkaiser Posted November 3, 2016 Posted November 3, 2016 512MB variant is available too: https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/New-Orange-Pi-Zero-H2-Quad-Core-Open-source-512MB-development-board-beyond-Raspberry-Pi/1553371_32761500374.html (unfortunately SPI flash not populated by default) 1
lanefu Posted November 3, 2016 Posted November 3, 2016 I kinda think Zero is overpriced. I mean you get 256M RAM in the standard one, no HDMI, no 4K (anyone even using that?) and no full-size header, and for 3 more dollars you get double RAM, HDMI, and the full size header. No wifi or PoE thou, so the Zero would *really* make a good access point. Would compile OpenWRT/DDWRT if i had one. have you tried VyOS? it's hard to go back to DDWRT--- if you don't care about integrated wifi.
lanefu Posted November 3, 2016 Posted November 3, 2016 Please keep in mind that this is just 'passive PoE' so you just save $2 each (no PoE splitter needed). And in case you want to avoid step-down converters distance between power source and board can't be that large. And since we're able now/soon to use HW accelerated video encoding on Allwinner platforms using an Orange Pi One with 2MP or 5MP camera module might be the cheaper option... Hmm.... yeah I have a real PoE switch.. i'm still getting mixed information about whether or not 100mbit Passive PoE will work with it or not. A while back I used a trendnet Active-PoE splitter to run some Ones and even 2e... worked quit well.. but still like 15 bucks. I fiddled with the CSI camera then and it was just such a bummer--even when I somehow made CedarX work.... The Rpi CSI camera just worked so well by comparison, that I gave up on CSI for Opi and fiddled with some USB h264 camera modules that were an okay compromise. I haven't followed up on Lex's efforts over the past few months.... I probably should.
lanefu Posted November 3, 2016 Posted November 3, 2016 512MB variant is available too: https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/New-Orange-Pi-Zero-H2-Quad-Core-Open-source-512MB-development-board-beyond-Raspberry-Pi/1553371_32761500374.html (unfortunately SPI flash not populated by default) So i'm still not totally grokking the physical aspect of the SPI flash....... I dont see any spots for where it would go, but I also have no idea what it would look like, or how I would add it myself.....
tkaiser Posted November 3, 2016 Posted November 3, 2016 So i'm still not totally grokking the physical aspect of the SPI flash....... I dont see any spots for where it would go, but I also have no idea what it would look like, or how I would add it myself..... Here it's populated (and also zero ohm resistors used to 'enable' passive PoE):
zador.blood.stained Posted November 3, 2016 Posted November 3, 2016 Hmm.... yeah I have a real PoE switch.. i'm still getting mixed information about whether or not 100mbit Passive PoE will work with it or not. You'll need to solder 2 resistors to make it work (judging by missing resistors on photos from AliExpress) and you need to provide 5V DC power with proper polarity (such low voltage will limit cable distance due to voltage drop). Alternatively you can solder proper active PoE converter like Ag9050 (with wires) - 5V version of the one used in Arduino Ethernet PoE to use 36-57V PoE voltage.
tkaiser Posted November 3, 2016 Posted November 3, 2016 You'll need to solder 2 resistors to make it work (judging by missing resistors on photos from AliExpress) and you need to provide 5V DC power with proper polarity (such low voltage will limit cable distance due to voltage drop). 5V won't work anyway, at least a 6V PSU is needed and then the whole stuff only works with a couple of devices if cable distances are more or less equal. Orange Pi PC and One should work with an DC-IN input range of 4.5V - 5.5V (when going below 4.8V problems with powered USB peripherals and HDMI displays could occur) and by looking at Zero's schematic it seems to be the same there. There are PoE calculators on the net, eg. this one: http://beyond-wifi.com/poe/poe-calc.html And with such low voltages even short load peaks become a problem since the higher the consumption the more the voltage will drop. So without controlling also peak consumption (eg. through h3consumption tool) this won't work reliable. BTW: If higher voltages are used (I often use 24V since I got a bunch of good step-down converters rated up to 27V) still no active PoE is necessary since step-down converter (plus filter) could also be soldered to OPi Zero's solder pads.
lanefu Posted November 3, 2016 Posted November 3, 2016 5V won't work anyway, at least a 6V PSU is needed and then the whole stuff only works with a couple of devices if cable distances are more or less equal. Orange Pi PC and One should work with an DC-IN input range of 4.5V - 5.5V (when going below 4.8V problems with powered USB peripherals and HDMI displays could occur) and by looking at Zero's schematic it seems to be the same there. There are PoE calculators on the net, eg. this one: http://beyond-wifi.com/poe/poe-calc.html And with such low voltages even short load peaks become a problem since the higher the consumption the more the voltage will drop. So without controlling also peak consumption (eg. through h3consumption tool) this won't work reliable. BTW: If higher voltages are used (I often use 24V since I got a bunch of good step-down converters rated up to 27V) still no active PoE is necessary since step-down converter (plus filter) could also be soldered to OPi Zero's solder pads. Ohhh.... so instead of soldering zero Ohm resisters to the magnetics. I could solder in a buck converter at those pads?
tkaiser Posted November 3, 2016 Posted November 3, 2016 Ohhh.... so instead of soldering zero Ohm resisters to the magnetics. I could solder in a buck converter at those pads? Sure, almost all RPi based surveillance cameras we use are powered that way. One central 24W Meanwell PSU + passive PoE injector panel and PoE splitter + buck converter on the camera's end. Works great. And with OPi Zero the splitter can be saved (here it's more about size than the $2 less). Only drawback: With a buck converter in between you can't mis-use OPi Zero as PoE injector (theoretical use case: Feed 5.5V DC-IN to OPi Zero and power a second one through a Cat7 cable. But I would assume that max cable length will then already be limited to 5m since otherwise voltage falls below 4.5V)
lanefu Posted November 4, 2016 Posted November 4, 2016 Only drawback: With a buck converter in between you can't mis-use OPi Zero as PoE injector (theoretical use case: Feed 5.5V DC-IN to OPi Zero and power a second one through a Cat7 cable. But I would assume that max cable length will then already be limited to 5m since otherwise voltage falls below 4.5V) That's delightfully insane.
tkaiser Posted November 4, 2016 Posted November 4, 2016 Alternatively you can solder proper active PoE converter like Ag9050 (with wires) - 5V version of the one used in Arduino Ethernet PoE to use 36-57V PoE voltage. Unless size isn't also a huge criteria I would choose a ready solution if I want to make use of 'real' PoE (IEEE 802.3af compliant). I always used TP-Link's TL-POE10R since it's the cheapest device around (never paid more than 12 bucks for each), also supports GbE and output voltage can be adjusted (5V@2A up to 12V@1A). (Off-topic: this is also the perfect companion for any Olimex Lime, MICRO or A64 boards since the PoE splitter comes with a short 5.5/2.1 cable so all you need for all these Olimex boards is just an additional 20 cm Ethernet cable) But since it's also about lowering consumption in IoT scenarios I got curious and did some tests yesterday. I used the 3 test switches lying around (PoE capable Netgear ProSafe GS110TPv2, HP 1810-8G and a TP-Link TL-SG108PE). All switches support EEE (Energy Efficient Ethernet, IEEE802.3az) but when used in an active PoE scenario using TL-POE10R on the other side always a GbE connection has been established (even if the device behind is only 100 Mbits/sec capable) which means wasting a few Watts per port without making any use of it. So to save some energy/costs on the switch side a Fast Ethernet PoE splitter at the other end of the cable would be necessary (for reasons unknown to me those device are more costly than their GbE counterparts) In an active PoE scenario it's also not possible to control port behaviour of the switch independently. If I switch off a port I also switch off the PoE powered device entirely. In a passive scenario (I used the 4 non-PoE ports from TL-SG108PE and the 1810-8G for this test) the following happens: the switch detects 100 Mbits/sec only and disables the GbE PHY entirely. If I then brought the interface down of the powered device (ifconfig eth0 down) it seemed like switch consumption also decreased a little further. But I suspect that my power meter isn't precise enough. Anyway: When thinking about 'overall consumption' too the passive PoE approach when used with EEE compliant switches might show huge overall savings not only since initial costs are lower but also 24/7 operation with a few W less per port make a difference.
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