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Orange Pi Zero off-topic discussion #2


atharmian

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Wait a bit more. SPI support will come in u-boot eventually.

 

 

"Eventually..."????

 

How about WiFi on OPi0 first, or is that too much?

 

Plus would this eventual Uboot on SPI eliminate the need for SD cards? Why not urge Xunlong for eMMC as for other boards?

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How about WiFi on OPi0 first, or is that too much?

Yes, it's too much. We can't take responsibility for the vendor's choice of the wireless chip. If you don't like the wireless status, you can blame either HW vendor for using XRadio chip on this board or yourself for buying this board and trusting in marketing specifications rather than actual end user feedback (which this forum is full of).

 

Plus would this eventual Uboot on SPI eliminate the need for SD cards? Why not urge Xunlong for eMMC as for other boards?

It is working already for the nightly images, assuming only one USB storage device is connected and this storage is fast enough (USB HDDs that respond only after spinning up probably won't work). Officially it may be introduced in the next release.

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zador,

 

1. Thanks for being honest about the wifi problem. I wish devs here could admit it earlier but I guess they are too busy inventing SATA for USB2, or for that matter GigE over H2+ ! Their hopeless repair jobs keep them occupied otherwise.

 

Luckily I haven't been stupid enough to buy OPi0 alone- ordered couple other WiFi /eMMC OPis which hopefully can boot fine with Armbian- given my experiences with "volunteer" efforts vs professional ones ( Armbian vs Free Electrons, for instance.)

 

2. But you seem less forthcoming with SPI 2MB. Clearly success here would still require external memory.

 

Why is it such a pain to admit the facts?

What's so terribly wrong with recommending already used eMMC vs "crap" SD cards?

Is this just the NIH syndrome?

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2. But you seem less forthcoming with SPI 2MB. Clearly success here would still require external memory.

U-boot happily fits on the frst 1MB of the SPI flash, in theory even 512KB should be enough. External memory for what? For a full OS? With some soldering skills you can replace this flash with a 16MB one, which should be enough to fit a minimal OpenWRT installation.

 

What's so terribly wrong with recommending already used eMMC vs "crap" SD cards?

Is this just the NIH syndrome?

eMMC requires extra space on the PCB and a increase of the price. OPi Zero targeted the "as low as possible" price tag, if you want eMMC you should have been looking at NanoPi Neo Air instead.

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zador,

 

So now we are back to OpenWrt after a soldering job after ordering 16MB? Sounds really sensible after hearing much about Armbian.

 

So maybe Omega2 has been on the right path Day1? They sure can add more CPU and memory "eventually."

 

Are you saying external memory will not eat up a USB slot, and that eMMC is much more expensive than the recommended class 10 SD cards?

 

So why does Xunlong have eMMC models; and why haven't you folks warned them ?

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So now we are back to OpenWrt after a soldering job after ordering 16MB? Sounds really sensible after hearing much about Armbian.

And what are you expecting from SPI flash related discussion?

 

Are you saying external memory will not eat up a USB slot, and that eMMC is much more expensive than the recommended class 10 SD cards?

 

So why does Xunlong have eMMC models; and why haven't you folks warned them ?

eMMC will add directly to the boards price compared to the SD card. And clearly this board doesn't target desktop or high performance use cases where eMMC is preferred over SD.

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zador,

 

Ha ha ha... You still can't admit that eMMC doesn't cost more than SD card.

 

And can you use OPi0 without an SD card today?

 

How much would this 16MB SPI cost, just so you can launch OpenWrt on it?

 

Truth finally comes out. What is this talk of high end vs low end by you control freaks? Let the market decide ! After all Xunlong eMMC models can't target a more "upscale" market than their SD card equivalents?

 

So OPi0+ eMMC is a higher end solution than OPi0+ GigE/ USB 3? Oh wait, the latter can't work, so by default, yes, and costing way less too!

 

But then you rather support SATA over USB2 or GigE for H2+ as really trailblazing experiments destined to make you guys look like pioneers.

 

Learn from those real pioneers, Free Electrons. "Volunteers" are not exempt from responsibility towards their communities.

 

You keep destroying Xunlong market share by your design fantasies. But that's their problem anyway. Meanwhile Omega2 has OpenWrt mainlined already; and CHIP has moved up anyway.

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Please let's keep the discusstion constructive and objective - every user wants features that he thinks are best for his own use cases. I don't want to cut another page of this thread.

You still can't admit that eMMC doesn't cost more than SD card.

Let's not compare the price of the board and the price of a finished ready to use system. It may cost the same for the end user (or less if end user has a good SD card already or won't use SD card at all), but it will definitely cost more for the vendor.

 

And can you use OPi0 without an SD card today?

Yes, and I actively used it for the testing several days ago.

 

Truth finally comes out. What is this talk of high end vs low end by you control freaks? Let the market decide ! After all Xunlong eMMC models can't target a more "upscale" market than their SD card equivalents?

For this case "the market" already has NanoPi Neo Air. Any furter discussion of eMMC in this thread is off-topic and should be deleted. Expressing your SD/eMMC opinion further here won't change anything about already existing OPi Zero.

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zador,

 

You are quite selective in your answers.

 

You don't say what the OPi0 does today without an SD card. Is that what users do?

 

Why not redo the $2 expansion board adding flash + DC jack and price accordingly? Wouldn't this be a great option?

 

Are you in favor of GigE/USB3 or SATA USB2 "designs" while claiming OPi0 is not for "high end" use? Do these designs even work?

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