Olimex A10-OLINUXINO-LIME, A10-OLINUXINO-LIME-4GB User guide

A10-OLINUXINO-LIME

and

A10-OLINUXINO-LIME-4GB

Open-source single-board Android/Linux mini-computer

USER’S MANUAL

Revision C, August 2014

Designed by OLIMEX Ltd, 2014

All boards produced by Olimex LTD are ROHS compliant

DISCLAIMER

The information in this document is provided in connection with Olimex products. No license, express or implied or otherwise, to any intellectual property right is granted by this document or in connection with the sale of Olimex products.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.

This hardware design by Olimex LTD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The software is released under GPL.

It is possible that the pictures in this manual differ from the latest revision of the board.

The product described in this document is subject to continuous development and improvements. All particulars of the product and its use contained in this document are given by OLIMEX in good faith. However all warranties implied or expressed including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for purpose are excluded. This document is intended only to assist the reader in the use of the product. OLIMEX Ltd. shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising from the use of any information in this document or any error or omission in such information or any incorrect use of the product.

This evaluation board/kit is intended for use for engineering development, demonstration, or evaluation purposes only and is not considered by OLIMEX to be a finished end-product fit for general consumer use. Persons handling the product must have electronics training and observe good engineering practice standards. As such, the goods being provided are not intended to be complete in terms of required design-, marketing-, and/or manufacturing-related protective considerations, including product safety and environmental measures typically found in end products that incorporate such semiconductor components or circuit boards.

Olimex currently deals with a variety of customers for products, and therefore our arrangement with the user is not exclusive. Olimex assumes no liability for applications assistance, customer product design, software performance, or infringement of patents or services described herein.

THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE DESIGN MATERIALS AND THE COMPONENTS USED TO CREATE A10-OLINUXINO-LIME AND A10-OLINUXINO-LIME-4GB. THEY ARE CONSIDERED SUITABLE ONLY FOR, RESPECTIVELY, A10-OLINUXINO-LIME OR A10-OLINUXINO-LIME-4GB.

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Table of Contents

DISCLAIMER ............................................................................................................. 2

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW ........................................................................................ 5

1. Introduction to the chapter ....................................................................................................... 5

1.1 Features ..................................................................................................................................... 5

1.2 Target market and purpose of the board ............................................................................... 5

1.3 Board variants .......................................................................................................................... 6

1.4 Board version used in the manual .......................................................................................... 6

1.5 Document organization ........................................................................................................... 7

CHAPTER 2: SETTING UP THE OLINUXINO BOARD ..................................... 8

2. Introduction to the chapter ....................................................................................................... 8

2.1 Electrostatic and electrical polarity warning ........................................................................ 8

2.2 Requirements ........................................................................................................................... 8

2.3 Powering the board .................................................................................................................. 9

2.4 Button functions ..................................................................................................................... 10

2.5 Changing the default image resolution ................................................................................ 11

2.5 Connecting and calibrating a display ................................................................................... 12

2.5.1 Android calibration ...................................................................................................................................... 12

2.5.2 Debian calibration ........................................................................................................................................ 13

2.6 Software support .................................................................................................................... 13

CHAPTER 3: A10-OLINUXINO-LIME BOARD DESCRIPTION ..................... 14

3. Introduction to the chapter ..................................................................................................... 14

3.1 Layout (top view) ................................................................................................................... 14

3.2 Layout (bottom view) ............................................................................................................. 15

CHAPTER 4: THE ALLWINNER A10 MICROCONTROLLER ....................... 16

4. Introduction to the chapter ..................................................................................................... 16

4.1 The processor ......................................................................................................................... 16

CHAPTER 5: CONTROL CIRCUITY ................................................................... 18

5. Introduction to the chapter ..................................................................................................... 18

5.1 Reset ........................................................................................................................................ 18

5.2 Clocks ...................................................................................................................................... 18

5.3 Power supply circuit .............................................................................................................. 18

CHAPTER 6: CONNECTORS AND PINOUT ...................................................... 19

6. Introduction to the chapter ..................................................................................................... 19

6.1 Communication with LIME .................................................................................................. 19

6.1.2 UART0 interface ........................................................................................................................................... 19

6.2 MicroSD card connector ....................................................................................................... 20

6.2.1 SD/MMC1 slot .............................................................................................................................................. 20

6.3 PWR jack ................................................................................................................................ 21

6.4 USB_OTG connector ............................................................................................................. 21

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6.5 USB_HOST connectors ......................................................................................................... 23

6.6 Ethernet .................................................................................................................................. 23

6.7 HDMI connector .................................................................................................................... 26

6.8 SATA connector and power ................................................................................................... 27

6.9 GPIO-1 (General Purpose Input/Output) 40pin connector ............................................... 28

6.10 GPIO-2 (General Purpose Input/Output) 40pin connector ............................................. 29

6.11 GPIO-3 (General Purpose Input/Output) 40pin connector ............................................. 30

6.12 GPIO-4 (General Purpose Input/Output) 20pin connector ............................................. 30

6.13 LCD_CON 40pin connector ................................................................................................ 31

6.14 Jumper description .............................................................................................................. 32

6.15 Additional hardware components ...................................................................................... 33

CHAPTER 7: SCHEMATICS .................................................................................. 34

7. Introduction to the chapter ..................................................................................................... 34

7.1 Eagle schematic ...................................................................................................................... 34

7.2 Physical dimensions ............................................................................................................... 35

CHAPTER 8: REVISION HISTORY AND SUPPORT ........................................ 36

8. Introduction to the chapter ..................................................................................................... 36

8.1 Document revision ................................................................................................................. 36

8.2 Board revision ........................................................................................................................ 36

8.3 Useful web links and purchase codes ................................................................................... 37

8.4 Frequently asked questions ................................................................................................... 38

8.5 Product support ..................................................................................................................... 40

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CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW

1. Introduction to the chapter

Thank you for choosing this OLinuXino single board computer from Olimex! This document provides a user’s guide for the Olimex A10 LIME board. As an overview, this chapter gives the scope of this document and lists the board’s features. The document’s organization is then detailed.

The A10-OLinuXino-LIME development board enables code development of applications running on the A10 microcontroller, manufactured by Allwinner Technology from China.

OLinuXino is an open-source, open-hardware project and all documentation is available to the customer.

1.1 Features

The board has the following set of features:

• A10 Cortex-A8 CPU 1GHz and Mali 400 GPU

• 512MB DDR3 RAM memory

• 4GB NAND FLASH memory (available only on the 4GB version of the board)

• Android already loaded on the NAND (available only on the 4GB version of the board)

• SATA connector with 5V SATA power jack

• Built-in FullHD support (1080p)

• 2 x USB High-speed host with power control and current limiter

• USB-OTG with power control and current limiter

• HDMI output with ESD protectors

• 100MBit native Ethernet

• Battery connector with battery-charging capabilities

• LCD row of pins (0.05'' step, suitable for Olimex LCD displays via an adapter)

• 160 GPIOs on four GPIO rows of pins (0.05'' step)

• MicroSD card connector

• DEBUG-UART connector for console debug with USB-SERIAL-CABLE-F

• GPIO LED

• Battery charge status LED

• 5V input power supply, noise immune design

• Power LED

• 2KB EEPROM for MAC address storage and more

• 3 BUTTONS with ANDROID functionality + RESET button

• 4 mount holes

• PCB dimensions: (3005×2345) mils ~ (76×59) mm

1.2 Target market and purpose of the board

The boards from the OLinuXino family are easy to setup and powerful. It is possible to use them in almost any application as a host board. They are suitable for embedded programming enthusiasts, Linux and Android gadget fans (they can just use the board as a media center or fully functional

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Linux-PC, for instance) and also professionals (since its low cost makes it very good solution for application-orientated embedded systems). The main usage of the board is software embedded development without the urge of understanding perfectly the hardware.

The LIME boards are a special kind of OLinuXino boards – they are as small as possible while maintaining a remarkable stand-alone functionality. The strong points of the boards are the processor speed, the small form factor and the low price-to-productivity ratio.

Customers have full access to the technical documentation of the board. The software is released under General Purpose License and the board is considered open-hardware – all schematics and board design files are available to the customer under the Creative Commons AttributionShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

1.3 Board variants

There are two major board variants named: A10-OLinuXino-LIME and A10-OLinuXino-LIME4GB. The 4GB version has a built-in NAND memory that allows the storage of an operating system without the need of a SD card. The 4GB version comes with already programmed Android image.

The A20-OLinuXino-LIME and A20-OLinuXino-LIME-4GB boards are almost identical to, respectively, A10-OLinuXino-LIME and A10-OLinuXino-LIME-4GB with the only difference being the processor mounted. This brings different processor speed and productivity. The A10 has a single Cortex A8 core. The A20 has a dual-core Cortex A7. This makes the A20 boards more powerful and suitable for heavier computational tasks, but more power-hungry. The processor swap is possible since the A10 and A20 processors are pin-to-pin compatible.

1.4 Board version used in the manual

Revision C boards and resources were used while writing this document. It is possible that they are outdated so it is always recommended to download the latest sources from the GitHub page of the board (https://github.com/OLIMEX/OLINUXINO/tree/master/HARDWARE).

Please note that A10-OLinuXino-LIME design is almost identical to the design of its predecessor A20-OlinuXino-LIME – the only difference being the processor. Even then the processors are pinto-pin compatible. Some documents or software may be suitable for both the A10 and the A20 LIME boards but it is generally advised to use resources for the specific board.

1.5 Document organization

Each section in this document covers a separate topic, organized as follows:

– Chapter 1 is an overview of the board usage and features – Chapter 2 provides a guide for quickly setting up the board and software notes

– Chapter 3 contains the general board diagram and layout – Chapter 4 describes the component that is the heart of the board: the A10 – Allwinner

processor

– Chapter 5 is an explanation of the control circuitry associated with the microcontroller – Chapter 6 covers the connector pinout, peripherals and jumper description – Chapter 7 provides the schematics and the dimensions of the board

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– Chapter 8 contains the revision history, useful links and support information

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CHAPTER 2: SETTING UP THE OLINUXINO BOARD

2. Introduction to the chapter

This section helps you set up the OLinuXino development board for the first time. Please consider first the electrostatic warning to avoid damaging the board, then discover the hardware and software required to operate the board.

The procedure to power up the board is given, and a description of the default board behavior is detailed.

2.1 Electrostatic and electrical polarity warning

OLinuXino is shipped in a protective anti-static package. The board must not be exposed to high electrostatic potentials. A grounding strap or similar protective device should be worn when handling the board. Avoid touching the component pins or any other metallic element.

If you connect other electrical devices to the LIME board make sure that they have equal electrical polarity. For example, when you connect an HDMI cable between a TV and the board it is a good idea to have them both connected to the same electrical source (to the same utility power socket). This might be said for a serial cable connected between a PC and the board's DEBUG port. In rare cases different polarity might cause hardware damage to the board.

2.2 Requirements

In order to set up the A10-OLinuXino-LIME optimally one or more additional items may be used. They might be generally placed in three categories:

Required – items that are needed in order to achieve minimum functionality; Recommended – items that is good to have in order to be able to interact with the most important

of the features of the board;

Additional – items that provide access to additional features or expand the features of the board.

Required items:

- USB type A to USB mini cable – to connect to a personal computer; used for powering the board and uploading new Android image to the NAND memory (if your board has 4GB NAND)

- Input device – either a mouse/keyboard or touchscreen LCD

- Output device – either HDMI cable + native HDMI monitor/screen/projector; or USB-SERIALCABLE-F + personal computer (for Linux and/or Android debugging)

- SD card with compatible image – if you have the board version with NO additional NAND memory you will need it to use one of the images available.

2.3 Powering the board

There are three possible ways of powering A10-OLinuXino-LIME – via external supply providing 5V DC at the power jack, from 5V USB port via USB_OTG connector or from 3.7V Li-Po battery via the LIPO_BAT. Note that the board might consume up to 650mA of current at 5V when there are no peripherals connected to the USB hosts. Make sure your power supply is able to provide at least 1A before. Depending on your preferred way of powering you might need additional hardware.

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Important: Not all USB ports would be able to provide enough power for the board. Try using another USB port/USB hub or a cable of higher quality.

If you have an LCD display connected to the board or external 2.5'' hard disk then the USB will NOT be sufficient source of power.

The best practice is to never count on the mini USB-OTG as a single source of power for the board!

The preferred way of powering the board is via the PWR jack with 5V DC. This would make the board fully powered and able to power all the peripherals connected to it.

Note that when powering the board from the USB_OTG, the current provided might be insufficient to also power a bigger LCD connected to the LCD_con. However, this power option is capable of driving the board when using external display connected to the HDMI connector.

The typical consumption of A10-OLinuXino-LIME is between 400mA and 750mA depending on the current load.

If the board has entered power-down state you can bring it back without restart using the PWR_BUT. The PWR_BUT is also used to start the board when powered from a Li-Po battery on the battery connector.

Sometimes when starting Android it is possible the board to enter battery save mode even before booting fully. Especially, if you have turned off the board without quick boot mode enabled. In this case you should press the PWR button for at least 5 seconds which would allow the board to start.

For the European customers we sell two power supply adapters, please check chapter 2.2. We also sell USB OTG to USB type A cables if you lack such.

The default username/password combination for the default Linux image on the SD card (if purchased) is: root/olimex.

Note that it is normal that when the board is powered some integrated circuits might appear hotter than others. This is perfectly normal for some chips – for instance – voltage regulators and the main processor.

2.4 Button functions

The bellow three buttons usually are supported under both Android and Debian:

PWR – used to perform software turn off, software turn on; used to turn on board when powered by battery – has to be held down for at least 5 seconds to perform each action

RESET – used for hardware reset of the board – it is not recommended RECOVERY – used to wake up the board from sleep

It is recommended to always make a soft “turn off” of the board. If that is not possible then please hold PWR button down for a few seconds to “turn off the board”. Then you are free to remove the power supply. If you disconnect the power supply (either the USB, the battery or the power jack) before turning off the board you may corrupt your SD card. If you have placed NAND memory you

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can corrupt the image on the NAND memory.

2.5 Changing the default image resolution

Depending on the display or the screen you want to use with the A10-OlinuXino-LIME, you might need to apply software changes to the prebuilt Android or Linux image.

Generally, this means that you would need to edit the configuration file script.bin and edit the settings inside. This file is usually located in Script.bin can't be opened in the binary format so you would need to convert it to .fex file format first. There are ready-to-use tools that convert script.bin <-> script.fex. Note that script.bin/fex contains configuration settings and definitions not only for the video output but also for the pin descriptions and names; power setting and much more. If you really want to modify and customize the default images (to change port functions, port names, to disable specific peripherals) you would need to be able to edit the script files. Please refer to the following web page for more information: http://linux-sunxi.org/Fex_Guide

The typical OlinuXino user would not need to edit the files, however.

To ease the process of changing the resolution we have compiled a number of Android images for the Android users (with hard-coded video output settings). Alternatively, for Debian Linux users, we have provided a shell script that can be executed in order to set preferred video output and resolution.

For Android that you boot from the NAND memory you would need an image suitable for the specific resolution. Download locations to such images might be found at the wiki article for the A10 board here: https://www.olimex.com/wiki/A10-OLinuXino-LIME.

For Linux Debian you would need to execute a shell script to be able to change the resolution. It is very good idea to use a serial cable for connection to the board from a personal computer since in this case you are dependent on a video resolution (a cable like USB-SERIAL-CABLE-F). When the board boots type:

./change_display*

or

./change_display_A10_lime.sh

and choose the resolution and the interface (LCD, HDMI or VGA).

The supported resolutions are listed below.

For LCD:

1. 4.3" (480×272)

2. 7" (800×480)

3. 10" (1024×600)

For HDMI:

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0. 480i

1. 576i

2. 480p

3. 576p

4. 720p50

5. 720p60

6. 1080i50

7. 1080i60

8. 1080p24

9. 1080p50

10. 1080p60

For VGA: (note that the VGA signals are routed to custom 6 pin connector and you need to from adapter to standard VGA connector, Olimex also sells such adapter cables)

0. 1680×1050

1. 1440×900

2. 1360×768

3. 1280×1024

4. 1024×768

5. 800×600

6. 640×480

7. 1920×1080

8. 1280×720

2.5 Connecting and calibrating a display

One of the ways to interact with the board is via an external display (with or without touchscreen component). If you want to use a display for video output from the LIME board the best way is to use the LCD_CON row of pins.

Note that unlike other OLinuXino boards A10-OlinuXino-LIME the row of pins that allows the user to connect a display has smaller step (0.05''). The corresponding connectors in previous OLinuXino boards had a step of 0.1''. This means that if you use a display made by OLIMEX, you would need additional hardware to adapt the pin-step accordingly. You can either make such adapter (or cable) yourself, following the schematics of the display and the board or purchase it from us.

You would need two 40 pin cables (CABLE-40-40-10CM and CABLE-IDC40-15cm) that connect to a small adapter board called A10-OLinuXino-LIME-UEXT. I recommend you to take a look at the pages of the adapter and the cables even if you decide to make it yourself – there are schematics available for download.

2.5.1 Android calibration

Calibrating a display under Android is pretty straightforward from the Android application.

Important: initially the boards are calibrated for a specific display and resolution. If you re-write the

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image (no matter whether the SD card or the NAND memory) you might need to use a mouse to calibrate the display initially. It might be impossible to calibrate it via touching the display.

2.5.2 Debian calibration

The command that allows calibrating in Debian Linux is:

ts_calibrate

The default Debian setup is made with settings for HDMI 720p/60Hz. If you want to change some other LCD, VGA or HDMI resolution then you have to start script file in /root directory.

If the problem is under Debian Linux make sure you are properly logged in the XFCE interface! Else applying calibration would not happen for the current user – if you are calibrating from the X graphical interface make sure that you are logged as user “olimex” (if calibrating without the X, the user is “root”).

#su olimex

enter the password: olimex

calibrate the touch screen and reboot the board

#sudo reboot

2.6 Software support

We maintain Linux and Android images for SD card which might be downloaded for free and modified as the user wishes. The latest images and updates are featured at the wiki article of the device: https://www.olimex.com/wiki/A10-OLinuXino-LIME.

We usually try to provide details on how to build the Linux and the Android images at our wordpress page: http://olimex.wordpress.com/.

Another useful place is the Olimex forums where a lot of people share their experience and advice:

https://www.olimex.com/forum/.

Additional Android and Linux support and features are added overtime. The Linux support is a work-in-progress and you should not expect full Linux support after the initial volume of such boards have become available on the market. If you are in a hurry consider the older OLinuXino designs (which have almost everything supported, have examples available and so on).

You are more than welcome to send or share your suggestions and ideas at our e-mail, the public forums or irc channel. We would attempt to help in almost every case. We listen to the feedback and if the majority of users suggest a software change or update we try to implement such. Customer feedback is very important for the overall state of the software support. However, do not expect full Linux or Android software support.

We can share our experience. We can give you full details for things we have tried. We can point

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