Raspberry pi -like boards, which one is for me ?
Swiftclaw wrote 03/28/2015 at 15:11 • 1 pointhi,
I'm looking for a Linux dev board, not over-complicated, because I'm new in embedded development (But I use Linux daily). I know everyone will tell me to buy a raspberry pi but I can't, because the DSI port is useless. I need a quality screen (with digitizer) with the board. HDMI touch screen are so expensive an bulky that I guess they're not really suited for handheld device (and they ask for 12v). I also can't use spi to wire a spi screen, because I need the spi port.
Minimum specs (if possible, I'm going to most important to less important) : 1GB ram (2GB would be better, but is damn expensive), ~1Ghz 4-core(as the Raspberry pi 2) SoC with a GPU as powerful than raspberry pi's.
After a bit of googl-ing, I found some interesting boards : banana pi and orange pi. I also found some OlinuXIno board but they seem rather expensive compared to banana pi, cubieboard looks good, but far too expensive, and need HDMI screen.
So I would like to know if anyone have a banana pi, is it a good board for a beginner ? Is it fast, can I use it like a tablet ? The orange pi is a cheaper clone of banana pi, but few people use it. Do you know other board I could use ?
The main problem with banana pi family is there is no board as powerful than the raspberry Pi 2. There is the banana pi M2, but the A31s is a lower-cost A31, and linux-sunxi does not support it. The main advantages of these A20 board are embedded wifi, working screen connector and sata port, but I fear they can't be used as smoothly than raspi 2 as a tablet.
What do you think ? If what I'm asking does not exist please tell me, sometime I ask for impossible :p .
Thanks a lot for your help !
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Was killing some time and remembered this topic (or stack?) again, replied to your reply on my previous, but also found some links that may aid you in finding a perfect match:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_single-board_computers
https://socialcompare.com/en/comparison/low-cost-arm-boards
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:lzpt0p70abIJ:iqjar.com/jar/an-overview-and-comparison-of-todays-single-board-micro-computers/
Are you sure? yes | no
I've been using a RIoTBoard, which can drive a screen natively up to about 1280x800 using LVDS. Not quite as good as HDMI, but might be good enough? You can buy an official LVDS display + touch screen, and it comes pre-installed with android (but of course you can run linux too)
Here's a project I've been using it for: http://hackaday.io/project/4177-lvds-laptop-display-interfacing
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1280x800 is perfect. But this board seems less powerful than the banana pi pro, which is cheaper. The SoC is a
i.MX 6Solo, "solo" stand for single-core if i'm right. AllWinner A20 boards are dual-core and cheaper.
Are you sure? yes | no
Are you sure you need that much RAM? Keep in mind that embedded systems are very much cut-down.
Unless you have hard numbers, don't assume that 1GB on a desktop is anything close to 1GB on an embedded system.
Are you sure? yes | no
No, I'm not sure but the board should be able to replace my smartphone. Which has same minimum spec I ask for, and 1GB ram. It is so slow, but maybe it is android fault.
Are you sure? yes | no
You may wanna look at a raxda rock, they offer a lite version aswell these days wich is a little cheaper (59 dollar vs 99 for the pro)
http://radxa.com/Home
Are you sure? yes | no
Wow, the radxa rock pro is perfect but $99 is too much for my wallet, I also wonder what will be the rock2 price because it is exactly the board i'm looking for. The 59$ one is good enough I guess, thanks a lot !
Did anyone use it ? I hope I do not need to be an engineer to make it work ? does it have a good community (on the radxa-talk page, there is mainly people complaining, with no problem solved)?
What I fear is the LCD connector, it is in the 80pin header, what kind of touch screen should work then (the touch screen they sell is great but a bit expensive) ? There is also no info on the camera connector.
I'm reading all docs I can find right now.
Are you sure? yes | no
Eya (sorry for the delay in my reply)
I've used one in the past (not mine, sadly) and it was pretty easy going, it does help if you have experience with linux though, so keep that in mind. You wont have to be an engineer to use it, but its a hughe plus if you have some knowledge of installing your favorite linux distro and packages.
You can find some tutorials here, on the raxda wiki:
http://radxa.com/Category:Tutorial
But theres also some more in depth tutorials if you just google for raxda and what you want to run on it, for example googling "raxda android" got me this: http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/01/17/getting-started-with-raxda-rock-building-an-android-4-2-image-from-source/ wich seems like a pretty good guide (you may be thinking there should be more work involved, but theres not, its really just a matter of run a few cmds and your set. Also, this is a pretty nice little review (where the guy compares it with Odroid's and a BeagleBone Black)
https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/774426-radxa-the-100-quad-core-arm-raspberry-pi-alternative
Finally, about the touchscreen, i agree that the one they offer is quite mediocre (at best) and pretty pricey for what you get, i don't know of any touchscreens specifically for the raxda (apart from the one in their store) but i think if you look around hard enough you will find either a description of the ports used to attach the official one (wich would allow you to wire up virtually any touchscreen) or possibly even touchscreens by third parties with the exact same connections. If however you cant find any, all hope is not lost, you can just hook up a touchscreen that connects trough hdmi and usb, simply google 'hdmi usb touch screen' and you should find 100's, a common place for these babies these days is in cars, so make sure to check out some 'car modding'(?) sites. Pricing doesnt seem much better elsewhere though.
Oh and just in-case, im not affiliated to raxda or anything, i just have it stored in my brain under 'better then a Raspberry Pi', based on my experience with one in early 2014 (with what they sell nowadays as a rock pro)
(edit; cant seem to get HaD.io to pick up on 5 edits of me adding line breaks to the above, sorry)
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Odroid boars have much computing power but the only output is HDMI.
Other possibility are Allwinner based boards (like Cubieboard 1/2/3, Banana Pi, MarsBoard, PcDuino,
OLinuXino-LIME and most likely many others)- SoC's can drive TTL or LVDS panels, it's just a matter of config and powering the LCD itself.
Take a look at http://linux-sunxi.org/Main_Page for more information
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only boards with SoC like A31 or later are as powerful than a raspberry pi 2. Almost all boards you said have a SoC less powerful than A31. (pcduino, MarsBoards, cubieboard 1/2, banana pi)
Cubietruck is far too expensive and need a HDMI screen.
Banana pi M2 seems to be a good choice but so few people use it, I heard only android is supported atm.
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You could also take a look at the odroid boards.
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The problem is the amount of data transfered between the board and the screen, you need to keep a really high refresh rate by spi. If you use spi for another thing, you must desselect the screen, send command to the second chip, select the screen again and paint the frame. It's far too slow, you'll see a big slowdown in fps.
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