OLIMEX 13-SOM-512 User Manual Download Page 1

Page: 1 / 36

A13-SOM-256 and A13-SOM-512

System-on-Module boards capable of Linux boot

USER’S MANUAL

Revision B, March 2015

Designed by OLIMEX Ltd, 2014

All boards produced by Olimex LTD are ROHS compliant

Summary of Contents for 13-SOM-512

Page 1: ...A13 SOM 256 and A13 SOM 512 System on Module boards capable of Linux boot USER S MANUAL Revision B March 2015 Designed by OLIMEX Ltd 2014 All boards produced by Olimex LTD are ROHS compliant ...

Page 2: ...pressed 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 boa...

Page 3: ... 3 2 Mounted powering 11 2 4 Button functions 11 2 5 Interacting with the board 12 2 6 Changing the default image resolution 12 2 7 Connecting and calibrating a display 15 2 7 1 Android calibration 16 2 7 2 Debian calibration 16 2 8 Software support 16 CHAPTER 3 BOARD DESCRIPTION 18 3 Introduction to the chapter 18 3 1 Layout top view 18 3 2 Layout bottom view 19 CHAPTER 4 THE ALLWINNER A13 MICROC...

Page 4: ...7 6 4 3 GPIO 3 General Purpose Input Output 10pin connector 28 6 5 LCD_TR 40pin connector 28 6 6 Jumper description 29 6 7 Additional hardware components 29 CHAPTER 7 SCHEMATICS 30 7 Introduction to the chapter 30 7 1 Eagle schematic 30 7 2 Physical dimensions 31 CHAPTER 8 REVISION HISTORY AND SUPPORT 32 8 Introduction to the chapter 32 8 1 Document revision 32 8 2 Board revision 32 8 3 Useful web...

Page 5: ...WIFI 4GB All of the features listed above are also supported in the software releases suitable for the board The hardware design of A13 SOM development board is considered intellectual property to Olimex The hardware design files are considered copyright material and would not be distributed The expansion boards available for A13 SOM are an open source open hardware projects and all documentation ...

Page 6: ...nt board would be more suitable for users with some hardware experience or people already familiar with other single board Linux boards and designs As mentioned in the previous chapter the board is meant to be implemented in a hardware design Please refer to the list of possible scenarios where a stand alone A13 SOM without other peripheral extension boards attached board might not be suitable for...

Page 7: ...elopment for Allwinner A13 I recommend you to get the 512MB version of A13 SOM A similar board is A13 OLinuXino it is meant for fully evaluating the capabilities of A13 processor if you are going to implement A13 SOM into custom design it would be a good idea to first check on the A13 OLinuXino it would be easier to evaluate the capabilites of the A13 processor due to the The other Olimex board wi...

Page 8: ...es Chapter 3 contains the general board diagram and layout Chapter 4 describes the component that is the heart of the board the A13 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 Chapter 8 contains t...

Page 9: ...age to the board 2 2 Requirements In order to set up the A13 SOM board optimally one or more additional items may be needed They might be generally placed in two 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 Note that if A13 SOM WIFI or A...

Page 10: ...oid smoothly 2 3 Powering the board The powering requirements of the A13 SOM are different depending on whether you use it in stand alone mode or mounted atop A13 SOM WIFI The sub chapters below deal with both scenarios 2 3 1 Stand alone powering If you use the board in stand alone mode e g it is neither attached to A13 SOM WIFI nor to any other board of peripherals there are fewer options for pow...

Page 11: ...are called 5V and GND near the PWR_LED and the USB_OTG these pins can be used to connect a power jack Some typical consumptions are listed below A13 SOM 512 A13 SOM WIFI 4GB running Debian consumption 0 45A 5V A13 SOM 512 A13 SOM WIFI 4GB A13 LCD7 TS running Debian consumption 0 75A 5V A13 SOM 512 A13 SOM WIFI 4GB A13 LCD7 TS running Android consumption 0 40A 5V Do not provide AC voltage to the A1...

Page 12: ...ld be a short circuit Make sure that the serial cable is connected to your personal computer and recognized properly after driver installation Then open a terminal program on the serial COM port which the cable is associated with After everything else is set you would need to power the board as explained in 2 3 Powering the board If the A13 SOM is attached to A13 SOM WIFI in addition to the serial...

Page 13: ...ute 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_a13 sh It looks like this Then the main menu of the video configuration script shows up Choose the ...

Page 14: ...gain from nano editor wrscr sh this will convert script fex to script bin and the script bin file will be written to the microSD card reboot Reboot the board and the new settings would be enabled Alternatively you can do the changes on the microSD card off the board You would need to remove the microSD card and explore it in a microSD card reader You would need to edit the configuration file scrip...

Page 15: ... the display via the board the Olimex made displays require 5V of voltage You would need to power the display externally Newer displays made by Olimex have both 0 1 and 0 05 step connectors So if you are going to need only the display and a cable sold separately The displays recommended for the board at the moment of writing might be found in the table below Display name Size of display in inches ...

Page 16: ...er olimex if calibrating without the X the user is root su olimex enter the password olimex then calibrate the touch screen and reboot the board sudo reboot 2 8 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 A13...

Page 17: ... we have tried We can point you to a resource or a guide We can give you general directions to solving a specific problem or places to look for more information However we won t install a piece of software for you or write custom program for you We won t provide a specific software solution to a specific software problem Page 17 of 36 ...

Page 18: ...cquainted with the main parts of the board Note the names used on the board might differ from the names used below to describe them For the actual names check the A13 SOM board itself 3 1 Layout top view The picture below shows the top side of the board and highlights the most important parts Page 18 of 36 ...

Page 19: ...OLIMEX 2015 A13 SOM user s manual 3 2 Layout bottom view Page 19 of 36 ...

Page 20: ... HD Video Decoding 1920 1080 30fps Support H 264 H 263 VC1 Mpeg1 2 4 Divx 3 4 5 6 Xvid VP6 8 AVS etc HD Video Encoding Support encoding in H 264 format Up to 1920 1080 at 30fps DPU LCD Interfaces CPU RGB Memory DDR2 DDR3 Up to 533MHz 16 bits Data Bus Memory capacity up to 512MB MLC TLC SLC EF NAND 2 flash chips ECC 64 bit Support NAND of 5xnm 4xnm 3xnm 2xnm Support NADN of Samsung Toshiba Hynix Pe...

Page 21: ...low System Power Consumption Smart Backlight auto adjust backlight acc to the image display Package eLQFP176 More information can be found on Allwinner s web site at the following web address http www allwinnertech com product A13 html 4 2 Block diagram The block diagram is taken from Allwinner s web site Page 21 of 36 ...

Page 22: ...ed separately is around 0 1A when connected to a 3 3V voltage source provided either at GPIO 1 s pin 1 or UART1 3 3V pin There are several GND pin and pinhole locations You can use any of the board s GND for powering purposes The typical consumption of the 512 for the board when combined with A13 SOM WIFI 4GB might be found below Setup Operating system Typical current consumption in Amperes at 5V ...

Page 23: ...ART1 connector capable of delivering some information on the COM port of your computer and then use your favorite terminal program puTTy teraterm etc to receive the data send commands You can use USB SERIAL CABLE F with the UART1 interface allowing you to connect to a personal computer with a free USB port Note that the levels at board s UART1 are in CMOS levels 3 3V and you would need a MAX232 co...

Page 24: ... connecting the serial cable The table of UART1 signals might be found below UART1 Pin Signal name Processor pin 1 3 3 VCC 2 UART1 TX A7 3 UART1 RX B7 4 GND GND 6 2 MicroSD card connector The micro SD card slot is primarily used for booting the operating system The board works with micro SDHC cards up to 32GB of storage As a general precaution be careful with the SD cards you purchase There is a b...

Page 25: ... table with the microSD card signals might be found below SD MMC1 connector Pin Connector signal name Wire name processor pin number 1 DAT2 RES SDC0_DATA2 113 2 CD DAT3 CS SDC0_DATA3 112 3 CMD DI SDC0_CMD 111 4 VDD SD_VCC 5 CLK SCLK SDC0_SCLK 110 6 VSS GND 7 DAT0 DO SDC0_DATA0 108 8 DAT1 RES SDC0_DATA1 107 9 CARD DETECT SYMBOL SD0CARD DETECT 155 13 GND GND 6 3 Power pins for external power supply ...

Page 26: ...s Below you would find a general overview of the board s GPIO and LCD pins They might be also found in the tables further down in the chapter To understand better what each processor pin does it might be a good idea to refer to the datasheet of the A13 processor The schematic of the board of peripherals A13 SOM WIFI might also help you identify the main function of the pins To keep the form factor...

Page 27: ...123 17 PIN10 TWI1 SCK PB15 TWI1_SCK 105 18 PIN33 PE8 CSI_D4 SDC2_CMD 122 19 PIN11 TWI1 SDA PB16 TWI1_SDA 106 20 PIN32 PE7 CSI_D3 SDC2_D3 121 21 PIN12 NWE PC0 NWE SPI_MOSI 8 22 PIN31 PE6 CSI_D2 SDC2_D2 120 23 PIN13 NALE PC1 NALE SPI_MISO 7 24 PIN30 PE5 CSI_D1 SDC2_D1 119 25 PIN15 NCLE PC2 NCLE SPI_CLK 6 26 PIN29 PE4 CSI_D0 SDC2_D0 118 27 PIN15 NCE1 PC3 NCE1 SPI_CS0 3 28 PIN28 NDQS PC19 NDQS 162 29 ...

Page 28: ...images we provide however it can be used with Debian Linux The biggest display 15 6 1366 768 or 1920 1080 is not supported by the A13 SOM design The core processor lacks the required computing power for a smooth operation LCD_CON connector Pin Signal name Processor pin Pin Signal name Processor pin 1 5V POWER CIRCUIT 2 GND POWER CIRCUIT 3 3 3V POWER CIRCUIT 4 GND POWER CIRCUIT 5 LCD_D18 PD18 LCD_D...

Page 29: ...e components below are mounted on the A13 SOM but are not discussed above They are listed here for completeness Reset button used to reset the board Power button used to reset the board A13 SOM 256 has 256MB RAM 1 2Gb 128M x 16 DDR3 SDRAM the exact memory used in the board revision mentioned is Hynix 5TQ2G63BFR A13 SOM 512 has 512MB RAM 1 4Gb 256M x 16b DDR3 SDRAM the exact memory used currently i...

Page 30: ...unt We mostly use Eagle by Cad Soft 4 16r2 for designing However the files should be compatible with the latest Eagle available Cad Soft offers a trial version of their software that allows you to inspect schematics and board files without being able to modify them This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3 0 Unported License To view a copy of this license visit http...

Page 31: ...OLIMEX 2015 A13 SOM user s manual 7 2 Physical dimensions Note that all dimensions are in mils Page 31 of 36 ...

Page 32: ...ion Changes Modified page A 26 11 14 Initial manual release All B 17 03 15 Updated RAM memory to reflect latest schematic Updated board revision 29 32 8 2 Board revision Remember to check the schematics and the board design files to compare the differences Board revision Notable changes D Initial release of the board E 1 All component libraries were updated 2 R25 R26 R27 R28 R29 and R30 pull ups N...

Page 33: ...r with 0 1 step and routes a number of frequently used signals to the easier to access 0 1 row of pinholes The sources schematics of A13 SOM WIFI are available for download and the board is considered open hardware USB SERIAL CABLE F female USB serial console cable provides the easiest way of debugging A13 SOM 256 DEBIAN SD a tested class 10 micro SD card with the latest by the time of leaving the...

Page 34: ...enter sleep mode very fast especially if the Android was turned off without the Quick Boot mode being ticked on Try pressing or holding down the PWR button for a couple of seconds to wake it up Q How do I write the Linux image to a micro SD card to use with my A13 board A First visit the wiki article for the board and download the archive with the image Then write the Linux image to a microSD card...

Page 35: ...ection of the wiki A13 SOM 256 article Make sure that the download link you visit clearly indicates that the image is suitable for the NAND memory since there are images suitable for microSD card also The images suitable for the microSD memory and those suitable for microSD card are different However the upload method is almost identical using LiveSuit 3 Go to firmware tab of the program and point...

Page 36: ... ordered items are allowed subject to a 10 restocking fee What is unaffected If you hooked it to power you affected it To be clear this includes items that have been soldered to or have had their firmware changed Because of the nature of the products we deal with prototyping electronic tools we cannot allow returns of items that have been programmed powered up or otherwise changed post shipment fr...

Search results

Summary of Contents for 13-SOM-512

Reviews:

Related manuals for 13-SOM-512

Brands by name

Popular brands

OLIMEX 13-SOM-512, User Manual

Search results

Summary of Contents for 13-SOM-512

Reviews:

Related manuals for 13-SOM-512

Brands by name

Popular brands