OLIMEX A20-OLINUXINO-MICRO-4GB User Manual Download

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Datasheet of A20-OLINUXINO-MICRO-4GB - BOARD ARM LINUX SGL A20 4GB
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Summary of Contents for A20-OLINUXINO-MICRO-4GB

Page 1: ...d Excellent Integrated System Limited Stocking Distributor Stocking Distributor Click to view price real time Inventory Delivery Lifecycle Information Click to view price real time Inventory Delivery Lifecycle Information Olimex LTD Olimex LTD A20 OLINUXINO MICRO 4GB A20 OLINUXINO MICRO 4GB For any questions you can email us directly For any questions you can email us directly sales integrated cir...

Page 2: ...ARD ARM LINUX SGL A20 4GB Contact us sales integrated circuit com Website www integrated circuit com A20 OLinuXino MICRO Open source single board Android Linux mini computer USER S MANUAL Document revision P December 2015 Designed by OLIMEX Ltd 2015 All boards produced by Olimex LTD are ROHS compliant ...

Page 3: ...d 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 inco...

Page 4: ...owering the board 9 2 4 Prebuilt software 10 2 5 Button functions 10 2 6 Interacting with the board 11 2 6 1 HDMI monitor 12 2 6 2 VGA monitor 12 2 6 3 SSH via mini USB cable in Debian 12 2 6 4 SSH via Ethernet 12 2 6 5 LCD display 13 2 7 Changing the default image resolution 13 2 8 Connecting and calibrating a display 15 2 8 1 Android calibration 16 2 8 2 Debian calibration 16 2 9 GPIO under Debi...

Page 5: ...s 30 6 5 USB_OTG connector 31 6 6 USB_HOST connector 33 6 7 Ethernet 34 6 8 HDMI connector 36 6 9 VGA connector 37 6 10 SATA connector and power 38 6 11 GPIO ports 39 6 11 1 GPIO 1 General Purpose Input Output 40pin connector 39 6 11 2 GPIO 2 General Purpose Input Output 40pin connector 40 6 11 3 GPIO 3 General Purpose Input Output 40pin connector 41 6 12 LCD_CON 40pin connector 43 6 13 Jumper des...

Page 6: ...lease note the difference between the two versions of the board A20 Cortex A7 dual core ARM Cortex A7 CPU and dual core Mali 400 GPU 1GB DDR3 RAM memory 4GB NAND FLASH memory available only on the 4GB version of the board SATA connector with 5V SATA power jack Capable of FullHD 1080p video playback Native HDMI connector 2 x USB High speed host with power control and current limiter USB OTG with po...

Page 7: ...oard is considered open hardware all schematics and board design files are available to the customer under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3 0 Unported License 1 3 Board variants There are two major board variants named A20 OLinuXino MICRO and A20 OLinuXino MICRO 4GB The 4GB version has a built in NAND memory suitable for the storage of an operating system without the need of a SD card...

Page 8: ...e 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 A20 Allwinner processor Chapter 5 is an explanation of the control circuitry associated with the microcontroller Chapter 6 covers the connector pinout peripherals and ju...

Page 9: ... If you connect other electrical devices to the A20 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 ...

Page 10: ...bian Linux release USB SERIAL CABLE F USB serial console cable female USB MINI CABLE standard USB type A to USB type mini cable A20 VGA CABLE adapter from 6 pin connector to 15 pin one CABLE IDC40 15cm cable for LCD to LCD_CON connection LCD OLinuXino 4 3TS low cost 4 3 LCD display with touchscreen component 480 272 LCD OLinuXino 7TS low cost 7 LCD display with touchscreen component 800 480 LCD OL...

Page 11: ...ss the PWR_BUT 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 integrat...

Page 12: ...bute such a cable Even if you already have such a cable or you decide to purchase it elsewhere it is advisable to check this product page for a reference https www olimex com Products Components Cables USB Serial Cable USB Serial Cable F You need to connect the serial cable lines as follows RX line to UART0 TX pin TX line to UART0 RX pin GND to GND Make sure that the serial cable is connected to y...

Page 13: ...15 pin VGA connector you can either use wires or get a ready adapter called A20 VGA CABLE More information about the video output settings and the usage of video settings script might be found in the next chapter 2 7 Changing the default image resolution 2 6 3 SSH via mini USB cable in Debian The latest official Debian Linux image allows the use the USB_OTG connector for SSH connection without the...

Page 14: ...und in the next chapter 2 7 Changing the default image resolution 2 7 Changing the default image resolution Depending on the display or the screen you want to use with the A20 OlinuXino MICRO you might need to apply software changes to the prebuilt Android or Linux image The typical OlinuXino user would not need to edit the files however To ease the process of changing the resolution we have compi...

Page 15: ... 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 If you decide to edit the configurations yourself the easiest way would be to do it on the board This can be done offline too manipulating the image located on the microSD card via a microSD card reader The tools for script bin changing are located in...

Page 16: ... touchscreen component The 40 pin male connector LCD_CON has the typical 0 1 pin step All Olimex displays have corresponding 40 pin male connector You would only need a 0 1 female female cable for the hardware connection All LCD displays made by Olimex have at least a 0 1 LCD connector Going for an LCD output you would also need need and a cable to attach the display to the board The cable is sold...

Page 17: ... 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 LXDE 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 witho...

Page 18: ... on GPIO usage might be found here http www py6zgp com download A20 GPIO pdf the document was created by Dr Guido Pelz 2 10 I2C and SPI under Debian I2C and SPI are both supported in the latest Debian releases There is respective kernel support for both There is a python module called pyA20 might be found here https pypi python org pypi pyA20 At the same web address you would also find a set of ex...

Page 19: ... 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 so...

Page 20: ...A20 OLINUXINO MICRO BOARD DESCRIPTION 3 Introduction to the chapter Here you get acquainted 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 A20 OLinuXino MICRO board itself 3 1 Layout top view The picture below shows the initial revision of A20 OLinuXino MICRO Please note that the NAND memory i...

Page 21: ...UXINO MICRO 4GB BOARD ARM LINUX SGL A20 4GB Contact us sales integrated circuit com Website www integrated circuit com OLIMEX 2015 A20 OLinuXino MICRO user s manual 3 2 Layout bottom view At the bottom of the board there are mainly buttons and the large SD MMC connector Page 20 of 56 ...

Page 22: ...software support for the features in the processor is at pretty good state thanks to the efforts of the community and Allwinner themselves The full list of features might be found below CPU ARM Cortex A7 Dual Core GPU ARM Mali400MP2 Complies with OpenGL ES 2 0 1 1 VIDEO HD H 264 2160p video decoding Multi format FHD video decoding including Mpeg1 2 Mpeg4 SP ASP GMC H 263 H 264 VP6 8 AVS jizun Jpeg...

Page 23: ...om Website www integrated circuit com OLIMEX 2015 A20 OLinuXino MICRO user s manual AUDIO Integrated HI FI 100dB Audio Codec Dual analog mic amplifiers More information can be found on Allwinner s web site at the following web address http www allwinnertech com en product A20 html 4 2 Block diagram The block diagram is taken from Allwinner s web site Page 22 of 56 ...

Page 24: ...and after the choice is confirmed it is safe to be disconnected from the power supply unit 5 2 Clocks 25 MHz quartz crystal Q1 is connected to pins X1 and X2 of the RTL8201CP Ethernet controller 32 768 Hz RTC quartz crystal Q2 is found at pins F1 and F2 of the A20 microcontroller 24 MHz quartz crystal Q3 is found at pins N22 and N23 of the A20 microcontroller 5 3 Power supply circuit The power sup...

Page 25: ...mmended to own a USB SERIAL CABLE F or similar product at hand when debugging the video output is not always reliable and if you set wrong display settings you might be unable to recover the settings without a proper UART0 connection The more indirect ways of communicating with the board are via peripheral devices mouse and keyboard via a touch screen LCD that is connected on LCD_CON connector and...

Page 26: ... the PhoenixSuit installation path 7 PhoenixSuit will detect the board and would ask for the method of writing the image Choose method of writing the image and confirm your wish to write the image 8 Wait till upgrade succeeds as shown below There are different flavors of the Android and Linux distributions depending on whether you want to use 50Hz HDMI or 60Hz HDMI or VGA or 7 display or 10 displa...

Page 27: ...B SERIAL CABLE F according to the wire color code The RX line of the cable GREEN wire should go to TX line of the target board the TX line of the cable RED wire should go to the RX line of the target board The BLUE wire should go to the target s GND line UART0 Pin Signal name Processor pin 1 3 3V 2 UART0 TX A7 3 UART0 RX B7 4 GND UEXT1 Pin Signal name Pin Signal name 1 3 3V 2 GND 3 UART6 TX 4 UART...

Page 28: ...ata multiplexing lines For instance one of them might be used for booting the OS the other for saving data As a general precaution be careful with the SD cards you purchase There is a big percentage of fake cards due to the low effort required to counterfeit popular brands and the big demand for SD cards worldwide When in doubt try the same operation with another card from another brand Olimex sel...

Page 29: ... used for booting the OS due to the larger capacities of the microSD cards compared to SD or MMC cards It is suggested to have an SD card with a proper Linux Android image especially if you have ordered a version of the board without NAND memory It is also recommended to use Class 10 10MByte sec card for faster read write operations lower class cards especially higher capacity ones might slow down...

Page 30: ...and MMC cards The connector was placed by a popular demand Note that by default this connector is not suitable for booting OS Such support is possible but not implemented in the official software releases SD MMC card connector Pin Connector signal name Wire name processor pin 1 CD DAT3 CS SDC3 D3 B16 2 CMD DI SDC3 CMD A18 3 VSS1 4 VDD 5 CLK SCLK SDC3 CLK B18 6 VSS2 7 DAT0 DO SDC1 D0 A17 8 DAT1 RES...

Page 31: ...out the exact component might be found here https www olimex com wiki PWRJACK You should provide 6 to 16 volts direct current and the required current may vary depending on the peripherals connected to the board The power supply you use should be capable of providing at least 500mA of current Pin Signal name 1 Power input 2 GND More info about the power supply can be found in chapter 5 of this man...

Page 32: ...phone connector also known stereo plug or audio plug The default audio output is set to the HDMI connector for displays and monitors with built in audio speakers If you wish to use audio out you need to first disconnect the HDMI boot the board connect the audio out device speakers and finally connect the HDMI 6 5 USB_OTG connector The part of the schematic related to the USB_OTG is shown below The...

Page 33: ...as a host you would need a mini USB to USB adapter cable Do not confuse micro and mini USB The software part is loading a kernel module responsible for the behavior of the board while in device mode If such software is not enabled or missing in the official distribution you would need respectively either to load the module or rebuild the kernel to enable the module There are several modules that y...

Page 34: ...ch protects the board in case the devices you have plugged to each level USB_HOST try to draw more than the allowed current Please note the pads of capacitors C222 and C223 where you can solder tantalum capacitors 220uF 18V If you do so you would be able to increase the stability of the powering by the USB ports when the powered device has high current consumption The maximum current available on ...

Page 35: ...02 3 802 3u compliant Supports IEEE 802 3u clause 28 1 8V Operation with 3 3V IO signal tolerance and much more The Ethernet connector is grounded according to the standard check GND1 and GND2 lines on the schematics If you use Linux then the Ethernet connector might be used for SSH connection to the board If you lack any other option for debugging it might be hard to guess the correct IP of the b...

Page 36: ...is auto detection enabled and you don t want to use the Ethernet connector or you have forgotten to plug a cable the start up would be greatly delayed This might be problem in the first start up to users counting only on SSH connection You can enable the Ethernet after a successful boot up with ifconfing a dhclient eth as seen after after the ifconfing command Important You can configure static DH...

Page 37: ...e different Linux images depending whether the HDMI TV works at 50Hz or 60Hz refresh rate If you board runs Android there is a specific option to set the appropriate HDMI output HDMI connector Pin Signal name Processor pin Pin Signal name Processor pin 1 HTX2P T23 11 GND 2 GND 12 HTXCN W22 3 HTX2N T22 13 HCEC P23 4 HTX1P U23 14 NA NA 5 GND 15 HSCL R23 6 HTX1N U22 16 HSDA R22 7 HTX0P U23 17 GND 8 G...

Page 38: ...ve to change the script under Debian as explained in chapter 2 6 Calibrating a display Please note that you would need a specific Android image for the VGA output with proper display and output settings We don t provide such image ready at the moment The VGA output has been tested only with the official Debian Linux image so far and it works fine after selecting the proper mode by executing change...

Page 39: ...les integrated circuit com Website www integrated circuit com OLIMEX 2015 A20 OLinuXino MICRO user s manual 6 10 SATA connector and power The part of the schematic describing the SATA module is shown below SATA connector Pin Signal name Processor pin 1 GND 2 SATA TXP T20 3 SATA TXM T21 4 GND 5 SATA RXM U21 6 SATA RXP U20 7 GND Page 38 of 56 ...

Page 40: ...in Signal name Processor pin Pin Signal name Processor pin 1 5V 2 GND 3 3 3V 4 GND 5 PG0 F20 6 VOL _BUT AB23 7 PG1 E21 8 VOL _BUT AB23 9 PG2 E20 10 MENU_BUT AB23 11 PG3 D21 12 SEARCH_BUT AB23 13 PG4 D20 14 HOME_BUT AB23 15 PG5 C21 16 ESC_BUT AB23 17 PG6 E19 18 ENTER_BUT AB23 19 PG7 C20 20 TVOUT3 AB17 21 PG8 D19 22 TVIN0 AC18 23 PG9 C19 24 TVIN1 AB18 25 PG10 D18 26 TVIN2 AA17 27 PG11 C18 28 TVIN3 Y...

Page 41: ...in Signal name Processor pin GPIO pin Signal name Processor pin 1 5V 2 GND 3 3 3V 4 GND 5 TWI0 SCK A15 6 PE0 E23 7 TWI0 SDA B15 8 PE1 E22 9 PI0 A20 10 PE2 D23 11 PI1 B20 12 PE3 D22 13 PI2 A19 14 PE4 C23 15 PI3 B19 16 PE5 C22 17 PI10 C17 18 PE6 B23 19 PI11 D17 20 PE7 B22 21 PC3 NCE1 L22 22 PE8 A23 23 PC7 NRB1 J22 24 PE9 A22 25 PC16 M21 26 PE10 B21 27 PC17 F23 28 PE11 A21 29 PC18 F22 30 PI14 C15 31 ...

Page 42: ... C3 18 PB10 C11 19 PH13 A2 20 PB11 C10 21 PH14 B2 22 PB12 C9 23 PH15 A1 24 PB13 B11 25 PH16 B1 26 PB14 A10 27 PH17 C1 28 PB15 B10 29 PH18 C2 30 PB16 A9 31 PH19 D1 32 PB17 B9 33 PH20 D2 34 PH24 E3 35 PH21 D3 36 PH25 E4 37 PH22 E1 38 PH26 F3 39 PH23 E2 40 PH27 F4 Signals marked with are multiplexed with either a peripheral device or another connector Ensure that the multiplexing is handled properly ...

Page 43: ...he JTAG should be enabled by default but you might also edit the script bin fex file that contains special JTAG part Please check here http linux sunxi org Fex_Guide 5Bjtag_para 5D the jtag_para part The real issue would be finding piece of software that has Allwinner A20 support The sunxi community has some experimental configuration files for A10 and A13 boards I believe but they were never test...

Page 44: ... 3 3V 4 GND 5 LCD_D16 Y12 6 LCD_D17 AA12 7 LCD_D18 Y11 8 LCD_D19 AA11 9 LCD_D20 Y10 10 LCD_D21 AA10 11 LCD_D22 AB12 12 LCD_D23 AC10 13 LCD_D8 AB11 14 LCD_D9 AC11 15 LCD_D10 Y15 16 LCD_D11 AA15 17 LCD_D12 Y14 18 LCD_D13 AA14 19 LCD_D14 Y13 20 LCD_D15 AA13 21 LCD_D0 AB15 22 LCD_D1 AC15 23 LCD_D2 AB14 24 LCD_D3 AC14 25 LCD_D4 AB13 26 LCD_D5 AC13 27 LCD_D6 AB12 28 LCD_D7 AC12 29 LCD_HSYNC AB9 30 LCD_V...

Page 45: ... operating system NAND flash In Debian Linux you would need to start a start a shell script to change the built in the image resolution settings Start it with change_display_A20_OLinuXino sh and follow the instructions Please refer to chapter 2 5 Changing the default image resolution for more details 6 13 Jumper description Please note that most the jumpers on the board are SMT type If you feel in...

Page 46: ...6M x 16b DDR3 SDRAM the exact memory used currently in the board is SAMSUNG K4B4G1646D BCK0 The DDR3 memory part name in the schematic might be outdated We have used a number of different but fully compatible DDR3 memories due to supply unavailability It is always recommended to check the exact memory name printed on the component itself 4GB 1 32Gb 4096M x 8b NAND FLASH only available on the 4GB v...

Page 47: ... boards are the same since the two Allwinner processors are pin to pin compatible drop in replaceable This means that schematics for older hardware revisions of A20 OLinuXino MICRO can be found in the GitHub folder for A10 OLinuXino MICRO Both the 4GB version and the version without NAND of the A20 MICRO share the same set of schematics We mostly use Eagle by Cad Soft 4 16r2 for designing However ...

Page 48: ...ebsite www integrated circuit com OLIMEX 2015 A20 OLinuXino MICRO user s manual 7 2 Physical dimensions Note that all dimensions are in mils The three highest elements on the board in order from the tallest to the shortest are USB_HOST connector 700mils capacitors C202 650mils the Ethernet connector 600mils The heights listed above include the PCB height Page 47 of 56 ...

Page 49: ...A 30 08 13 Initial manual release All B 16 09 13 1 Quartz values error fixed 2 Updated the board revision changes 15 16 C 18 09 13 1 Added new additional products 2 Added more information about the SD card booting 9 43 D 30 09 13 1 Added few suggestions for USB boot 2 Added more information about power saving mode before complete Android booting 9 E 02 10 13 1 Added more information about display ...

Page 50: ...dded GPIO I2C and SPI sections 3 Added information about newer Olimex A20 boards boards 4 Added board revision G changes 5 Fixed few spelling mistakes 3 13 14 34 35 36 37 44 K 30 01 2015 1 Updated list of suggested displays 2 Fixed error about the power jack 8 27 46 L 09 02 2015 Fixed information about the CMOS TTL convertor 21 M 10 02 2015 Added chapter 2 6 Interacting with the board 11 N 16 02 2...

Page 51: ...V_PWR_SATA is added 9 The micro SD card connector is changed D Resistor optimizations E 1 Adjusted and optimized the position of PCB names 2 R16 changed from 237R to 330R for stability purposes 3 R7 R9 also changed from 237R to 330R for stability purposes 4 R41 and R104 changed from 1k 1 to 390R for better sync signal and to improve the VGA signal allowing it to work at FullHD F 1 Added 10M resist...

Page 52: ...NI CABLE standard USB type A to USB type mini cable A20 VGA CABLE adapter from 6 pin connector to standard 15 pin VGA one SY0612E reliable power supply adapter 50Hz for EU 12V 0 5A for A20 OLinuXino MICRO SY0612E CHINA cheaper power supply adapter 50Hz for EU 12V 0 5A for A20 OLinuXino MICRO A20 Android SD a tested class 10 micro SD card with the latest by the time of leaving the Olimex facilities...

Page 53: ...USB hub you are using plug the USB cable directly to the back of your personal computer check the USB cable 4 The board might 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_BUT 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 A20 board A To w...

Page 54: ... official Debian Linux A Do you want a custom video resolution output Do you need a different port definition Do you need to change the hardware defitions of the board It is explained above in the manual But you can also visit this wiki article wiki article Q How to edit board configurations and definitions in the official Android images A There is a wiki article about that please visit wiki artic...

Page 55: ...s the case you can follow the exact steps as for Linux e g using Win32 Disk Imager or dd command In order to prepare a microSD card with a native Android you will need a software tool called PhoenixSuit and then Install and run PhoenixSuit Go to the firmware tab of the program and point to a valid Android image note that the images on Gdrive are compressed and you have to extract them to img files...

Page 56: ...15 A20 OLinuXino MICRO user s manual Android will go in sleep mode and you have to press POWER button to start it you can change to fast boot when you power off there is dialog box asking you if you want next boot to be fast boot you have to check this box before you power off Also note that you must do touch screen calibration when you run Android for very first time which might require a mouse P...

Page 57: ...chandise After such time all sales are considered final Returns of incorrect 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 item...

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