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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : (DM) OLINUXINO - DuinoMite on steroids
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| Olimex Senior Member  Joined: 02/10/2011 Location: BulgariaPosts: 226 |
We started the iMX233 project, the name is OLINUXINO as it will run Linux natively. The goal is EUR 30 single board linux computer. This is complete open source, open hardware project which is to be hosted on GitHub . The specs are: - iMX233 454Mhz ARM9 processor - 64MB of RAM - 2 USB hosts - 1 100MB Ethernet port - composive Video 640x480 pixels, color, with PXP graphics accelerator for picture manipulations - micro SD card for boot and disk storage - headphones stereo DAC with 99dB SNR - linear input stereo ADC with 85dB SNR - UEXT connector - 31 GPIOs for interfacing including UART,SPI,I2C,PWMs Although this board will run Linux there is possibility DM-BASIC to be ported on it and pre-estimated this MCU should run about 1 Million Basic instructions per second, with 64MB RAM available for applications. The very preliminary schematic is uploaded on GitHub, the goal is next week to have complete schematic and routed board and in 2 weeks prototypes for the developers. |
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djuqa Guru  Joined: 23/11/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 447 |
Woohoo I want one! Sounds Fantastic Another amazing design project from OLIMEX! VK4MU MicroController Units |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3801 |
I like the idea (speed, RAM, cost etc)! I'm finding the schematic really hard to read due to the light grey (is it grey?). Making it much darker - say black - would be a huge improvement. Is this the i.MX233 from freescale? The one here http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?co de=i.MX233 ? I'm guessing the "Future changes is read!!!" should be "... red!!!". No JTAG? No CAN? Just POWER and one user LEDs? I stopped here, sorry, just tired eyes with the light grey :( John |
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| Olimex Senior Member Joined: 02/10/2011 Location: BulgariaPosts: 226 |
you can view the schematic with Eagle, and the PDF is also ZOOM-able the schematic is very very preliminary, it's work in progress but there are already few people who show interest to take part in the software development so I decided to put all day by day progress on the schematic and board and at same time to discuss these on yahoo group I created for this purpose there must be DCDC on the input to allow wider power supply 6-16V for instance and etc, this is why this note is written :) iMX233 is from Freescale indeed chip which probably was built for Apple iPod back in 2009 as it have very nice Audio codecs inside and LiPo battery management. no need for JTAG you have console and can cross-compile on the board |
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Bill.b Senior Member Joined: 25/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 226 |
If your looking for a very small PC equivelent..... and is only AU$32.00 The Raspberry Pi is a single-board computer developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video. The design is based around a Broadcom BCM2835 SoC, which includes an ARM1176JZF-S 700 MHz processor, VideoCore IV GPU, and 128 or 256 Megabytes of RAM. The design does not include a built-in hard disk or solid-state drive, instead relying on an SD card for booting and long-term storage. This board is intended to run Linux kernel based operating systems. The foundation plans to release two versions; Model A & Model B. Model A will have 128 Megabytes (MB) RAM memory, one USB port and no Ethernet controller, while model B will contain 256MB RAM memory, two USB ports and a 10/100 Ethernet controller. Though the Model A doesn't have an RJ45 Ethernet port, it can connect to a network by using a user supplied USB Ethernet or Wi-Fi adapter. As typical of modern computers, generic USB keyboards and mice are compatible with the Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi use Linux-kernel based operating systems. Debian GNU/Linux, Iceweasel, Calligra Suite and Python are planned to be bundled with the Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi does not come with a real-time clock, so an OS must use a network time server, or ask the user for time information at boot time to get access to time and date info for file time and date stamping. However a real time clock (such as the DS1307) with battery backup can be easily added via the I2C interface. On February 19, 2012 the Raspberry Pi Foundation released its first proof of concept SD Card image that can be loaded onto an SD Card to produce a preliminary operating system. The image is based upon Debian 6.0 (Squeeze), with the LXDE desktop and the Midori browser, plus various programming tools. The image can also run on QEMU allowing the Raspberry Pi to be emulated on various other platforms. The Raspberry Pi Foundation plans to release a version of Fedora later. Learning Center Features Model A Model B SoC Broadcom BCM2835 (CPU, GPU, DSP, and SDRAM) CPU: 700 MHz ARM1176JZF-S core (ARM11 family) GPU: Broadcom VideoCore IV, OpenGL ES 2.0, 1080p30 h.264/MPEG-4 AVC high-profile decoder Memory (SDRAM): 128 Megabytes (shared with GPU) 256 Megabytes (shared with GPU) USB 2.0 ports: 1 2 (via integrated USB hub) Video outputs: Composite RCA, HDMI Audio outputs: 3.5 mm jack, HDMI Onboard storage: SD, MMC, SDIO card slot Onboard network: None 10/100 Ethernet (RJ45) Low-level peripherals: 8 × GPIO, UART, I²C bus, SPI bus with two chip selects, +3.3 V, +5 V, Ground Power ratings: 500 mA (2.5 W) 700 mA (3.5 W) Power source: 5 volt via MicroUSB or GPIO header Size: 85.60 × 53.98 mm (3.370 × 2.125 in) Operating Systems: Debian GNU/Linux, Fedora, Arch Linux 
In the interests of the environment, this post has been constructed entirely from recycled electrons. |
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| ArtBecker Regular Member  Joined: 25/08/2011 Location: PhilippinesPosts: 47 |
A lot has changed with Raspberry Pi (RPi) over the past week, though the bottom line is that they continue to be unavailable for purchase, and nobody knows when they will be available. There appears to be massive interest, yet it remains to be seen if any will actually be manufactured after the initial run of 10K. The RPi Org spends more time promising, and explaining away, than they do in answering actual questions from potential customers. Their product "launch" was not even a launch at all. While I would love to see Olimex produce an ARM board capable of running Linux, there are lots of questions remaining I would like to see answered. And it's a good thing that Olimex has such a great reputation in this regard. Quite frankly, RPi Org's reputation is nowhere near as good, when it comes to honest answers. Olimex hardware has always looked to be first rate. I have a Duinomite Mega and am very happy with it. But I wonder about the most obvious differences between the Olinuxidno and the RPi. I know almost nothing about ARM processors, and for a long time didn't even understand which version RPi was using. Some said ARM5, some said ARM6, others said ARM11, and I guess the final answer is either "ARM11 ARMv6," or "ARM11(ARMv6)." The only way this matters, as far as I can tell, is that Ubuntu Linux won't run under anything less than ARMv7. The RPi has 256 MB RAM, and HDMI video (and no VGA, since the chip doesn't support it), while the Olinuxidno has only 64 MB RAM and no HD. Both have composite video. The RPi uses standard SD cards only, and micro SD is said to be incompatible, while the Olinuxino uses only micro SD. It really looks like the Olinuxino needs more RAM. RPi Org said that Fedora Linux was their official software, but the actual version was only made available to the public in the past day, since it hadn't been finished yet. How could it not be finished, and yet still be the official distro? Out of personal interest, I installed the Debian Linux distro to an SD card, and that installed fine, under Windows, mainly due to the wonderful video tutorial that was available. The remaining free space on the SD card can be made available, using GParted, and another excellent video. The next distro, Arch, apparently won't install, using the previous technique. The RPi Org is strangely quiet about this. Then the "official" Fedora distro was made available, mainly via an installer, and that worked fine, once you got past a few quirks. We can only assume these distros will work, though we need the actual RPi to tell for sure. The biggest problem with the Duinomite Mega has been software. Lots of people continue to be confused as to which version does what, and there is no need to go into that. But it does raise the question of which distro Olinuxino will use, and will we end up having the same software version and capability confusion? Who will write or compile the Olinuxino distro? Shirely Ken is already busy enough as it is. There obviously needs to be a good Linux .img available for download. The RPi boots only from the SD card, as does the Olinuxino. The Olinuxino is a (single program at a time) computer, rather than a microcontroller. Processor speed for browsing web pages, or writing documents, is less of an issue, as is having features like CAN support. As for price, the RPi Org has been misleading about that. Their slogan remains to be a Linux computer for $25, but that isn't the case at all. The $25 version might never get built, and the $35 version ends up costing a minimum of $20 more than that. In fact, the first price that RS had listed for the Philippines made the board cost $60. The Farnell price is $55, or more, for shipping here, even though both companies have offices in Manila. While so many people on the RPi forums talk about their displeasure with Farnell and RS, and claim they will take their business elsewhere, even with tens of thousands of orders, at such a small profit margin, I can't imagine either company worrying about this too much. In fact, I continue to wonder if any more RPi boards will be made after this first 10K batch, no matter how much the demand. I know of several companies whose first product run was an overwhelming success, but who couldn't follow through with a second run (-- profit margins not being high enough, and overhead eating up all of that -- inability to get bank loans, in spite of massive orders on hand, and so on). Olimex is in a better position to succeed, since they are the developer, producer, distributor, and a retail seller. Certainly they aren't going to replace specified components with inferior ones, as did the Chinese factory with the RPi RJ-45 jacks. |
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| Olimex Senior Member Joined: 02/10/2011 Location: BulgariaPosts: 226 |
this reminds me for a nasty joke I read on Beagle Board forum: Customer: How much is a BeagleBone? Seller: 89 dollars. C: 89 dollars! But a Raspberry Pi is only $35! S: So why don't you buy a Raspberry Pi, then? C: They're out of stock. S: Well, if BeagleBones were out of stock, they'd be only $30! RPi have very nice idea and I wish them to succeed with the implementation but it seems they have no any manufacturing experience and they found the hard way that the road from prototype to production is not easy. I was amazed to read that they "found" that the Chinese manufacturer exchanged the LAN connector when they received the first batch of boards in UK. What is this? Do they intended to sell boards which are NOT TESTED? How such boards left the factory in first place and were shipped without complete functional tests? This is pure example that they lack any experience. Somewhere else I wrote that just to make complete functional automatic tester which to load the linux images and functionally test the boards in UK will cost them conservatively betweek 100 and 250K GBP so they are GBP10-25 in their price just if they want their product to be sold tested. to manufacture 10K boards is not same as to manufacture 10 prototypes and sell them on ebay for 1000 GBP ;) now they made the first correct move since they started this project -> let the manufacturing to professional companies like Farnell and RS who deal with CMS in China for years, so no doubt these boards will be manufactured |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3801 |
Freescale include a link to Linux for their CPU on its web pages, so will it be that which is provided? I tend to agree it'll need more than 64MB. Ubuntu is becoming irrelevant since their recent moves (well, not so recent). I know lots of people who've dropped it and almost no-one who's stayed with it. I can't see the point of a schematic PDF that's unreadable and people need to use Eagle instead. I did zoom the PDF and it was still terrible to read. Until RPi is readily available I suggest not comparing features. It may be months... I think CAN is needed on the Olinuxino. With jumper pins (not solder bridge etc) for CAN terminator. Cross-compiling is OK (not much fun, but OK). It's the debugging that many find dire, which is where JTAG is useful (despite its pain). John |
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| Olimex Senior Member Joined: 02/10/2011 Location: BulgariaPosts: 226 |
Freescale Linux kernel 2.6.31 image is available, we will try to build more decent kernel |
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darthmite Senior Member Joined: 20/11/2011 Location: FrancePosts: 240 |
Huh !?! Every tell me to made my games in VGA and now you made a board with composite video ! Joke apart , i look at the schematic and it seems that this board will be portable due to the LCD connector, it must be a TFT one with the 16bits data port i have see 
What will be the colour depth for graphics ? And when are you made my Space invaders in Colour ? 
Keep the good work on this m8 , in this time i try to finish my next game
Cheers. Theory is when we know everything but nothing work ... Practice is when everything work but no one know why ;) |
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| Olimex Senior Member Joined: 02/10/2011 Location: BulgariaPosts: 226 |
Chumby is made with iMX233 640x480 8 bit color you can see image quality is not bad this composite is not generated as Maximite composite ;) |
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| aargee Senior Member Joined: 21/08/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 255 |
What's Linux?
</Smirking cynicism - on/> The goal is to have the most powerful board that can blink a led! But at least I can calculate Pi to four million decimal places between blinks! OK, let's have some ideas for backyard shed applications for these baby monsters, are we getting to the stage of faster and faster for the sake of it? It seems like the embedded designs that these products will/are catering for will be doing what, exactly? </Smirking cynicism - off/> - Rob. For crying out loud, all I wanted to do was flash this blasted LED. |
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| djuqa Guru Joined: 23/11/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 447 |
The Rasberry Pi in the SKY team suffers from the same problem a lot of projects suffer from. No commercial / industrial experience. Their pricing was based on a Bill of Materials without factoring in Production Costs, Delivery times, warranty provisions and all the other problems that manufacturing entails. RS & Farnell have taken on a difficult task and most likely can't sustain the unrealistic LOW prices quoted for initial deliveries. Olimex, However are a PROFESSIONAL company run by PROFESSIONALS, who will supply & support this amazing new product at an amazing, but realistic viable price. The Duinomite / Pinguino boards cater to a different niche anyway to the LINUXFanboi focused Raspberry Pi. VK4MU MicroController Units |
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vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
Thumbs up! Well, as for backyard shed applications, maybe a faster 3D printer, an autonomous(loading g-code from the SD-Card) CNC Router (still, this can be done with a Sanguino like board), maybe a ... can't remember now, a self balanced two wheels vehicle (something to follow a herd of cows?), a 1W laser plotter (brilliant for making PCB's), an automated chicken farm (still overkill), what else? Home automation, car computer? Something to be useful and/or ready to produce some money to worth the time and money investment. Not much, anyway... P.S. I'm not trying to be ironical, I'm also living at countryside. Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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| DuinoMiteMegaAn Senior Member Joined: 17/11/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 231 |
I find it so amusing that once one vendor jumps into the fray and comes out with a very low cost Ethernet connected Linux microcontroller (Rasberry PI) another competitor jumps into the fray (Olimex iMX233) after seeing the Internet response from the Rasberry PI. This is very good for the end user BUT both vendors have to realize by having just the hardware won't cut it. Now days, software is the key, that's why the Arduino has been so popular over the years. Having incomplete, beta, bug ridden software will kill any hardware no matter how good it performs. That's why I like the MaxiMite hardware along with the rock solid software of MMBasic (thanks Geoffg) and it just plain works! |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3801 |
Er, it doesn't just work - see the posts about bugs - but it may work well enough for what you want. Please explain how you know that Olimex did what you say. John |
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| DuinoMiteMegaAn Senior Member Joined: 17/11/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 231 |
Er, it doesn't just work - see the posts about bugs
All software has bugs. But considering the amount of bugs "the other clone maker" has then MMBasic is light years ahead of DMBasic. Having bought this clone 6 months ago (a very big mistake and a total waste of money) and not having an official firmware release since then tells you alot about state in which this clone's firmware has progressed or should I say degraded. 
but it may work well enough for what you want
MMBasic works fine with no major complaints.
Please explain how you know that Olimex did what you say.
Just read the links about what Olimex had to say about the Rasberry PI - its quite obvious like the nose on your face! Then mysteriously Olimex decided to design and create their own "clone" of Rasberry PI. Olimex is great in manufacturing quality hardware products BUT when it comes to the software for their manufactured products they are very deficient. Software is the key in any hardware design. The Arduino proves this hands down. |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3801 |
You're mixing up after and before. Olimex were designing the board before the comments about the rpi weren't they? Surely you would use MMBasic 3.x with the DM as it is then what you appear to want. Right? John |
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crackerjack Senior Member Joined: 11/07/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 164 |
I have to chime in on this one though I usually avoid entering the fray unless there is something of value to be added. I too have abandoned DM on my Duinomite opting to run MMBasic 3.1 and forego some IO. This is because DMBasic (as it may be called) is poorly documented and seems to have no real source control. Aside from that, new keywords, menu options and features pop in and out with frequency and I can't keep track of it all in the documentation void. Olimex can hardly be at fault; DMBasic is an open source project based on (mainly) Geoff's codebase. So as Open Source we should ask , "How can I help?". |
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| robarino Newbie  Joined: 15/03/2012 Location: SwedenPosts: 24 |
Could not agree more. The duinomite/pinguino have the opportunity to be real Arduino competitors. The problem is with the documentation for the boards and the presentation. I have owned a pinguino for three days and I just cannot get the ide to load the files. My boxes refuse to accept the drivers....I have just given up and now I have a pinguino just sitting collecting dust. The duinomite is far better documented thanks to an unnamed person. I believe that Olimex has some great products and they are certainly friendly enough but they absolutely need to slow down and work on the documentations and presentation of their products. Start with the Olimex website and then create two product specific well organized and proofread sites. Copy the arduino site if you must it is like a breath of fresh air. |
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