[Arm-netbook] EOMA-68 Boots Android and plays youtube videos very well

Sat Aug 31 18:10:43 BST 2013

On Sat, Aug 31, 2013 at 11:42 AM, joem <joem at martindale-electric.co.uk>wrote:

> I am following this:
> http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner/a20/boot/
>
> But nothing went to plan.
>
> First off advise: don't plug in the micro USB lead unless you know
> what you really want!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> 2nd bit of advise, you don't need the RS232 USB converter
> just yet.
>
> 3rd bit of advise,
> you do need a micro HDMI cable - there are three sizes - standard,
> mini HDMI and micro HDMI - you want the micro HDMI.
> You do need a 4 port USB port expander.
> Additionally mouse, keyboard, USB ethernet adapter.
> And you need plenty of amps rated well regulated 5V supply.
>
> I started with hardware advise
> given in http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner/a20/boot/
>
> I short circuited D1, cut D2 (not mentioned, but I recommend),
> cut R2 and soldered a wire
> from pin 1 to pin 11 under the ethernet socket.
> These pins under the ethernet socket
> are the 1st and last pins of the 11 pin ethernet socket.
>

I added a SPST Switch in place of D1 to help isolate it, just incase. as
well as an LED at D2.

>
> There were signs of shorts on the PCMCIA edge connector
> due to what looks like manual soldering.
> So I ran a Bernstein 5-054 fine tipped tweezer along the ridges
> of suspicious pins until no more metal particles would come out.
> I didn't use any force, or that will do damage.
> I had a good set of eye loops and bright lights to
> check the progress of the cleaning.
>
> Then I started following the next set of advise
> at http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner/a20/boot/ and ran into
> all kinds of problems straight away.
>
> What was happening was soon discovered when I saw
> a power LED lit on my power supply (despite power supply
> being off!!!!!!!!!!!)
>
> Because there are no LEDs on the MEB or the EOMA card,
> the state of the power reaching the MEB and EOMA is unknowable,
> and because of that it is not possible to know how
> far the EOMA has booted and what state it is in at any
> one time.
>
> Merely connecting the micro USB connector will power
> up the EOMA AND THE MEB and NOW YOU ARE IN TROUBLE
> because the device is booting and doing things you
> did not expect (like chocking on 500mA restricted
> power supply of the USB and then crashing).
>
> So the first thing I did was disconnect the micro USB
> cable and bin it before doing anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> And if you are an engineer solder an LED to the MEB,
> and if you are competent at soldering then solder,
> an SMT LED to the EOMA-68 as well so that you can
> know when its powering up and doing things you don't expect.
>
>
You can fit a 1206 LED to

> Now when I switch the power supply on and off, the
> CPU was properly being power cycled.
> And then I saw the RS232 kick into life properly.
>
> A word of advise if you do not understand how these RS232
> devices work - connect only RS232 TX, RX and GND lines
> from the device to the EOMA-68. That is JUST 3 CABLES ONLY

This might not be true for ALL devices, if using a Nokia DKU-5 Legit cable,
it is looking for a 3.3V INPUT to power the AT76C711 USB-Serial device.
Luckily it is 5v tolerant, and was able to be connected to Pins 40-44.
(RX,TX,GND,PWR). Just to be sure, I did test to make sure power was not
being supplied from the wire on the cable.

> .
>
> DO NOT CONNECT THE POWER LINE from RS232 to EOMA!!!!!!!
> The RS232 device gets its power from USB and does not need it.
>
> You don't need to hold down key 2 to see RS232 boot logs
> flying past as the EOMA boots.
>
> After a while I realize these messages meant
> the EOMA had Android on it already
> and it was that that was generating all these
> messages and it was trying to boot!
>
> So naturally a monitor was connected and sure enough
> after a few seconds the monitor came up.
> Within a minute it would go down and never come back
> up again without power cycling.
>
> So I connected a wireless keyboard and mouse dongle
> to the single USB socket on the MEB, and then when
> the Android booted, I could move the mouse.
> I finally figured out I had to click on the central
> lock icon and drag it to the periphery and drop it
> there to unlock the start screen.
> And then I was booted into Android Chinese default edition.
>
> Here is silent video that shows how to change from default Chinese language
> to English language. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_LR5mFGDsw
>
> Also go to setting and then display and set font size to small
> and set how long before screen blanks out
> due to inactivity to 30 minutes (max available).
> If screen does go blank, there doesn't seem to be any
> way of reviving it back into life other than hard boot.
> The people who supplied the Android need to fix that.
>
>

> The internal SDCard and MEB Ethernet does not work
> from Android. Again the people who supplied the Android
> need to fix that.

I have managed to get a running Android installation working with ETH, and
resume on keypress, unfortunately, it's not using completely GPL'd  sources
and so I don't want to distribute it.

> However adding a good quality 4 port USB port expander works.
> Do not bother with low quality rubbish 4 port dongles.
> Check with someone it supports high speed USB properly
> otherwise the remaining experiments will not work.
>
> Agreed

> I attached a mouse and keyboard dongle,
> a USB ethernet dongle, and USB storage.
> USB storage was readable and I could play
> 720p video without any jitter thanks to power
> of a dual core A20 in the EOMA.
> The USB ethernet also worked - I went into settings
> and device, and then enabled the ethernet.
>
> I could then use Chrome and watch youtube.
>
> The 5V supply was 20A rated, so there were no
> power issues with all these devices attached.
>
>
>
I can also confirm this works, and I have managed to run the cards for 4
days non-stop without failure. Playing two full-length movies in between
for the kids, with integrated ETH.

>
> HEY LUKE!!
> THIS BE FULLY WORKING ANDROID GADGET YOU CAN SELL!!
>
>

> I mean all you you have to do is put the EOMA-68
> and MEB in a box, add a USB port expander and
> to that add the ethernet dongle and a wifi dongle
> and leave 2 USB sockets for keyboard and mouse
> one hole for the power and its a product!!!!
>
> $$$
>
> Profit!!
>
>
I/We/various individuals were organizing a Crowdfunding campaign for this
very reason. :)  However, changes to the MEB and EOMA-68 A20 card should be
made first.  But even with the current EOMA-68 and MEBs, the project now
qualified for Kickstarter's and Indiegogo's requirements for a "functional
prototype".

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-- 
Christopher Thomas
Firemoth Industries, LLC - Owner
christopher at firemothindustries.com
214-458-5990
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