Hondo's Cabin - Print Page

Hondo's Cabin
http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/YaBB.pl
The Cabin >> Raspberry and Other Pies >> Orange Pi Zero - Worth It?
http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1482783315

Message started by Fernando on Dec 26^th, 2016, 3:15pm

Title: Orange Pi Zero - Worth It?
Post by Fernando on Dec 26^th, 2016, 3:15pm

Interesting Video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzxLYGWQddA

The problem is with the lack of support for the Orange Pi systems by the company, not just the O-Pi Zero. As stated in the video and many places I need, the makers of the O-Pi are rather more interested in creating a PC Board than supporting the ones they got.

For its price, the O-Pi Zero is hard to beat though the lack of video (more details below) can be an issue if one does not SSH to the device remotely. For $6.99 (for the 256MB Model and $8.99 for the 512MB model) it is hard to beat. But the system has lot of power that is not being exploited. Imagine as he stated 180-something pin GPIO? That is a lot of power! Only the Arduino Mega256 has 64 pin GPIO and that's is a micro-controller!

http://www.orangepi.org/orangepizero/

$8.99 512MB version
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/New-Orange-Pi-Zero-H2-Quad-Core-Open-source-512MB-development-board-beyond-Raspberry-Pi/1553371_32761500374.html

$6.99 256MB version
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/New-Orange-Pi-Zero-H2-Quad-Core-Open-source-development-board-beyond-Raspberry-Pi/1553371_32760774493.html

As is, it beats the pants off the $5 R-Pi Zero for just a couple dollars more. Its square shape board makes it look like it is larger then the R-Pi 0 but it is actually smaller.

As seen with the R-Pi Model A and A+, one can run a GUI with 256MB. More RAM is better, but you get the option of both 256MB or the 512MB on the O-Pi zero. But like the R-Pi Zero, you need to solder a GPIO header to the board if you want to use the GPIO. It already has a 13 pin Expansion but where another USB port, IR (Infrared) Com port, Audio and Composite Video port is at, and you can buy an expansion board to get those things out or you can wire up your own; the expansion board is $1.99

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/New-Orange-Pi-Zreo-Expansion-board-Interface-board-Development-board-beyond-Raspberry-Pi/1553371_32770665186.html

Its Quad Core CPU runs at 1.2GHz, beats the R-Pi Zero and even the R-Pi 3! The NanoPi Neo is comparable to it for $1 more, and is very similar in design to the O-Pi Zero.

http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=69&product_id=132

Both are great as headless servers or for robotics. Either way Under $10, they can't be beat. Its just many would find the lack of Video output cumbersome. These boards are not the the Newbie User. For that they should go to the R-Pi system. These board are a bit more sophisticated and require a higher skill set than an average desktop user.

The video is interesting and very informative. The problem I find with it is its low audio.

Title: Re: Orange Pi Zero - Worth It?
Post by Hondo I. Sackett on Dec 26^th, 2016, 9:26pm

Nice!

Title: Re: Orange Pi Zero - Worth It?
Post by Fernando on Dec 27^th, 2016, 12:02pm

I rushed that last post, so I fixed the typoes in it.

I also forgot to say:

You can get the Armbian for the O-Pi system, and for this O-Pi Zero; there is a Text/Console version of it that is perfect to run for robotics or as a headless server, more so for the 256MB version.

The 256MB version can run a Windows GUI system like the Model A/A+ Raspberry Pies do as they also have 256MB. But without video, you do not really need a GUI since you can telnet/SSH to it. I have seen though, on some systems running as a headless server with a GUI and being accessed through VNC. This might work on these systems without Video Output, as their AllWinner CPUs does have video in it.

In comparing the O-Pi Zero to the NanoPi Neo; the Neo does not have Wifi, the O-Pi Zero does. You can give the Neo Wifi through a USB Wifi adapter, that is pretty cheap but it takes away your USB Port.

Though the O-Pi Zero has Ethernet, it is turned off in the system's configuration and needs to be activated. This is not an issue with Armbian, but it with the O-Pi Raspbian system; though it is a quick and easy fix by changing a couple commands in the system's configuration file. With the NanoPi Neo, Ethernet is always on.

Both have a Serial Debug Port where one can plug in their PC and have immediate Console access to it. It is great to see how the system is booting and making changes to the config files directly with needing to know IP numbers and ports. Strangely, the NanoPi sells a TTL to Serial adapter to connect to this port, the O-Pi does not but one can use this NeoPi adapter on the O-P as I can see the pins are set the same. As seen, the adapter can be used on any of their system that has the Debug Port. They claim that one can use it on the R-Pi but the R-Pies do not have a debug port, one would have to pull out of the serial port from GPIO and turn it on through the config file. The adapter costs about $4.

http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=89

Linux, like UNIX, works best with 1GB or more of RAM. It works great with smaller RAM footprints like these units have. For me the bring back the old days of programming in that you need to write your programs as small as possible, not that one would exceed 256MB of RAM or even 512MB of RAM with their programs. For example, it one dares to write a search engine (or take out that is out there and convert to run on these systems), the database for the search engine will take up GIGs of storage space, and a hard drive is too slow to access this information! But on a Solid State system or a RAM Disk, this would be a lot faster but the RAM limitation of these boards makes it an issue so that you're stuck with the slower SSD. Creating a RAM Disk inside Linux is quite simple and easy. I'll post up a How To guide as soon as I get my information together.

Title: Re: Orange Pi Zero - Worth It?
Post by Hondo I. Sackett on Dec 27^th, 2016, 11:16pm

More good info. Will be waiting for the next post