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The Cabin >> Raspberry and Other Pies >> Found A Very Odd Pi: The pcDuino4 Nano.
http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1494459796

Message started by Fernando on May 10^th, 2017, 7:43pm

Title: Found A Very Odd Pi: The pcDuino4 Nano.
Post by Fernando on May 10^th, 2017, 7:43pm

pcDuino is better known for their Arduino cloned boards and kits which are a big hit due to their low prices, lower than SainSmart, lower than AdaFruit (which can be very expensive themselves). But sometime last year with the help of a company called LinkSprite, they made the jump to the Pi Market and released 8 pcDuino Pies: The pcDuino4 Nano, The pcDuino3 Uno, The pcDuino3 Nano, The pcDuino3, The pcDuino1 Lite, The pcDuino1 Lite Wifi, The pcDuino1, and The pcDuino2.
http://www.linksprite.com/linksprite-pcduino/

From what I hear, it has not been a very successful venture. I found The pcDuino4 Nano in the clearance bin of MicroCenter for under $20, there were two of them so I picked one of them up. There’s another one in the clearance bin and is nobody picks it up by the end of the week, I’ll go pick it up.

“Interesting” is what I have to say. It is very much like an O-Pi 0, O-Pi Lite and O-Pi PC on a tiny O-Pi 0 like board. It uses Debian Linux, so I am guessing that there is a version of Armbian for it somewhere. It uses the Quad Core H3 CPU. And it is on a White PC Board, like their pcDuinoes (Arduino clones).

Specification

SoC – Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 @ 1.2 GHz with an ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU up to 600 MHz
System Memory – 1GB DDR3 SDRAM
Storage – micro SD card slot
Video & Audio Output – HDMI and 3.5mm jack for CVBS (composite + stereo audio)
Connectivity -10/100M Ethernet
USB – 3x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG port
Camera – DVP Interface
Expansions – 40-pin Raspberry Pi compatible header with UART, SPI, I2C, PWM, GPIOs, etc…
Debugging – 4-pin header for serial console
Misc – Power and reset buttons; 2x LEDs; IR receiver; on-board microphone.
Power Supply – 5V/2A via micro USB port; 5V via VDD_5V pin on 4-pin serial header.
Dimensions – 64 x 56 mm

http://www.linksprite.com/pcduino4-nano/

Checking out other sources, like Amazon, the board goes for over $40. Looks like they are trying to make up lost their money on it. Thing is, is it worth it? At around $20, yeah. $40 is a bit steep as boards go. That would make it one of the “Under $50” board as far as the market where O-Pi sells similar models (O-Pi Lite, O-Pi Mini, O-Pi 0) for under $20. Given, it has 1GB of RAM where these under $20 have half the RAM on it. But the O-Pi PC and similar boards have 1GB of RAM for under $30.

https://www.amazon.com/pcDuino4-Nano-Single-Board-Computer/dp/B01LW9FTDQ/

Downloaded Debian for it from their website, it is a huge file though they say it can fit on a 2GB SD Card. Perhaps there is little compression it on? I don’t know. I will set it up and see how it goes this weekend.

Title: Re: Found A Very Odd Pi: The pcDuino4 Nano.
Post by Hondo I. Sackett on May 15^th, 2017, 10:54pm

Cool! It's the era of the pi!