Qball's Weblog
Updates
A small post with some updates. I know I have been very bad at blogging lately, luckily nobody reads this anyway.
RIP SimpleSwitcher, long live Rofi
To avoid confusion with the original simpleswitcher I decided to rename it. After getting no useful suggestions and forgetting even more. I decided on ‘Rofi’, it is Icelandic for ‘switch’ or ‘switcher’. Mostly it is nice, short and unused.
Changes
Not a lot changed since the last blog post, given it is already perfect(ish):
- Support for configuring rofi using X server resources.
- Displaying UTF-8 strings.
UDOO Quad, second attempt at low power always on desktop.
Hearing that the Freescale i.MX6 are well supported and have well working X drivers (Vivante), I decided to get one. There are many interesting on the market, but this one is combined with a Arduino DUE allowing for some creative projects.
Specifications:
- Freescale i.MX 6 ARM Cortex-A9 CPU Quad core 1GHz
- Integrated graphics, each processor provides 3 separated accelerators for 2D, OpenGL® ES2.0 3D and OpenVG™
- Atmel SAM3X8E ARM Cortex-M3 CPU (same as Arduino Due)
- RAM DDR3 1GB
- 76 fully available GPIO
- Arduino-compatible R3 1.0 pinout
- HDMI and LVDS + Touch (I2C signals)
- Ethernet RJ45 (10/100/1000 MBit)
- WiFi Module
- Mini USB and Mini USB OTG
- USB type A (x2) and USB connector (requires a specific wire)
- Analog Audio and Mic
- SATA (Only Quad-Core version)
- Camera connection
- Micro SD (boot device)
- Power Supply 12V and External Battery connector
The choice of hooking up the GPIO pins of the Cortex-M3 and the Freescale to the same output pins without any protection is a bit odd. While it probably makes things a lot easier, it does require to take extra care, so you do not connect two outputs.
Distribution:
So far things are working well, still playing to find the most useful distribution to run on it. The Ubuntu 12.04 it ships with is decent enough, but has a few annoying kernel bugs, on Archlinux I got stuck with X11. Now I am currently using a community debian image, with self-compiled u-boot and kernel. I gave the board a 120GB samsung EVO SSD that is connected up via SATA. This is a welcome performance boost I was always missing on other boards, combine this with gigabit Ethernet it is a speedy little machine.
Currently I have it runnig idle at 3.5W power consumption, this is not bad but I am sure I can probably get it down to 2.5-3W (from the Wall socket). This should be low enough to keep it running, given it is powered by 12V I can have it running from the 5V/12V power line I have that feeds more arm boards, powered USB hubs and dimmable LED strips. This should be even more efficient.
Other stuff:
I will reserve the rest for more blog posts.
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