Pi3 Replacement

[Dr_Ju_ju]

Even though I have a few Pi's & run an astro\indi setup on one, I was on the lookout for a device that has USB 3.0 ports and Gig network port and came accross the Odroid XU4Q (https://www.odroid.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=813) & comes in 'fanned' & 'un-fanned' versions and uses a non-usb power connector. The USB ports are limited on how much power they can supply, but as I'll be using an external powered hub, should be no problem.

As for OS it runs a flavour of Ubuntu or its native Odroid os....

[NickK]

I'm an ODroid C2 user. No fan  running ubuntu. Using the eMMC card is far far faster.

Careful with the USB ports - check how much current is available. ODroid have had a couple of designs where the USB headers were supplied with less current than the max 500mA for each port. Only issue I had with my C2 was the HDMI seemed to have a dry joint, but as I run headless anyway that's no biggie.

I have compiled my own fully 64 bit version of INDI, kStars, a local Astrometry.net and all the drivers. I use a 128GB SSD to store the 30 gigs of indices and any snapshot images.

 

[rpineau]

If you need more power that the C2, the ODROID-XU4 has gigabit ethernet and usb3 and more raw power.

 

[kens]

Over at the INDI forum a member has been using his Rock64 which is price competitive with the Pi3 and has a USB3 port.

[Gina]

I'm thinking of using a Rock64 for solar Ha imaging with an ASI174MM camera.  I like that the Rock64 has an RPi compatible GPIO port but the Odroid looks like another option.

[wimvb]

3 hours ago, kens said:

Over at the INDI forum a member has been using his Rock64 which is price competitive with the Pi3 and has a USB3 port.

That would be me, most likely.

Set up is very much like the Pi. I installed Ubuntu mate. Have controlled my az eq6 and ASI174 with success, but am struggling to get the filter wheel working. My latest hunch is that usb2 and usb3 don't mix on the Rock.

Btw, Jasem Mutlaq tried the odroid c4, but went back to the Pi, which seems the only stable platform. He commented on this in my latest thread on the indi forum.

http://indilib.org/forum/focusers-filter-wheels/2776-problems-connecting-to-zwo-efw-rock64.html

[Gina]

Interesting, thanks Wim   Seems the Rock64 will be alright for my Ha solar setup - I shall be using either EQ8 or NEQ6 mounts(I think the former). 

[wimvb]

I haven't really tested the speed of the usb3 port yet. For all I know, it may be a blue usb2 port.

[NickK]

13 hours ago, rpineau said:

If you need more power that the C2, the ODROID-XU4 has gigabit ethernet and usb3 and more raw power.

 

I looked at the XU4 option.

The main reason I went for the C2 was that it's passive cooled with little chance of being thermally throttled. This means there's no fan vibrations if the unit is mounted on the mount and the CPU is not going to get throttled and cause tracking/processing failures. The C2 runs ubuntu, does alignment, astrometry, star tracking, autofocus and capture with little issue of CPU performance.

All of these embedded chips have a 32bit memory bus with 2GB of shared graphics/main memory - additionally the drivers aren't 100% optimal in most cases so the resulting performance differences aren't that much. The XU4 does have 8 cores and the big cores have 4x the cache.. but then linux has to cope with scheduling correctly for realtime such as tracking. As most people seem to use these for media playback systems, this isn't at the forefront of the development.

 

[rpineau]

Good point Nick. I have one here mostly for dev but I understand your concern regarding fan vibration and thermal throttled.

Rodolphe

[Dr_Ju_ju]

I was pleasantly surprised that I ordered an XU4 yesterday morning, from the UK distributer, & it turned up today. I bought a fan-less one, no noise, & so far the rather large heatsink is only feeling warm to the touch, and that is after I've been installing updates\Indi\Ekos\Kstars\IndiWeb\CDC etc..... 

Now to hook up all the gear, well it is a wet dull afternoon, so not much else to do, apart from debug Marlin firmware.

[ringz]

Be careful if you use the expansion interface, it works on 1.8 volts rather than 3.3 volts. It also has 2mm spacing rather than 2.54mm so will need different connectors.