XU4 with Shifter

Help with the Hardkernel Odroid XU3 / XU4 hardware
K8JPL
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XU4 with Shifter

Post by K8JPL »

Have pi-star running as expected on odroid. Also have the HS hat working on a pi3 fine as expected. But I cannot run the hat on the odriod. Keep in mind I AM using the shifter shield to shift the pins of the xu4 to mimic the pi3. When I put the hat on the odriod xu4 it doesn’t even recognize in the dashboard or in the pi-star os.
K8JPL
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Re: XU4 with Shifter

Post by K8JPL »

really wishing the gent that gave the info to this on FB could post it here...
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MW0MWZ
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Re: XU4 with Shifter

Post by MW0MWZ »

Bug confirmed - there is some kind of issue with the UART on the shifter shield, this *was* working, currently looking into it.
Andy

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Re: XU4 with Shifter

Post by MW0MWZ »

Arghhhhh - it must be christmas, I just killed my Odroid XU4, <insert torrent of band language here>
managed to drop it while I was working on it - and I think I shorted *somthing* but not sure what yet, replacement on order, but its not even shipping until January, so its going to be a while before I fix this....
Andy

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K8JPL
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Re: XU4 with Shifter

Post by K8JPL »

ahhhh i hate that. no worries. ill work on my Nextion 7" screen for the time being.
BTW isnt there somewhere we can set the fan speeds on this odroid?? its obnoxious.
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Re: XU4 with Shifter

Post by MW0MWZ »

ct1dvm wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 7:42 am The XU4 shifter shield works fine with MMDVM-Pi, hospots and dvmegas.

FW update can be done utilizing the BOOTO>RST>BOOTO release button method all tested here.

pistar should have provision for odroid wiring-pi, and a /dev/ttySAC0 modem port select for XU4/shifter shield uart fed pihats.
All agreed with, and the /dev/ttySAC0-3 all show up correctly, Odroid Wiring-Pi library is all installed etc, it all *was* working, but on the new downloads it's broken. (we also symlink /dev/ttySAC0 to /dev/ttyAMA0 to make it look more like a Pi for my dashboard to cope with it).

I'd be all over fixing it, if I hadn't killed my own board, I can't tell you how un-impressed I am with myself about that at the moment.

You can indeed make the fan less obnoxious, but its setup that way to prevent over-heating, although I do expect to improve it some on the next build, but thats going to be mid jan before my new board arrives....
Andy

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Re: XU4 with Shifter

Post by MW0MWZ »

Replacement Odroid is shipping - ETA is next week...
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Re: XU4 with Shifter

Post by MW0MWZ »

Odroid arrived so I got to do some more testing;

Improved the fan control and upgraded the kernel, still investigating a possible fix, but here is why this is a problem;

Odroid + Shifter Shield is not the same as Pi2 (or any of the 40pin) GPIO layout;

Shifter Shield:
Image

Raspberry Pi Foundation 40 Pin GPIO:
Image

The problem is with GPIO pins 38 and 40, the largest problem is pin #38...
On the Raspberry Pi GPIO its usually pulled low, on the Odroid Shifter Shield its *ALWAYS* 1.8v, because it is attached to the 1.8v rail.
I've checked on vanilla Armbian and this pin is always 1.8v on that too, it's always been this way, we just never noticed because Odroids have tended to be used by repeater keepers driving USB based DUE boards.

I have modified my shifter shield to remove pin #38 - this does allow the MMDVM_HS class boards to boot, but they cannot be flashed with the normal tools since there this pin is used to reset the CPU and hold it at the boot loader for flashing, you will only be able to flash them on a Raspberry Pi.
Andy

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Re: XU4 with Shifter

Post by MW0MWZ »

Adrian,

It does appear to depends on the shield that you use, the integrated radio/modem boards (especially the ones that have no Boot0 or reset buttons on them are the ones we see issues with, those use Pin 38 to reset the cpu during the flash process and don't have a hardware method, holding the pin at 1.8v cases them to stay in reset and not boot.

Most Odroid users are using them to drive full MMDVM and not MMDVM_HS, so thats why it's taken so long for this to come up.

Nice work on the script, that looks good.

I'll retest the Odroid image again, did you write it to uSD card first, or direct to the eMMC ?
Andy

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Re: XU4 with Shifter

Post by MW0MWZ »

Tested mine *only* with the shifter shield on it - going to triple check and test it both ways.

The way I have the image setup, at the moment it has to be written to an SD card first, and then use the pistar-sd2mmc tool to move it over.
I'm going to re-test it carefully and make sure I didn't break something on the last build.
Andy

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