Identification

Xunlong Orange Pi 3
Manufacturer	OrangePi
Dimensions	90mm x 64mm
Release Date	January 2019
Website	Orange Pi 3 Product Page
Specifications
SoC	H6 @ 1.8 Ghz
DRAM	1GiB/2GiB LPDDR3 @ 744MHz
NAND	8GB eMMC (optional)
Power	DC 5V @ 2A (4.0mm/1.7mm barrel plug - centre positive)
Features
Video	HDMI type A full, composite on AV port
Audio	3.5mm headphone plug, HDMI, onboard microphone
Network	WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac (AP6256), 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet (Realtek RTL8211E)
Storage	µSD, optional soldered eMMC
USB	1 USB2.0 Host, 1 USB2.0 OTG, 4 x USB3.0 host (via hub chip)
Other	infrared receiver, PCIe (broken in SoC)
Headers	26 pin GPIO, 3 pin UART

The currently sold board has the following text on top: Orange Pi 3 v1.5.

Sunxi support

Current status

The H6 SoC support has matured since its introduction in kernel 4.17. Most of the board functionality for boards such as Orange Pi 3 are available with current mainline kernels. For the missing features see: Linux_mainlining_effort

Manual build

You can build things for yourself by following our Manual build howto and by choosing from the configurations available below.

U-Boot

Sunxi/Legacy U-Boot

https://github.com/orangepi-xunlong/OrangePiH6_uboot - BSP U-Boot

Mainline U-Boot

Use the orangepi_3_defconfig build target. Available since v2021.04-rc1.

Linux Kernel

Sunxi/Legacy Kernel

https://github.com/orangepi-xunlong/OrangePiH6_external - FEX/WiFi firmware files
https://github.com/orangepi-xunlong/OrangePiH6_Linux4_9 - BSP kernel

Config name is OrangePiH6_3_defconfig

Mainline kernel

Use the sun50i-h6-orangepi-3.dts device-tree binary (available since kernel 5.2).

Mainline Linux kernel device tree file for this board is being prepared in this Linux tree:

https://megous.com/git/linux/log/?h=opi3-5.11

The tree currently contains additional patches for the Ethernet.

This branch contains support for thermal sensor, DVFS and thermal regulation:

https://megous.com/git/linux/log/?h=ths-5.11

Firmware files

For WiFi, you'll need a fw_bcm43456c5_ag.bin firmware file and nvram.txt configuration that can be found in the Xulongs's repository for H6:

https://github.com/orangepi-xunlong/OrangePiH6_external/tree/master/ap6256

Mainline brcmfmac driver expects the firmware and nvram at the following paths relative to the firmware directory:

brcm/brcmfmac43456-sdio.bin
brcm/brcmfmac43456-sdio.txt

For Bluetooth 5.0, you'll need a BCM4345C5.hcd firmware file that can be found in the Xulongs's repository for H6:

https://github.com/orangepi-xunlong/OrangePiH6_external/tree/master/ap6256

The driver expects the firmware at the following path relative to the firmware directory:

brcm/BCM4345C5.hcd

Tips, Tricks, Caveats

USB power rails are directly connected to the 5V input power, including on the micro USB connector (you'll have trouble powering the board from the DC jack, and using the microUSB port to connect the board to a PC at the same time). The board can be powered via DC input or via microUSB with a PSU like an Aukru 5V 3A; powering from an USB 3 port should work but is untested.
The schematic specifies a total current limit of 1.5A per the double USB 3.0 connector.
The schematic shows optional polyfuse circuit to limit the USB current, but there's no polyfuse on the v1.5 of the board.
UBoot does not support PMIC that's used on the board, and doesn't turn off ethernet PHY regulators after reboot, which may lead to PHY initialization failures during reboot in some configurations.
Ethernet might not work with current versions and their combinations of UBoot, ATF (arm-trusted-firmware) and Linux. ATF needs to be built with SUNXI_SETUP_REGULATORS=0 passed or built from a version not yet having any support for setting up respective regulator(s) (e.g. "v2.2").

FEL mode

If you try this, beware of the direct connection between microUSB VBUS and DCIN.

Using serial port

Like with other Orange Pi boards, UART uses 3.3V signalling and is 5V tolerant so you can use any of the usual USB-UART dongles. UART pin header is easily accessible.

Locating the UART

UART is located between the mic and the power on key. Pin order: GND-RX-TX. GND is marked by a white arrow.

Xunlong Orange Pi 3

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