The A13-Olinuxino was the first Allwinner based development board made by Olimex. Like all Olimex hardware, it is fully Open Source Hardware.

Identification

Olimex A13-OLinuXino
Manufacturer	Olimex
Dimensions	120mm x 120mm x 20mm
Release Date	August 2012
Website	Product Page
Specifications
SoC	A13 @ 1Ghz
DRAM	512MiB DDR3 @ 408MHz
NAND	4GB (Optional)
Power	DC 6V-16V (1A @ 6V)
Features
Video	VGA
Audio	3.5mm headphone plug, 3.5mm microphone plug
Network	WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (Realtek RTL8188CTV - Optional)
Storage	µSD
USB	3 USB2.0 Host (GL850G hub), 1 USB2.0 OTG
Other	RTC
Headers	UART, JTAG, Li-Po battery connector, LCD. UEXT, 2x GPIO expansions ports.

It says "A13-OLinuXino" on the top. It just doesn't get easier than that!

Sunxi support

Current status

Supported.

Images

HW-Pack

BSP

Manual build

For building u-boot, use the "A13-OLinuXino" target.
The .fex file can be found in sunxi-boards as a13-olinuxino.fex

Everything else is the same as the manual build howto.

Mainline kernel

Use the sun5i-a13-olinuxino.dts device-tree file for the mainline kernel.

Tips, Tricks, Caveats

FEL mode

The Home button triggers FEL mode.

Power Supply Voltage

Warning, while you can boot this board at 5V it really is preferable to boot this board at 6V.

For instance, enabling the backlight on the 7" LCD module will immediately hardlock the board at 5V, while at 6V it is perfectly stable.

VGA

Even though the A13 does not provide DACs itself, the A13-Olinuxino has a VGA connector.

This is implemented through 3 separate DAC chips (NXP LVC244A) which are connected to the LCD0 lines. This in turn means that you cannot use an LCD and a VGA monitor at the same time, but this is ok as the A13 can only drive one display at a time anyway.

Due to the bandwidth limitations of the A13 SoC, the best resolution you can hope for is 800x600.

LCD modules

You can attach several Olimex LCD modules to the LCD connector (LCD_CON).

Expansion ports

Several expansion options are provided:

A UEXT connector. This is meant for attaching Olimex UEXT modules.
A 10 pin IO connector (GPIO-1).
A 40 pin IO connector (GPIO-2).

Adding a serial port

Revision C and up UART pads

The earlier revisions of the A13-OLinuXino (Revisions A and B) had a separate UART1 connector which shared lines with the SD connector. You had to use the UART lines on the UEXT connector, to be able to use an SD card as well as serial.

From revision C onwards, there is the unpopulated UART0 connector, which shares those same lines with the SD Card lines. There is also a populated UART1 connector, which is standalone.

For a connector pin-out, the easiest way is to refer to the pin descriptions on the back of the board. Simply attach your leads according to our UART howto.

Pictures

Early board, front.
Early board, back.
Later board, front.
Later board, back.

Also known as

There are no rebadgers for this type of device.

Olimex A13-OLinuXino

Contents