The original A10 based Mele Set-Top-Boxes are the start of the sunxi project. These imminently hackable machines were exported by Tom Cubie of Cubieboard fame and these devices kickstarted community development for the Allwinner A10 SoC.

There are 8 variants of the Mele A1000. The Mele A1000 has a wedge-like shape whereas the slightly younger A2000 is more square. The A100 uses the mele A2000 square shape, but it lacks a SATA port. The Mele A1000G is a 1GiB RAM version of the Mele A1000, just like the Mele A2000G is a 1GiB version of the Mele A2000. Both come with 8GB NAND. The Mele A100G is a 1GB RAM version of the Mele A100, but keeps the 4GB NAND. Then there is the Mele A3700, which is also a 1GiB version, but it uses a completely different case design with an external wifi antenna, 8GB NAND, and has no SATA port. Last but not least, There are Dual-Core version which is use A20 for it SoC, named A100-DualCore.

All motherboards are essentially the same, apart from tiny revisions. The 1GB versions of course have a differing layout due to the doubling of the RAM chips. The Mele A100(G) has no SATA connector soldered on, and the LED, IR & power button have moved to the center of the front of the device. The A3700 lacks SATA as well, and seems to make LED, IR and power button available through a connector.

Identification

Mele A1000
Manufacturer	Mele
Dimensions	175mm x 110mm x 47mm
Release Date	April 2012
Website	Mele A1000 product page
Specifications
SoC	A10 @ 1Ghz
DRAM	512MB/1G DDR3 @360MHz (H5TQ2G63BFR-H9C, H5TQ2G83CFR-H9C)
NAND	4/8 GB
Power	DC 5V @ 2A
Features
Video	HDMI (Type A - Full), VGA, Composite
Audio	R/L Cinch, HDMI, SPDIF
Network	WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (Realtek RTL8188CUS), 10/100Mbps Ethernet (Realtek RTL8201CP)
Storage	SD, SATA (optional)
USB	3 USB2.0 Host
Other	IRDA (optional)
Headers	UART, USB OTG, USB Host

In android, under Settings->About Device, you will find:

Model Number: Mele-HTPC
Build Number: Mele-HTPC Tue Mar 27 14:40:57 CST 2012 Version 1.5

Sunxi support

Current status

Fully supported.

Images

HW-Pack

BSP

Manual build

Mele A1000/A2000/A100

For building u-boot, use the "Mele_A1000" target.
The .fex file can be found in sunxi-boards as mele_a1000.fex

Everything else is the same as the Manual build howto.

Mele A1000G/A2000G/A100G

For building u-boot, use the "Mele_A1000G" target.
The .fex file can be found in sunxi-boards as mele_a1000g.fex

Everything else is the same as the Manual build howto.

Mele A3700

It seems that the below targets are completely superfluous, and that the Mele A3700 should just use the A1000G target, but with SATA disabled.

For building u-boot, use the "Mele_A3700" target.
The .fex file can be found in sunxi-boards as mele_a3700.fex

Everything else is the same as the Manual build howto.

Mele A1000 FEL "jumper"

Mainline kernel

Use the sun4i-a10-a1000.dts device-tree file for the mainline kernel.

Tips, Tricks, Caveats

FEL mode

You can short 11K1 jumper to enter FEL mode.

VGA Connector

Even though the Mele comes with a blue VGA connector, and blue signifies that this is a DDC enabled VGA connector... And even though there are wires for DDC SCL/SDA all the way to the 8-pin connector on the motherboard... These wires are simply floating. The Mele A1000 and derivates simply are unable to talk to a VGA connected monitor and query it for what modes it supports. The mode will have to be hardcoded.

Composite

The Mele Ax000 uses DAC3 for the composite connection. So make sure to set the following in your tv_out_dac_para if you want to use composite:

dac3_src = 0

GPIOs identified on A2000

GPIO Access

The Mele A2000 (and probably A1000) have a number of pins accessible for GPIO use. Here are some that have been identified. See image for color coded locations.

GPIO_PH10 (main red led)
GPIO_PH20 (main blue led)
GPIO_PH22 (unused?)
GPIO_PH23 (unused?)

DRAM Overclock

The original DRAM clock in Mele A1000/A2000 is rather conservative (360 Mhz). It is possible to overclock to a higher DRAM speeds modifying the PLL5 factor N register value. Use devmem command or its busybox equivalent in Android.

Possible PPL5 DDR clock values can be

360 Mhz(original) : b1058F91
384 Mhz(safe) : b1059091
408 Mhz(mostly safe) : b1059191
432 Mhz(risky) : b1059291

For example, to get a 408 Mhz DRAM clock in Android execute this command (Busybox required)

/system/bin/busybox devmem 0x01c20020 32 0xb1059191

Adding a serial port

Mele A100 UART connector

Device disassembly

Trivially unscrew 4 or 6 screws, depending on excat model.

Screws to loose on a Mele A2000

Locating the UART

The Mele has a 4 pin 2.0 pitch JST-PH connector available for its UART0 port. This is the same as some 90s analog audio cables which ran from a CDROM to the sound card. More information is available at our UART howto.