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CHIP (C.H.I.P.) was a single-board computer crowdfunded by now-defunct Next Thing Co. (NTC), released as open-source hardware running open-source software. CHIP and related products are discontinued.

Identification

NextThingCo CHIP
Manufacturer	Next Thing Co.
Dimensions	62mm x 41mm x 11/15mm
Release Date	December 2015
Website	Chip Product Page
Specifications
SoC	R8 @ 1Ghz
DRAM	512MiB DDR3-800E @ 360MHz, timings: 6-6-6-14 (uboot timings) (K4B4G1646Q-HYK0)
NAND	4GB
Power	DC 5V @ ~1A, 3.7V Li-Ion battery (Not included)
Features
Video	Composite with 3.5mm to RCA A/V adapter
Audio	3.5mm to RCA A/V adapter
Network	WiFi 802.11 b/g/n d/e/h/i Bluetooth v4 (rtl8723bs)
USB	1 USB2.0 Host, 1 USB2.0 OTG
Other	...
Headers	...

On the back of the device, the following is printed:

CHIP v1.0

Sunxi support

Current status

CHIP has some support in mainline U-Boot and kernel (defconfig and device tree). Mainline U-boot can boot an OS via USB. CHIP's builtin SLC NAND is not supported by Mainline U-Boot. NextThings version of U-boot supports the builtin NAND.

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

Chip is not supported by Sunxi/Legacy U-Boot

Mainline U-Boot

Use the CHIP_defconfig build target. Follow these instructions to build Mainline U-Boot. You can now use u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin via sunxi-fel or write Mainline U-Boot to the builtin NAND with the help of NextThingCo's custom U-Boot version.

NextThingCo U-Boot

Chip was shipped with a custom version of U-Boot supporting the SLC NAND. An archived version of the git-repo can be found here

Linux Kernel

Sunxi/Legacy Kernel

Not supported.

Mainline kernel

Use the sun5i-r8-chip.dtb device-tree binary. Mainline kernel can not interact with the builtin NAND.

NextThingCo kernel

Archived version of NextThingCo's git-repo here. NextThingCo's patched linux kernel supports the builtin NAND.

Locating the UART

The UART located is on the header named U14. On this header Pin 1 is Ground (GND), Pin 3 is TX (Transmit) and Pin 5 is RX (Recieve). To establish a connection the TX of the Chip must be connected to the RX of USB-UART Converter and the RX of the Adapter to the TX of the Chip, Ground is connected to Ground. Do NOT Connect 5V or 3V to the Chip. Please note that the UART of the Chip uses 3.3V ( RX of the Chip is 5V tolerant ).

   GND -> GND on the CHIP
   TX -> UART1-RX on the CHIP
   RX -> UART1-TX on the CHIP

FEL mode

Shorting out the FEL and GND pins before connecting power will cause the device to boot in FEL mode.

Pinout

Header U13L	Header U13R	Header U14L	Header U14R
Ground	Charge (5V)	Ground	VCC 5V
VCC 5V	Ground	UART1 TX	Audio out left
VCC 3V	Temperature sensor input	UART1 RX	Audio out ground
VCC 1.8V	LIPO battery	FEL	Audio out right
two wire SDA	power on	VCC 3V	mic mute
two wire SCK	Ground	ADC	audio in
X1 touch input	X2 touch input	XIO-P0 GPIO	XIO-P1 GPIO
Y1 touch input	Y2 touch input	XIO-P2 GPIO	XIO-P3 GPIO
LCD-D2	PWM0	XIO-P4 GPIO	XIO-P5 GPIO
LCD-D4	LCD-D3	XIO-P6 GPIO	XIO-P7 GPIO
LCD-D6	LCD-D5	Ground	Ground
LCD-D10	LCD-D7	AP-EINT1	AP-EINT3
LCD-D12	LCD-D11	TWI2-SDA	TWI2-SCK
LCD-D14	LCD-D13	CSIPCK:CMOS	CSICK:CMOS
LCD-D18	LCD-D15	CSIHSYNC:CMOS	CSIVSYNC : CMOS
LCD-D20	LCD-19	CSID0:CMOS	CSID1:CMOS
LCD-D22	LCD-21	CSID2:CMOS	CSID3:CMOS
LCD-CLK	LCD-D23	CSID4:CMOS	CSID5:CMOS
LCD-VSYNC	LCD-HSYNC	CSID6:CMOS	CSID7:CMOS
Ground	LCD-DE	Ground	Ground

Tips, Tricks, Caveats

The Chip requires 2A to run without issues if less Power is provided a brownout may occure.

If USB Devices attached to the Chip require more then 500mA the No Limit version needs to be Flashed.

A single Cell Lithium battery can be attached to the Chip.

If a external Antenna is required aUFL connector can be soldered on the back.

Device specific topic

Other than most Single Board Computers, the Chip needs to be flashed with an Operating System (OS).

The Vendor provided a custom OS called CHIP OS based on Debian Jessie. CHIP OS uses the Debian package repositories. Images of CHIP OS come in different Flavours (Desktop, Server, Pocketchip).

Those Images were provided in proprietary and undocumented format with the Filetype .chp.

These files were designed to be used with a (now offline) Website and Chrome addon.

Fortunately several Open Source alternatives exist.

NexThingCo provided a collection of bash scripts called CHIP-tools to update and flash images via sunxi-fel and fastboot. Archived/forked versions can be found here and here. For the image files an archived version of the original images is used.

Flashing CHIP OS with CHIP-tools (host computer on Debian/Ubuntu)

Clone the Repo from Github.

git clone https://github.com/Thore-Krug/Flash-CHIP.git

Change into the Directory.

cd Flash-CHIP

Make the Script executable

sudo chmod +x Flash.sh

Execute the script

sudo ./Flash.sh

Select the version you want to install. Wait until the installation finishes.

Troubleshooting

Use USB 2

Refresh Apt Repos

sudo apt update

Flashing CHIP OS (host computer on MacOS)

Clone the Repo

git clone https://github.com/Thore-Krug/Install-Flash-Chip-Mac

Change into the Directory

cd Install-Flash-Chip-Mac

Make the Script executable

 sudo chmod +x Flasher.sh

Install all necessary Dependencies.

./Flash.sh install-all

Flash your Chip

./Flash.sh flash

Select the version you want to install. Wait until the installation finishes.

Or read the Help

./Flash.sh help

Troubleshooting

Kill the Script with ctrl + C

Read the output if something is not installed or Permissions are missing

Just restart the Script (fixes most of the Problem with FEL and Fastboot )

If this does not help reboot, retry

Open an Issue on the Git Repo.

Use USB 2

Dips

Like on other Single Board Computers, Hardware Addons which add more functionality to the Board can be used. These Addon Boards are called Dips, the Vendor NTC (Next Thing Company) provided HDMI and VGA Dips. But other User created other Dips too, like a USB Hub or a SD Card addon.

NextThingCo CHIP

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