Orange Pi Mini is A20-based development board produced by Xunlong. Feature-wise, the Orange Pi Mini is rather similar to the original Orange Pi, but it lacks the VGA output and onboard optional flash, and it has only 2 USB ports. Instead of two 26 + 18 pin expansion ports, the board has a single 40 pin expansion port.

Identification

Xunlong Orange Pi Mini
Manufacturer	OrangePi
Dimensions	94mm x 59mm
Release Date	November 2014
Website	Orange Pi Mini Product Page
Specifications
SoC	A20 @ 1Ghz
DRAM	1GiB DDR3 @ 960MHz
NAND	no nand available
Power	DC 5V @ 2A (best via DC input)
Features
Video	HDMI (Type A - full), CVBS, RGB/LVDS
Audio	3.5 mm jack, PHOUT
Network	10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet (Realtek RTL8211E), wifi 802.11 b/g/n
Storage	SD, SATA (with power connector: JST XH 2.5mm header, providing +5V)
USB	2 USB2.0 Host, 1 USB2.0 OTG
Other	CIR
Headers	1 pin UART, 3 pin UART, LCD/ LVDS, CSI, 40 pin GPIO

The PCB has the following silkscreened on it:

Orange Pi Mini

Sunxi support

Current status

Supported.

Note: Orange Pi Mini's GMAC is not supported in the community kernel. A commit within Orange Pi Github fork of linux-sunxi-3.4 seems to provide GMAC support for Orange Pi Mini. This has to be proved and merged into linux-sunxi.

Xunlong seems to use an important tweak of both the Linux 3.4 kernel and U-Boot networking code for the Orange Pi Mini: The GMAC driver is specifically modified to set the GMAC_TX_DELAY parameter to 3. This adjusts the relative timing of the clock and data signals to the PHY in order to compensate for differing trace lengths on the PCB (details; the pcDuino3 Nano has the same problem). Without this modification, the Ethernet port will work at 100Mbit, but not (or not reliably) at 1000Mbit. Upstream U-Boot now sets this parameter itself, so the kernel patch isn't needed any more (patch).

Images

HW-Pack

BSP

Manual build

For building u-boot, use the Orangepi_mini target (make orangepimini_config).
The .fex file can be found in sunxi-boards as orangepimini.fex

Everything else is the same as the manual build howto.

Mainline kernel

Use the sun7i-a20-orangepi-mini.dtb device-tree file for the mainline kernel

Expansion Port

The Orange Pi Mini has a 40-pin, 0.1" connector with several low-speed interfaces.

2x20 Header
1	3.3V	2	5V
3	PB21 TWI2-SDA	4	5V
5	PB20 TWI2-SCK	6	GND
7	PI3 PWM1	8	PH0 UART3_TX
9	GND	10	PH1 UART3_RX
11	PI19 UART2_RX	12	PH2
13	PI18 UART2_TX	14	GND
15	PI17 UART2_CTS	16	PH20 CAN_TX
17	3.3V	18	PH21 CAN_RX
19	PI12 SPI0_MOSI	20	GND
21	PI13 SPI0_MISO	22	PI16 UART2_RTS
23	PI11 SPI0_CLK	24	PI10 SPI0_CS0
25	GND	26	PI14 SPI0_CS1
27	PB5 I2S_MCLK	28	PI12
29	PB6 I2S_BCLK	30	GND
31	PB7 I2S_LRCK	32	PI20 UART7_TX
33	PB8 I2S_DO0	34	GND
35	PB12 I2S_DI	36	PI21 UART7_RX
37	PB13 SDPIF_D0	38	PH3
39	GND	40	PH5

Tips, Tricks, Caveats

FEL mode

The button marked SW3, located beside the wifi module, triggers FEL mode when pressed during boot. (SW3 pulls the A20 BOOTSEL pin to low level.)

If no SD card is present, the A20 will automatically fall back to FEL mode (as this device has no other means of booting, like e.g. onboard NAND flash). So if you want to enforce FEL mode, you may simply remove the SD card and connect to the Orange Pi Mini via the DC input(the one next to the TF card slot upside). This also supplies power to the board at the same time.

To verify you have successfully entered FEL mode, check the output of fel version. For the Orange Pi Mini, it should look like:

AWUSBFEX soc=00001651(A20) 00000001 ver=0001 44 08 scratchpad=00007e00 00000000 00000000

LEDs

For those with a transparent case (or no case at all) the Orange Pi Mini's LED activity is good. The red power LED (D2) can be turned off.

SATA

If you wish to connect a SATA drive (2.5" mobile harddisk or SSD) to the Orange Pi Mini: Make sure your power supply is connected to the "DC-IN" port, and can deliver sufficient current (e.g. 5V/2000mA). Using the OTG port or an inadequate power supply might result in your SATA device not being detected.

Adding a serial port

TODO: The section is mostly a copy&paste from the "Banana Pi" page. Some of it may be incorrect, or might not apply to this device. Please review / rework the information, and remove this reminder when done.

While the GPIO pinout of the Orange Pi Mini is designed to be compatible to the Raspberry Pi, it's important to notice subtle differences in the serial ports. The Orange Pi Mini has some additional pins that already provide two more serial ports.

The default serial port /dev/ttyS0, used for (bootstrap) debugging and the serial console, is located at J11 - refer to the picture and instructions below. The Raspberry's "original" serial port on GPIO 14 and 15 (CON3, pins 8 and 10) can usually be accessed as /dev/ttyS2 on the Orange Pi Mini. J12 also provides another serial port on pins 4 (RXD) and 6 (TXD), which should map to /dev/ttyS3.

Note: The actual mapping between physical pins, UART numbers and/or device names may depend on the specific kernel and configuration used. If in doubt, check the boot messages: dmesg | grep -i uart

UART pads

Locating the UART

The UART pins are located in the upper right corner of the board. They are marked as TXD, RXD and GND on the PCB. Just attach some leads according to our UART Howto.

Pictures

Variants

The original Orange Pi was released in November 2014. The orange pi features a standard TF card slot and a 26 pin GPIO connector (similar to the Raspberry Pi A/B).

Xunlong Orange Pi Mini

Contents