Orange Pi Zero

I picked up an Orange Pi Zero recently.  It’s an interesting Single Board Computer (SBC) with a quad core Allwinner H2.

You can see the full specs here: http://www.orangepi.org/orangepizero/

I found a very nice pinout diagram on the Orange Pi forums:

The best part is that this is a $7 system.  $3 for shipping.

It has 26 pins for GPIO, 9 of which are Ground and 3.3/5v power.  That leaves 17 for fun and games.

It also has a dedicated audio in/out, USB header, IR in, and TV out.    All bundled to a quad core 1080P chip with wired and wireless ethernet.

It still needs a microSD card, but an 8GB unit can be had for $3.50 from AliExpress.  You also need a micro-usb power source.  no big deal.

The OS can be downloaded from Armbian.org here https://www.armbian.com/orange-pi-zero/

default user/pass root/1234

The Armbian image is based on Debian Jessie and needs about 1.2G of storage.

I was unable to get the video out to work, but I think it’s a driver issue.

2 Responses

  1. Would you Really trust Ali-Express??? a webSite/Portal over in China – I wouldn,t do any Credit Transactions via them — I settled for the “big bucks” American Raspberry P! sites-I Ordered mine thru a Unicorn Electronics – Vestal ,NY & other pieces(usb Keyboard – 40 pin header extension -on /off switch) thru MCM -Electronics .

    I tried my Pi set — Had a Difficult tyme installing the NOOBS software — always seems to go into some sort of Self ~looping Cycle!!!! Could not get to

    I also had an issue where as when I installed an USB drive ( I seemed to have lost Data on it –WHY!!!!!??????? . Also I could not get to a static shell prompt to login or add passwd .

    a seeming tough little gadjet to get set up -Raspbeery Pi .

    1. I have had good luck with AliExpress. It’s certainly no worse than eBay. I’m glad you are happy with your purchases and support from a small business in the US.

      I did not use NOOBS. I prefer a Debian based Linux environment as I have many years of experience in it.

      Sometimes the memory cards and USB drives go bad, don’t rule that out. There is a useful tool for testing them.

      Lastly, if you aren’t very technical the Raspberry Pi is a great platform to play on. I’m much more technical as I design hardware and have some more scaleable projects so the Orange Pi is a better fit for my needs. It’s inexpensive, small and doesn’t have as many bells and whistles that I do not need.

      The Orange Pi One is a pretty easy to use platform and you can pick one up on Amazon from LuvRPi (A US Seller). I order them from China because cost is important to me and I do not need as much support.

      Lastly, check out Armbian. They have forums, a Facebook group, and lots of documentation. They also have images that you can download and run.

      thanks for taking the time to reply and read my info.

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