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Libre Computer Board ALL-H3-CC

Getting Started Guide

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Copyright Libre Computer Project

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Feel free to leave comments!

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What is included in the box?

  • Anti-Static Bag to protect against static, water, and dust
  • Packing Foam to prevent damage especially to header pins
  • ALL-H3-CC single board computer (H2+ 512MB, H3 1GB, H5 2GB Variants)

Why nothing else?

  • Saves pennies
  • Eco-friendly
  • Nobody reads manuals
  • Libre: “do with it what you wish and be creative”™

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Required Items to run Operating System

  • MicroUSB Power (4.75V+ 1A minimal, 5.0V 1.5A recommended)
  • 4GB+ MicroSD card, Libre Computer eMMC module

Recommended Optional Items

  • HDMI or 3.5mm TRRS CVBS Cable for Video Out
  • 3.3V UART Cable For Debugging Headless System
  • Heatsink for Maximum Performance
  • USB Wired or Wireless Keyboard/Mouse/Remote
  • USB WiFi/Bluetooth/Cellular Dongle or Ethernet Cable
  • Enclosure for Protection (Non-Acrylic Non-Metal Recommended)
  • Get Kits with All of the Above Included

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Do-not-do’s

  • Expose to water, corrosive substances, conductive substances
  • Modify the board (voids warranty) esp if you do not know what you are doing
  • Damage or short circuited board (voids warranty)
  • Operate on conductive surface like metal cabinets (short circuit)
  • Leave MicroSD cards in while installing or removing from cases (breaks card)
  • Attach or remove eMMC module while power on (short circuit)
  • Operate in wet or humid (80%+) or extremely hot (60C+) environments
  • Use in volatile temperatures (repeated heating cooling causes micro-cracks)
  • Attach devices that use more than 0.5A (2.5W) of current (disconnects)
  • Connect LEDs directly to GPIO and ground (put a resistor in series please)
  • GPIO input and output use 3.3V not 5V! This is not an Arduino! Careful!
  • UART RX/TX is 3.3V and not 5V! Please pay attention! Not an Arduino!

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Do-do’s

  • Ground yourself before touching board to prevent static electricity damage
  • Think about short-circuits in your design before connecting power
  • Don’t breadboard with the power on unless absolutely necessary
  • Check for bent header pins to prevent short circuiting
  • Use high quality power supplies since they reduce chances of data corruption
  • Invest in a case if you are not modding the board constantly
  • Invest in a 3.3V UART cable because they are vital to finding issues
  • Properly shutdown software before pulling power or there may be data loss
  • Use a heatsink to reduce chip hot-spots and temperature volatility
  • Use externally powered USB hub for spinning hard drives and SSDs

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Installation Steps

  1. Download the appropriate compressed software image
  2. Extract the compressed software image to raw software image
  3. Write software image to a storage device MicroSD card, eMMC
  4. Plug the storage device into the appropriate slot/connector
  5. Connect HDMI cable to monitor or TV (unless headless system)
  6. Connect MicroUSB power cable to board (this should always be the last step)

Notes: If the software is not flashed correctly, there will be no video output since these devices do not have a BIOS or POST step.

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Flashing

There are three possible devices to use for starting the board:

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Vendor and Community Software

For the latest images for ALL-H3-CC, please visit the product download page.

For the getting started guides:

  • Ubuntu 18.04 Server and Gnome 3 Desktop
  • Ubuntu 16.04 Server and XFCE Desktop
  • Android 7 Nougat
  • Armbian (Ubuntu 16.04 or Debian 9)
  • LibreELEC (Kodi)
  • Lakka (RetroArch)

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Hardware

  • GPIO
  • I2C
  • SPI
  • I2S
  • PWM
  • UART
  • SARADC
  • IR
  • CVBS
  • SPDIF

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Open Source Code

If you are a developer and would like to build your own bootloader, kernel, device tree, and other bits, please see the source code section of the product page.

For a full list of projects we maintain, please visit our GitHub page.

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Common Issues

No Video

  • Ubuntu image with mainline kernel (4.14), three common issues:
    • Improper flashed MicroSD card (blue led should flash if kernel started properly)
    • HDMI Audio is not supported
  • Invest in a 3.3V UART cable
    • Follow instruction on troubleshoot page
    • Post boot log on http://forum.loverpi.com

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Troubleshooting on Linux

Serial/UART Debug Settings

3.3V UART TX/RX

Baud Rate 115200

Flow Control TX/RX Off

sudo minicom -b 115200 -D /dev/ttyUSB0

Control A, O, Serial port setup, F/G to toggle Hardware/Software Flow Control

For blue PL2303TA UART, from the edge of the board connect black white green

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Cross Compiling on x86-64 for ARM64

TBC

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