Hi,

I've finally started playing with my Pine64+ board, and have been able to get both ubuntu and debian systems up and running thanks to the great work by longsleep and lenny. I am setting up a headless system which will probably be a lightweight webserver / database server for sensors and a few other bits and pieces... not 100% sure yet. However, in the meantime, since I have it sat on my desk atm, I thought it would be fun to hook it up to some internet radio, and let it do that for a while... but how do I get the audio to work? I don't have anything plugged into the HDMI, so can't use that for audio. And nothing seems to be coming out of the headphones jack, although mplayer seems to be playing fine, bar an error about the output device!!!

I started with the Debian Base (3.10.65 BSP) image, and applied the Debian Base (3.10.65 BSP) rootfs (although I suspect I didn't actually need too! ) from pine64.pro. I then updated uboot and the kernel with the included scripts. I setup my wireless connection, and ditched the eithernet cord. I changed the built-in user, and have SSH working. So everything else seems to be working so far. I noticed there was a mplayer-play script, but didn't even let mplayer run - mplayer stops due to no hardware device (e.g.  /usr/local/sbin/mplayer-play.sh http://80.237.154.83:8120), whereas a simple mplayer http://80.237.154.83:8120 at least comes back with errors. Does anyone have any thoughts what I should do... is there something else I need to install or configure, or is this one of those "it doesn't work yet" bits? I came across another thread, but it didn't have any useful information anymore as links seem to have changed... I tried installing the alsa-tools alsa-utils libsound2 etc but that didn't send to help... I haven't tried adding pulseaudio yet.

Thanks in advance,
Pete

Idea time!    I don't know whether the Pine64 team will see this, but it seems like there are many people who have purchased Pine64 as their first dev board -- myself included! Just from web browsing, I see that dev boards from various brands can be very different in specs, capabilities, etc. It makes it pretty overwhelming for a new person to try to pick up and learn, especially when Pine64 is so brand new and there are few resources out there for beginners. Much of the Internet talk about Pine64 tends to be at the expert level. So us new folk are pretty much left to our own devices (no pun intended )! If we weren't interested in learning how to use Pine, we wouldn't have gotten it for ourselves. By reading the questions on here on the forum and elsewhere, it's clear that us new-folk need a single resource geared towards adults and kids who have zero experience with dev boards.

That said, I'm wondering if the team and/or any expert souls, might be interested in creating a website that's dedicated to teaching new adults and kids how to use Pine64. I'd love to see modules geared toward getting started, what can potentially be done with Pine64, showing us what the various parts (ie: wires, modules, sensors, adapters, etc.) are meant to do, and then get into teaching us how to accomplish various Pine64 projects (including what materials/parts are needed). Once you get past the basic, you could gear lessons and projects to various interests like coding, making, gaming, etc. and organize them like lesson plans with videos photos, and pictures to guide us through. I

I'm thinking this should be one website dubbed The Pine64 Classroom, The Pine64 Project, Pine64EDU, Pine64 University, etc. I'd love to see the Pine team officially take this on as a project since they've said they are really into education and want to see Pine used in schools, but it'd be neat if someone with extra time on their hands wanted to do something like this unofficially too (or help the team get it done)!

I'm pretty certain there would be interest, not just from individuals like me, but also parents, teachers (from K-12 and university level), curious teens, etc. And with the right educational support for beginners, Pine would likely sell even more boards . . . after all, I haven't seen any such resource made by any of the other major players (ie: RasPi) . . . and even if the major players do have such a thing, that's all the more reason for Pine to create such a resource too!

I hope this can happen and ASAP!! I'd love to hear whether any other newbies would find a Pine64 school of sorts useful! (And btw, courses could theoretically be designed for all skill levels!) Free access would be nice (I bet Pine could even ask companies to help sponsor such an endeavor) so that everyone at any age would have access, but it would be worth it even if I had to pay a small one-time fee. Or maybe it could be free to educators, kids, etc. I'm sure that could all be sorted out. I just really think this is important to getting new people interested in learning to use Pine straight from experts who made it and know how to use it best!

 . . . . . thoughts anyone?!

Hi all!

I'm a noob to dev boards. Never touched one. Never even seen one up close (unless you count through my computer screen). No RasPi's, no nothing. Pine64 is literally going to be my first (cue the "aww" in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . awwwwww!) I am very curious about tech and learning, so when I saw Pine64's campaign, features, and price point, I decided it was time for me to dive in and see what dev boards are all about. Whether I'll end up using Pine64 for making, gaming, programming, a spare computer and/or a host of other possibilities remains to be seen.

Success often depends on starting off on the right foot. I'm a very, VERY patient person by nature, and I know I'll screw up as I'm experimenting with my Pine, but I'd like things to go well from the moment I get started.

That said, while I'm waiting on my Playbox Rewards to arrive (with the upgraded 2gb Pine64), it occurred to me that I probably won't have everything I need to get started out of the box. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I figure it's best to ask people who know what they're doing. When I open the box, will I have all the necessary cords for and doodads for things like the included LCD touchscreen, wifi/BT card, etc.? I know a power supply is included, but there's no mention of other cords.

I'm also interested in add-ons and their accompanying cords and doodads. I'm not sure if I'm getting in over my head from the start (please speak up if you think I am!). but I've been checking out:

Power

• I've been looking at the 8000mAh battery. I assume that would be good for when I don't want to be tethered to a cord, like when using the Playbox setup or making some projects, right? (You can be honest if you don't think this or anything else I'm mentioning is needed . . . again, I'm a noob who is just figuring, lol.)
  
• One of the RTC battery backups, but I don't know if the AAA battery or coin cell is better.
  

• If I already own a Bluetooth keyboard with mouse touch pad (no dongle) that I use with a Dell tablet, can I use that? Let me know if you need to know the brand of the keyboard/mouse I own. Or must I go with a dongle setup for keyboard and mouse for using with Pine?
  

• I may already have spare HDMI cables around the house, so I would think those would be fine if I need one.
  

• Adding the 5 mp camera seems like a useful thing. I think it just plugs into the main board, right?
  
• Push Button is like an off/off switch (unless there are other uses I'm unaware of). That seems like a handy no-brainer.
  
• Zwave seems neat for home automation, but is that too complicated for a newbie to try?
  
• What are POT boards and what's the difference between the two types listed?
  
• What's a USB serial programmer?
  
• What's the Wifi remote module used for?
  

Generally dissatisfied with EVERYTHING about Pine64.  Hardware (bowed "warp" on both 2GB Pine64 boards), software and this forum.

Nothing works...   

No Bluetooth working in Linux or Android (i.e. with the "stock" Pine supplied Wifi/BT module-cum-hat).

Only ONE single build of any Operating System for the "stock" LCD Touchpanel (and no root) that Pine sells - and that is Android (which I really have no use for).

Has anyone here read "The Cathedral and the Bazaar"...   This forum doesn't fit either model, in fact I'd use the example "The Cathedral, the Bazaar and the Refugee Camp Run-by-some-inept-organization"...

The "documentation" is a hideous tangled chaotic nightmare...

C'mon people - I had no idea that kickstarter pledge rewards were for Alpha testing of pre-beta hardware and Alpha software!

I might just start swearing again till I'm banned - I get no help in here anyway...

I've been trying to get ownCloud running on my 2Gb Pine64 but it's pretty buggy.  Anyone have any luck getting a solid instance of ownCloud running?

Everything seems to install correctly and the server seems stable, but the Windows desktop client crashes on a regular basis when I'm trying to sync 140Gb of music files.  Sometimes it just hangs and sometimes it aborts in an ugly fashion.  It seems like the desktop client works for others, I can only assume that there's something wrong with my server setup, so I'm hoping someone here has been able to do it successfully and can show the way.

I love my pine, but I was getting fed up of having the LCD panel dangling from the acrylic enclosure. I will be purchasing the playbook case as soon as it is available but until then I decided to MacGyver one using the existing pine64 carboard box.

I used the bottom of the acrylic enclosure to give it a little bit of stability but you can do this without it. I screwed small screws into the cardboard to keep it sliding around (which is where I added the acrylic base). I cut out holes for all the ports, and then made small indentations for the LCD screen to sit in. I have used elastic bands to fix the screen.

I hope you like it, and it makes you smile, I am quite please with it! Check out the pics.

Alex

Hi everybody,

after a long waiting time, I finally got my Pine64 in the mail. Sadly I don't have everything to test it. I also ordered a remote due to my wish to use this as a media center. According to this recent thread a 3 pin add-on is to be delivered with the remote, however I don't see one in my package. 

(02-22-2016, 10:51 PM)tllim Wrote: The 3pin IR receiver device will include together with IR remote control.

... TL Lim

Hey guys, my boss is trying to get a project going, can't say what it is currently, but we would need a cheap computer to get things started. Of course, the Pi came up in the discussion, but he's interested in using the Pine if it will wind up suiting our needs better. What we need along with it is a touch screen panel and a thermal receipt printer. The LCD panel seems to be covered by the shop, but does anybody know if there's any reliable receipt printer that will work with the Pine?

Hi, 
I installed CPU-Z (android) for monitoring processor and memory and I noticed that in the "Thermal" tab, the application show a specific value of temperature (about 50°C). It grows up (about 54°C) after video playing.

So, is there a temperature sensor on Pine or it is a fake temperature?

This may be one of those uses that most people wouldn't find too useful, but I thought I'd share the setup since it helped me to solve a problem that had stumped me for awhile.

There are various reasons one might want to push notifications from your home network to your mobile device (notifying of changes in your dynamic IP address, alerts from smart home sensors/smoke alarms/security alarms, etc.), and while there are some easy ways to do this using third-party services, I dislike solutions that rely on third parties too much.

So for this example, I check whether my ISP has changed my home IP address, and if it has, I push a notification to my cell phone in the form of a text file with the new IP address. For the Pine, I'm using the latest Debian image from here, with Tor installed: