Since the PBP top and bottom are already so thin, I wonder if it would be possible for future Pinebooks to be designed with the main board in the top half in stead of the bottom.  I don't know if anyone else has ever done this (except tablets with attached keyboards).  It would make cooling far better.

Hey all,

I'm new to the forums, first post, so if this question has been asked before, I do apologize. Anyways, I've got a few questions regarding the Pinebook Pro and its heat output. Can you upgrade the thermal pad with either paste or a better thermal pad for better heat dissipation? Can you just apply a small heatsink directly to the SoC? When it comes to the NVME add on, can you have a heat sink on the M.2 NVME drive and have it fit?

Thank you for your responses,

Braillynn

Hi, I would like to add my own apps (not from the package manager) to the app menu, but I don't know where it would be. Any help is thanked.

ITEM IS NOW SOLD.

I'm selling my Pinebook Pro. Great machine, and with only light use since I received it in 2019. It's one of the first batch which came with the 128Mb eMMC. It's currently running a fresh install of Debian (MrFixit build) and ready for a new owner.

The good
Excellent cosmetic condition.
Keyboard does show usual wear but works fine.

The bad
The rear left rubber foot is loose - a known problem caused by the adhesive becoming warm near the power supply input. It's currently held on with double-sided tape, but this is fragile and annoying. I'm not game to glue it with anything more permanent and will leave this choice for the new owner.

A few extras
Nice padded slip case.
Pine64 nvme adapter - I bought it as an option but never installed it.
Pine64 UK power adapter - I asked nicely and Pine64 sent me one!

Shipping within the UK only. Sorry EU/US/AUS friends.

Price £100 including shipping. Paypal or UK bank transfer.

I'll update this post if/when it sells.

Thanks!

   

Im unable to boot the lastest dev builds with plama mobile Manjaro, the phone stays with the screen off and nothing happends

Hi, I'd like to exit/save a document in Nano but the Plasmanjaro keyboard won't allow it.  Can I use something like xdotool and set a "quick action" in qmlKonsole that sends the Ctrl-x key combo?

or

Is there an xdotool equivalent for wayland ?

or

Any other way to get Ctrl and Alt key functionality in the KDE virtual keyboard? 


Thanks.

It seems like kernel 5.11 will include some long-awaited changes to video handling (better h264 in v4l2). Right now, v4l2 on the pinebook reports S264 as available on the rkvdec device, but FFmpeg can't seem to actually use it.

With manjaro test branch hitting 5.10.17 this week, I think 5.11 is just around the corner!

Anyone else following these updates and can confirm/deny?

Edit: some links I'm looking at for the news
https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/...x-511.html
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=n...Of-Staging

The home page of pine64.org prominently invites you to pre-order the Pinebook Pro...but there is no way to actually accomplish this..

What gives???

While Pine64 is working on a great clamshell design keyboard, an alternative idea that's interested me for a while is the concept of a (vertical) thumb keyboard for Pinephone. That's really the ideal form-factor IMO for mobile use. Well lucky me (and us) - it turns out this is doable today.

Enter Arturo182's awesome Blackberry PMOD:
https://www.tindie.com/products/arturo18...oard-pmod/
It comes from Sweden and took about 2 weeks to arrive.

Combine that with the I2C breakout from SMR404:
https://github.com/SMR404/PinephonePogoBreakout

And you have a workable keyboard on the Pinehone today. Also the other thing to note, the BB Keyboard is the *perfect* size horizontally / fits perfectly on the Pinephone. My idea is have the software block out the LCD portion where the keyboard will sit and accept that as dead space / for stability or counterbalance. Below is my PP w/ BB keyboard prototype and a small video of where I'm at so far:


Demo video:
http://media.lrdu.org/experiments/pinephone_bbkb.webm

Obviously its not the prettiest thing what with being held together with a rubberband   but it is surprisingly stable and it is already quite usable. With a 3D-printed case and the kernel module refined a bit more, this is will be perfect.

---

So I'm opening this thread as an open discussion for anyone else who also is interested in hacking on the BB keyboard in combination with the Pinephone.

My WIP kernel module for this keyboard is available at:
https://git.sr.ht/~mil/ppbbq10

Some ideas & notes / musings on progress:
- DONE: Modified arturo182's RPI kernel module to not require DTC changes and work with Pinephone's I2C
- DONE: Temporarily modified kernel module to use polling rather then interrupt for events (probably not smart.. but works)
- DONE: Implement tap-modifiers so that Ctrl/Alt/Shift can be used one-handed by tapping modifier
- DONE: Implement symbols layer that also works with tap-modifier logic
- TODO: Rework kernel module to support 3rd layer for programming symbols
- TODO: Figure out how / if interrupt via GPIO IRQ mapping is possible (without DTC updates..)
- TODO: Either figure out how to get custom underscan resolution to block out bottom 300 pixels or implement padding into Sxmo
  - Trials so far with custom underscan resolution produces burn-in which lasts several days
- TODO: Find 3D printer or person with 3D printer to print a case
- TODO: PCB design a cable to go from Pogo I2C to keyboard so thing looks better put together / hidden (flex cable?)

Happy hacking,
Miles

I would like to use an ultra-quiet low-power 12V 4-pin PWM fan and am trying to figure out how to best interface with the PWM signal and RPM Speed signals wires of such a fan. The specific fan I'm looking to use is the Noctua NF-A8 PWM fan which has the following electrical interface:

Blue: PWM Signal (+5V)
Green: RPM Speed Signal (open collector output)
Yellow: +12V
Black: Ground

I would need to ensure (somehow) that the FAN+ is always at 12V, I'm not sure how this pin gets controlled in startup via u-boot / Linux but in my application I would want to ensure it goes high and stays high sometime during boot.

I'm looking for options on how to interface to the Blue and Green cables. I think my options are either somehow directly to some of the 5V pins on the Pi-2 header, or alternatively, perhaps some sort of separate fan control breakout.

One idea I had was to use the Adafruit EMC2101 I2C PC Fan Controller and Temperature Sensor breakout. This would use the i2c interface on the pi-2 header.

I would then need to interface that with a temperature diode somewhere -- ideally one that already exists on the RK3399, the board near the SoC, or I guess on the CPU heatsink. From what I can tell, one of the 3904 BJT type diodes mentioned in Table 4 would work.

Does anybody have any experience using a 4-pin fan on the RK3399 in a NAS application?

Details on the Noctua fan interface.

Details on the EMC2101.