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+--- Thread: Any chance of getting PineTime with an upgraded CPU like nRF52840 (/showthread.php?tid=10090)
Any chance of getting PineTime with an upgraded CPU like nRF52840 - bills2002 - 06-05-2020
So reviewing the specs for the Pebble, I found:
[*]Pebble Original & Steel Processor: ARM Cortex-M3, up to 80 MHz with 512 KB of on-chip storage all in STMicroelectronics' STM32F205RE6 SoC (System on a Chip)
And for the PineTime, this site
https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Low-power-short-range-wireless
shows that the nRF52832 only has 32/65k RAM.
Yet it also shows the nRF52840 has 512K RAM.
If we could get a nRF52840 in a PineTime, then Rebble OS might be an easy port giving us access to more applications.
Does anyone know if the cpu is user replaceable. Yes I know bga and all. Just wondering if its impossible or just really hard. That being said I have no idea if the nRF52840 and nRF52832 anre pin compatible.
RE: Any chance of getting PineTime with an upgraded CPU like nRF52840 - geoffrey.vl - 06-06-2020
On a large scale I guess not, so if it would be hard to do depends on your skills. Because you're asking I'm guessing you haven't done BGA soldering at all, (my neither, its not a shame
), I'd presume it to be relatively hard (but not impossible).But before you get your heating gun out, check pin compatitibilty.
Also, why would you assume Rebble OS not to work?
RE: Any chance of getting PineTime with an upgraded CPU like nRF52840 - danielt - 06-08-2020
nRF52840 does not have a compatible pinout so changing to SoC would require motherboard changes rather than simply assembling the unit with different parts. It would be awesome but it would be a big change!
RE: Any chance of getting PineTime with an upgraded CPU like nRF52840 - wibble - 06-09-2020
And while doing a new board there wouold probably some other changes to do, like freeing up the NFC pins so it would at least be an option. Before long you're designing a whole new, and more expensive, device. It might be worthwhile in the future though.
RE: Any chance of getting PineTime with an upgraded CPU like nRF52840 - bills2002 - 06-19-2020
I'm pretty sure that RebbleOS wont work due to the memory size differences between the two chips. The Pebble/RebbleOS software app environment will need the extra ram to be compatible.
I wonder if Pine64 will be making a v2 of the PineTime with an upgraded processor. I guess, if I was motivated, since it's open source hardware, in theory, I could roll my own motherboard.
Time, time I've wasted, time I've committed to others, so little time...