Compatible eMMC modules and benchmarks

[danboid]

I ordered my rock64 a few days ago but I'm not expecting it to arrive for a few weeks yet as I live in the UK.

I ordered a 32GB eMMC from a UK electronics company but I got sent a chip, not a module that would work with the rock64 so I'm having to return it. They had no pictures of it on their site so I didn't know what it was until it arrived.

I've read on this forum that the rock64 is compatible with odroid emmc modules but which odroid model is the rock64 (most) compatible with? odroid.co.uk sells emmc modules for the odroid C1/C1+, C2 or XU3/XU4. I'm not sure if these modules all have different connectors or if its just different software pre-loaded onto them?

Is there anywhere else is the UK or Europe apart from odroid.co.uk and allo that sells emmc modules? Is there a best brand or model to look for? Has anyone done any benchmarks of different emmc modules with the rock64? Tell me everything I might need to know about emmcs and the rock64 please, the rock64/pine64 page doesn't tell us much about this.

[Luke]

I ordered my rock64 a few days ago but I'm not expecting it to arrive for a few weeks yet as I live in the UK.

I ordered a 32GB eMMC from a UK electronics company but I got sent a chip, not a module that would work with the rock64 so I'm having to return it. They had no pictures of it on their site so I didn't know what it was until it arrived.

I've read on this forum that the rock64 is compatible with odroid emmc modules but which odroid model is the rock64 (most) compatible with? odroid.co.uk sells emmc modules for the odroid C1/C1+, C2 or XU3/XU4. I'm not sure if these modules all have different connectors or if its just different software pre-loaded onto them?

Is there anywhere else is the UK or Europe apart from odroid.co.uk and allo that sells emmc modules? Is there a best brand or model to look for? Has anyone done any benchmarks of different emmc modules with the rock64? Tell me everything I might need to know about emmcs and the rock64 please, the rock64/pine64 page doesn't tell us much about this.

There is no universal standard for eMMC sockets - just so you know.
Yes, sure, some odroid eMMC modules are compatible and will work (I have one for the C2 that works just fine) with the PINE64 boards; including the Rock64. I will not speculate on here which of the odroid modules will and which will not work because I do not wish to give you a false impression that compatibility is guaranteed.
As for the benchmarks, they are out there if you google ... in short, Ordoid's high prices reflect higher performance.

[digitaldaz]

I use odroid.co.uk and get the "32GB eMMC Module C2 Linux "

[beakfire]

I use odroid.co.uk and get the "32GB eMMC Module C2 Linux "

I tested around with a few of hardkernel's eMMC modules in my Rock64.  The board recognized them and was able to read/write to them but I got some errors at some points using the sd2emmc installers to attempt to install a linux distro to the eMMC modules.

I did a bit of a write-up on it over here:

https://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic...67&t=12706

I haven't really looked into too much what was going on though, but summers over on the Arch Linux ARM forums presented the idea to boot from the sd card with the eMMC module installed and then we would be able to test out the eMMC module from a running system by mounting it and seeing what types of errors occurred, if any.

I will say that it may be dangerous to attempt to 'hot plug' an eMMC module and wouldn't recommend it.  I managed to brick an Odroid XU4 by hot-plugging an eMMC module as something in the board got damaged as a result and after performing it I was never again able to get the board to power on or make any attempt to boot.

[beakfire]

just as fyi I went ahead and took a look at the pin-outs and compared the odroid-xu4, odroid-c2 and rock64 emmc connectors

They appear mostly the same with the exception of two pins.

In the rock64 pins 15 and 13 are tied directly to GND.

In the Odroid-C2 and Odroid-XU4 pin 15 is tied to a signal called RCLK and pin 13 is tied to a signal called CDN. The RCLK goes to a pin named for RDQS. The CDN pin lands different places for the C2 or XU4. In the XU4 it goes to the main chip and appears to be used for something with controlling the eMMC module and the C2 it lands someplace else.

Other than these 2x pins the rest of the pin-out is the same, I'm not sure how important these two signals are or what they're used for in operating the eMMC module. If the hardkernel modules can be used without them in the Rock64 I don't know.

I also checked the libre computer renegade (ROC-3328-CC) eMMC module pin-out, which varies significantly from what is found on hardkernel's odroids and what I saw on the rock64 for the pin-arrangement.

Just thought I'd put this for reference as there is a hardware difference that hardkernel is using with their eMMC modules that is not being used by rock64 and whether hardkernel's eMMC modules can operate successfully in a rock64 without these functions being used is something I do not know.

[danboid]

I contacted odroid.co.uk about their emmc modules and I got these responses:

-----------------------------

Hi Dan
We have a Rock64 customer who purchases 32GB C2 (Black PCB board) modules which currently use a chipset which is only compatible with C1+/C2 ODROID boards. There is obviously no incompatibility with this unit however ODROID now supply 'Orange' PCB board modules which are compatible with XU4 series as well as C-series. We have no indication that this would not work with Rock64 and is available in all sizes from 8GB to 128GB.

Kind regards

-----------------------------

Hi Dan
There is some information on the different modules at the following link:
https://wiki.odroid.com/accessory/emmc/reference_chart
The newer 'Orange' board uses Samsung 5.1 eMMC chipset which slightly faster transfer speeds.

-----------------------------

I ordered an orange 128GB XU4 eMMC Module from them a week or so ago. My rock64 arrived today and the module seems to work fine with it, at least with Ubuntu bionic. It may be unrelated to the emmc module but I've tried both the official and unofficial builds of LibreELEC, both boot but are highly unstable. The good news from LibreELEC is that it has proved to me the rock64 can play UHD h264 files fine, which I've not managed with mpv under Ubuntu but thats for another thread.

odroid.co.uk included a free MicroSD eMMC adapter with my module.

[fallc0nn]

I ordered an orange 128GB XU4 eMMC Module from them a week or so ago. My rock64 arrived today and the module seems to work fine with it, at least with Ubuntu bionic. It may be unrelated to the emmc module but I've tried both the official and unofficial builds of LibreELEC, both boot but are highly unstable. The good news from LibreELEC is that it has proved to me the rock64 can play UHD h264 files fine, which I've not managed with mpv under Ubuntu but thats for another thread.

odroid.co.uk included a free MicroSD eMMC adapter with my module.

Hi danboid, how is the eMMC working so far? Do you still recommend it for the rock64?

[arvendui]

I have a ROCK64 (v2) that I ordered from ebay a couple years ago. I recently decided to try to make use of its eMMC interface. Happy to report that all of the following parts performed flawlessly with my ROCK64. I ended up flashing armbian to eMMC utilizing the microSD to eMMC adapter below. I ended up just using Balena Etcher on Windows to flash the eMMC utilizing the adapter.

I ordered the USB serial adapter "just in case." The USB serial adapter also worked well utilizing pins 6, 8, 10. I did have to download a driver for it, which I found easily by Googling: CP2102 driver. I didn't need it, as the method above worked just dandy for me.

I was stressing whether these items would work or not, and thought this might put someone's mind at ease, in case they end up on this path.

eMMC Module 128GB for Odroid N2, N2+, C0, C1+, C2, C4, M1, XU4, H2 (128GB)
eMMC Module Reader Board for OS upgrade
HiLetgo CP2102 USB 2.0 to TTL Module Serial Converter Adapter Module USB to TTL Downloader with Jumper Wires