USB Controller

[Iona]

Dear all

How many USB Controller have the Pine64 ?
The two USB 2 port are shared in the same controller or not ?

[tllim]

Dear all

How many USB Controller have the Pine64 ?
The two USB 2 port are shared in the same controller or not ?

2 USB controller and doesn't share.
The upper port is USB Host.
The lower port can be configure as host or OTG by software. Default is host.

[Iona]

thank you

[tkaiser]

The lower port can be configure as host or OTG by software. Default is host.

Good to know, you should add to the documentation that the lower port can be used for FEL mode.

[tllim]

The lower port can be configure as host or OTG by software. Default is host.

Good to know, you should add to the documentation that the lower port can be used for FEL mode.

The feature is there but control software is not ready. We are thinking when Android OS switch to "FEL" mode, the port will change to OTG, other time will stay at Host mode.

[tkaiser]

The lower port can be configure as host or OTG by software. Default is host.

Good to know, you should add to the documentation that the lower port can be used for FEL mode.

The feature is there but control software is not ready. We are thinking when Android OS switch to "FEL" mode, the port will change to OTG, other time will stay at Host mode.

FEL mode has nothing to do with Android. In case no SD card is present the SoC waits for input on the USB-OTG port and you can boot it through USB then (requires a more recent u-boot version). Therefore it's also possible to let the Pine64 boot without any local storage like SD card (true for any other Allwinner based SBC as well).

You could set up a 'micro cluster' using 8 SBC with a 8 port GBit switch and a 7-port USB hub with one SBC being the master, being able to power-switch the others through GPIO pins/transistors and providing a boot image through USB. The 2nd boot step could then be through NFS.

[tllim]

The lower port can be configure as host or OTG by software. Default is host.

Good to know, you should add to the documentation that the lower port can be used for FEL mode.

The feature is there but control software is not ready. We are thinking when Android OS switch to "FEL" mode, the port will change to OTG, other time will stay at Host mode.

FEL mode has nothing to do with Android. In case no SD card is present the SoC waits for input on the USB-OTG port and you can boot it through USB then (requires a more recent u-boot version). Therefore it's also possible to let the Pine64 boot without any local storage like SD card (true for any other Allwinner based SBC as well).

You could set up a 'micro cluster' using 8 SBC with a 8 port GBit switch and a 7-port USB hub with one SBC being the master, being able to power-switch the others through GPIO pins/transistors and providing a boot image through USB. The 2nd boot step could then be through NFS.

The micro USB port type B is 5 pin which has ID pin to determine OTG or Host. However, the Pine64 lower USB port is type A and 4 pin which means lacking ID signal. Currently the schematic lets the ID pin float with a pull high resister. In current Pine64 Android OS, we manually set the lower USB port to host mode instead of determine by ID pin. We welcome any suggestion and implementation.

Your "micro cluster" suggestion is interesting, but beyond my knowledge to implement. I can let you borrow 8 SBC when we have more on January to try out :-)

[tkaiser]

The micro USB port type B is 5 pin which has ID pin to determine OTG or Host. However, the Pine64 lower USB port is type A and 4 pin which means lacking ID signal. Currently the schematic lets the ID pin float with a pull high resister. In current Pine64 Android OS, we manually set the lower USB port to host mode instead of determine by ID pin. We welcome any suggestion and implementation.

Your "micro cluster" suggestion is interesting, but beyond my knowledge to implement. I can let you borrow 8 SBC when we have more on January to try out :-)

1st it has to be confirmed whether FEL works or not. In case you connect one Pine64 board with a type A/A cable to a linux host and then switch the Pine64 on without SD card... it should be listed on the other machine using lsusb. If it doesn't then FEL is broken.

And for the USB boot scenario I would suspect a more recent u-boot version is needed than the one contained in Allwinner's A64 SDK.

[tllim]

The micro USB port type B is 5 pin which has ID pin to determine OTG or Host. However, the Pine64 lower USB port is type A and 4 pin which means lacking ID signal. Currently the schematic lets the ID pin float with a pull high resister. In current Pine64 Android OS, we manually set the lower USB port to host mode instead of determine by ID pin. We welcome any suggestion and implementation.

Your "micro cluster" suggestion is interesting, but beyond my knowledge to implement. I can let you borrow 8 SBC when we have more on January to try out :-)

1st it has to be confirmed whether FEL works or not. In case you connect one Pine64 board with a type A/A cable to a linux host and then switch the Pine64 on without SD card... it should be listed on the other machine using lsusb. If it doesn't then FEL is broken.

And for the USB boot scenario I would suspect a more recent u-boot version is needed than the one contained in Allwinner's A64 SDK.

noted.

[wik]

Dear all

How many USB Controller have the Pine64 ?
The two USB 2 port are shared in the same controller or not ?

2 USB controller and doesn't share.
The upper port is USB Host.
The lower port can be configure as host or OTG by software. Default is host.

Since it has 2 controllers, does this mean I can connect a USB hard drive to each port and configure them as RAID 0 in order to, at least theoretically, double the transfer speeds of my Pine NAS?