Pinebook Pro Initial Impressions

[danielt]

@danielt point taken. Let me unstick some.
[edit] better?

Yes, much more manageable. Thanks!

[neilman]

@neilman - hmm, could you post dmesg and other relevant logs?

Ummm, yes, if I only knew where to find those logs for you?

well, there are 3 ways. When you try to shut it down - do you still have the screen on? if yes, then open terminal (or change tty to 2) and type dmesg
otherwise, SSH into the laptop and typed dmesg OR use UART.

Typed dmesg from Pinebook's terminal - big list of stuff.
Tried to use my Pinebook 1080 USB to 3.5mm 4-pole plug console lead from my Windows 7 machine as COM9 - no joy at all with any terminal program (including Putty) at 9600 - what speed should work?
Then tried SSH with Putty using "rock" credentials - success. Typed dmesg but obviously only get current session from start?
Plugged in the USB-C monitor connection - grand picture showing.
Shut down system (pine-leave-shutdown) int and ext screens go blank, Putty reports "server unexpectedly closed network connection". Power LED stays on.
Wait a while, no change. Unplug USB-C lead and within a few seconds the Pinebook turns off.
The Pinebook definitely doesn't like (my) USB-C monitor to be connected when shutting down.
Battery down to 15% so put it on charge. Can resume fiddling later when the charge LED goes out.

[zaius]

After testing the Pinebook, mounting the SSD and making some thermal photos, i screwed the bottom back on.
Im not shure if i mountet the SSD right but i noticed a small problem.

The SSD is to thick for the Pinebook so that the touchpad got pressed out of its holder.
Does somone have this problem to?

---

Here some of the thermal fotos. It looks like the SSD is next to the CPU the most power hungry component.

Sorry, I don't have any information in regards to thickness (I wrote one of the devs about it back in July, but never received an answer).   However, I would be wary of using the Samsung 970 EVO in the PBP due to heat and power consumption.
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...2#pid48352

[kunger]

@neilman - hmm, could you post dmesg and other relevant logs?

Ummm, yes, if I only knew where to find those logs for you?

well, there are 3 ways. When you try to shut it down - do you still have the screen on? if yes, then open terminal (or change tty to 2) and type dmesg
otherwise, SSH into the laptop and typed dmesg OR use UART.

Typed dmesg from Pinebook's terminal - big list of stuff.
Tried to use my Pinebook 1080 USB to 3.5mm 4-pole plug console lead from my Windows 7 machine as COM9 - no joy at all with any terminal program (including Putty) at 9600 - what speed should work?
Then tried SSH with Putty using "rock" credentials - success. Typed dmesg but obviously only get current session from start?
Plugged in the USB-C monitor connection - grand picture showing.
Shut down system (pine-leave-shutdown) int and ext screens go blank, Putty reports "server unexpectedly closed network connection". Power LED stays on.
Wait a while, no change. Unplug USB-C lead and within a few seconds the Pinebook turns off.
The Pinebook definitely doesn't like (my) USB-C monitor to be connected when shutting down.
Battery down to 15% so put it on charge. Can resume fiddling later when the charge LED goes out.

The SoC inside the laptop has as small two-position switch that appears to switch the 3.5mm port from audio to UART. Did you do this prior to testing your cable? I'm curious myself, as I need to make a cable to do this task.

K

[Luke]

You need to flip the UART switch, yes, please reference: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pinebo..._Main_Page

@neilman I use:

Code:

minicom -D /dev/ttyUSB0 -b 1500000

[neilman]

You need to flip the UART switch, yes, please reference: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pinebo..._Main_Page

I'm doing my level best to resist the urge to open the casing - really don't want to lose any screws or damage heads or threads.
So I will leave the UART switch alone, put the console cable back in its packet and SSH in when necessary.
The switch can wait until there's no other choice.

One point about the screws though - the heads look extra small and are all shiney chrome.
Considering everything else is black on a black background - shouldn't the screw heads also be black (Japanned?).

[Luke]

You need to flip the UART switch, yes, please reference: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pinebo..._Main_Page

I'm doing my level best to resist the urge to open the casing - really don't want to lose any screws or damage heads or threads.
So I will leave the UART switch alone, put the console cable back in its packet and SSH in when necessary.
The switch can wait until there's no other choice.

One point about the screws though - the heads look extra small and are all shiney chrome.
Considering everything else is black on a black background - shouldn't the screw heads also be black (Japanned?).

Yes, that would be nicer if the screws were black - good feedback.

[chithanh]

I've been using the laptop off and on for the last 6 hours on WiFi, and I'm currently sitting at 56% battery. It came to me at 100%.

Really, they ship 100% charged batteries? I thought this was a bad idea, as exposure to vibration or mechanical shock will cause greater capacity loss in fully charged vs. partially discharged Li-Ion batteries.

[danielt]

Tried latest 64-bit ARM Arduino (1.8.10) IDE from Arduino.cc but failed to work (at all).

If you are using the stock image then I think might need the 32-bit Arm binaries. IIRC the default OS runs in 32-bit mode.

[Luke]

Tried latest 64-bit ARM Arduino (1.8.10) IDE from Arduino.cc but failed to work (at all).

If you are using the stock image then I think might need the 32-bit Arm binaries. IIRC the default OS runs in 32-bit mode.

Correct. This build will need 32bit (armhf) binaries.