ODROID-U3

[Janos (retired)]

The ODROID-U3 has been launched.



It is very similar to the U2 and all the software for the U2 works on the U3.

The major difference is the price - $65.00. There is a community edition at $59.00

Other differences:
3 USB
Power on/off switch - auto power on retained
Different form factor
Power input protection, under / over volt and wrong polarity

Orders open on 13th Jan for the community edition and 14th Jan for the normal version.

[Silver]

Interesting, thanks for posting that Janos :)

[Alez]

Price puts them in approximately the same bracket as a Droidbox bought in the UK. Definitely more attractive now. Glad I didn't just order the U2 in the last week.
I think a couple of these could be on the ' to buy ' list once I determine the overclock potential of the Droidboxes ( ie can I heatsink them or not......... surgery time tomorrow, today ? )

[Janos (retired)]

Glad I didn't just order the U2 in the last week.

Yes, absolutely. I would have been a tad annoyed, to say the least.

[Janos (retired)]

http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products ... 8960965859

[Alez]

Do the cores on the U3 run at a constant frequency or do they downclock like the RK3188's I have ?

[Silver]

You can run them in either "performance" mode and pick your clock speed or run in "on demand" mode and pick minimum and max clock speeds it'll run between depending on load presumably.
From memory the options range from 200-1700 MHz
There is also thermal throttling

[Janos (retired)]

Or you can OC them up to 2000.

[Silver]

Or you can OC them up to 2000.

That'll be why you get more heat than me
How are you clocking your ones Janos?

[Janos (retired)]

No, I've not OC'ed any of mine. I wanted them to be zero maintenance and so far they have been rock solid.

Plenty of stuff on the forums. http://forum.odroid.com/

[Silver]

I'd never really thought of oc'ing them to be honest but I might give it a go with one and see how I get on.
I do agree, mine have been good so far.
Hope that wasn't tempting fate :hiding:

[keithsloan52]

I am looking into buying a ODROID-U3 to run BOINC project Einstein@home, but don't really want to run with a fan attached. What are peoples experience of running BOINC on ODROID-U3.

1) Is a fan essential
2) Do you restrict max CPU%
3) Does temperature throttling come into play and how do you know.
4) Any good place to source a UK power supply
5) Any other comments

Thanks

[keithsloan52]

I found this in ODROID forum http://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=80&t=3469 which would I read as saying that you can really only have two cores running 100% without the fan. Does this accord with peoples experience?

[Silver]

Hi Keith,

Welcome to the forum :)

To try and answer your questions have a look at the following topics/posts where we've covered some of your queries.

My last post towards the bottom of the page lists what PSU a couple of us use, and some other equipment required.
http://www.dunadd.co.uk/seti/forum/view ... 30&start=0

The U2 and U3 run the same software and are very similar, so you might want to look through the U2 thread:
http://www.dunadd.co.uk/seti/forum/view ... 136&t=2040

1) Is a fan essential
I think a fan is probably a good idea, although the thermal shut off will save any permanent damage its pointless having your machine power on and off all the time.
As per the top link, I'm running an under volted fan which is silent - compared to my pc/graphics card, NAS etc.


2) Do you restrict max CPU%
Nope, mine are set to max speed on demand

3) Does temperature throttling come into play and how do you know.
I hope it will if it needs to but hope to avoid that by cooling.
I've installed CPU Z on my droids where you can look up the CPU load and speed - I have to say whenever I check they are always running at 99/100% load and at max speed although they do drop for a second now and again but this could just be as I'm doing other things or its swapping between units.
My U2 does seem to generate slightly more credit that my U3's so maybe I need to look into their cooling to see if they are throttling?

4) Any good place to source a UK power supply
As per top link.

5) Any other comments
Once you start there seems to be some sort of compulsion to buy more, so be warned!
This thread has our credit comparisons for various projects:
http://www.dunadd.co.uk/seti/forum/view ... 136&t=2078
Einstein is the worst performing one so far, if you're in it for the science then it won't matter. If you're looking to generate credit Enigma is far better.

Any other questions just shout and I'm sure someone will be able to help.

Paul

[scole of TSBT]

So you can use either micro SD or eMMC, but eMMC is faster? Only way to run android is to buy their eMMC with U android on it? Does their linux come ready to plug and play with network and ssh ready to use?

Any advantage of running linux vs android, like app control or performance? Do they each run the same projects?

[Alez]

The eMMC is far more stable and less likely to get corrupted. My 4 all have eMMC with Android installed. If you have a reader you could flash Android on it yourself, though the price of their eMMC's was very competative when I bought my U2's.
Don't know about running them under Linux but I know that Janos did and maybe still does.

I have my 4 mounted 1 on top of the other and they all sit in front of a fan undervolted to 5v and all running off the same 5v transformer. They are way more stable than the RK3188's. Truly start Boinc and forget devices.

[scole of TSBT]

What size eMMC, 16GB, 32GB..?

[Alez]

I honestly can't remember what I bought. I think it was 32 GB but might be 16. Will check outside tomorrow.

Edit. The eMMC in each of my Ordroid U2's are 8 GB and that is plenty for Android.

[scole of TSBT]

So I have my U3 running NativeBOINC. I guess it's a right of passage to figure out Google Play doesn't come installed on the eMMCs sent by the Odroid store and you have to figure out how to get Google Apps installed. So I did it. Do I get a prize? :)

[Alez]

No because we figured it out about a year or more ago and posted how to here http://www.dunadd.co.uk/seti/forum/view ... 0&start=15 and you don't need Google play. There are plenty more app repo's that work better. My new baytrail x86 tablet running kitkat will not connect to play, no idea why and as I can't root it, nothing I can do about it, so I use different app repos. Mainly Aptoide or amazon.

[scole of TSBT]

I'm going to flog my android guru. When I asked him about not having Google Play, he never mentioned side loading, but even I now remember about that. He's my android app developer too. I need to punish him! Do we need an android app? Really, he'd probably love to do one.

[Alez]

Android app developer ? I'm an mechanical engineer that used to blow holes in the ground and now digs holes in the ground for a living and I know that. Fetch the cat o nine tails

I'd really like an android app for WUProp that runs on x86.
Stats like we get from nativeBoinc on android only that actually worked more than once every 3 months. Or maybe just a version of Boinc for android that works like nativeBoinc but was updated like Boinc.
Best would be running R boxes off an android box. That would be ultra cool

[scole of TSBT]

We'll see what we can get out of him. :)

[Alez]

In the mean time I would suggest a gentle flogging was not out of order ......

[scole of TSBT]

The RK31s are out-performing the U3. Should I overclock it? It has the heat sink with built in fan.

[Janos (retired)]

Exynos4412 platform has been the most loved products for the last 3 years. The ODROID-X was the first on 11th of July, 2012.
And the family models of the ODROID-X2, U2 and U3 followed it. The ODROID-U3 was the latest model with Exynos4412 processor.


We have got the notice from Samsung that Exynos4412 will be discontinued soon.
Because their SoC semiconductor production line is upgraded to the next generation like 28nm and 14nm. The Exynos4412 was made with the slightly old 32nm process.
The more critical reason is that Samsung DRAM memory production has moved to the LP-DDR3/DDR4 technology while Exynos-4412 can use only the old LP-DDR2 memory which must to be pre-assembled on the SoC (Package-on-Package). So there is no way to keep buying the key component securely anymore to make the U3.

The ODROID-U3 was the most loved model by Hardkernel members. We have tried to keep this model even the price increases.
The price of ODROID-U3 was $65.00 and we had to increase it to $69.00 this year due to material cost increase. But, we cannot make the ODROID-U3 even at higher price now.

We are really sorry that we couldn't expect this situation earlier, and that caused any inconvenience who needs more U3 boards.

Now, the ODROID-XU4 will replace the position with the next generation processor, Exynos5422 Octa-core.
The ODROID-XU4 has better performance and better connectivity with similar price range. We will make a long term plan with ODROID-XU4 supporting for a couple of years.

Thanks,

from Hardkernel members.

http://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=83&t=15286

[Dirk Broer]

eMMC is faster and much less prone to corruption than micro SD.
Android for ARM has far more BOINC applications than Linux for ARM.