Hardkernel (Hardkernel co., Ltd.) company behind successful development boards such as: ODROID-XU4 and ODROID-C1+, officially launched the ODROID-C0 Development Board, which can be purchased for $25 on Hardkernel website or via distributors such as Ameridroid.
The ODROID-C0 is a computer for those who wish to make a more flexible and portable applications. It is a minimized hardware version of the ODROID-C1+. Battery power circuit is fully integrated. Just attach a 3.7V Li+ battery and make it mobile. It is highly suitable for IoT projects, wearables, and other applications that require a lightweight device.
All the ODROID-C1/C1+ OS images are fully compatible with the ODROID-C0. Some of the modern operating systems that run on the ODROID-C0 are Ubuntu, Android, Arch Linux, Debian, and OpenELEC, with thousands of free open-source software packages available. There are also plenty of custom OS available for using the ODROID-C0 as a multimedia center, Kodi, gaming station, headless server and much more at ODROID community. The ODROID-C0 is a low cost and light weight variant to the original ODROID-C1+ model. The PCB size is reduced about 24% and the weight is reduced to 16g from 40g.
- Adding a Li-polymer battery management IC.
- Remove the Gbit Ethernet connectivity.
- Reduce the number of USB host ports to two from four.
- Remove the USB-OTG port.
- Unpopulated a few connectors for various DIY projects.
The key features and improvements over the original ODROID-C1+:
- Amlogic ARM® Cortex®-A5(ARMv7) 1.5Ghz quad core CPUs
- Mali™-450 MP2 GPU (OpenGL ES 2.0/1.1 enabled for Linux and Android)
- 1Gbyte DDR3 SDRAM
- eMMC4.5 HS200 Flash Storage slot / UHS-1 SDR50 MicroSD Card slot
- 40pin + 7pin GPIOs (unpopulated)
- USB 2.0 Host x 2 (unpopulated)
- Infrared(IR) Receiver (unpopulated)
- Li+ rechargeable battery charger for wearable and robots application
- Battery voltage level is accessible via ADC in the SoC.
- DC/DC step-down converters for higher power efficiency
- DC/DC step-up converter for 5Volt rails (USB host and HDMI) from a Li-Polymer battery
- DIY friendly C0 Connector Pack is available for handy prototyping
ODROID-C0 specifications:
- Processor – Amlogic S805 SoC ARM® Cortex®-A5 (ARMv7) 1.5GHz Quad Core ARMv7 architecture @28nm wafer
- Memory – 1Gbyte DDR3 RAM 792Mhz
- 3D Accelerator – ARM® Mali™-450 MP2 OpenGL ES 2.0 / 1.1
- Flash Storage – eMMC Module Socket : eMMC module (option), MicroSD Card Slot : 8~128GB MicroSD UHS-1 (option)
- USB2.0 Host – High speed standard A type connector x 2 ports
- Video Output – HDMI
- Audio Output – HDMI, I2S
- Real Time Clock – On-board RTC function with a coin-shaped backup battery connector
- IO Expansion – 40pin port (GPIO/UART/SPI/I2C/ADC), 7pin port (I2S)
- WiFi – USB IEEE 802.11b/g/n 1T1R WLAN with Antenna (USB module) (option)
- Power – 5V 2A Power (option), 3.7V Li+ battery power
- System Software – Ubuntu 14.04 + OpenGL ES on Kernel 3.10 LTS, Android 4.4.x on Kernel 3.10 LTS, Full source code is accessible via Github.
- PCB Size – 58 x 56 x 11 mm approx. (Weight : 16 gram w/o heat sink, 30 gram with an optional heat sink)
As you can see Amlogic S805 chipset does not age and is still used on the development board. Using ODROID-C0 board can carry out various projects, among others: drones and robots.
Source: CNXSoft and hardkernel
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