Orange Pi 4
Contents
- 1 Basic features of Orange Pi 4
- 2 Introduction to the use of the development board
- 2.1 Prepare the necessary accessories
- 2.2 Download the image and related information of the development board
- 2.3 Use the Android image pre-installed in eMMC to test the functions of the development board
- 2.4 Method of flashing Linux image to TF card based on Windows PC
- 2.5 Method of flashing Linux image to TF card based on Ubuntu PC
- 2.6 Method of flashing Linux image to eMMC
- 2.7 How to burn Android firmware to TF card
- 2.8 Method to burn Android image to EMMC based on Windows PC
- 2.9 Method to burn Android image to EMMC based on Ubuntu PC
- 2.10 Enter maskrom mode to burn the system to EMMC
- 2.11 Start the Orange Pi development board
- 2.12 How to use the debug serial port
- 3 Download the Orange Pi 4 User Manual
Basic features of Orange Pi 4
What’s Orange Pi 4?
Orange Pi is an open source single-board computer, a new generation of arm64 development board, which can run operating systems such as Android 8.1, Ubuntu and Debian. Orange Pi development board (Orange Pi 4) uses Rockchip RK3399 system-on-chip, and has dual-channel 4GB LPDDR4 memory
What can I do with Orange Pi 4?
We can bulid：
- A computer
- A wireless server
- Games
- Music and Sounds
- HD video
- A speaker
- Android
Pretty much anything else,because Orange pi 4 is open source
Who’s it for?
The Orange Pi development board is not only a consumer product, but also designed for anyone who wants to use technology to create and innovate. It is a very simple, interesting and practical tool, you can use it to create the world around you
Hardware Specification
| Hardware Specification Introduction
| |
| CPU |
Rockchip RK3399 (28nm HKMG process) |
| GPU |
|
| Memory | Dual 4GB LPDDR4 |
| Onboard Storage |
|
| Network | 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet( Realtek RTL8211E ) |
| WIFI+Bluetooth |
|
| Video Output |
1 x HDMI 2.0 ( Type-A ), Supports 4K@60fps output |
| Video Input | MIPI-CSIx2 Camera connector (MIPI_RX0、MIPI_TX1/RX1) |
| Audio Output |
|
| Audio Input |
|
| Power Source |
|
| USB Port |
|
| Low-level peripherals | GPIO1 40 pins (with I2Cx2、SPIx1/UART and GPIOx8) |
| Mini-PCIE | 24pin mini-PCIE interface |
| RTC | Support RTC，on-board battery backup interface |
| Debug Serial Port | UART-TX、UART-RX and GND |
| LED | Power led & Status led |
| Button | Reset x1、Upgrade x1 |
| Support OS | Android8.1、Ubuntu、Debian |
| Appearance specification introduction
| |
| Dimension | 91mm×55.7mm |
 range Pi™ is a trademark of the Shenzhen Xunlong Software CO., Limited | |
Top View and Bottom View of Orange Pi 4
Top View：
Bottom View：
Orange Pi 4 interface details
With 16GB EMMC Version
Without 16GB EMMC Version
Introduction to the use of the development board
Prepare the necessary accessories
1)TF card, a high-speed card of class 10 or higher with a minimum capacity of 8GB, it is recommended to use SanDisk TF card, Orange Pi test is to use SanDisk TF card, other brands of TF card may have the problem of system failure
2)TF card reader, used to read and write TF card
3)HDMI to HDMI cable, used to connect the development board to an HDMI monitor or TV for display
4)Type-C to HDMI cable, connect the development board to the HDMI monitor or TV through the Type-C interface for display
5)Type-C to USB3.0 adapter, used to connect USB3.0 storage devices or mouse keyboards and other devices
6)10.1 inch MIPI screen, used to display the system interface of the development board
7)Power adapter, 5V/3A or 5V/4A high-quality power adapter, the Type-C USB3.0 interface of the development board can also be used for power input
8)USB interface mouse and keyboard, as long as it is a standard USB interface mouse and keyboard, the mouse and keyboard can be used to control the Orange Pi development board
9)100M or Gigabit network cable, used to connect the development board to the Internet
10)OV13850 13 million camera, Orange Pi 4 dedicated camera, compatible with MIPI interface
11)USB to TTL module and DuPont cable. When using the serial port debugging function, USB to TTL module and DuPont cable are required to connect the development board and the computer
12)A personal computer with Ubuntu and Windows operating systems
| 1 | Ubuntu14.04 PC | Optional, used to compile Android source code |
| 2 | Ubuntu18.04 PC | Optional, used to compile Linux source code |
| 3 | Windows PC | Used to burn Android and Linux images |
1)The download URL of the Chinese version is
http://www.orangepi.cn/html/hardWare/computerAndMicrocontrollers/service-and-support/Orange-pi-4.html
2)The download URL of the English version is
http://www.orangepi.org/html/hardWare/computerAndMicrocontrollers/service-and-support/Orange-pi-4.html
3)The information mainly contains
a.Android source code: saved on Baidu Cloud Disk and Google Cloud Disk
b.Linux source code: saved on github, the link address is
https://github.com/orangepi-xunlong/orangepi-build
c.User manuals and schematic diagrams: chip-related data manuals will also be placed here
d.Official tools: mainly include the software that needs to be used during the use of the development board
e.Android image: saved on Baidu Cloud Disk and Google Cloud Disk
f.Ubuntu image: saved on Baidu Cloud Disk and Google Cloud Disk
g.Debian image: saved on Baidu Cloud Disk and Google Cloud Disk
h.Armbian image link, a image developed and maintained by the Armbian community. If you encounter any problems during use, please go to the armbian forum to give feedback. The maintainer of the Armbian image and other people who use the Armbian image will assist in solving various problems. Is the fastest way to solve the problem. Orange Pi is not responsible for maintaining this image
Use the Android image pre-installed in eMMC to test the functions of the development board
If you bought the Orange Pi 4 development board with a 16GB eMMC version, after you get the development board, you can use the Android image pre-installed in the eMMC to test the functions of the development board first, and make sure that all the hardware functions of the development board are okay. Burn the system you want to use
Method of flashing Linux image to TF card based on Windows PC
1)First, prepare a TF card with 8GB or larger capacity. The transmission speed of the TF card must be above class10. It is recommended to use a TF card of SanDisk and other brands
2)Then use a card reader to insert the TF card into the computer
3)Then format the TF card
a.You can use the SD Card Formatter software to format the TF card, the download address is
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/eula_windows/SDCardFormatterv5_WinEN.zip
b.After downloading, you can directly unzip and install, and then open the software
c.If the computer only has a TF card inserted, the “Select card” column will display the drive letter of the TF card. If multiple USB storage devices are inserted into the computer, you can select the drive letter corresponding to the TF card through the drop-down box
d.Then click "Format", a warning box will pop up before formatting, and formatting will start after selecting "Yes (Y)"
e.After formatting the TF card, the message shown in the figure below will pop up, click OK
4)Download the Linux operating system image file compression package you want to burn from the Orange Pi data download page, and then use the decompression software to decompress it. In the decompressed file, the file ending with ".img" is the operating system image file. The size is generally above 1GB
5)Use Win32Diskimager to burn Linux image to TF card
a.The download page of Win32Diskimager is
http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/files/Archive/
b.Install directly after downloading, the interface of Win32Diskimager is shown below
a)First select the path of the image file
b)Then confirm that the drive letter of the TF card is consistent with the one displayed in the "Device" column
c)Finally click "write" to start burning
c.After the image is written, click the "Exit" button to exit, and then you can pull out the TF card and insert it into the development board to start
Method of flashing Linux image to TF card based on Ubuntu PC
1)First, prepare a TF card with 8GB or larger capacity. The transmission speed of the TF card must be above class10. It is recommended to use a TF card of SanDisk and other brands
2)Then use a card reader to insert the TF card into the computer
3)Download balenaEtcher software, the download address is
https://www.balena.io/etcher/
4)After entering the balenaEtcher download page, please select the Linux version of the software through the drop-down box to download
5)After downloading, use unzip to decompress. The decompressed balenaEtcher-1.5.109-x64.AppImage is the software needed to burn Linux image
test@test:~$ unzip balena-etcher-electron-1.5.109-linux-x64.zip
Archive: balena-etcher-electron-1.5.109-linux-x64.zip
inflating: balenaEtcher-1.5.109-x64.AppImage
test@test:~$ ls
balenaEtcher-1.5.109-x64.AppImage balena-etcher-electron-1.5.109-linux-x64.zip
6)Download the Linux operating system image file compression package you want to burn from the Orange Pi data download page, and then use the decompression software to decompress it. In the decompressed file, the file ending with ".img" is the operating system image file. The size is generally above 1GB
test@test:~$ ls Orangepi4_2.1.0_ubuntu_xenial_desktop_linux4.4.179
Orangepi4_2.1.0_ubuntu_xenial_desktop_linux4.4.179.img
Orangepi4_2.1.0_ubuntu_xenial_desktop_linux4.4.179.img.sha # Checksum file
Orangepi4_2.1.0_ubuntu_xenial_desktop_linux4.4.179.img # Image file
7)After decompressing the image, you can first use the sha256sum -c *.sha command to calculate whether the checksum is correct. If the prompt indicates that the downloaded image is correct, you can safely burn it to the TF card. If the checksum does not match, it indicates There is a problem with the downloaded image, please try to download again
test@test:~$ sha256sum -c *.sha
Orangepi4_2.1.0_ubuntu_xenial_desktop_linux4.4.179.img: success
8)Then double-click balenaEtcher-1.5.109-x64.AppImage on the graphical interface of Ubuntu PC to open balenaEtcher (no need to install), the opened interface is as shown in the figure below
a. First select the path of the linux image file
b. Then select the device number of the TF card
c. Finally click Flash to start burning
9)The writing speed and remaining time will be prompted during the burning process
10)After burning, the following interface will be displayed. At this time, you can unplug the TF card from the computer and insert it into the development board to start.
Method of flashing Linux image to eMMC
See the method of flashing linux image to EMMC
How to burn Android firmware to TF card
Android image download that supports TF card startup
1)First download the firmware of Android 8.1 from Orange Pi's data download page, pay attention to select the "Pi4 and Pi4B (SD card boot image)" directory, the image in this directory is the image that supports TF card startup
2)There are two Android images in the "Pi4 and Pi4B" directory. The one with LCD is the firmware that supports 10.1-inch MIPI screen. The image without LCD only supports HDMI display, not LCD screen display, please choose according to actual needs
Make Android image TF card boot card
1)First, prepare a TF card with 8GB or larger capacity. The transmission speed of the TF card must be above class10. It is recommended to use a TF card of SanDisk and other brands
2)Then use a card reader to insert the TF card into the computer
3)Then download SDDiskTool_v1.59.zip burning tool from Orange Pi's data download page
4)Then use the decompression software to decompress the compressed package of the downloaded Android firmware. In the decompressed file, the file ending with ".img" is the Android firmware
5)Then use the decompression software to decompress SDDiskTool_v1.59.zip, this software does not need to be installed, you can find SD_Firmware_Tool.exe in the decompressed folder and open it
6)After opening SDDiskTool, if the TF card is recognized normally, the inserted disk device will be displayed in "Select Removable Disk Device". Please make sure that the displayed disk device is consistent with the drive letter of the TF card you want to burn. If there is no display, you can try to unplug the TF card
7)Then start to write the Android firmware to the TF card
a. First select "SD boot" in "Select function mode"
b. Then select the path of Android firmware in the "Select Firmware Upgrade" column
c. Finally, click the "Start to create" button to start burning the Android image to the TF card
8) After burning, you can exit SDDiskTool, and then you can unplug the TF card from the computer and insert it into the development board to start.
Method to burn Android image to EMMC based on Windows PC
Support the download of EMMC boot image
1)First download the firmware of Android 8.1 from Orange Pi's download page, pay attention to select the "Pi4 and Pi 4B (EMMC boot image)" directory, the image in this directory is the image that supports EMMC boot
2)There are two Android images in the "Pi4 and Pi4B (emmc boot image)" directory. The one with LCD is the firmware that supports 10.1-inch MIPI screen. The image without LCD only supports HDMI display and does not support LCD screen display. Please follow Choose according to actual needs
3)Then use the decompression software to decompress the compressed package of the downloaded Android firmware. In the decompressed file, the file ending with ".img" is the Android image file that needs to be burned
Burn Android image directly to EMMC through Type C interface
1)First prepare a good quality Type C data cable
2)Then download Rockchip Microdrive DriverAssitant_v4.6 and the Android burning tool AndroidTool.zip under Windows system
3)After decompressing the DriverAssitant_v4.6 installation package, click the DriverInstall.exe program to start installing Rockchip Microdrive
4)The steps to install Rockchip Microdrive are as follows
5)Then connect the DC power adapter to the OrangePi 4, and then connect the OrangePi 4 to the Windows PC through the Type-C data cable
6)Then first press and hold the upgrade button, and then lightly press the reset button. The position of the buttons is shown in the figure below
7)If everything is normal at this time, OrangePi 4 will enter loader mode. If the development board is connected to the serial port, you will see the following output information in the serial terminal
#Boot ver: 0000-00-00#0.00
empty serial no.
normal boot.
checkKey
vbus = 1
rockusb key pressed.
8)Then unzip and open AndroidTool
9)At this time, the Loader device recognized will be displayed under the AndroidTool tool, as shown below
10)Then click the "Upgrade Firmware" column, and then click the "Firmware" button to select the Android firmware path. At this time, you need to wait for a while. After the firmware is loaded, click "Erase Flash" to erase the EMMC system, and finally click the "Upgrade" button to burn. The sequence is shown in the figure below.
11)After the burning is completed, the AndroidTool display is as shown in the figure below, and the system will automatically start after the burning is completed
Burn Android image to EMMC via TF card
1)First, prepare a TF card with 8GB or larger capacity. The transmission speed of the TF card must be above class10. It is recommended to use a TF card of SanDisk and other brands
2)Then use a card reader to insert the TF card into the computer
3)Download SDDiskTool from Orange Pi's data download page
4)Use decompression software to decompress SDDiskTool_v1.59.zip, this software does not need to be installed, you can find SD_Firmware_Tool.exe in the decompressed folder and open it
5)After opening SDDiskTool, if the TF card is recognized normally, the inserted disk device will be displayed in "Select Removable Disk Device". Please make sure that the displayed disk device is consistent with the drive letter of the TF card you want to burn. If there is no display, you can try to unplug and insert the TF card
6)Then start to write the Android firmware to the TF card
a. First select the path of Android firmware in the "Select Firmware Upgrade" column
b. Then select "Firmware Upgrade" in "Select Function Mode"
c. Finally, click the "Start Create" button to start burning
7) After burning, you can exit SDDiskTool, and then you can unplug the TF card from the computer and insert it into the development board. The boot will start to burn the Android image in TF to EMMC.
8)If the development board is connected to an HDMI display, you can also see the progress bar of burning Android image to EMMC from the HDMI display
9)When the following message is displayed, it means that burning the Android image to EMMC is complete, and you can pull out the TF card at this time, and then the system will start to boot
Method to burn Android image to EMMC based on Ubuntu PC
1)For the image download method, please refer to Support EMMC to start the image download
2)Download the upgrade_tool tool, this tool is suitable for Ubuntu PC system. Used to burn Android image to EMMC
3)Then execute the command in the terminal to decompress upgrade_tool and add executable permissions
test@test:~$ unzip Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.39.zip
test@test:~$ cd Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.39
test@test:~/Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.39$ sudo chmod +x ./upgrade_tool
4)Then connect the DC power adapter to the OrangePi 4 development board, and then use the Type-C data cable to connect the OrangePi 4 development board to the Ubuntu PC
5)Then press and hold the upgrade button of the Orange Pi 4 development board, and then lightly press the reset button. The position of the button is shown in the figure below
6)If everything is normal, OrangePi 4 will enter the loader mode at this time, and then execute the ./upgrade_tool LD command to check whether the loader device is recognized
test@test:~/Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.39$ ./upgrade_tool LD
Program Data in /home/csy/.config/upgrade_tool
List of rockusb connected(1)
DevNo=1 Vid=0x2207,Pid=0x330c,LocationID=2010201 Mode=Loader
7)Then copy the downloaded image to the Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.39 directory
8)The command to erase EMMC is as follows
test@test:~$ sudo ./upgrade_tool ef OrangePi_4_Android8.1_v1.0.img
9)Execute the following command to start burning Android firmware to EMMC
test@test:~$ sudo ./upgrade_tool ef OrangePi_4_Android8.1_v1.0.img
Enter maskrom mode to burn the system to EMMC
Under normal circumstances, there is no need to enter the MaskRom mode. Only when the bootloader is damaged and the system cannot be started, you need to enter the maskrom mode to burn.
1)First make sure that the development board is disconnected from all power sources, and the SD card is pulled out
2)Then use metal tweezers to connect the solder joints reserved for OrangePi 4 (note the yellow circle in the picture below), and keep
3)Then plug the Orange Pi 4 into the DC power supply, wait for 2~3 seconds, and then loosen the metal tweezers. At this time, the OrangePi 4 development board will enter the maskrom mode
4)Then use the Type C cable to connect the OrangePi 4 development board and the Windows PC, and then open the AndroidTool tool, if everything is normal, you can see that AndroidTool has found a maskrom device
At this time, you can burn the Android image, please refer to the steps to burn the Android image directly to EMMC through the Type C interface
Start the Orange Pi development board
1)Insert the TF card with the burned image into the TF card slot of the Orange Pi development board (if you use the image in EMMC, you don't need to insert the TF card)
2)The development board has an HDMI interface, you can connect the development board to a TV or HDMI display through an HDMI to HDMI cable
3)Connect the USB mouse and keyboard to control the Orange Pi development board
4)The development board has an Ethernet port, which can be plugged into a network cable for Internet access
5)Connect a 5V/3A (5V/4A is also available) high-quality power adapter
a. Remember not to plug in the 12V power adapter, if you plug in the 12V power adapter, the development board will be burned out
b. Many unstable phenomena during system power-on and startup are basically caused by power supply problems, so a reliable power adapter is very important
6)Then turn on the switch of the power adapter, if everything is normal, the HDMI display will be able to see the startup screen of the system at this time
7)If you want to view the output information of the system through the debug serial port, please use the USB to TTL module and DuPont cable to connect the development board to the computer. For the connection method of the serial port, please refer to the section on the use of the debug serial port
How to use the debug serial port
Debug serial port connection instructions
1)First, you need to prepare a USB to TTL module. For better platform compatibility, CH340 USB to TTL module is recommended. Then insert one end of the USB interface of the USB to TTL module into the USB interface of the computer
2)The corresponding relationship between the debug serial port GND, TX and RX pins of the development board is shown in the figure below
3)The GND, TX and RX pins of the USB to TTL module need to be connected to the debug serial port of the development board through a Dupont cable
a. Connect the GND of the USB to TTL module to the GND of the development board
b. Connect the RX of the USB to TTL module to the TX of the development board
c. Connect the TX of the USB to TTL module to the RX of the development board
4)The schematic diagram of connecting the USB to TTL module to the computer and the Orange Pi development board is shown below
5)If you are using a CP2102 USB to TTL module, under the condition of a baud rate of 1.500000, some systems may encounter garbled or unusable problems. The specific test situation is as follows
| USB to TTL module model | Host system | Support situation |
CH340 |
win7 | ok |
| win10 | ok | |
| ubuntu14.04 | ok | |
| ubuntu18.04 | ok | |
| ubuntu20.04 | ok | |
CP2102 |
win7 | ok |
| win10 | Not available | |
| ubuntu14.04 | ok | |
| ubuntu18.04 | Partially not supported | |
| ubuntu20.04 | Not available |
How to use the debug serial port on the Ubuntu platform
1)If the USB to TTL module is connected normally, you can see the corresponding device node name under /dev of Ubuntu PC, remember this node name, you will use it when setting up the serial port software later
test@test:~$ ls /dev/ttyUSB*
/dev/ttyUSB0
2)There are many serial debugging software that can be used under linux, such as putty, minicom, etc. The following shows how to use putty
3)First install putty on the Ubuntu PC
test@test:~$ sudo apt update
test@test:~$ sudo apt install putty
4)Then run putty, remember to add sudo permissions
test@test:~$ sudo putty
5)After executing the putty command, the following interface will pop up
6)First select the setting interface of the serial port
7)Then set the parameters of the serial port
a. Set Serial line to connect to to /dev/ttyUSB0 (modify to the corresponding node name, generally /dev/ttyUSB0)
b. Set Speed(baud) to 1500000 (baud rate of serial port)
c. Set Flow control to None
8)After setting the serial port setting interface, return to the Session interface
a. First select the Connection type as Serial
b. Then click the Open button to connect to the serial port
9)After starting the development board, you can see the Log information output by the system from the opened serial port terminal
How to use the debug serial port on Windows platform
1)There are many serial debugging software that can be used under Windows, such as SecureCRT, MobaXterm, etc. The following shows how to use MobaXterm. This software has a free version and can be used without purchasing a serial number.
2)Download MobaXterm
a.Download MobaXterm URL as follows
https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/
b.After entering the MobaXterm download page, click GET XOBATERM NOW!
c.Then choose to download the Home version
d.Then select the Portable version, after downloading, you don’t need to install it, you can open it directly
3)After downloading, use the decompression software to decompress the downloaded compressed package, you can get the executable software of MobaXterm, and then double-click to open it
4)After opening the software, the steps to set the serial port connection are as follows
a. Open the session setting interface
b. Select the serial port type
c. Select the port number of the serial port (choose the corresponding port number according to the actual situation), if you can't see the port number, please use the 360 driver master to scan and install the USB to TTL serial chip driver
d. Select the baud rate of the serial port to be 1500000
e. Finally click the "OK" button to complete the setting
5)After clicking the "OK" button, you will enter the following interface, and you can see the output information of the serial port when you start the development board.
Download the Orange Pi 4 User Manual
For more information on using the Orange Pi 4, please see the Orange Pi 4 User Manual. (Click to download)
