A13-OLINUXINO-MICRO

A13-OLinuXino-MICRO is a stripped down version of A13-OLinuXino-WIFI with the following specs:

A13-OLinuXino-micro is a low-cost single-board Linux computer in a very compact nano-ITX form. It uses the very first Cortex A8 processor
available in the eLQFP176 package, produced by All winner Technology IncA13.
SoC AllWinner A13 Cortex A8 processor at 1GHz with Mali400 GPU
System Memory 256 MB RAM (128Mbit x 16)
Storage micro SD card slot for booting the Linux image
Video Output VGA video output. LCD signals are available on connector.
Audio I/O 3.5mm headphone jack + Microphone input pads (no connector)
USB 1x USB host +1x USB OTG which can power the board
UEXT connector To connect UEXT modules like Zigbee, Bluetooth, Relays, etc
3 GPIO connectors (2x 40-pin and 1x 10-pin) Those give access to NAND flash, GPIOs, I2C, UARTs and SDIO2 signals, as well
as 5 system pins: +5V, +3.3V, GND, RESET, NMI.
LCD Connector You can connect an optional 7 LCD provided by Olimex, or connect your own.
Misc 1 reset key, 1 U-boot/FEL key, 2 LEDs, 4 mounting holes, UART1 header and pads for JTAG and UART0.
Power 5V DC input power supply
Dimensions 100 x 85 mm

A13-OLinuXino-MICRO Unboxing

Lets have a look at the top of the board first, where all the components and connectors are placed

The back of the board shows markings for the GPIO connectors, VGA, UARTs, JTAG and some test points for the different voltages on the board.

Getting Started with Olimex A13-OLinuXino-MICRO

First youll need to get some external accessories such as:
A power supply A 5V/2A power supply to connect to the 5+ jack or the miniUSB port. A microUSB port might have been preferably
since most mobile phones used this type of USB connector.
A USB hub This is optional but since theres only a USB Host port, it is required unless you only plan to connect one USB device
(e.g. USB keyboard).
Display VGA monitor or LCD
Keyboard and mouse
Wi-Fi / Ethernet USB Dongle Optional
a micro SD for Debian storage
One good thing with Olimex is that they have free users manuals for their boards and the Raspberry Pi does have one, but you need to pay for
it. Of course, all boards have some free resources online, but its still nice to have most of what you need in one document. So lets download
A13-OLinuXino-MICRO users manual first. It a 30-page PDF document that gives you an overview of the board, explains how to get started
with the board, and gives a detailed hardware description of the board (pin and connectors descriptions), some information about AllWinner
A13 SoC, and some links to the design files (schematics & PCB layout in PDF and Eagle format).
Since the board does not have flash, you need to load a Linux image to a micro SD card first. Olimex currently just has a preliminary Debian
image for the board (A13_Micro_Debian_first_preliminary_release-06122012.rar 737 MB). This is a compressed SD card image, so simply
uncompress it, and dump it to a micro SD card with Win32DiskImager (Windows). Time to connect the board. Ive inserted by Debian SD card,
and connected a USB keyboard, a VGA cable to my monitor and a power supply to the microUSB port. Everything looks fine, we can see U-Boot
and the kernel output in VGA monitor.
Conclusion:
One of the advantage of the Olimex board is the VGA connector which is missing on the other boards such as raspberry pi .. A13-OLinuXinoMICRO also has 4 expansion headers, including the UEXT connector that gives you access to over 20 low cost modules. This can make the board
very attractive for embedded projects as its relatively straightforward to add some features such as GSM/GPRS, sensors, GPS. RF connectivity
Finally, all Olimex boards are open source hardware, which means youll get access to hardware design files (and not only PDF) and source
code, which is not fully the case for most other boards, especially for the schematics in original format and PCB layout.