Hardware explained
Components on PCBA
Front side | Back side |
---|---|
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- CMOS
- Sysytem on Chip
- RAM
- SPI NOR Flash
- Ethernet PHY
- Quartz
- Ethernet transformer
Other components are R, L, C and some ICs (DC-DC convertors for example).
Typical module requires 12v input (power consumption ~200mA).
Interfaces
Usually on the PCB you can find:
- UART
- 100Mbit ethernet
- IR cut control (H-bridge for DC motor)
- USB 2.0 host
- Audio in
- Audio out
- Alarm in
- Secondary UART (typically with convertor to RS232/RS485)
Software stack
Boot order:
- Registers init
- U-boot
- Linux kernel
- Rootfs
Fortunately these chips is very easy to run, comparing to something like MediaTek SoCs for android smartphones, where typically you will need 2-3 steps boot process. All modules comes with original vendor software, the best choice for beginners is to keep vendor`s u-boot bootloader (with registers init, that is mostly related to RAM chip installed on the PCB).