PotatoCar infotainment. (I2S Audio DAC, Remote Shutdown / Sleep and GPS)
Hi @loverpi and others!
I've just ordered a Le Potato board. The main reason for this purchase is to make a car infotainment system.
So I have a couple of questions which might be interesting for other people as well
Since the Le Potato board has dedicated ADC and I2S pins for digital audio I wanted to know if there are any I2S DACs that are confirmed to work with the board?
I researched a bit and the layout of Le Potato seems quite similar to Hardkernel's Odroid C2 (based on amlogic s905) which has I2S pins in the same location. Any clue if the DAC hat for C2 will fit the Le Potato board?
Here is the link to the DAC
https://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G143729448865
I will use AOSP 8.0 build with the board. Does Android have native support for I2S digital audio?Is there any option to shut down the board using GPIO pins?
Some boards have dedicated PWR pin which can be shorted with GND to initiate shutdown process or call a power off menu. (Odroid XU4 for instance). Is there anything like that in Le Potato? Also is it possible to initiate deep sleep instead of full shutdown?Are there any usb GPS modules that are confirmed to work with this board?
Comments
SARADC is for digital keypads. It's not for audio since it's only 12 bit SARADC. I2S pins are for digital audio but the entire audio system for GXL family hasn't been a focus for Libre Computer. Amlogic may put some focus on mainline soon.
HardKernel puts some analog 1.8V SAR ADC pins on the 40 pin header instead of strictly 3.3V GPIO. This is somewhat dangerous. Anything HardKernel builds will only work on HardKernel devices.
There is no GPIO shutdown pin. The Cortex M3 system controller can use IR codes to sleep and wake the system from ultra low power state but this is only supported on Android and not mainline Linux.
USB GPS modules should work on mainline Linux images provided they have the appropriate kernel driver. Android may or may not.
@loverpi Thanks. If that happens, will RaspberryPi DAC hats be compatible with LePotato? I2S DAC support is currently the only thing that's keeping me from buying one. It really seems perfect in every other way, and I especially appreciate the FOSS emphasis.
Edit: Is there an ETA? Is there anything I can do to help?
@loverpi thanks for your response. So is there any DAC on the market that has been tested with the Le Potato board running Android? Also would it be possible to use GPIOs in Android so I could create a small app for shutting down the device. The goal is to create a power button which will connect 2 pins if pressed and run $ sudo shutdown -h now in terminal to initiate shutdown process.
There is currently no focus on I2S and the audio subsystem for GXL. This is something for Q1 2019.
@loverpi what about usb touchscreens? I just got my Le Potato board, flashed Android 8.1 to EMMC and hooked to my hdmi display with usb touchscreen... Unfortunately the touchscreen didn't work. I tried all the usb ports, tried different usb touchscreen but seems that Android on Le Potato doesn't support usb touchscreens at all...
What is the USB ID of the touchscreen when you plug it in regular machine? It has to be compiled into the Android kernel.
@loverpi thanks for your response.
Here is the touchscreen info
VID_222A PID_0001
What about the Status Bar and the Navigation Bar? Is it possible to implement those in the next build? I guess many people are going to use it with a touchscreen so to improve the experience the rom needs to have a status bar and a navigation bar.
The same situation is with Rock64 and a lot of users are very disappointed with the board as there have been numerous requests to add these features to their roms but they got no response or explanation from the developers. So for many users Rock64 is an effective dust collector. Le Potato seems a great board and I really would like to use it in my projects but Android still needs more improvements. Overall it has a potential of a great product!
ILITEK touch screen driver. You said you need this for android right? Do you know which specific ILITEK IC it is?
The chip says
ILITEK 2511QG010
A771454
E1lv10152.1
Thank you very much @loverpi!
Any comment regarding the status bar and navigation bar?
Status and navigation bar? We saw two flags in the Android kernel regarding ILITEK and we will enable them in the next Android release.
@loverpi Yes, I mean the Home, Back and Recent apps buttons in the bottom of the screen (would be great if the navigation bar had volume up/down buttons as well)
Also the top pull down menu with notifications and quick settings buttons (wifi, bluetooth)
If I am correct the status bar and notification bar are the part of systemui.apk which is usually the part of system.img of the rom. so there is no need to develop a completely new Android build.
The reason it is important to have the status bar and navigation bar is that many users are going to use the board with touchscreens so to make it touchscreen friendly the Android build needs to have these features.
P.S. Thanks for the help with touchscreen drivers.
@loverpi Hi! Any updates on touchscreen support?
Also would you please make a comment regarding the status bar and navigation bar implementation in Android for Le Potato?
Hey @loverpi! Any updates on the next Android release? Do you have an ETA for it?
Also did you make a decision on status bar and navigation bar for the android build?
My board sits in the desk for 3 months already and collects dust, because I cannot use it without a proper Android build
@fender90 We are awaiting Android 9 SDK.