Major System Specifications:
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16MB flash (VSOP-8, W25Q128FVSTIM/G)
Serial flash memory with Dual/Quad SPI and QPI
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32MB SDRAM (16M x 16 Bit) (TSOP-54, EM63A165TS-6G)
166MHz
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RT5350F WiFi SOC (MIPS 24KEc, 360 MHz) (TFBGA-196B, RT5350F)
802.11n 1T/1R (1×1:1) 2.4 GHz 150Mbps MAC/BB/PA/RF 5-port 10/100 Mbps Ethernet switch w/ 5 10/100 PHYs USB 2.0 host/client Standard n/w features GPIO, SPI, I2C, I2S, PCM, UART, and JTAG
Bare module (See the adjacent photo) costs hardly $20 and can be purchased from HERE.
Where to Buy?
VoCore is available at : http://vocore.io/store
Order “VoCore + Dock” if you are planning to use it for learning purpose. Without docking station it is very difficult to use this module for experiments. If free shipment option (through china mail) is selected, it will take 3 Weeks to get delivered.
From my experience I have listed out some Advantages and Lacunae of the module. They are as follows:
Advantages:
1) OpenWRT Linux support
2) SOC with decent clock speed. 360MHz is more than sufficient for many small projects.
3) Extremely compact module. Measures 1 Sq. In.
4) Completely self contained. If used with docking board, it becomes like plug-n-play module.
5) Really predictable behaviour of the module.
6) Lot of information about OpenWRT Linux compilation, flashing the firmware, recovering from corrupted (or incorrectly programmed) firmware, and simple tutorials are present on the Vonger’s blog
Lacuna:
1) Board design is not completely open source. You will get PDF copy of the schematic and ASC format layout file. These are not helpful if you want to modify the module and tune it to your needs. So, if you are planning to use VoCore in production environment you will always have to depend on original creators and buy VoCore from them. [Note: If you have produced VoCore from the available layout files, do let me know about your work. It’s information will be updated here.]
2) No 64MB SDRAM support. Although RT5350F supports 64MB DRAM, it is understood (from the email communication with creators of the board) that VoCore board cannot support 64MB DRAM.
3) I was not able to get microSD card working with kmod-spi-dev driver. Vonger has developed ‘Bit banged’ SPI driver, which not very efficient for microSD cards.
4) Heating!! WiFi SOC heats up considerably. After about 10-15 minutes of operation, you cannot put and hold your finger on top of the SOC.
Although Vonger’s blog is rich with information, it is not organized very well and first time users will have difficult time in finding the required information. You will have to rely on Google for searching on the Vonger’s blog.
Due to compactness and Docking board, VoCore is really easy to use (Alternative to default Docking board by Greenwire-Elektronik: http://tr.im/FN8N7). It can be used for creating cool projects with OpenWRT Linux. I will be writing another post which can serve as ‘Table of Content’ for Vonger’s blog. This will help VoCore beginners to quickly learn about the board.