dont buy this board

This board is giving lot of problems 
it is not booting sometimes
Active sync is not connecting
there is no quick start guides
first of all there is no support ........


Hi guys come here and support us this may make them to provide some support
lets do a revolution

see guys before posting here ,make a copy of ur post
so that if they delete our thread tommorow we can repost it
common guys lets do the revolution

lets get our money
back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!

ya ,for me also this board is giving a lot of problems.
and i found there is no support.

pls dont waste ur money............

Hey, u idiots provide us a full english manual like ur chinese manual.
why this idiots are selling the kits without an english manual in the other
parts other than china.

Hello all!
 I bought 10+ mini2440 board and all the problems that I experienced was
about the power supply! Now I supply +6v (yes 6v!) from a switching wall
power supply sold in Europe and everythings is OK. Please note that 8 of
this board with 7" display are used 7days/7days 18hours per day on glazing
booths in Ceramic Industries...

So my experience is positive!

Eugenio

Just before people go cranking up the supply voltage to get rid of their
problems . . .

The LM1117-33 has a maximum dropout voltage of 1.3V, if your supply voltage
is somewhere around 3.3 + 1.3 = 4.6Volts the LM1117 could be losing
regulation.  Now, if the 3.3V drops a few 100mV do other things stop
working?  Without digging into the minimum voltage rating on all the parts
fed off the 3V3 supply . . . well I am not going to guess.

I have noticed that if the supply voltage gets to somewhere around 4.5V
that things do start to act up.  And it appears to be the display.

Looking at, the N35 touchscreen NL2432HC22.pdf
page 10 
H driver supply voltage   Vdd min 4.5Volts

This suggests to me that the display drivers MAY not perform correctly
below 4.5Volts.

Another issue, I would monitor the power supply voltage with an
oscilloscope  while there is activity on the dev board as short periods of
higher than normal current could result in the supply voltage dropping down
further than a static condition.   There is only a 10uF cap on the output
of the 3V3 reg and that does not hold much energy.

Fortunately, everything EXCEPT the touchscreen and USB ports are protected
from supply voltages above 5.0Volts.

Hope you are not trying to power USB devices as well off the USB port on
the dev board as the supplied plug pack only just seems to be able to
handle the board itself.

No problems with my boards.

I think you guys are to dumb to work with sophisticated equipment and
software.

Then don't buy this board.

If you have $500 for a board that comes with support then don't buy this
board.

If you don't have the skills to use this board then don't buy it.

If you don't know about development and are not inclined to read and learn
then don't buy this board.

I bought it knowing that i would have little support. And still I have
received more support than I expected. I enjoy this board. I like playing
with it, breaking the WinCE image and fixing it again. I did not but it
expecting to have a polished end product.

That problem? 
these plates do not have problems. it has a very complete information of
the electrical circuit. that clearly it can or not be interpreted depends
on the level on that tries to do it…. that is a detail now., I have two
plates one mimi with 3,5" , a micro ones with 7" and the limitations that
find are purely mine 
they try to approach but to books… they do not bite! and to request aid
with humility is not bad

hug andres

I have around 8 of these boards, various mini, micro, 3.5", 7", 64M, 128M,
256M and they are all fine. I would echo what errol, davef & edje say. 

The reason the earlier posts got deleted would have been because of the
foul language. These boards are for professionals and NOT amateurs which is
why you have experienced so many problems.

Phil

This board is a VERY nice piece of hardware.. if one knows how to use it.

No surprise this kind of comment comes from one using winblows bloatware.

@Vinicius Kamakura
Exactly!

@ all

the issue was not whether the board was a bad piece of hardware. It's
great. The problem is that it never boots when a kernels other than the
Busserror's and Jay's are installed. 

That's it. And one more thing. I hate to complain about it, but it's such a
damn shame that Xenomai was ported for s3c2440 and yet, people who got it
working wouldn't explain exactly what they did in order to make the damn
thing boot flawlessly.

hey ,

             see ya How fast these guys are answering this questions
when we say the board is bad.why cant these guys are not answering in the
forum..........so these guys are totally fraud..........................


hey pepole lets think.............. 


these guys are making us foolish

i recomend u dont buy this board

nini problem. 
the world this plenty of people… that watches the sky all day in search of
an answer… 
some answer? 
They want to give back the world?

hey ,

             see ya How fast these guys are answering this questions
when we say the board is bad.why cant these guys are not answering in the
forum..........so these guys are totally fraud..........................


hey pepole lets think.............. 


these guys are making us foolish

i recomend u dont buy this board

especially @mini2440_enthus:
Yes but its in your option to use the internet for searching/using many
documentation stuff and making the kernel and software fit for your needs.

The board and the basic stuff like working cross-compilation-toolchain,
bootloader, kernel and root filesystem is just the beginning for entering
the world of development ;)

I have found that all limitations of this board are my own. If I wanted an
ipad I would have plunked down the money for it. I wanted a tinker board. I
tinker. I ask questions sometimes I get answers sometimes I don't. if it is
something i can help with i do. We all stand on the shoulders of giants.

For those who don't like it sell it on e-bay to someone who does. Dont go
away mad.. just go away!!

ps.. I got mine as a gift. I love it!!!!

see see all this guys are liars .these guys are from sameside all these
guys are selling boards

here see from this comment u can understand it



ps.. I got mine as a gift. I love it!!!!

For you Mini 2440 problema!!!

                Sealevel Systems, Inc

                 2779 Greenville Hwy. 

                 Liberty, SC 29657

                   United States

For further information on Sealevel Systems, please visit our website at
www.sealevel.com. 

you would find answers and support. etc etc. everything reason why these
crying

No sorry no affiliation with any manufacturer. Think birthday present.

Well that is the end of any future business with FA,  (yep guys i'm the one
who sent you an email asking about a visit to your office, remember your
closed over the weekend)

We had a requirement for factory machinery (a China company near GZ) , of
about 50 PCS a month , I had been asked to look at this board as a cheap
way to setup a control panel.

Buy the boards --- load in software ---, integrate into the chinese
hardware.


BUT....... after i find that these guys have been into the forums and
edited out ALL the posts, that question anything about their hardware and
difficulties with it.

I now see the true character of this company, they are not interested in
balanced discussions, just making money, so much so they will  "sanitize"
the forums.

ya its true bob.....

Hi,
       iam from india,i got the  board from rhydolabz.they gave me an empty
cd without any tools for wince like evc++,ads... anything is not in the cd


after that iam experiencing lot of problems

problem 1.

active sync is not connecting to my system .so i cant download anything to
my board

so i started a forum but no replies........


Problem 2

when iam debugging using evc++ iam getting an error like this
cemon.exe cannot start.

i also started a thread but no replies






MY MARK FOR THIS BOARD IS 0 0  0       0 0 0 0 0

Hi

see this is a proof -------------This guys are dealers with friendly arm...

replied from 

andrés barré


Sealevel Systems, Inc

                 2779 Greenville Hwy. 

                 Liberty, SC 29657

                   United States

For further information on Sealevel Systems, please visit our website at
www.sealevel.com. 

you would find answers and support. etc etc. everything reason why these
crying

THIS IS A ORGINAL PROOF .

http://www.rhydolabz.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=99&a...


Actually this a very good company selling kits.they also said clearly at
the page bottom



Note 1: This kit is from friendlyARM  and we do not have any tie-up with
them. So we regret to inform you that, you may not get any support for
application development on os like WINCE,LINUX,ANDROID and the related
errors at compiling time. We are just importing the kit and selling to you
with 10-12% margin.

I was attracted to this kit ( price Vs  features) and bought for my own R&D
/ Hobby purpose . I think there may be guys having same wavelength as me (
mad techies ! ) and i made it available at our store for those guys.

Note 2: For those who do not have time to spent / play around i am
suggesting to consider EMBEST ARM9 Kit with support from us as well as from
the EMBEST(Manufacturer) as we are the distributors for them.

This board is perfect and I love it.

If you don't know to use it I suggest to learn more.

Stop this thread.

What does Sealevel Systems have to do with this?  I didn't find anything
about the Mini2440 on their web site.

Hello, 

Yes, it is difficult to jump into development for the mini2440, the
documentation is poor. 

I practice Windows CE development in my job, I bought the mini2440 for
myself to be able to develop some personnal projects for a low price (I
dreamed of such a board for years). I made my web site (www.domodom.fr) to
explain to a friend how to start with the mini2440 under Windows CE.

When I saw the number of people who were looking information about
development under Windows CE with the mini2440, i decided to translate my
website and give every beginners the possibility to discover Windows CE
development with this board.

If you buy a mini2440 and follow my tutorials, I think that you should
fastly be able to have a board with Windows CE and the knowledge to write
your own applications. It's certainly not perfect, my english is poor, but
some people contact me directly to have furthers explanations, i try to
help them. 

I would like to be able to distribute a better nk.bin image to give the
possibility to everyone to develop their applications without to have to
generate their own Windows CE image, but is it not possible, Windows CE is
not free, even for amateurs. I am currently looking for a solution, maybe
by selling the windows ce image.

I don't know if there are others web sites that explain how to start under
linux or android.

I think the hardware is sane, you have to do the software, if the board
crashes, it's certainly your fault...

Domodom

PS : in my job, i used boards of famous manufacturers, the support is
always poor. Ok, you have a better documentation to fastly start, but if
you find a bug in a driver, it's very difficult to have support.

I've been using these boards with Linux and WIN CE and never had any
problem with the hardware - and no I do not work for the company.

It's sad that a few idiots with no skills try to blame everything but
themselves.

bad documents.Bad kit.I hate it

You are true, if my grand mother buy this board, she won't be able to do
something with it. 

It's incredible, why does someone dare to sell an electronic board that my
grand mother can't use ??

Damn it to hell! Why don't you guys just buy an iPhone or so instead of
bullying around here then? I think it's much better then wasting your time
with it because of your lack and incomprehension in development...

HI DOMDOM

what are u saying?speak clearly

I was joking... ;o)

I think that a lot of people here believe that because they one day wrote a
simple windows application, they will be able to develop an embedded system
! And when they see that it's difficult and it takes some time, it's
obvious, then the board or the kit is bad ! 

No, the board is not bad, it's a shame not to have the source code of the
samples, but the kit is excellent, you have everything in the box, even the
jtag adapter !!

Dominique

selva, forget this board and try the toys :)

True, it's not for everyone, and for the price you can expect a little
extra work. The documentation is scare, and support is not a phone call
away. Domodom has been a great help and I don't know how I'd be able to get
Win CE going without the tutorials and tips. With that being said, the
hardware is great, no issues, no problems, no regrets, I've been using this
platform everywhere I can. It's been reliable and all the peripherals work
every time.

here see because of no suppourt.iam saying i hate it

How others will learn?..you may good in embedded how the starters will
learn ?think abt that

see so many of them purchasing the board?

Still why no support?


so money is the thing? not the support right...are u accepting this
point,,,

see iam also good in embedded but iam speaking for the others watch it and
learn 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwrQ-B-_lAU

selva said:
"here see because of no suppourt.iam saying i hate it"

Selva, there is no support because the board is so cheap that there is no
money to pay someone to give support.

ALL the other boards are $300 or more, without LCD. With those boards you
get better BSP and support.

You get what you pay for...

You can't buy a cheap car and expect it to drive like an expensive car. 

But a lot of people buy cheap cars because that is all they can afford.

These obsolutamente in the certain thing, any other plate is much more
expensive, clearly includes support and many other things. this plate is
economic. but we do not forget that with that price it gives the
possibility to much people of beginning to experience in the world of
systems embedded. that otherwise serious impossible 
if to buy a FORD K… and you try to optener the sensation to handle a
FERRARI…?

I agree with the topic. I´ve bought more than 10 of this board and all I´m
facing are problems. Bad documentation, very instable hardware. (we depends
of FORUMS for make it work. Not professional support).

I´m very DISAPPOINTED with this hardware. It´s not lack of competence but i
use other hardware with compatible price (little bit more expensive) and i
prefer paying 100 US$ more for a more stable hardware with better
performance. 

Almost all guys here that like this board are using for experiments... LAB
xperiments... and at lab, everything GOES perfect ... PUT IT ON
production... FUCKING LOT OF PROBLEMS... double the costs because every day
we had hardware problems, instability, etc...


I´m sorry... mini2440 is bad for business... 

For researches... it´s great... in a controlled environment it´s a
paradise. 

Sorry folks... 1 year that I don´t use this board and today, 85% of my
problems are now solved. (I´m still using ARM proc but in a diff. board.)

When i bought for the first time i was really excited... but after using...
only disappointments...

Sorry folks.. I need more professional support... not a community where i
depend on FORUMS for answering my questions and problems.. 
And see that I tryed to look for a specialist support (PAID support).
But... nor even then can solve all of the bilhion problems mini2440 had. 


Even the kernel for it depends on a blog.. c´mom... ridiculous.

Instead of just saying that you have problems with your boards, could you
explain us what these problems are ?

Markim… your position is not profecional… 
or not and serious. 
kernel depends on a forum? … 
that is that? 
kernel does not depend on a forum, depends on which you buy necessary the
professional tools and you have the professionals! necessary to create it
to your measurement. 
the plate has problems? that problems? if HP is the same plate that use per
years without problems. 
of which these speaking? and controlled environments? that are controlled
environments in the industry? that does not exist. in the industry they
only exist ambient difficult where we must find the solutions… 
"we must find the solutions". it means that a good technician or engineer
does… the other people cry against the problems and they do not solve them

Hi markim u are true .Even if u say what is ur problem domdom cant do
anything.These guys are chicken.only they know to ask questions.I think
there is something in between manufacturers and these guys..........

iam still saying 

DONT BUY THIS BOARD

Quod natura non dat salamantica non prestat

Just to clarify one thing : there's nothing between me and the
manufacturer, I don't even know who is manufacturing the mini2440. Well, if
the manufacturer wants to offer me some mini2440, I'm ok, because I have a
lot of projects I would like to develop and publish on my website.

When I published my website, I was thinking to have maybe 10 visitors/week,
but i have now between 50 and 100 visitors/day. Some of them contacted me
to ask advices, clarifications, help, etc... And there is one thing that
surprised me a lot : there are a lot of people that use the mini2440 in
professional projects !!

I think this board is good, but if there are hidden problems, I'm very
interested to know them, and all the people developing professional
projects too ! 

For the moment, in this thread, I only read things about the power supply,
activesync (that is not included in the default Windows CE image, so it is
normal, any Windows CE developer is able to find the problem in few
minutes), instable hardware (without other precision, from my own
profesional experience, the bad software developers often say that when
they don't understand what is crashing in their source code...), etc...

I have the impression that the only people who are crying are the people
who are not able to start quickly because they don't know about embedded
develpment (I had to explain to 1 of them on this forum what is a pointer
in C, I don't think it's the job of the manufacturer to explain that in its
documentation !)

Well, in conclusion, some people buy the board, don't succeed to make they
want and cry, the others are very happy and buy a lot of mini2440 for a lot
of projects...

Hey Domdom.. look my friend... It´s nothing about you... I´m happy If you
are successful with mini2440 and I be sure of my best wishes for you.

I think that you should keep your good work making your research and be
able to develop under this board. 

I´m not crying about this board... I don´t have time for it... if I had the
time...yes, I would cry... 

I´m glad you are a C programmer and I think you should have a great
potential for developing greater things over the board.

But im a Business man... Our goals are a little bit different... Don´t take
me bad but, i don´t care for the language the board needs... if it´s C,
Pascal or Java...or even if I don´t know how to code for it (some time in
the past... in 80ties i´ve coded in C)

I care for money.. for investment.. for ROI... and mainly for my product. 

I need a stable hardware, a stable product... I paid to greaters C
programmers which made an excelent job (other boards works fine until now)
but mini2440 isn´t stable... If my mini2440 is running today i simply can´t
guarantee that it will run in a month...unfortunatelly because my will was
that this board (Cheaper) would be as great as those expensives in market.


I think you should keep doing your great work helping people with your
website, you are doing it right.

When i Buy any thin client the first thing that come to me is: Support.

I must have the manufacturer or supplier support. This in all business I´m
on. (Not just on thinclients, but in other business i have). 

There are few Documentation  also... and... I disagree with you... I have
to give support to customers which buy my mini2440 product... I MUST give
them support, or they wont buy my solution anymore... 
WHY the Manufacturer or Supplier should´t give me support also?!??!?! I´m
PAYING them!.

Mini2440 depends on the community it has... depends on us... if we
disappear... nor even god will know how to make it work...

I don´t wanna fight because of that... there´s no need to.. We respect if
you disagree with our opinion, but respect ours. 

instead of fighting why don´t you help us and make us change our minds? :)

It´s that all we want. I´m sure... we don´t like to be frustrated on an
investment we made... 

So, help us!

Sorry for my bad english and best regards to all friends.

By the way Domdom... what is you website? Share with us... maybe one of
your researchs solve some of our problems. :)

MARKIM

AT THIS POINT ..

(I need a stable hardware, a stable product... I paid to greaters C
programmers which made an excelent job (other boards works fine until now)
but mini2440 isn´t stable... If my mini2440 is running today i simply can´t
guarantee that it will run in a month...unfortunatelly because my will was
that this board (Cheaper) would be as great as those expensives in market)

I BELIEVE THAT THE DEVELOPERS TO WHICH THESE PAYING TO THEM. THEY SWINDLE
TO YOU. THAT IS TO SAY. 
I BELIEVE THAT THEY SAY TO YOU, 
...I PROGRAMS C, 
...I TO DEVELOP C & ASEMBLY ETC ETC , 
          AND IN TRUTH THEY ONLY KNOW TO USE SOLUTIONS ALREADY YOU THROW.
NOT TO DO THEM, 
AND THAT WAY IN the WORLD OF the BUSINESSES OF the SOFT& HARD YOU ARE NOT
GOING TO HAVE RESULT. 
HEY  ...THINKS ABOUT THIS! 

HUG

Hey Markim, 
Your posts are very long... but at the end of them, we don't know anything
about the problems you encoutered...
You seem to have time to cry, but not to explain us... and explain us why
the board is bad...
Domodom

Dear markim,

You talk (longly) about investments, ROI, etc but you have to face reality:
"you get what you paid" : let's be clear at such a price you have a stable
board (voltage regulation part, s3C2440, etc) that lets you to be sure to
get a good uptime with it.

Suport side, I totally agree with you : less than nothing - and  
not only in China, but Watterott don't sale the cable kit and answer about
this by email, but this is another discussion- the important to know is
that you can't have a cheap board and a 1st class support at low price .

This is why this forum exists, if you dare try to buy at Hiteg and look for
their support & forum ;o)

I think that this everybody try to tell you.

Thanks for your feedback, I am close with FriendlyARM in China, I can not
find what is the problem detail you talked. I think the user maybe ask the
manufacture if they need help, the support email is obvious in that chinese
manual: capbily@163.com, you can email to me(xyz.wind@gmail.com), I will
forward to FriendlyARM.

I bought a Mini 6410. The board is fine, it runs Android.
However I want to use it as an embedded system. Before anybody starts
insulting me, I am a EE, I design microprocessor systems, I program in VC++
and assembly for just about any processor there is. However I have never
used Linux. 
The documentation is so poor that it is virtually impossible to get
anything done. The problems reported have nothing to do with a lack of
competence, the users are not mind-readers. 
There should be a "how to get started" document. The author should not
assume anything but the reader speaks English and has a basic understanding
of computer programming. This document should be front and center. If it is
hidden somewhere, I will never know it even exists.
A tip for the manufacturer... If you want to sell more boards... always
provide a DVD with all the documentation someone may need... and in the
root directory you have the "how to get started" document.
If I get it to work, I will even forgive any patronizing language.
You will sell a million boards if the users are happy.

Karl

this is correct. but I have to say, the documentation here in the forum is
pretty good. I only had trouble with finding documentation for my 6410
board. I have to say it's cool, but nothing for beginners.

Karl, don't make me laugh pls!


"How to get started"??? Well first of all...if you don't know anything
about linux....Don't buy this board! I could send you a lot of tutorials
about compiling kernel, installing rootfilesys, Qt..etc etc.But if linux
for you is like ants sexual life for me, the get-started guide for you is a
linux book!

if you program in VC++ install WINCE on MINI. There is enough info on the
users guide provided in the FriendlyARM DVD about how to do it!


People teach yourselves!


Sorry for my English!

" The author should not assume anything but the reader speaks English"

Karl, the author DOES NOT assume even that you speak English. The author is
Chinese, all the documents are Chinese, all the source code comments are
Chinese. The English documents that we have was translated from Chinese.

Thus, the manufacturer assumes you are Chinese. If you are not then it
isn't their problem if you struggel.

And before you say anything, I'm not Chinese. And English is my second
language. I know that I can't develop for Linux, but I also know that it
isn't the manufacturer's job to teach me how to develop for Linux. As far
as I know, if you can develop for PC linux then you can more or less
develop for this board, as the kernel is the same. So start learning about
Linux development and stop complaining.

I knew that I will get such reaction.
I still think you missed my point of view. If I were the marketing manager
of FriendlyArm I would move heaven and earth to make it as easy as possible
for non-chinese people to use the board. The market is not only in China it
is world-wide. Furthermore the big profits are not providing some hardware
for some hobbyist, there are companies who would buy 10K+ boards in one
single purchase order. But they have to develop a product first and when
you run a company here in the US you have to budget $50-$100 per hour per
engineer or programmer.
Now you know, why a $200 board is suddenly not as good a deal as you
thought.

Errol..
It IS the manufacturers problem when the customer struggles. It does not
matter who is stupid or smart, when the customer has problems you do not
have a business.



Karl

Karl: When it comes to cheap but good quality boards like Friendly ARM one,
you have to be creative. Why don't you try this learning kit?:

http://www.intellimetrix.us/EmbeddedLinuxKit.htm

This is not about Linux or any other operating system. It is not sufficient
that all the answers are somewhere, either here on this forum or elsewhere
on this net. It took me an hour to change the operating system.
For instance, the user cannot possible guess the file format of the SD card
on this board. Don't say it is obvious, because there are many proprietary
file formats out there. 
Furthermore, Do I need a normal PC to load a different operating system
onto the SD or does the card have a bios and I can download directly into
the NAND Flash. I cannot possible know, that I can monitor the boot
sequence via a RS232 null-modem cable (115200, 8N1)... then I read it on
domdom's web site.
All these questions are answered by domdom and others (thank you) but this
is not the way it should be.

And English is not my first language either.

Karl

The board is cheap, has a lot of goodies and I am sure it has it's problems
but it runs nicely and even I could make it go with a homebrew linux and I
am a welder...
I have no clue or it is good or not, you can ask me at the end of the year
to see if it survived a dozen races on our tractorpuller.

Nice board, good price, lots of fun...

Karl it is more or less common practice that the boot loader output is
provided on serial console. If you develop a product based on the boards
sold by friendlyarm (or any other embedded hardware for that matter) you
should have somebody at hand who has prior knowledge with embedded Linux
systems. I agree that the documentation for the mini6410 is abysmal (the
mini2440 documentation level is now on par with most other manufacturers)
but anybody with even the most rudimentary embedded Linux experience is
able to get the board up and running, including flashing a new kernel and
image. The hardware is without any surprises, schematics are provided, and
there are kernel sources. 
You, sir, are looking for user documentation. Any system/software developer
has more than enough documentation to do almost anything the board is
capable of. Actually, the most difficult part was finding the documentation
for the S3C6410 (Samsung isn't providing it for some reason).
So quit whining and find yourself someone with even the last bit of
embedded developing experience.

FULL ACK!

This thing is crap.
I'm very disappointed from Watterott Germany for selling such crap....

I don't know how are people that say that a board that have sold thousands
of units that are working around the word are crap and doesn´t even say
what problem have faced, or if some authorized distributor have not honored
the warranty. I think such type of irresponsible opinions are the real
crap.

This Board is Hard to play with, but not crap.

It's working fine, but it's definitely not for NOOBS.

after a year and 60k+ cross-compiles linux I've got a working board :)
& a really good knowledge of the board :)

I'm successful because I'm lucky. The harder I work, the luckier I get.

Zogzog.

It's hard to work with this board if you have no knowledge of linux, WCE or
other OS.
It's hard to work with this board if you have no knowledge of programming
in C, C# or other variants.
It's hard to work with this board if you have no knowledge of the ARM
architecture.
It's hard to design your own 2440 hardware if you have no knowledge of
electronics.

Concluding:

Don't buy a car if you don't know how to drive.
and if you do, don't compain about crashing it into the mailbox...

Hey

Those of you who dont like their boards any more are welcome to donate one
to someone like open-nandra for continued kernel development/support :)

Hell, even I'd take them off your hands since they bother you so much....

Hi

I agree with Karl,Markim and thanks to domodom for his efforts

First, I would like to tell you my story on how a graphic design student
that a photoshop freaks became a programming freaks. 

Back to year 2000, I just a guy who play with photoshop, illustrator,
in-design, I got no idea what is programming until one day I came out with
idea, to make my own dynamic website, there are several choice of web
programming, jsp, asp, perl, php... all i tested (the hello world). 

And found out PHP is the most simplest to learn among the all, the reason
is their documentation is completed with example and user contribution. 
(try see yourself - http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.md5.php)

Then 10 years after, I started to play with AVR, then I started with new
toy- Arduino, yet another full of documentation and example product, very
simple to pickup everything.
(try see your self - http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/Windows)

Now I wish to move to ARM eval board and found this "friendly arm" is
cheap, and also lack of good documentation and example, and struggling
whether to buy it or pay more to get some better "after sales service". 

I need a stable board that cause me less trouble because I am in Malaysia
and my client is at Singapore, I am not going to travel 350Km every time
got issue. 

My feels for FA is a typical china-man product, so it making me think twice
before buy.

If I am FA sales marketing manager, I will improve after sales service.

sorry for my poor english.

the "stable board" is refer to hardware stability.
Lets say, 

I installed a very simple program (same code tested on pc and never cause
issue) an application with 10 buttons, when button press, it send out text
to serial port. 

my question is, will it work 24/7 for 365 days without hang, restart, over
heat just like i tested on PC ?

Willer,

why should it not run like your PC? It is just another architecture. And it
relies on the same software quality than your PC.

Me nOt No iNgRiSh. Me StooPid, aNd cAnnoT ConVeY A MeSSagE ClEarlY,
TheReFOre No OnE UnDeRStAnDs My ProBlEm.

Hi all!

 What for me - I love this board!

 I done Standalone application in 1,5 month. (and learned C)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTvWTj6NwBg

 All work fine!

 Problems apears when it is not fine turned.

 Turn PLL, Memory timing, Delays and it will be OK!

By the way Mini2440 has some chineese clones. I have a couple of  Mini2440
clones. It is impossible to use them as they are very unstable )))

Awesome hardware, that's what it is.
just need awesome software, that's what linux is.
and an awesome user...

Well, let me phrase it like this: 
I am a complete newbie to this hardware (I received it yesterday and
unpacked it today)and guess what: 
IT WORKS PERFECT! 
Why? - Another guess: 
I CAN READ. 
There is a manual, code examples, and something else, it is called internet
and guess what: 
that works as well.

Of course, for some people it doesn't and there are many reasons for
that....but going down "there" would mean to write the never-ending story.

So, anything else?! Yes, take a wild guess....

Linus

the hardware can be excellent but it makes no sense without proper software
support. and this is exactly the case with samsung who doesn't care to
provide you with 2/3d drivers, for example ...

You don't need 2D / 3D drivers. The S3C2440 CPU has not hardware for it...

Fascinating thread. How many different names do you suppose that guy used?

I'll make a couple of comments for the newcomers to embedded Linux and
ARM9/11/Cortex and a couple with interesting info for the experienced
users.

First, just because a processor is used in a phone doesn't mean it is
simple. The S3C2440 has far more memory, speed, and sophistication than an
institutional Minicomputer of the 1970's or 80's. They handled an entire
college campus or a Boeing design division (one each for aerodynamics,
structures, avionics, etc. with 100 or more engineers in each group).
Computers like the PDP-11/70 had a staff to support 32 or 64 users tied in
by serial terminals and full time programmers working on the OS and user
problems. The 11/70 is MUCH SIMPLER and SLOWER and easier to program than
an ARM9 with an MMU. The Mini2440 Drystone benchmark is about 440
PDP-11/70's. 30 times faster than a CRAY-X-MP/48, and with more RAM. The
fact that people have made it easy enough for one person to handle a
Mini2440 should impress you mightily. How many people do you think it took
to write your phone software?

Second, Embedded Linux is a bitch of a mistress. Linux is very hard to
begin with (how many thousands of man-years do you think it took Apple to
turn Unix into OSX?) and embedded Linux is another order of magnitude of
complexity. If you don't know Linux, you will have a lot to learn. If you
are experienced with embedded and need something running, and especially if
you need hard real-time, try the uC-OS/II on the DVD. There is a GUI
library available from the creator, and someone correct me if I'm wrong,
but can't you compile Qt4 or Qt/E as a library for uC? In which case you
can disable the memory manager and go the no-OS route and code in C. Use
Supervivi as shipped, or U-boot to get everything in the S3C2440 set right
before your own code loads.

Third, someone above mentioned a company selling FA boards for "10% to 12%
margin" just for kicks. This and ebay sellers is what drags the price down
to the point that no one can afford to provide support. A serious business
needs 40% gross margin to run and improve and do all the things it takes to
provide great customer experiences.

Finally, there are piles of good blogs and tutorials out there. Here is a
recent one by Wingz. He started from scratch and plowed ahead through all
the latest developments, then wrote a great blog/tutorial.
http://wingston.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/embedded-linux-fundamentals/

There is a mostly English 6410 manual here http://andahammer.com/downloads/

For experienced users, the latest stats on reliability are disappointing.
Failure rates are too low to generate any statistics. Roughly it looks like
this for Mini2440 and Mini2440+X35/T35/W35 combined for US sales. Failure
with return against warranty is a rate of about 1 per 4000 per year. This
is after incoming inspection and test. If they start up and pass burn-in,
they basically never fail. I'm sure this can't include lab bench use and
development, with screwdrivers and metal styli and nuts and bolts rolling
about. Also, NOT using the barrel jack for power (put some superglue or
epoxy on that as soon as you get it). In a few months there will be at
least 10,000 more Mini6410 in OEM equipment and if there are any weak
links, they will start to show.

Also, I don't think FriendlARM manufacturing has any control over content
of this forum. Last I heard, hosting cost was split between Watterott and
ARMWorks in the U.S. with ARMWorks having no administrative access.

great blog man......thankx for that tutorial...I am going to straight away
buy this board for my final year project.Hope it turns out well.. :)

I have a Mini2440 and a Mini6410 and i don't have problem with them. I had
some problems but it was me, not boards.

All the problems have been me too!  Well, I had re-solder the on/off switch
once in two years, but that was because I probably used many times each day
... until I "discovered" the reboot command. 

I am a bit curious, how did you find this thread with such a non-descript
(ie lack of key-words) subject line?

There are a few good examples of people effectively using the Google search
engine here , but this one is unique :)

Great product, thanks!

Hello all，
     You guys all can connect me with email if your friendlyarm boards have
any problems:jiameijiang@friendlyarm.com.
  
     I hope can help you guys solve the problems of the
board，anyway，you can connect me if the board occur problems.