(S922x, S905x3) Odroid N2 vs Khadas VIM 3 vs ...?

    eviltrooper I am still in decide mode, will let you know if I do decide.

    I have a question on eMMC modules, it says that the only way to flash them is with having a reader/writer module, isn't this the case only for Odroid, as far as I know you can flash anything to an onboard memory on the other boxes?

    Also, does anyone know a work around on shipping prices with Odroid, it seems obnoxiously high - for example I need to pay over $30 for shipping to order it, but some times goes by and I want some module - the best point of these Odroid boxes are the modularity - and bam another 30 for even the smallest thing that probably can get shipped for free with no question asked.

    • Official Post

    The initial production batch will be a small number of S905D3 (VIM3L) boards and the rest are split between VIM3 Basic/Pro using A311D chip - there are no more boards with S922X. Kodi runs fine on a board with 1GB ram and has no need for accelerometers, camera interfaces, or NPU functions. So it will be a nice fast board, but I think the VIM3L will be more aligned to LE user needs and budget. I also have an educated hunch we'll see more plot twists before Khadas settles on the final line-up for the VIM3 family.

    chewitt Sorry, I meant a winner overall when we might be talking price (with the current discounts), of course its a pointless overkill for Libre. I am assuming that that is another version lilke you mentioned, aside the basic/pro, but why a small number - for a test?

    All this VIM3 tom foolery is going to add to the fun of software support especially when they dump it on the market with just the standard Android. A bit of a mess really.

    Shoog

    Quote from Shoog

    All this VIM3 tom foolery is going to add to the fun of software support especially when they dump it on the market with just the standard Android. A bit of a mess really.

    Shoog

    It shouldn't be that bad since both S922X and A311 are "G12B".

    Quote from chewitt

    The initial production batch will be a small number of S905D3 (VIM3L) boards and the rest are split between VIM3 Basic/Pro using A311D chip - there are no more boards with S922X. Kodi runs fine on a board with 1GB ram and has no need for accelerometers, camera interfaces, or NPU functions. So it will be a nice fast board, but I think the VIM3L will be more aligned to LE user needs and budget. I also have an educated hunch we'll see more plot twists before Khadas settles on the final line-up for the VIM3 family.

    So you mean that the discount launch boxes will have the s905D3 chipset? what do you think this will mean for performance and maybe even more important, software support?

    • Official Post

    The VIM3 devices being launched are all A311D chips. The VIM3L (notice the L) with S905D3 chips in the batch are developer samples - nothing that will be sold to users. Software support for these boards on the mainline kernel is trivial. The current device-tree that I made will need some rework due to changes coming in Linux 5.3 but that's no drama.

    My experience with HardKernel is 2 bad boards out of 4. The first, C2 arrived dead, and I had to pay for the return shipping. The C2 replacement worked ok and I use it with CE. The two other boards I ordered are HC1 and HC2. The HC2 also arrived dead. I asked HK to pay for the return shipping and they declined. My HC2 ended in the trash because it wasn’t worth paying for shipping. I have little expectation for a reliable decide from HK. I’m Done with HK and going to try a VIM3. HK, if you are reading this text, Consider doing QA on your products and start standing by your customers.

    I would say HK's quality seems to have gone a bit down hill since the HC2's... I have 4 N2's pretty much since they came out and have been happy with them but when the HC2 came out i grabbed 2 for a couple of projects which i ended up having to re-flow the boards because one was DOA on arrival and the other kept rebooting once it got warmed up. The re-flows seemed to fix the issue but looking at the boards under a scope makes me wonder about the original temp profile the boards were produced with.

    As for the Khadas boards i have a pair of Vim2s and a pair of VIm3s and have had to re-flow one of the Vim2s and one of the Vim3s as well.

    Being a repair/design tech with the proper shop equipment i do a lot of board level work and am well aware of manufacturing process's and dealing with bad pcb's and mounting issues its not all that uncommon on the cheaper boards to see these types of issues as it may pertain to just a bad run of boards, which is one of the reasons i try to stagger my purchases just to see if its just a single bad run.

    Khadas with the prices they charge tho concern me as one would think at those prices QC would be good enough to prevent buggy products over poor soldier profiles from ending up many miles away in some poor end users home.

    Personally I have no ties to any manufacturer, nor am I like some others that have been gifted devices and may or may not have biased opinions, I am just relating my own personal experiences with both of these device manufactures, nothing more, nothing less.