ODROID-C1 Review
Operating Systems
Currently two operating systems are available for the ODROID-C1:
Ubuntu 14.04LTS1
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HardKernel supplies an odroid-utlity.sh similar to raspi-config – unfortunately the utility does an apt-get update on every startup, which can get annoying as I found it best to make each adjustment separately, rebooting between them, to avoid booting issues.
As Ubuntu is based on Debian there is a great deal of compatibility with non-Raspberry Pi specific programs between Raspbian and Ubuntu, as you will see below.
I tend to run a mix of Ubuntu and Debian systems, so I felt right at home.
I did NOT miss the Unity interface, which I find to be the most crash prone part of Ubuntu… I like the nice clean desktop the ODROID-C1 presents to users.
The X desktop is not fully accelerated yet, and you can see a bit of tearing when moving windows around quickly – or scrolling through gigantic files in a text editor, but the latest browser just flies.
One early problem was the pegging of one of the cores at 100% utilization – a workaround was quickly found by ODROID, simply disabling the console on a serial port fixed the issue on the early Ubuntu releases. I did not notice the issue when installing the latest releases.
Multimedia
Kodi (a beta version of the renamed XBMC media software) comes pre-installed in the Ubuntu image for the ODROID C1. I did a few quick tests, and I am happy to report that playback was smooth up to 1080p30 however 1080p60 was not enjoyable due to frequent short pauses even with local media. I used the official Kodi “Big Buck Bunny” test files.
YouTube with flash5 was usable up to windowed 480p, but not useful full screen – similar behaviour to the built in desktop media player.
Android Kit-Kat 4.04
Hardkernel provides an Android Kit-Kat image for the ODROID-C1 however covering Android was beyond the scope of this review.
I did give it a quick spin, and was once again re-assured that Android is not really mouse oriented. I have yet to find how to “pinch to zoom” and fake multi-touch with a mouse.
Software Compatibility
I was pleased to find some of my usual applications were pre-installed:
- gimp
- scrott
- joe
- git
were all ready for use!
I installed the rest of my normal tools with a simple “sudo apt-get install”
- libreoffice
- gedit
- xrdp
- remmina
without any problems. Libreoffice was quite a bit faster on the ODROID-C1 in loading and moving around in documents.
GPIO
Surprisingly, WiringPi was not installed by default, however it has been ported to the ODROID-C1, and was very easy to install:
git clone https://github.com/hardkernel/wiringPi
cd wiringPi/
./build
Unfortunately the RPI.gpio package for Python has not been ported yet.
Hardware Compatibility
In case you are wondering, according to ODROID, you can power the C1 via the GPIO header, however that bypasses the power protection chip.
Other hardware issues I ran into during my testing
- Switching away from the C1, and back to it with a KVM crashes the C1
- does not work with Logitech EX 100 wireless keyboard/mouse
- it does not work with cheap microHDMI cables that skimp on ground wires
Fortunately the ODROID-C1 does work with the Logitech K400r rf keyboard/trackpad
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In case you are wondering… I used white electricians tape to cover the top of the Ethernet and USB sockets in order to prevent accidental shorts from add-on boards plugged into the ODROID-C1.
RoboPi
I was anxious to find out if RoboPi would work with the ODROID-C1!
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Fortunately, it worked right a way! All I had to do was change the serial port used to connect to RoboPi to /dev/ttyS2 (from the /dev/ttyAMA0 used on the Raspberry Pi).
All I had to do was download the C & Python libraries, packaged with Python demo programs, and I was able to run the Python demos without any issues.
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I really should trim some of the leads on the bottom of that RoboPi a bit more, or raise the right side about 1mm so it sits evenly, but it does not matter, it worked well.
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