Minnowboard:MinnowMax





Accessories

 * Information on Lures can be found on the MinnowBoard MAX Lure wiki page

Power Plug

 * North American Power Supply from Digikey - 5V@2.5A -CUI EPSA050250U-P5P-EJ
 * European Power Supply from Digikey - 5V@2.5A - CUI EPSA050250UE-P5P-EJ
 * Powe Supply from Sparkfun - 5V@2A - TOL-12889
 * Power Supply from Adafruit - 5V@2A - PRODUCT-ID:276
 * Power Supply from SeeedStudio - 5V@2A SKU: POW06182B

D1 (LED)
This is the power indicator, when lit power is being supplied to the board

D2 (LED)
This is the On/Off status indicator. When lit the system is running.

HDMI
The MinnowMax uses a Type D micro-HDMI connector. This is a standard port, for which cables and adapters can be readily picked up from most electronics stores

Ethernet
The MinnowMax uses a Realtek RTL8111GS-CG PCIe based chipset to provide 10/100/1000 ethernet connection. the results of some performance tests using iperf are available HERE.

Low Speed Expansion (Top)
*** THIS IS PRE-PRODUCTION INFORMATION AND MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE BEFORE PRODUCTION SHIPPING ***

The low speed connector uses 0.1" (2.54 mm) Male header pins in a 2 x 13 array, for a total of 26 pins. Pin 1 is the in the row closest to the power connector, and closest to the board edge.

Layout
NOTE: Pins 5-26 are shown above with their PRIMARY configuration, any pin may be switched to being a generic GPIO as well. This would give a total of 22 GPIOs, with two of those being PWM capable.

High Speed Expansion (Bottom)
*** THIS IS PRE-PRODUCTION INFORMATION AND MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE BEFORE PRODUCTION SHIPPING ***

The High speed connector uses a TE Connectivity compatible 60-pin header. The generally recommended header is the 3-5177986-2, or the 60POS .8MM FH 8H GOLD part that rises 7.85mm, allowing for 3/8" standoffs at the corners to be used to attach the lure to the minnowboard.

Link to connector used: http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/5177985-2/A99190CT-ND/1894007. mating connectors are listed at the bottom but include:


 * A99196DKR-ND - CONN PLUG 60POS .8MM FH 5H GOLD
 * A115336-ND - CONN PLUG 60POS DL BRD/BRD VERT
 * 5179030-2-ND - CONN PLUG 60POS FH .8MM BRD-BRD
 * 5177984-2-ND - CONN PLUG 60POS VERT FH .8MM
 * A99215CT-ND - CONN PLUG 60POS .8MM FH 8H GOLD  '''<-- Recommended connector
 * A99209CT-ND - CONN PLUG 60POS .8MM FH 7H GOLD
 * A99203CT-ND - CONN PLUG 60POS .8MM FH 6H GOLD
 * A99196CT-ND - CONN PLUG 60POS .8MM FH 5H GOLD
 * A99215TR-ND - CONN PLUG 60POS .8MM FH 8H GOLD
 * A99209TR-ND - CONN PLUG 60POS .8MM FH 7H GOLD

GPIO Mapping
NOTE: The I2C pins have the same property as the pins in the Low Speed Expansion Header, in that their primary purpose is I2C, but can be switched to GPIO in the firmware. In firmware this is the I2C #6

SPI Header to Firmware flashing J1
*** THIS IS PRE-PRODUCTION INFORMATION AND MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE BEFORE PRODUCTION SHIPPING ***

This is a pinned out port to allow for external flashing of the boot spi. Dediprog and Flyswatter devices have been tested and verified to work with this.

Power Connection J2 (SIP2_FAN)
*** THIS IS PRE-PRODUCTION INFORMATION AND MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE BEFORE PRODUCTION SHIPPING ***

This is a 5V 2-pin pin out originally intended to be used for a CPU fan. The single core (E3815) and the dual core (E3825) however use passive heat sinks, and thus do not, under normal circumstances, need a fan. It is theoretically possible to pull upwards of 1A through this port, however you should refer to the released schematics to verify that number before attempting to use this for anything.

NOTE: This is not populated on the Single, or Dual core boards. This can be populated if needed, and will provide the above power

Switch Jumper J5
*** THIS IS PRE-PRODUCTION INFORMATION AND MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE BEFORE PRODUCTION SHIPPING ***

This pin is intended to allow for power toggling via a remote switch or relay. It is fundamentally no different than pressing SW1, and behaves identically.

NOTE: This is not populated, by default.

SATA LED J6
*** THIS IS PRE-PRODUCTION INFORMATION AND MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE BEFORE PRODUCTION SHIPPING ***

This is intended to be an HD LED type activity indicator, shorting the pins enables, leaving it out disables.

NOTE: This is not populated, by default.

SD Card Write Protect J7
This is a jumper point, mostly available for debugging, that enables the sd card write protect explictily. This is not populated on production boards.

MinnowBoard-MAX Open Bugs (Bugzilla)

 * Bugzilla: We currently use the YoctoProject Bugzilla instance at http://bugzilla.yoctoproject.org
 * Bug Triage link can be found at: https://wiki.yoctoproject.org/wiki/Minnow_Bug_Triage

USB
There is a potential issue when using a powered USB Hub. If the hub, erroneously, provides power over the USB 3 or USB 2 input connector, the MinnowBoard MAX will use that as power. This is in violation of the USB spec, and will be rectified in a later revision of the MinnowBoard MAX.

Hubs known to cause this:
 * iXCC 7 Port USB 3.0 Hub
 * Amazon Link
 * iXCC Website

It is suggested that you check powered USB hubs to confirm that they do not provide power back to the board, as described, and if a hub is found to do this, please report it here. A hub found to be doing this should be used without being externally powered if used at all.

Firmware
See the bug list, linked above.

There are some reports of corruption of the UEFI firmware

Symptoms are no display, 2 leds on, and this serial output trace :

>>>>SecStartup >>>>MemoryInit Done >>>>BdsEntry

Hints :


 * http://lists.elinux.org/pipermail/elinux-minnowboard/Week-of-Mon-20140721/000203.html
 * http://lists.elinux.org/pipermail/elinux-minnowboard/Week-of-Mon-20140804/000236.html
 * http://irc.minnowboard.org/%23minnowboard.2014-08-07.log.html
 * http://lists.elinux.org/pipermail/elinux-minnowboard/Week-of-Mon-20140811/000309.html# Important - Firmware Update
 * https://bugzilla.yoctoproject.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6585#c26

Resources :


 * http://www.elinux.org/Minnowboard:SPI_Boot_flash : said to apply to Max
 * http://www.elinux.org/Minnowboard:Hardware_Revisions
 * MinnowBoard Bugs

This should be resolved in firmware's after 8/13/2014

Monitors
There is an issue with regards to some monitors not being able to display from the MinnowBoard MAX. Most monitors seem to be fine, but some will either completely not show a display (even at firmware boot-up) or may only show a display after the operating system is booting.

This turns out to be an issue with regards to HDMI vs. DVI detection and initialization. A work around is being added into the firmware to resolve this.

This is fixed in firmware's after 8/13/2014