[Updated 2023-11-12 for farming experience and PoE splitter] [Updated 2023-11-22 for Pi 5 4GB plot time and case experience]
I was on the waitlist for Raspberry Pi 5 8GB at my local computer shop, Central Computer. I had to go in to get a cooler for a new machine I am going to be building this month, and at the checkout I asked if they had any Pi 5 boards left, thinking I’d play with a 4GB board if they had any left.
“We’ve got 4GB and 8GB, which would you like?”
Well, of course, 8GB.
I already had a couple of cases coming from Amazon in preparation, and a 5V4A PSU (the 5V5A one for full power with the new Pi is already hard to come by), and a fresh MicroSD card from my last visit to Central, so I was ready to go.
I was planning to wait a while at first, but someone on one of the Chia Discords asked about Pi5 for Chia, I took the challenge on.
This isn’t entirely a Chia post, although it was inspired as such. You may have seen a teaser post on r/Chia, but if you didn’t, you’ll be okay.
In my time in the Evergreen Miner community, and elsewhere, I’ve had people ask if you can plot Chia on a Raspberry Pi.
I’m pleased to report that it can be done on a 4GB Raspberry Pi 4B, and you can create a Gigahorse compressed C5 plot in about 22.1 hours. For this test I used the 4GB board, booted from a MicroSD card, with an external USB 3.0 to SATA enclosure and a 1.92TB Dell Enterprise SATA SSD.
I wanted to try on my remaining 8GB board, but it is having issues with USB storage, so after a couple of hours of testing, I set it aside and thought about other low cost, low power options.
I tried my Zimaboard 216 single-board x86_64 server, featuring a 2 core Celeron processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB eMMC storage, a PCIe 2.0 x4 slot, two SATA ports with power (for SSDs), two ports USB 3.0, dual Gigabit Ethernet, and a completely silent (fanless) design. Alas, while the plotter “worked” on this system, 2GB was not enough, and the OOM killer process took down the plotter. I have a Zimaboard 832 (the 2021 green edition, good for Chia) but ran out of weekend so I just went with plan C.
Enter the Orange Pi
I’d heard good things from the Evergreen co-founder about the Rockchip 3588, and ordered an Orange Pi 5B with 16GB RAM and 256GB eMMC. I got it over the weekend, hooked it up, discovered that you have to use rkdevtools to install it, but still could not get video or network connectivity with it. It got power, and drove the fan, but no status LEDs, no network LEDs, and no rkdevtools access.
After checking with a friend, I learned that it should not have come loose in a cardboard box.
My first Orange Pi arrived exactly like this product page photo, but with the wifi antennas connected. No anti-static bag, no packaging protection, and no functionality.
I put in for an exchange, dropped off the board at my local Whole Foods for return, and got the replacement board Tuesday morning. This time, it was in a sealed anti-static foil bag in a plastic protective case. Much better.
The second Orange Pi arrived like this, and seems to have worked.
I set about doing the board bring-up. It’s more complicated than a Raspberry Pi, requiring the Rockchip dev tools package, a boot loader, and a specific Orange Pi build of Ubuntu. The well-formatted instructions for Klipper on the 5B from 3DP and Me were very useful for getting things going. You can also get the apparently-official 357 page users guide from Orange Pi’s Google Drive that has the instructions and more. I don’t recommend it if you can avoid it, though (ps: you probably can’t completely avoid it, but maybe don’t start with it).
The software downloads were a bit confusing for me… you have to get an Android image download (even if you’re not installing Android) from another Google Drive, which includes the RKDevTool program for Windows, the “DriverAssitant” bundle including the USB driver for board bringup, and the Miniloader folder with boot loader and configuration. It’s a long way from Raspberry Pi Imager or Rufus. And random Google Drive download sources are sketchy.
Anyway, after waiting two hours for the “download complete” message in RKDevTool that never came, I tried logging in via ssh with root / orangepi and got in. (Page 87 on the manual above, so maybe don’t completely avoid it).
From there I made a few more adjustments:
Installed Zerotier VPN and joined it to my network.
Executed ‘apt update’ followed by ‘apt upgrade’
Set my time zone away from Asia/Shanghai with ‘dpkg-reconfigure tzdata’
Verified that I could log in with orangepi, and left the root shell
Changed root and orangepi passwords
Rebooted to make the updates take effect (and to install my external USB SSD)
There are a lot of Orange Pi 5 series models
Another odd sequence of discoveries is that there are three primary models of the Orange Pi 5, each of which may come with different RAM and eMMC storage. I learned some of the distinctions after digging for my one NVMe drive that was smaller than 2280, and then finding there was no NVMe slot.
Here are the three models, with pricing for the smallest configuration I could find on Amazon. I would really recommend the 16GB models, and max out the storage if you go 5B. But it depends on your use case of course.
Orange Pi 5 models, with prices as of 7/25/2023 (affiliate links for Amazon, direct links for OrangePi.org).
Be aware that on the 5 and 5B, the USB 3.0 port shares a dual blue port assembly with a 2.0 port–the 3.0 port is on the top, and the bottom port, despite being blue, is USB 2.0. The 5 Plus has a pair of USB 2.0 (black) ports, and a pair of USB 3.0 (blue) ports.
On the Orange Pi 5 and 5B, the only USB 3.0 Type A port is the top port.
You can use a 5V/~4A USB-C power supply and cable, your own HDMI cable, and run without a case (these are slightly larger than a Raspberry Pi so you can’t reuse those cases), but I decided to drop almost $30 on an add-on starter kit. This kit from GeeekPi includes a clear case with tinted top and bottom, rubber feet for said case, USB-C power supply with inline switch, a fan, heatsinks for the DRAM and CPU, a 64GB MicroSDXC card and USB-A card reader, and a HDMI cable. (The description currently says Micro HDMI cable, but the board has native full size HDMI unlike the Pi4b).
Some machines to compare with the Orange Pi 5 family
After posting my plotting tests on Reddit r/chia, someone asked and clarified a question about the Radxa Rock and ODROID machines. I did some quick research and found some viable alternatives. If you have local supply chain or Amazon Prime limitations, these may get you going faster.
Radxa’s Rock 5 Model A and ODROID M1 are comparable to the Orange Pi 5B I tested.
For an upgrade to the Orange Pi 5B Plus style, Rock PI Model B also gives you NVMe onboard and a single 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port (vs Orange’s dual ports) and support for a Power over Ethernet hat.
If you really want to go overboard, ODROID’s H3 supports NVMe, two DDR4 SODIMMs up to 64GB, dual 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, two onboard SATA ports, and eMMC support..
I’ve set up an Amazon wishlist to show the systems I’m looking at. If you feel generous and want to send me something from the list, I’ll be happy to give you credit when I post the testing results. If not, it’s a checklist for me to work through.
Where do we go from here?
I tried to keep this post as chia-free as possible, as it’s relevant to a lot of other use cases. I may not have completely succeeded at that. In any event, I will have a Chia plotting post around single board and small board computers in August, and a few other things in mind.
Have I missed your favorite single board computer? Share it in the comments and I’ll add it to my list.
Raspberry Pi boards have been intermittently available this year. They’re still very useful, but your odds of going into a retailer and picking up a few at list price are about as good as Ethereum hitting $5k this month. In other words, don’t hold your breath.
That being said, this type of single board computer is not completely unobtainable, even in today’s supply-chain-constrained market. Here are seven tips for finding the SBC of your dreams.
1. Check local retailers
This is a long shot, but for some people in some regions, it may still work. My local shop, Central Computers in Silicon Valley, has had them intermittently for a couple of months at reasonable prices.
2. Check official distributors
You can find sellers of the Pi boards on the official Raspberry Pi website. Stock may vary from day to day, and preorders may be possible, so check early and often if you’re pursuing this option.
3. Check Amazon
Right now, I see a number of shippable Pi 4 boards in 4GB and 8Gb on Amazon. They’re pricey, with the 4GB board around $144 and the 8GB board around $195. But if you have to have it for work, or if you’ve found a way to profit majorly from using one of these boards, it may be the way to go.
4. Consider kits
You may be thinking “I don’t need a power supply, a microSD card, a case, and all the other stuff,” but even when backorders weren’t considered, I saw starter kits with the Pi 4 board available in quantity at the above options. Right now, my local shop has the Okdo starter kit with the 8GB board for $160, limit one per customer. The bare board is $90 but out of stock, as are all of the standalone boards. So if you need access to a board soon (hopefully with someone else footing the bill), this is a very viable option.
5. Can I interest you in a Pi400?
The Raspberry Pi 400 computer is a Pi 4b equivalent in a different form factor. The board should have the same performance as a 4GB Pi4b, and even when boards and kits were unavailable, the Pi 400 was readily available in a standalone unit at about $80 or a kit with power adapter for $110. Prices on Amazon are a bit higher (like $120 for the standalone or $180 for the kit), but still lower than the 4GB standalone board mentioned at Amazon above.
You won’t be able to use your Pi cases or enclosures with the Pi 400, since it’s wider, but you can consider building your own stand or looking on Thingiverse and the like for 3d-printable enclosures for these boards.
See Jeff Geerling’s “Raspberry Pi 400 Teardown” blog post and video to see what’s inside and how you might be able to repurpose the board for your needs.
6. Check your local marketplaces for new or used boards
You may find some boards locally on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, Nextdoor, or the like. eBay is also an option, but it may or may not be local. As I write this post, I see boards in my extended area from $200-325 on Craigslist, and surprisingly $120 and up on Facebook. Someone is selling a complete 8-node cluster, including 6 8GB and 2 2GB boards (and power supply, network switch, tower case, etc) for $1000, which is pretty reasonable for the current market.
With these local marketplace options, be sure to buy locally, and if possible, try the board out before paying (if it’s not sealed). With eBay, read the ad carefully and be aware of buyer protections available to you.
7. Look into other small computer options
Raspberry Pi is the most famous card-sized board, probably with the longest run and best name recognition, But you can also look at things from the RockPi boards to ODROID, to LattePanda x86.
Intel NUC (NUC5PPYB/NUC5PPYH) on a 3d-printed stand with memory and HDMI dummy plug.
You may also be able to find bare board Intel NUC systems (like the remnants of the legendary Rabbit doors from a few years ago) that, while not exactly as tiny and requiring a bit more than 3-5 watts, may well do what you need.
For example, there are some i3 and even i7 boards here on eBay for as low as $95 shipped (searching under the “motherboard” category). When I searched under “Desktops & All-in-Ones” I found some of the old Rabbit boards (quad core Pentium with Gigabit Ethernet) for around $50 each. You’ll have to add a DDR3 SODIMM, a power supply, and probably storage of some sort, but even then you can get a 4GB system for around $100 or so.
NVI
If you don’t need an ultra-modern OS, you can also look into systems like the Jetson Nano (which I believe easily runs Ubuntu 18), or even Jetson TK1 (Ubuntu 14/16) from NVIDIA. These outdated boards are still quite interesting, and have many uses if you can “outsource” the security to a system with a newer platform.
And yet another option I found after posting this – Digital Loggers, a Silicon Valley company better known for their Ethernet-connected power controllers (mentioned in a previous post and used in my shop) are apparently the folks behind the AtomicPi Intel Atom-based single board computer. It takes a little bit more work to power, but for $50 you get a board based on the Atom x5-Z8350 1.44GHz CPU with 2GB RAM and 16GB EMMC on board, a breakout board, and an AI camera module.
Unlike the other boards mentioned, I have not tried this one, but it’s worth a look if you can handle the limitations and get your 5V 3A power into it yourself.
Where do we go from here?
I’m realizing I have a few boards that may be worth dusting off and using, or even selling. There’s a Pi 3b+ cluster in need of an expansion, and some other projects in the works for the upcoming holiday weekend.
What are you doing with single board computers, and have you found any tips and tricks I missed? Share in the comments!
The Evergreen site and product line have evolved since this post was made in late 2021. I’m planning to update the coverage soon, but don’t be surprised if product names and prices have changed since then.
If you’ve bought your Evergreen Miner, you may have questions answered at my unofficial FAQ.
In the mean time, I have (as of January 2023) joined the Evergreen Systems Co. affiliate program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to the partner site. If you’d like to buy some of their gear, use the link https://evergreenminer.com/?ref=g2vkXM2BkDi2m, or use the referral code RSTS11 for a $10 discount, and I may receive a commission.
A few years ago, a turnkey desktop container/VM platform from Antsle came along, and I thought “this is cool, but I bet I could make one myself.” You can read about that here on rsts11.
Earlier this month I saw a low power Pi-based project similar to the Antsle Nano (which I did build on my own) come out for Chia farming. The project, Evergreen Miner (evergreenminer.com), is the brainchild of a young geek named Dylan Rose who’s worked with Amazon and other companies and has begun an interesting forward-looking Chia project to really bring Chia farming to the masses.
I’ve written about building your own Chia system, and lots of people (tens of thousands at least) have done so. But some people aren’t up for the space, expense, time, tuning, software building, and so forth to make a node and farm.
However, a lot of people could benefit from the technology and platform and even more into the future as the ecosystem matures. So the idea of a turnkey platform that’s relatively easy to build and maintain and expand, even without plotting on your own, sounds pretty good.
Think all of the functionality and potential of Chia, with the ease of setup and management of a typical mobile app, and of course the power draw of an LED light bulb or two. No hardware or Linux or filesystem or SAS knowledge required.
This is one topic in a series of what I’m calling “money pit” projects. To be fair, it’ll be money and time pit topics, and nothing that you’d really have to get a second mortgage on your house to do… but things always get a bit out of hand.
This project is the 3D Printing project. Expect it to be an ongoing series, and I’m hoping to have some friends join the effort and offer their feedback as well. Links and prices are accurate as of November 2020, and may get updated in the future… but don’t count on it.
See the previous parts for the lead-in to this project. From here we’ll get into the enhancements and early printing.
The first day or two, I was running out to the garage to check on prints, and shuttling the included 8GB MicroSD card back and forth to load print files onto it. Since the only storage the printer has is this MicroSD card, I couldn’t add files during a print run, and it got somewhat tiring.
OctoPrint is an open-source management program and web front-end for many/most 3D printers. It communicates with the printer over a USB cable. It can be installed on a Linux, Windows, or MacOS computer. However, you might not want to dedicate a full-sized computer to this task.
OctoPi is a Raspbian (Raspberry Pi Debian image) based distribution with Octoprint and the video streamer software included. you just need a Pi 3B or later board (and case and power supply) and an SD card with OctoPi installed. Older boards will work, but with the camera option or other intense plugins (like gcode viewers) you won’t like it according to the folks behind OctoPrint and OctoPi. Continue reading →
rsts11 - Robert Novak on system administration 