A20 Lime industrial oven - Need Help please...

[Huskvarn]

Hi all !
New challenge for me, have to repair industrial oven, brand PIRON srl with Olimex parts.
First, screen was dead (7inch / capacitive touch) Succeed with that and it works fine with A20 android image with lcd support (800x480).
BUT the original sdcard seems to have trouble and doesn't boot. With the android image running, sdcard adapter I can read it and found 4 files :
- boot.scr
- script.bin
- uImage
- LOST.DIR folder

Can you PLEASE help me fix it ? Don't know where to start, I think I can put serial converter and see if something is alive ?

Thanks so much (at least for reading^^)
Olivier from France

[LubOlimex]

What LCD and touch exactly are you using?

Do you really have to use Android? Linux has better software support and it is much more frequently updated. It will probably yield better results using Olimage Linux.

[Huskvarn]

Hi,
thanks for the answer. I know what you have in mind : I've ordered only the lcd (in fact it was the converter which died) and put the old touch system by changing the metal frame : Ok with that.
I've been using Android image because of the support with lcd as I've tried 4-5 times to use Debian A20 official image but don't have the scripts in it (even with full image : olinuxino scripts are missing. must try with other sdcard I think).
Again this morning same thing but with hdmi it's ok to see what's is going on.
Anyway I've also official serial converter and with Debian I can see everything on serial com but with oven's sdcard nothing, no boot at all.
The files are there, I think only the "boot" is dead, can you please help ? Will try to use another sdcard with olimage boot sector and transfert the files...

Thanks =)

[LubOlimex]

The reason I asked for display and Android is because we haven't added support for capacitive touch in the Android (only resistive touch is supported). Also it is important to notice that A20-OLinuXino-LIME comes configured for resistive touch by default, unless you specified before purchase. It can be changed afterwards but requires unsoldering a resistor matrix and soldering it in another position. Let me know if you need more info in that regard.

If you wish to use Linux you should first try the "base" image (minimal lacks gui) from here:

https://images.olimex.com/release/a20/

Extract the archive and use the free software BalenaEtcher to download it to a micro SD card. More info about that image can be found here:

https://github.com/OLIMEX/OLINUXINO/blob/master/DOCUMENTS/OLIMAGE/Olimage-guide.pdf

For Android - LCD support is hard-coded in the image, if you decide to use Android get "A20_SD_4G_android_422_TS_USB_UART_I2C_WIFI_LAN_HDMI_LCD_1024x600_release_1_fix.zip" from here:

https://ftp.olimex.com/Allwinner_Images/A20-OLinuXino-MICRO/Android/sd/

[Huskvarn]

Again thanks for all the informations.
The LCD and capacitive touch comes in second row, first I have to make it run with original software for the oven.
Do you know how I can repair the boot and makes the 3 files above runs ?
(boot.scr / script.bin / uImage)

After that I have the challenge of the display ...

[LubOlimex]

If you download "A20_SD_4G_android_422_TS_USB_UART_I2C_WIFI_LAN_HDMI_LCD_1024x600_release_1_fix.zip" to an SD card it should work without needing to repair anything.

The first boot is a bit slow might take up to 5 minutes but it should start faster the second time. Extract the archive and use free version of balenaEtcher to prepare the SD card.

[Huskvarn]

Hello,
What I mean is original sdcard have it's own software, which I need to make it works in order to repair the oven.


On the original card I have found the files above, do you think it is fixable ?
I know it will obviously works with original image but I need to use PIRON optimized image to run all the I/O.
Thanks!!

[LubOlimex]

But was this original software made for A20-OLinuXino-LIME board? Or what board was originally in the oven was another board?

Getting Android made for another board to work with A20-OLinuXino-LIME might be impossible...

[Huskvarn]

Yes ! It was all Olimex parts =) A20 lime and 7"display 800x480 but with capacitive touch. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough at the beginning. They have made very good integration with the GPIO. I can send you pictures, nice daughter board to manage IO.
That's why I've reorder from you same new board (old were running fine) and display (old converter were faulty). Now I've to deal with the original SDCARD to works.

The company doesn't respond... They want to sell the whole "computer" stage.

[LubOlimex]

Oh now I finally understand the issue. Probably the SD card or the contents got corrupted. Thing is we aren't very experienced in how to restore corrupted SD card. What we do when that happens is prepare a new card.

Did you try to duplicate the SD card first? You can download the contents to an image with some software like "Win32 Disk Imager". Then download to a new card.

Maybe ask the company if you can buy just SD card with Android image?

[Huskvarn]

Hello! Yes you are correct.
The files are present and don't seems to be corrupted, sdcard it readable so I think the boot sector is dead. I will try what you said.
Regarding the files, you think it is Android and not Linux ?
I'm still waiting for the company to respond will be so great to have ftp server with image or something... Will it help if I upload the files ?
Thanks so much for your support.

[LubOlimex]

This doesn't look like Android structure. Android folder structure looks like same as when you explore your Android phones with folders and stuff. This file structure looks like old Linux (3.4.x kernel).

Like download one of these images to an SD card and compare the contents:

https://ftp.olimex.com/Allwinner_Images/A20-OLinuXino-LIME/Debian/sd/a20_Lime_debian_3.4.103_Jessie_2G_eMMC_release_9.zip

https://ftp.olimex.com/Allwinner_Images/A20-OLinuXino-LIME/Debian/sd/a20_Lime_debian_3.4.103_Jessie_2G_release_7.img.7z

> I'm still waiting for the company to respond will be so great to have ftp server with image or something... Will it help if I upload the files ?

Ask the company first, they probably won't allow re-sharing their images.

[Huskvarn]

Yes you are right have to pay attention to intellectual property.
I've made several dd through Linux PC to save the partition and files are saved.
I've tried to make reverse with another sdcard but the A20 Lime doesn't boot nether.
Can you please tell me what minimal files are requested to boot the board ?
Have also try to use the Olimage and replace the files, doesn't works...
...

[LubOlimex]

Hard to say, they probably compiled something themselves. Maybe even locked it somehow  to prevent their intellectual property. It might be impossible to recover it.

I have no idea what is their software. It can be built from scratch and totally different from ours!

The only way forward I see is - if the company agrees to sell a card with the image or gives you the image (and instruction on how to download it to a card). It is their software only they know what it is based on, how it was made, how it has to be downloaded to the card.