PinePhone

The PinePhone is a smartphone created by Pine64, capable of running mainline Linux and supported by many partner projects. The BraveHeart Edition was the first publicly-available version of the phone, though it came without a fully functional OS (factory test image) and was geared specifically towards tinkerers and hackers. Its successor is the Community Edition, the first Community Edition started to ship in June 2020. The phone will be available for at least five years.

First time installation

PinePhone is capable of running a multitude of different Linux mobile OSes

Backward and front of PinePhone UBPorts Edition

From the factory the battery has a sticker on it that isolates the battery from the phone. The battery will not charge until this is removed.

After unboxing remove the back panel using the notch in the corner of the back panel. Then remove the battery and peel off the clear plastic sticker below it that isolates the charging contact. Then replace the battery. See Battery for more information.

Specifications

Dimensions: 160.5 x 76.6 x 9.2mm
Weight: Between 180-200 grams
SIM Card: Micro-SIM
Display:

Size: 5.95 inches (151mm) diagonal

Type: HD IPS capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors

Resolution: 1440x720, 18:9 ratio

System on Chip: Allwinner A64
RAM: 2GB LPDDR3 SDRAM
Internal Storage: 16GB eMMC, extendable up to 2TB via microSD, supports SDHC and SDXC
Back Camera: Single 5MP, 1/4", LED Flash
Selfie Camera: Single 2MP, f/2.8, 1/5"
Sound: Loudspeaker, 3.5mm jack & mic (jack doubles as hardware UART if killswitch 6 is deactivated)
Communication: EG25-G

LTE: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B7, B8, B12, B13, B18, B19, B20, B25, B26, B28, B38, B39, B40, B41

WCDMA: B1, B2, B4, B5, B6, B8, B19

GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 (MHz)

WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, single-band, hotspot

Bluetooth: 4.0, A2DP

GNSS: GPS/GLONASS/BeiDou/Galileo/QZSS, with A-GPS

Sensors: Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, ambient light, compass
Killswitches: Modem, Wifi & Bluetooth, Microphone, Cameras
Battery: Lithium ion Rated Capacity 2800mAh (10.64Wh), Typical Capacity 3000mAh (11.40Wh) (nominally replaceable with any Samsung J7 form-factor battery)
I/O: USB Type-C, USB Host, DisplayPort Alternate Mode output, 15W 5V 3A Quick Charge, follows USB PD specification

Hardware Revisions

1. Project Anakin
2. "Project Don't Be Evil" devkit
3. PinePhone v1.0 - Developer batch
4. PinePhone v1.1 - Braveheart
5. PinePhone v1.2‎ - Community Edition

Hardware Addons

PinePhone Hardware Accessory Compatibility

See PinePhone Hardware Accessory Compatibility for a list of devices working with the PinePhone (depending on their OS support)

USB-C Connector

The USB-C can be used to power the device, and offers USB2 host and OTG possibilities, and also can make use of the USB-C capability to integrate HDMI signals. Some USB-C hubs are available that offer power throughput, USB connection, HDMI port and Ethernet connection. The driver that would make this connection available is not supported at this time.

Pogo Pins

The PinePhone has 6 pogo pins on the back allowing for custom hardware extensions such as wireless charging, an IR blaster, a keyboard extension or extended battery case. The pogo pins provide access to an interrupt line, power input to charge the battery, power source and an I2C interface.

Interrupt	SDA	SCL
3V3	USB-5V	GND

The USB-5V line is for charging the phone and the 3V3 power source for powering peripherals to the phone. The I2C and interrupt lines have pull-ups on the phone side.

Back cover

A step file for the back cover for creating custom cases is freely available here.

Serial console

The PinePhone has a serial port in the headphone connector, it's activated by the 6th contact on the dipswitch. If the switch is set to "on", the headphone connector is in audio mode, if it is set to "off" it's in UART mode. The UART serial connection can also be used for communication with other devices from the PinePhone.

The UART is 115200n8.

The pinout for the serial connector on the tablet side is:

• Tip: RX
• Ring: TX
• Sleeve: GND

Because it is a "host"/DTE that means that you need a cross modem cable (Null Modem) with TX on Tip to be connected to RX on tablet side.

The serial connection is 3.3V. A cable like e.g. FTDI TTL-232R-3V3-AJ which has TX on Tip and RX on Ring fits perfectly.

You can also buy the debug cable from PINE64 Store. The store cable uses a 4 ring plug, as seen in the here, but a 3 ring plug works just as well. That cable uses a CH340 chipset based serial to USB converter, but any 3.3v serial connection can be used.

Killswitch configuration

Photo of BraveHeart switches from OSAKANA TARO on Twitter

The PinePhone features six switches that can be used to configure its hardware. They are numbered 1-6, with switch 1 located nearest to the modem. Their on position is toward the top of the phone.

Number	Name	Explanation	Description
1	Modem	Pulls Q1501 gate up (FET killing modem power)	"On" enables 2G/3G/4G communication and GNSS hardware, "off" disables it.
2	WiFi / Bluetooth	Pulls up CHIP_EN	"On" enables WiFi and Bluetooth communication hardware, "off" disables it.
3	Microphone	Breaks microphone bias voltage from the SoC	"On" enables audio input from on-board microphones (not 3.5mm jack), "off" disables it.
4	Rear camera	Pulls up PWDN on OV5640	"On" enables the rear camera, "off" disables it.
5	Front camera	Pulls up PWDN on GC2145	"On" enables the front camera, "off" disables it.
6	Headphone	Pulls up IN2 on analog switch BCT4717ETB	"On" enables audio input and output via the 3.5mm audio jack, "off" switches the jack to hardware UART mode.

Battery

The supplied battery is meant to be compatible with Samsung part number EB-BJ700BBC / BBE / CBE from the 2015 J7 phone. There is a report that the EB-BJ700CBE isn't quite the same size, causing the back not to fit properly.

The battery terminals, in order from nearest the edge to nearest the middle, are:

1. +ve
2. thermistor
3. -ve
4. not connected

The battery includes a protection circuit that isolates it in a number of fault conditions, including if it is discharged too far. The fully discharged battery can be recharged by connecting the phone to a charger. Once it has charged sufficiently you will be able to boot the phone.

If your battery is hard to remove from the phone, try loosening the screws around it. Possibly cutting up a piece of plastic and sliding it under the battery as a pull tab can work too.

The BraveHeart Edition ships with a plastic sticker between the battery and the phone. You need to open the back cover (gently), then remove the battery and finally remove the sticker. This is to protect the device from turning on during shipping.

• 

  Photo of Brave Heart case from OSAKANA TARO on Twitter

• 

  Photo of Brave Heart battery sticker from OSAKANA TARO on Twitter

The EG25 modem and RTL8723CS Wifi/bluetooth do not work without battery power, even if you are supplying enough power to the PinePhone with USB-C.

Modem and Carrier Support

There is a document about using the modem from January 18th 2020 by user megi here. The script at the end to disable the modem before power off is pretty essential to avoid corrupting your modem's flash memory.

To check if the PinePhone is supported on your carrier:

Search for your carrier on frequencycheck.com and compare the carrier's LTE/GSM/WCDMA frequencies to the PinePhone's supported frequencies (listed under the specifications section).

It is likely that there will be a few frequencies that your carrier uses which are not supported by the PinePhone. Not all of the carrier's frequencies need to be supported by the PinePhone for it to work - as long as most of them are supported, you will still get good coverage.

Voice Mail

Some phone operating systems may not have support for accessing your voicemail by holding down the 1 key. If you are in Canada and using rogers or a rogers associated carrier (such as Chatr), you can access your voice mail by calling an external number, see: https://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/913346-Rogers-GSM-Voicemail-Retrieval-Numbers

In America, AT&T also has support for accessing your voicemail via an external phone number: https://www.att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1009101/

APN settings

For tested APN settings and how to apply them see PinePhone APN Settings.

Operating Systems

The PinePhone will automatically boot from microSD if a bootable card is inserted. Although it is technically possible to use any ARM distribution (because the PinePhone uses the mainline kernel), there are a few that are designed specifically for mobile use on devices like the PinePhone.

The PinePhone Software Releases page has a complete list of currently supported phone-optimized Operating System images that work with the PinePhone as well as other related software information. As soon as more patches get mainlined and distributions ship with the updated kernel, they will also be able to run unmodified on the device.

Installation instructions

For instructions on how to install the operating systems to the eMMC or SD card see PinePhone Installation Instructions.

Flashing eMMC using Jumpdrive

Jumpdrive running on the PinePhone

The internal eMMC flash storage can be flashed using the Jumpdrive utility by Danct12 and Martijn from postmarketOS. This utility boots from micro SD and exposes the internal eMMC flash storage when the PinePhone is connected to a computer. The process of flashing an OS to the exposed and mounted eMMC is identical to that of any other storage medium - e.g. a SD card. You can use the 'DD' command or a utility such as Etcher or Gnome Disks, etc.

Latest Jumpdrive can be found here.

Detailed Usage Instructions

1. Download the Jumpdrive image
2. Flash the Jumpdrive image to a micro SD card
3. Boot the PinePhone from the Jumpdrive micro SD card
4. Connect the PinePhone to your computer using USB-A -> USB-C cable
5. Flash the exposed PinePhone drive (e.g. /dev/mm..., check for the right device in dmesg, GNOME disks, or similar, and make sure it's unmounted) with your chosen OS image
6. Once the flashing process is complete, disconnect the PinePhone from your PC, power it down and remove the Jumpdrive SD card
7. The process is now finished, and you can boot from eMMC

Jumpdrive also acts as a rescue image in case if you messed up your installation. To do so, you can telnet to 172.16.42.1, mount rootfs and fix it!

Resize file system

If you flash a 4GB image distribution (such as phosh+debian) to your eMMC, your eMMC will only have a 3.7G partition on it. To use the entire 14.7G on the eMMC, run the following commands:

1. sudo cfdisk /dev/sdX
2. Change to [Resize] in the ncurses program, resize the 3.7G partition to 14.7G, and [Write]
3. sudo resize2fs /dev/sdXY

Replace X with your drive's name. Replace Y with the partition you resized in cfdisk.

Feedback

If you've found an issue or want to improve the tool consider these sites:

• Issues: https://github.com/dreemurrs-embedded/Jumpdrive/issues
• Pull Requests: https://github.com/dreemurrs-embedded/Jumpdrive/pulls

Frequently Asked Questions

For a list of frequently asked questions (including information regarding the shipping), see PinePhone FAQ.

PinePhone Board Information, Schematics and Certifications

• PinePhone Main Board Schematic:
  • PinePhone mainboard Released Schematic ver 1.2
  • PinePhone Schematic ver 1.2 change list
  • "Braveheart" PinePhone mainboard Schematic ver 1.1
  • "Braveheart" PinePhone mainboard component top placement drawing ver 1.1
  • "Braveheart" PinePhone mainboard component bottom placement drawing ver 1.1
• PinePhone USB-C Small Board Schematic:
  • PinePhone USB-C small board Schematic ver 1.0
  • PinePhone USB-C small board component top placement drawing ver 1.0
  • PinePhone USB-C small board component bottom placement drawing ver 1.0
• PinePhone Certifications:
  • PinePhone FCC Certificate
  • RF Exposure SAR Information from FCC ID site
  • PinPhone CE RED Certificate
  • PinePhone ROHS Report

Datasheets for Components and Peripherals

• Allwinner A64 SoC information:
  • Allwinner A64 SoC Brief Introduction
  • Allwinner A64 SoC Data Sheet V1.1 (Official Released Version)
  • Allwinner A64 SoC User Manual V1.0 (Official Release Version)
• X-Powers AXP803 PMU (Power Management Unit) information:
  • AXP803 PMIC Datasheet
• LPDDR3 (178 Balls) SDRAM:
  • Artmem LPDDR3 Datasheet
• eMMC information:
  • Kimtigo eMMC Datasheet
• CMOS Camera module information:
  • PinePhone 5M Pixel Real CMOS Image Sensor Module
  • OV5640 5MP CMOS Image Sensor SoC for Rear Module Datasheet
  • PinePhone 2M Pixel Front CMOS Image Sensor Module
  • GC2145 2MP CMOS Image Sensor SoC for Front Module Datasheet
• LCD Touch Screen Panel information:
  • 5.99" 1440x720 LCD IPS Panel Specification
  • ST7703 LCD Controller Datasheet

• • GOODiX GT917S Capacitive Touch Controller Datasheet
• Lithium Battery information:
  • PinePhone Lithium Battery Specification
  • PinePhone Lithium Battery ZCV Curve Chart
• Wifi/BT module information:

• LTE module information:
  • Quectel EG25-G LTE Module Specification
  • EC25&EC21 AT Commands Manual
• Sensors:
  • ST LIS3MDL 3-axis Magnetomater Datasheet
  • InvenSense MPU-6050 Six-Axis (Gyro + Accelerometer) MEMS Datasheet
  • SensorTek STK3335 Ambient Light Sensor and Proximity Sensor
• Digital Video to USB-C Bridge:
  • ANX7688 Product Brief
• Case information:
  • PinePhone Case Exploded Diagram
  • PinePhone Back Battery Cover 3D file

Developer works

Megous

• Getting start with PinePhone Hardware
• State of development progress
• PinePhone Technical News and Update, also applies to other Allwinner devices including PINE A64 SBC

External links

• Pine64 shop