How to Access the Serial Console in MK808 mini PC

Omegamoon has done a pretty neat hack on MK808 Rockchip RK3066 mini PC to connect a Sparkfun USB to TLL board and access the serial console for bootloader and kernel debugging. The first thing he had to do was to open the device, remove the heatsink, and locate the Rx/Tx pads on the board.

3 Wires connected to Ground (Blue), Rx (Green) and Tx (Yellow)
3 Wires Connected to Ground (Blue), Rx (Green) and Tx (Yellow)

The Rx and Tx pins are accessible through pads, not via through holes, so it’s just a little more difficult to solder, but nothing too challenging. He and his brother also soldered another cable to the ground. Then they inserted a 6-pin header via the ventilation holes of the device, soldered the 3 wires to the header, and fix the latter to the casing.

MK808 UART Pin Header

Finally, they just inserted the debug board in the pin header, connected the USB cable to their PC, and started minicom (or equivalent) to start accessing the serial console.

MK808 UART Debug Board

I think that looks awesome. You can find all the steps, and high resolution pictures on Omegamoon blog.

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3 Comments
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onebir
onebir
11 years ago

So this is like a way to SSH into a device without ethernet (or whatever)?

Robert D. Martin
Robert D. Martin
11 years ago

The UG802 was not only able to connect wia ethernet and DSL with my ISP but also connected handily to a USB hub, which enabled me to access external HDDs. I was, therefore, quite pleased with it. In fact, had I been able to boot with it into Linux distributions of my choice as in the days before (U)EFI, Secureboot, TPM and Win8, then I might eventually have come to consider it to be as suited to my particular needs as a full-fledged PC. Unfortunately, however, the UG802 turned out to have one grievious weakness: its connectors, which all too… Read more »

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