Microserver Testing TicTid X9T Pro

pete_c

Guru
Originally purchased the TicTid X9T Pro as a K box.  Footprint is smaller than an RPi and it runs fast and the price is right at around $50.  This box will fit better inside of my OmniPro 2 media panel than an RPi sized box. 
 
tvbox.jpg
 
There are a few TV boxes today posted on Amazon.  They all come by default with rooted Android.
 
I do not utilize Android here much such that I switched the box over to running Ubuntu 18.04 and a lite desktop.
 
Basic specs for the TicTid X9T Pro are:
 
- 3Gb of DDR3
- 32 Gb eMMC
- Amlogic S912 with an Octa-Core CPU
- WiFi Dual band
- Bluetooth 4.1
- Gb LAN port
- GPU which does 4K HD fine
 
Included Hardware:
- 5VDC power supply (short cord)
- IR basic remote control
- HDMI 2.0 cable
 
You have the option of installing new OS on microSD card or built in eMMC.  To test purchased a fast 32Gb micro SD card.
 
Installation of Ubuntu 18.04 Armbian OS.
 
1 - write OS image to SD card
2 - copy DTB file "" to root of boot renaming it to dtb.img
 
First time booting of Ubuntu on SD card.  Press the reset button while booting and the device will boot from SD card.  Note you only have to do this once.  Cold boot with SD card will always boot to SD card.  You can remove the SD card and boot from Android if you wish.
 
First time boot reconfigures root password and creates a new sudo user.
 
Noticed an issue with sudo here so did a :
1 - apt purge sudo
2 - apt install sudo
 
Updated and did a distal upgrade.
 
There is a utility called arbian-config which does some basics for you including providing a desktop.  For server you do not need to configure a desktop.

____  ___  _ ____  
/ ___|/ _ \/ |___ \
\___ \ (_) | | __) |
 ___) \__, | |/ __/
|____/  /_/|_|_____|
                    

Welcome to ARMBIAN 5.77 user-built Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS 5.0.2-aml-s912   
System load:   0.02 0.11 0.09      Up time:       12 min        
Memory usage:  17 % of 2841MB     IP: 192.168.244.190
CPU temp:      49°C               
Usage of /:    9% of 29G        

Last login: Thu Apr  4 05:06:07 2019 from 192.168.244.231

Screen shots of armbian-config utility.  Note the addition software adds of Home Assistant and OpenHab.  Noted the default lite desktop comes up in 4K HD mode.  3840 X 2160. 
 
armbian-config.jpg
 
 
The TicTid X9T Pro box dimensions are: 4.13 x 4.13 x 0.59 inches tall.  This device uses a 5 VDC 2 AMP power supply. 
 
For use inside of the OmniPro panel will be utilizing a POE power splitter (TP-Link) from the main Leviton panel here.
 
Purchased this one to test as a K box and now wanting a second one for a microserver box replacement to the Pine64. 

This would also work better today for me as a car pc as I am still using an atom based mITX computer in a small case. For this car pc all that I would need is pico PSU with 5VDC output and USB switching.
 
Note that this box does not run Windows and is ARM based. 
 
As with the testing Pine64 box there are repositories now for arm64 or aarch64 applications and only these will work with this device.
 
See now my original purchase doesn't show as a TicTid X9T rather now it shows a TicTid X8T which has same chipset but only 2Gb of DDR3 ram.

I am also seeing similiar boxes with 4Gb of DDR3 RAM and same chipset.

No hardware modifications are necessary here and only writing to the microSD card is needing to be done.

For running 4K HD on GPU Mali 820 Coreelec is all that will work which is fine for me.

ICS-X9T:/proc # uname -a
Linux ICS-X9T 3.14.29 #1 SMP Wed Feb 27 00:10:49 GMT 2019 aarch64 GNU/Linux

ICS-X9T:/proc # cat /proc/cpuinfo
Processor : AArch64 Processor rev 4 (aarch64)
processor : 0
processor : 1
processor : 2
processor : 3
processor : 4
processor : 5
processor : 6
processor : 7
Features : fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 wp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tlsi vfpv4 idiva idivt
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant : 0x0
CPU part : 0xd03
CPU revision : 4

Hardware : Amlogic
 
This box running Android with a large touchscreen would be nice if the combo all ran via POE. 
 
I did something similiar with the original Pipo X7 tacked on the back of a thin wall mountable touchscreen a few years back.
 
I could run Windows 10, Ubuntu or Android on the Pipo X7.
 
This TV box will only run Android or Ubuntu. 
 
That said it can be used with NQ Link OmniPro Android software or Homeseer 3 Designer for Android touchscreens.
 
Personally here still prefer the touchscreen interface over the chatty kathy Alexa interface (and do not really utilize my cell phone or tablets here for automation much).
 
Armbian server / desktop are working well except that it uses a generic video driver (VM style) which does start up in HD 4K mode.  Tried a couple of different video drivers (DTB files) and have had no luck.  That said I do run the current automation server headless.
 
I did try and was successful getting CoreElec to boot in to K and it is loading the Mali 820 driver and it works fine in HD 4K. 

The specific driver file that I am using is called: gxm_q201_3g_1gbit.dtb.

Note the verbiage here relates to 3Gb of RAM and a 1Gb NIC port. I cannot get this file to work with Armbian Ubuntu though.
 
Switched K box over to new TicTid X9T Pro to stream a couple of 4K movies last night.  Tried Internet and local NAS streaming.  These are between 20-30 Gb movies.
 
Works great.
 
Ordering another one here to be a microserver. 
 
4Gb Ram
64 Gb of eMMC ROM
RK3328 quad core CPU
USB 3.0
Bluetooth and Wifi
 
This one will be installed inside of the OmniPro can
 
Update: 9th of April, 2019
 
The little box has a clock display in the front.  When running it would always show "boot".
 
Found custom configuration files per box that you can install for a regular clock display.
 
hxxps://discourse.coreelec.org/t/how-to-configure-vfd/427
 
hxxps://github.com/arthur-liberman/vfd-configurations
 
Changed the T default to 1080 as it will still play 4K HD movies in that mode. Noticed too that the Amazon AOD did not work in 4K mode so when I switched it to standard HD mode it worked fine.
 
Update: 10th of April, 2019
 
Disabled CEC on the K box as it works too well.
 
Noticed that I cannot find the specific box I purchased at Amazon.  They do have them around but they are closer to $100 everywhere.
 
For the server build I want the 3Gb of RAM, Gb NIC and Octocore CPU).
 
Update: 16th of April, 2019
 
Switched gears again here purchasing similar same as OP on Ebay as I noticed the ones on Amazon went way up in price.
 
Got this one for $60 with free shipping from US.  Similiar / same now are at $80 plus on Amazon.
 
This one will be a headless Armbian server with OS written to eMMC rather than using an SD card.
 
Someone wrote a Ubuntu service to manage the display or shut it off.
 
It has identical specs as OP and is the same size.
 
Note that the remote control is for Android and while it works in Ubuntu I do not like it. 
 
TX9.jpg
 
Nice write up. If these had more RAM I might try one as a Blue Iris server but I doubt that it would handle it with six cameras and more planned at some point if I can find the ambition to pull some cable. I hate pulling cable.
 
Mike.
 
Yes the Octocore ARM computer will not run windows.  Windows Mobile does run on an ARM cpu but MS isn't pursuing Mobile anymore.  BUT thinking they are still working on the ARM based Microsoft.  (surface).
 
That said going to try to run my Ubuntu 18.04 Squeezebox server on one of these as all my media these days is on NAS boxes.  It is currently running on an Intel CPU based server (large and eating much energy).
 
Switching Pine64 2 Gb computer used for combo automation server to TV Box #2.  This one will probably write the OS to the built in eMMC. 
 
Running HA, Homeseer, Mosquitto, et al...it isn't working too hard...
 
26th of April, 2019
 
Switched combo automation server to TV Box and moved it to the basement rack (next Leviton can) running headless.
 
This box is identical to first box tested:
 
- S912
- Octocore ARM CPU
- Gb NIC, Wireless 2.4/5Ghz
- Bluetooth
- IR interface
- 3Gb of RAM
- VHD display (clock or whatever)
- 32Gb eMMC
- 32Gb microSD boot and currently OS (to be moved to eMMC)
- HDMI 2.0 port
- CEC
- Optical audio port
 
It is running Homeseer 3, (HS Omni Plugin, ZWave Plugin, X10 Plugin, MQTT plugin, UPB plugin, WeatherXML plugin )Mosquitto server, Home Assistant, webmin and OmniLinkBridge.
 
The combo is doing text to speech via MS SAPI, Squeezeplayers and Alexa devices.  I am sending commands to Alexa devices for automation or tts plus VR if needed.
 
My only concern is that the TVBox has no RTC and might add one shortly.
 
This is the smallest footprint, lightest relating to power automation box to date. 
 
HTOP.jpg
 
TVBOX.jpg
 
 
 
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