5501 Interfaces

From Soekris Info Wiki

The Soekris 5501 board has been shipping since the summer of 2007, yet as of this writing (February 2008), there is no manual for it. Unfortunately, the hardware is different from the predecessor, the 4801 board. The best reference for the 5501 is still the 4801 hardware manual from Soekris; this web page documents slight differences between the 5501 and the 4801, concentrating on the area of external interfaces. Cortex systems has a high resolution image of the 5501 on their web site.

In the following, all references are seen from the TOP of the board. The "front" is defined as the side with the LEDs, the "back" the side with the four Ethernet connectors; this means that the "right" of the board is the side with the PCI connector, and the "left" the side with the power and GPIO connectors.

All TODO items are in italics. TODO: It would be good to have an image of the board here, with all the connectors properly marked.

TODO: Many connectors in the following list are actually known, but I don't happen to have the complete documentation with me. So I'll document what I can find right now, and add the rest later.

J1: 2.5" (P)ATA connector for laptop style disks. Located behind the four green leds on the front. Pin one is away from CF connector, marked by white arrown in silk-print.

J2: PCI connector, 3.3V PCI cards only. If you card does not fit with the component side upwards, your card is 5V and does not fit. Do not try anyway.

J3: Mini PCI connector.

J4: PCI riser, (not released yet). Center right, parallel to the PCI connector: very large 2-row 2mm header.

J6: SATA connector. Near the front, right behind the red LED.

JP1: Factory use. Front right corner, right next to the front edge of the PCI connector: 14-pin 0.100" 2-row header.

JP2: CF socket.

JP3: Factory use. Center left, right behind the large CPU chip, 7-pin single-row 0.100" header.

JP4: COM2 serial port. Left edge center, more towards the front: Shrouded 10-pin 2-row 0.100" header: Pin 1 is towards the CF socket, and labeled by "Pin1" text in silk-print.

JP5: GPIO port. Left edge center, more towards the back: Shrouded 20-pin 2-row 0.100" header. See NET4801 manual for details.

JP6: USB connector, back edge right.

JP7: LEDs. Back edge, between P1 serial connector and power connector: 4-pin single-row 0.100" header. Pin1 is common (+3.3V), pin2 power, pin3 error, pin4 HDD - low when active.

JP8: USB port, Left center of the board, right next to the CF connector: 4-pin 0.100" single row header. Pin1 marked by "pin1" text in silk-print. Second USB connector, standard USB extension cable pinout: 1=Vcc, 2=Data-, 3=Data+, 4=ground. Whether this second USB port is USB 1.0 or 2.0, and whether it is capable of fast transfers: Read the discussion on soekris-tech. Warning: Because USB extender cables stick up considerable, this connector can not be used if a hard disk mounting kit is installed. Ralphbsz' solution is to solder a right-angle header to the existing header, and lay the USB extension cable flat across the CF connector.

JP9: Factory use. Front left corner: 2-pin 0.100" header, not populated from the factory.

JP10: Power+GPIO, see NET4801 manual. 6-pin MTA100 connector. Digikey A31084-ND (MFG p/n 3-640440-6)

JP11 through JP14: Ethernet RJ45. Back edge.

JP15: Disk power connector. Near the front, right behind the green power LED. Matches floppy disk power connector layout. 4-pin MTA100 connector Digikey A31082-ND (MFG p/n 3-640440-4)

P1: COM1 serial port, Back edge of board, 9-pin female D connector: Serial port. Industry standard pinout.

SW1: Reset Button. Back edge of board, between serial port and power connector. According to BIOS setting this can either reset the machine directly, or you can take it under software control and read it as a general-purpose input (GPIO).

JP10 (with MTA100 Connector), JP5 and JP4