Banana Pi Zero M2 with RetrOrangePi Review and Test
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[Synopsis]
This video shows you how to turn a Banana Pi Zero M2 single board computer into a retro gaming machine. Retro Orange Pi is very much like Retropie, but there are some difference. It wasn't
as well developed as Retropie. Never the less, it does run most roms for all of its supported emulators.
This SBC may look like a Raspberry Pi Zero, but it is many times more powerful than a RP Zero SBC. The reason for this is because it has uses a ARM Cortex A7 Quad-Core Processor running at 1.0 GHZ. The Raspberry Pi Zero struggles when it runs 16 bit emulators, like the SNES, Sega Genesis, and other arcade emulators. This SBC has no problems running any 16 bit emulators, and it can even run less demanding N64 games, like Mario World.
The Banana Pi Zero M2 gets very hot even on idle, so I decided to put a heatsink on it. The heatsink wasn't adequately cooling this SBC, because the CPU got very hot. I used a small desktop fan I had laying around in my home, and that seemed kept it cool with the heatsink. I also use a fan for my cable broadband modem to keep it cool, and this helped my cable modem last up to 6 years without breaking. Heat is the biggest killer for electronics, it tends to shorten the life of capacitors. If you don't control the heat problem then it will shorten the life of this SBC, and it will cause performance issues by throttling down to lower the temperature. With the fan I was able to get temperatures around 30 ° C to 36 ° C or 87.8 ° F to 96 ° F. Other people have said, you could get temperatures as high as 66 ° C (150 ° F) on idle, and 86 ° C (176 ° F) on full load!!!!! I verified it, when I wasn't using a fan, I couldn't put my finger on the heatsink, it was uncomfortably hot!
I would say this SBC is somewhere between a Raspberry Pi 2 and a Raspberry Pi 3 B+. The Raspberry Pi 3 B+ is a very capable SBC, and there are a lot of peripheral for it, like cases, fans, heatsinks, hats, and other accessories for it. Someone has to design a case for this sbc with a 35mm fan, and if they do it would make this sbc usable.
One of the biggest problems of Retro Orange Pi vs. Retropie is that it is much less polished as a operating system. There is also no support for Retro Orange Pi unlike Retropie which is fully supported with regular updates. For the most part, most emulators do work with this O.S.
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[Video Annotations]
♠ Banana Pi M2 Zero Specifications [ 0:05 to 0:09 ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
♠ Banana Pi M2 Zero Case [ 0:10 to 5:58 ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
♠ Retro Orange Pi Installation [ 5:59 to 13:45 ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
♠ Temperature Test on Idle [ 13:45 to 15:12 ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
♠ Configure Controls [ 15:12 to 16:31 ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
♠ Configure wifi for LAN [ 16:32 to 21:59 ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahBgvvP19o0
♠ Put Roms in Retro Orange Pi [ 22:00 to 26:18 ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
♠ Emulator Tests [ 26:19 to 52:17 ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
• Sega Genesis Mega Drive [ 28:23 to 30:16 ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
• N64 [ 30:20 to 34:56 ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
• SNES [ 35:05 to 43:07 ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
• NES [ 43:19 to 45:06 ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
• MAME [ 45:34 to 52:17 ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
Temperature Results after Tests [ 52:33 to 53:59 ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
Shutdown [ 53:60 to 54:11 ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
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[Links to Software]
◙ Orange Retropie Website
• www.retrorangepi.org/
◙ 7Zip Website
• https://www.7-zip.org/
◙ Balena Etcher Website
• https://www.balena.io/etcher/
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[Links to Parts]
♦ Banana Pi Zero M2 SBC
• https://amzn.to/3IzZl36
♦ Raspberry Pi Zero Case + Accessories
• https://ebay.to/3fVePBW
♦ Wifi Antenna
• https://amzn.to/3fo6WUj
♦ Samsung 32 GB microSD Card
• https://amzn.to/3fmZKb3
♦ Small Table Top Fan
• https://amzn.to/3yj5OtG
♦ Sabrent 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub
• https://amzn.to/3waKbtJ
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◙ Banana Pi M2 Zero Assembled Kit with Accessories @ Ebay
• https://ebay.to/3LGjZjy
♠ Banana Pi M2 Zero Assembled Kit with Accessories 10.1% less compared to Ebay
• https://bit.ly/3C7yXfG
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