Milk-V-Duo for resanoble price on Aliexpress - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: pcprogrammer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2024, 05:47:28 am
content: When you are looking for a Milk-V-Duo board now is the time to get one on Aliexpress.https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005005699023966.htmlWith 64MB it is on for 7.17 euro, but when you have coins you can save another 0.58 euro. This is without shipping costs, which is 1.99 euro, but by adding something else to make up a total of 10 euro the shipping is free.I still had some late delivery coupons which made them even cheaper. Paid 6.02 euro

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2024, 06:09:31 am
content: I'm seeing US$7.08 with free shilling (usually $1.99) on the first order from that store.But here I'm seeing US$0.99, with free shipping "Welcome deal for 1 item only" (you see this when you add it to your cart and go to your cart):https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805512861839.html

author: pcprogrammer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2024, 06:21:39 am
content: Quote from: brucehoult on August 19, 2024, 06:09:31 amYou will probably have to make a new account to get that cheap one, or the price is very different for us here in Europe. When signed in, the price for me is 11.49 euro on that one. When I sign out it shows 3.99 euro, and indeed only one per shopper.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2024, 08:46:11 am
content: Quote from: pcprogrammer on August 19, 2024, 06:21:39 amNo, I went to the point of payment, and get that price logged in to my usual account. It seems to be a new user price for THAT store, not new user on Aliexpress in general.

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2024, 09:36:18 am
content: With a bit of searching, I found a seller that would sell the 64M one to me for 8.61€ including shipping. The search is a bit wonky; I had to go check quite a few offers to find the best price including shipping.I've recently made my first AliExpress orders (this, a 256M Milk-V Duo, and a Tang Nano 1k, all from different AliExpress stores), so I'm waiting to see how it goes. I'm particularly interested in how the Finnish customs and post office deals with these, as AliExpress does collect VAT up front. Mostly I'm waiting to see if Finnish customs or post makes me jump through hoops to get these delivered –– plus also to see if the stuff I buy is what was advertised, of course. Ordering stuff from e.g. Pine64.com (Shenzen) to Finland was nice, because I could pay the customs online as soon as they confirmed shipping (the next day from order) for a 1€ fee via Finnish Post web portal.

author: pcprogrammer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2024, 11:30:21 am
content: Quote from: brucehoult on August 19, 2024, 08:46:11 amI would say that you are lucky then. I have not bought from that store before, but it does not offer the low price.And I don't feel inclined to setup a new account just to get the one for just a couple of euros less.

author: pcprogrammer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2024, 11:37:52 am
content: Quote from: Nominal Animal on August 19, 2024, 09:36:18 amWith the VAT already collected by Aliexpress it should be smooth sailing, at least when you bought it from a choice store. Brings fast(er) delivery and on time delivery guarantee. When late they give you a 1 euro coupon per order that arrived late.Before the VAT change it was a bit the luck of the draw with the delivery duration. Sometimes it came within a week or two, but other times it could take a couple of months. Now it is just over a week and with free shipping if you use the buy 3 option or spend > 10 euros with the choice option.Quality of items may vary and sometimes things are fakes, but you can get your money back in most of the cases. I'm quite happy with shopping on Aliexpress.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2024, 08:04:40 pm
content: The cheapest I've found at this point at Aliexpress is this one:https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006885324920.html6.89€but the shipping is more expensive.

author: __george__
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2024, 08:45:10 pm
content: I ordered many times from aliexpress and in the vast majority of the cases all went well. But even with the VAT collected from them at least once I had to pay tax again upon arrival and when I tried to claimed it back from aliexpress they basically refused to give me anything. So if you do happen to pay tax again in the customs I would advice you to be very careful and capture a video unboxing the item and take clear pictures of the box in every stage. That is, if you want to take your VAT back.Sorry for the offtopic

author: pcprogrammer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2024, 05:44:45 pm
content: I received the ones I ordered.Nicely packaged in plastic sealed card board boxes. More information can be found on the suppliers sitehere.

author: pcprogrammer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2024, 10:12:20 am
content: After some private message exchange with brucehoult, I got the boards up and running.Wrote the raw image found on the suppliers site to a SD card and inserted that into the Milk-V Duo board(s). Startup is amazingly slow and according to Bruce a fair bit to long. It takes two and a half minute to start blinking the blue led next to the USB connector. Bruce wrote his boards take about 8.5 seconds. So some research is needed to find out why.I did get the SSH connection via USB network interface to work.On Linux the network interface is recognized but needs an IP address and gate way. The Milk-V Duo uses the address 192.168.42.1, so I used that as gateway and gave the interface address 192.168.42.2. Opened the connection withCode:ssh root@192.168.42.1Password is milkvSo far so good.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2024, 11:19:30 am
content: Ok, so the easy way to run some of your own C code on it it to compile with either the embedded toolchain (if you only need printf but not other system calls) or the linux toolchain with -static. Then scp to the board and ssh to run it.Code:bruce@i9:~$ riscv64-linux-gnu-gcc -O -static primes.c -o primesbruce@i9:~$ scp primes duo:primes 100% 496KB 3.4MB/s 00:00bruce@i9:~$ ssh duo ./primesStarting run3713160 primes found in 43071 ms224 bytes of code in countPrimes()bruce@i9:~$

author: pcprogrammer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2024, 11:32:41 am
content: It turns out the SD card is the culprit. The card I tried it with first is a 2GB no brand Aliexpress one, and even though it states class 10 it must be very slow. I burnt the image to a 32GB Sandisk Ultra also class 10 card and now it starts in less then 10 seconds.I have to get the toolchain for Risc-V and start playing with it.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2024, 11:39:39 am
content: Good! I'm just using Amazon Basics 64 GB, as I do for all my boards :-)You said you're using Linux Mint. So justapt install gcc-riscv64-linux-gnuwill get you a generic toolchain. If that's gcc 13 then it won't know how to make code for the THead vector extension and maybe others, but just generic RV64GC will work fine.

author: pcprogrammer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2024, 11:48:52 am
content: It looks like an older version. gcc version 9.4.0 (Ubuntu 9.4.0-1ubuntu1~20.04) My Mint version is 20, so lacking a bit behind.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2024, 12:00:00 pm
content: Quote from: pcprogrammer on August 29, 2024, 11:48:52 amThat'll be fine for generic C/C++ code.Or you can build your own GCC 14 (or HEAD) or download one fromhttps://github.com/xpack-dev-tools/riscv-none-elf-gcc-xpack/releases/tag/v14.2.0-1