Best posts made by Ghent The Slicer

@Theodore-Borromeo soldering flash chip could be major PITA, because you'll have to remove the metal shield first.

@Costas-Costas the ability to connect to an access point is in the minimal package. There is no GUI for it. You will have to edit two files:
/etc/config/wireless
and
/etc/config/network

Here is my network file. I disabled the lan bridge and the ethernet, since I don't use them. The configured the wireless wlan0 to use dhcp.
http://pastebin.com/FkN5nrAk

Here is my wireless config. My network uses WPA2. The LEDE web site has decent docs on these files.
http://pastebin.com/UgUDRsis

I have both of them. The LinkIt smart can be used easily with no dock, has onboard regulators and two micro usb ports - one for power and one host port. There is a dock which would give you ethernet and audio in/out.

The LinkIt is larger than the Omega2s. Specs are similar to Omega2+. Thy have a model with onboard Arduino, I don't have experience with it.

The LinkIt is more expensive than the Omega2s at $13. It has older software kernel 3.18 from the OpenWRT branch. Omega is based on LEDE, kernel is 4.4. LinkIt has opensource bootloader, the Omega does not. I prefer the uBoot from the LinkIt - it is faster to flash from the USB drive and has richer functionality.

I was able to get the i2s audio working with the LinkIt, not yet with the Omega2. Other than that they are both very similar. Support is sparse on both. LinkIt documentation is hosted on the MediaTek site, but forum questions are met with silence or vague answers - the community is smaller than the Omega.

Forgot to mention, the Omega2 is running way hotter than the LinkIt smart. Not sure why but it makes quite a bit of heat.

Edit the file /etc/config/wireless
Add 'option disabled '1' to the radio and all other interfaces.

This is one of my old configurations:
http://pastebin.com/eNthqx4s

copy this file as .config in the root of your LEDE folder

It has a few extra things, but they are specified as modules, so not included in the image.
I'm using the LEDE master branch with cherry-picked changes from WereCatf as well as the flash reset fix from the onion branch
https://github.com/OnionIoT/source/tree/mtd-m25p80-reset-code

Again this is very spartan and the only working interface is the serial console. You'll have to configure the network and wifi manually.

@Zogg-Baubas
The default LEDE configuration is very spartan, you get almost nothing. It uses an opensource version of the MT76 wifi driver - it works for me, but YMMV.

I like the very minimal config. I'm using the small Omega2, which does not have lots of flash and I managed to get the OS to < 4MB, which leaves 12MB for my stuff.

If I want to solder one, would it be Molex 503182-1852 or something else?

Looks like the u-boot github (https://github.com/OnionIoT/uboot) has not been updated in a long time.

Can you post the u-boot sources for the Omega2 / 2+?

@perillamint Keep in mind the console on the LinkitSmart is on Serial 2, while the Omega2 is Serial 0.

A few things I forgot to mention. The LinkIt smart user a proprietary wifi driver from MediaTek, which presumably has better perf than the opensource mt76, however that causes other issues like not being able to rev the kernel.

In my opinion the Onion team has put more thought in the software packages for the Omega, the Linkit is more bare-bone.

Oh and I got the i2s to work on the Omega 2 as well. I personally prefer the Omega2, it has some kinks, but I like solving problems. However only you can decide what works best for your project.

Oh did I mention the pins on the LinkIt are standard spacing (2.54mm)