NanoPI NEO2 Black Allwinner H5 SBC Adds an eMMC flash Module, Up to 1GB RAM

NanoPi NEO2, now called NanoPi NEO2 LTS, is a great little Allwinner H5 SBC designed for server/headless applications with Ethernet & USB ports, as well as I/O headers.

FriendlyELEC is now about to launch a new variant called NanoPi NEO2 Black with the same form factor and Allwinenr H5 64-bit Arm SoC, but adding an eMMC flash module, supporting up to 1GB RAM, modifications to the I/O headers, and featuring a black PCB instead of the blue PCB found in NEO2-LTS. NanoPi NEO2 Black SBC specifications with changes in bold or ~~stricken-through~~:

SoC – Allwinner H5 quad-core Cortex A53 processor with an ARM Mali-450MP GPU
System Memory – 512 MB or 1GB DDR3
Storage – MicroSD card slot, eMMC flash module connector
Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet (via RTL8211E-VB-CG chip)
USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x micro USB OTG port, 2x 1x USB via headers
Expansion headers
- 10-pin header with I2C, 2x UART, ~~SPI~~, GPIOs, ~~PWM~~, and power signals (5V in/out + GND)
- 6-pin header with 1x USB, Line Out (stereo), 1x GPIO, ~~I2S~~
- ~~5-pin audio header with microphone and LINE out signals~~
Debugging – ~~4-pin~~ 2-pin unpopulated header for serial console / debugging
Misc – Power and system LEDs
Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port or VDD pin on headers.
Dimensions – 40 x 40 mm
Weight – ~16 grams

The main advantage of this board is the extra memory and storage options. You’ll find some more details on the (Work-in-Progress) Wiki, where software information is still missing, but NanoPi NEO2 Black should support Ubuntu 16.04 (FriendlyCore), OpenWrt (FriendlyWrt), and Armbian built Ubuntu 18.04 and Debian 10 “Buster” images.

The board is not yet listed on FriendlyELEC store, but since the Wiki is up, we should just be a few hours or days from the actual launch. The eMMC modules are already used on other NanoPi boards, and the price starts at $9.95 (8GB module) and goes up to $28.95 (64GB).

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.