NanoPi R2S Dual GbE IoT Board and Gateway Launched for $22 and Up

We first covered NanoPi R2S SBC back in mid-January 2020. Specifically designed for headless and IoT application the board features a Rockchip RK3328 processor combined with 1GB RAM, and contrary to most competing platforms on the market such as Orange Pi R1 or NanoPi R1S, R2S comes with two true Gigabit Ethernet ports.

At the time, the board was not available for sale, but now FriendlyELEC has started to take orders for just $22.00, and adding a yellow case adds $3 to the total. This is around $5 extra compared to NanoPi R1S gateway which was expected with extra RAM (1GB) and true dual GbE connectivity.

But in the age of COVID-19, nothing runs quite as smoothly as it used to and the company expects shipping delays:

Because of the epidemic, postal services in a lot of countries get delayed. Customers who need orders urgently need to choose DHL. EU customers who need DHL service to deliver orders need to email us before place orders.

Here’s a quite reminder of the board’s specifications:

SoC – Rockchip RK3328 quad-core Cortex-A53 @ 1.5 GHz with Arm Mali-450MP2
System Memory – 1GB DDR4 RAM
Storage – MicroSD Slot, SPI flash footprint
Connectivity
- 1x Gigabit Ethernet (WAN) up to 941 Mbps (measured)
- 1x Gigabit Ethernet (LAN) up to 941 Mbps (measured) via Realtek RTL8153 USB 3.0 to Ethernet controller
- ~~802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 with IPX-I antenna connector~~
USB – 1x USB Type-A host port, 1x micro USB port (power + slave)
Debugging – 3-pin 2.54mm pitch header for serial console
Expansion – 10-pin GPIO header with GPIOs, I2C, UART, IR_Rx, 5V, 3.3V and GND
Misc – 3x LEDs (WAN, LAN, SYS), K1 reset button, fan header
Power Supply – 5VDC/3A via micro USB port
Dimensions – 55.6 x 52mm
Temperature Range – -20 to 70

As noted in our previous if you need WiFi with your board, you’ll need to connect a USB WiFi dongle, but besides dual Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, you’ll also get access to a 10-pin GPIO header which was not present in NanoPi R1S. Supported operating systems include FriendlyWrt (OpenWrt) and FriendlyCore (Ubuntu 18.04 Core) with all details available in the Wiki in English or Chinese.

Thanks to theguyuk for the tip.

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.