PICO-PI-IMX7 NXP i.MX7 SBC offered for under $20 (Promo)

TechNexion PICO-Pi-IMX7 single board computer was introduced a few years ago with an NXP i.MX 7Solo or 7Dual Cortex-A7 Intel Edison compatible CPU module, in a form factor similar to Raspberry Pi 3, and supported by Android Things that was still a thing at the time…

It looks like Arrow Electronics is trying to get rid of some stock, as the company is selling the Amazon version of the PICO-PI-IMX7 board for $19.58 including free shipping for ArrowPerks members, instead of the usual $120+ price tag. We had written about the PICO-iMX6 module and PICO-PI-iMX8 SBC previously, but never about the i.MX7 version, nor the PICO-PI-IMX7 board, so let’s have a closer look at what the board has to offer.

PICO-Pi-IMX7 specifications:

PICO-iMX7 system-on-module
- SoC – NXP i.MX 7Dual dual-core Cortex-A7 processor @ 1 GHz with Cortex-M4 real-time core
- System Memory – 512MB DDR3L
- Storage – 4GB eMMC flash
- Connectivity
  - Atheros AR8035 Gigabit Ethernet transceiver
  - Broadcom BCM4339 wireless module for 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 4.1 BR+EDR+BLE connectivity
  - u.FL antenna connector
- PMIC – NXP PF3000
Baseboard
- Display and Camera
  - 1x 24-bit TTL RGB signals (expansion header)
  - MIPI CSI+DSI signals on 33-pin FPC connector
- Audio – 3.5mm audio jack; NXP SGTL5000 stereo audio codec
- Camera –
- Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port
- USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x USB 2.0 OTG Type-C port
- Expansion
  - MikroBUS header with ADC, GPIO, I2C, PWM, SPI, UART
  - 40-pin GPIO header with GPIO, I2C, I2S, PWM, RS232, SPI, USB
- Debug Interface – Micro USB debug port
- Misc – 1x reset button
- Power Input – 5V DC via USB Type-C port
Dimensions – 85.6 x 56.5 x 17.5 mm
Weight – 43 grams
Temperature Range – 0° to +60° C

The datasheet says the board support Android Things, Linux, Yocto, Ubuntu, and Android, but it may be outdated. The board is apparently part of the Wandboard family, but could not find specific documentation for that model, and instead, good ways to get started may be through Digikey Wiki where you’ll learn how to build the code from source, and set up a Debian 10 or Ubuntu 20.04 root file system, or a tutorial on Hackster.io to build an image with the Yocto Project.

Thanks to fhersete 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.