$15 Makerdiary iMX RT1011 Nano Kit runs Zephyr RTOS on 500 MHz NXP iMX RT1011 crossover MCU

Makerdiary’s iMX RT1011 Nano Kit is a prototyping board featuring the NXP iMX RT1011 Cortex-M7 Crossover MCU running Zephyr RTOS. It offers 128 KB of on-chip RAM, configurable as TCM or general-purpose memory, and supports high-speed USB, UART, SPI, I2C, SAI, PWM, GPIO, and ADC, making it suitable for a variety of embedded applications.

The board also includes a 128 Mbit external QSPI flash with XIP support, flexible power management, a programmable LED and Button, and a USB-C connector. It features a dual-row 40-pin layout (DIP/SMT) with up to 33 multi-function GPIO pins, 15 of which can be used as ADC inputs, along with a Serial Wire Debug (SWD) port. Optional pre-soldered headers are available for added flexibility.

We previously covered other iMX RT1011-based development boards, such as the Olimex RT1010-Py running MicroPython and Adafruit Metro M7 with CircuitPython firmware. Be sure to check them out if you’re interested.

Makerdiary’s iMX RT1011 Nano Kit specifications:

SoC – NXP iMX RT1011 crossover microcontroller with an Arm Cortex-M7 clocked at 500 MHz, 64 KB Boot ROM, and 128KB On-chip RAM shared with CM7 TCM
Storage – 128 Mbit external QSPI Flash with XIP support
USB – High-speed Type-C port for power and programming
Expansions
- 2x 20-pin 2.54mm pitch headers
  - Up to 33 multi-function GPIOs
  - 15 configurable ADC inputs
  - 4x UART, 2x SPI, 3x I2C/SAI
  - 5V, 3.3V, and GND
Debugging – Arm Serial Wire Debug (SWD) port via edge pins
Misc
- 1x User-programmable LED and button
- 1x VBUS LED
- 1x Reset button
Power
- Input: 1.8 V to 5.5 V DC
- Output: 3.3V output up to 2A when input is greater than equals to 2.3V
Dimensions – 55.88 x 20.32mm

The development board includes a UF2 Bootloader for easy firmware updates by simply dragging and dropping .uf2 files without the need for an external programmer. A Quick Start Guide is provided on the company’s wiki page. The iMX RT1011 Nano Kit supports Zephyr RTOS, offering hardware drivers, protocol stacks, and Python-based hardware access. Comprehensive documentation, schematics, pin diagrams, firmware, and sample code are available on the company’s GitHub page.

The Makerdiary iMX RT1011 Nano Kit is available for $14.90 on the official Makerdiary store and on Tindie. A pre-soldered variant is also offered for an additional $1.00.

Sayantan Nandy

Sayantan Nandy, an electronics engineer with over four years of hands-on experience in PCB design, circuit development and power electronics, is proficient in EAGLE CAD, Ki-Cad, and Altium. He has a proven track record of delivering efficient and effective systems. His expertise extends from R&D, and prototyping to production support, making him a valuable asset to any engineering team.