NanoPi Neo Core & Core2 & MiniShield

[guidol]

New toys to play

The NanoPi Neo Core and Core2 are the Core-PCB without Connectors.

Only Pin-holes in 2.54mm Pitch.

 

But as the Pictures did show - there will be a Docking-Board like on the NanoPi Duo

 

The price for the normal NanoPi Neo jumps from $7,99 to $9,99 and the new Neo Core now costs $7,99 (256MB and no eMMC)

BUT has optional - also like the Neo Core2 (here 8GB default) - 8GB eMMC (512MB and 8GB eMMC = +$10 on the $7,99 Neo Core)

 

The Neo Core2 does cost $24,99 but do have 1GB of Ram and (default) 8GB of eMMC (more options later).

(long description show also - a obsolete? - option for only 512MB. But the board feature-icons are for 1GB)

 

They do wrote that the new Core NanoPis do run much cooler (Core around 30 Degree and Core2 "much less overheat")

 

Neo Core: http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=212

http://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_NEO_Core

 

Neo Core2: http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=211

http://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_NEO_Core2

 

On the Neo Core2 there is an option to get the Neo Core2 with soldered headers.
This isnt available (at this time) NOT for the Neo Core.
Doesnt seems to be a option for soldered Headers - only the standard-configuration is unsoldered but headers are included.
 

 

Also at this time not available is the pictured heat sink and the Base/Docking PCB and Case

The Base-Board - when developed (and why they got pictures?) - will be in the size of a Raspberry Pi3

and will fit in Raspberry Pi3 cases.  No - the USB-Ports and the Audio-port is on another place

[EDIT] Shield is also at this time available the same for booth Core models at the price of $9,98

http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=213

- case (formfactor NanoPi K2) is included

- screw for the M2-SSD is included

- the serial debug-port is at the place of the HDMI-Port.

- the M2-SSD Port now seems to have full lenght - no more need for a half-size board

 

Old HATs for the "normal" NanoPi Neo & Neo2 will fit to the Core models (OLED, Arduino and PCM5102A-Audio-Hat)

but I think then you could close the case

 

[manuti]

In the Icons they say: H5 Octa Core??

 

[guidol]

11 minutes ago, manuti said:

In the Icons they say: H5 Octa Core??

yes one more error in the description

 

[tkaiser]

Why spreading so much confusion? Both boards have own wiki pages provided by technical writers so there's no need to focus on temporary mistakes their marketing folks might make.

 

Main difference between both boards is that Core2 features an RTL8211 GbE PHY while Core uses the SoC's internal Fast Ethernet PHY. And I hope they stay with H3 (or H2+ since essentially the same) on Core and H5 on Core2 and do not start with stupid SoC exchanges since this only leads to confusion and users picking up the wrong OS images.

 

Peripherals (heatsink included) are all compatible and they designed the boards fortunately backwards compatible. Pin headers soldered or not can be decided in the store at checkout time (I assume the Core when ordered together with the Mini Shield comes with them presoldered, I can't imagine FE repeating the same mistake as with the first NAS expansion bay).

 

Size of DRAM is choosable and eMMC optional. Which combinations might be available might change over time (based on feedback/demand)

 

There's USB OTG on the Micro USB port (other boards do it differently eg Tritium and NEO Plus 2 so it's worth to mention since both boards even without pin headers soldered can provide limited network connectivity through g_ether module) and the boards can be powered through pin headers too. Ethernet implementation is interesting since they offer the same Mini Shield for both variants so it should be possible to combine the Core2 with an external GbE MagJack as long as traces are short and most probably of same length ( didn't look into schematic yet).

 

Software support efforts seem to be minimal (more or less only DT stuff and maybe checking for GbE TX/RX delay adjustments) and at least with the Core I wouldn't consider Micro USB for DC-IN a show stopper...

[guidol]

Now FriendlyElec has now Starter-Kits for their Core-products...

 

Neo Core Starter-Kit $25,99 (+Postage):
http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=215

 

Neo Core2 Starter-Kit $32,99 (+Postage):

http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=214

 

Postage here for me (Turkey) would be $7 (small packet.  The Neo2 (non-Core) Alu NAS Case was $12 for a bigger packet)

 

All Kits do come with solderd headers

 

But Iam wondering about the Neo Core Starter-Kit price.... Neo Core alone $7,99 and the Neo Core2 alone $24,99

The Kits seems to have the same additional components - so if they would give the same discount to the Neo Core-kit it would be $15,99

 

But you will get to the Neo Core(2):

- MiniShield with case and screws $10,99

- Neo(2) heat sink $2,97

- Good MicroUSB Cable $1,97

- USB-TTL Debug $3,99

 

$10,99 + $ 2,97 + $1,97 + $3,99 = $19,92

 

PS: The Acryl-case at the Starter-Kit pictures looks like the Arcyl-case of my NanoPi Duo

 

[tkaiser]

20 hours ago, guidol said:

The Kits seems to have the same additional components - so if they would give the same discount to the Neo Core-kit it would be $15,99

 

It's the 512MB variant with eMMC in the kit which adds the additional $10.

[guidol]

1 hour ago, tkaiser said:

It's the 512MB variant with eMMC in the kit which adds the additional $10.

Ahh - OK I see  and $1 for the soldered headers  

 

[guidol]

Today I did receive my NanoPi Neo Core2-Kit.
 

Some thing to be mentioned while building the kit:
- the IR-Receiver Pins had to be cut and should be inserted - the right way - inside the precision-socket

- if you attach the heat-sink to the cpu-module then you cant close the RPi-style case

- uSD card slot facinf the direction to the GPIO-headers and cant easily inserted/removed
   (like at the uSD-Slot of the Ordoid C2)

 

FriendlyElec did tell only Audio-In/Audio-Out at the features, but at the 3.5mm Jack there is written:

AV-Out - will there be an video-signal?

 

If you would try a armbian build: the NanoPI Neo Plus2 image (with eMMC support) doesnt seem to boot.
At this time you should use the NanoPi Neo2 image, this does boot.

The NanoPi Neo Core2 seems to be more near the Neo2 - as written at the page
(but the NanoPi Neo2 image cant see the eMMC, because a normal Neo2 hasnt eMMC - so no support)
http://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_NEO_Core2
 

Quote

The NanoPi NEO Core2 as its name tells is an alternative NanoPi NEO2 that works like a CPU board with male pin-headers. It has the same form facotor as the NanoPi NEO2, same pin descriptions and works with all the OS images the NanoPi NEO2 supports. The connectors and ports on the NEO2 are populated to pin-headers on the NEO2 Core.

 

armbianmonitor -u :  uploaded to http://ix.io/DJn

 

If you want to use the LEDs on the CPU-Board then min that the color-name for the LEDs doesnt match
 

# Green LED Heartbeat
echo "heartbeat" > /sys/class/leds/nanopi:blue:status/trigger

# Red LED MMC0
echo "mmc0" > /sys/class/leds/nanopi\:green\:pwr/trigger

 

@Igor couldnt attach pictures because : "Drag files here to attach, or choose files... Max total size 0.04MB " = 40Kb

solved by igor

[guidol]

As information
the Neo Core2 does boot the
image of the Neo2 <-without eMMC support

and the

image of the Neo Plus2 <- with eMMC support (tested with Armbian_5.38.180128_Nanopineoplus2_Debian_stretch_next_4.14.15)

[Andy]

Today I tired to get some GPIO working.

So I found your post and the code. 

However when I try to run it nothing happens...

 

Do I need to install a GPIO library first is this not prebuilt in the armbian Image?

 

 

On 6.1.2018 at 5:00 PM, guidol said:

# Green LED Heartbeat
echo "heartbeat" > /sys/class/leds/nanopi:blue:status/trigger

# Red LED MMC0
echo "mmc0" > /sys/class/leds/nanopi\:green\:pwr/trigger

 

 

 

 

 

 

[guidol]

1 hour ago, Andy said:

Today I tired to get some GPIO working.

So I found your post and the code. 

However when I try to run it nothing happens...

Do I need to install a GPIO library first is this not prebuilt in the armbian Image?

For these 2 LEDs you dont need a GPIO-Library, but it hasnt to do with other GPIOs.

 

For the two LEDs (which are near the MicroSD-Slot) you have the follwoing options:

 

root@nanopi-core2:~# more /sys/class/leds/nanopi\:green\:pwr/trigger

none kbd-scrolllock kbd-numlock kbd-capslock kbd-kanalock kbd-shiftlock kbd-altgrlock kbd-ctrllock kbd-altlock kbd-shiftllock
kbd-shiftrlock kbd-ctrlllock kbd-ctrlrlock usbport usb-gadget usb-host mmc0 mmc1 mmc2 [heartbeat] cpu cpu0 cpu1 cpu2 cpu3 0.2:
07:1Gbps 0.2:07:100Mbps 0.2:07:10Mbps
 

And here you can see that I have for the red (written as green in the image) [heartbeat] is selected.
For using other GPIOs you maybe need a library.

[Andy]

thx foor the help.

 

now I can see the problem.

this command works echo "heartbeat" > /sys/class/leds/nanopi\:green\:pwr/trigger

however the RED power LED is now flashing on my NanoPi Neo Core 2.

 

When I use the echo "heartbeat" > /sys/class/leds/nanopi:blue:status/trigger nothing happens.

I think the Core 2 has some different LEDs at different Ports...

 

Andy

 

 

[kjn260]

So I just tried to bring up a NanoPi Neo Core w/ minishield using the core/air image 5.37.

 

To board boots but seems to leave ethernet disabled - it doesn't activate the port at all.

 

I tried again with the friendly arm image and this worked fine - connected, picked up an address and I could ssh into the device.

 

Is there a chance that the fast ethernet controller on the core is disabled on the mainline air image? is this controlled somewhere in the dts?

 

Any help, please?

[Andy]

hmm I had no problems with the Ethernet on the Armbian.

What does ifconfig show?

 

Andy

[guidol]

1 minute ago, Andy said:

What does ifconfig show?

@kjn260 is there anthing about eth0 in dmesg? or what about "ifconfig eth0 up"?

[kjn260]

root@nanopiair:~# dmesg | grep eth
[    0.000000] psci: probing for conduit method from DT.
root@nanopiair:~#

and

 

root@nanopiair:~# ifconfig eth0
eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found
root@nanopiair:~#

 

 

so no driver is loaded.

 

FYI:  Armbian_5.38_Nanopiair_Ubuntu_xenial_next_4.14.15

 

 

so out of curiosity I plugged in a USB<>Ethernet Cable I had lying around:

 

root@nanopiair:~# dmesg | grep eth
[    0.000000] psci: probing for conduit method from DT.
[   10.724772] asix 2-1:1.0 eth0: register 'asix' at usb-1c1b000.usb-1, ASIX AX88772B USB 2.0 Ethernet, 00:50:b6:1b:2a:b3
[   11.249196] asix 2-1:1.0 enx0050b61b2ab3: renamed from eth0
root@nanopiair:~#

Go figure....

 

[guidol]

On 2.4.2018 at 10:34 AM, kjn260 said:

So I just tried to bring up a NanoPi Neo Core w/ minishield using the core/air image 5.37.

To board boots but seems to leave ethernet disabled - it doesn't activate the port at all.

Any help, please?

The Neo Core and the Air doesnt have ethernet - maybe ther is no (activated) driver.

Did you try to boot with a mainline image from the normal NanoPi Neo (H3)?:
https://www.armbian.com/nanopi-neo/

[kjn260]

So I flashed the latest nano pi (non-core) image:

 

root@nanopineo:~# dmesg | grep eth
[    0.000000] psci: probing for conduit method from DT.
[    4.313531] dwmac-sun8i 1c30000.ethernet: PTP uses main clock
[    4.313606] dwmac-sun8i 1c30000.ethernet: No regulator found
[    4.313782] dwmac-sun8i 1c30000.ethernet: Current syscon value is not the default 148000 (expect 58000)
[    4.313809] dwmac-sun8i 1c30000.ethernet: Chain mode enabled
[    4.313821] dwmac-sun8i 1c30000.ethernet: No HW DMA feature register supported
[    4.313832] dwmac-sun8i 1c30000.ethernet: Normal descriptors
[    4.313843] dwmac-sun8i 1c30000.ethernet: RX Checksum Offload Engine supported
[    4.313855] dwmac-sun8i 1c30000.ethernet: COE Type 2
[    4.313865] dwmac-sun8i 1c30000.ethernet: TX Checksum insertion supported
[    4.314836] dwmac-sun8i 1c30000.ethernet: Found internal PHY node
[    4.315018] dwmac-sun8i 1c30000.ethernet: Switch mux to internal PHY
[    4.315031] dwmac-sun8i 1c30000.ethernet: Powering internal PHY
[   16.373120] dwmac-sun8i 1c30000.ethernet eth0: device MAC address 2a:18:44:a1:fb:f6
[   16.383095] dwmac-sun8i 1c30000.ethernet eth0: No MAC Management Counters available
[   16.383114] dwmac-sun8i 1c30000.ethernet eth0: PTP not supported by HW
[   16.383550] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[   54.889366] dwmac-sun8i 1c30000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 100Mbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
[   54.889461] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
root@nanopineo:~#

 

Difference is:

-the inbuild fast ethernet driver is enabled and worked.

-USB<>Serial was disabled and I had to SSH into the board to get my dmesg.

[kjn260]

So I went hunting through all the board defs - I only found one difference between the air and core:

 

https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot/blob/master/configs/nanopi_neo_air_defconfig

 

v

 

https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot/blob/master/configs/nanopi_neo_air_defconfig

 

Line 16 - which seems like it could be related. However, I tried modifying the build patch to include but it was unsuccessful - I guess I will have to keep looking. 

[guidol]

1 hour ago, kjn260 said:

v

https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot/blob/master/configs/nanopi_neo_air_defconfig

Line 16 

https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot/blob/master/configs/nanopi_neo_defconfig

16 - CONFIG_SUN8I_EMAC=y

[张国松]

Hi Guidol

 

am desperat for neo core 2

 

I connect core2 with mini shield and burnt the right rom

 

Led green blinks and it means booted, right?

 

but the big Ethernet port is inactive, and I could not get in touch with core2.

 

Tried usb wifi, not working

 

Plz help

[guidol]

12 hours ago, 张国松 said:

Led green blinks and it means booted, right?

but the big Ethernet port is inactive, and I could not get in touch with core2.

Tried usb wifi, not working

Plz help

 

A blinking LED is mostly a sign of a booted system, because the blinking LED shows the "Heartbeat" of the Operating System.
USB-WiFi without configuring doenst work as with the Ethernet port, because without the name and the password of your WiFi Network the USB-WiFi cant connect. Also the Chipset of the USB-WiFi-Dongle has to be supported via a driver fron the Operating system.

Now you should get/connect a TTL-Serial Dongle and take a look why the ethernet doenst get a IP (do you have a DHCP-Server?)

 

Maybe if you do use a PC-USB-Port for powering the Neo Core2 you could use this as serial-console port if usb gadget g_serial is enabled.
see here

 

[张国松]

Hi Guidol

 

The nanopi core2 seems booted but does not activate the LAN which I could access thru mini Shield. USB WIFI were firstly set up WIFI network on PC and then was plugged in Nanopi. Unfortunately the USB wifi could not work, and probably it needs activation within core2.

 

I have USB-UART, home router which offers DHCP,  and how should I start looking up and setting up the network to Core2?  Have tried and connected with PUTTY. It is not always that session can be etablished. Worst thing that many ubuntu commands do not exist. e.g. nmcli not found. LAN and USB devices can not be listed, e.g. lsusb not found as well

 

I have questions, I can power on Core2 by PC USB, does it mean I could control it e.g. configure LAN or WIFI?

 

Thanks again

[guidol]

7 hours ago, 张国松 said:

 

I have USB-UART, home router which offers DHCP,  and how should I start looking up and setting up the network to Core2?  Have tried and connected with PUTTY. It is not always that session can be etablished. Worst thing that many ubuntu commands do not exist. e.g. nmcli not found. LAN and USB devices can not be listed, e.g. lsusb not found as well

 

I have questions, I can power on Core2 by PC USB, does it mean I could control it e.g. configure LAN or WIFI?

 

 

Did you set the serial rate for COM4 to 115200 Baud?
If lsusb isnt available - are you sure you got a armbian image on the sdcard and not an image from FriendlyARM?

 

If you got an armbian-image on your sdcard - did you try to use the commands "nmtui" or "armbian-config"

 

If you power with an amrbian-image on your card it may be possible to get an com-port (from g_serial gadget) and use this a serial port.

But you already got a USB-UART - so it wouldnt make a differnce......

 

if nmtui isnt available then try it the "old" way - configure eth0 via /etc/network/interfaces

 

 

[张国松]

Morning.

 

COM4 and COM3 were tried, 9600 Baud. It was not always that PUTTY can access the CORE2 after successful booting, which was given by the green blinks. Every boot, it blinks but it was not every time that I could access CORE2 via PUTTY. By the way, PUTTY was active, but no access to CORE2. Tried also eMMC boot, the official ROMs (Debian NAS as tried as well), it did give scuccessful access just 2-3 times of 20 successful booting. 

 

Armbian, I tried several times. Armbian shut down the red LED but only the green blinks indicates successful booting. All the time, there were successful booting, but no success to get access via PUTTY. 

 

Desperate to this CORE2, bad support from NANOPI. Document from the web is kind of unclear in my case.

 

1. Could SD card problem? I doubt so. I formated it with FAT32 every burning

2. Could power supply problem? I tried 2 supplies 5V2A.

3. Could router problem? Could router rejects LAN connections, NB my router is 192.168.10.1 given by Altibox. The router does offer DHCP, I have a NAS that works fine.

4. Could img too new without careful testing? 

 

[guidol]

2 hours ago, 张国松 said:

COM4 and COM3 were tried, 9600 Baud.

 

1. Could SD card problem? I doubt so. I formated it with FAT32 every burning

2. Could power supply problem? I tried 2 supplies 5V2A.

3. Could router problem? Could router rejects LAN connections, NB my router is 192.168.10.1 given by Altibox. The router does offer DHCP, I have a NAS that works fine.

4. Could img too new without careful testing? 

 

COM3 or COM4? at which COM-port is your USB-TTL-UART?
9600 Baud isnt right - you have to use 115200

 

1.) Card could be a problem if it is a fake.
Test your card with h2testw from https://www.heise.de/download/product/h2testw-50539
Format you card with SD Memory Card Formatter 5.0 from https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

and write your image to the card with etcher (v1.44) from https://etcher.io/

(ensure to enable verify in etcher settings)

 

2.) power supply could be a problem, but sometimes its one the MicroUSB-cable (too thin wires) - swap this

 

3.) if the router reject LAN Conenctions - that could be a problem. Try to enable a big enough DHCP-IP-Pool
Does the NAS get an IP or did you use a static IP on the NAS?

 

4.) these images arent too new to get it bootet on this sbc - which image did you use (URL?)

 

[gounthar]

As much as I love the OrangePi Zero/One, there are some overheating issues, and the way I envision what I'm going to do with them won't help (tons of them hidden within a 1U rack).
I gave a look at the NeoCore LTS and Neo LTS, and it looks very interesting (eMMC, good heatsink, and still H3).
Has anyone tempted to go without the minishield but connect that board to Ethernet?
Thanks.