Tiny NanoPi Duo2 Outfitted with Camera Interface, Wi-Fi, and Optional IoT-2G Board
Last year, FriendlyElec launched the NanoPi Duo- a super cheap (then $8, now $13) Arm breadboard-ready development board outfitted with an…
Last year, FriendlyElec launched the NanoPi Duo — a super cheap (then $8, now $13) breadboard-ready dev board outfitted with an H2+ SoC. The Arm board design and development company has recently released an updated more powerful version of the Duo, with the NanoPi Duo2, which packs an Allwinner H3 SoC with 512Mb of DDR3 RAM, an OV5640 camera port, and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth 4.0 LE.
The NanoPi Duo2 fixes some of the issues the original board suffered, including replacing the dodgy XR819 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi chip with an AP6212 module. As far as hardware goes, the board sports a quad-core Cortex-A7 processor (Mali-400MP2 GPU), micro SD slot (up to 128Gb of storage), Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, and Bluetooth 4.0 LE with chip antenna and an IPX connector for external antenna.
The Duo2 is also equipped with packs an I/F connector for OV6540 camera, micro USB OTG port, and a pair of 16-pin breadboard-compatible headers with UART, SPI, I2C, MIC, Line Out, CVBS, Ethernet, 5V, 3.3V, GND, and 2X USB Host ports.
To accompany the NanoPi Duo2, FriendlyElec designed an IoT-2G Application Carrier Board to provide the Duo2 2G cellular application support for any number of IoT projects. The board features a quad-band GSM/GPRS module, a pair of USB Host ports, Serial/Ethernet ports, audio in/out, IPX to SMA Wi-Fi converter and micro USB power input/switch.
For the software side, the NanoPi Duo2 supports FriendlyCore 16.04, Linux-4.14-LTS, and U-boot-2017.11. FriendlyElec’s NanoPi Duo2 is now available for $19.50, and the IoT Application Carrier Board will set you back another $10. Of course, they also have a host of add-ons for the Duo2 if needed, including a heat sink, 16Gb micro SD card, and a 2.0 megapixel Universal USB camera module (among many more).