Introduction to NanoPi NEO Air

Introduction

The 40 mm square NEO Air from NanoPi manufactured by FriendlyARM has similar capabilities to the Raspberry Pi zero but powered by an Allwinner H3 32-bit Cortex A7 quad-core processor running up to 1.2 GHz with 512 MB RAM and a micro SD slot. (That's about 12% smaller and much faster than Raspberry Pi Zero)

Its pins are compatible with the NanoPi NEO (v1.2) and its 24-pin header is compatible with Raspberry Pi's GPIO pin headers. The processor includes a Mali400 MP2 GPU but the board lacks an HDMI output connector, so the board can only be used for headless applications.

Hardware Specifications

• CPU: Allwinner H3, Quad-core Cortex-A7 Up to 1.2GHz

• RAM: 512MB DDR3 RAM

• Storage: 8GB eMMC

• WiFi: 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 LE (via Ampak AP6212 module) with IPEX antenna connector

• DVP Camera: 0.5mm pitch 24 pin FPC seat

• MicroUSB: OTG and power input

• MicroSD Slot x 1

• Debug Serial Port: 4Pin, 2.54mm pitch pin header

• GPIO1: 2.54mm spacing 24pin, It includes UART, SPI, I2C, GPIO

• GPIO2: 2.54mm spacing 12pin, It includes USBx2, IR, SPDIF, I2S

• PCB Size: 40 x 40mm (Raspberry Pi Zero: 65mm × 30mm)

• PCB layer: 6

• Power Supply: DC 5V/2A

• OS/Software: u-boot, UbuntuCore, armbian, DietPi

• Weight: 7.5g (WITHOUT Pin-headers); 9.7g (WITH Pin-headers)

Layout and Pinout

For more information about installing OS on NEO Air and GPIO description, please read the wiki page.

LED Blinking with NEO Air

In this section, we will perform a simple electronic projects. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of information to get access to the GPIO pins. For this example, I used the matrix library. The matrix library has been developed by FriendlyARM for C language. Also, another similar library for Python language is being developed.

Wiring

• LED VCC <-> Pin 2 (VDD_5V)

• LED GND <-> Pin 7 (GPIOG11)

Compile & Run

Boot your NEO Air and copy the matrix code:

$ apt-get update && apt-get install git 
$ git clone https://github.com/friendlyarm/matrix.git  

If your cloning is done successfully a "matrix " directory will be generated. Compile and install Matrix:

$ cd matrix 
$ make && make install
$ cd ..

Now, Create new file and copy following code into file. My file name is led.c:

#include <stdio.h> 
#include <stdlib.h> 
#include <unistd.h> 
#include "libfahw.h" 
#define STATUS_CHANGE_TIMES		20 
int main(int argc, char **argv) 
{ 
	int i; 
	int intValue = 0; 
	int pin = GPIO_PIN(7); 
	if (boardInit() < 0) 
	{ 
		printf("Fail to init board\n"); 
       return -1; 
	} 
	if (exportGPIOPin(pin) != 0) 
	{ 
		printf("exportGPIOPin(%d) failed\n", pin); 
	} 
   if(setGPIODirection(pin, GPIO_OUT) == -1) 
   { 
       printf("setGPIODirection(%d) failed\r\n",pin); 
	} 
	for(i = 0; i < STATUS_CHANGE_TIMES; i++) 
	{ 
		intValue ^= 1;		//0 xor 1 = 1, 1 xor 1 = 0 
		if(setGPIOValue(pin, intValue) > 0) 
		{ 
			printf("%d - GPIO_PIN(%d) value is %d\r\n",i+1, pin, intValue); 
		} 
		else 
		{ 
			printf("setGPIOValue(%d) failed\r\n", pin); 
		} 
		usleep(500000); 
	} 
	unexportGPIOPin(pin); 
	return 0; 
} 

Compile led.c file:

$ gcc -o led -L /matrix/lib/ -I /matrix/lib/includes/ led.c -lfahw -lm -Wall

Finally, run:

$ ./led

After running the program, the LED starts blinking.