NanoPi K1 Plus – A New Open-spec SBC By FriendlyElec Powered By Allwinner H5 SoC

FriendlyElec has launched a $35 open-spec “NanoPi K1 Plus” SBC. The new NanoPi K1 Plus is a media-rich board, that switches from the Amlogic S905 SoC (found on the Odroid-C2) to an Allwinner H5 SoC, which is used in several other NanoPi boards. Both the SoCs have 4x Cortex-A53 cores and a Mali-450 GPU, but the H5 has a lower clock speed of 1.4GHz instead of 1.5GHz.

The new board has almost similar footprint to NanoPi K2, 85 x 56mm. It has an identical feature set and layout as the RPi 3 and Odroid-C2. FriendlyElec has swapped out the K2’s WiFi/Bluetooth module for a 2.4GHz WiFi-only chip and has reduced its HDMI 2.0 port to an HDMI 1.4 that has its 4K support only at 30fps max. The K1 Plus has also decreased one of the USB 2.0 host ports, leaving 3x USB 2.0 ports total along with a micro-USB OTG port with power input support. The previous DC-in jack has been removed.

On the better side, the K1 Plus add some multimedia features. There’s a new DVP camera interface, an onboard mic, and a 3.5mm audio jack that also outputs the CVBS signals. CVBS was previously available only via the continuing, Raspberry Pi-compatible 40-pin expansion connector.

There are 2GB RAM, a microSD slot, eMMC socket, and GbE port. Once again, you get an IR receiver, a heatsink, and a debug header, among other details. The open-spec board is available with schematics and other documentation, as well as images for Armbian and the Ubuntu Core based OS, FriendlyCore.

Spec list for the NanoPi K1 Plus:

• Processor: Allwinner H5 (4x 64-bit Cortex-A53 cores @ 400MHz to 1.4GHz) with Mali-450 GPU
• Memory/storage: 2GB DDR3 RAMMicroSD slot for up to 128GB (bootable)eMMC socket
• Wireless: 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n; PCB antenna
• Networking: Gigabit Ethernet port (Realtek RTL8211E)
• Media I/O:
  • HDMI 1.4 port (4K@30fps video and audio)
  • DVP camera 24-pin header
  • 3.5mm audio jack with CVBS output
  • Onboard Mic
  • I2S/PCM via 7-pin header
• Other I/O:
  • 3x USB 2.0 host ports
  • Micro-USB 2.0 device/OTG port with power cable
  • Serial debug 4-pin header
  • 40-pin RPi 3 compatible expansion connector (I2C, GPIO, UART, PWM, SPDIF, SPI)
• Other features: LEDs; IR receiver; GPIO button; heatsink; optional acrylic case
• Power: 5V2A DC input via micro-USB; PMIC
• Operating system: Images for Armbian and FriendlyCore (based on Ubuntu Core) with Linux 4.x

The NanoPi K1 Plus is available now for only $35. More information may be found on FriendlyElec’s NanoPi K1 Plus shopping and wiki pages.

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