NanoPi NEO Air
Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Hardware Spec
- 3 Software Features
- 4 Diagram, Layout and Dimension
- 5 Get Started
- 6 Work with FriendlyCore
- 6.1 Introduction
- 6.2 FriendlyCore's User Accounts
- 6.3 Configure System with npi-config
- 6.4 Extend TF Card's Section
- 6.5 WiFi
- 6.6 Ethernet Connection
- 6.7 Bluetooth
- 6.8 Playing Audio
- 6.9 HDMI Audio Output
- 6.10 Connect to USB Camera(FA-CAM202)
- 6.11 Develop Qt Application
- 6.12 Setup Program to AutoRun
- 6.13 Run Qt Demo
- 6.14 Connect to DVP Camera CAM500B
- 6.15 Check CPU's Working Temperature
- 6.16 Check System Information with Rpi-Monitor
- 6.17 Access GPIO Pins/Wirings with WiringNP
- 6.18 Bluetooth
- 7 Make Your Own FriendlyCore
- 8 3D Printing Files
- 9 Other OS Support
- 10 Resources
- 11 List of Version Differences
- 12 Update Log
Introduction
- The NanoPi NEO Air is a 40 x 40mm open source ARM board for makers.It uses an Allwinner H3 Quad Core A7 processor at 1.2GHz. Its pins are compatible with the NanoPi NEO(V 1.2) and its 24-pin header is compatible with Raspberry Pi's GPIO pin headers.
- The NanoPi NEO AIR features 512MB of 16bit wide DDR3 RAM, 8GB eMMC and one MicroSD slot. It has WiFi & Bluetooth and DVP camera interface(YUV422). The DVP camera interface can support friendlyarm's 5M-pixel camera module
- It has enhanced power circuit design and better heat dissipation.
Hardware Spec
- CPU: Allwinner H3, Quad-core Cortex-A7 Up to 1.2GHz
- RAM: 512MB DDR3 RAM
- Storage: 8GB eMMC
- WiFi: 802.11b/g/n
- Bluetooth: 4.0 dual mode
- 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
- PCB layer: 6
- Power Supply: DC 5V/2A
- Working Temperature: -40℃ to 80℃
- OS/Software: u-boot, UbuntuCore, eflasher
- Weight: 7.5g(WITHOUT Pin-headers)
Software Features
uboot
- supports fastboot to update uboot
UbuntuCore 16.04
- mainline kernel: Linux-4.11.2
- rpi-monitor: check system status and information
- npi-config: system configuration utility for setting passwords, language, timezone, hostname, SSH and auto-login,and enabling/disabling i2c, spi, serial and PWM
- networkmanager: manage network
- software utility: RPi.GPIO_NP to access GPIO pins
- welcome window with basic system information and status
- auto-login with user account "pi" with access to npi-config
- on first system boot file system will be automatically extended.
- supports file system auto check and repair on system boot.
- supports FriendlyElec's NanoHat-PCM5102A
- supports FriendlyElec's Matrix_-_2.8_SPI_Key_TFT
- supports file transfer with Bluetooth
- supports FriendlyElec BakeBit modules
- supports dynamic frequency scaling and voltage regulation
Ubuntu OLED
- supports FriendlyElec's OLED module
Eflasher
- supports flashing OS image to eMMC
Debian for NAS Dock
- supports FriendlyElec's NAS Dock
Diagram, Layout and Dimension
Layout
- GPIO Pin Description
Pin# Name Linux gpio Pin# Name Linux gpio 1 SYS_3.3V 2 VDD_5V 3 I2C0_SDA/GPIOA12 4 VDD_5V 5 I2C0_SCL/GPIOA11 6 GND 7 GPIOG11 203 8 UART1_TX/GPIOG6 198 9 GND 10 UART1_RX/GPIOG7 199 11 UART2_TX/GPIOA0 0 12 GPIOA6 6 13 UART2_RTS/GPIOA2 2 14 GND 15 UART2_CTS/GPIOA3 3 16 UART1_RTS/GPIOG8 200 17 SYS_3.3V 18 UART1_CTS/GPIOG9 201 19 SPI0_MOSI/GPIOC0 64 20 GND 21 SPI0_MISO/GPIOC1 65 22 UART2_RX/GPIOA1 1 23 SPI0_CLK/GPIOC2 66 24 SPI0_CS/GPIOC3 67
- USB/I2S/IR Pin Description
Pin# Name Description 1 VDD_5V 5V Power Out 2 USB-DP1 USB1 DP Signal 3 USB-DM1 USB1 DM Signal 4 USB-DP2 USB2 DP Signal 5 USB-DM2 USB2 DM Signal 6 GPIOL11/IR-RX GPIOL11 or IR Receive 7 SPDIF-OUT/GPIOA17 GPIOA17 or SPDIF-OUT 8 PCM0_SYNC/I2S0_LRC I2S/PCM Sample Rate Clock/Sync 9 PCM0_CLK/I2S0_BCK I2S/PCM Sample Rate Clock 10 PCM0_DOUT/I2S0_SDOUT I2S/PCM Serial Bata Output 11 PCM0_DIN/I2S0_SDIN I2S/PCM Serial Data Input 12 GND 0V
- Debug Port(UART0)
Pin# Name 1 GND 2 VDD_5V 3 UART_TXD0/GPIOA4 4 UART_RXD0/GPIOA5/PWM0
- Audio Port Description
Pin# Name Description 1 LL LINEOUTL, LINE-OUT Left Channel Output 2 LR LINEOUTR, LINE-OUT Right Channel Output 3 MICN MICIN1N, Microphone Negative Input 4 MICP MICIN1P, Microphone Positive Input
- DVP Camera IF Pin Spec
Pin# Name Description 1, 2 SYS_3.3V 3.3V power output, to camera modules 7,9,13,15,24 GND Gound, 0V 3 I2C2_SCL I2C Clock Signal 4 I2C2_SDA I2C Data Signal 5 GPIOE15 Regular GPIO, control signals output to camera modules 6 GPIOE14 Regular GPIO, control signals output to camera modules 8 MCLK Clock signals output to camera modules 10 NC Not Connected 11 VSYNC vertical synchronization to CPU from camera modules 12 HREF/HSYNC HREF/HSYNC signal to CPU from camera modules 14 PCLK PCLK signal to CPU from camera modules 16-23 Data bit7-0 data signals
- Note:
- SYS_3.3V: 3.3V power output
- VVDD_5V: 5V power input/output. When the external device’s voltage is greater than the MicroUSB's voltage the external device is charging the board otherwise the board powers the external device. The input range is 4.7V ~ 5.6V
- All pins are 3.3V, output current is 5mA
- For more details refer to the document:NanoPi-NEO-Air-1608-Schematic.pdf
Dimensional Diagram
Get Started
Essentials You Need
Before starting to use your NanoPi NEO AIR get the following items ready
- NanoPi NEO AIR
- microSD Card/TFCard: Class 10 or Above, minimum 8GB SDHC
- microUSB power. A 5V/2A power is a must
- A Host computer running Ubuntu 16.04 64 bit system
TF Cards We Tested
To make your NanoPi NEO AIR boot and run fast we highly recommend you use a Class10 8GB SDHC TF card or a better one. The following cards are what we used in all our test cases presented here:
- SanDisk TF 8G Class10 Micro/SD TF card:
- SanDisk TF128G MicroSDXC TF 128G Class10 48MB/S:
- 川宇 8G C10 High Speed class10 micro SD card:
Make an Installation TF Card
Download Image Files
- Get the following files from here [1] to download image files and the flashing utility:
Image Files: nanopi-neo-air_friendlycore-xenial_3.4.y_YYYYMMDD.img.zip FriendlyCore, kernel:Linux-3.4.y nanopi-neo-air_eflasher_3.4.y_YYYYMMDD.img.zip eflasher image which can be used to Flash OS image files to eMMC, kernel:Linux-3.4.y nanopi-neo-air_friendlycore-xenial_4.x.y_YYYYMMDD.img.zip FriendlyCore, kernel:Linux-4.x.y nanopi-neo-air_debian-nas-jessie_4.x.y_YYYYMMDD.img.zip NAS image file, kernel:Linux-4.x, for 1-bay NAS Dock nanopi-neo-air_ubuntu-oled_4.x.y_YYYYMMDD.img.zip OLED image file,kernel:Linux-4.x.y, for NanoHat OLED nanopi-neo-air_eflasher_4.x.y_YYYYMMDD.img.zip eflasher image which can be used to Flash OS image files to eMMC, kernel:Linux-4.x.y Flash Utility: win32diskimager.rar Windows utility. Under Linux users can use "dd"
Comparison of Linux-3.4.y and Linux-4.x.y
- Our Linux-3.4.y is provided by Allwinner. Allwinner has done a lot of customization work which on one hand contains many features and functions but on the other hand incurs overheat issues;
- Our Linux-4.x.y is updated very often. We will keep this kernel with the latest one released by Linus Torvalds. This kernel doesn't generate heat that much and if you don't need to use VPU or GPU you can try this kernel;
Boot OS from MicroSD Card
Make Installation MicroSD Card
- Extract an OS image and win32diskimager.rar. Insert a MicroSD card(at least 8G) into a Windows PC and run the win32diskimager utility as administrator. On the utility's main window select your TF card's drive, the wanted image file and click on "write" to start flashing the SD card till it is done.
- Insert this card into your AIR's MicroSD card slot and power on (with a 5V/2A power source). If the green LED is on and blue LED is blinking this indicates your AIR has successfully booted.
Note:you can make both a Debian and a Ubuntu image card in this way.
Flash image to eMMC
- Extract the eflasher package and win32diskimager.rar. Insert a MicroSD card(at least 8G) into a Windows PC and run the win32diskimager utility as administrator. On the utility's main window select your SD card's drive, the wanted image file and click on "write" to start flashing the MicroSD card.
- Insert this card into your AIR and power on (with a 5V/2A power source) the board. If the green LED is on and blue LED is blinking it indicates your eflasher has started installation.
- Run the following command on a terminal:
$ su root
$ eflasherType a number and enter to select an OS, then type "yes" and enter to start installation:

After installation is done shutdown the system, take out the TF card, power on your board again and it will boot from eMMC.
Work with FriendlyCore
Introduction
FriendlyCore is a light Linux system without X-windows, based on ubuntu core, It uses the Qt-Embedded's GUI and is popular in industrial and enterprise applications.
Besides the regular Ubuntu core's features our FriendlyCore has the following additional features:
- it supports our LCDs with both capacitive touch and resistive touch(S700, X710, HD702, S430, HD101 and S70)
- it supports WiFi
- it supports Ethernet
- it supports Bluetooth and has been installed with bluez utilities
- it supports audio playing
- it supports Qt5.9 EGLES and OpenGL ES1.1/2.0 (Only for S5P4418/S5P6818)
FriendlyCore's User Accounts
- If your board is connected to an HDMI monitor you need to use a USB mouse and keyboard.
- If you want to do kernel development you need to use a serial communication board, ie a PSU-ONECOM board, which will allow you to operate the board via a serial terminal.Here is a setup where we connect a board to a PC via the PSU-ONECOM and you can power on your board from either the PSU-ONECOM or its MicroUSB:

You can use a USB to Serial conversion board too.
Make sure you use a 5V/2A power to power your board from its MicroUSB port:
For example, NanoPi-M1:
- FriendlyCore User Accounts:
Non-root User:
User Name: pi Password: pi
Root:
User Name: root Password: fa
The system is automatically logged in as "pi". You can do "sudo npi-config" to disable auto login.
- Update packages
$ sudo apt-get update
Configure System with npi-config
The npi-config is a commandline utility which can be used to initialize system configurations such as user password, system language, time zone, Hostname, SSH switch , Auto login and etc. Type the following command to run this utility.
$ sudo npi-config
Here is how npi-config's GUI looks like:

Extend TF Card's Section
When FriendlyCore is loaded the TF card's section will be automatically extended.You can check the section's size by running the following command:
$ df -h
WiFi
You can use the NetworkManager utility in FriendlyCore to manager its network. You can run "nmcli" in the commandline utility to start it. Here are the commands to start a WiFi connection:
- Check device list
sudo nmcli devNote: if the status of a device is "unmanaged" it means that device cannot be accessed by NetworkManager. To make is accessed you need to clear the settings under "/etc/network/interfaces" and reboot your system.
- Start WiFi
sudo nmcli r wifi on- Scan Surrounding WiFi Sources
sudo nmcli dev wifi- Connect to a WiFi Source
sudo nmcli dev wifi connect "SSID" password "PASSWORD"
The "SSID" and "PASSWORD" need to be replaced with your actual SSID and password.If you have multiple WiFi devices you need to specify the one you want to connect to a WiFi source with iface
If a connection succeeds it will be automatically setup on next system reboot.
For more details about NetworkManager refer to this link: Use NetworkManager to configure network settings
- Use USB WiFi
Our OS system has support for popular USB WiFi drivers. Many USB WiFi modules are plug and play with our system. Here is a list of models we tested;
Number Model 1 RTL8188CUS 802.11n WLAN Adapter 2 RT2070 Wireless Adapter 3 RT2870/RT3070 Wireless Adapter 4 RTL8192CU Wireless Adapter 5 mi WiFi mt7601
Ethernet Connection
If a board is connected to a network via Ethernet before it is powered on it will automatically obtain an IP with DHCP activated after it is powered up. If you want to set up a static IP refer to: Use NetworkManager to configure network settings。
Bluetooth
If your board has an onboard bluetooth module you can search for surrounding bluetooth devices by running the following command:
hcitool scan
You can run "hciconfig" to check bluetooth's status.
Playing Audio
You can play an audio file by running the following command:
aplay -t raw -c 2 -f S16_LE -r 44100 /root/test.pcm
HDMI Audio Output
Our system's default audio output is the 3.5mm audio jack. You can turn on the HDMI audio by editing the /etc/asound.conf file:
pcm.!default { type hw card 1 device 0 } ctl.!default { type hw card 1 }
card 0 points to the 3.5mm audio jack and card 1 points to the HDMI audio. You need to save your changes and reboot your system to make your changes take effect.
Connect to USB Camera(FA-CAM202)
The FA-CAM202 is a 200M USB camera.
Refer to this link for more details on how to connect to a FA-CAM202:
Connect NanoPi M1 to DVP Camera CAM500B
Develop Qt Application
Please refer to: How to build Qt application
Setup Program to AutoRun
You can setup a program to autorun on system boot with npi-config:
sudo npi-configGo to Boot Options -> Autologin -> Qt/Embedded, select Enable and reboot.
Run Qt Demo
Run the following command
$ sudo /opt/QtE-Demo/run.sh
Here is what you expect to observe. This is an open source Qt Demo:

Connect to DVP Camera CAM500B
Note: this function is only supported in Linux-3.4.y
The CAM500B camera module is a 5M-pixel camera with DVP interface. For more tech details about it you can refer to Matrix - CAM500B.
connect your H3 board to a CAM500B. Then boot OS, connect your board to a network, log into the board as root and run "mjpg-streamer":
$ cd /root/mjpg-streamer $ make $ ./start.sh
The mjpg-streamer application is an open source video steam server. After it is successfully started the following messages will be popped up:
i: Using V4L2 device.: /dev/video0 i: Desired Resolution: 1280 x 720 i: Frames Per Second.: 30 i: Format............: YUV i: JPEG Quality......: 90 o: www-folder-path...: ./www/ o: HTTP TCP port.....: 8080 o: username:password.: disabled o: commands..........: enabled
In our case the board's IP address was 192.168.1.230. We typed 192.168.1.230:8080 in a browser and were able to view the images taken from the camera's. Here is what you would expect to observe:
The mjpg-streamer soft-encodes data with libjpeg and you can hard-encode its data with ffmpeg which will greatly increase CPU's efficiency and speed up data encoding:
$ ffmpeg -t 30 -f v4l2 -channel 0 -video_size 1280x720 -i /dev/video0 -pix_fmt nv12 -r 30 \ -b:v 64k -c:v cedrus264 test.mp4
By default it records a 30-second video. Typing "q" stops video recording. After recording is stopped a test.mp4 file will be generated.
Check CPU's Working Temperature
You can use the following command to read H3's temperature and frequency
cpu_freq
Check System Information with Rpi-Monitor
Our OS contains the Rpi-Monitor utility with which users can check system information and status.
In our case our board's IP was 192.168.1.230 and we typed the following IP in a browser:
192.168.1.230:8888We were directed to the following page:
Users can easily check these system information and status.
Access GPIO Pins/Wirings with WiringNP
The wiringPi library was initially developed by Gordon Henderson in C. It contains libraries to access GPIO, I2C, SPI, UART, PWM and etc. The wiringPi library contains various libraries, header files and a commandline utility:gpio. The gpio utility can be used to read and write GPIO pins.
FriendlyElec integrated this utility in FriendlyCore system allowing users to easily access GPIO pins. For more details refer to WiringNP WiringNP
Bluetooth
Install Bluetooth packages:
$ apt-get install bluetooth bluez obexftp openobex-apps python-gobject ussp-push time bc
In our test case we used a Samsung Galaxy A7 Android phone. Connect a wireless antenna to your Air and type the following command to search a surrounding Bluetooth device:
$ hcitool scanOur Samsung Samsung Galaxy A7 was detected and its MAC address was "50:C8:E5:A7:31:D2". We had a "test.jpg" file on our NEO Air and we sent it to A7 by running the following command:
$ bt_send_file.sh -a 50:C8:E5:A7:31:D2 -f test.jpg
On the phone a popup window would show up. After we clicked to accept this file transfer would start. After this transfer was done we got the following messages:
name=test.jpg, size=2215936 Local device A1:A3:C1:79:66:6E Remote device 50:C8:E5:A7:31:D2 (12) Connection established send 2164K finish, speed=5.6 K/s
We found this file on the phone and the file transfer was successful.
Make Your Own FriendlyCore
Use Mainline BSP
The NanoPi NEO Air has gotten support for kernel Linux-4.x.y. For more details about how to use mainline u-boot and Linux-4.x.y refer to :Mainline U-boot & Linux
Use Allwinner's BSP
Preparations
Visit this link download link and enter the "sources/nanopi-H3-bsp" directory and download all the source code.Use the 7-zip utility to extract it and a lihee directory and an Android directory will be generated. You can check that by running the following command:
$ ls ./ android lichee
Or you can get it from our github:
$ git clone https://github.com/friendlyarm/h3_lichee.git lichee
Note: "lichee" is the project name named by Allwinner for its CPU's source code which contains the source code of U-boot, Linux kernel and various scripts.
Install Cross Compiler
Visit this site download link, enter the "toolchain" directory, download the cross compiler "gcc-linaro-arm.tar.xz" and copy it to the "lichee/brandy/toochain/" directory.
Compile lichee Source Code
Compilation of the H3's BSP source code must be done under a PC running a 64-bit Linux.The following cases were tested on Ubuntu-14.04 LTS-64bit:
$ sudo apt-get install gawk git gnupg flex bison gperf build-essential \ zip curl libc6-dev libncurses5-dev:i386 x11proto-core-dev \ libx11-dev:i386 libreadline6-dev:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 \ libgl1-mesa-dev g++-multilib mingw32 tofrodos \ python-markdown libxml2-utils xsltproc zlib1g-dev:i386 u-boot-tools
Enter the lichee directory and un the following command to compile the whole package:
$ cd lichee/fa_tools $ ./build.sh -b nanopi-air -p linux -t all
After this compilation succeeds a u-boot, Linux kernel and kernel modules will be generated.
Note: the lichee directory contains a cross-compiler we have setup. When the build.sh script runs it will automatically call this cross-compiler.
Type the following command to update the U-boot on your TF card:
$ cd lichee/fa_tools/ $ ./fuse.sh -d /dev/sdX -p linux -t u-boot
Note: you need to replace "/dev/sdx" with the device name in your system.
The boot.img and kernel modules are under the "linux-3.4/output" directory. You can copy the new boot.img file to your TF card's boot partition.
Compile U-boot
You can compile u-boot individually by using the following command:
$ cd lichee/fa_tools/ $ ./build.sh -b nanopi-air -p linux -t u-boot
The gen_script.sh script patches the U-boot with Allwinner features. A U-boot without these features cannot work.
Type the following command to update the U-boot on your TF card:
$ cd lichee/fa_tools/ $ ./fuse.sh -d /dev/sdX -p linux -t u-boot
Note: you need to replace "/dev/sdx" with the device name in your system.
Compile Linux Kernel
If you want to compile the Linux kernel run the following command:
$ cd lichee/fa_tools/ $ ./build.sh -b nanopi-air -p linux -t kernel
After the compilation is done a uImage and its kernel modules will be generated under "linux-3.4/output".
Clean Source Code
$ cd lichee/fa_tools/ $ ./build.sh -b nanopi-air -p linux -t clean
3D Printing Files
NanoPi NEO Air V1.0 3D printing files
[http:// NanoPi NEO Air V1.1 3D printing files]
Other OS Support
DietPi_NanoPiNEO-armv7-(Jessie)
DietPi is an extremely lightweight Debian Jessie OS. Its image file starts at 400MB and nearly 3x lighter than 'Raspbian Lite'.It is pre-installed with DietPi-RAMLog. These features enable users to get the best performance of a device.
The following steps are for reference only. FriendlyElec doesn't provide technical support for them.
Installation guide:
- Download the image file "DietPi_NanoPiNEO-armv7-(Jessie)" from DietPi_NanoPiNEO-armv7-(Jessie)
- Extract the package and use the win32diskimager to write it to a MicroSD card under Windows.
- Insert this MicroSD card to your NanoPi NEO and power up.
Username:root , Password: dietpi
Resources
- Schematics
- Dimensional Diagram
- H3 datasheet
The following BakeBit modules can work with BakeBit - NanoHat Hub:
- 1.Button
- 2.Buzzer
- 3.Green LED
- 4.JoyStick
- 5.LED Bar
- 6.Light Sensor
- 7.OLED
- 8.Red LED
- 9.Rotary Angle Sensor
- 10.Servo
- 11.Sound Sendor
- 12.Ultrasonic Ranger
- Matrix Modules & Wiki Sites:
- Button
- LED
- A/D Converter
- Relay
- 3-Axis Digital Accelerometer
- 3-Axis Digital Compass
- Temperature Sensor
- Temperature & Humidity Sensor
- Buzzer
- Joystick
- I2C(PCF8574)+LCD1602
- Sound Sensor
- Ultrasonic Ranger
- GPS
- Matrix - Compact Kit
- Fire Sensor
- CAM500A Camera
- BAll Rolling Switch
- 2'8 SPI Key TFT 2.8" SPI LCD
- IR Counter
- IR Receiver
- L298N Motor Driver
- MQ-2 Gas Sensor
- MQ-3 Gas Sensor
- One_Touch_Sensor
- _Photoresistor
- _Potentiometer
- Pressure & Temperature Sensor
- RGB LED
- RTC
- Rotary Encoder
- Soil Moisture Sensor
- Thermistor
- USB WiFi
- Water Sensor
List of Version Differences
- NanoPi NEO Air Version List(Hardware)
Update Log
Sep-28-2016
- Released English Version
Nov-03-2016
- Updated Sections 1, 3.1 and 6.2
Dec-13-2016
- Updated Section 6.2
- Added Section 6.4
Jan-10-2017
- Updated Section 5.2
Feb-5-2017
- Updated Sections 6 and 9
- Added sections 5.3 and 5.4
May-25-2017
- Added section 3: software features
- Added section 8: setup cross compiler for user space programs
- Updated Sections 6.3: manage wifi with networkmanager
June-4-2017
- Added section 3.5: support for NAS Dock
June-8-2017
- Updated section 3.2: added support for RPi.GPIO_NP
- Added section 6.9: added support for RPi.GPIO_NP
June-18-2017
- Updated section 7: compiling UbuntuCore
- Added section 6.9: added support for npi_config
July-8-2017
- Updated section 3.2
Oct-16-2017
- Updated sections 4 and 8
- Added section 11













