NanoPi A64 is A64 based development board produced by FriendlyARM. It comes with onboard gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, HDMI, and two USB A ports.

Identification

FriendlyARM NanoPi A64
Manufacturer	FriendlyARM
Dimensions	64mm x 60mm
Release Date	Dec 2016
Website	NanoPi A64 Product Page
Specifications
SoC	A64 @ up to 1152 Mhz
DRAM	1GiB DDR3 @ xxxMHz ( Samsung K4B4G1646D-BCK0 * 2)
NAND	none
Power	DC 5V @ 2A via microUSB or pin headers
Features
Video	HDMI (Type A - full), MIPI DSI
Audio	3.5mm headphone/microphone plug, HDMI, SPDIF
Network	WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (RTL8189ETV), 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet (Realtek RTL8211E)
Storage	µSD
USB	2 x USB 2.0 (shared, internal hub), 1 USB 2.0 OTG
Other	IR Receiver
Headers	RPi compatible GPIO, UART Header, I2S Header (not populated), MIPI DSI, DVP Camera

There is a label on top of the Ethernet port with a QR code and "NanoPi-A64" written on it. Also on the SoC there is a quite prominent "A64" print.

On the back of the device, the following is printed:

FRIENDLYARM

The PCB has the following silkscreened on it:

NanoPi-A64

Sunxi support

Current status

From the software point of view this device is similar to the Pine64 (similar DRAM, same Ethernet and PMIC), so basic support should work with some Pine64 image if PMIC configuration is identical (at least according to this review Pine64 images don't even boot).

BSP

FriendlyARM provides an adopted BSP on Github

Manual build

You can build things for yourself by following our Manual build howto and by choosing from the configurations available below.

U-Boot

Sunxi/Legacy U-Boot

Mainline U-Boot

Use the nanopi_a64_defconfig build target (supported since v2017.09).

Linux Kernel

Sunxi/Legacy Kernel

Mainline kernel

Use the sun50i-a64-nanopi-a64.dtb device-tree binary.

Tips, Tricks, Caveats

FEL mode

There is no FEL button on this board. Booting without an SD card automagically enters FEL mode.

USB OTG

A64's USB OTG port is exposed as Type A receptacle and the Micro USB jack is for powering only (exactly identical with Pine64).

Powering the board

A battery connector has been saved so the only way to power the board is with 5V through GPIO headers (either 40 pin or the 4 pin debug header) or the Micro USB jack. In case you use the latter please keep in mind that a lot of stability/boot problems are related to Micro USB being the wrong choice for DC-IN. At least the Micro USB cable FriendlyARM ships with the device is of good quality (low resistance).

ESD & over-current protections

Based on the schematic Rev 1610 (December 15, 2016) the board incorporates the following protections:

Protections x - no protection, ESD - Electrostatic Discharge, OC - Over-current				Comments
1	USB micro (power)	x	x	Power supply bypass.
2	Micro SD	x	x
4	Camera	x	x
5	Display	x	x
6	Dual USB	ESD	x	Power supply bypass.
7	HDMI	ESD	x
8	Ethernet	x	N/A	Over-current protection is not applicable.
9	GPIO	x	x	Only UART2 & UART3 have ESD protection.
10	Debug UART	ESD	OC	Current is limited by using resistors.
11	Audio jack	ESD	N/A	Output current is internally limited by SoC.

Serial port / UART

NanoPi A64 UART headers

The board exposes 2 UART ports trough the GPIO header and the UART0 port on a separate 4 pin header

UART2 uses pins 11 (TX), 22 (RX) and UART3 uses pins 8 (TX), 10 (RX).

All of the UARTs use 3.3V voltage levels. Look at our UART howto for further instructions.

Locating the UART

Below the GPIO there is a separate 4 pin header with "DBG_UART" silkscreened next to it, in the bottom of the board the labels "RX", "TX", "5V", "GND" can be found next to the corresponding pins.

FriendlyARM NanoPi A64

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