wtb: NanoPI Neo Core-lts SBC

[DiTBho]

By any chance, does anyone know know where I can buy a "NanoPI Neo Core-lts" board and its heat sink?
On Amazon and Antratek the product is no more available   

(my board died yesterday, stupid me, I didn't mount a heat sink ... thinking the kernel was able to monitor the temperature and to reduce the clock)

[DiTBho]

Friendlyarm seems to have some problems, look here, they say:

Although DHL service is partly recovered, there are still issues with on-time delivery. Postal services get delayed by around 30-45 days in many countries.

[ebclr]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001142818839.html?albpd=pt4001142818839&acnt=494-037-6276&aff_platform=aaf&albpg=947951278458&netw=u&albcp=7475419406&sk=UneMJZVf&trgt=947951278458&terminal_id=496c3b87262a44789589de4e77443da4&tmLog=new_Detail&needSmbHouyi=false&albbt=Google_7_shopping&src=google&crea=pt4001142818839&aff_fcid=6611d3957a3343d3802e23e47c2c2e5e-1623396731268-02306-UneMJZVf&gclid=Cj0KCQjwk4yGBhDQARIsACGfAesgd-z7H2euQRnlu-0AhIyxeoEyIdcK40EdoT8JJ-krnpKU6BXihKkaAoPcEALw_wcB&albag=78285569502&aff_fsk=UneMJZVf&albch=shopping&albagn=888888&isSmbAutoCall=false&aff_trace_key=6611d3957a3343d3802e23e47c2c2e5e-1623396731268-02306-UneMJZVf&device=c&gclsrc=aw.ds

[DiTBho]

sorry, I didn't mention I don't buy from Alixexpress and eBay 

(I don't even own a credit card, I can only pay with Paypal and bank money transfer)

[Whales]

Friendlyarm seems to have some problems, look here, they say:

Although DHL service is partly recovered, there are still issues with on-time delivery. Postal services get delayed by around 30-45 days in many countries.

They've had this message for a while.  A few months back I looked at buying from FriendlyARM (they have some really nice looking metal cased SBCs with OpenWRT support) but the shipping was too expensive for me (especially because of the weight of the metal cases!).

[DiTBho]

They've had this message for a while.  A few months back I looked at buying from FriendlyARM

Yup! It's a weird situation I don't understand. A lot of products have this "delay" message, and some development boards continuously postpone to postpone their availability date.

It will be available soon!
Available in February!
Will be available in April!
....
available for the mid of 2077?

they have some really nice looking metal cased SBCs with OpenWRT support

I don't care OpenWRT, what I really care is the heat-sink, or something to avoid the chip die! My board ran for a four days with a core-temperature of 50C, I was unable to find and buy an heat-sink from Amazon for a decent price, and yesterday suddenly my board manifested a weird behavior

• usually it eats 300mA, with peaks of 600mA
• yesterday It tried to eat 1.2A (for me it makes no sense)
• weird because I was using just one core of four
• I read temperature of the core reaching 90C for a couple of seconds
• the kernel protection sucked, it should have reduced the frequency to calm down the core
• it didn't
• it started making magic smoke and finally died

R.I.P.

but the shipping was too expensive for me (especially because of the weight of the metal cases!).

Yep, I don't need the metal case, just a metal heat-sink, but the price-quote was too expensive even for my setup.

[DiTBho]

Not the "NanoPI Neo Core-lts", which is currently unavailable, a complete Starter Kit with NanoPi NEO 512MB is listed for ~PLN350.00 (~ 78 euro) including shipping from Poland

PLN289.00 Complete Starter Kit with NanoPi NEO 512MB
PLN015.50 extra Heat sink with thermoconductive tape for NanoPi NEO
PLN320.00 Subtotal
PLN064.89 Included taxes
PLN027.00 Shipping
PLN347.00 TOTAL

Kit:
- NanoPi NEO with 512MB ram
- heat sink (inside the case)
- mini LCD
- case

[DiTBho]

From Friendlyarm dot com (China)

The NanoPI Neo Core-lts is available, it's priced 27 USD with the heat-sink, but ...

Step 4: Delivery Method
Please select the preferred shipping method to use on this order.
China Post - Extraordinary times: takes up to 2 month
China Post-IT (Weight: 0.30kg) - $7.00

[Whales]

May I ask: do you need this exact version of this model, or would a same-sized and same-SoC board work fine too?  Orangepi offer several boards in about the same size, same allwinner H3, ethernet and USB as probably do a few other companies.  FriendlyARM themselves offer a few different options in about the same form-factor & IO.  Basically all of these vendors treat these SBCs as transient/temporary products unless they say otherwise (eg by claiming 'LTS').

Re OpenWRT: I've had bad experiences with boards that don't have mainline kernel support (ie you're stuck on old versions of everything forever) OR only have one distro supporting them (ie you're stuck with multi-minute boot-times and Systemd on a Debian derivative).  Official OpenWRT support is something that makes me more comfortable about buying an SBC.

[DiTBho]

May I ask: do you need this exact version of this model, or would a same-sized and same-SoC board work fine too?

The exact model. I have a running project based on that SBC, there are CAD / CAM parts already made as well as custom kernel modules, I wouldn't want to throw them in the trash and start over unless there are serious reason like ... because the NanoPI Neo hardware sucks.

[DiTBho]

Re OpenWRT: I've had bad experiences with boards that don't have mainline kernel support (ie you're stuck on old versions of everything forever) OR only have one distro supporting them (ie you're stuck with multi-minute boot-times and Systemd on a Debian derivative).  Official OpenWRT support is something that makes me more comfortable about buying an SBC.

Like the RSP story. Already seen, but it's not a problem.
I need a kernel >=v4, the rootfs is a custom one I built myself.
I don't need OpenWRT or other support, just the kernel.

[DiTBho]

Code: [Select]

[  OK  ] Started vmtouch.
         Starting Helper to synchronize boot up for ifupdown...
[  OK  ] Started Set console font and keymap.
[  OK  ] Started udev Kernel Device Manager.
[  OK  ] Started Helper to synchronize boot up for ifupdown.
[  OK  ] Started Flush Journal to Persistent Storage.
         Starting Create Volatile Files and Directories...
[    9.414230] thermal thermal_zone0: binding zone cpu_thermal with cdev thermal-cpufreq-0 failed:-22
[    9.416623] 8<--- cut here ---
[    9.418341] 8<--- cut here ---
[    9.418357] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000044
[    9.418364] pgd = (ptrval)
[    9.418369] [00000044] *pgd=00000000
[    9.418387] Internal error: Oops: 5 [#1] SMP THUMB2

So the Nano-Pi/Neo card is not fully died, but rather a zombie.
Even with only uboot running it eats 500mA, rather than 200mA
it overheats, in a couple of seconds it reaches over 60C
and it immediately crashes as soon as the core ones tries to launch the SMP dispatcher

One or more cores are fore sure fried.

Funny zombi, this afternoon I will definitively whisk it in a hydraulic press 

(it's the only way to definitively kill a zombie-chip)

[DiTBho]

Meanwhile, this morning FriendlyArm friendly answered my email.

If your put more items  in your basket, they can offer you a faster DHL delivery.
They said, only to weeks rather than two months via China post.

So let's check it out the minimal items to have it

$027.97 NanoPi NEO Core-LTS, 512M RAM, 8GB eMMC, Headers Not Soldered, Heat Sink
$007.99 1-bay NAS Dock
$028.96 NanoPi NEO-LTS, 512M RAM, Heat Sink, SanDisk 16GB EDGE A1 U1 Class
$064.92 Sub-Total:
$028.75 DHL Express <----------------------- Yeah, it worked
$093.67 Total