FriendlyElec NanoPi R28S Development Board Packs RK3528A, Dual Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6

NanoPi R28S development board 

FriendlyElec has introduced the NanoPi R28S development board, a compact single-board computer built around the Rockchip RK3528A processor. The board combines a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU, Mali-450 GPU, 4K video decoding, dual Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.3 in a 45 × 45 mm PCB. With a starting price of $20, it targets low-cost networking, NAS, IoT, and embedded Linux projects.

The NanoPi R28S development board comes with 1GB of LPDDR4 RAM and supports external storage through a microSD card or optional eMMC module. Its compact design uses an 8-layer PCB and provides USB-C interfaces for power, eMMC upgrades, and UART debugging. The board also supports several Linux-based operating systems, giving developers flexibility for different applications.

Previously, we covered several NanoPi SBCs, including the NanoPi M6V2, NanoPi NEO3 Plus, NanoPi Zero2, NanoPi R3S, and many more. Feel free to check them out if you’re interested in these products.

NanoPi R28S development board top and bottom side

NanoPi R28S Specifications:

• Processor:
  • Rockchip RK3528A quad-core SoC
  • 4 × ARM Cortex-A53 cores
  • Clock speed up to 1.8GHz
• Graphics and Video:
  • ARM Mali-450 GPU
  • 4K H.265/H.264 video decoding at up to 60fps
• Memory and Storage:
  • 1GB LPDDR4 RAM
  • eMMC module support
  • 1 × microSD card slot
  • Supports microSD cards up to 128GB
• Networking:
  • 2 × Gigabit Ethernet ports
  • RTL8211F and RTL8111H Ethernet controllers
  • Onboard Wi-Fi 6
  • Bluetooth 5.3
• USB and Debugging:
  • 1 × USB-C 2.0 port for eMMC upgrades and 5V power input
  • 1 × USB-C port for UART debugging
• Buttons and LEDs:
  • 1 × User/C button
  • 1 × MASK button for eMMC upgrades
  • 1 × red SYS LED
  • 2 × green user LEDs
• RTC and Operating Conditions:
  • 2-pin 1.27/1.25mm RTC battery connector
  • HYM8563TS low-power RTC IC
  • Operating temperature from 0°C to 70°C
• Power:
  • 5V/2A DC input
  • Non-PD power supply
• Mechanical:
  • 8-layer PCB
  • 45 × 45 × 1.2mm board
  • Weight:
    • 14g without case
    • 77.5g with optional metal case

NanoPi R28S specifications

The NanoPi R28S development board supports Alpine Linux 3.23, Buildroot with Weston/Wayland, Debian 13 Core, FriendlyWrt 25.12, OpenMediaVault 8.0.6, Proxmox VE 8.2.7, and Ubuntu 24.04 Core. FriendlyElec pairs these systems with Linux 6.1 LTS and U-Boot 2017.09. The board can boot an eFlasher system from a TF card and install the bootloader and operating system on separate storage devices. Developers can place the system on eMMC, M.2 storage, or USB storage, while the boot files require eMMC or a TF card. FriendlyWrt also targets IoT and NAS applications and supports customized firmware builds through FriendlyElec’s open-source GitHub build project. More information available on the wiki page.

Metal case for NanoPi R28S development board

FriendlyElec lists the NanoPi R28S development board at $20 for the 1GB RAM bare-board version. Buyers can also choose a metal case for an additional $9, while optional 64GB and 256GB eMMC modules cost $34 and $78, respectively. A 32GB SanDisk Ultra microSD card costs $15.99.

Images used courtesy of FriendlyElec