Looks like a pretty new model of NanoPi. From a price/performance/feature standpoint it seems quite attractive, even if mainline OpenWRT support is going to take a while. 2 GigE ports (both Realtek, none of which are USB-bridged) is quite nice for $35-40. Thoughts?
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RK3566 is the same as the one on R5S/R5C, so the mainline work is on the way and it should be ready probably in a year or less? (R5S/R5C has snapshot build for long time already)
However with only 2 x GbE, and not a comparable CPU power when you put together with R4S (SQM performance RK3399 on R4S is a lot better than RK3566) so I would not look at this one, from price point of view I would just go for R2S though it has built-in USB NIC but it's proven to be quite stable (I also own this)
Order one with metal case deliver to UK for £35. I believe it also has 2G of memory, lower power consumption and runs cooler than R2S
not quite - r5s/c has rk3568 but indeed comparable from IO/performance point of view.
I would recommend r3s over r5c for up to 500mbps connections with SQM to save a few bucks (10-15 depending where you buy it).
As for support - we only need mainline support then we can backport the patches over 6.6 kernel as we did for other rockchip boards - I believe it should take less than 1 year - maybe a couple of months.
I just don't want to spend $ on it but if someone eagerly wants the device supported (unofficially initially) just ship one to me and I can start hacking support for it.
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Thanks for the heads up @wh2k9 !
- no USB-bridge
- lower cpu temps
Addressed the shortcomings I have with R2S when I was looking at a ~3W router for a solution to a problem.
I have a use for this if openwrt snapshot becomes available.
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Then why not R4S?
base is $20 higher, no? With case, and "unique mac", it comes up to ~$70 w/o shipping tax? Thats x86 range, way too close to choose arm.
r3s is 30 base with 10 dollar addition.
And the R4S temperature is 55 vs R3S 50. I have a x86 that runs at ~45. Power envelope of the x86 is 10w spike, idle 7w, that's why it isn't the solution for every situation.
Any reason you need unique MAC address??
Also any reason for the temperature of R4S being a problem? I put my R4S inside a store room with 42C ambient temperature and it runs fine for a while year. In terms of power it runs at 3W most of the time, and almost never seen it going beyond 5W even on load (I put transmission torrent on it as well), and more capable when you need SQM, more RAM to run application.
The issue with friendlyelec stuff (at least for europe) has always been the distribution. Their $35 r3s becomes $55+ by the time it arrives to my door, and their $75 r4s easily becomes $100+ . At those prices, the value becomes questionable.
Though this r3s has better value for ~$55 than a r4s for $105 imho. (prices are example of importing to my country)
I ordered mine here. Seen to be the cheapest
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Just chekced it out, but it's more expensive for me that anything else. Only ~180 yuan express shipping for my country, plus all the import fees and taxes would make the end price skyrocket. A simple r3s with case would cost around $85 delivered, with taxes. From aliexpress, i could get one for $55 delivered, with taxes and fees and shipping.
You are right, some parts of the world, delivery very expensive. I having not being tax yet, maybe when I receive the device.
I ordered one, just for the lolz. It ticks a lot of boxes for being a good openwrt device, has good potential.
I wonder if the RTC battery is included in the device, or not. Guess i'll find out in a week or so.
So i just got my unit. If i can help in any way to someone for adding support for it, let me know.
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I tested my unit with friendlywrt to ensure its not DOA
I also booted up friendlywrt for some tests, mine works ok as well. However this friendlywrt is a mess, ~1000 packages installed by default.
Did some stress testing, thermal perfomance seems ok, it stays under 60 celsius under continuous heavy load. I will check out routing/sqm performance next week.
Someone who owns the device needs to develop a dts and supporting files to port openwrt.
The vendor files + the openwrt dts for other similar boards (like the R5 and r2) will be a good start.
If no one writes the code and submits a pull request then support will not happen.
The FriendlyWRT/Rockchip kernel 6.1 has a DTS for this board. However, it looks like it'll require some significant editing to bring it in line with Linux 6.6. kernel-rockchip/arch/arm64/boot/dts/rockchip/rk3566-nanopi-r3-rev01.dts at nanopi6-v6.1.y · friendlyarm/kernel-rockchip - https://github.com/
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There's a guide here; [OpenWrt Wiki] Adding a new device
I suggest starting with the existing Openwrt support files for the R5S and modify the dts to match differences for the R3S.
Details of the R5S support are available in the Commit;
git.openwrt.org Git - openwrt/openwrt.git/commit
To create the dts you can compare the Openwrt R5S dts with the R3S friendlyarm dts, the R5S dts is here in the Openwrt source tree /arch/arm64/boot/dts/rockchip/rk3568-nanopi-r5s.dts
It is possible that the only changes needed are removing the 2.5gig ethernet nodes and adding the additional 1gig ethernet.
Don't blindly import everything from the vendor dts - it will likely have lots of out of date content.
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I posted a couple of (literally) untested builds over in the Developers section. If you own the R3S, do you mind trying it out?
OpenWRT support for NanoPi R3S - For Developers - OpenWrt Forum - https://forum.openwrt.org/
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