Banana Pi M2 Zero: Low-Cost, Quad Core SBC

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  • čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
  • Banana Pi M2 Zero review, including comparisons with the Raspberry Pi Zero W and Raspberry Pi 3A+, demos in Armbian and Raspbian, and Sysbench test of all three boards.
    You can learn more about the Banana Pi M2 Zero on its wiki here: wiki.banana-pi.org/Banana_Pi_B...
    I found the cheapest places to purchase the board were AliExpress -- www.aliexpress.com/item/32862... -- from where I bought my own M2 Zero -- and Reichelt: www.reichelt.com/gb/de/banana...
    Just because people may ask, I found my best prices for the Raspberry Pi Zero W and Raspberry PI 3A+ from www.adafruit.com/ , thepihut.com/ and shop.pimoroni.com/ I have no association with any of the aforementioned suppliers, and these are not affiliate links.
    More videos on SBCs, computing and related topics can be found at:
    / explainingcomputers
    You may also like my ExplainingTheFuture channel at: / explainingthefuture
    #BananaPi #BananaPiM2Zero #ExplainingComputers
  • Věda a technologie

Komentáře • 1K

  • @tundeuk
    @tundeuk Před 4 lety +60

    This guy has the voice of an 80s TV presenter from a program like tomorrow’s world. Instant subscribe 👍🏾

  • @Mikefoxx55
    @Mikefoxx55 Před 4 lety +191

    The perfect Sunday morning, coffee, bagel, and explaining computers 👍👍👍

  • @robstammers7149
    @robstammers7149 Před 4 lety +44

    Love this channel, always has a retro feel to it, Chris you are the man, everything clear and crisp on screen, no gimmicky video crap, no shouting, or rubbish music, just you and your knowledge, thanks Chris.

  • @adarshsingh764
    @adarshsingh764 Před 4 lety +121

    Chris is back to save us from boring sundays :)

    • @adventureoflinkmk2
      @adventureoflinkmk2 Před 4 lety

      Yay!!!

    • @aryeshsaini265
      @aryeshsaini265 Před 4 lety

      Adarsh Singh will you please help me building a desktop using PI4 in order from where to purchase pi4 board, cabels, power supply, cabinet ,cooling fan etc. Thanking you .
      I am from a village Muzaffarnagar ( UP)

  • @Poifix
    @Poifix Před 4 lety +57

    Man this guy just makes you smile. Such an awesome dude.

  • @tec4ever72
    @tec4ever72 Před 4 lety +18

    Luckily "a closer look" came back. I found out I somehow need it. It makes me feel home on your sweet channel! Much love to you!

  • @perrymcclusky4695
    @perrymcclusky4695 Před 4 lety +16

    It is amazing how much computer technology can be put into a board that size for that price. Thank you for the video and looking forward to your next video!

  • @neatodd
    @neatodd Před 4 lety +7

    It baffles me how you manage to post such high quality videos so frequently - I enjoy every one.

  • @TheTariqibnziyad
    @TheTariqibnziyad Před 4 lety +28

    Support this man at any cost !!! he literally saves you years of college.

  • @MichelMorinMontreal
    @MichelMorinMontreal Před 4 lety +3

    Greetings! As you have pointed out many times, software support remains a fundamental reference in the evaluation of SBC. Once again, you have made an eloquent demonstration of this.

  • @panko2848
    @panko2848 Před 4 lety +276

    they should have made the board curved to closer resemble a banana, missed opportunity i feel.

    • @fredhair
      @fredhair Před 4 lety +24

      Haha sounds like a fun idea if a little impractical with peripherals unless peripherals come in bunches perhaps?!

    • @KomradeMikhail
      @KomradeMikhail Před 4 lety +25

      3D printed banana shaped case with yellow filament ?...

    • @dsmyify
      @dsmyify Před 4 lety +21

      They should have made it yellow.

    • @petros_adamopoulos
      @petros_adamopoulos Před 4 lety +3

      @@dsmyify Yep, and called it "Not a banana M2 Zero" :)
      But you are most correct because if the Pi stands for "pie" then it just has to be "kinda flat topped with appropriate color".

    • @bob-ny6kn
      @bob-ny6kn Před 4 lety +2

      @@dsmyify ... but mine are all brown to black, and spotted.

  • @ridefast0
    @ridefast0 Před 4 lety +2

    Hi Chris - your channel is now my go-to for SBC work; your clear configuration instructions are always useful and always seem to work for me, and I am tempted to dip my toe in the water again for a new project! Likely to be R.Pi4 under Raspbian.

    • @ExplainingComputers
      @ExplainingComputers  Před 4 lety

      Thanks for this, appreciated. Have you seen the 2GB RAM Pi 4 is now $35. Very hard to beat.

    • @ridefast0
      @ridefast0 Před 4 lety

      @@ExplainingComputers Oh no, catastrophe! I found out that RPi4 (unlike RPi3) cannot be booted directly from USB/SSD. I don't trust the SD cards for a reliable system drive so the project will have to wait for RPi foundation fix.

  • @zakafx
    @zakafx Před 4 lety +13

    I love this channel and getting this notification every week.

  • @38plymouth80
    @38plymouth80 Před 4 lety +158

    Watching that bag cutting it looks like Mr Scissors needs Mrs Sharpener.

    • @MacroPheliac
      @MacroPheliac Před 4 lety +10

      What bothered me was the bag had precut notches in it, making the scissors completely unnecessary XD

    • @Rudofaux
      @Rudofaux Před 4 lety +7

      @@MacroPheliac Yeah, but do those ever work right? The bag always rips open horribly using the pre-cuts.

    • @MacroPheliac
      @MacroPheliac Před 4 lety +3

      @@Rudofaux yeah it does make for a crooked tear most of the time.

    • @Rudofaux
      @Rudofaux Před 4 lety +4

      @Ejuice Vaper or, I can simply use scissors.

    • @HKey_Root
      @HKey_Root Před 4 lety

      I couldn't help but notice that in another vid you demonstrated how to open these bags sans scissors! ;)

  • @steveshadowphoto9346
    @steveshadowphoto9346 Před 4 lety +2

    Another great video! As others have noted, it was made all the better by an appearance of Mr. Scissors. With respect to the Banana Pi, I, myself, am waiting for the Plantain Pi M2 Zero before taking the plunge!

  • @bartniaux8630
    @bartniaux8630 Před 4 lety +1

    Bonjour Chris, thanks for making my Sunday a pleasant day, even though it is a gray and raining. I am justday-dreaming away for a Rpi Zero Wx, with a dual-core, USB3 and 1Gb of memory.

  • @codigoBinario01
    @codigoBinario01 Před 4 lety +5

    Thank you, nice to see the benchmarks as always. Keep them! Thanks ;-)

  • @neurobioboy
    @neurobioboy Před 4 lety +5

    I am impressed by this little board! It looks like a Rpi 2B in the form factor of a 0W. If only software support was better, this would be a killer one. Thank you, Chris, for your nice video!

  • @pnnytx
    @pnnytx Před 4 lety +1

    Sunday afternoon isn't complete without your video.

  • @yllib2012
    @yllib2012 Před 4 lety +2

    Great review and good timing. I've wanted to buy a Banana Pi M2 Zero for a while now. It is supposed to fit in "most" Rpi Zero cases. I finally clicked your link and bought one along with two aluminum cases from same seller. I've had a few Rpi Zeros since they were available. They are fun little SBCs but really lacking in power. I will appreciate the extra speed on the Banana Pi M2 Zero. I wish they could have fitted it with 1GB RAM but you can't have everything. I'll be looking for some retro game emulation builds for it.
    Not sure I will find anything but I will be content running Armbian if I can't.
    I even bought a couple of custom machined aluminum cases for the Pi Zero Zeros when they were available a couple of years ago.
    The aluminum cases I bought from the seller at your link look every bit as good as my old custom cases. Now to find a mini antenna for the Banana Pi M2 Zero. I believe it will need one even more once trapped in an aluminum case.
    I still get decent WiFi with my Pi Zero W models in the aluminum cases but it could be better.

  • @Simcore999
    @Simcore999 Před 4 lety +4

    Love those small form-Factors, and those reviews

  • @BagusSumanjaya
    @BagusSumanjaya Před 4 lety +3

    Nice Mr. Barnatt. Thanks to Mr. Scissor has unbox the banana pi for us to watch the review

  • @tedoyle61
    @tedoyle61 Před 4 lety

    Very good review. I've seen these small board computers used as security cameras. This helps out based on performance and speed. Thanks so much!

  • @KISSbestfan
    @KISSbestfan Před 4 lety

    Days like these, when I'm finally having an unplanned break from work are days to come and visit CZcams again.
    Thank you for your Banana Pi test. Although it may look nice, I find the specs quite comparable with the Orange Pi Lite which I bought back in 2017 for a similiar price. Sure it is bigger, and here the form factor plays a major role, but at least it outputs 1080p haha.
    I do hope to come back more often, and maybe nowadays I'd have a better opportunity to do so, since after 10 years I'm alone again. Oh well, talk about unfortunate events.

  • @ChrisShadowens
    @ChrisShadowens Před 4 lety +11

    G'morning, Chris and a very good morning to you, Mr. Scissors! I often wonder about the Banana Pi series (Orange Pi, too), thanks for video on this. Cheers!

  • @Hackvlog
    @Hackvlog Před 4 lety +74

    I think answer to the question "Which SBC should I buy?" has been for a while and will be for a long time: Latest full size Raspberry Pi for beginners and general use, latest versions of Zero and A for those who need something smaller or cheaper and lastly, these Allwinner and whatnot based SBCs for those who need something more specific. Further away from full size Raspberry Pis, more tinkering is needed.
    These SBCs are often good on paper, disappointments after launch and then they become good again, when the brilliant team behind Armbian does their magic.
    EDIT: To clarify, my "Latest Raspberry Pi" answer is to beginners, who don't have real use case in mind and they just want to start tinkering. Of course all these boards are different and there are use-cases for all of them. Thanks to the popularity and community, Raspberry Pi is the easiest to get started with. It's not only option, it's not answer to all possible needs, but it's a nice board to use when taking first steps into the fascinating world of linux and embedded stuff.

    • @Sithhy
      @Sithhy Před 4 lety +1

      I think it's mainly a choice between power on small formfactor vs. affordability & community

    • @GooogleGoglee
      @GooogleGoglee Před 4 lety +1

      @@Sithhy and connectivity

    • @sethrd999
      @sethrd999 Před 4 lety +1

      Like I said in my main reply most who use SBC's normally have a use case for it, not the oh look something cheap and shiny knee jerk purchaser.
      Personally ive got a few SBC's all doing stuff ( mainly building images / kernels ) everything from Beagle / Panda / Bones from Ti to Rock64/pro64's along with some RiscV systems with FPGA's, everything else is smaller Iron ( Cortex M and below needing at RTOS ) ..
      In the case of AllWinner the SBC's are very powerful no doubt about that, but like I said its the lack of BSP / Documentation that lets it down. But the caveat is this is the Linux world not Windows with binary proprietary drivers so in this space which is still very much in flux you have to take the bumps in the road in your stride. It is so inappropriate to expect 100% out of the box operation, if you want that stick with PC's and windows.
      I think you mean the amazing kernel team that provides the core to any and all SBC's and maintainers that make SBC's perform better pretty much with every new release.

    • @mikem9536
      @mikem9536 Před 4 lety

      @@sethrd999 Only real use I see for these SBC's would be running a Kodi box, and even then, the GPU performance is lacking for true 1080p 60 fps, and forget anything higher.

    • @sethrd999
      @sethrd999 Před 4 lety

      @@mikem9536 Mali is quite surprisingly powerful, I think they lend more to robotics / drones tbh. Many add on possibilites for that area with the GPIO's. Kodi in 512MB is a stretch.

  • @3dtemptube
    @3dtemptube Před 4 lety +2

    Excellent stuff, especially the benchmark comparison. 👍
    It's always good to know board performance stats.

  • @VR360TV
    @VR360TV Před 4 lety +1

    Another great vid, I always find myself watching your videos, thanks for a great channel

  • @srtcsb
    @srtcsb Před 4 lety +6

    Interesting. It's good to have options, especially for these smaller SBC's. I'm not sure the Banana Pi is worth twice as much $$ as the RPi Zero, but it's not a bad option (otherwise) if your project needs both speed and a compact size. Thanks for another great video Chris.

  • @MarcusTechKat
    @MarcusTechKat Před 4 lety +277

    Anyone: "Surely, you wouldn't want to run a word processor on 512MB of RAM?"
    Chris: "I would, and don't call me Shirley."

    • @ivorjawa
      @ivorjawa Před 4 lety +26

      *laughs in C=64 GEOS*

    • @thegardenofeatin5965
      @thegardenofeatin5965 Před 4 lety +4

      I wonder how many instances of Wordgrinder would fit in 512MB?

    • @mikem9536
      @mikem9536 Před 4 lety +5

      512 MB's of RAM? Is this 2005?

    • @ninline2000
      @ninline2000 Před 4 lety +13

      @@ivorjawa I ran Speedscript on my C64. I told my Grandson that I typed it in out of a magazine listing and he just stared at me like he couldn't believe it.

    • @ninline2000
      @ninline2000 Před 4 lety +9

      @Benjamin Muller That's how I learned about backups! I had been typing that listing in for 3 hours and my daughter tripped over the power brick for the C64. I then started saving my work every 15 minutes or so.

  • @dancehotelzumba3177
    @dancehotelzumba3177 Před 4 lety +1

    Very thorough and well done as usual. Keep 'em coming.

  • @carriecorrea2541
    @carriecorrea2541 Před rokem

    I love my little Banana Pi zero but I only managed to get Armbian on to it. Thanks for the review

  • @halexp
    @halexp Před 4 lety +3

    i had to lol at the Hello font size change ^^ i love you!!

  • @nutsnproud6932
    @nutsnproud6932 Před 4 lety +5

    Thanks for the video Chris. I guess Mr. Scissors would have sulked if Chris ripped the plastic bag open at the indents :D Perhaps Stanley the knife would have organised strike action. Best wishes.

  • @user-vx9ok1to1q
    @user-vx9ok1to1q Před 4 lety +1

    Thanks. Your videos always give me ideas. Hoping myself to find a good project with this zero-category SBCs.

    • @ExplainingComputers
      @ExplainingComputers  Před 4 lety +5

      I have two more "Pi Zer Projects" videos coming up to fuel your creative process! :)

  • @arturosan010
    @arturosan010 Před 4 lety +1

    Thank you for this video. I have this board. Only problem i have encountered is with the GPIO. is there any way to run then without sudo?

  • @flioink
    @flioink Před 4 lety +8

    These systems on a chip a more powerful than my "gaming" PC from the early 2000's. Good stuff.

    • @deadadam666
      @deadadam666 Před 4 lety +2

      i remember giving my amd k6-2 64mb ram back in the day and thinking it was a beast ........ now i have smart watches an order of magnitude faster

    • @flioink
      @flioink Před 4 lety +1

      @@deadadam666 Yes, I remember buying a 32mb RAM stick and it improved the pc performance substantially.

    • @MJ-uk6lu
      @MJ-uk6lu Před 4 lety

      Maybe on CPU side it is, but highly unlikely that this sbc has stronger GPU.

    • @davkdavk
      @davkdavk Před 3 lety

      @@deadadam666 i did the same just for Quake 3

  • @N0616JCProductions
    @N0616JCProductions Před 4 lety +3

    From the size of a room to the Pi's... I can't believe how much we have advanced since.

  • @johncnorris
    @johncnorris Před 4 lety +1

    It looks like a very nice project SBC. Thanks for the video!

  • @eric-janvandenbogaard9415

    As usual, a great review ! with all the important need to know's ! maybe a foot note that the 3rd Pi has a full HDMI connector, but that's only a small detail. Thank you !

  • @learrus
    @learrus Před 4 lety +5

    Holy smokes I love this tiny little monster!

  • @ghormann
    @ghormann Před 4 lety +155

    Was I the only one who felt cheated to see "Hello" without "World"? 😁

    • @europeansovietunion7372
      @europeansovietunion7372 Před 4 lety +25

      Not enough ram for that. :)

    • @alliejr
      @alliejr Před 4 lety +3

      Nope. If you’re gonna do it, might as well do it right. #k&r

    • @michaelburns8073
      @michaelburns8073 Před 4 lety +6

      'Hello' is only for non-programming testing of applications. You can only use 'Hello World' once you have stepped up to programming.

    • @jimlanigan7298
      @jimlanigan7298 Před 4 lety +1

      Remember. He said “it’s the law”. Don’t want to break that

  • @CDE.Hacker
    @CDE.Hacker Před 4 lety

    I have a request for help.I have a raspberry pi 3 b+ that keeps on showing the lightning bolt in the upper right-hand corner. I am using a 5-volt 2.4amp power supply which should be powerful enough. Is there anything I can do to get rid of that lightning bolt?

  • @colinkeenan5674
    @colinkeenan5674 Před 3 lety

    I wanted to use this SBC with my Prusa i3 MK3S+ 3D printer running OctoPrint connected via GPIO pins to replace my anemic ZeroW. I was thinking of installing raspbian and then upgrading to Dietpi and then install OctoPrint from there. Do you have any recommendations with this setup? I was planning on installing copper heatsinks on the SoC and memory modules due to the larger heat dissipation, but I was wondering if you know if all communications done via GPIO on a ZeroW can also be done on the M2 Zero? Thank you for any help you can provide.

  • @antonnym214
    @antonnym214 Před 4 lety +3

    Great video. I love these SBC vids. Very informative and nicely-presented. For my money, I would pay the $4 difference for the 3A+ just to have the GPIO connector already installed.

  • @EverettVinzant
    @EverettVinzant Před 4 lety +4

    I have a Prusa 3D printer. You can use a Pi 0 W with octoprint to provide a print server for the 3D printer. Using this I have enough power to attach the camera and create "videos" of the 3D printing process (and monitor the print). This is EXACTLY what I was looking for, I ordered one for that.
    Also, I have a Speccy Next on its way to me. I'm going to get another BananaPi and use it as the accelerator (4X the acceleration). Who doesn't want more power ;)

    • @ExplainingComputers
      @ExplainingComputers  Před 4 lety +1

      Congrats on having a Speccy Next on the way. :)

    • @EverettVinzant
      @EverettVinzant Před 4 lety

      @@ExplainingComputers I'm planning on doing a video about it. What could I possibly say that EVERY other person hasn't already said? I grew up using the C64, Apple II and PC. I never touched a Spectrum. I have no nostalgia for it, but am highly interested in it. So, I'm going to do my review as a first time user of the Spectrum.

  • @AndrewJackson2000
    @AndrewJackson2000 Před 4 lety +2

    I wanted to say... The future is here old man... But obviously you are much younger than me! Great video and presentation as usually. Keep up the good work!

    • @BruceHoult
      @BruceHoult Před 4 lety +1

      2 Jan 1967 .. oh gawd he's four years younger than me -- I didn't expect that!

  • @DanCalloway
    @DanCalloway Před 4 lety +1

    I have seriously considered upgrading my prior purchase of a Raspberry Pi Model 3B+ to the Model 4. But, I just purchased a new Acer laptop with quad core 8th gen i7 processor running at 1.80GHz with boost to 4.6GHz. So, I'll have to wait a while. Great video!

  • @chiragkhare8664
    @chiragkhare8664 Před 4 lety +3

    You are awesome bro on my first look im hope this rpi zero w...

  • @chriholt
    @chriholt Před 4 lety +3

    I'm waiting to hear you play the harmonica!

  • @P-Eric
    @P-Eric Před 4 lety +1

    Thank you Chris for this well explain video, did you try see if it do it at 60fps instead as 50? probably won't help but I am just curious.

  • @jaybum1000
    @jaybum1000 Před 3 lety

    hi sir! where did u get the raspbian os for the banana pi m2 zero? i tried to download the latest raspbian jessie on the link provided above and the wifi seemed like its not working and i couldnt access the internet on the pi

  • @PS_Tube
    @PS_Tube Před 4 lety +5

    Another EC Sunday, and another Single Board Computer. Thank you making boring Sundays fantastic. Yay !!!

    • @aryeshsaini265
      @aryeshsaini265 Před 4 lety

      Hey Mr. Piyush are you from lndia ? If yes I need your help. Being from a village in district MUZAFFARNAGAR , l want to assemble PI4 to be used as desktop . Kindly help me from where to buy it and other components ie. data cable , cabinet , cooling fan , charger etc. I will be thankful.

  • @Duewester
    @Duewester Před 4 lety +6

    As usual, an excellent review. I always look forward to my Sunday Morning Coffee with you.
    The Banana Pi could be the step up that someone who is space constrained for speed and willing/able to do some programming.
    I see some comments that indicate that some believe that the developers of the hardware don't do enough software development. But, that's one of the beauties of OSHW and Software, the ability to make change and be more purposeful (was wondering if that was even a word but the spellcheck seems to like it).If you want little to none for hardware and software you buy into the Apple realm, if you was SOME software and lots of hardware you go the Microsoft route. When you want total control of it all, go OSHW and learn some Java or CircuitPython (shameless plug to the folks at Adafruit and the CircuitPython community), or C++ and Arduino.
    At any rate, I'll climb down from the soap box and say again, an excellent review and a great breakfast experience, for me anyway.
    Keep up the good work.

    • @ExplainingComputers
      @ExplainingComputers  Před 4 lety +2

      Thanks for this Mark -- always great to hear from you and get your view. :)

    • @3rd_Millennium_Engineering
      @3rd_Millennium_Engineering Před 2 lety +1

      Please excuse the dumb question but, what is OSHW? I just getting up to speed with the hobby.

    • @Duewester
      @Duewester Před 2 lety +3

      @@3rd_Millennium_Engineering Open Source HardWare. Basically all the plans for design and building are available to be used by anyone.

    • @3rd_Millennium_Engineering
      @3rd_Millennium_Engineering Před 2 lety +1

      @@Duewester Thank you, Thomas. After I had discovered it's meaning (just before yoyur reply), I was almost going to delete this question but who knows, maybe someone else reading these comments will be starting at the same point I am currently at. :-)

  • @MonkeyWithAWrench
    @MonkeyWithAWrench Před rokem +1

    And here we are, 2 years later. Its August 2022, and right now the rpi zero 2 w is being scalped on amazon for 99 dollars, and sold out literally everywhere else... The bpi m2 zero, however is still available on aliexpress for $20.59.
    A possible contender is the orange pi i96. that board costs 6 bucks but is running ddr2 and a much slower proc.

  • @NeilVitale
    @NeilVitale Před rokem

    I bought this board and now am just setting it up. I did notice on the Armbian site that they don't list the B Pi zero as an image choice. So I suppose the generic image is fine?

  • @HS-eq3gk
    @HS-eq3gk Před 4 lety +26

    everything about this board and the 3A+ was so perfect...and then for some reason only 512MB of RAM? It just makes no sense to me to pair a quadcore with 512mb of RAM

    • @KanokYT
      @KanokYT Před 4 lety +6

      I was thinking the same thing. 512MB is just too little to really do much with nowadays, especially considering it shares RAM with the GPU chipset.

    • @HS-eq3gk
      @HS-eq3gk Před 4 lety

      @@KanokYT Yeah totally. I'd pay more for it if they had a 1GB variant, it'd be perfect for portable consoles.

    • @mikem9536
      @mikem9536 Před 4 lety +1

      I had a phone with 512MB's of ram, and even when using a "swapfile" web pages would crash on a regular basis. Not sure what the use for this would be.

    • @TomaszStachewicz
      @TomaszStachewicz Před 4 lety +1

      @@mikem9536 It's not meant to be a desktop, gui-running machine. But yes, more ram would be the first improvement to do with Banana Pi Zero.

    • @servantsochrist
      @servantsochrist Před 4 lety

      ypu can upgrade it easy with BGA skills

  • @TimothyChapman
    @TimothyChapman Před 4 lety +10

    "Coming up on Explaining Computers: Plugging the monitor into the keyboard/mouse combo unit."

  • @onepalproductions
    @onepalproductions Před 4 lety +1

    Informative as usual, thanks for sharing.
    On a separate note, I'm sure many would agree it's high time the scissors were given a name, seems only fair.

  • @PrecisionClays
    @PrecisionClays Před rokem

    Might be good to do another review of this board to see if support has improved especially with the continued high cost of RPis, especially Zero 2 W which it is closer to. Always enjoy the channel.

  • @stanpotter7764
    @stanpotter7764 Před 4 lety +100

    Opinions on the banana pi are split. I'll see myself out.

  • @JohnDoe-tm2sc
    @JohnDoe-tm2sc Před 4 lety +25

    I'd say extra $5 is totally worth for Pi 3A. Did you try to solder all those 40 GPIOs? Not mentioning performance....

    • @Promilus1984
      @Promilus1984 Před 4 lety +5

      Well if you need something smaller than Pi3 then it doesn't matter. If you don't need Pi0 W form factor then you can get e.g. NanoPi NEO2 LTS with Allwinner H5 with fairly similar performance to Raspberry Pi3 and with similar price to that BananaPi M2 Zero - so still pretty cheap and powerful; or you can aim for OrangePi Zero Plus H5 with similar form factor na WiFi instead of Ethernet. It's not like it was few years back when you didn't really have much of the competition. Now there's plenty of decent SBCs and with Armbian's more mature support for H2+/H3/H5 they are usually best bang for a bucks if raw performance is what you seek.

    • @JohnDoe-tm2sc
      @JohnDoe-tm2sc Před 4 lety

      @@Promilus1984 That was a great comment. Thanks. Just a remark - I do realize that there is wide variety SBCs available on the market these days. I simply was following the selection presented in this video.

    • @fakshen1973
      @fakshen1973 Před 4 lety

      If you're designing from scratch and have the room for the larger form factor... yes. The faster speed is great. One thing that wasn't touched was power draw. There may be some advantages between the different models if current draw comes into play... especially for battery powered projects where the unit will need to be powered for long periods of time with short bursts of processing.

    • @JohnDoe-tm2sc
      @JohnDoe-tm2sc Před 4 lety

      @@fakshen1973 Generally speaking yes, you're right. But some considerations : with Pi3 you have an option to downgrade performance (that is why there are 2 power feeds USB and 5V jack) and this Banana Pi showed temp core of 67C - makes me wander what is actual TDP of this set...

  • @DavidJashi
    @DavidJashi Před 4 lety +1

    The fact, that Banana Pi M2 Zero went into 1080p mode before video drivers kicked in, makes me think HDMI might be reporting wrong monitor capabilities to OS. Is there any way to tell OS to ignore them?

  • @zackaboy1236
    @zackaboy1236 Před 4 lety

    Great vid Chris, keep up the good work

  • @ArpitSharma-kk9tl
    @ArpitSharma-kk9tl Před 4 lety +65

    sometimes I think why most of the creators are creating more number of SBC even at cheaper cost rather than they need to create softwares that make existing SBC more useful 🤔🤔🤔🤔

    • @ExplainingComputers
      @ExplainingComputers  Před 4 lety +25

      There is so much truth to this.

    • @ArpitSharma-kk9tl
      @ArpitSharma-kk9tl Před 4 lety +1

      @@ExplainingComputers Chris I have one question recently I hosted ASP.net web application in windows IOT device and for database currently I am using SQLite is there any way I can install a dedicated SQL software in Windows IOT device ??

    • @horseradishpower9947
      @horseradishpower9947 Před 4 lety +6

      One key reason I stayed with the Raspberry Pi. The software isn't the best, but at least it is well supported... and therr is a strong community, should you need help.

    • @sethrd999
      @sethrd999 Před 4 lety +4

      And who are they you speak of?, perhaps you need to give more respect / props to the Open Community that gave you the ability to use these SBC's in the first place. If you want better software you have the same rights and tools to do so.

    • @jyvben1520
      @jyvben1520 Před 4 lety +5

      @@sethrd999 they aka the firm selling the sbc, "lets by an electric car without decent software"
      wiki.banana-pi.org/Getting_Started_with_M2_Zero

  • @daveseddon5227
    @daveseddon5227 Před 4 lety +6

    This may work:
    Go to /boot/bananapi/bpi-m3/linux
    open eEnv.txt
    uncheck line 40
    save and reboot - and your screen should now boot into 1920x1080
    If it works I'll try and find the source.

    • @ExplainingComputers
      @ExplainingComputers  Před 4 lety +2

      I will try this at some point. Right now, the board is packed away and other things are set up! :)

  • @therealjackfisher
    @therealjackfisher Před 2 lety +1

    These little machines are amazing, and this channel is something I enjoy watching. I just ordered my first two raspberry pi zeros. I dont know what project I wil use them for. Pi hole? Maybe. I have access to fast free dns serices, it will for sure replace my xbox for watching youtube.

  • @ropeboyo-fullstreamsandass2569

    Mine won't even open a webbrowser (tested armbian and Raspbian) and is super slow despite running at better temps (around 45 Celsius) what's going on?

  • @benh9350
    @benh9350 Před 4 lety +5

    Haha, "I once threatened to learn to play the harmonica..."

  • @KomradeMikhail
    @KomradeMikhail Před 4 lety +20

    They forgot to include the Composite Video pins !!!
    I like to stick an RPi Zero W inside of an old CRT television, and solder all connections internally... Turning it into a RetroPie TV.
    But the lack of composite out pins, plus the resolution issues, makes this board no good for that.

    • @ninline2000
      @ninline2000 Před 4 lety +2

      I'm going to try this. Most old style TV sets should be able to do 480i. www.amazon.com/GANA-Composite-Converter-Supports-DVD-Black/dp/B06W9LQDBB/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3Q7DWO7Z1NBBE&keywords=hdmi+to+composite+adapter&qid=1583680894&sprefix=hdmi+to+composite%2Caps%2C206&sr=8-3

    • @MrBrax
      @MrBrax Před 4 lety

      @@ninline2000 don't. Old games are in 240p, not 480i. Looks completely different

    • @KomradeMikhail
      @KomradeMikhail Před 4 lety +6

      @@ninline2000
      You don't need a converter box with an RPi Zero W... It already has Composite video out pins directly on the board.

    • @ninline2000
      @ninline2000 Před 4 lety

      @@MrBrax It looks a hell of a lot better than it does on an LCD monitor.

    • @MrBrax
      @MrBrax Před 4 lety

      @@ninline2000 maybe, but I did testing over several months and someone made a 240p firmware, looked much better. I still have some test footage on my channel I think.

  • @ZXSpectrum128K
    @ZXSpectrum128K Před 2 lety

    can this replace the pie zero in the byte delight HDMI interface 4 the zx spectrum ? what about the accelerator in the z spectrum next?

  • @DevilsHandyman
    @DevilsHandyman Před 4 lety

    So far the best use of the SBC computers I have on hand is using one with my 3D printer and OctoPi. I did find the Raspberry Pi Zero W to be inadequate for this purpose if combined with a USB camera and have used the Raspberry Pi 3. The Banana Pi board demonstrated here might just have enough extra power to do the job.

  • @marcrives279
    @marcrives279 Před 4 lety +3

    0:24 The packaging looks like a medicine!

  • @MarkTheMorose
    @MarkTheMorose Před 4 lety +6

    Harmonica playing: denied?!
    But... £8.95 shipping for this £16.99 SBC; makes one of the cheaper Raspberry Pi's look better value.

  • @stickybandit2346
    @stickybandit2346 Před 3 lety

    If the banana Pi board is plugged into a motherboard like the Spectrum Next, it would have power and then the little USB on the right can be used to power other devices. Correct?

  • @Bagasl
    @Bagasl Před 4 lety +1

    I was waiting for this video for so long

  • @JonnyInfinite
    @JonnyInfinite Před 4 lety +9

    6:06 I can't see anything but BananaPIMP

  • @BharatMohanty
    @BharatMohanty Před 4 lety +3

    Thankyou for this video sir. I was waiting for this . it will cost same as raspberry Pi zero w in my country.

  • @ozzymandius666
    @ozzymandius666 Před 4 lety +1

    I find it encouraging that this has hot the market. I look forward to the day that a 1080p-capable SBC retails for under $20.00, bringing total media freedom to the people!

  • @Stalkeros000
    @Stalkeros000 Před 4 lety +1

    Thank you. But Banana compatable with "Ethernet shield" for Raspberry Zero?

  • @johnsinclair3067
    @johnsinclair3067 Před 4 lety +17

    We in the "Colonies" implemented daylight savings time overnight... had to wait an 'extra hour" for this morning's video.

    • @ExplainingComputers
      @ExplainingComputers  Před 4 lety +4

      Ah. Yes, there will be a time change here in the UK soon too.

    • @jontallman3878
      @jontallman3878 Před 4 lety +1

      @@ExplainingComputers Well worth the wait!! Thanks again from Austin.

  • @bi5048
    @bi5048 Před 4 lety +6

    I watched his video from few years ago and today he looks like he doesn’t age a bit. Geek effect?

  • @bergamt
    @bergamt Před 4 lety +1

    One thing to keep in mind when comparing the Raspberry Pi Zero to other boards, it's been out for over four years and I still can't find anyone who will sell more than one per order, so be sure to add the shipping cost to each board. Really seems like it's being sold at cost or even a small loss.

  • @marceloncosta
    @marceloncosta Před rokem

    Hello. I'm trying to install the operating system on my Banana Pi M2 Zero but I can't. I downloaded the indicated system, I flashed the SD card but when I turn it on, I don't see any video on my monitor. What could I be doing wrong? My banana pi is a BPI-M2 Zero (it is marked like this on the box) but on the chip I can see the inscription H3, on the box it has the option BPI-M2+ (H3) but this is not the model that is marked. My power supply is a 5V - 3A for Rasperry. Thanks.

  • @WorstChicken
    @WorstChicken Před 4 lety +4

    For the resolution, shouldn't the hdmi_mode=16 not 31? Or is that 60hz and you want 50hz? Just a guess, I've only skimmed over it.
    Pretty neat little board and the 67*c reminded me of something.(Sort of unrelated)
    I recently got a pi 4 Model B and I'm looking to apply some heat sinks to the chips (Got the ICE tower for the CPU, AWESOME! Thanks for that video) and having a heck of a time figuring out what 'tape' I should use for the fanless heat sinks. Suggestions? (Too many posts that say they don't transfer heat and I don't want to waste money or fry the board/chips) THANK YOU!
    Cheers!

    • @KomradeMikhail
      @KomradeMikhail Před 4 lety +1

      "Thermal Tape"...

    • @WorstChicken
      @WorstChicken Před 4 lety

      @@KomradeMikhail HAHA Yeah, I wasn't going to put duct on it. I was looking for a brand or a specific link (affiliate maybe CB?) I didn't think I need to specify the tape needs to be thermal.
      I was reading about m3's 8810 and was getting mixed extreme results. Love or hate.

  • @TheTwick
    @TheTwick Před 4 lety +3

    “Hello” - it’s not just a good idea - it’s the law.

  • @robertmaxa6631
    @robertmaxa6631 Před rokem

    Could this board be used as a media player, if hardware graphics acceleration, can be resolved?

  • @DT-dc4br
    @DT-dc4br Před 4 lety +1

    Surely a wireless-enabled half-size SBC is primarily for headless operation in something space critical. Can you get a 1080p desktop if you SSH onto it?

  • @xaropemacgyver
    @xaropemacgyver Před 4 lety +3

    if put 1gb ram, this board is my next buy

    • @davkdavk
      @davkdavk Před 3 lety +1

      Yeah, 1GB ram would make it a real winner

  • @BandanazX
    @BandanazX Před 4 lety +24

    $20 is way too much when a pi4 2GB is now $35

    • @MiniRockerz4ever
      @MiniRockerz4ever Před 4 lety

      ain't that the price of 1GB version, with 2GB being $45

    • @WilliamBurlingame
      @WilliamBurlingame Před 4 lety +3

      The RPi4 is too large for some applications.

    • @prussian7
      @prussian7 Před 4 lety +1

      I have seen this board for $17 USD. But it gets to hot. I decided to use the 3 A+ instead and then I also will have dual band WiFi.

    • @iyidedi1724
      @iyidedi1724 Před 4 lety +4

      @@MiniRockerz4ever Pi 4 2gb is permanently $35 right now.

    • @prussian7
      @prussian7 Před 4 lety +2

      @@MiniRockerz4ever they just lowered the price of the 2GB version.

  • @adelahmed5886
    @adelahmed5886 Před 4 lety +1

    I bought one of these 2 months ago. Wireless on it seems unstable and keeps disconnecting after 2 minutes of connecting to any wireless network. It appears to freeze quite a lot too. Maybe that explains the cheap price.

  • @AntonyShen
    @AntonyShen Před 4 lety +1

    I have a banana pi m2 ultra, and still can not find same level of software support as rpi has; in my last try even Armbian didn't support it.
    In general for newcomers rpi is the best, however the hardware design and specification of the competitors' board are really enticing.
    Thanks for creating this wonderful video, I do learn a lot and surprised that it can run raspbian!

  • @will16320
    @will16320 Před 4 lety +10

    Mr Scissors oh yeah

  • @blueconcretezebra
    @blueconcretezebra Před 4 lety +7

    "Allwinner CPU" Oh dear, that's never good news.

    • @Peter1986C
      @Peter1986C Před 4 lety +2

      @@pilu9538 Software support being not entirely open source as far as I have read. Thus, it it will be difficult to get long term kernel/driver support because the Linux Foundation etc. have no way of maintaining code. At least that is what I understood, being a SBC Jon Snow.

  • @LuisEMartinez89
    @LuisEMartinez89 Před 4 lety +1

    Thank you for coming back Chris! I really like your videos btw you dont an extra bpi for this humble follower hehe xD! Thanks for sharing this video! I enjoyed It! :)

    • @ExplainingComputers
      @ExplainingComputers  Před 4 lety +1

      I'm glad you enjoyed the video. But "coming back", what do you mean?! :) I've not gone anywhere. There's been a new video on the channel every Sunday for over 4 years. :)

    • @LuisEMartinez89
      @LuisEMartinez89 Před 4 lety

      @@ExplainingComputers oh sorry maybe I get stuck on old videos from you! Anyways! Thank u! And btw do you have an extra banana pi laying somewhere that you can give me?🙈

  • @daytonglitch
    @daytonglitch Před 4 lety +1

    came back across this channel after two years and absolutely lost it at the intro music.

  • @deadadam666
    @deadadam666 Před 4 lety +4

    harmonica reveal and recital video at 1m subs ? - go on ;)

  • @EverettVinzant
    @EverettVinzant Před 4 lety +12

    They would have scored if the board was yellow instead of blue ;)

  • @Mmmm_tea
    @Mmmm_tea Před 4 lety +2

    I love the zero, its an underdog! the stuff I have done with it is fun, I used oxm player to watch a high def video from the command line, I used it as a remote radio streamer with a usb sound card/speaker, even used it as a remote terminal just for testing compiling and running stuff on linux/arm, its pretty great just totally not suited to a gui / web browsing at all, barely enough ram not enough horsepower for modern sites.

  • @periplanetaamericanus2301

    Sysbench tests the speed but is there a way of testing a Pi to see that is still working fully?