Unified image
Compact M.2 field sensor.
Good for
- A pocket or bag sensor with one Wi-Fi 7 card
- Scans, surveys and header captures
- Streaming captures to the phone
Hardware
| Part | Detail |
|---|---|
| Processor | Rockchip RK3528A, four Cortex-A53 cores |
| Memory | 2 GB (a 1 GB version is also sold) |
| Wi-Fi card slot | One M.2 Key E 2230 slot, PCIe 2.1 ×1 (5 GT/s, the same speed as PCIe 2.0) |
| USB | One USB 2.0 High-Speed host port (480 Mb/s); a USB 3 adapter runs at USB 2.0 speed. The USB-C port is USB 2.0 too, and carries power and the network link to a phone or Mac |
| Storage | microSD. Sustained writes measured at 12.1 and 21.7 MB/s on two cards |
| Wired | Gigabit Ethernet (verified at 1000 Mb/s) |
| PoE | Not on the board. The REVODATA TYPEC0504G USB-C PoE splitter from the build guide powers it; used in our NanoPi testing |
| Power | USB-C, 5 V |
| Display | None |
What you can buy
- Memory: 1 GB or 2 GB. Capture peaked at 281 MB, so 1 GB runs every job. More memory rides out longer bursts once capture buffering ships.
- Storage: microSD, any size from 8 GB; no eMMC. Write speed depends on the card you buy, not the board. Benchmark it; see the build guide.
- Wi-Fi card: Qualcomm QCNCM865 (preferred) or Intel BE200. Both are 2×2 Wi-Fi 7 cards that tune 320 MHz. The comparison page explains what a PCIe 2.x link changes for the Intel card.
- Power: USB-C supply, or PoE through a USB-C splitter. The splitter occupies the USB-C port; a USB-C one-to-two adapter keeps the laptop link.
Radios
| Card | Measured |
|---|---|
| Qualcomm QCNCM865 (WCN7850) | 160 MHz on 6 GHz measured on this board, 28,086 packets with no drops. The card does 320 MHz on a Pi 5; 320 MHz on the NanoPi is not yet proven |
| Intel BE200 | Captures at 320 MHz on 6 GHz on this board’s PCIe 2.1 link: 270 802.11 frames on 320 MHz channel 191, in a manual test outside the app. The app offers up to 160 MHz today |
| MediaTek MT7925U / MT7921U (USB) | Supported, limited to USB 2.0 speed |
Limits
- microSD write speed limits full-payload capture to disk. A test writing about 450 Mbit/s of frames to a card measured at 14.7 MB/s dropped 5,358 frames in 62 seconds.
- One capture lost half its frames at about 1,700 frames per second even when writing to RAM, so the card was not the cause. It is still being investigated.
- Sustained BE200 transmit heats the card; the image throttles transmit power automatically.
Measured
- One-hour captures with a BE200 and with a QCNCM865 on ambient traffic: 1,590,937 and 949,811 packets, no kernel drops.
- BE200 throughput: about 445 Mbit/s receive, up to 790 Mbit/s transmit with a fan.
Install
Write the factory image to microSD. Use stable power and Ethernet or a supported direct USB connection. The parts and assembly guide covers the M.2 card, antennas and enclosure.
Then follow the unified image setup guide: claim the sensor with its one-time code, and connect from the app or the device website.