Libre Computer La Frite Single Board ARM SBC AML-S805X-AC 1GB Mini PC

the screws were shotty, to be honest, which bothered me setting this up for the first time. I felt like I had to thread the grooves into the mounting points. one of the screws has this fissure on the head, another screw wasn't threaded all the way. pick up some quality m2x1.5mm laptop screws if this bothers you. the solder also had some blobs, to be nit picky. it's the worst manufactured solder job i've seen, but that is not saying anything at all. all the boards i've seen in my life have been pristine.at $25 ($5 coupon) for the board and 16gb emmc, I had to give that star back. its running debian just fine after following the guide to flash the emmc on the libre computer forums, just look up "AML-S805X-AC emmc flashing" you have to have a pi, sbc or a non AMD pc running linux to flash using this method. I think it should come with a usb emmc reader rather than the cord, but that was probably to keep costs down. maybe you'll want one. I used my le potato.its a neat little board. with m3 mounting holes, the footprint is about 58x49.5mm, same as a pi, but with m3s instead of m2.5s

As a lot have said- programming the emmc is the biggest hurdle. Lack of instructions on their site or easily available on the web can lead to some headaches. But, once that's done the size and actual computer are great.Just do some research before jumping in on this. You have to buy the emmc made for this and programming it can be a pain.

The main advantage of this board is that its libre from the boot loader all the way to the OS you load into it. It took me a couple of tries with raspbian but the official image threw “ARM64 magic” errors so after updating the bootloader I tried with Debian and works great! (I just dd the Debian image for the AML 905x) Currently running Debian 12 with kernel 6.1, the 1GB RAM is not really a limitation for low level signaling and of course the GPIO works (almost) out of the box and can be controlled with simple bash or python scripts. Will definitely keep using this for future projects.

it stop working in one use

Not a great beginner board due to finding the right software for it can be headache , and dealing with only two USB ports is challenging , buy their bigger 35 dollar board instead it's software is easier to get , still if you want a challenge this board is for you hint buy a powered USB hub as well if you buy this

I have been working and still working with upgrades cost effective solution for pc computing.Thank You Mark Hancock.