AML-S905X-CC Le Potato 64-bit Single Board Computer Pi 3 Alternative (2GB 2-Pack)

I'm sure you're looking at this review because you're in the same boat as everyone else right now trying to either replace a broken Pi, or buy a new one... and the prices are 3x-5x due to the shortage. This board definitely hits the right price point and after two days of tweaking things, I got it to run Mailsail and I'm back in business. Here are some Pro's and Con's:Pro: Same footprint as RPi, including GPIO location and pinouts.Pro: Lower heat production than my Pi3.Pro: CHEAP. Available.Con: No wifi. Not a big deal for me. All my printers are running Ethernet.Con: I can't get UART_A working. I tried everything. I'm using this via USB for now.Con: Very limited number of available software appliance packages. To keep your expectations in check, assume you will download a working Linux, and then you need to do everything else (i.e., download and run KIAUH to get Mainsail and related components running)Keeping all that in mind, and having some experience with SBCs, this one wasn't too terrible. It would have been great if I could have fired up the UART... but thats fine... its better than a dead RPi and a non-functional printer... LOL. I just bought a second one to be part of a simple NOE which I'll use to experiment with to see if I can get the UART functional, while the other one is in my OE.***UPDATE: January 2023***I've bumped up my review from 4 stars to 5. This little guy has been a godsend. Its cheap, runs mainsail just fine... and there is an added bonus (why I raised my rating): It runs at or even slightly below 5 volts!Before, with my RPi's, I'd constantly get under-volt errors. The FAQs say that you need a "clean power supply" and I'm running the damn thing on an 750W ATX power supply! Turns out, the RPi needs more than 5V which causes all these undervolting issues. Long story short, Le Potato makes that issue go away... so it just earned itself one more star.Also, in case you're stuck in your transition, here is how to get Mainsail on it:-Download the Raspbian image from Libre Computer's repository.-Use your favorite tool (Balena, or the RPI imager) to write that image on to the micro SD card.-Connect the board with a USB keyboard, and to a monitor with HDMI, and power it/boot.-Once booted, log in via the GUI, launch a terminal window, then launch the configurator at the terminal window( sudo raspi-config )-In the raspi-config, go to Interfacing Options, then select SSH, and then enable-Shut down the pi, disconnect the monitor and keyboard, boot again.-SSH to the Potato's address-Once logged into the libre, next you need to get KIAUH and the instructions for that can be found by searching for th33xitus and kiauh in google... but summary: you'll need to run one command to clone the KIAUH repository, then run KIUAH and the rest of the process should be pretty self explanatory.after this step is done, you can connect your libre over to the printer controller with a USB cable (I'm still trying to figure out the UART connection), and complete configuration of the controller/mainsail.Good luck!

Bought this to use with a Voron Trident 3D Printer running Klipper. It is working fine with less than 10% CPU utilization most of the time. I would recommend getting the heatsink.For Klipper, I installed Raspian from the Libre site, and used KIAUH to install everything Klipper related. It all just worked.Using the Le Potato vs Raspberry Pi did require some hardware changes on my part to interface with screen, ADXL345 board, and WiFi. There is quite a bit of support in the Libre forums to help handle the differences from Raspberry Pi.The form factor, mounting holes, and GPIO pins locations match the Raspberry Pi 3 and 4. I printed a Raspberry Pi case and it worked perfectly. However, the Pi has proprietary GPIO drivers, so you'll need to use Libre libraries. I only the GPIO pins for power, so I don't know how well this works. You can power the Potato using the same GPIO pins that you would use for the Pi.Unlike a Raspberry PI, there is no DSI connector for HDMI touch screens, so you must use HDMI and USB. I use an automobile USB/HDMI pass through so the Potato can be inside the printer.Since there is no WiFi, I used the GenBasic WiFI dongle and it works out of the box. Note that some adapters are not supported by Raspian. There are RealTek libraries for download.The 3D printer kit I bought had an ADXL345 board that connects to the GPIO pins and a small ribbon cable connector for the Pi. I chose to use a Pi Pico as a secondary MCU to connect to ADXL345 instead of trying to make it work.I purchased and installed the heatsink. I did not monitor CPU temps without the fan, but the heatsink was mildly warm in an 80F area. I printed a mount, and installed a 30mm fan undervolted to 3.3v. CPU temperatures are 14C over ambient for low CPU utilization.LoveRPI has these and all the accessories on their site. Worth checking out.