The board in one table
| BPI-R3 (Banana Pi specification) | |
|---|---|
| SoC | MediaTek MT7986 (Filogic 830), quad-core Cortex-A53 + MT7531 switch |
| RAM / storage | 2 GB DDR4, 8 GB eMMC, 128 MB SPI-NAND, microSD |
| Network | 5x gigabit Ethernet, 2x 2.5GbE SFP |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 6, 4x4 2.4 GHz (MT7975N) + 4x4 5 GHz (MT7975P) |
| Expansion | M.2 Key M (PCIe), mini PCIe (USB only), 1x USB 3.0, 26-pin GPIO |
| Power | 12 V / 2 A DC jack |
Boot switches
Four DIP switches pick the boot device. Banana Pi's jumper table names them SW1, SW2, SW5, SW6 with High/Low; OpenWrt's page uses A–D with 1/0. Read in that order, the two tables agree for every boot device:
| Boot from | Banana Pi (SW1 SW2 SW5 SW6) | OpenWrt (A B C D) |
|---|---|---|
| SPI-NOR | Low Low Low X | 0 0 0 X |
| SPI-NAND | High Low High X | 1 0 1 X |
| eMMC | Low High High Low | 0 1 X 0 |
| microSD | High High X High | 1 1 X 1 |
X = either position. Set the switches with the board powered off.
Install order for OpenWrt (per OpenWrt's device page)
- Write the OpenWrt image to a microSD card, set the switches to microSD and boot.
- From the bootloader menu, install to SPI-NAND (or NOR).
- For eMMC: switch to SPI-NAND boot first, then use its menu to install to eMMC. microSD and eMMC share pins, so you can't write eMMC while running from the SD card.
- Set the switches to the final boot device.
Pitfalls
- SFP modules: the SFP ports are fixed to 2.5GBase-X. A 1G or 10G module that doesn't speak this mode won't link, and there's no insertion detection to tell you. Banana Pi's page lists modules they tested.
- Serial console breaks Wi-Fi: OpenWrt reports that some USB-serial adapters (Prolific PL2303, WCH CH340G) make wireless initialisation fail while connected. If Wi-Fi is missing, unplug the adapter or use a different chipset.
- mini PCIe carries USB only, no PCIe signals: it's for LTE modules, not Wi-Fi cards.
- Community resources: the R3 has an active unofficial wiki and kernel/U-Boot trees maintained outside Banana Pi; the docs page links them.