Last night, while sitting at home with my wife and my child, I suddenly remembered my old projects. You know, sometimes these ideas come while sipping coffee on the balcony in Bursa’s cool air. I thought, why not try a new embedded system board? I heard about Banana Pi while browsing tech sites. Initially, I thought it was a joke, since banana has nothing to do with technology? 🙂 But apparently, it is a serious alternative to Raspberry Pi. Naturally, I got curious and immediately ordered one. Well, today it arrived, and I started tinkering.
By the way, last weekend, we went on a camping trip to UludaÄŸ as a family. My passion for mountaineering is well-known, and my wife and child are getting used to it. Sitting around a campfire, I was browsing some electronic circuit designs from my phone. My child asked, ‘Dad, what is this?’, and I explained in simple terms. That moment made me think how fun devices like Banana Pi can be. Of course, I didn’t code during the trip, I only generated ideas. I try to avoid staring at screens too much when I’m with my family.
I opened the Banana Pi box, and my first impressions are quite positive. Small, lightweight, with plenty of ports. As someone who develops REST APIs with C# and .NET, integrating these boards into IoT projects would be fantastic. I have experience in embedded systems, and I often use such boards for electronic circuit design. I usually connect to PostgreSQL or MySQL databases and create frontends with jQuery or Vue. But I wanted to go a step further with this board.
Initially, I faced some hurdles. I uploaded an image to an SD card to boot the board, but it had issues with the USB connection. Perhaps because of a faulty cable or missing drivers, I don’t remember exactly, but I spent half an hour on it. Anyway, I finally got it working. You can find many tutorials by searching ‘Banana Pi setup guide’ on Google. I referred to some of those.
What is Banana Pi, and Why Do I Prefer It?
In my opinion, Banana Pi is like an affordable alternative to Raspberry Pi. It offers more powerful processor options, such as the Allwinner series. I bought the BPI-M5 model, which comes with the Amlogic S905X3 chip, 4GB RAM, eMMC storage, and so on, which is quite sufficient for IoT. Its price was also reasonable, around 15-20 Euros, though import costs raised the total a bit. But it was worth it.
Imagine, while coding in my daily work with C# and Dapper to develop REST APIs, I could connect these APIs to the Banana Pi and set up a sensor network—for example, for home automation. Sometimes my wife asks, ‘Why don’t the lights in this house turn on automatically?’, and I might make her a surprise project. 🙂
My first project was simple: I connected an LED circuit to the board and controlled it using GPIO pins. I initially wrote a Python script, but the real fun was with C#. I created a console app with .NET Core to send commands via SSH. A practical solution, although I don’t know all the details since I was in a hurry.
Meanwhile, I remembered seeing a banana at the market’s fruit section last month, and I smiled. I wondered, ‘Why is this board called banana?’. It turns out Chinese developers named series after fruits, which is amusing. Anyway, coming back to my experience, this board is ideal for circuit design. I combined it with my electronic components and sent data to PostgreSQL for testing.
Practical Project Example
Let me give an example of how I integrated it. First, set up the board and load Armbian OS. Then, in C#, call the API with HttpClient. My REST API is connected to MySQL, and I use Dapper for queries. I wrote a simple endpoint to send data from the board.
Here’s a basic code example:
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
public class BananaController
{
private readonly HttpClient _client;
public async Task SendDataAsync(string data)
{
var content = new StringContent(data);
await _client.PostAsync("https://myapi.com/sensor", content);
}
}This code runs on .NET, and on the board, I use a script to read the GPIO. Connect the sensor, send the data as JSON, and store it in the database. That’s all—about 10-15 minutes. In my first attempt, I had errors, probably because I used the wrong IP address.
But that night, I tested it before sleeping. The LED blinked, and data reached the API. It was a great feeling! 🙂
Overall, Banana Pi is perfect for active coders like me. I built a dashboard with Vue, added jQuery animations. My family would be surprised if they saw it, but that remains a secret for now. By the way, Banana Pi official site has various models to check out.
Last Tuesday evening, around 8 PM, I was at home while my child was sleeping, and my wife was preparing something in the kitchen. I was tinkering with the Banana Pi. Suddenly, the connection dropped—I think because it overheated without a fan? I don’t know, but I spent half an hour debugging. Anyway, I fixed it. Failures happen, it’s part of the experience.
I genuinely liked this board because, coming from a PHP background, transitioning to Vue and mobile integration feels easier now. In embedded system design, it’s uniquely flexible. Sometimes it slows down, but optimization fixes it.
Also, I read in a tech forum that the Banana Pi community is active. Check out Google ‘Banana Pi community projects’ for inspiration. I got a project idea from there as well.
During a city tour in Bursa with my family, my child asked, ‘Dad, what’s a banana?’, during our last trip, and we laughed. After a mountain trip, brainstorming by the campfire is enjoyable. I can’t code then, but thinking is important.
I think I will do more projects with this board. Embedded systems are fun. You should try it; it’s inexpensive and powerful. But be careful with your cables—don’t use cheap ones like I did, or you’ll have troubles. 🙂
It just came to mind that last year, I made a mistake with a similar board (Raspberry Pi). I was tired after mountain climbing, plugged the board into the power, and it short-circuited. Luckily, the fuse blew, but the circuits burned. Since then, I’ve been more careful. These memories accumulate.
In my opinion, start with Banana Pi if you’re new. C# integration is straightforward, compatible with REST APIs. Data flows smoothly to PostgreSQL. When you add Vue frontend, it’s perfect. I forget some details, but practice ensures all is well.
Following this trend was a good decision. Even when spending time with my family, my mind is full of project ideas. Have you tried these kinds of boards? Maybe I’ll carry one for my next camping trip. 🙂