Wow, nice to see the NanoPi M2 getting some love here — been following the NanoPi lineup since the original and it’s honestly impressive how much horsepower they’re packing into these tiny boards lately. The M2 looks like a solid step up with the quad-core and extra I/O, especially for projects where space is tight but you still want decent performance.
Actually reminds me of a project I did last fall — I was putting together a compact camera slider and ran into the same kind of thinking trap. It only needed around 3 inches of movement, but I initially went with a 100N actuator thinking, “eh, more power can’t hurt.” Turned out it can — the motion was jerky, and it even put stress on the mount I built. After a bunch of trial and error, I finally swapped it for a 15N model with a 50mm stroke, and it ran way smoother. Sometimes less really is more.
If anyone’s playing with actuators for camera gear or robotics, I’d seriously recommend checking this page electric linear actuator:
https://www.progressiveautomations.ca/pages/micro-linear-actuators— they break down stroke options really clearly and you can sort by force, which saved me from going overboard again. Knowing your load + stroke first, then picking the right part, made a huge difference.
Anyway, curious what kind of builds people are thinking about using the M2 for. Might be my next upgrade for a mini CNC controller. Anyone tested thermal performance yet under sustained load?
