The general purpose input output (GPIO) pins are one of the best features of both the Raspberry and Banana Pi boards. These pins are what allow your software to interact with the physical world much like working with an Arduino. These pins can be interfaced with, via code right from within the operating system running on the board. The pins can be used to interface with sensors, displays, touch screens, and the layout is exactly the same as the Raspberry Pi; thus, basically all the accessories are compatible with the Banana Pi.

The next diagram shows the location of all the GPIO pins:

CON1 is the extensible on-board CSI connector. It is a 40-pin FPC connector that can be used to connect the external camera module. CON2 is an LVDS display connector. CON3 contains the CAN bus, SPI bus, I2C bus, PWM, serial port, and so on. It can be configured to be used for all kinds of peripherals. The table viewable from the link contains the CON3 pin definitions. This is a reference for future use as you will need to know which pin is used for what.