Document neat CM4 projects/accessories about raspberry-pi-pcie-devices HOT 102 CLOSED

Uptime Lab (www.uplab.pro) posted this blade server concept to Twitter:

It looks like it wouldn't be the most complicated PCB to manufacture, and could hold up to 22 devices (176 GB RAM, 44TB storage with 22 2TB NVMe drives. Gigabit backplane maximum, though, so it wouldn't be able to be fully utilized practically (more to come on why in my next video!).

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I need to stop looking at this thread! Nice collection Jeff.

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The Retro Lite CM4 is a sleek, handheld gaming console to be completed early 2021. It is a collaboration project between myself and Dmcke5 on the BitBuilt forums. It is modelled in SolidWorks and the PCBs were designed in EAGLE. The project is a work in progress, but we hope to have it all done very soon! Final shell will be done in 6061 aluminum, but we have made some renders and custom prototypes already to get started. We still can't get our hands on the latest compute module as at the time of this post, but hopefully we can get one soon. Everything will be on custom connectors and require no soldering for assembly.

Current feature list: Retro Lite CM4

Left PCB:

• Arduino ATmega32 USB controller
• Switch joystick x 1
• Abxy buttons
• Start button
• Silicone membranes (custom made using CNC'd molds)

Main PCB:

• BQ24292i Power Management IC
• ATtiny84 8-bit microcontroller for controlling BQ
• USB2422 USB hub
• i2s Audio amp (wm8960 i2c master with switchable headphone jack)
• 1 x 4Ah lithium-ion cell
• TFP401 hdmi->rgb888 converter IC
• USB-C sink PD (15V, compatible with Nintendo Switch Lite charger)
• SD card
• HDMI 2.0 port
• 2 x FFC connectors to connect side PCBs to main board
• Raspberry Pi 90-pin D-Sub High Density Connectors x 2
• 5v boost regulator (4A capable)
• 800 x 480 5" HDMI TFT monitor

Right PCB:

• DPAD
• Switch joystick x 1
• Select button

Check out the photos below. If you are interested in following the worklog as we build it along the way, you can check it out below. A lot of information I have left out can be found here:
https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/retro-lite-cm4-a-stonededge-and-dmcke5-collaboration.3934/

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Another interesting project, the PiKeeb:

Seems to be a combination mechanical keyboard + CM4 board (similar to Pi 400 in general design), with the addition of a fold-out screen; more details are on the project's subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/PiKeeb/ (would be nice to have a page somewhere with consolidated info, because you kinda have to read around in that subreddit to figure out everything the board should be able to do).

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Hi Jeff, we at Harlab are in a good shape to start CM4Ext Nano production soon

Project page: https://github.com/harlab/CM4Ext_Nano
Twitter: https://twitter.com/harlab_com

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Another really cool idea is the Piunora from timonsku on Twitter:

It has a slightly custom layout, but features an M.2 B-key connector on the bottom (something many have desired), and tons of other niceties that make it a well rounded little prototype. Not available for sale, but something like this could be a popular option for those of us who want a 'Pi 4 but with built-in NVMe on the bottom' :)

(@timonsku was also the person behind this dead-simple carrier board featured on Hackaday.io.)

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Looks like there's also the MCUzone CM4 4G:

Video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1mi4y1V7qw

Forum posts: http://www.mcuzone.com/forum/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=34195

And gathering what I can from translations, it seems the board is tailored for use with a 4G or 5G modem (through an onboard mini-PCIe slot). The board as pictured has "4K HDMI output, Gigabit wired Ethernet, 4G LTE Cat4 network, dual USB host, and USB-C power supply interface."

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@SuNNjek - Yeah I spotted that too! It looks like it's a 4x SATA carrier made for super compact gigabit NAS devices, more details at Wiretrustee:

I especially like that little separate status and power board—you could make a really polished Pi NAS out of this thing. I'm trying to see if I might be able to get access to one to play around with it :)

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Hi, I made this simple board (design is here) and I have some more designs in PCB fab 🙂

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Hi, I've just launched an Indiegogo campaign to make my Mini-ITX carrier board design a reality. So here is another project to add to your list. Keep up the great work!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/over-board-raspberry-pi-4-mini-itx-motherboard/

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TinyCar CM4. 6 layer board from Markus Kasten
Twitter post link

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Anybody found a minimalistic carrier board with only USB C for instance (data + power), so I can use the CM4 like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR6sDcKo3V8 (emulated Ethernet via USB c in order to ssh into the device)
Thank you

If you need just USB-C, I can make it ;)

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New video posted today: Raspberry Pi CM4 Boards arrive! Waveshare PoE and PiTray mini.

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I've made it work on 64-bit Ubuntu Server 20.10 simply by enabling the kernel's lan743x driver as it. However, make sure including this commit; otherwise, it may crash when accessing the interface before the physical link is up.

~The performance seems very satisfying. It could reach 900+ Mbps in simple NAT with VLAN cases. (PC1 -> RPi -> LAN7430/1 -> simulated External network). However, if using the Pi as an OpenVPN gateway, it could only reach 60Mbps. (I messed up my routing table).

Guys, considering how cheap 1Gbps switches are it probably doesn't make much sense to reduce PCIe Gen2 x1 to single RGMII pair just to make switching works on CM4. I've been thinking about this a lot and I think that the best approach for "CM4 as nextgen routing platform" would be using PCIe switch and two 2.5Gbps controllers, e.g ASMedia AS1182 + 2xRTL8125. This will allow us to make CM4 gateway in the following configuration:
1x 2.5Gbps WAN
1x 2.5Gbps LAN1
1x 1Gbps LAN2/WAN2

PCIe would allow us to push ~4Gbps throughput. I also do believe that SoC is powerful enough to make it happen. We just need the right software, i.e XDP+eBPF. I will try to work on OpenWRT and Polycube (https://github.com/polycube-network/polycube) integration to make it happen.

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A sneaky preview for audiophiles — CM4AES from Pi 2 Design:

https://www.pi2design.com/coming-soon.html

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On release day of the CM4, Gumstix had already produces the following hardware and adaptors for the CM4:
https://www.cnx-software.com/2020/10/19/gumstix-introduces-cm4-to-cm3-adapter-carrier-boards-for-raspberry-pi-compute-module-4/
Raspberry Pi CM4 Uprev & UprevAI CM3 adapter board
Gumstix Raspberry Pi CM4 Development Board (mentioned above)
Gumstix Raspberry Pi CM3/CM4 Robo
Gumstix Raspberry Pi CM4 PoE Smart Camera
Gumstix Raspberry Pi CM4 + Pixhawk FMUv6

The CM4-CM3 adapter also works with the current TuringPi (note the inclusion of a Google Coral AI accelerator):

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Another project that showed up on the radar today thanks to @JorisBryssinck, the CutiePi tablet, an open hardware design with a target MSRP of $229 (including screen, battery, and a CM4 2GB WiFi/BT Lite!):

Even though the website still mentions the CM3+ Lite, they recently announced an upgraded design using the CM4:

EDIT: Update on the CutiePi — it lives! https://twitter.com/penk/status/1341211268552658944

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@geerlingguy you’re in a first row to get it for review
@stephenvalente @gabyavra board should be available for purchase in February.
To keep this thread clean for other amazing projects feel free to share your thoughts at CM4Ext Nano Issues: harlab/CM4Ext_Nano#1

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Hi Jeff,
Nothing to do with me, but this CM4 carrier is one I'm interested in at the moment (haven't seen it mentioned here yet).

https://twitter.com/ryanteck/status/1343879441248825345?s=20

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@julled Several PCI-e switch boards do exist already. But there are projects that plan to integrate them on a board. For example (shamelessly plugging my own project) CM4_MATX.

(Currently looking for help reviewing our schematics from those with design knowledge! :D)

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Just wanted to note the Retro Lite CM4 is nearing completion:

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The Gumstix Raspberry Pi CM4 Development Board, which has a built-in NVMe slot (I presume it is consuming the PCIe 1x lane). It's $130, and backordered.

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User u/mebs_t on Reddit posted this Compute Module 4 NAS PCB with PCIe board:

The idea is to have that board with the CM4 connected internally to some drives in a tower enclosure like:

The board is documented in this GitHub repo: https://github.com/mebs/CM4-NAS

There are some good links for those interested in putting together a similar kind of project. Also in that thread I found out that Gumstix is offering free manufacturing for CM4 designs through the end of the year—probably some strings attached, but an interesting offer nonetheless.

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Anybody found a minimalistic carrier board with only USB C for instance (data + power), so I can use the CM4 like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR6sDcKo3V8 (emulated Ethernet via USB c in order to ssh into the device)
Thank you

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Someone should design a nice small board with a few onboard SATA + power ports.

Power would still be an issue but...

https://www.seeedstudio.com/M-2-to-SATA-Converter-5-Ports-p-4726.html

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I'm frankly surprised that there isn't yet a project or crowdfunding drive to create a smartphone around a CM4. So with a smartphone form factor, including a touch screen, 4G modem, the ability to make voice calls, etc, but having an interface for a CM4 (or compatible device) instead of an integrated SoC. You wouldn't even have to start entirely from scratch for something like this. You could basically take the schematics of the PinePhone and/or the LibRem 5 (I believe they are both open source hardware), and use those as a basis.

The advantage would be a phone that would not only be open with out-of-the-box mainline Linux kernel support, but upgradable as well.

(Let's just hope the Raspberry Pi foundation will not make incompatible changes to the Compute Module form factor so soon again, like they did between the CM3 and the CM4.)

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@ansonhe97 - Ah, great find from @nicho810! It looks like that board is using two interfaces—one is the internal CM4 gigabit ethernet interface, and the other is a USB 3.0 interface that goes through the PCIe bus. Clever solution and I'm guessing that cuts down on costs slightly—but it does add a little extra overhead. Probably not so bad with < 2.0 full gigabits.

Here's a picture, for those not wishing to jump through to Twitter:

Looks like a really cool and tidy little router board, perfect for OpenWRT. Pair that up with the Intel AX200 wifi card, and this could be a pretty cool solution (would need a PCIe switch before the USB 3.0 chip though... adds complexity and board size most likely).

According to memoryleakyu, preorders start for the new year on https://www.seeedstudio.com

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@ansonhe97 - Ah, great find from @nicho810! It looks like that board is using two interfaces—one is the internal CM4 gigabit ethernet interface, and the other is a USB 3.0 interface that goes through the PCIe bus. Clever solution and I'm guessing that cuts down on costs slightly—but it does add a little extra overhead. Probably not so bad with < 2.0 full gigabits.

Here's a picture, for those not wishing to jump through to Twitter:

Looks like a really cool and tidy little router board, perfect for OpenWRT. Pair that up with the Intel AX200 wifi card, and this could be a pretty cool solution (would need a PCIe switch before the USB 3.0 chip though... adds complexity and board size most likely).

According to memoryleakyu, preorders start for the new year on https://www.seeedstudio.com

With a combination of not only OpenWRT, but LXC/virtualization (VyOS/pfSense pick one) and the assistance of another gigabit switch, this can also be fundamentally a very powerful home router + VPN gateway + being able to run all kinds of service! We can even opt to remove the USB for a SATA port to make it ascend to an all in one NAS. The problem is, will there be enough CM4 out here to cater all this kinds of insane needs😂

Holys*it, this is definitely going to be the next-gen custo-ZeroTier: edge computing + SDN on steroid!

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Another project I noticed last night a on a browse of Reddit: CM4 Handheld - My First Prototype, by u/Temporary-Ability-46 (a.k.a. "Inquisitive Engineer"):

And he posted a brief YouTube video of the thing in action: Raspberry Pi CM4 Handheld Prototype Test.

And it seems like his intention is to open source the design:

Regardless on whether I sell this as a kit or not I am planning on releasing everything as open source. This community has already helped me in the design by being a source of good information so it would be my way of giving back :-). But I want to finalize the design first so people don’t have to solve and remaining issues I have found with this initial prototype

Even if not, the design is a good inspiration for others to follow—I love how it makes use of a lot of commodity parts (like that heat pipe) while still resulting in a very nice looking overall design. Plus Ethernet on a portable game console is pretty darn cool.

Update 2021-01-11: There's now a GitHub repo for this project: https://github.com/juckettd/RaspberryPiCM4Handheld7Inch

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Hi guys, we have been busy building our own CM4 Carrier for industrial applications. We called it the TOFU. Let us know what you think. (https://twitter.com/oratek_ch) @oratek-ch @anybuche

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The Retro Game Restore GPiMate Plus for CM4 Lite is $39.45, and works in the Retroflag GPi Case:

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@StonedEdge - Those renderings are beautiful! Thanks for sharing this project, it looks like the CM4 Handheld project mentioned earlier (which was in the Wii U form factor) but narrowed down even more to the point this thing could be a stand-in for a Switch Lite!

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Another interesting project, the StereoPi V2, for stereoscopic photography/video (interesting application for robotics too):

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Someone should design a nice small board with a few onboard SATA + power ports.

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I would love to see a little carrier board tuned for cyberdeck makers. Onboard battery charging plus boost to get us enough amps for all the things, power out for additional devices too full sized hdmi out, 4 USB, ethernet etc (basically a full pi4 with battery management and a few extra terminals for power).

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It would be cool to have something similar to the Piunora, that would expose the PCIe interface as a Thunderbolt (or USB4?) port. I'm not sure how complicated it would be to implement something like that, though.

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Looking for a board that has a SuperSpeed (aka USB 3.x) USB Client port.

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Ethernet port in Piunora would have been nice

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Someone should design a nice small board with a few onboard SATA + power ports.

Power would still be an issue but...

https://www.seeedstudio.com/M-2-to-SATA-Converter-5-Ports-p-4726.html

mSATA has some of best performance/watt ratio. The Samsung PM851 uses <200mW in active use.
https://www.amazon.com/Original-512GB-mSATA-Retail-Packaging/dp/B08DLW863Y
There are some USB-mSATA expansion boards for the Pi4 like: https://notenoughtech.com/rpi-hat/x857-msata-for-raspberry-pi-4/
and I've seen some GPIO adapters for mSATA like the PiDrive (2015 status unknown). I think a little boost for write and random reads would be great, Otherwise there is a handful of Class 10 cards that are 1GB transfers in less than a minute for copy/write speeds.

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Test Google Coral via a PCIE to Mini PCIE adaptor (or inverse converter)

https://coral.ai/products/pcie-accelerator/

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https://developers.googleblog.com/2020/09/doubling-down-on-edge-with-corals-new.html?m=1

there is also the dual core variant, though it requires M.2 and i doubt RPi itself would have the capacity to run it at all

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The CM4 does support MSI-X and there has been some work to support the Coral PCIe adapters. Google are apparently adjusting their software to try to overcome some of the remaining issues:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=98&t=294924&p=1780727&hilit=coral#p1780681

I believe the dual PCIe adapter requires two Gen2 x1 lanes, so wouldn't work with the CM4 (as there is only a single lane).

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I'm actually digging into MSI-X support a bit more lately for one [secret] project and for Intel networking cards to be able to run more efficiently.

It seems that there was a recent commit in the RPi Linux kernel (5.10.y branch) that could make some MSI-X requiring cards work: raspberrypi/linux@4a93ff6 (but not everything is supported).

[Edit: Weird... it looks like that commit might be gone from that branch? 4 hours ago the branch seems to have been re-synced with upstream.]

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Another new NAS board, from @olvint this time: https://github.com/olvint/CM4-NAS-MiniPCIE — It's a fork of https://github.com/mebs/CM4-NAS with a mini PCIe slot (instead of full-size). Pictures speak louder than words:

That looks like this little IOCrest mini PCIe card with the ASMedia 1061R chipset for $27. Syba also makes a full-size mini PCIe card with 4 SATA ports for $31.

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Wow! There are so many cool projects on course!

I hope that EdgeTPU guys finish the work to get the MSI-X support done and ready to deploy 🙏

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Could also check this out: https://twitter.com/Nicho810/status/1337210218980118529

Dual gigabit Ports for CM4, soft router options :D

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Yes, I'm beta testing the hardware and it works great with OpenWrt! Please check here for some stats: https://twitter.com/Ansonnh/status/1342469626555289600
https://twitter.com/Ansonnh/status/1341996436141948928

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Hi, I've just launched an Indiegogo campaign to make my Mini-ITX carrier board design a reality. So here is another project to add to your list. Keep up the great work!

https://www.indiegogo.com/campaigns/over-board-raspberry-pi-4-mini-itx-motherboard

Unfortunately that link seems to be broken in more ways than one and I am unable to correct it. Mind linking your project again @OverDevices?

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@BMicraft - I fixed the link — @OverDevices was using BBCode or something not-markdown, and that mangled the generated link. (Edit: The link was also wrong :D )

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@OverDevices - A couple quick questions in case you might want to answer them here or elsewhere (neat project btw, very compact with a lot of functionality!):

First, in your description about the audio and SATA connector:

USB 2.0 4-port hub with two physical ports, USB Audio IC with Line-out and Mic-in, and a USB SATA controller for HDD/SSD storage. I've kept the PCI-Express lane clear to the slot for full performance expansion cards and offer the additional functionality using the USB 2.0 bus which gives minimal functionality without compromising expandability.

It seems the way it's implemented the SATA connection will be not only shared with the external USB 2.0 ports (and audio), but will be limited to a maximum of 480 Mbps (~60 MB/sec), which seems pretty slow.

Is there any possibility this could be changed up to use a PCIe switch instead, with a faster PCIe SATA adapter chip that would allow for speeds of up to 400 MB/sec (obviously shared with any other PCIe devices a user chooses to install)?

That would make the board alone a lot more functional, and solve one of the primary use cases—a Pi with a built-in fast hard drive solution without making the user buy an addon PCIe card.

Raspberry Pi 4 Compute Module not included with Over:Board as you may already have one and they are readily available from online retailers

Heh... "readily available" probably won't be true for many of the models of CM4 for a few months yet!

Final question: do you plan on releasing anything under something like the Open Hardware License? Or will the board design be proprietary (not that it detracts from the elegance of the layout!

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@BMicraft Apologies, the link I pasted must have been just for me when logged in (my first Indiegogo!), thanks for pointing it out and getting it fixed

@geerlingguy Thanks for the support! It's been a labour of love for a few months now. To answer your questions...

USB SATA - there are a few reasons for this decision, not the least of which is cost...I want to keep the cost of the board to a reasonable minimum to make it available for all. Secondly, the Raspberry Pi 4 supports booting from USB and as you have experienced yourself it is a bit hit and miss which PCI-E controllers/switches are compatible. I wouldn't want to make a board that appears to work ok initially but it turns out has compatibility issues further down the line once we know more about what the Pi 4 CM can and can't actually do. Lastly, as mentioned I wanted to keep the fairly limited PCI-E bandwidth untouched for maximum performance and compatibility for add-ons, whereas the USB 2.0 is generally only used for low-speed devices and compatibility is high.

Readily available - in the UK it is possible to get CM4s from online retailers, the 4Gb RAM models are currently out of stock but we are promised availability within a few weeks from now. So hopefully by the time I can get boards out to people they will all be fully stocked...globally!

Open Hardware License - I am a massive fan, user and contributor to the Open Source community and I would love to make this openly available at some point in the future. I've put a lot of time and effort into it so far and it will take quite a lot more work to make it fully commercially available, so once I've recouped the cost of that this is definitely something I would look to do. Hopefully by then I can have Version 2.0 on the bench!

Generally speaking I've tried to keep things a simple as possible whilst offering as much functionality as is feasible, I'd love this to be a viable product spawning multiple generations of Over:Boards with ever increasing capabilities. I need to get the baseline product right and then we can move on from there with a whole host of onboard controllers, slots and connectors with the community-led driver and software support to go with them. The work you guys are doing here is definitely going to help with that journey!

Thanks guys

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@harlab - Wow, that's tiny! Nice work, and I'm definitely interested in seeing what kind of things people can do with it.

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@harlab let us know when and where would be available. Looking forward for it.

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@OverDevices appreciate the goal

USB SATA - there are a few reasons for this decision, not the least of which is cost...I want to keep the cost of the board to a reasonable minimum to make it available for all.

On Indiegogo you mentioned a final price of ~ 120 Euro. Which honestly I find a bit concerning because the board plus CM4 (45 -100 Euro) will compete with Celeron J1900 to J4125 based ITX boards in the 60-100 Euro range plus RAM (15-30 Euro) that offer 4 or more SATA ports

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@OverDevices appreciate the goal

USB SATA - there are a few reasons for this decision, not the least of which is cost...I want to keep the cost of the board to a reasonable minimum to make it available for all.

On Indiegogo you mentioned a final price of ~ 120 Euro. Which honestly I find a bit concerning because the board plus CM4 (45 -100 Euro) will compete with Celeron J1900 to J4125 based ITX boards in the 60-100 Euro range plus RAM (15-30 Euro) that offer 4 or more SATA ports

In general it is always going to be very difficult/impossible to compete on price with mass produced products. The economies of scale when you are producing millions of a product are significant, so a small run item (like pretty much any of the available add-ons for the Raspberry Pi) has very little chance of being cheaper at comparable specifications.

If you just want the cheapest option something like the Celeron or even just a normal Pi with USB adapters (or a CM4/CMIO with an off the shelf SATA PCIe card) are probably the best option.

However the big advantage you get with CM4 is the flexibility. While a standard Pi or alternative such as an ITX board may be cheaper you have to live with whatever they give you - no way to change the size/shape, add or remove features, etc. You do pay for that. For example a standard Pi 4 is $35 and there are only a couple of lower spec (only 1GB RAM and/or no WiFi) that are slightly cheaper. Adding on the cost of the board you mount the CM4 on (which for all but one of the cheaper options would need a SD slot or equivalent) is pretty much definitely going to come out at more than the cost of a standard Pi.

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@stuart-c the board is targeting a specific use case (i.e. NAS).
First the required features must exist (4 SATA ports), only second flexibility comes into play, third decision point is the price difference of alternatives.

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@stuart-c the board is targeting a specific use case (i.e. NAS).
First the required features must exist (4 SATA ports), only second flexibility comes into play, third decision point is the price difference of alternatives.

I don't see anything on the Indiegogo page saying it is specifically for a NAS use case. It seems to be targeting more general desktop usage (fitting in with a standard desktop sizing). While it can be used as a NAS it does have several features you probably don't need (dual HDMI, audio, RS232), and a single SATA port is sufficient for a basic NAS. You could add additional storage via the PCIe slot (SATA adapters, RAID cards, NVMe adapters).

One thing to be cautions of with regards to the Pi/CM4 for heavy NAS usage is the limited interface speed for storage. The "best" interface would be the PCIe slot connected to an NVMe drive or SATA card, but even with just that single drive the speed is going to be lower than you could get from a mass produced ITX motherboard (as you only have a single x1 lane). Trying to have multiple drives is just going to divide that speed further (unless the only reason for more drives is to allow higher storage density and only one drive is likely to be used at a time).

I think the Pi/CM4 for NAS realistically is limited to a single drive mass storage but lower speed use case - so backups, audio storage, maybe some video (but probably not lots of simultaneous high quality playout streams from disk). Personally for dedicated NAS usage I'd want a board which just has a single NVMe slot (mainly because that would be cheaper than a SATA port), network (maybe with POE) and power input. I probably wouldn't want HDMI ports and maybe no USB either (or maybe a single USB2 port). That would probably be the lowest cost and smallest NAS board option.

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Here is a pretty good looking one that I found over the weekend. My only wish/complaint was to get all the standard I/0 on one edge, so people can make a nice looking mini desktop or server.

https://forum.seeedstudio.com/t/design-of-carrier-board-for-raspberry-pi-com4/254797

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https://www.waveshare.com/compute-module-4-poe-board.htm

Costs $46.99, includes 4 USB 3.2 Gen1 Ports, and has a few other niceties like a color-coded GPIO header.

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For reference; two videos I've done relating to projects in this thread:

• 10 Exciting Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 Boards
• 7 New Raspberry Pi CM4 Boards for 2021!

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You would need to connect a USB 3 chip to the PCIe port of the CM4 that supports device mode. Unfortunately any form of USB3 chips seem to be quite hard to get hold of (both supply and documentation) unless you are a major manufacturer. Also most such chips are generally focussed on implementing host mode.

If you are asking about the Pi4 rather than the CM4 then it isn't possible. The USB3 ports are host mode only. Only the USB2 port supports device mode.

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That MCU zone board looks like it fills a need I have for simple power via USB C (hopefully pd, or at least high current capable) and the minipcie slot - wish I was more capable of following translation or working out if there were similar boards for sale somewhere.

Thanks for this list!

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I see a lot of talented people so here is a free idea - Argon One V2 compatible board for CM4. The base requirements can be:

• compatible with the cooling "pillars" in the case
• Include M.2 SATA drive. 80 mm will not fit but 20 or 40 mm should be ok as the board will not lose space for the bulki connecters in the middle.
• POE compatibility
• the GPIO ports are optional ;)

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Hi, I made this simple board (design is here) and I have some more designs in PCB fab 🙂

it might be more minimalistic to make it like the CM4lite above, with the CM4 on one side and the ports on the other side. I designed something but it’s not complete, the size is exactly like CM4 so you can overlap them completely.

@dronecz

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@gabyavra something like this? https://twitter.com/dronecz/status/1333930283192770560?s=20

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@gabyavra something like this? https://twitter.com/dronecz/status/1333930283192770560?s=20

Oh yes! @dronecz

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I see a lot of talented people so here is a free idea - Argon One V2 compatible board for CM4. The base requirements can be:

I think the Argon one case is a bad fit, because it was designed around the need for the breakout board to get all the I/O ports on the back. I think a properly designed carrier board could be made smaller.

I've been messing with cad for over 20 years, and could do any of mechanical design needed for a carrier board or a case. what I don't have the skill set to do, is the electrical/pcb design. I know just enough to know that i don't know enough to do it right. For example, getting the traces all the right length with the right spacing etc.

Here is a case I designed to mount a Zero W to an HQ camera mount. It could be made even smaller/thinner if it was printed out of PC instead of PLA, as PC is a more robust material.

I wrote A custom python app for it as well. It can stream the maximum resolution h264 the encoder supports, to multiple clients simultaneously (even on a Pi Zero). It's only limited by the I/0 ability of the Pi, and your network connection. Just for fun I added focus peaking into the interface using webgl.

https://github.com/dans98/pi-h264-to-browser

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That design looks GREAT!

It does have a heatsink, right?

I would like to see more info about it.

Can you give us a link?

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That design looks GREAT!

It does have a heatsink, right?

I would like to see more info about it.

Can you give us a link?

Yeah it has a heat sink, a fairly large one in fact. You can find all the information you need referenced on my personal blog post about it. Fusion 360 archive files, Stl files, and even links to the screws and heat sink.

https://www.dans-hobbies.com/2020/12/31/a-raspberry-pi-zero-w-and-hq-camera-case/

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Seen on Twitter from @cibomahto (cc @cibomahto), of Blinkinlabs, the Raspberry Router:

Looks sharp, and uses a KSZ9897 switch, and a LAN7431 PCIe-to-Ethernet adapter.

Unlike an Intel i340 or i350, you wouldn't be able to pipe through a full 1 Gbps on every port simultaneously through the Pi, since it's using a PCI-E to Ethernet bridge that's limited to 1 Gbps...

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And for those looking for a heat sink, the 12mm Aluminum Alloy Heatsink (C235) for Raspberry Pi CM4, for $7.99 on Geekworm:

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Unlike an Intel i340 or i350, you wouldn't be able to pipe through a full 1 Gbps on every port simultaneously through the Pi, since it's using a PCI-E to Ethernet bridge that's limited to 1 Gbps...

Thanks for listing it :-). I used the fastest bridge/switch that I could find that's on the public market, Intel/Marvell/Broadcom seem to require NDAs or business agreements for their fancy parts. My biggest concern is how well the processor in the CM4 will handle the firewall/NAT translation duties, since it will have to happen in software.

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Unlike an Intel i340 or i350, you wouldn't be able to pipe through a full 1 Gbps on every port simultaneously through the Pi, since it's using a PCI-E to Ethernet bridge that's limited to 1 Gbps...

Thanks for listing it :-). I used the fastest bridge/switch that I could find that's on the public market, Intel/Marvell/Broadcom seem to require NDAs or business agreements for their fancy parts. My biggest concern is how well the processor in the CM4 will handle the firewall/NAT translation duties, since it will have to happen in software.

Great design! I'm actually working on my own router with LAN7431 too; though I have not started any PCB design yet as I am still working on the software part - to bring up LAN7431 (and LAN7430), as well as evaluating the performance.

I've made it work on 64-bit Ubuntu Server 20.10 simply by enabling the kernel's lan743x driver as it. However, make sure including this commit; otherwise, it may crash when accessing the interface before the physical link is up.

The performance seems very satisfying. It could reach 900+ Mbps in simple NAT with VLAN cases. (PC1 -> RPi -> LAN7430/1 -> simulated External network). However, if using the Pi as an OpenVPN gateway, it could only reach ~60Mbps. (I messed up my routing table).

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Unlike an Intel i340 or i350, you wouldn't be able to pipe through a full 1 Gbps on every port simultaneously through the Pi, since it's using a PCI-E to Ethernet bridge that's limited to 1 Gbps...

Thanks for listing it :-). I used the fastest bridge/switch that I could find that's on the public market, Intel/Marvell/Broadcom seem to require NDAs or business agreements for their fancy parts. My biggest concern is how well the processor in the CM4 will handle the firewall/NAT translation duties, since it will have to happen in software.

Great design! I'm actually working on my own router with LAN7431 too; though I have not started any PCB design yet as I am still working on the software part - to bring up LAN7431 (and LAN7430), as well as evaluating the performance.

I've made it work on 64-bit Ubuntu Server 20.10 simply by enabling the kernel's lan743x driver as it. However, make sure including this commit; otherwise, it may crash when accessing the interface before the physical link is up.

The performance seems very satisfying. It could reach 900+ Mbps in simple NAT with VLAN cases. (PC1 -> RPi -> LAN7430/1 -> simulated External network). However, if using the Pi as an OpenVPN gateway, it could only reach ~60Mbps.

Oh, that's great (and probably a smarter way to go about things). Hopefully WireGuard performance is a little better. If you're interested (and assuming my hardware works, and shipping isn't too crazy), I'd be happy to send at least a bare PCB your way for testing.

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and assuming my hardware works

Hehe, hopefully that statement doesn't come back to bite you! It looks great though. Anyways, to shed more light on @0dvictor and @cibomahto 's speculation—it does seem that the CPU constraints are fairly severe with the BCM2711, and a lot of little things that would help make certain network chipsets faster seem to not work on the current generation Pi, sometimes for reasons beyond my understanding :)

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Oh, that's great.

Sorry that I messed up my routing table so the early results were incorrect... After fixing, I found the actual speed for NAT isn't that optimal - iperf3 showed 650+Mbps in unidirectional mode, but only 500+Mbps TX and 250+Mbps RX in bidirectional mode. I put a set of typical data here.

If you're interested (and assuming my hardware works, and shipping isn't too crazy), I'd be happy to send at least a bare PCB your way for testing.

Thank you for offering and I am absolutely interested; however, I may not be the best person to test/evaluate the board. I'm very new to circuit designs and hence am extremely unconfident with my soldering skills.

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I would love to see some CM4-boards with the ability to connect actually two PCI-E / M.2 devices to it. It would be possible by using a PCI-E Packet Switch IC like the PI7C9X2G304SV.

This would open up a huge load of possibilities which i guess lots of people could like, as they could build nice external hardware on it. E.g. having a M.2 SSD + a decent mPCI-E (ath9k) Wifi or WWAN Card or Deep Learning Inference Cards like Google Coral.

Did someone of you ever saw something like this or a adapter to enable this?

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What would be the use case for attaching a PCIe WiFi card instead of using the onboard WiFi option on the CM4?

M.2 does support other connection types as well as PCIe (USB 2 & 3, SATA and others) so some types of device could be more tricky. Equally some devices might only use USB 2 (maybe a 3G/4G card) which might be fairly easy to support.

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What would be the use case for attaching a PCIe WiFi card instead of using the onboard WiFi option on the CM4?

There are pretty nice ath9k wifi cards which have a complete open source driverstack and offer a very high output power which enables a very long range data transmission (e.g. https://mikrotik.com/product/R11e-2HPnD). A concrete usecase are RC Hobbyists which build very nice long range datalinks using open wifi drivers, and they are desperately in search for possibilites to use nice wifi cards (e.g. https://github.com/OpenHD/Open.HD/wiki/Hardware-~-Supported-WiFi-adapters, or my [shamelessly plugged] project www.searchwing.org) . There is no board with mini-pcie available yet. Also the OpenWRT router-people like the openness of athXk cards.

M.2 does support other connection types as well as PCIe (USB 2 & 3, SATA and others) so some types of device could be more tricky. Equally some devices might only use USB 2 (maybe a 3G/4G card) which might be fairly easy to support.

Okay , true thats sad. So for the M.2 slot the multiplexed PCIe + USB2 would be useful.

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The WiFi on the CM4 does offer a U.FL connector to allow an external antenna to be connected. You'd be able to add an amplifier that way too. However using anything other than the RPi antenna kit wouldn't be a certified solution and therefore (especially if using a high gain antenna or amplifier) is likely to break local wireless regulations.

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i'm trying to find a board that offers usb pd passthrough, and usb 2.0 connection with mini pcie slot for a 60ghz wifi card for wireless quest (or other such headsets) but i would settle for at least usb a and minipcie for the 60ghz card...

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@rdpeake and @stuart-c - We're getting a bit off-topic here (this is to document neat projects—other conversations would be better over in the discussion tab)... but you can also get waaaay faster WiFi using a PCIe card—see my tests with the AX200 on https://pipci.jeffgeerling.com

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Waveshare made a carrier board (visually) based on the official IO board, it has PoE, 4x USB 3.2 gen 1 and a couple other extra's.
Link to the Waveshare board page

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@ArthurVnL - Apparently this issue is getting a bit too long; that board was already mentioned earlier (in the folded section of comments): #25 (comment)

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Just found this cool looking NAS board for the CM4 on reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/l79lh4/raspberry_pi_compute_module_4_sata_x4_carrier/
https://wiretrustee.com/

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This seems a decent use for github discussions? Though I do like having this as gh issues so i can view from the terminal...

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@dmitriarekhta - Check out https://pipci.jeffgeerling.com/cards_network/syba-dual-25gbe-pcie-nic.html — I've been doing a bit of testing with a dual-2.5GbE card and also documenting performance characteristics.

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Just a heads up—I'm going to be creating a new section on the PCIe database site for 'CM4 boards', so I can better document/catalog all these amazing projects (and a few more that I'm privy to but sadly can't share yet...). I'll hopefully be moving many of the boards mentioned in this issue into that new section of the site in the coming weeks.

It'll also make it easier for me to track which of these boards are commercially available, since I know a lot of people really want to buy some of them, but many are being built as a one-off or with an open source hardware license, and being able to see that at a glance would be very handy.

Follow issue #78 for progress there!

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Alrighty then. That was a fair bit of work, but I think I've cataloged every card from this issue on the site at this point in the PR #82

I will merge that, and there will be a new section on the site: https://pipci.jeffgeerling.com/boards_cm

For any future passers-by, please open a new issue for any new boards you'd like to highlight, and feel free to follow the template style of one of the existing boards to place the board on the site in a PR too. I like having more detail in the GitHub issue so I can link back to it in case people want to discuss it more.

Also note that I will not put any board into the top 'production' category until it is able to be purchased and shipped. No prototypes, no 'it is already being produced'—if I can't order it, it ain't going up there.

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@starchivore - This issue has been closed in favor of opening a new issue per design (so I can aggregate them all on the site here: https://pipci.jeffgeerling.com/boards_cm — can you add that as a new separate issue? Looks interesting!

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@geerlingguy the scalenode blade has been getting some updates to it recently https://github.com/antmicro/scalenode/tree/develop looks pretty interesting.

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@warmwaffles - I added the Scalenode here: #119 — please feel free to add anything that's missing in that issue or if you want a PR to improve the page on the site!

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Just wanted to note the Retro Lite CM4 is nearing completion:

Is this open source ???

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Live site page for the MCUzone CM4 4G board: https://pipci.jeffgeerling.com/boards_cm/mcuzone-cm4-4g.html

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PCIe would allow us to push ~4Gbps throughput. I also do believe that SoC is powerful enough to make it happen. We just need the right software, i.e XDP+eBPF. I will try to work on OpenWRT and Polycube (https://github.com/polycube-network/polycube) integration to make it happen.

Has there been any movement on getting Polycube running on CM4? I asked because I have been able to successfully build polycube, but when attempting to run polycubed - the process does nothing but consume 100% of one core. It never gets to the point of listening on localhost:9000

Here's my write-up: https://tinycomputers.io/posts/polycube-network-on-arm-hardware-WIP.html

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Hey guys very interesting discussion here.

Iam looking for an electronics engineer for a custom pcb layout for raspberry cm4 module. it involves:

-poe
-cam port
-gpio hat including google coral tpu, bme280, gy-511
-some kind of cpu fan

If someone is interested in that freelancer job, please contact me:

[email protected]

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