The Raspberry Pi compute module is a powerful piece of hardware, especially for the price. With it, you get more IO than a normal Pi, plus the ability to design hardware around it that’s specifically tailored to your needs rather than simply to general-purpose consumers. However, this comes at the cost of needing a way to interface with it since the compute module doesn’t have the normal IO pins or ports, but [Timon] has come up with a handy development board for this module called the Piunora which solves a lot of these prototyping issues.
The development board expands the compute module to the familiar Arduino-like form factor, complete with IO headers, USB ports, and HDMI output. It doesn’t stop there, though. It has an M.2 connector, some built-in LEDs, a camera connector, and a few other features. It also opens up some other possibilities that would be difficult or impossible with a standard Pi 4, such as the ability to run the Pi as a USB gadget rather than as a host device which simplifies certain types of development, which is [Timon]’s intended function.
As a development board, this project has a lot of potential for the niche uses of the compute module when compared to the standard Raspberry Pi. For embedded applications it’s much easier to deploy, with the increased development costs as a tradeoff. If you’re still unsure what to do with the compute module 4, we have some reading for you. And Timon’s previous project is a great springboard.
This is the first time I have a sense of the size of the CM, even without a banana for scale. Thanks for that.
Where do I send my money
Answered my own question:
“Because many are asking. Yes you will be able to buy this. Not ETA as of yet but I’m already talking to distributors.”
Right here, to me. You won’t get anything, but you can send it to me.
The compute module HAS normal (3.3V TTL) I/O pins and ports. What it lacks is a hacker-friendly CONNECTOR (understand a connector with a 0.1″ header)
One thing that I miss due to the form factor of the i/o pcb is a dedicated Ethernet port although If one of the usb c ports were to support data instead of just power an adapter would be a quick fix.
Next up: 555 timer in Arduino form-factor. Perfect for blinking LEDs.
It’s not even April 1st.
Try “Arduino in 555 timer form-factor” and you have an article on using DIP-8 AVRs. Piunora opens up both the 3v3 on 0.1″ pitch and USB world of MCUs or a non-CM pi, and PCIe from the compute module, with better power handling, full-size HDMI again, quiic, an ADC… and isn’t terribly constrained by its contortions to nab a few buzzwords. “Arduino” in the headline grabs readers, buyers, and donors.
> It also opens up some other possibilities that would be difficult or impossible with a standard Pi 4, such as the ability to run the Pi as a USB gadget rather than as a host device which simplifies certain types of development
Plugging a USB-C cable into the Pi 4 USB-C socket is difficult/impossible? Okay…
Okay so I actually bothered to read the documentation, and the power connector on the RasPI 4 is USB-C, but it does not have USB signals and cannot function as a USB port.
What documentation did you read? There are absolutely USB signals run to the USB-C port on the Pi 4. https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/usb/README.md#overview_pi4
“The OTG hardware is intended to be used in device-only mode on Pi 4.”
So it’s Not a full- function USB port and No, you can’t just plug in a USB cable and use it in gadget mode.
The Pi Zero and Pi 4B can both be used in USB Gadget mode via either the USB Data port on the Zero, or the USB Type C power port on the Pi 4B. The issue with the 4B is more whether a connected device can deliver enough power. A number of people use Pi 4Bs with iPad Pros over USB Type C in Gadget mode, and Jeff Geerling recently posted about using a Pi Zero or a Pi 4B in USB Gadget mode as a web cam.
I think you misunderstood what “device-only mode” for the OTG hardware is.
Specifically, that means it can only be used for gadget purposes and not as a host port – the exact opposite of what you assumed it meant.
No. It is a full USB port. The only reason it says “intended to be used in device-only mode” is because it lacks the OTG ID signalling pin so it can’t auto switch between host and device mode. They therefore defaulted it to device mode but you can force it into host mode with a setting in config.txt. As pointed out already device mode IS gadget mode.
On the Pi3 and newer you can also backfeed power into the normal USB ports. This is how I run a Pi3 A+ to on my Prusa Mini Printer with only a single cable going to the PI. The Prusa Mini backfeeds power down the USB cable to power the PI, and the PI sends the data from octoprint to the printer. Nice clean tidy solution.
So does the B-Key M.2 socket support a NVMe PCIe SSD, and can we boot off of it? Is it correct to assume that since the M.2 socket is B-Keyed and not B+M-Keyed we can still plug in a B+M SSD but we will only get PCIeX2, not PCIeX4? I would post this on the Twitter thread but I do use Twitter any more because they no longer support Free Speech.
Okay so I actually bothered to read the documentation, and the PCIe port on the RasPi 4 is only a single lane.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-compute-module-4/
Thank you for that. One lane slows things down. I was hoping to get the C4 without the eMMC and use a faster M.2 NVMe SSD. Now I dunno.
At the moment the Pi CM4 doesn’t support boot from connected NVMe storage AIUI – only MicroSD, USB and Ethernet (same as the Pi 4B). So you’d still need to boot from another storage device.
I know it’s been done before but I never really thought that re-using the Arduino form factor for a 3.3v device was the greatest of ideas. Unless maybe the goal is to cause the inexperienced to have to buy their toys twice when they let the smoke out.
I also don’t really get the fascination with RasPi GPIOs. They would be awesome if this was 1995 and the alternative was bit-banging a parallel port on a PC. Given the availability of cheap arduino-compatible devices I’d rather just connect one of those to the Pi. That way the microcontroller can be dedicated to processing it’s IO real-time while the Pi runs a multi-tasking OS.
I’m thinking the perfect accessory would be an Arduino as a Pi hat. It would have the Atmega microcontroller but instead of the usual serial chip just a level shifter wired to one of the Pi’s UARTs. Traces going to all the UARTs with jumpers to select which one would be a nice touch. I guess one of the PI’s GPIOs would also be used. It would toggle the reset pin of the micro.
I bet if I Googled it someone already makes this… meh, maybe later.
Yep . Here is one. https://www.amazon.com/Arduino-Hat-for-Raspberry-Pi/dp/B0778WBGHD
$39.95
+ $22.50 shipping
————————
$62.45
I mean, on the bright side, it DOES exist…
there is a lot of hype on that single lane PCI.. rockpro64 have 4, already exposed. RPI 4 and this shitty cm4 is the most overated piece of hw ever made.
My fantasy Pi5 would be to have a m.2 (at least 2, preferably 4, lanes) on the underside, one full sized HDMI port and the second HDMI as a header replacing the DSI FPC connector (given that practically all screens for the Pi use HDMI, an internal connector would give opportunities for higher resolution screens without having to have adaptors stuck out the side of the Pi).
WHAT are those little black things called that go on the GPIO pins? I need them for a project and I’ve been having a hell of a time finding them.
Nobody want to build a tablet from this module?
With m.2 ssd, etc :)