Waveshare’s “Isolated RS232 / RS485 / CAN / CAN FD Expansion Board For Raspberry Pi” kit transforms your Raspberry Pi 4B or 5 into an industrial computer with a DIN rail or wall mount enclosure.
The solution also provides access to isolated interfaces, including two RS485, RS232, CAN FD, and CAN Bus interfaces, as well as 7-36V DC input through screw terminals. The complete solution also benefits from the Raspberry Pi’s Gigabit Ethernet, four USB ports, and full-size HDMI port (via adapter), as well as support for Raspberry Pi HAT and PCIe expansion boards for NVMe SSD, an additional GbE port, 4G LTE/5G cellular, etc…
Specifications:
- Compatible SBCs – Raspberry Pi 4B and Raspberry Pi 5
- Host interface – SPI + UART
- Isolated industrial interfaces via screw terminals
- 1x CAN FD with 5kbps ~ 8 Mbps baudrate via MCP2518FD + MCP2562FD chips
- 1x CAN Bus with 5kbps ~ 1 Mbps baudrate via MCP2515 + SN65HVD230 chips
- 2x RS485 with 300 bps ~ 921600 bps baudrate via SC16IS752 + SP485 chips
- 1x RS232 with 300 bps ~ 921600 bps baudrate via SP3232EEN chip
- Expansion
- Optional NVMe, Ethernet, USB, 4G/5G through PCIe interface (Raspberry Pi 5 only)
- Raspberry Pi HAT compatibility through 40-pin GPIO header (note: partial due to height restrictions and potential interference with SPI/UART)
- Misc – “Eco-friendly” plastic case with support for wall-mount & rail-mount installation
- Power Supply (one or the other)
- 5V via USB Type-C port on Pi5 Connector Adapter (B)
- 7-36V DC wide voltage input via screw terminals
- Dimensions – 154.6 × 83.7 × 59 mm
- Weight – 323 grams (kit without Raspberry Pi)
Software-wise, the kit is supported by Mike McCauley’s C library for Broadcom BCM2835, the wiringPi library, and various Python packages. You’ll find the schematics (PDF), RS-485 and CAN bus code samples, and instructions to get started on the wiki.
It’s far from the first Raspberry Pi industrial solution, but most are complete Raspberry Pi CM5-based industrial PC or controllers, although there are a few Raspberry Pi 5 industrial computers. The Waveshare kit enables users to convert an existing Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 board with RS232, RS485, and CAN Bus interfaces, a wide input voltage range, and a DIN rail enclosure at a relatively low cost.
Waveshare sells the “Isolated RS232 / RS485 / CAN / CAN FD Expansion Board For Raspberry Pi” kit for about $60 on AliExpress, $68.99 on Amazon, and $54.99 on the company’s online store.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress. We also use affiliate links in articles to earn commissions if you make a purchase after clicking on those links.
A first 10 second glance at the primary buck converter in the schematic shows no external power filtering at all. I bet this product is going to fail horribly on conducted emissions. And, likely, fail radiated emissions as well because of the plastic enclosure. There’s also no mention of any standards. Not surprisingly for that money, don’t expect this “industrial product” to be compliant against any standard (CE, FCC etc.)!