XPU Labs’ Petros CH32H417M Alef is a Raspberry Pi Pico-sized board based on the WCH CH32H417M RISC-V USB 3.0 microcontroller and taking a 2MP OV2640 camera module through the MCU’s digital image interface (DVP).
The board comes with 896KB SRAM and 960KB Flash from the WCH microcontroller, two 20-pin GPIO headers following the Raspberry Pi Pico’s pinout, a 6-pin SWD and UART6 header for debugging, and a Reset button.
Petros CH32H417M Alef specifications:
- MCU – WCH CH32H417MEQ6
- MCU
- QingKe RISC-V5F up to 400 MHz
- QinKe RISC-V3F up to 144 MHz
- GPU – Graphics Processing Hardware Accelerator GPHA
- Memory – 896KB SRAM
- Storage – 960KB Flash
- MCU
- Camera I/F – 40-pin B2B connector with DVP @ 144MHz, SPI, I2C and ADC interfaces for 2MP Phos Ayin OV2640 camera module
- USB – 1x USB 3.0 Type-A port (5Gbps, tested up to 430 MB/s) for data, power, and firmware flashing
- Debugging – 6-pin SWD and UART6 header
- Expansion – 2x 20-pin headers compatible with Raspberry Pi Pico headers
- Misc
- Reset button
- Power LED
- Power Supply
- 5V via USB 3.0 port or pin header
- 3.3V/1A LDO
- Dimensions – 52mm × 21mm
The documentation page mostly comes with hardware information, and the user guide, code samples, documents, and 3D drawing section are only placeholders at this stage. So it’s not ideal for now, and I could not find any video demo, except for a USB 3.0 transfer test (430 MB/s) without the camera module. Hopefully, it will show as a standard USB UVC (USB Video Class) webcam when connected to a host once the code is ready. The SDK for the WCH CH32H417 development board comes with DVP and USB 3.0 code samples for the MounRiver SDK, and I also noticed a USB SS0 (SuperSpeed) UVC DVP sample, which could work on the Petros board, possibly with a few modifications.
Contrary to the Muselab nanoCH32H417 board with USB 3.0 and Fast Ethernet ports (but no DVP camera interface), the Petros CH32H417M Alef lacks an onboard Link-E debugger, and you can add it through the Amnos LinkE Alef debug board, which I assume connects to the SWD/UART6 header.
The CH32V417M USB 3.0 camera board is sold for $12.99 on AnalogLamb. However, that price is only for the RISC-V board, and most people will likely prefer to go with the $19.99 bundle (board + camera module), or the $23.99 bundle adding a debug board.
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.
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