Feature-rich Raspberry Pi CM5 carrier board offers dual Ethernet, quad RS485, 4G LTE/5G connectivity, and more

Waveshare CM5-ETH-RS485-4G-BASE

Waveshare CM5-ETH-RS485-4G-BASE Raspberry Pi CM5 carrier board offers plenty of features such as GbE and 2.5GbE RJ45 jacks, optional 4G LTE/5G connectivity, terminal blocks for RS485, relay, and digital outputs, and more. The board also features a 4K-capable HDMI output, an M.2 Key-M socket for an NVMe SSD or AI accelerator, two MIPI DSI/CSI connectors, ten status and user LEDs, and a wide 7-36V DC power input. Waveshare CM5-ETH-RS485-4G-BASE specifications: Supported system-on-modules – All Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 variants with up to 16GB RAM, 64GB eMMC flash, Wireless Storage Optional NVMe SSD via M.2 Key-M socket MicroSD card socket for Compute Module 5 Lite only Video Output HDMI 2.0 port up to 4K resolution 2x MIPI DSI connectors (multiplexed with MIPI CSI) Camera I/F – 2x MIPI CSI connectors (multiplexed with MIPI DSI) Networking Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port 2.5GbE RJ45 port Optional WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.2 on Raspberry […]

SupTronics X1208 – A UPS + M.2 NVMe SSD HAT for the Raspberry Pi 5

SupTronics X1208 Raspberry Pi 5 UPS + M.2 HAT

The SupTronics X1208 is a UPS and M.2 NVMe SSD HAT for Raspberry Pi 5 designed to offer fast storage and protect the system against data loss during power outages for Edge Computing, NAS, data logging, and other always-on applications. The HAT draws up to 5V/5A from the USB-C port, which charges a 21700 lithium-ion battery (1.5A) and powers the Raspberry Pi 5 directly through the 40-pin GPIO header, eliminating the need for extra cables. It also features an M.2 M-key NVMe slot supporting 2230/2242/2280 SSDs up to 4TB with PCIe 2.0/3.0 speeds. The UPS supports power switching, auto power-on, safe shutdown on low battery, and GPIO-based power/charging control, along with power loss detection. The X1208 board is also equipped with a Maxim fuel gauge I2C chip for battery voltage and capacity monitoring. SupTronics X1208 UPS + M.2 HAT specifications: Compatibility – Raspberry Pi 5 Model B Storage – M.2 M-key […]

TerraMaster F2-425 Plus 3+2-bay hybrid NAS review – Part 1: unboxing, teardown, drives installation, and first boot

TerrasMaster F2-425 Plus Review TOS initialization

TerraMaster has sent us a sample of the F2-425 Plus 3+2-bay NAS for review. It’s powered by an Intel Processor N150 CPU paired with 8GB of RAM, with two 3.5-inch SATA bays and three M.2 NVMe sockets for storage, as well as two 5GbE RJ45 jacks, and a few USB ports. Since we’ve already written the specifications in the previous article, we’ll focus the first part of the review on an unboxing and a teardown to check out the hardware design, before showing how to install the drives, and giving it a quick first try. TerraMaster F2-425 Plus NAS unboxing We received the F2-425 Plus “All new 2-Bay Hybrid NAS” in its retail package. UPS took nearly two months to deliver it from Hong Kong to Thailand, mostly due to customs issues, but I digress. The package includes an accessories box with a Quick Installation Guide, a Limited Warranty brochure, […]

TerraMaster D1 SSD Pro – A Thunderbolt 5 fanless SSD enclosure with 80Gbps bandwidth, 7GB/s practical performance

TerraMaster D1 SSD Pro connected to MAC Mini

TerraMaster has recently launched the D1 SSD Pro Thunderbolt 5 fanless enclosure, an update to the previous Thunderbolt 4-based TerraMaster D1 SSD Plus. The new version features an 80Gbps Thunderbolt 5 port, supports M.2 2280 NVMe SSDs with up to 8TB capacity, and has been tested at up to 7,061MB/s read and 6,816MB/s write speeds, nearly doubling Thunderbolt 4 performance. The enclosure uses a fanless, CNC-machined aluminum design that enables silent operation through passive heat dissipation. It also features smart LED indicators for connection speed, and offers compatibility with Thunderbolt 5/4/3, USB4, and USB 3.2 across Windows, macOS, and Linux, including boot support on macOS. With various protection features (short-circuit, surge, ESD) and a compact, rugged design, it is suited for 8K/4K video editors, power MacBook users, gamers who need real-time editing, ultra-fast transfers, and reliable external boot or workspace storage. TerraMaster D1 SSD Pro specifications Performance (claimed) – Up […]

UP Squared Pro TWL AI Dev Kit Review – Intel N150 + Hailo-8L accelerator tested on Ubuntu 24.04

Intel N150 SBC Hailo-8L module with Heatsink

I’ve been asked to review three Intel-based UP AI development kits running Ubuntu 24.04 Pro. Last time, I tested the UP TWL SBC with Nx Meta and UP AI Toolkit, and most AI workloads would pass, but since these were running on the Intel N150 CPU or GPU, the performance was not optimal for most. I’ll now switch to the UP Squared Pro TWL “mid-range” AI devkit review with another Intel Processor N150 SBC fitted with a 13 TOPS Hailo-8L M.2 AI accelerator. Both the UP TWL and UP Squared Pro TWL come with a 64GB eMMC flash, and I found out it was rather tight since AI software and models can take a lot of space. The UP Squared Pro TWL has a few M.2 sockets, so I’ll install an NVMe SSD to expand storage before installing the UP AI toolkit. As usual, I’ll run a few benchmarks and […]

Waveshare’s updated Raspberry Pi 5 dual micro HDMI to HDMI adapter adds NVMe storage support

Raspberry Pi 5 PCIe To M.2 Multifunctional Adapter

Waveshare has recently released the Pi5 Connector Adapter (C), an upgraded version of its earlier Pi5 Connector Adapter, adding support for M.2 NVMe SSDs and enabling direct OS booting from an SSD. The board connects to the Raspberry Pi 5 via its 16-pin PCIe interface and supports M.2 NVMe SSDs in 2230/2242 sizes with PCIe Gen2/Gen3 speeds. It also converts the Pi’s micro HDMI ports into full-size HDMI connectors and brings all ports on one side next to the USB and Ethernet ports of the SBC. It offers two methods for power: a USB-C input or a screw-terminal supply. Pi5 Connector Adapter (C) specifications: Supported SBC – Raspberry Pi 5 (it can support the Raspberry Pi 4B too, but the SSD functionality will not work) Storage – M.2 M-key 2230 / 2242 socket for NVMe SSD (support direct OS boot) Display – 2x HDMI outputs via 2x micro HDMI input […]

Raspberry Pi 500+ mechanical keyboard PC review with Raspberry Pi OS “Trixie”

Raspberry Pi 500+ mechanical keyboard PC review

Today, we’ll review the Raspberry Pi 500+ mechanical keyboard PC using the recently released Raspberry Pi OS “Trixie” based on Debian 13.  It’s quite similar to the earlier Raspberry Pi 500 keyboard PC, but comes with more memory (16GB vs 8GB), a 256GB NVMe SSD, and a proper mechanical keyboard with replaceable caps and RGB LED lighting, so we’ll focus on these aspects during our tests, after going through the usual unboxing and teardown process. Raspberry Pi 500+ unboxing We received an early prototype of the Raspberry Pi 500+ keyboard PC with a UK layout, white design in a retail package. The bottom side of the package includes a list of features and confirmation that it’s indeed a UK layout keyboard. Not ideal for Thai users (we usually rely on the US layout), but that was probably the only layout available when Raspberry Pi sent us a sample in mid-September. […]

Radxa Orion O6N – A smaller, cheaper 12-core Armv9 Nano-ITX SBC based on CIX P1 (CD8160) SoC

Orion O6N Nano-ITX SBC

Radxa Orion O6N is a Nano-ITX SBC powered by CIX P1 (CD8160 variant) 12-core Cortex-A720/A50 processor with a 30/45 TOPS AI accelerator, up to 64GB LPDDR5, support for UFS and M.2 NVMe storage, and plenty of interfaces. It’s a smaller and cheaper version of the Orion O6 mini-ITX motherboard introduced at the end of last year. It offers most of the same features, but is equipped with a CD8160 SoC instead of a CD8180 with a slightly lower CPU frequency for the Cortex-A720 big cores (2.6 vs 2.8 GHz), more storage options, fewer display interfaces, no dedicated audio port, 2.5GbE networking instead of 5GbE, and a few other differences you can see in the specifications below. Radxa Orion O6N specifications (highlights in bold and strikethrough show differences against Orion O6): SoC – Cix P1 (Codename: CD8160) 12-core DynamIQ processor 4x Cortex‑A720 big cores @ up to 2.6 GHz 4x Cortex‑A720 […]

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