Piunora: Compact and Easy-To-Use Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 for Electronics Prototyping with Linux

Published  April 5, 2021   0
Piunora Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4

Developed by Diodes Delight, Piunora is a compact and easy-to-use development board for electronics prototyping with Linux. This tiny board has a familiar form factor, legible pin labels, and a design that makes it well-suited to be used in space-constrained applications.

The board comes with powerful peripherals for rapid prototyping and embedded machine-learning applications like HDMI port, camera-input connectors, and PCI-e support, which is not present on a standard Raspberry Pi 4. The M.2 B-Key port or the rear of the board is useful for SSD storage and can also host a diverse range of PCI-e expansion boards.

Piunora board is a tiny version of the Raspberry Pi 4 Single Board Computer (SBC) with added flexibility to accommodate custom form factors. The CM4-based device is fully compatible with software that was written for the Raspberry Pi 4, as long as that software accounts for the hardware peripherals in use. The board also comes in additional versions of the CM4 that include eMMC memory, which is more reliable than a traditional SD card.

It is ideal to be used for electronics. It has Qwiic/Stemma-QT-compatible connector that makes it quick and easy to use I²C sensors like Adafruit, SparkFun, and others via Python. There is no soldering or breadboarding required, which makes developing powerful, sensor-based machine-learning applications easy. It also includes an on-board ADC that provides true-analog inputs. The 6 ADC channels are exposed to pin headers and two additional channels are broken out to solder pads on the bottom of the board for when you need that little bit of extra analog. The board also includes two user buttons and an RGB LED for simple status feedback in your applications.

Key Features and Specifications of Piunora

  • Arduino UNO R3 / Adafruit Metro compatible form factor (3.3 V logic, may not be compatible with all Shields)
  • PCI-e through M.2 B-Key connector on the rear of the board with dedicated 3.3 V / 3 A supply
  • Analog to Digital Converter (MCP3008)
  • On-the-fly switching between USB host (USB Type-A) and device mode (USB Type-C)
  • Qwiic/Stemma QT connector to easily interface with I²C devices
  • A full-sized camera connector that supports all Pi-compatible cameras
  • A full-sized HDMI 2.0 port
  • A WS2812 Smart RGB LED for user status
  • Optional Wi-Fi or eMMC options depending on your choice of CM4
  • Slim design with the Piunora Lite measuring 8-12 mm and the Piunora Pro measuring 11-13 mm
  • Two user-controllable buttons (including software that turns one of them into a safe-shutdown button)
  • Piunora is open hardware, and we will publish both our design files and our software by the time it ships