Raspberry Pi CM4 carriers boast dual LAN ports

Seeed and Mcuzone have launched compact Raspberry Pi CM4-based carrier boards for $45 and $109, respectively. The Seeed board features dual GbE ports and the Mcuzone entry has GbE and 10/100 ports plus 4G LTE.

As promised last October, Seeed Studio has launched a carrier board for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4. Seeed’s Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board for Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 is much smaller and simpler than the render shown in October and offers dual Gigabit Ethernet ports.

Seeed’s Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board (left) and Mcuzone Raspberry Pi CM4-4G IO
(click images to enlarge)
The CNXSoft post that alerted us to the Seeed launch also covers a CM4 carrier from Hangzhou WildChip under its Mcuzone brand with 10/100/1000Mbps and 10/100Mbps LAN ports. The Raspberry Pi CM4-4G IO board adds a mini-PCIe-based 4G LTE module. Like the Seeed carrier, the Mcuzone board is designed primarily for “soft router” applications.

These are the first RPi CM4 carriers we have seen with dual Ethernet ports. Yesterday, OnLogic previewed an unnamed CM4-based mini-PC that will offer dual GbE when it ships later this year.

The Raspberry Pi CM4 has the same Broadcom BCM2711 SoC with 4x 1.5GHz Cortex-A72 cores used by the Raspberry Pi 4. The CM4 ships with 2GB to 8GB LPDDR4-3200 RAM and 0GB to 32GB eMMC. The Seeed and Mcuzone boards both support models with built-in WiFi/BT. (See farther below for links to other CM4 carriers.)

Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board

Seeed’s Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board for Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 is on pre-order for $45 without the CM4, with shipments due April 15. To order it with a CM4, add $25 to $50 (see pricing at end).

Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board, front and back
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The 75 x 64 x 21mm carrier uses Microchip’s LAN7800 USB-to-GbE bridge to drive one of the 2x Gigabit Ethernet ports. You also get 2x USB 3.0 ports and a USB 3.0 header.

The Seeed carrier is further equipped with a micro-HDMI port, microSD slot, and MIPI-DSI and -CSI interfaces. There are also fan and debug headers and an FPC connector for I2C and SPI.

The 43-gram board has a USB Type-C board for 5V/3A power and a reset button and supports -40 to 85°C temperatures. It is unclear if the board can be used as a customization template for the Seeed Fusion PCB Assembly Service, which recently added CM4 support.

Raspberry Pi CM4-4G IO

The Mcuzone branded Raspberry Pi CM4-4G IO comes from Hangzhou Wild Chip Tech, which has previously launched a Rockchip RK3308 based Mcuzone MDK3308 Coreboard module and MDK3308-EK dev kit. The CM4-4G carrier runs from $109 to $129 depending on your choice of three mini-PCIe-based, Mcuzone-branded, Huawei 4G LTE modems for China/Asia-Pacific (data only or data/voice) or Russia/Mid-East/EU (data only).

Raspberry Pi CM4-4G IO (left) and metal case version with dual antennas
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The Raspberry Pi CM4-4G IO carrier, which appears to be roughly the size of a Raspberry Pi SBC, is equipped with a native GbE port and a 10/100 Ethernet port driven by USB. Other coastline ports include 2x USB 2.0, USB Type-C for 5V power, and HDMI with 4K support.

Raspberry Pi CM4-4G IO detail view
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The carrier board provides a microSD slot plus 16-pin GPIO and single USB OTG, I2C, UART, ADC, and SPI headers. A “voice function” interface is optional. The 4G modem is supported with a SIM card slot and serial debug and reset headers. There is also a PMIC and CM4 reset GPIO.

A metal case option for $12 includes a single 4G antenna. We did not see pricing for the options with dual 4G antennas or single 4G and WiFi antennas.

Other CM4 carriers

Other RPi CM4 carriers with M.2 or mini-PCIe include Altium’s Gumstix Raspberry Pi CM4 Development Board and an upcoming Piunora carrier. There is also a $134 Over:Board Mini-ITX carrier that offers a full-size PCIe card.

Most of the other CM4 carriers lack PCIe expansion. These include Sourcekit’s $14.50 PiTray mini, as well as other Gumstix carriers, including a Gumstix Raspberry Pi CM4 PoE Smart Camera board. There is also an upcoming Wiretrustee SATA Board for Raspberry Pi CM4 carrier. A CM Hunter board with isolated RS485/Modbus, 1-Wire, and CAN, may or may not reach its Kickstarer funding goal.

Further information

Seeed’s Dual Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Board for Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 is on pre-order for $45 without the CM4, with shipments due April 15. To order it with a CM4, add $25 (1GB RAM), $40 (2GB RAM/8GB eMMC with WiFi BT), or $50 (2GB/32GB with WiFi/BT). More information may be found on Seeed’s shopping page.

The Mcuzone Raspberry Pi CM4-4G IO from Hangzhou Wild Chip Tech ranges from $109 to $129 depending on the type of 4G modem chosen plus an additional $12 for the case and possibly an additional fee for a second antenna. More information may be found on the Mcuzone shopping page on AliExpress.