Internal USB ports

uConsole
1

I noticed in the description there are 3 usb ports 1x USB-A and 2 internal USB.

How would I access the internal usb? This is a very interesting device for me provided I could add an internal rtlsdr on one of the usb ports.

I would appreciate any clarification on the internal ports (are they tied up, free, connector type, etc)

2

Look at this illustration

main board has an external USB, an internal USB wired for keyboard then a USB port wired to the EXT expansion port (where the optional phone plugs in) I’ve downloaded the DevTerm printer/usb board schematics if the Motherboard for the uConsole is the same as the DevTerm then it is possible to design a board with a UART chip and two more USB ports to install where the phone modem goes… I wish they had offered the two more USB ports as an option

2 Likes
3

It looks like there is a micro USB on the keyboard PCB as well…

4

That’s a device port, and only goes to the keyboard microcontroller I think… It won’t work for attaching USB peripherals to the main processor

3 Likes
5

Can’t tell anything about the port/pins/connectors until the new revision of the main board is published. Making assumptions based just on the renderings or prototypes might be a bad idea as we don’t know their final design decisions.

6

Mainboard is more or less the same. For maximum core compatibility, only one USB host port is routed to the core.
The USB host port is then multiplexed into 4 downstream device ports with a GL850G usb hub chip.
These four ports are then routed to:

  1. The cpi keyboard (pogo pins connected)
  2. A type-A port along the mainboard edge
  3. and 4 to the mPCIE connector
    • the 4G dongle most probably takes one of that

The question is whether they leave pads/pins for the last usb port on the 4G expansion board.

If so we can expand it like this: Internal USB hub mod

1 Like
7

These are really good assumptions. I think you meant to say 2 to the mPCIe. It would make more sense to place the holes/pins/pads of at least one of the two additional internal USBs on the main board, rather than on the 4g module like you just mentioned, since not everyone will be having a 4g module purchased.

Thats the thing, @Sword wanted to access one of the internal USB ports. We can’t say anything precisely without the schematics/other design files :man_shrugging:t4:

8

Can tell you it’s a little bit more than just assumptions, according to my sources :slight_smile:

Also, there’s this awesome breakout board project: Designing a Ext. Prototyping Breakout (With Raspberry Pi Hat Compatibility)
Those who opted out of 4g dongle can build a similar board and gain access to all the pins.

1 Like
9

Thats a good reference for the ext module development. However, like I was saying, we need more clarity on the pinouts and other details of the clockworkPi v3.14 main board revision 5 before making modules for uConsole. At this point I couldn’t find any published design resources for uConsole. Please do share if you got some dependable sources.

Many of us are looking for just additional USB ports. If the team got pins/pads/holes for the internal USBs on the main board itself, we could get access to those ports even without an ext.module.

10

Thanks for the inputs. I’ll keep watching and hoping there is a way to rig something up internally!

11

Any updates on this? Would love to add a teeny internally and I‘ve seen that @yatli you did it successfully on the devterm

12

The keyboard has a separate USB port on it that can be used instead of the pogos, so you could theoretically wire a hub to the pogos and connect the keyboard to that to give you more usb ports.