Just ordered and have questions

[StarsAndBars]

Greetings All!

I just placed my order, so while I impatiently wait for it to arrive, I have a few questions…

1. I see references to things like A06 - is that a revision of the hardware?

2. I am going to order both a CM4 and a CM5 to play with. I know I need the unit with WiFi, but is there any reason I shouldn’t order a module with storage on it? Can the uConsole not access it?

3. Speaking of storage, is there a limit on the size of a replacement MicroSD? I was thinking 256 or 512, unless that is complete overkill?

Sorry for the newb questions, I am still learning. Thanks in advance!

[white-round-square]

@StarsAndBars

I see references to things like A06 - is that a revision of the hardware?

it’s an alternative board, A06 kinda dead, everyone goes with CM4

@StarsAndBars

I am going to order both a CM4 and a CM5 to play with. I know I need the unit with WiFi, but is there any reason I shouldn’t order a module with storage on it? Can the uConsole not access it?

with wifi, you can choose sd card OR emmc. + emmc requires extra board to flash os. both variants are okay.

if you have cm4 module in order it could be beneficial to cancel it as it seems reduces shipping time

[adcockm]

If you get a module (cm4 or cm5) with emmc, then in addition to not being able to flash without extra hardware, the SD card slot will be unusable. Some people have ordered with emmc but based on posts here have usually regretted it. Sometimes the decision was based on the hope of faster file access, but an alternative is to use an SSD mounted via USB. It’s worth doing research on the forums if you want to do that, since most USB port options on the uConsole are USB 2.0 and wouldn’t provide the expected speed boost anyway.

I’ve used a 400gb micro SD on my Devterm and uConsole and both have worked fine. I’m not sure what the limit is, but haven’t heard of anyone having issues except on the cm5 which sounds incredibly picky about which cards will work. I don’t habe a cm5 but forum posts indicate it can be patched to fix that problem, but a working SD must be found first to be able to boot and upgrade it. While it sounds like people have been happy with the speed of the cm5, it’s still essentially an experimental effort and there’s hope that one day the uConsole may be revised, or a new device will be released to fully support it and other variants.

[PeterCxy]

@adcockm

haven’t heard of anyone having issues except on the cm5 which sounds incredibly picky about which cards will work

Huh, I just got a random SD card lying around for my CM5 and it works pretty much fine.

@adcockm

While it sounds like people have been happy with the speed of the cm5, it’s still essentially an experimental effort and there’s hope that one day the uConsole may be revised, or a new device will be released to fully support it and other variants.

I wouldn’t say that. The current 6.12.y kernel branch works pretty much flawlessly for CM5 and there’s really not much that’s different from on CM4. The only downside in my eyes is power consumption but I just soldered an extra 18500 battery and am pretty happy with it

[adcockm]

Rex mentions the SD card issue in all his builds:

Bookworm 6.12.y for the uConsole and DevTerm

UPDATE: 6.12.22 Image Out of box support for the “new uConsole panel” that is shipping with new uConsoles. The CM3 currently does not work with the new panel though, just the CM4/5. If you have a CM5 lite and are having problems with the sd card booting. Try this solution by @paragonnov Your CM5 lite has to have updated firmware that was released after 2025-01-06. Check using vcgencmd version to update sudo rpi-eeprom-update sudo rpi-eeprom-config -e To edit the eeprom. backup current config,…

It sounds like people have had issues updating the CM5 firmware with some SD cards. But once it is done, then it apparently works with all cards.

Best thing for anyone considering a uConsole is to read Rex’s posts anyway since the first thing you’ll want to do is install one of his builds and stop using the outdated “official” Clockwork build.