uConsole extension board directory

[trinity]

This is a part of the uConsole hardware directory and has been made its own post to make room for more content in there. This directory appears to be complete, but please reply if a board is missing.

As HackerGadgets’ All-In-One Extension Board is an extremely popular card with an interesting history, I’ve given it its own section. It’s not necessarily the best card for every task; other cards have more USB ports, or more available GPIO, or support different use cases. It’s also not open hardware, like most aftermarket peripherals or the uConsole itself. It’s just a very good choice for most uConsole users and extends the uConsole’s function quite a bit.

Extension board directory

@BILLY_WANG

• Openterface KVM Ext. for uConsole designed by @BILLY_WANG - adds 1x switched USB2 A port, HDMI input, and 1x USB2 C port which allows you to use the keyboard on other machines for $100 excluding shipping - see TechxArtisan, the manual, and GitHub - open hardware
• uConsole DIY modules designed by Lulu - comes with adaptor board, adds 1x USB3 A port, 1x USB3 C port, and NVMe for $20 excluding shipping - see Tindie
• uConsole expansion card designed by Lulu - adds 1x USB2 C port for $6 excluding shipping - see Tindie

@dexpid

• uConsole Ext USB Hub designed by @argz - adds 4x USB2 C ports
• uConsole External I/O Breakout designed by @57Bravo - adds 2x USB2 A ports - see GitHub - open hardware
• uConsole USB Ext. Board designed by @Radiation_Joe - adds 4x USB2 C ports, 1x USB2 breakout for $40 excluding shipping - see Tindie

@WebmasterTD

• uEther designed by @WebmasterTD - adds 1x 10BaseT 10/100 Ethernet port, 1x USB2 C port for $40 excluding shipping - see Tindie

@Vitaly

• uHub designed by @Vitaly - adds 3x USB2 C ports - see GitHub and Tindie - open hardware

@Vitaly

• uPico designed by Vitaly - adds an RP2040 microcontroller and pinout - see GitHub and Tindie - open hardware

@Vitaly

Hi everyone, sorry for not answering so long, but right now I moved to Ukraine to help fighting occupiers and I can’t fulfill any uPico or uHub orders for near future.
If anyone want to sell those boards you are welcome, everything is fully open sourced, and you can use any SMT services like a JLCPCB for manufacturing. I’ll happy to add links to your store on GitHub pages for those projects.

Glory to Ukraine

All-In-One Extension Board

The RTL-SDR is a Realtek Software-Defined Radio that can receive and make use of a very wide variety of radio signals. A number of RTL-SDR expansion cards were created by hobbyists before @vileer joined the scene, announcing in a Reddit post that they were working on their own design that also added a number of USB ports to the uConsole. Eventually they had a working prototype that also added a Real-Time Clock, or RTC, a component that keeps time when the uConsole is powered off and was sorely missing from the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, the most popular choice of system-on-module for the uConsole.

@vileer

As the project progressed, it expanded considerably in scope:

@vileer

Maybe parts:

1. Rechargeable RTC battery circuit
2. GPS
3. Lora
4. GPIO
5. RJ45 Ethernet

Due to popular demand, they polished the product and created a waiting list to sell a batch of the card under the HackerGadgets brand as the uConsole RTL-SDR/LoRa/GPS/RTC/USB All-In-One Extension Board.

@vileer

Go and check this form Waiting list for uConsole RTL-SDR Extension Board with USB HUB and RTC.

HackerGadgets then sold off the remaining manufactured boards on their website.

The All-In-One Expansion Board added 1x USB2 A port, 1x USB2 C port, 1x USB2 breakout, a LoRa radio, a GPS radio, a real-time clock, and an RTL-SDR for $80 excluding shipping.

@alpixdotro

It also came with an optional PCB antenna mount:

@vileer

And there are a rare few AIO cards with a different LoRa frequency optimization:

@vileer

We have asked frequently if we can offer a 433MHz version of the LoRa. The SX1262 chip itself covers the frequency range of 150- 960MHz. However, the front-end filter is designed for 860- 960 MHz on the module. You can use it with 433MHz. However, the performance is not as good as operating at 860-960 MHz. To make your board work at its best performance, we can manually change the module to the 433-510MHz version, but that will require an extra $5(the module itself, soldering is not charged). If you want to change it and your order hasn’t shipped yet, you can contact me via the contact page on our website.

The AIO cards are also useful for extremely precise timekeeping via the Global Positioning System’s Pulse Per Second service (or GPS PPS).

@VE7PPE

Followed the newer version of the PPS reference: Revisiting Microsecond Accurate NTP for Raspberry Pi with GPS PPS in 2025 - Austin’s Nerdy Things

This card fast became the a very popular choice of expansion for the uConsole, but vileer was dissatisfied with the AIO card as it didn’t yet include a RJ-45 port for 10BaseT Ethernet. It wasn’t long before they started to consider a major revision.

@vileer

It was released as the AIOv2 with the following changes:

@vileer

The AIO board(RTL-SDR/GPS/LoRa/RTC/USB HUB all-in-one expansion) will also upgrade to V2 with the following changes: USB-A on the side will be replaced by an RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet. GPIOs will control the power of the GPS/LoRa/RTL-SDR/Internal USB ports. USB-C ports will be USB 3.0 when using CM5.

@Sk00ntz

Unfortunately some early units used the wrong resistor to configure the USB current limiter.

@vileer

While 0.68A meets the requirements for USB 2.0 (meaning USB 2.0 devices work without issue), it causes insufficient power delivery when using USB 3.0 devices. To resolve this issue, the resistor shown in the image below needs to be replaced with a 4.3kΩ resistor (0402 package size). It doesn’t need to be a 4.3kΩ resistor. The current limit threshold is calculated using the formula: I(limit) = 6.8k/Rset. The maximum current the MT9700 can handle is 2A, so the minimum resistor is 3.4kΩ. So any 0402 package size resistor with a value between 5.6kΩ and 3.4kΩ would work.

@vileer

Affected Orders: All AIO v2 orders shipped before last Friday (January 16). The RJ45 Ethernet and USB 3.0 expansion board is not involved.

The fix is of course not necessary for units ordered since February 2026, so there’s no need for concern. If purchasing an AIOv2 secondhand, the repair can be done in an easier fashion than replacing the tiny surface-mounted resistor:

@vileer

You can even just solder a discrete resistor in parallel, as shown below, without removing the 0402 resistor. The final resistance is (10k*R)/(10k+R) . The final resistance should be greater than 3.4K. So the range of the parallel resistor should be between 5.2K and 7.5K.

@bored99

All in all, this works perfect. Definitely do-able at home. No shipping and all that extra stuff.

Both versions of the AIO have come with a paper that has a QR code to the setup guide hyperlinked here.

The All-In-One extension board V2 is available from HackerGadgets on its own for $92 excluding shipping, and also available as part of HackerGadgets’ upgrade kit, which optionally comes with both or either a core adapter board and battery board with which it can interface to use NVMe and USB 3.0 respectively. See the thread for the AIOv2, the thread for the upgrade kit, and Rex’s thread discussing software support for the AIOv2.