I am interested in the uConsole and new to it, but I am disappointed it does not have Lan port and without internal storage, which is the biggest complaint I have with the Pi, I wonder if the uConsole support the top of the line CM4108032 with emmc ?
Yes it will, you just need to have a separate I/O carrier board to flash the OS to the on board EMMC storage. You will not have access to the TF card reader on the main board of the Uconsole. This is how I run one of my Devterm’s and my Uconsole
Good to know thx, I’ll wait to see more coming !
I am struggling to get the uConsole or something else to replace my tablet, mainly due to lack of internal storage of the uConsole.The stock package does not have emmc support, and relies on the unreliable MicroSD, I’ve had a few bad cards from cell phone use already, the card is not designed to replace a hard drive or SSD, it will fail after repeated read/write cycles. I think I’ve 2 options here if I were to get the uConsole, one is to get the 8G CM4 instead of the stock one, more memory reduces the need for swapping so to reduce r/w to the card. Second is to get the CM4 with emmc, but that prevents me from using the SD, I don’t know why the limitation. Also, I will need a special adapter to write images to the card. I don’t know if that can be done via USB, or can I boot from USB like the Pi 4B, so that I don’t need to open the chassis every time to test a new image. Btw I saw some excellent expansion designs such as the USB hub, but I can’t use it coz I will need the 4G module.
Can’t say this myself but I’ve heard there is such a thing as an “industrial microSD card” that will stand up to more reads/writes. I’ve been thinking of working on an NVME expansion for the uConsole to get around this issue, though.
I don’t know it’s uConsole or Pi limited the use of the card on emmc equiped module, coz other SBC like the Odroid can have both.
To my knowledge it’s a Pi limitation. I could be wrong – I haven’t looked into this too hard – but I’m guessing that the builtin EMMC on the rpi is like a hard-wired, builtin SD card, and so putting an SD card in the slot is essentially bypassed as the EMMC is wired to the pins that would usually use the card.
No idea though, I’m just talking out of my ass based on connections lol.
IC, that’s the biggest reason I am not getting the Pi 5, as it forced me to use the PCIe with adapter for nvme, that’s extra cost and make the tiny thing bigger
@spv is correct, it is a pi limitation. Lines that go to the tf card on the lite version are connected to the on board EMMC of ever other version. There was someone that added EMMC to the A06 core and still had access to the tf card. There was some kernal module tweak that had to be done to make it work correctly. That was for the Devterm though.
Right, that sounds weird to me that the Pi designer tried to jam pack many features onto a tiny board, at the same time to provide expansion for developers, but who will need 2 touchscreen/camera i/f more than an onboard storage ? Frankly I’m disappointed with the Pi 5, besides lack of internal storage it still uses the tiny fragile HDMI where competitors are using full size, and even removed the audio jack ! sorry and enough for off-topic talks, I’ve some questions about the uConsole.
- What do I need to write an image to the emmc, part no. or link pls.
- Can I boot via USB ?
- How do I get access to the function keys, volume, brightness and mouse buttons…etc. If I were to use a non-stock image ?
- How well the 4G module works, I read that some users are having problems with it, this is very important to me that I want to use it as a mobile device, for data not necessary call.
Thanks a lot !
1.I used the a CM4-IO-BASE-A I got on Amazon to flash the EMMC.
2. I can’t answer, I have never looked in to that. I wouldn’t want to give up my only USB port.
3. Not my area of expertise so I haven’t an answer for that either.
4. I had to flash the 9011 firmware to the 4G modem to get things to work correctly. I just turn the modem on and off from the terminal to save on battery.
Thanks for the info., that opens up a new page of possibilities for the CM4 !
I just came across this video regarding the industrial grade microSD card, a 4GB one easily cost as much as the Pi itself, that’s why I’ve never heard of anyone using it. I believe hardly anyone know about the existence of this type of card, thanks for bringing it out !
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Based on that eMMc seems more reliable
One of the things that shortens the life of SD cards is the constant logging (lots of writes) that goes on when a system is running. For that reason, it may not be a bad idea to reduce the amount of logging going on, or to move all the logs to a RAM disk, perhaps just copying them every once in a while (daily, weekly, whatever) to the SD. There are examples of people doing that on various blogs, forums, and other sites.
I still find it difficult to justify using eMMC, especially in Clockwork devices since it makes wiping and installing a new OS more difficult. Not to mention that eMMC has a limited lifespan too, and throwing out the entire compute module if it fails seems like a bigger waste than burning through some SD cards over time. It’s all about tradeoffs and risk tolerance though, and the specific needs for the project/use you’ve got. There’s speed gains from an eMMC as well, but even they don’t seem that impressive based on comparisons I’ve seen.
I’ve had an old (very old) Pi device running 24/7 for a couple of years now doing some home automation sensor stuff, and haven’t had to replace the SD card in all that time. But I imagine if someone was using a device as a dev machine and was spending a lot of time building code and writing to a lot of files then an SD wouldn’t last as long. It really just comes down to usage and expectations.
Good point. Im till looking at wich CM module i will purchase between CM4 and CM5, with or without the eMMC… And how many ram… 8G seems ok. 16G in case of, but i never use more than 8… So 16 is just in case i reach that (or i purchase a new CM at that market moment).
Anyway, i got plenty of time to look at pro and con, as i only purchase my uconsole last week… With the RTL-SDR adapter too