
New Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3+ - schappim
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/compute-module-3-on-sale-now-from-25/
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StavrosK
This looks delectable for the eMMC storage alone. I wish there were a
Raspberry Pi model that came with it... I'm tired of SD cards causing problems
and eating my data or (more frequently) causing the Pi not to boot.

I also wish Raspbian had an option to mount all the write-heavy directories
(logs, etc) on tmpfs, so they wouldn't wear the card out so quickly.

~~~
dividuum
When done properly, SD cards are reliable enough. For my digital signage
product the custom OS is highly optimized around avoiding IO as much as
possible. There are thousands of devices, some running more than 4 years now,
without any SD related problems.

I also really like the fact that the Pi is pretty much stateless. So switch SD
cards and you can be mostly sure everything still works. If storage is
bundled, that's a lot more difficult.

~~~
sgt
For most use cases, SD cards on Raspberry Pi's are _not_ reliable enough.

I realize you may be successful in running signage devices, but most people
want to simply be able to run common class 10 card (e.g. from Verbatim,
Kingston, Sandisk), using a standard OS setup and leave the Pi running without
having it corrupting your files. This simply isn't possible, in my experience.
Also look at the OpenHAB forums as a reference.

The more regular disk activity, the worse it gets.

We went this route in our office and every 3-6 months we had corruption on
each of many dozen Pi's. Once we switched to using USB drives (spinning or
SSD) the issues were sorted out.

~~~
mschuster91
> but most people want to simply be able to run common class 10 card (e.g.
> from Verbatim, Kingston, Sandisk), using a standard OS setup and leave the
> Pi running without having it corrupting your file

To be fair: try the same with cellphones. I have a shitload of micro-SD cards
gone bad on me, and yes genuine SanDisk not cheap fakes off of Amazon.

microSD cards are the cheapest crappy flash chips you can get with a
microcontroller strapped in front for error correction.

~~~
H1Supreme
I don't even put SD cards in my phones anymore due to corruption. I always got
the best SanDisk's I could find. Luckily my Pi that runs probably 8 hours/week
hasn't failed, but I have the drive imaged just in case.

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dividuum
Previously the only official way to get a 16GB variant of the Compute Module
was to use the NEC edition[1][2]. Looks like that got a lot easier now.

[1] [https://www.nec-display-
solutions.com/p/eeme/en/products/acc...](https://www.nec-display-
solutions.com/p/eeme/en/products/accessories/details/t/Options/Slot-in-and-
External-Computing/rp/RASPBERRYPI3-COMPUTEMODEL.xhtml)

[2] From what I understand it still has all codecs unlocked by default which
you'd have to do manually with the new CM3+.

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lovelearning
"CM3+ will be available until at least January 2026" \- That's an impressive
commitment. I'm pleasantly surprised to see them stick their necks out that
long into the tech future.

~~~
pdpi
It’s not consumer electronics, they’re targeting industrial applications. Is
it that long a timeframe in that world?

~~~
bradfa
It's not horrible but it's not remarkable either. 8 years is a decent but it's
nothing compared to other SoM (system on module) vendors like Toradex. Toradex
generally offer 12+ year commitment on their SoMs.

Consider that if you start a design now using a SoM that you probably won't
get to market for at least 1 year. Then in the industrial/commercial space
it'll take at least another year for your sales to ramp up. If you started
today designing with a CM3+ then you'd get 6 more years of sales out of the
product after sales ramp, but since the above timeline is going to hold for
your replacement of the current product, you're going to have to start
engineering on the replacement 6 years from now. For some industries this will
sound amazing, for others it'll sound like a deal breaker.

If you look at SoC (system on chip, the processor) vendors, generally they're
offering 20+ years of sales from release for SoC which target the
industrial/commercial embedded markets. Vendors like TI or NXP don't generally
end of life their silicon for a very very long time.

~~~
pdpi
Oh sure. My point was precisely that the commitment wasn’t that impressive
once you consider the application

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ourcat
Very tempting.

I recently saw this project for processing 3d 'vr180' stereoscopic vision with
a Pi Compute module, called StereoPi.
[http://stereopi.com/](http://stereopi.com/)

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coleifer
Excuse the ignorance, but how does one use it? What would be some applications
for this?

~~~
shifto
I saw an example of someone making a gameboy-like pcb on which you could plug
in this module as a brain.

[https://hackaday.com/2017/11/17/raspberry-pi-compute-
module-...](https://hackaday.com/2017/11/17/raspberry-pi-compute-module-3-in-
a-gameboy-original/)

------
Sir_Substance
I remain surprised that there don't seem to be any of the shelf "blade
centers" for raspberry pi compute modules. It seems like they're the ideal
hobbyist and small business expandable computing resource.

Someone did make this at one point:
[https://hackaday.com/2016/01/25/raspberry-pi-zero-cluster-
pa...](https://hackaday.com/2016/01/25/raspberry-pi-zero-cluster-packs-a-
punch/)

But it was never commercialized as far as I know.

~~~
bradfa
miniNodes makes a 5 socket Raspberry Pi compute module "cluster" board which
seems decent:

[https://www.mininodes.com/product/5-node-raspberry-
pi-3-com-...](https://www.mininodes.com/product/5-node-raspberry-pi-3-com-
carrier-board/)

~~~
Sir_Substance
Hey, neat. Looks like they're still in pre-order mode, but I'll def keep an
eye on them.

~~~
mininodes
We're actually about to run a production batch. Should take about 3 to 4 weeks
to turn them around from manufacture to shipping.

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dom96
Slightly off-topic but does anyone known any good similar modules with support
for LVDS and/or eDP displays (15"\+ ideally)?

I've been wanting to assemble a sort of tablet device but I am having a really
hard time finding a display/compute combo that will work with any confidence.
I would ideally like to avoid having to get a separate A/D board.

~~~
fest
I've done this on Olimex A20 boards (random laptop LCD had LVDS, A20 had LVDS
output).

Recently I've used NanoPC-T4's eDP output. Unfortunately, their eDP pinout
does not match VESA standard pinout, so I had to make an adapter board.

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thinkmassive
It would be really cool if someone created an updated RaSCSI for the Compute
Module [https://github.com/fran-cap/RASCSI-68kmlaver](https://github.com/fran-
cap/RASCSI-68kmlaver)

------
carlsborg
Doesn’t seem to have 802.11 WiFi on board. Would have been nice for diy iot
projects on the raspberry ecosystem.

~~~
adamfeldman
Not quite DIY prices, but companies like Balena make RPi Compute Module
carrier boards w/ WiFi [https://www.balena.io/fin](https://www.balena.io/fin)

~~~
24gttghh
Well, at least it wont shit the bed (i.e. SD card corruption) on a power
fluctuation?

Is there something with similar hardware? Basically something with built-in,
_actual_ SSD flash.

I love the size and low-power use of the RPi 3+, but I hate having it's SD
card die on me...

~~~
naikrovek
You can use flash drives over USB on RPi 2 and up. Boot from them and
everything. Requires a tiny bit of setup.

~~~
glenneroo
If you go this route, be forewarned: not all SSD enclosures work. Do a bit of
research on Raspberry forums before making any purchases. Also, Pi 2/3/B+
sadly don't support USB 3.0 devices, so much for backwards compatibility. I
bought a handful of cheap SSDs and USB 3.0 enclosures for this exact purpose,
but still haven't got any of them to boot, even though I did research and
supposedly bought several from Sabrent that should work. In retrospect I
should have looked closer, Sabrent makes a bunch of very similarly named
drives with slightly different specs, some of which apparently aren't
compatible. I found a forum comment suggesting to try the enclosure with USB
2.0 cables, but that avenue has been fruitless thus far. I will probably have
to order some USB 2.0 enclosures.

