North Caroline-based Paisley Microsystems is getting ready to launch a crowdfunding marketing campaign for the Firefly Automation Controller household: service boards for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 and Compute Module 5 constructed with industrial-grade tasks in thoughts.
“The Firefly Automation Controller household of boards merge the Raspberry Pi Compute Module-compatible modules with a built-in [STMicroelectronics] STM32H7 microcontroller, creating a quick, strong, and extremely versatile platform for industrial management,” declare firm co-founders Matthew Guo and Emiliano García-López. “Along with extremely configurable high-speed interfaces and I/O [Input/Output] buffering, Firefly boards characteristic two IO-Hyperlink Class B channels to manage hundreds of sensor and actuator modules, which will be powered by an auxiliary 24V energy enter, optionally with a totally remoted IO-Hyperlink subsystem provide.”
For those who’re trying to give your Raspberry Pi Compute Module industrial-grade capabilities, the Firefly household is for you. (
: Paisley Microsystems)
Because the pair clarify, the Firefly boards are designed to take a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 or Compute Module 5 system-on-module, or OV Tech’s pin-compatible Pi.MX8 module. The modular system contains an on-board STMicro STM32H7 microcontroller operating at as much as 480MHz for real-time workloads and two IO-Hyperlink Class B channels — with optionally available modules including remoted inputs and outputs, further IO-Hyperlink capabilities, powerline monitoring, stepper and servo motor management, and extra.
The highest-end Firefly-5, in the meantime, provides twin gigabit Ethernet connectivity, optionally available Quick Ethernet networking for the microcontroller, and up-rated energy capability of as much as 200W from USB Energy Supply or 600W for peripherals, whereas packing the up-to-480MHz STM32H723. For individuals who do not want fairly that a lot energy, the Firefly-5lite shall be supplied as a lower-cost possibility, dropping to 100W over USB and swapping the second gigabit Ethernet port for a Quick Ethernet various, whereas shifting to the slower 100MHz STM32F410.
Each fashions embrace two 40-pin general-purpose enter/output (GPIO) headers, one wired to the host Compute Module and the opposite to the STM32H7, two USB Sort-C ports configurable as programming, system, or host interfaces, and one every of M.2 B-key and M-key enlargement slots for mobile modems, Non-Unstable Reminiscence Categorical (NVMe) storage, and extra.
The corporate has not but shared photos of the Compute Module 5 variant, however affords these renders as a teaser. (: Paisley Microsystems)
The corporate has additionally pledged to make the design of each boards obtainable below an as-yet unspecified open-source license — to incorporate a GitHub repository with schematics, mechanical CAD information, and software program examples. Whereas this had not but been revealed on the time of writing, schematics and mechanical drafts for the corporate’s earlier Firefly-4 design can be found on the Paisley Microsystems downloads web page.
The corporate is planning to launch a crowdfunding marketing campaign for the Firefly household on Crowd Provide quickly, with events suggested to enroll on the marketing campaign web page to be notified when it goes stay; pricing had not but been disclosed on the time of writing, however further info will be discovered on the Paisley Microsystems web site.
