Rockchip RK3588S industrial mini PC features CAN Bus, RS485 & RS232 interfaces, relay, and more

Firefly EC-R3588SPC industrial mini PC is based on the Rockchip RK3588S octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor and offers various interfaces used in industrial settings such as RS485 and RS232 serial interfaces, a CAN Bus, a relay, and digital input.

The system is offered with up to 32GB RAM and 128GB eMMC flash, supports M.2 NVMe or SATA storage, as well as Gigabit Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, WiFi 4, Bluetooth 5.0, and 4G LTE cellular connectivity. You’ll also find 8K-capable HDMI and DisplayPort (USB-C) video outputs, some USB ports, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

Firefly EC-R3588SPC specifications:

SoC – Rockchip RK3588S octa-core processor with
- CPU – 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, four Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz
- GPU – Arm Mali-G610 MP4 quad-core GPU with OpenGL ES3.2 / OpenCL 2.2 / Vulkan1.1 support
- AI accelerator – 6 TOPS NPU
- VPU – 8Kp60 H.265/VP9/AVS2 video decoder, 4Kp60 AV1 decoder, 8Kp30 H.265/H.264 video encoder
System Memory – 4GB, 8GB, 16GB or 32GB LPDDR4/LPDDR4x/LPDDR5
Storage
- 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB eMMC flash
- M.2 socket for M.2 2242 SATA SSD (default), or NVMe (PCIe 2.0) SSD
- MicroSD card slot
Video Output
- HDMI 2.1 port up to 8Kp60 or 4Kp120
- DisplayPort 1.4 up to 8Kp30 via USB-C port
- Up to two independent displays
Audio
- 3.5mm audio (headphone+mic) jack
- Digital audio output via HDMI and DP ports
Networking
- Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port
- Fast Ethernet RJ45 port
- Dual-band WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2 BLE with external antenna
- Optional 4G LTE module with external antenna
USB – 1x USB 3.0 Type-A port, 1x USB 2.0 Type-A port, 1x USB 3.0 OTG Type-C port with DP Alt mode
Expansion
- M.2 (PCIe 2.0) socket for NVMe SSD
- Relay/digital input via 4-pin terminal block
- RS485 via 4-pin terminal block
- RS232 via terminal block
- CAN Bus via 4-pin terminal block
Misc – L1/L2 LEDs
Power Supply – 12V DC input via 5.5×2.1mm DC jack
Power Consumption (Note: this looks like a copy/paste from the SBC used in the board and may not be accurate, more below)
- Idle: 0.42W (12V/35mA)
- Typical: 2.25W (12V/190mA)
- Max: 12W (12V/1000mA)
Dimensions – 96.6 x 72 x 64mm
Weight – Around 450 grams
Temperature Range – Operating: -20°C to 60°C; storage: -20°C to 70°C
Humidity – 40% to 70 %

The industrial mini PC is said to support Android 12.0 and Ubuntu Desktop/Server like other Rockchip RK3588/RK3588S products from the company. The port layout indicates Firefly mostly likely used their ROC-RK3588S-PC single board computer for the design. While the maximum theoretical memory capacity is 32GB, in practice, all Rockchip RK3588(s) devices and boards we’ve seen ship with a maximum of 16GB of RAM due to availability and pricing issues with adding 32GB of RAM.

There’s no wiki for the EC-RK3588SPC just yet, but most instructions will be the same as the ROC-RK3588S-PC SBC which looks to have decent documentation. But obviously, there’s nothing about RS485, RS232, CAN Bus, and other features specific to the mini PC. The system will typically be used in AI edge computing, Smart Home, retail and industrial applications.

Firefly does not sell the EC-RK3588SPC embedded computer on their own website just yet, but I could find it on Aliexpress for $329.64 with 4GB RAM and 32GB flash, and $426.65 with 8GB RAM and 64GB flash. Additional information may be found on the product page.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.