EDATEC CM4 Sensing industrial computer offers CAN bus, RS485, and RS232 interfaces

EDATEC CM4 Sensing is a compact industrial computer based on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (CM4) with multiple RS485, RS232, and CAN bus interfaces, an HDMI port, two USB ports, Gigabit Ethernet, and optional WiFi, Bluetooth, and/or 4G LTE connectivity.

The industrial mini PC can operate in the -25 to 70°C temperature range, supports 8 to 28V DC wide voltage input, includes an RTC, and the single board computer also features a MIPI DSI interface to connect the official Raspberry Pi 7-inch display as well as an FPC interface with HDMI and USB touch.

EDATEC CM4 Sensing specifications:

SoM – Raspberry Pi CM4 module with Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 SoC, 1GB to 8GB LPDDR4 RAM, and up to 32GB eMMC flash
Storage – MicroSD card socket for data storage. It can work with the eMMC flash on the CM4 module
Display I/F
- 1x HDMI 2.0 Type-A port up to 4Kp60;
- 1x FPC HDMI touch display interface
- 1x FPC MIPI DSI touch display interface
Networking
- Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port
- Optional dual-band 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 BLE module (on CM4) with external WiFi antenna
- Optional 4G/ LTE with optional GPS support with NanoSIM card slot and external 4G antenna
USB – 2x USB 2.0 Type-A ports, internal micro USB port for eMMC flashing
Serial
- 4x RS485 interfaces via 3-pin terminal block
- 1x RS232 interface via 3-pin terminal block
- 1x CAN bus via 3-pin terminal block
Expansion Interface – Mini PCIe socket with 1-lane PCIe and USB 2.0 for 4G module
Misc
- RTC with CR1220 backup battery
- Buzzer
- LEDs – Power (red), status (green), and 4G network (blue)
Power Supply
- 8 to 28V DC input via DC jack or optional 2-pin terminal block
- 5V/1A DC power output via internal 2-pin WTB connector that can power the official Raspberry Pi 7-inch touch display if needed
Temperature Range – -25 to 70°C (Note: full speed in the -25 ~ 60°C range)
Dimensions – 103 x 73 x 32 mm

The company offers wall and DIN rail mounting options for the industrial computer. The EDATEC CM4 Sensing system ships with Raspberry Pi OS Desktop 32-bit running from the eMMC flash in the Raspberry Pi CM4 module, but it is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS versions, including the Lite image, as well as openEuler OS developed in China.

The Raspberry Pi image includes a BSP for the microSD card, RTC, RS232, RS485, CAN, DSI, and other specific hardware functions. You’ll find it together with other resources on a fairly detailed documentation website. The BSP can also be installed manually on the stock Raspberry Pi OS image with the following commands:

curl -sS https://apt.edatec.cn/pubkey.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://apt.edatec.cn/raspbian stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/edatec.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ed-cm4sen-rev1p0-bsp ed-rtc

curl -sS https://apt.edatec.cn/pubkey.gpg | sudo apt-key add -

echo "deb https://apt.edatec.cn/raspbian stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/edatec.list

sudo apt update

sudo apt install ed-cm4sen-rev1p0-bsp ed-rtc

Several variants of the EDATEC CM4 Sensing industrial computer are available due to the many options, and you’ll find some of them on Aliexpress for $116.80 to $213. With SKU names like ED-CM4SEN10-1108-C and ED-CM4SEN10-1832-4C, it may be difficult to understand what you get exactly, but the naming convention can be understood with the little illustration below.

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.