7-inch Raspberry Pi CM4-based industrial HMI offers gigabit Ethernet, RS485 Modbus, digital and analog inputs

NORVI RPI-HMI is an industrial controller with a 7-inch touchscreen screen display powered by a Raspberry Pi CM4 and equipped with a range of interfaces including a gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port, a few USB ports, and several terminal blocks for RS485 (Modbus), digital and analog input, transistor outputs, and 24V DC power input.

The new Raspberry Pi CM4-based HMI announcement follows the NORVI ESP32-HMI controller that was launched last December with an ESP32-S3 wireless microcontroller and a 5-inch LCD display with resistive touch. The NORVI RPI-HMI builds on that with a much faster Arm processor, a larger display with a capacitive touchscreen, gigabit Ethernet, and a wider range of I/Os that makes it suitable for various industrial HMI and PLC applications.

NORVI RPI-HMI Industrial Controller specifications:

SoM – Raspberry Pi CM4
- SoC – Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 processor with VideoCore GPU
- System Memory – 1GB, 2GB, 4GB or 8GB LPDDR4-3200
- Storage – 0GB, 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB eMMC flash
Storage – M.2 NVMe SSD socket, microSD card slot
Display – 7-inch capacitive touchscreen IPS panel with 1024×600 resolution
Networking
- Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port
- Optional WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5 on Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (CNXSoft: The company shows WiFi from time to time in the product description, but does not make support explicit in the option provided and documentation)
USB – 2x USB 2.0 host port, 1x USB 2.0 device port to enable the CM4 to be updated via RPI boot
Communication and expansion interfaces via terminal blocks
- RS485 with Modbus support
- 8x digital inputs up to 24V
- 8x analog inputs 0-10V
- 7x transistor outputs
Misc – DS3231 RTC with CR2032 backup battery
Supply Voltage – 24V DC via terminal block
Dimensions – 149 x 133 x 59 mm; DIN Rail mount support
Temperature Range – –10 to +85°C
Certifications
- EN 61131-2:2007
- EN 61010-1:2010+A1:2019
- EN IEC 61010-2-201:2018
- 2014/30/EU- Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC)
- Annex III, Part B, Module C
IP Rating – IP20

NORVI RPI-HMI block diagram and pinout — NORVI RPI-HMI pinout diagram and block diagram

The NORVI RPI-HMI runs Raspberry Pi OS with all necessary drivers and can be programmed with Python, Node-Red visual flow-based programming tool, or CODESYS automation software. Hardware documentation and getting started guides can be found on the documentation website. Two different product parts are listed “SC-PC-AX8-TO7” and “SC-PC-AV8-TO7” but I could not find any obvious differences between the two models. Both take various Raspberry Pi CM4 and CM4 Lite variants with 2GB or 4GB RAM and up to 32GB flash.

Typical applications for the NORVI RPI-HMI include PLCs with a touch panel, HMIs with Ethernet and RS485 interfaces, Raspberry Pi-based HMIs or PLCs, local IoT servers, and industrial gateways. NORVI is not the only company offering HMI solutions based on the CM4, and we previously covered several models from EDATEC as well as Seeed Studio’s reTerminal DM which offer options with different I/Os and features.

NORVI sells its Raspberypi CM4 industrial HMI solution for $287.05 to $326.70 depending on the selected CM4 module. Additional information may also 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.