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geerlingguy
Test DeskPi Super6C CM4 6-node Mini-ITX cluster board
I just heard about the CM4 Cluster Mini ITX board on DWMzone:
It looks like it supports up to 6 CM4 modules, with an M.2 slot and microSD card slot available to each of the boards. It uses a 4-pin ATX CPU power plug, and has two RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet ports connected through an onboard switch. It looks like there is a USB 2.0 hub and two HDMI ports connected through to the first Pi, which is nice for cluster management / debugging purposes.
I just ordered one and will post testing notes here or to a new issue later.
Board is up on the site now: https://pipci.jeffgeerling.com/boards_cm/cm4-cluster-mini-itx.html
Changed the title for this issue so I can test it out soon.
Guess what just arrived?
I believe @danmanners is getting one today too...
Some notes from a tour around the board:
- Ethernet switch is a Realtek RTL8370N.
- Each Pi seems to have its own 12-pin header with GND/3V3 on one side, and nRPiBOOT, BT_nDisable, WL_nDisable, EEPROM, nWP, 5V, and GPIO18 down the left side.
- Each Pi also has its own microSD jack for flashing on each slot
- Each Pi also has a set of four LEDs. I'm guessing power/act, then Ethernet link/act, but not sure yet.
- There's an 'Always ON' switch that seems to allow the board to always power all the Pis, or not... though I'm not sure. I'll have to see what that switch does exactly.
- There are built in PWR_BTN and RESET momentary buttons.
- There is a built-in front panel header, with PWR_LED connections, PWR_BTN, and RESET pins available
- There are three fan headers—looks like they're PWM (they're all 4 pin)
- There are two 4-pin POE1/POE2 headers near the Ethernet jacks, so I'm guessing there would be a way to add a PoE header. Not sure.
- On the back side, there is a space for an M.2 2280 M-key device (e.g. NVMe SSD) and microSD card for each pi (though it doesn't follow a 1-6 order, so make sure you note which slot goes where!)
- There's a chip labeled "6679GM 946118" on the back near the power input. Not sure what it is for.
- The USB 2.0 ports are driven through a CoreChips SL2.1A USB 2.0 HUB TT0122A21.
- Near the power/reset buttons, there's an STC Micro 15W408AS, with a 'Enhanced 8051 Central Processing Unit' inside. I'm guessing this is the MCU that controls power on the board.
- On the top, near an oscillator and the Ethernet switch chip, there's an IC labeled "ATMCL908 24C08N SU27 D", not sure what it is though.
I can confirm that the Chassis-connector power button and LED work as expected, and I've had one node boot up successfully.
Power supply shipped with my unit is a 19V 5.26A, or 100W (99.94w, but whatever) and my one Pi CM4 boots up. I haven't hooked up HDMI or network yet, but that's next on the list.
Can also confirm that the two Noctua Fans connected or operating as expected, albeit at full speed.
The unit powered off (with LEDs on the board on) draws ~2.0 watts according to my Kill-A-Watt, and powered on with a single CM4, Micro SD, and NVMe drive is drawing ~6.3W at peak and is idling at ~4.6W.
I'll be able to update more findings over the next few days.
EDIT: Just a note (not a gripe), the CM4 heatsink I'm using is definitely a little bit annoying to install with the unit. Not an issue, but definitely makes hot-swapping modules effectively impossible if this is installed in a chassis of any kind.
@danmanners - Hmm... that's the same one I'm using. It looks like the little flat screws that hold the heatsink on can't but up against the risers in each of the four corners :(
D'oh!
Migrated over my MicroSD and NVMe from one of my Waveshare BaseBoard (B) and have TalosOS up and operational, as well as HDMI via capture card.
At least according to my Ubnt EdgeSwitch, it doesn't see any additional MAC Addresses or management IPs, so my immediate guess is that Realtek chip is unmanaged.
Some notes from a tour around the board:
- Ethernet switch is a Realtek RTL8370N.
- Each Pi seems to have its own 12-pin header with GND/3V3 on one side, and nRPiBOOT, BT_nDisable, WL_nDisable, EEPROM, nWP, 5V, and GPIO18 down the left side.
- Each Pi also has its own microSD jack for flashing on each slot
- Each Pi also has a set of four LEDs. I'm guessing power/act, then Ethernet link/act, but not sure yet.
- There's an 'Always ON' switch that seems to allow the board to always power all the Pis, or not... though I'm not sure. I'll have to see what that switch does exactly.
- There are built in PWR_BTN and RESET momentary buttons.
- There is a built-in front panel header, with PWR_LED connections, PWR_BTN, and RESET pins available
- There are three fan headers—looks like they're PWM (they're all 4 pin)
- There are two 4-pin POE1/POE2 headers near the Ethernet jacks, so I'm guessing there would be a way to add a PoE header. Not sure.
- On the back side, there is a space for an M.2 2280 M-key device (e.g. NVMe SSD) and microSD card for each pi (though it doesn't follow a 1-6 order, so make sure you note which slot goes where!)
- There's a chip labeled "6679GM 946118" on the back near the power input. Not sure what it is for.
- The USB 2.0 ports are driven through a CoreChips SL2.1A USB 2.0 HUB TT0122A21.
- Near the power/reset buttons, there's an STC Micro 15W408AS, with a 'Enhanced 8051 Central Processing Unit' inside. I'm guessing this is the MCU that controls power on the board.
- On the top, near an oscillator and the Ethernet switch chip, there's an IC labeled "ATMCL908 24C08N SU27 D", not sure what it is though.
https://wiki.wisdpi.com/raspberry-pi-cm4/rpi-cm4-itx-cluster
@tltangliang - Oh excellent! Thanks for posting that. Looks like the switch is basically unmanaged, and the two Ethernet ports are just hanging off it in addition to the 6 internal ports then.
That site also answers some other questions I had, like:
- The six green LEDs are 'ACT' LEDs for each of the individual Pis.
- The pinout of the ATX 12V input
- LED mapping for each of the Pis
- The 4-pin header by CM #1 is actually ARGB (controlled via GPIO pin 18). That's cool!
As @danmanners, myself, and some others get into testing this board, we may have more questions too. Is there a specific support forum or email we can contact? I know I got an email directly from one of the devs, and I'll share feedback there, but it would also be nice to know a central place so other users could also provide feedback or get guidance.
Edit: Looks like there's a forum but it's still being set up a bit. Is that the best place to direct users?
I'll second everything @geerlingguy said.
Also going to see if I can control the addressable RGB via Kubernetes somehow, because why not, lol.
@tltangliang - Oh excellent! Thanks for posting that. Looks like the switch is basically unmanaged, and the two Ethernet ports are just hanging off it in addition to the 6 internal ports then.
That site also answers some other questions I had, like:
- The six green LEDs are 'ACT' LEDs for each of the individual Pis.
- The pinout of the ATX 12V input
- LED mapping for each of the Pis
- The 4-pin header by CM Test SATA adapter (I/O Crest 4 port Marvell 9215) #1 is actually ARGB (controlled via GPIO pin 18). That's cool!
As @danmanners, myself, and some others get into testing this board, we may have more questions too. Is there a specific support forum or email we can contact? I know I got an email directly from one of the devs, and I'll share feedback there, but it would also be nice to know a central place so other users could also provide feedback or get guidance.
Edit: Looks like there's a forum but it's still being set up a bit. Is that the best place to direct users?
I think the forum can be working now. https://forum.wisdpi.com/
Hmm... this looks awfully similar to 52Pi's DeskPi Super6C, which retails for $199.
The Cluster Mini-ITX board is $200 on DWMZone and shipping was $40ish. Shipping is about the same on 52Pi. So the question is, who actually makes the board, and what's the board's most 'official' name? :D
Great Question. Let's find out..
Hmm... this looks awfully similar to 52Pi's DeskPi Super6C, which retails for $199.
The Cluster Mini-ITX board is $200 on DWMZone and shipping was $40ish. Shipping is about the same on 52Pi. So the question is, who actually makes the board, and what's the board's most 'official' name? :D
Thanks for clarifying that! I guess we should update the name on the site, then, and also add a reference to both locations in the description.
Hey guys, would either of you by chance have a 3d Printer? I got this board, and designed an IO shield for the Super6c but don't have a 3D printer to try to print it out just yet.
Would you be willing to make sure all of the holes line up? As always, great work, I really appreciate the work you put into your videos.
thin_ITX_IO_Shield_Super6c.scad.txt
(It is labeled thin ITX, but there is a customizer that you can toggle Standard ATX or Thin ATX. The case I happen to be using is a Thin ITX case.)
FYI I've purchased a DeskPi Super6C board and am using it to test the SOQuartz module. Booted Manjaro ok, but need to rejig the USB driver. Initial details and picture on the SOQuartz issue here: https://github.com/geerlingguy/raspberry-pi-pcie-devices/issues/336#issuecomment-1190668987
Hey guys, would either of you by chance have a 3d Printer? I got this board, and designed an IO shield for the Super6c but don't have a 3D printer to try to print it out just yet.
Would you be willing to make sure all of the holes line up? As always, great work, I really appreciate the work you put into your videos.
thin_ITX_IO_Shield_Super6c.scad.txt
(It is labeled thin ITX, but there is a customizer that you can toggle Standard ATX or Thin ATX. The case I happen to be using is a Thin ITX case.)
Hey @drifterdave; my apologies for the delay. I don't have a functional 3D printer, but I'm hoping to get one working in the next 2-3 months, so I should be able to validate everything for you then!
Original URL was: https://pipci.jeffgeerling.com/boards_cm/cm4-cluster-mini-itx.html
New URL is: https://pipci.jeffgeerling.com/boards_cm/deskpi-super6c.html
@drifterdave - I'm printing the shield as we speak (STL file attached). I'll let you know how it lines up!
DeskPi_Super6c_IO_Shield.stl.txt
@geerlingguy @danmanners Thank you so much! Hopefully it fits well and I can order one to be made :).
@drifterdave - It's close but needs more tolerances; on my board one of the vertical HDMI ports is slanted a bit, and otherwise, almost everything looks like it needs to go down a bit to fit correctly. The power port is the furthest off though:
I might mess with OpenSCAD and see if I can get the tolerances dialed in better. I feel like the QC on the finished port locations is not going to be as precise as their mechanical drawings!
Hmm very interesting, on my board the power jack is much closer to the edge than it seems yours is, I actually measured off the board as opposed to the mechanical drawings. I think you are right, tolerances are gonna be tough with the inconsistency, lol.
@geerlingguy.. No video for it in a fully working Mode on your channel yet? 🥇
Hmm very interesting, on my board the power jack is much closer to the edge than it seems yours is, I actually measured off the board as opposed to the mechanical drawings. I think you are right, tolerances are gonna be tough with the inconsistency, lol.
Heh... I noticed the solder joints on some of the points were a bit haphazard. All are good, but some of the ports are a little high/low—even the LEDs are all over the place. So yeah, I'm guessing everyone will need a little tweaking. I might just add a bunch of extra space (like +/-1mm in each dimension) and live with 'panel gaps'.
You should build the maximum out of that board, put 6 Raspberry CM 8Gb with eMMC & 6x 1TB SSDs, Watercooling all Processors or using 6 ICE Towers, power it with a decent power supply, clock the heck out of it and test its limits. That should be a very beasty NAS Server. Give the manufacturer your feedback on that setup and let them produce a casing for it, that can be used both as a desktop and a 19" server unit using Adapters. If it passes that test, it would be very useful as a NAS and in Home Automation ;)
Working on a cluster configuration here: https://github.com/geerlingguy/deskpi-super6c-cluster
@drifterdave - After four iterations, I have the ports all lined up:
Here are the relevant files:
Awesome thank you! I'm going to see if I can get a buddy to print it and see how well it fits mine.
V4 fits my case as well! Although the sides could be a little taller, it doesn't fit tightly without the motherboard behind it. Thank you for making the tweaks to make everything line up @geerlingguy !
