Within the before-times, when Raspberry Pi CM5s had been (comparatively) reasonably priced, I constructed various Pi clusters (instance), and probably the most annoying elements of the construct was flashing Raspberry Pi OS to all of the Pis.
One, two, and even three Pis is not an enormous deal, however when you hit 4+, the method of plugging the Compute Module right into a provider board, plugging that into a pc, managing Raspberry Pi Imager, and making an attempt to match up particulars like a hostname, MAC deal with, and the bodily Pi itself, will get annoying.
Solvable, however annoying.
Raspberry Pi has an answer for that, now. It is the CM5 Programming Jig (pictured above), certainly one of which they despatched for testing.
Due to a decent schedule this week, I solely obtained a number of hours to stand up to hurry. I have never gotten an end-to-end CM5 imaging line going, however I used to be capable of get many of the manner there.
Demo of the CM5 Programming Jig
For the tl;dr, you’ll be able to watch the video with an unboxing, full demonstration, and extra context right here:
However in the event you take pleasure in studying, skip the video and stick with it!
Programming and Testing Jigs
Earlier than speaking about Raspberry Pi’s Jig (which was developed in tandem with EDAtec), I might be remiss to not point out Everypin’s CM5 Flash Jig, which could be very intently associated, however works with Everypin’s open supply Python libraries and prices €2200 (about $2500 USD).
The Raspberry Pi model prices $600, and works out of the field with Raspberry Pi’s personal Pi imaging/administration instruments, like rpi-sb-provisioner (which runs on the Jig) and pi-gen.
Everypin did wonderful work documenting the CM5 check factors and their very own Jig, however a value properly over $2k makes it very troublesome to justify for smaller CM5 manufacturing runs.
The Raspberry Pi model is comparatively costly, however simpler to justify in the event you’re a small enterprise (and even manufacturing facility manufacturing line) provisioning lots of or 1000’s of Compute Modules.
Getting the Programming Jig Prepared
Raspberry Pi has documentation for the Programming Jig, so I will not rehash all that, however the primary course of is:
(Assuming the Programming Jig just isn’t already flashed): Flash Jig OS to the Jig utilizing Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0.11 or later.Construct your personal Raspberry Pi .img photos utilizing pi-genConfigure the Programming Jig by way of it is native net UIStart popping in CM5s to flash.
The LED on the Jig will begin flashing blue, and after a couple of minutes, when the CM5 is completed, it ought to change to inexperienced.
pi-gen to construct an OS Picture
Simply as a observe, after I tried constructing my very own Pi OS picture on my Mac working macOS Tahoe, I ran the included Docker script, and had to take a look at the arm64 department of the pi-gen software program.
Listed here are the contents of my config file used for picture technology:
ARCH=arm64
IMG_NAME=“jeffpios-trixie”
PI_GEN_RELEASE=“Jeff Geerling Pi OS”
USE_QEMU=0
# Account and SSH settings
FIRST_USER_NAME=“jgeerling”
PASSWORDLESS_SUDO=1
ENABLE_SSH=1
PUBKEY_ONLY_SSH=1
PUBKEY_SSH_FIRST_USER=“ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIA+PT1uOv/gmUyD+Dj++gQAMrmsXmGDtUesd1CrIRD1d jeff@macmini”
I generated a Trixie ‘Lite’ picture and copied that over to the Programming Jig utilizing magic-wormhole.
rpi-sb-provisioner to Provision the CM5s
The provisioner has it is personal net UI that you need to use to observe CM5 flashing progress. It would additionally log all profitable runs in a neighborhood manufacturing database with details about the CM5’s MAC deal with, serial quantity, and {hardware} specs.
I suppose it is as much as you to feed that information into different manufacturing methods, labeling workflows, and many others. And bigger operations will surely have extra automation for loading and unloading CM5s. It would not shock me if Raspberry Pi themselves use this or a model of it in their very own manufacturing traces.
I do know they had been engaged on CM4 check jigs years in the past after I visited the Sony manufacturing facility (see photograph above), but it surely used the extra fragile Hirose connectors, that are solely rated for round 30 insertions earlier than sign integrity just isn’t assured. I can think about feeding a thousand Pis a day into these connectors was a recipe for annoying quirks!
As an alternative, the Programming Jig has a ‘mattress of nails’ (a bunch of pogo pins) which goal check pad places on the underside of each CM5:
Way more repeatable, and this is identical form of setup I noticed them utilizing for Pi 4 manufacturing after I visited their manufacturing facility.
Conclusion
Truthfully, this isn’t one thing a person tinkerer may justify shopping for, even in the event you handle a number of small Pi clusters. However to some small companies and methods integrators, the CM5 Jig can be immensely helpful.
And in 5-10 years, in the event you begin seeing this stuff present up in used manufacturing facility surplus, know that they’ve somewhat CM5 tucked inside you may harvest 🙂
