This is one of the most secure computers in the world!
It looks like a hard drive, heck it even has a SATA connector!
But if I turn it around... that looks like HDMI!
And Ethernet!
What hard drive has Ethernet?
Well, you'll find out later, when I hack into this thing.
But before we get to that, I've been waiting forever to show you this.
This is the world's first commercial Raspberry Pi rackmount server.
Let me ... get this top off and we'll take a look inside.
Using the Axzez Interceptor board, this Raspberry Pi can hook up five hard drives to up to sixteen
power over ethernet ports, making it the perfect NVR, or Network Video Recorder.
I already showed off the Interceptor board when I built a Raspberry Pi gaming PC.
But this enclosure is really where this board shines.
The board has five SATA plugs for hard drives.
Then over here, these flat edge connectors go to 16 Power over Ethernet ports!
Why does that matter?
Well, Axzez also ships an OS that lets you configure the networking so you can plug in
up to 16 PoE cameras straight into the back of this thing!
You just plug all your cameras into the back, and the Pi will sit there recording content
all day.
This is their first five drive version, but it's... kinda heavy for a 1U server.
They have a new smaller three drive version that's probably a little more efficient.
In either case, you can buy the whole package: an Interceptor, a Compute Module 4, PoE expansion
boards, and extra power supplies, and Axzez will assemble it all for you.
The biggest holdup right now is software.
Apps like Shinobi are difficult to use.
And MotionEyeOS, which used to be easy to run on the Pi, isn't supported anymore.
I've been trying to get this thing to work with this Coral TPU and Frigate, so let me
know in the comments if you want a full video on setting up Network Video Recording!
Moving from rackmount to, well... everywhere mount, RAK Wireless sent over a WisGate Connect.
Now, this thing isn't quite unhackable like the Secure Compute Node I'll get to later,
but it's got its own specialty: flexibility.
The motherboard has tons of IO, from multiple Mini PCIe and M.2 slots to multiple built-in
networking and power options.
RAK also makes multiple enclosures, from this fanless enclosure with a built-in status OLED
to this IP67-rated outdoor enclosure!
It's well-built and well-documented, and you'll find these things mounted all over the place,
in businesses, at remote tower sites, even in places like shopping malls!
I haven't gotten into LoRa or LoRaWAN before, but this model includes a special wireless
technology called a LoRaWAN Gateway.
I might set it up outside later this year, but basically LoRaWAN gives you long range
wireless networking without any Internet!
Pair that with features like PoE and a dying gasp function that helps things turn off gracefully
during power loss, and this thing can be extremely reliable.
It's not even that expensive, as far as industrial gear goes.
You can get the board, LoRaWAN, an outdoor enclosure, some sensor boards, and a Compute
Module, for under five hundred bucks.
Wisgate also makes crazy gear like this Pi powered 5G base unit and now I'm wondering
if I need to start messing around with 5G.
It looks funky but the promise of a more open 5G wireless cell is tempting.
Next up is a whole kit of computers from EDATEC.
They're from China and they're building up a whole range of Compute Module 4 products.
They sent me a box with all of these, so I tested each one, and they really cover the
gamut: There's this tiny, silent Media box meant for TVs, and there's my new favorite
DIN rail computer, the CM4 Sensing.
Starting with the CM4 Media, this thing has a great finish—I mean seriously, even the
inside looks better than the outside of most hardware I test—and it comes in a multiple
colors.
It's silent except for these two stereo speakers, and it has a built-in camera and microphone.
The speakers aren't amazing...
[Jeff on screen] ...the chip on this new single board computer could be the start of a computing
revolution!
...but they work.
Probably better to just plug better speakers or headphones into the built-in minijack.
Mounting it somewhere where the camera position actually makes sense, though, might be tough.
Also, all the plugs aren't on the same same edge, so it might end up looking a little
messy on your desk.
But overall it's a neat package.
Another tiny computer is the CM4 Nano, which I'd say is very close to a Pi 4, just with
a more durable case and a few more interfaces.
Moving on to my favorite device of the batch, this is the CM4 Sensing.
It can sit on a desktop or mount on a DIN rail, and it has a lotta options that make
it useful in a business or industrial setting.
You can buy it with 4G LTE built in, and mine came with this Quectel modem.
It accepts a range of voltage inputs, and has a ton of opto-isolated digital IO along
with CANBUS and a ton of RS485 connections.
I love the layout, and taking it apart, it's definitely gonna be durable if you need to
run one of these in a place that has a lot of dust, vibration, high noise levels, that
sort of thing.
If you want the same thing, but even better, there's the CM4 Industrial.
It adds more digital IO, three analog channels, a built in relay, an extra network interface,
and a programmable button.
Just like the Sensing model, it can be mounted on a DIN rail and comes in a really nice metal
enclosure.
Rounding out the bunch, they also sell a CM4 IO Computer, which is literally a Compute
Module 4 IO Board, plus a Compute Module 4, in a box.
Now the box is pretty nice, and it includes a PWM fan, a power button, and a WiFi antenna,
but inside it's just the same old CM4 IO Board I use for most of my testing.
And this fan is quiet, but noticeable when it's running.
The power button is a little mushy but works fine.
The main selling point of the CM4 IO Computer is that you can buy one with a Compute Module
4, right now.
Heck, even DigiKey has stock, or at least they did, when I made this video.
Hopefully they don't sell out now.
But moving back to this strange box that I showed earlier...
It's the most secure Raspberry Pi Computer in the world.
It's called the Secure Edge Node, and it's made by a company called Zymbit.
I handed this thing over to Red Shirt Jeff and told him to break into it without triggering
any alarms.
He couldn't do that.
Right when he opened the cover, it was game over.
There are four pressure switches that trigger the tamper alarm right away.
And this thing is loaded with other hardware security tricks.
After those tamper switches, there's built-in encryption hardware, security modules, and
heck, even the Raspberry Pi inside is special!
It's baked into a tamper resistent casing, so you can't remove the extra security layers
without breaking it!
But why would you ever want something like this?
Well, besides the obvious—having a computer Red Shirt Jeff can't hack—there are a lotta
places that need this.
Think of devices like payment terminals, or IoT sensors that are deployed in public places.
You need to make sure hackers can't change settings on them, to do things like redirect
payments to their own bank accounts, or send back data that would throw off your measurements.
It's important to protect private data like encryption keys, and without a ton of physical
safeguards, it's impossible to do that if your computer's out in the world.
If someone tried hacking this, all the private data would be scrambled.
So let's look at how the Secure Compute Node does it.
If I boot up the module, it actually takes a little while, and there's this blue status
LED that flashes in different patterns.
It doesn't boot up like a normal Pi.
Zymbit actually loads custom firmware that doesn't allow re-flashing, and the Compute
Module is permanently attached to extra security hardware.
Because of that, these things are kinda one-and-done.
If anyone tries modifying the bootloader, or changing anything in the secure boot chain,
encryption keys will be destroyed and the Pi will never work again—on a hardware level.
Technically you could desolder the RAM and eMMC chip from the board, but good luck recovering
any data.
If you look here, the root filesystem is encrypted, and the keys for that are deleted if you tamper
with anything.
And it doesn't just have physical protection.
You can set temperature thresholds too.
Let's say you get some advanced hardware hacker who tries freezing everything with nitrogen—yes,
that's something people do.
Well, if the temperature goes above or below a set threshold, you can tell the module to
destroy everything.
What if someone unplugs the battery?
Well, you can detect that too.
What if someone just grabs the thing?
It has an accelerometer!
Basically, this is one of the most physically secure computing devices you can buy.
Certainly the most secure Raspberry Pi.
Of course, all that's null and void if your software's insecure.
Luckily, Zymbit offers a lot on that front too.
There are APIs to interact with all the hardware, and they give you access to secure wallets
and cryptography libraries.
There's hardware storage for up to 512 private keys and 128 foreign public keys, and they're
destroyed if anyone tries hacking the device.
These things are ready to deploy anywhere you need trusted computing in a low-trust
environment.
There are tons of warnings in the documentation, though—if you set one up for production
but you haven't tested everything, there's a good chance you're gonna end up with a paperweight.
If you're deploying devices like these, you really need to know your stuff, and work on
it in developer mode until you're sure it's ready for production.
And me?
I'm barely scraping the surface.
But I'm thinking of doing a deep dive on secure computing someday.
If you don't need quite this level of security, Zymbit also sells the Zymkey 4 I used on the
Compute Blade a few months ago, and that works with any Pi.
They're certainly upping the security game for Raspberry Pis!
Moving back towards industry use, Chipsee builds a ton of Compute Module 4 computers.
And today they sent me this: their 10.1" Industrial Panel PC.
It has a thick metal shell, and fit and finish is top-notch.
It's heavy, and they even have this rubber gasket to keep out dust and moisture.
It's IP65 rated, so if you mount it correctly, it's dustproof and at least mildly waterproof.
There are also VESA mounting holes on the back, and a bunch of IO.
There are isolated GPIO pins and buses like RS485 and CANBUS on this terminal block.
And booting it up the first time, I noticed the LCD quality is great, along with the capacitive
touch grid.
It didn't need any calibration, and the viewing angles are surprisingly good.
And when I browsed to my 'Risc-V Business' YouTube video, I was surprised to hear a built-in
speaker!
[Jeff on screen] ...I welcome another competitor in the chip space.
Of course I had to take the thing apart and look inside, and there it is, a nice little
speaker next to the GPIO buzzer.
The PC comes with a hardwaretest app that lets you test all the hardware interfaces,
including the buzzer.
I love to see it, especially since Chipsee publishes this app's source code on GitHub
so you can see how everything works.
Getting back into the guts, the board also has a cellular modem slot, and space for two
external antennas: one for WiFi, one for Cellular.
This PC has a little bit of everything, and now that I have it in my hands...
I'm thinking it might make the perfect Home Assistant wall panel!
We'll see.
For a few hundred bucks, you could do a lot worse.
The fit and finish is excellent, and besides a little issue with automatic updates and
the touchscreen driver, I have nothing but good things to say about it.
Now... going back to the more server-oriented side of things, PiKVM just sent me one of
their first production PiKVM v4 units, but...
I'm actually saving this for a video with my Dad over on Geerling Engineering.
We're gonna upgrade one of the studio PCs for remote control in a month or so, so go
subscribe over there if you wanna see more!
Last but not least, Cytron sent me this, their new CM4 Maker Board.
It's got all kinds of goodies.
There's a built-in Real Time Clock and buzzer, audio out, these special Grove and Stemma
Qt ports for prototyping, and a full GPIO header with status LEDs!
There's even a small M.2 port, and it fits this little 2242-size NVMe SSD they sent over.
I love the overall design and playfulness.
Cytron injects a lot of personality into their products.
Like this cardboard Pi 4 case's whimsical design, or heck, even the box everything came
in!
It's dripping with personality, and—love it or hate it—at least it's not boring!
Even the Maker Board itself has some whimsy.
You can sign your name on the silkscreen on the back!
But as with many Pi products, finding an Pi to use it with is still pretty hard.
Luckily, some of the devices I talked about today come with a Compute Module pre-installed.
Of course, that might be the only way to get a Compute Module for the short-term.
Until next time, I'm Jeff Geerling.