Seeed launched a $195, Raspberry Pi CM4 based "ReTerminal" HMI device, equipped with a 5-inch, 1280 x 720 touch screen, encryption chip, WiFi/BT, GbE, micro-HDMI, CSI, 2x USB and 40-pin and PCIe Extension. Seeed announced a modular human machine interface (HMI) device based on Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4. ReTerminal will be available for pre-orders later this month, starting at $195 and featuring a 5-inch touch screen. ReTerminal rendered image, front and back (click on the image to zoom in) Although it has a compact size of 140 x 95 x 21 mm and features similar to mobile devices (such as an accelerometer), it does not mention battery support. The device uses [email protection] DC power supply through the USB Type-C port.
Like most systems and carrier boards based on Raspberry Pi CM4, ReTerminal provides a 40-pin GPIO connector for Raspberry Pi HAT expansion. Like many products, it uses the PCIe Gen2 x1 interface of the module for expansion. ReTerminal GUI display (left) and detailed view (click the picture to enlarge) No mention of M.2 or mini-PCIe, only an external, rear "vertical high-speed expansion interface", with PCIe x1, USB 2.0 host, 26x GPIO and PoE interface. Optional modules include microphone array/speaker, LoRaWAN, 5G/4G, ZigBee, Sub-1GHz, PoE and Ethernet switch. ReTerminal module (click on the image to enlarge) This description, the above picture, the M4 mounting nut, and the description of "all components and ports on the device are installed on both sides of the surface" indicate that Seeed is launching a series of customized expansion modules in a product plastic case. These plugins will be supported by the "active community".
The 40-pin connector supports the standard Raspberry Pi HAT. However, the picture above seems to show a 40-pin closed I/O module inserted, which shows that Seeed can also provide a series of 40-pin HATs in custom modules. Seeed offers many HATs and other Pi add-ons, including its most recent WM1302 Raspberry Pi HAT equipped with LoRaWAN.
The 5-inch 1280 x 720 pixel IPS display with capacitive multi-touch function has a pixel density of 293 PPI. Seeed said that by contrast, most 5-inch touch screens have a resolution of 800 x 480. Side view of ReTerminal (click the image to enlarge) ReTerminal runs Debian Linux on Raspberry CM4, which provides the same 1.5GHz quad-core Cortex-A72 Broadcom BCM2711 as on RPi 4. It uses a model with 4GB LPDDR4 and 32GB eMMC. There is no mention of the 8GB option. The device provides 802.11-ac with Bluetooth 5.0 BLE, which may be provided through CM4.
The system is equipped with a GbE port, 2 USB 2.0 host ports and a micro HDMI port that supports [Email Protection]. There is a 2-channel MIPI-CSI interface that supports optional cameras through a quarter-inch camera bracket.
It is also worth noting that the Microchip ATECC608A encryption chip is used for hardware-based secure storage and can store up to 16 keys. The secure element supports asymmetric signature, verification, secure boot and key agreement functions.
ReTerminal provides a variety of additional functions, including digital light sensors, accelerometers, and RTC. You can also get a power button, 3 user keys and 4 LEDs. There seems to be a speaker and some antenna brackets.
ReTerminal will start pre-orders later this month for a price of $195. No shipping date is listed. You can sign up for notifications and a $5 early bird coupon here. More information can be found in Seeed's announcement and product/shopping page.