Paragon Project: Unofficial Compute Module 5

Unofficial Compute Module 5 Title Image

One of the most entertaining aspects to the Raspberry Pi 5 announcement was the comments section. A shocking number of people ignored the Pi 5 completely and asked about a Compute Module 5. Well, Arturo182 has fulfilled everybody’s wishes by hacking together this awesome unofficial Compute Module 5.

It’s a project that integrates the Raspberry Pi 5 into the Compute Module size and shape.

Of course, as it says on the PCB, the Compute Module 5 is “Just a meme”, “Not serious”. But this is the best meme board you’re ever going to see. I guarantee it.

Unofficial Compute Module 5
Credit: Arturo182.

Hardware

This unofficial Compute Module 5 makes it possible to hook up your Raspberry Pi 5 to a board that usually takes a Compute Module 4.

In this picture, Arturo182 has the Raspberry Pi 5 connected to a Cytron CM4 Maker Board:

CM5 with a CM4 Maker Board
Credit: Arturo182.

So obviously, it’s a little bit of a headache with all the ribbon cables and adapters, but it’s definitely doable! But with the 3D-printed standoffs to keep the Raspberry Pi 5 mounted on top of the Unofficial CM5, I find this setup really aesthetically pleasing.

Under the right lighting, it’s got a super cyberpunk-y feel to it.

The customized PCB has all the key ports you could want from your Raspberry Pi 5 – PCIe, USB-C, MicroSD, two HDMIs, two CSI/DSIs, a USB-A, and a connector to the GPIO pins.

It’s not, however, a perfect 1-to-1 match with the CM4.

This is a conversation on Mastodon. Proxfox Virtual Environment asks "is there anything passed through the CM4 connector that can't be emulated this way?"
arturo182 answers "There are some pins that are not available on the Pi 5 that are on the CM4 like GLOBAL_EN, BOOT, LED_ACTIVITY, FLASH_WP, EMMC voltage selection. But most of the time you can life without them :D"
Credit: Arturo182.

Other than that though, what could you possibly ask for?

Conclusion

This is the kind of creative solution that I live for. Arturo182 has some of the best projects around (if you haven’t checked out his Hackaday page, you should).

If you’re still not sure what to do with a Compute Module, we’ve got you covered:

And, of course, if you want to see more Paragon Projects, you can just click on this button:

What would you do with a CM5?

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