When we say small, we mean small – it’s 140 mm wide and 95 mm high, putting it in the lower end of the size range for a Raspberry Pi attached to a touchscreen. It’s a little bit thick though at 21 mm. However, this is not all because of the internal components – it’s not a full Raspberry Pi inside, but a special PCB with a Compute Module 4 installed, giving it the kind of power you would normally see in a Raspberry Pi 4. This makes it much slimmer than what you’d get if it was sitting on a Raspberry Pi 4.
The construction feels solid though, with a tough plastic case that includes plenty of ways to mount itself on walls, and brackets on both the rear and sides of the case, and even includes a standard camera tripod thread on the bottom of the case.
Practically minded
The buttons on the front of the case are fully programmable, as well as the STA- and USR-labelled LEDs. Seeed gives some simple instructions on how to program them on their website, as well as simple guides on building graphical interfaces with the touchscreen.
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Each side of the machine is used for some of the standard Raspberry Pi connections such as an Ethernet port, a HDMI port, and two USB 2.0. It also includes a full 40-pin GPIO in the same arrangement as any Raspberry Pi since the Raspberry Pi B+ redesign. As well as any extra components you can connect, it will also support standard HATs and an expansion system to add further functionality.
As this is a kind of display that is not built to be portable, it does lack a battery. It’s powered by a USB C cable, which could easily be built into wherever it’s installed, but also means it can make use of a standard mobile phone charger with a decent amp output. It’s not a negative, but it is something that we initially assumed it came with.
Full power
As you’d expect from hardware running on Raspberry Pi 4 chips, it runs extremely well. The touchscreen is responsive even when running the full OS, and the 1080 × 720 screen is high enough resolution that it doesn’t feel too awkward navigating the desktop and such. We’ve already got a few projects in mind that we want to use it for in a more permanent place, which is always a good thing after a review.
Verdict
10/10
Smaller than expected but a very cool, solid device for monitoring or controlling larger systems.