StereoPi is going to Crowd Supply to pitch an open-spec “StereoPi v2” stereoscopic camera board that works with the Raspberry Pi CM4. The v2 adds a Type-C port and advances to GbE and 802.11ac.

In Dec. 2019, Russia-based Virt2real found Crowd Supply success with a StereoPi stereoscopic camera board that works with the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3 (CM3). Now operating under the StereoPi name, the company has posted a Crowd Supply page for a second-gen model that uses the new Raspberry Pi CM4.

StereoPi v2 with RPi cameras (left) and reverse view showing RPi CM4
(click images to enlarge)

No pricing is available yet for the StereoPi v2, but you can sign up to be notified of the project launch. The StereoPi v1 started at $69 for the board alone. Some packages included a CM3 module and various cameras.

As before, the open-spec StereoPi v2 can capture, save, livestream, and process real-time stereoscopic video and images for robotics, AR/VR, computer vision, drone instrumentation, and panoramic video. The image above confirms that the board continues to support the official Raspberry Pi Cameras. There were no details on other supported cameras.

Although the board has been substantially redesigned, there are only a few new features that are not already provided by the RPi CM4. Notably, instead of the micro-USB, there is USB Type-C port that adds power delivery support. There are also two configurable power switch pins that exploit the CM4’s PMIC for finer grained power management, as well as some hackable I2C camera line pins.

Like the v1, the v2 supplies a microSD slot, Ethernet port, dual USB host ports, dual MIPI-CSI camera connectors, and 40-pin GPIO. The HDMI port has shrunk to a micro-HDMI.

StereoPi v2 detail view (left) and StereoPi v1 detail view
(click images to enlarge)

The Raspberry Pi CM4 delivers Raspberry Pi 4 like functionality within a compact, 55 x 40mm footprint. The CM4 runs Linux on a Broadcom BCM2711 SoC with 4x 1.5GHz Cortex-A72 cores. It provides a GbE controller with PoE support and optional 802.11ac with BT 5.0. RAM options up to 8GB and eMMC to 32GB are also the same as with the RPi 4.

The CM4 switches from the SODIMM connector of the RPi CM3+ and CM3 to low speed and high speed 100-pin, perpendicular Hirose DF40 connectors. This enables more I/O on a smaller 55 x 40mm footprint but prohibits backward compatibility.

StereoPi v2 portside view
(click image to enlarge)

StereoPi makes special note of the CM4’s speedy wireless module, which is supported with advanced wireless management features such as powering down the radios via software. New multifunctional GPIOs provide power on/off for wireless while driving new WiFi and BT LEDs that have been added to the StereoPi. The project also notes the advance to native Gigabit Ethernet and new support for the RPi PoE HAT.

 
Further information

The StereoPi v2, which we saw on Tom’s Hardware, will launch soon for an undisclosed price on this Crowd Supply page. More information may eventually be posted on the StereoPi website.