CM4/CM5 adapter boards: ClockworkPi, HackerGadgets, lulu
Every CM4 or CM5 sits on an adapter in the CM3 socket: the $19 open-source original, HackerGadgets' $23 board with NVMe and USB 3.0, or lulu's $20 CM5 kit.
What it takes
- Purchase required
- Disassembly
Difficulty 2 of 3 — moderate.
Details
trinity's directory has the comparison: ClockworkPi's RPi adapter ($19, open source, no NVMe or USB 3, CM4/CM5); HackerGadgets' adapter ($23, closed, NVMe and USB 3, CM4/CM5, with a USB-C port and two DIP switches for RPIBOOT flashing, CM5 RTC battery contacts, PWM fan header and Ethernet routed to the expansion port); lululvlv's adapter ($20, CM5 only, part of the hack2you NVMe kit and the first NVMe option, with the drive on an expansion card); and HackerGadgets' Radxa variant ($23), the only board that makes a Radxa CM5 usable.
CM3, CM3+, CM4S, A-06 and R-01 need no adapter. HackerGadgets' board was on pre-order for September 2026 at the time of writing; the full kit has its own Expansion entry.
Links
Open at Forum threadRelated mods
A CM5 drops into the CM4 adapter for a faster CPU, up to 16 GB of RAM and USB 3.0 — get a Lite with WiFi, update its EEPROM, and mind the heat.
arm_freq up to 2000 with over_voltage and a faster GPU makes the CM4 noticeably livelier; two published recipes, and a clear warning not to try it on a CM5.
trinity's reference table of every compute core that fits the uConsole — ISA, RAM, eMMC, WiFi, OS support, adapter needed or not — plus the adapter boards.
An RK3588S module with up to 32 GB RAM on HackerGadgets' Radxa adapter: display, keyboard, USB and charging work, no onboard WiFi, mainline kernel since 2026.
ClockworkPi's own RK3399 module — two Cortex-A72 plus four A53, Mali-T864, 4 GB — needs no adapter; $129, with a smaller but real software base.
A single-core 1 GHz RISC-V module with 1 GB and no GPU — a terminal machine with long battery life, now sold out, with a small but determined software scene.