Breaking Down Barriers to Customization: Innovative Designs of Raspberry Pi-powered Industrial-Grade HMI
Seeed Studio obtained a new identity in 2021 in the Raspberry Pi field and became an approved Raspberry Pi design partner from just a one-stop Raspberry Pi reseller, which meant we had certified capability to design, create and manufacture, customize new and innovative projects and products with the Raspberry Pi, making the Raspberry Pi more accessible, versatile, and powerful.
And so it is! We have been pushing the boundaries of what is possible with open-source hardware, and empowering makers and manufacturers around the world to bring their ideas to life. And in this blog, I’d share a few pieces of stories about reTerminal DM‘s innovative design on customization possibilities.
Innovative Designs
Camera
If you have known reTerminal DM or went through its user manual or product page, you may find that there is an interesting design on its top, which is a CSI camera interface reserved on the reTerminal DM’s mainboard, supporting camera functions. Users who want to realize the need for photo collection or monitoring through this panel can realize it by customizing a camera. Those who do not have this need can keep the standard version.
Actually, this brilliant design was finally come to fruition thanks to the co-creation between Seeed and one of our clients.
A system integrator operates in the smart office industry, using the access control panel powered by Raspberry Pi 3. They have their own software development team and have over 20 years of experience in the vertical market.
They were looking for a new Raspberry Pi powered solution due to some reasons. That’s when they came to Seeed as we were designing the reTerminal DM. We shared our design concept and samples at that time with them, and they discussed the specific needs of the camera for facial recognition as the access control panel.
Based on their needs, our team improved the design to that included a camera for facial recognition, but also allowed for a version without the camera for customers who didn’t need it. We listened to their feedback and came up with a solution that worked for them, and for other customers who didn’t need the camera feature.
The client was thrilled with our solution which solved their problem and exceeded their expectations and chose us as their hardware supplier for access control.
Kindly notes: due to the limited space on the front panel, only small-sized cameras can be used. The currently rigorously tested solution uses the Raspberry Pi camera V2.0 driver board and Seeed customized camera IMX219-77. And the standard version of the reTerminal DM does not come with a camera opening on the front panel.
PCIe Expansion Card
It’s worth mentioning here that our efforts and achievements in reducing customization costs and shortening customization cycles are crucial points. While we were developing reTerminal DM, we recognized that industrial interface needs of each client might be different. We kept asking ourselves, how can we deliver a customized version which could satisfy the most needs in the shortest time and at the lowest cost we can?
That’s when we came up with a solution: we could separate the common customized module from the main board. Customers with customization needs could simply customize the sub-board with a PCIe expansion card, rather than retrofit the whole device, which would significantly make the customization easier. Flexible PCIe extensions design for NVME SSD, Dual 1000M Ethernet, Dual USB 3.0, COM Port RS485/232, and more customizations. This was a small but significant achievement in our efforts to provide a more efficient and cost-effective devices for our customers!
So as all you can see now, reTerminal DM supports a rich selection of expansion modules and accessories, making it suitable for a wide range of scenarios and requirements. We do have developed multiple expansion cards based on PCIe, USB, and I2C interfaces to meet different scenario requirements.
In addition, the reTerminal DM features an open PCIe bus of the CM4, providing support for a multitude of PCIe expansion modules, greatly facilitating customization needs. It features a PCIe interface that is derived from the CM4, which supports PCIe 2.0 and theoretically provides a maximum transmission speed of 5Gbps. This allows for the expansion of various high-speed interfaces such as Gigabit Ethernet and NVMe SSD. This also facilitates customization needs.
HDMI
What’s more, the reTerminal DM features a native HDMI interface from CM4, supporting up to 4K @ 60 fps video output. It is ideal for applications that require multiple displays, allowing users to output your content to external large screens.
Seeed's Agile Customization
With decades of ODM & OEM experience, our engineers and product experts are proficient in delivering customization services for popular open-source hardware platforms – NVIDIA® Jetson™, Raspberry Pi®️, Beagleboard®️, and more. For all our Raspberry Pi-based products, such as reTerminal DM, reTerminal, reRouter, and Edge Controller series, we could do so, helping every customer go from concept to product to business!
With Seeed Studio’s customization and manufacturing service, we are ready to bring your product concept to the market with Seeed Studio’s industrial capabilities from design, manufacturing, testing, certification, global distribution, and marketplace.
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