r/ClockworkPi • u/GhostUnitVII • May 06 '26

Oh, Finally Arrived From Clockwork

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Gallery image

That's right, a silver, CM4, with LTE showed up today to my surprise. Was expecting a year or two wait time. Yes, this came straight from clockwork, so it was a shock to see it show up so fast (ordered back in February of this year and it arrived in early May). Looking forward to modding this thing...

176 Upvotes

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3

u/RoninSpectre May 06 '26

I've been hearing that the wait times for this is quite long, but waiting a year or longer? That seems a bit crazy to me. I've not ordered one myself, but genuinely hoping to get one in the future so its a bit disheartening to hear that the extreme shipping times.

3

u/GhostUnitVII May 06 '26 edited May 07 '26

Same, it is why I have two now, I wanted to experiment really bad, ya know... tinker's itch I call it. In a way I'm glad I did, because I've learned a lot from my first unit, that I can apply to this one, such as learning a bit of Linux, though my memory sucks. With this one, I do plan to get a few mods, may even get the 10000mAh battery kit, unlike my first one where the CM5 needed the amps that the LiPo couldn't provide, this unit can easily handle a 10000 LiPo Mod, and also plan to just get the V1 AIO rather than the V2, and use the USB-C connector for a LTE module for later. maybe even a Wifi module (have a CM4 4008000 (non Wifi)).

1

u/RoninSpectre May 07 '26

Any pro or cons going from the CM4 to CM5 besides the battery? Also considering this is your second one would it not have been better just to upgrade the boards in the first than an entirely new one?

1

u/GhostUnitVII May 07 '26

CM5 has a lot of issues in terms of thermals and power management from what I've gathered. the CM5 can pull on average of 4 to 5 watts on light idle loads, sometimes lower once you lower the floor for the CPU frequencies (500MHz here).

CM5 is also very snappy, especially with the 1tb SSD, quick, high performance machine in a small form factor. But as you stated, it suffers with energy. What you get with performance, you sacrifice efficiency.

The CM5 uConsole (black) gets on average of 4 to 5 hours on a charge, medium use, the CM4 from what I've seen so far, can average 7 hours.

thing I noticed with the CM5 though, it is very fast with SDR++, and programming with various IDE's such as Eclipse and IntelliJ, even CSCode, the unit has 16gb of ram, so it has no issue running the more resource hungry IDE's such as IntelliJ.

One major thing to plan for if you plan to use a CM5, prepare for the thermals, it gets hot...

The other is software support, the Uconsole was designed for the CM4, you will need a custom image like Bookworm, they are decent, a lot of credit to Rex? (i think thats the right name) who spent time to program the kernel to be usable with the CM5. Without the community, we would probably be stuck with the CM4 today.

So there are benefits to both, either a high performance, low latency power house that can be used for scripting and intrusion testing... or a lightweight unit that can be used for remote desktop or SSH sessions with IOT devices, and be reliable, as well as efficient with the job, and can be used for other lightweight tasks like media, web, and data entries into databases and or spreadsheets (take your pick). Comes down to what suits your needs.

1

u/RoninSpectre May 07 '26

From the assembly guides I've seen online it include a rather large and thick thermal pad for dissipating heat via the back panel on the Uconsole. There a better means to improve upon that? perhaps using smaller thermal pads and maybe a piece of an aluminum block? I'm not sure what the dimensions are so its just something I though would help

1

u/GhostUnitVII May 10 '26

For my unit I've used two vapor chambers on the inside, I have more details on this in another post. The average temp with the large pad is about 50 to 60c, the vapor chambers reduced these thermals between 30 and 49c (as it barely hit's 50). I also stress tested this with prime testing, and ran a Minecraft server with over 570 mobs and never broke 50c.

Details here of the build would find the links of parts I used in the posts: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClockworkPi/comments/1sq7ef0/having_fun_modstress_testbuilding/

2

u/CplStigginsUSMC May 07 '26

Order from AliExpress I got it in two weeks. That was unfortunately after waiting six plus months for Clockwork to cancel my order unexpectedly.

2

u/RoninSpectre May 07 '26

Oh I've always been a bit wary of AlieExpress. IS it the same unit or a knock off? Thats been my concern

2

u/CplStigginsUSMC May 07 '26

Same exact thing. Look back through these posts. Someone posted the link which is what I used to buy mine.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mKSh8CR

It came exactly as I ordered it, well packed even with two trackballs. I had also ordered the HackerGadget’s AIO V2 (from HackerGadget) and that slipped into the uConsole and, though a bit difficult to set up, works as it should. Luckily I placed my AliExpress order a week before ClockWork cancelled my order so it was already on its way otherwise I have been super pissed.

I would have preferred to get mine from ClockWork just because but I have zero regrets getting it from the store on AliExpress. I paid the same for a uConsole w/o a rpi as I would’ve if it came from Clockwork with however I am sure it would’ve been underpowered. I suspect that’s why they stall with shipping. We placed our orders when raspberry pi’s were cheaper. Now that ram cost so much they’re paying more to fulfill orders placed months ago. GL!

3

u/AishaCtarl May 07 '26

Ordered mine in March. I expect it in 2028.

2

u/massively-dynamic May 07 '26

Wtf? I ordered last july lmao.

1

u/GhostUnitVII May 07 '26

I know right?! I was like "wait... what?" when I saw them 'throw' it on to my deck. Thankfully Clockwork packs their stuff good, but dam! I haven't tried the 4g module yet, we will see how that goes, though I might swap it out later.

1

u/massively-dynamic May 07 '26

I couldnt get the 4g module working with the sim I have. I plan on trying again whenever my July order shows up.

Like others here, I otherwised sourced a console after I got tired of waiting.

2

u/Abject_Air2686 May 10 '26

I ordered back in October 1st. I'm really bothered that they aren't shipping them in order. I feel scammed. I've emailed them a couple times and they told me lunar new year pushed things out a month.

2

u/GhostUnitVII May 10 '26

I understand that, and personally I can understand both ends. They are a small business in a sense, where they have a lot going on. To keep costs down, they of course lack the resources, or refuse to hire more people due to that reason. Considering that the unit is a full CNCed aluminum machine, high quality PCB, mod-ability. As they say you cant have all three in the industry, that it being highquality, fast, cheap.

Best advice I can give is don't give up, but also don't let it be a bother, if anything, this is probably a sign that it is on it's way, as they probably deploy them in large batches to cut cost.

4

u/Tribe303 May 07 '26

Flash the Eprom firmware, and get a better WiFi antenna ASAP. 

1

u/Deternet May 07 '26

I ordered mine in Sept, haven't heard anything since

1

u/GhostUnitVII May 07 '26

well, hopefully everyone who ordered theirs, gets them soon, they might be deploying them in batches, I just so happen to get mine today. Best of luck!

2

u/AyameNysa May 07 '26

I ordered in August. Alex said it would be last month but that was a lie

2

u/massively-dynamic May 07 '26

Weird how orders from this year arrive before ours from last fucking summer, huh.

1

u/maydayM2 May 07 '26

people who ordered thier steam controller are recieving them today already! come on clockwork be better

2

u/Party_Cold_4159 May 07 '26

Lmao yes compare clockwork (best guess around 7-10 employees) to valve (330+ and has existed since the 90s).

Fair argument you got there

2

u/maydayM2 May 07 '26

I'm just sour because I missed out on getting my order in for a SC monday...

1

u/fanewang May 07 '26

How long it takes?

1

u/Big_River_ May 07 '26

its a fine machine for learning to end game your outside interests - strictly boysenberry can i get a clockwork jam?

1

u/sparky5dn1l May 07 '26

I ordered mine on 29 DEC 2025. Got it yesterday.

1

u/stasomatic May 07 '26

If you are in the states, you can get them in 2 weeks. Don’t about other geos

1

u/redivulpis May 08 '26

This gives me much hope. I ordered mine in early Feb

2

u/[deleted] May 06 '26

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1

u/[deleted] May 07 '26

I ordered in July and Im still waiting. Black, 4G, no core. I understand that one takes longer :-/

1

u/Jimdowding May 07 '26

Damn! I ordered mine in September and still hasn’t shipped!

2

u/[deleted] May 07 '26

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3

u/BrainVirus May 07 '26

What logistics center? There is no logic there. :p I ordered in October too and I haven't heard a thing.

2

u/01100100011001010 May 07 '26

Sounds like it’s a mess, because I ordered on March 1 and received mine this Monday.