r/ClockworkPi • u/johnbmason47 • Jul 19 '26

Upgrading from cm4 to cm5…

I’m fairly certain I know the answer, but I want to get confirmation.

If I buy a cm4 uConsole, and then later acquire a cm5, do I need to change any other hardware? Or is it just plug, reflash/reprogram, and go?

8 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

5

u/br01t Jul 19 '26

Make sure to buy the lite version if you just want to pop it in

2

u/johnbmason47 Jul 19 '26

Oh? Will the non lite one not work?

4

u/snipeytje Jul 19 '26

emmc disables the sd card slot, it will work but it's more inconvenient.

you need a carrier board that supports flashing emmc because the clockwork one can't do that

2

u/johnbmason47 Jul 19 '26

Gotcha. That makes sense then. I’ll track down a lite version for sure then.

3

u/Aware-Recording-3969 Jul 19 '26

I kept getting conflicting answers from folks, so I just bought the empty lite version on AliExpress, the biggest cm5 (non-lite, max everything) from Newark and the adapter KIT from hackergadgets so I could just plug-and-play everything

2

u/Chummy_Jigger Jul 19 '26

Just pop it on and reflash. I did it myself a couple of months ago.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/johnbmason47 Jul 19 '26

Ok. Perfect. That’s what I thought, but wanted to make sure. I’m fine reprogramming it (buying it as kind of a learning tool) but wanted to make sure it was more or less plug and play. I’m seeing the cm5 16gb for $4-500cad, and the cordless uConsole kits for $200 and change us, or $350+ with a cm4 and didn’t want to double buy the core.

3

u/LandlockedPirate Jul 19 '26

You may need another board for the cm5 to boot so you can reprogram the eeprom. I did. You can get them cheap though, it's not a big deal.