SFERA LABS Strato Pi CM – Strato Pi CM Duo Raspberry Pi OS Image Instructions

: June 9, 2024
: SFERA LABS

Table of Contents

Introduction
Strato Pi Conﬁguration
System access
References
Read User Manual Online (PDF format)
Download This Manual (PDF format)

SFERA logo1 Strato Pi CM – Strato Pi CM Duo
Raspberry Pi OS image

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Introduction

This document describes the conﬁguration of a Strato Pi CM or Strato Pi CM Duo with Raspberry Pi OS pre-installed when purchased directly from Sfera Labs. Moreover it provides for a quick start guide to promptly use your device.
OS Conﬁguration
Raspberry Pi OS version
Raspberry Pi OS Lite
Release date: September 22nd 2022
System: 32-bit
Kernel version: 5.15
Debian version: 11 (bullseye)
User
Username: pi
Password: raspberry
Networking
The network conﬁguration is unchanged from its defaults: DHCP is enabled on the Ethernet interface (eth0) and the hostname is set to “raspberrypi”.
On most networks with a DHCP server available you should be able to reach the unit as “raspberrypi.local”.
SSH
SSH access with password authentication is enabled on the standard port 22.

Strato Pi Conﬁguration

Kernel module
The latest version (at the time of provisioning) of the Strato Pi Kernel module is installed, conﬁgured to load at boot and its sysfs ﬁles accessible to the user pi.
All details available at: https://github.com/sfera-labs/strato-pi-kernel- module
RTC
The I²C bus is enabled and the “i2c-tools” package and the RTC conﬁguration services and scripts are installed.
The OS is therefore setup to update and use the RTC-stored date and time.
For more details refer to the product User Guide.
Dual SD card
The “sdio” overlay is enabled, which is required on Strato Pi CM Duo to access the SD card on the secondary bus.
To this end, the following line is added to /boot/conﬁg.txt: dtoverlay=sdio,bus_width=4,poll_once=off
Serial console
The Linux serial console is enabled by default on the ttyAMA0 device, which is connected to Strato Pi CM’s RS-485 interface. The baud rate is set to 115200.
You can therefore access the console connecting a host computer to the RS-485 interface using, for instance, a USB adapter and any serial communication application.
Note that, because the RS-485 hardware interface is half-duplex (meaning that both ends cannot transmit simultaneously) and the Linux console echoes each character it receives, rapid sending of multiple characters, like when pasting a whole command to the console, would result in corrupted text both ways.
To disable the console to use the RS-485 interface for other purposes, refer to the product User Guide.
Quick Start
Power on
Connect the +/- terminal block pins to a suitable power supply, with 9-28 Vdc output, able to supply at least 6W, or more if you have USB connected devices.
Refer to the product User Guide for detailed power supply requirements.
Switch on the power supply and wait for the unit to boot up.
You should see the blue ON LED start blinking, followed by interleaved periods of steady on and less regular blinks. Towards the end of the boot process the TX LED will blink and ﬁnally, approximately 30 seconds from power on, the ON LED will stay on.
https://www.sferalabs.cc/product/ftdi-usb-to-rs-485-adapter/

System access

The simplest way to access the system is to connect it to a network with DHCP service and login via SSH.
Connect the Ethernet cable and make sure you see the LEDs of the Ethernet port active.
Use your favourite SSH client application from your host computer connected to the same network and use “raspberrypi.local” as address. For instance, from a Linux terminal: $ ssh [email protected]
If the connection is successful, enter the password (“raspberry”) and you are ready to use Strato Pi CM.
If the connection does not succeed, try to ping “raspberrypi.local”. If the unit responds, you should be able to see its IP address in the ping responses, so you can try to use this IP for the SSH connection, e.g.: $ ssh [email protected]
If you were not able to retrieve the IP address of the unit, access your router, modem, or DHCP server control panel and ﬁnd the IP address that has been assigned to Strato Pi.
Alternatively use a network scanner application to list all the devices connected to the network and search for Strato Pi.
In any case, it should appear on the network as a standard Raspberry Pi board.
If all of the above fails or you don’t have a DHCP-enabled network to work on, you can attempt connecting Strato Pi CM with an Ethernet cable directly to your host computer’s Ethernet port. Depending on your computer’s OS and network conﬁguration you might be able to reach the unit as described above.
A ﬁnal option is to access the console through the RS-485 serial interface as described above. From here you can login typing username (pi) and password (raspberry) and check the IP address of the unit using the “ifconﬁg” command.
You could even use the system directly through RS-485 serial console; it is not very userfriendly, but possible.
Usage
Once you are connected to the unit you can use it as a standard Raspberry Pi OS installation to conﬁgure your required network settings and install your application stack.
As a quick test, turn on the L1 LED typing: $ echo 1 > /sys/class/stratopi/led/status

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Strato Pi CM Raspi OS
January 2023
Revision 001