HatBRICK! Commander

PCIe board with 2-port Gen 2 switch.Compatible with Raspberry Pi 5.

Purchase

Packaging contents

- HatBRICK! Commander board
- 40mm PCIe FPC cable with controlled impedance
- 4 standoffs
- 9 M2.5 screws
- A set of extra standoffs and screws for stacking. The exact contents of the package may vary as we introduce new boards frequently.

Assembly instructions

  1. Begin with inserting the FPC ribbon cable into your board. Use the alignment triangle to determine the proper direction, check the picture above for reference.
  2. Attach 4 metal standoffs to the board using M2.5 screws.
  3. Insert the PCIe cable into your Pi 5.
  4. Install the board underneath your Pi 5.
  5. Power on the board, the PWR LED should be now on. If this is not the case please update the firmware on your Pi 5 or enable PCI Express (check tutorials below).
  6. Power off the Pi 5.
  7. Add other boards under the Commander using the FPC ribbons and standoffs they came with. We included extra standoffs and screws to cover all the variants (for example two 2.5G Ethernet boards).
  8. Power on the Pi 5 and check if all the devices are detected with lspci

Drivers

No drives are required for PCIe on Raspberry Pi 5, however the device you insert might need additional configuration. We recommend regularly updating the firmware to benefit from constantly improving PCIe compatibility.

Compatibility

HatBRICK! Commander is compatible with Raspberry Pi 5 and other Single Board Computers with the 16-pin PCIe connector (for instance the Radxa 5C/5C Lite).

The board has been tested with all the boards in the Pineboards lineup but it also works with boards from other vendors.

Tutorials

Get started with your board quickly with our tutorials.

Browse tutorials