The ComfilePi is an industrial Raspberry Pi touchscreen panel PC.
The Raspberry Pi is a compact single board computer made in the U.K. by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It typically runs the Linux operating system.
The Raspberry Pi, as typically sold by the Raspberry Pi Foundation as a credit-card sized PCB, is primarily a tool for students and hobbyists. Although it is a fantastic and even revolutionary product, it may not be suitable for certain industrial applications.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation released the Raspberry Pi 3 Compute Module so 3rd party manufacturers could build industrial devices around the Raspberry Pi technology, and the ComfilePi is exactly that.
CPi-A070WR | CPi-A102WR | CPi-A150WR | |
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CPU | 1.2GHz 64-bit Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A53 processor (Same as Raspberry Pi 3) |
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GPU | Broadcom VideoCore IV | ||
RAM | 1GB | ||
Storage | 1 microSD Slot | ||
LCD | 7“ 800×480 | 10.2” 800×480 | 15“ 1024×768 |
Touchscreen | Pressure-sensitive (Resistive Film Type) | ||
Housing | Flame retardant ABS IP65 Water-Resistant Front Panel |
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Power | 12~24VDC @ 6W | 12~24VDC @ 10W | 12~24VDC @ 21W |
RTC | Yes(*) | Yes(*) | Yes |
GPIO | 22 (includes ESD protection circuit) 40-pin header socket Details |
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USB Host Ports | USB2.0 x 3 | ||
Ethernet Port | RJ45 10/100 Mpbs | ||
RS-232C Ports(**) | 2 - COM0 & COM1 (prior to HW v2.2) 1 - COM0 (after HW v2.2) | 2 | |
RS-485 Ports(**) | 0 (prior to HW v2.2) 1 - COM1 (after HW v2.2) | 0 | |
I2C Ports | 1 | ||
Piezo Buzzer | Yes | ||
Audio Output | 1/8” Stereo Output Jack | ||
WiFi | Yes (with USB dongle) | ||
Operating System | Linux (Rasbian) only, (not support Andriod/Windows 10 iot) | ||
Operating temperature | 0°C ~ 70°C | ||
Storage temperature | -20°C ~ 80°C | ||
Weight | 0.50kg | 0.92kg | 3.26kg |
Dimensions | Details | Details | Details |
Buy | Buy | Buy |
(*) CPi-A070WR and CPi-A102WR products sold before November 2017 may not have a built-in RTC. Products sold after November 2017 do.
(**) The ComfilePi's COM1 (/dev/serial1
) port uses the Raspberry Pi's mini UART. The mini UART has a few limitations (e.g. no parity bit). For more information please see the official Raspberry Pi documentation.
Download the Raspbian OS Image - An SD card with a slightly modified Raspbian Linux distribution is included with each purchase.
The 40-pin header socket on the rear panel of the ComfilePi is almost the same pinout as the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B's I/O header.
The GPIO pins are exposed through a transparent (3.3V ←→ 3.3V) level shifter for ESD protection. For electrical characteristics please see the level shifter's data sheet : TXS0108E.
The underside of the ComfilePi exposes 12~24VDC power input, 2 RS-232 serial ports, 3 USB 2.0 ports, an I2C port, 5V power output, and an RJ45 Ethernet port.
IMPORTANT: Please note that the I2C pins (SDA and SCL) are 3.3V; the 5V pin is supplied to ensure users have enough voltage and current to power their external devices and does not imply a 5V I2C port.
The right panel of the ComfilePi exposes a MicroSD Card Slot and a stereo audio output jack.
As of August 14, 2017, you can now develop .Net Core 2.0 applications for the ComfilePi. See .Net Core on the Raspberry Pi for more information.
The AdvancedHMI software allows you to create HMI's that are not possible with other off the shelf packages. The software is based on the .NET framework and uses the popular Visual Studio as it's designer. When developing with AdvancedHMI, you are creating a true executable that is quite fast for the Linux-based ComfilePi. Don't let Visual Studio mislead you into thinking it requires code writing experience because most HMIs are created without writing a single line of code.
Download the AdvancedHMI Visual Studio solution which contains a Modbus RTU driver and test project specifically for the ComfilePi.
Microsoft added limited Linux support to Visual Studio 2015. Those features also available in Visual Studio 2017.
The Visual Studio Linux Features do not inherently support cross-compiling on a Windows PC. Instead, Visual Studio will upload the the source files to the ComfilePi, and use the ComfilePi's toolchain to build the executable. The executable is then executed on the ComfilePi, and the Visual Studio Remote GDB Debugger attaches to it.
For more information about using Visual Studio for Linux software development, see thisVisual C++ For Linux Development blog post, and the Visual C++ Linux Documentation.
NOTE: Comfile Technology does not provide technical support for Qt; please contact The Qt Company for support.
This procedure makes use of Qt's open source distribution. Please see Qt's Licensing, FAQ, and Licensing Comparison for more information about Qt licensing.
For more information about software development with Qt, see the Qt documentation.
NOTE: The build of Qt used in this demonstration uses the EGLFS backend. Be sure to set the ComfilePi's GPU memory to 256MB or you may experience errors or display anomalies.
I you do not wish to use Qt5.8 or you wish to revert to Qt 5.3 from the original Raspbian distribution, run the following commands to remove Qt5.8:
sudo rm -rf /opt/Qt5.8 sudo rm /etc/ld.so.conf.d/01-Qt5.8.conf sudo ldconfig sudo rm /etc/profile.d/qt5.8-environment.sh sudo reboot now
This procedure describes how to create JavaFX applications for the ComfilePi using the Oracle JDK and OpenJFX.
For more information about software development with JavaFX see the Oracle JavaFX documentation.
See also the Raspberry Pi Java Programming forum.
Raspberry Pi is a trademark of the Raspberry Pi Foundation