Introduction to raspberry pi 4 hardware and first impression

It's made for beginners to understand the basic raspberry pi - mainly raspberry pi components



Raspberry Pi 4 & Raspberry Pi 5: Detailed Comparison and ROS 2 Compatibility

1. Raspberry Pi 4 Model B

Release Date: June 2019
Processor:

Broadcom BCM2711

Quad-core Cortex-A72 (ARM v8, 64-bit)

Clock speed: 1.5 GHz (can be overclocked to ~2 GHz)


Memory (RAM) Options:

2GB, 4GB, and 8GB LPDDR4-3200 SDRAM


GPU:

VideoCore VI (supports OpenGL ES 3.0)

Capable of dual 4K output


Storage:

microSD card slot

USB boot support for external SSD


Connectivity:

2 × USB 3.0, 2 × USB 2.0

Gigabit Ethernet

Dual-band Wi-Fi (802.11ac) and Bluetooth 5.0
 

Power:

USB-C (5V/3A)

GPIO: 40-pin header


2. Raspberry Pi 5

Release Date: October 2023
Processor:

Broadcom BCM2712

Quad-core Cortex-A76 (ARM v8.2, 64-bit)

Clock speed: 2.4 GHz (significantly faster than Pi 4)


Memory (RAM) Options:

4GB and 8GB LPDDR4X-4267


GPU:

VideoCore VII (supports OpenGL ES 3.1, Vulkan 1.2)

Dual 4K output with HDR


Storage:

microSD slot (faster I/O)

PCIe 2.0 for SSD support


Connectivity:

2 × USB 3.0, 2 × USB 2.0

Gigabit Ethernet

Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0


Power:

USB-C PD (supports higher power peripherals)

40-pin GPIO with better power management



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Raspberry Pi 4 & 5 Support for ROS 2

1. OS Compatibility

Both support Ubuntu 22.04 (64-bit), which is recommended for ROS 2.

Official Raspberry Pi OS now supports 64-bit, but ROS 2 is better on Ubuntu.


2. ROS 2 Performance on Pi 4 vs. Pi 5

3. ROS 2 Packages & Frameworks Supported

ROS 2 Middleware: Fast DDS, Cyclone DDS (best for ARM)

Common Packages:

Navigation2 (Nav2): Works, but limited performance on Pi 4

SLAM (Cartographer, RTAB-Map): Pi 5 is better for real-time SLAM

Depth Cameras: Pi 5 handles depth processing better than Pi 4

LIDAR (RPLIDAR, YDLIDAR): USB 3.0 support on both, but better stability on Pi 5

MoveIt2 (Motion Planning): Works but struggles on Pi 4



4. Ideal Use Cases

Pi 4: Small robots, low-cost automation, lightweight ROS 2 applications.

Pi 5: More complex robots, AI integration, SLAM, and high-speed sensors.


5. Best ROS 2 Configuration on Raspberry Pi

OS: Ubuntu Server 22.04 64-bit

ROS 2 Version: Humble or Iron

Additional Tweaks:

Use an SSD (on Pi 5) for faster ROS 2 build times

Offload heavy processing (like AI inference) to Coral USB Accelerator or Jetson Nano



Conclusion

Pi 4 is still viable for simple ROS 2 projects but may struggle with complex workloads.

Pi 5 is a major upgrade and much better suited for robotics with ROS 2, especially for real-time processing, vision-based applications, and AI.


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