8086 Consultancy's ClusterCTRL Stack Powers, Monitors, and Controls Up to Five Raspberry Pis
Designed to drive up to five Raspberry Pi single-board computers, the ClusterCTRL Stack is the latest entry in the ClusterCTRL family.
8086 Consultancy has launched another entry in its ClusterCTRL family of cluster computing add-ons for Raspberry Pi single-board computers: ClusterCTRL Stack, offering the ability to power and monitor up to five Raspberry Pi boards at once.
Previous entries in the ClusterCTRL range have included the ClusterCTRL Single, which turns a single Raspberry Pi Compute Module into a USB gadget compatible with the company's custom monitoring and control software, along with the three-node ClusterCTRL Triple and four-node Cluster HAT. ClusterCTRL Stack, meanwhile, ups the stakes to offer support for up to five boards at once.
"The ClusterCTRL Stack (controller and passive backplane) is a simple way to both power and control cooling for a stack of 5 Raspberry Pi," the company explains of the design. "As supplied the Controller can be used standalone — once power is applied to the ClusterCTRL Stack each Raspberry Pi will be powered on after a 1 second delay. Connecting the ClusterCTRL Controller (via the Micro USB connector) you can use our 'clusterctrl' tool."
The controller board accepts 12-24V DC input and includes a 20-pin power header, six-pin monitoring header, an on-board 10A 5.1V DC-DC regulator offering each Raspberry Pi node 2A, connectors for powering and controlling two fans, a micro-USB connector for software control, and a USB Type-A power connector for a switch or other USB-powered accessory. The passive backplane, meanwhile, connects the controller board to each Raspberry Pi in the stack.
The ClusterCTRL Stack, which comes with mountings but without the power supply or fans, can be bought on Tindie for $99; the same page offers 3D printing files for a fan-free or dual-fan "frame" case to house the stack.