Power and Storage in One: Pineboards Launches the HatDrive! PoE+ for the Raspberry Pi 5

Two-in-one board provides a full 5A of power over the Raspberry Pi 5's Ethernet port plus a high-speed M.2 slot for 2230, 2242, 2280 drives.

Gareth Halfacree
1 month agoHW101

Pineboards, formerly known as Pineberry Pi, has launched a new entry in its HatDrive! range of Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) storage accessories for the Raspberry Pi 5 single-board computer (SBC) — and this one adds both an M.2 NVMe slot and Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) capabilities: the sensibly-named HatDrive! PoE+.

"After many, many months of teasing, we’re happy to announce that the Pineboards PoE+ HAT [Hardware Attached on Top] for the Raspberry Pi 5 is now available," the company writes of its latest board launch. "Power over Ethernet simplifies the delivery of both power and network connectivity by combining the two over a single RJ45 cable. These are especially useful in the SBC world where you may have lots of smaller devices and want to cut down on the number of cables flying around. With the Pineboards PoE+ HAT, you can make use of power and networking over a single cable, as well as fast NVMe storage over the Raspberry Pi 5’s PCIe connection."

The new accessory, compatible with the Raspberry Pi 5 but not earlier models, combines two existing board types: an M.2 HAT, which brings out the Raspberry Pi 5's single externally-accessible PCI Express lane to a slot for NVMe solid-state drives or high-speed accelerators; and a PoE HAT, which adds the necessary components to provide Power-over-Ethernet support on the Raspberry Pi 5's gigabit Ethernet port. The main selling point: the ability to use both features at once, rather than having to choose between high-speed storage or simplified power wiring.

The PoE part of the HAT provides, the company claims, a full 5A of current, meaning the Raspberry Pi 5's USB ports will run at their full potential without any low-current warnings; the M.2 slot, meanwhile, includes mounts for 2230, 2242, and 2280 footprint M.2 modules — rather than the 2230- and 2242-only official Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+ — with cutouts to provide access to the combined MIPI Display Serial Interface/Camera Serial Interface (DSI/CSI) ports on the Raspberry Pi 5 itself.

The HatDrive! PoE+ is now available to order from Pineboards direct at €44 (around $48); the company says stock will be available internationally "via all of our usual distributors" soon.

Gareth Halfacree
Freelance journalist, technical author, hacker, tinkerer, erstwhile sysadmin. For hire: freelance@halfacree.co.uk.
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