Dual 2.5G Router HAT with Rock PI 4b+

[ilkulik]

Hello guys,

I have a question related to using Dual 2.5G Router HAT with Rock PI 4b+.
The SBC does not have FPC interface, but Dual 2.5G Router HAT has IPEX interface, which requires АЗС to IPEX cable.

Now what If I will use https://radxa.com/products/accessories/m2-extension-board m.2 extention kit which has an m.2 to IPEX adaptor? So the idea is to use m.2 to IPEX adaptor, cable IPEX to IPEX from the m2-extension-board and connect with this cable Router HAT. In theory it should work?

Any comment?

[dominik]

What You expect to get?

Apex is type of port, not any particular standard. Im almost sure that pinout is different and it should not get link.
Main feature of this hat is to connect with pcie 3 gen switch. Your SBC has 4x pcie 2.1 lines. At best You could get one line at 2.1, that’s 25% bandwidth of Your sbc. In my humble opinion - this HAT is well designed for pi5 only, nothing else has single pcie 3.0 line to make this reasonable. Maybe in future we will see new boards with that, for now pi5 is the only one and this addon solves most pi5 missing stuff compared to rk3588.

[ilkulik]

Hello Dominik,

Honestly, this is my first sbc and i was just expecting to have few more ethernet ports for my needs with this HAT instead of using usb to lan adaptors,

Probably in this case I will be looking on purchasing Rock PI 5 in this case,

Thank you!

[radrocks]

If you want to make a router, better look for a computerboard that has already more than 1 ethernet port. There are many, but not the ‘Rock Pi 5’, so keep looking. OPI5 has AFAIK, but also some Radxa board not really targetted for generic/desktop. Or get a managed ethernet switch, then 1 RJ45 port is fine and you can use VLANs to separate WAN and LAN(s).

[dominik]

Rock 5 series is next gen compared to 4 series (without 4D),
Take a look at E54c, this one has four ethernet ports and nice case,

Or 5T with two 2.5G ethernet ports

If You already have 4B+ it’s also possible to get more connectivity there using m.2 slot. This cheap card should give two extra 2.5G ports:

There was also odroid net card with four ports:

…but as far as I remember it requires 1+1+1+1 bifurcation and that’s probably not possible on Rock4,

Also You can convert Your m.2 into regular pcie slot and get one of those:

(it will make Your setup large and bulky, probably not worth it!)