Getting Started

Initial setup and first boot for the Cruiser Carrier Board.

  3 minute read  

Requirements

Required Components

  • Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 (CM5 or CM5 Lite)
    • CM5 with eMMC or CM5 Lite (SD card boot)
    • CM4 is not supported on Cruiser
  • DC Power Supply — 5.5/2.1mm barrel jack (center positive)
    • Cruiser/Cruiser Lite: 48-57V DC (48V minimum for PoE+)
    • Cruiser Keel: 13-57V DC (24V+ recommended)
  • Storage — At least one of:
    • NVMe SSD (M.2 Key-M, 2230/2242/2260/2280)
    • SATA drive (HDD or SSD)
    • Micro SD card (CM5 Lite only)
  • Cooling Solution — Heatsink for CM5

Optional Components

  • HDMI cable(s) for display output
  • USB keyboard/mouse for initial setup
  • Interceptor PoE Board for +8 PoE ports (100Mbps)

What’s in the Box

  • Cruiser Carrier Board
  • Quick Start Guide

Board Layout

Cruiser Board Layout

Back Panel (I/O Shield Side)

From left to right when facing the back:

RefConnectorDescription
J1DC Barrel JackDC power input (see requirements above)
J13, J14HDMI2x HDMI 2.0 (4Kp60)
J10USB 2.02x stacked Type-A
J12USB 3.02x stacked Type-A
J152.5GbE WANRJ45 network uplink
J16Switch Ports4-8x RJ45 1GbE (model dependent, PoE on Cruiser/Lite)

Front Panel

RefConnectorDescription
J8Micro SDSD card slot
J9USB 3.0Single Type-A port
J4, J6QwiicI2C expansion connectors
J3Pin HeaderUART, power button, power LED
S0Power ButtonOnboard power control

Installation Steps

1. Install the Compute Module

  1. Locate the CM5 connector (J0) — two 100-pin board-to-board connectors
  2. Align the CM5 module with the connector
  3. Press down firmly until the module clicks into place
  4. Attach a heatsink to the CM5 for cooling

2. Connect Storage

Choose your storage configuration:

NVMe SSD (Recommended):

  1. Insert NVMe drive into M.2 slot (J22)
  2. Secure with the M.2 screw

SATA Drives:

  1. Connect SATA data cables to J11 and/or J23
  2. Connect power via Molex connector (J2)

Micro SD (CM5 Lite only):

  1. Insert SD card into slot (J8)

3. Connect Power

  1. Connect a 48V DC power supply to the barrel jack (J1)
  2. The board will power on automatically
  3. LEDs indicate status:
    • D2 (Blue): Standby
    • D3 (Yellow): Power On
    • D4 (Green): Activity

4. Connect Display and Peripherals

  1. Connect HDMI cable(s) to J13/J14
  2. Connect USB keyboard/mouse to USB ports
  3. Connect network cable to WAN port (J15)

First Boot

Installing the OS

The Cruiser works with standard Raspberry Pi OS or any Debian-based distribution for CM5. No custom OS image is required.

Recommended: Download Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit, Trixie or later).

Flash the OS image using:

  • Raspberry Pi Imager (recommended)
  • Balena Etcher
  • dd (Linux/macOS command line)

For NVMe installation, you may need to flash via a USB-to-NVMe adapter first, or boot from SD card and flash to NVMe from the running system.

Network Configuration

The Cruiser has two network interfaces:

InterfacePortSpeedUse
WANJ152.5 GbEUplink to network
SwitchJ161 GbE eachNetwork devices (PoE on Cruiser/Lite)

Default Credentials

Standard Raspberry Pi OS defaults:

  • User: pi
  • Password: raspberry (or set during first boot)
  • SSH: Disabled by default (enable via raspi-config or create ssh file on boot partition)

Next Steps

Last modified October 11, 2026