Lyra Pi: New micro development board with LTE modem is cheaper than the Raspberry Pi

The range of single-board computers and development boards is quite extensive nowadays, with the most popular system being the Raspberry Pi, now in its fifth generation. Luckfox has a new board on offer, the Lyra Pi, which is available in four model variants and can also be used with an LTE modem. The SIM7600G-H-M.2 is a LTE Cat 4 module that supports LTE-TDD, LTE-FDD, HSPA+, GSM, GPRS and EDGE and is quite easy to install.

Regardless of the model variant chosen, three Cortex-A7 processing cores with a maximum of 1.2 GHz and one Cortex-M0 processing core are installed. The Lyra Pi A comes with 8 GB of eMMC storage, while the Pi B version lacks eMMC storage and uses a memory card as standard. The two Pi A models do not have a memory card slot. Both the Lyra Pi A W and the Lyra Pi B W boards come with a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 module.

512 MB of DDR3L RAM is installed in all variants. Screens cannot be connected via HDMI, but can be connected via MIPI DSI. Two USB 2.0 ports are on board, while additional USB ports can be tapped via headers. The two built-in Ethernet ports do not support Gigabit speeds, but rather maximum speeds of 100 MBit/s. The SIM card slot is located next to the M.2 slot for the mobile modem, and there is a combined jack connection for audio output or connecting a microphone. As is quite common with single-board computers, a color-coded GPIO pin header is available, which allows sensors and actuators to be connected via UART, for example.

Together with the 4G module kit and 8GB of eMMC storage, the 85 x 56 millimeter board costs $67. But this does not include the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module, which buyers can add for an extra $3.