WSAL21634 – CM4-NANO-A/en

Documentation notice: This technical documentation was independently rewritten from an archived supplier source. Check technical details and commands against the product version and manufacturer documentation before use.

Summary

The CM4-NANO-A is a compact base board for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (CM4), sized to match the module. It provides a USB-C port rated at 5 V / 2 A, a micro-SD slot (Lite variant only), a CSI camera connector, USB 2.0, a 40-pin GPIO header, and a switch to select boot/download mode.

Related products at JW Tech

WSAL21634 – Nano Base Board (A) for Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, Same Size as the CM4

Technical overview

The board accepts all variants of the Compute Module 4 via a dedicated socket.
The USB-C port serves as both a 5 V / 2 A power input and an eMMC flashing interface in download mode.
USB 2.0 is disabled by default; enabling it requires adding the line “dtoverlay=dwc2,dr_mode=host” to config.txt.
CSI and DSI are disabled by default; enabling them requires loading a device-tree blob from the supplied archive file.
The BOOT switch determines behavior at power-on: ON enables USB-C download mode (RPI boot as a large-capacity disk); OFF boots from eMMC or SD card via USB-A.
On Bullseye systems, cameras are configured via entries such as “dtoverlay=imx219,cam0” in /boot/config.txt.
For older Buster systems, camera activation is done through “sudo raspi-config” under Interfacing Options.
libcamera-hello, libcamera-jpeg, and libcamera-vid are used for image capture and playback; on Buster systems use raspistill and raspivid instead.

Commands and examples – verify before use:

dtoverlay=dwc2,dr_mode=host
sudo apt-get install p7zip-full -y
wget https://files.waveshare.com/upload/4/41/CM4_dt_blob.7z
7z x CM4_dt_blob.7z -O./CM4_dt_blob
sudo chmod 777 -R CM4_dt_blob
cd CM4_dt_blob/
sudo dtc -I dts -O dtb -o /boot/dt-blob.bin dt-blob-disp1-double_cam.dts
sudo nano /boot/config.txt
dtoverlay=ov9281, cam0
dtoverlay=imx290, clock-frequency=37125000, cam0
dtoverlay=imx378, cam0
dtoverlay=imx219, cam0
dtoverlay=imx477, cam0
sudo reboot
libcamera-hello --list-cameras
libcamera-hello -t
libcamera-jpeg -o test.jpg
libcamera-vid -t 10000 -o test.h264
sudo raspi-config
raspistill -o image.jpg

Notes and version constraints

Do not plug or unplug any device other than USB while powered on — per source this may cause issues.
When using the USB-C port to flash, do not connect other devices to ensure normal CM4 power supply.
Insufficient power (below 5 V / 2 A) can lead to shutdowns or frequency reduction.
Because the module lacks a protection circuit, do not short-circuit the power supply.
Compiling a dt-blob.bin for DSI disables HDMI1 output even without a connected DSI display; delete the file to restore.
With newer RPi OS images after October 30, 2021, you may see “config failed, hub doesn't have any ports! (err -19)”; remove otg_mode=1 and add the dtoverlay line to resolve.
Version-specific steps differ between Bullseye and Buster; verify the system version before running commands.

Source and revision record

CM4-NANO-A - Waveshare Wiki
Source revision: 104302
Captured: 2026-09-03T03:07:03+00:00
SHA-256: 16f1285cc0d3f560a97147b77cc754a9e1922f26167982c7e910c9688af87fd0