Ariaboard Photonicat
The Ariaboard Photonicat 2 is a high-performance portable router and ARM computer based on the Rockchip RK3576 SoC. It features dual Gigabit Ethernet, a built-in color LCD display, and a large battery capacity, designed for mobile networking, homelabs, and travel use.
Hardware Specifications
| Feature | Specification |
| :--- | :--- |
| SoC | Rockchip RK3576 |
| CPU | 8-core (4x Cortex-A72 @ 2.2GHz, 4x Cortex-A53) |
| NPU | 6 TOPS AI accelerator |
| RAM | 4GB or 16GB LPDDR5 |
| Flash | 64GB or 128GB eMMC (Internal) |
| Storage Expansion | 1x microSD slot, 1x M.2 2230 slot (NVMe Gen2 x1) |
| Ethernet | 2x 10/100/1000 Mbps (Realtek RTL8211F) |
| Wireless | Dual-band WiFi 6 + Bluetooth (M.2 Key-E) |
| Cellular | M.2 B-Key slot for 4G/5G modules |
| Display | Front-facing color LCD (SPI, ST7789 compatible) |
| MCU | Renesas RA2E1 (PMU, RTC, Fan, LCD controller) |
| Battery | 7000mAh 7.4V (51.8Wh) |
| USB | 1x USB 3.0 Type-A, 1x USB-C (PD 30W) |
Installation
Official Support
Official OpenWrt support was introduced in PR 22246. The device is part of the `rockchip/armv8` target.
Option 1: Internal eMMC (Preferred)
Flashing to the internal eMMC provides the best performance and is the standard method for this device. This requires a PC and the Rockchip USB tools.
1. Connect the Photonicat 2 USB-C port to your PC. 2. Enter Maskrom Mode: Power off the device, hold the Maskrom button (accessible via the internal pinhole), and power the device on. 3. On your PC, use `rkdeveloptool` to flash the internal storage:
```bash # Download the loader and the combined image rkdeveloptool db rk3576_loader.bin rkdeveloptool wl 0 rk3576-photonicat-2-combined.img rkdeveloptool rd ```
Option 2: microSD Card
The device will boot from the microSD card if one is inserted with a valid bootloader.
1. Download the `rk3576-photonicat-2-ext4-sysupgrade.img.gz` (or combined) image. 2. Use a tool like `dd` or `BalenaEtcher` to write the image to your microSD card:
```bash # Linux example (replace /dev/sdX with your card's device node) zcat rk3576-photonicat-2-ext4-sysupgrade.img.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=1M status=progress sync ```
3. Insert the card into the Photonicat 2 and power on.
Hardware Details
GPIO Map
| Function | GPIO | Active | Note |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| WWAN Power | GPIO0_C0 | High | RFKILL for USB WWAN |
| WWAN Reset | GPIO0_B7 | Low | Reset for M.2 B-Key |
| PCIe0 Power | GPIO0_C7 | High | For M.2 2230 NVMe |
| PCIe1 Power | GPIO1_C6 | High | For M.2 Key-E WiFi |
| USB OTG Pwr | GPIO4_C4 | High | USB-C OTG power |
| USB Switch | GPIO0_C2 | High | USB port power |
MCU Communication
The MCU (Renesas RA2E1) manages power and peripherals via UART10 (115200 baud).
Ubus Interface (`photonicat`)
* `ubus call photonicat status`: Returns battery % (SoC), voltage, and RTC. * `ubus call photonicat set_fan '{“level”: 5}'`: Manually set fan speed (0-9).
LCD Display
The 1.3“ LCD is driven by the `pcat2-display` daemon. It renders real-time stats by querying the kernel and the MCU via ubus.