Portus

The Portus is an M.2 Key A/E expansion card that extends connectivity. It features a LAN7430 controller for a Gigabit Ethernet port and a USB2514IB hub that provides two standard USB ports. The remaining two USB lines are routed through FT234 bridges, delivering dual UART ports.

General

• Built around the Microchip USB2514B USB 2.0 hub controller.
• Provides two downstream USB 2.0 ports over Hirose DF52 connectors.
• Two additional downstream ports are routed through FT234 bridges to deliver dual native UART ports.
• Integrated LAN7430 controller adds a dedicated Gigabit Ethernet port.
• M.2 Key A/E form factor ensures compatibility with a wide range of embedded and compute platforms.
• Lightweight and compact — ideal for space- and power-constrained systems.

Resources

• 3D CAD Model

Mechanical

• Weight: ~5 [g]
• Dimensions: 22 mm × 42 mm (standard M.2 2242 Key A/E)
• Mounting: M2 screw mount

Electrical

General

• Interface: M.2 Key A/E (USB 2.0)
• Connectors:
  • 1× Ethernet ports
  • 1× USB 2.0 ports
  • 2× UART ports
• USB Standard: USB 2.0 (480 Mbps)
• Top View

Electrical Pinout

USB0 + UART0 + UART1

• Connector Definition

  Type	Part Number	Part Name
  Board Connector	DF52-8S-0.8H(21)	Hirose DF52
  Cable Connector	DF52-8P-0.8C(21)	Hirose DF52

• Connector Pinout

  Pin	Name	Description
  1	VCC	5 V output
  2	D0N	USB Data − (port 0)
  3	D0P	USB Data + (port 0)
  4	TX0	UART TX (port 0)
  5	RX0	UART RX (port 0)
  6	TX1	UART TX (port 1)
  7	RX1	UART RX (port 1)
  8	GND	Ground

Ethernet

• Connector Definition

  Type	Part Number	Part Name
  Board Connector	DF52-8S-0.8H(21)	Hirose DF52
  Cable Connector	DF52-8P-0.8C(21)	Hirose DF52

• Connector1 Pinout

  Pin	Name	Description
  1	D0N	ETH_MDI0_P
  2	D0P	ETH_MDI0_N
  3	D1N	ETH_MDI1_P
  4	D1P	ETH_MDI1_N
  5	D2N	ETH_MDI2_P
  6	D2P	ETH_MDI2_N
  7	D3N	ETH_MDI3_P
  8	D3P	ETH_MDI3_N

Software

Driver installation

USB and UART port

• Fully plug-and-play with linux kernel - no additional drivers required.

Ethernet port

• The lan743x driver is included in some Linux kernels and may be detected automatically without additional effort.

• For NVIDIA Jetson modules with JetPack 6.x, use the instructions below:

  1. Create the extra Directory

  sudo mkdir -p /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra
  2. Download the kernel module from the following link: lan743x Kernel Module
  3. Extract the .ko file
  4. Copy the Kernel Module

  sudo cp lan743x.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra/
  5. Update Module Dependency Database

  sudo depmod -a
  6. Test Manual Module Loading

  sudo modprobe lan743x
  7. Verify the module loaded

  lsmod | grep lan743x
  dmesg | tail
  8. Configure Automatic Loading at Boot

  sudo nano /etc/modules-load.d/lan743x.conf
  9. Add exactly one line (no .ko extension)

  lan743x
  10. Save the file and reboot

  sudo reboot
  11. Post-Reboot Verification

  lsmod | grep lan743x
  dmesg | grep lan743x
  12. Confirm that the network interface is present

  ip link

  or

  ifconfig