Raspberry Pi TetherBox

Raspberry Pi units are ideal where power and space are constrained - lamp posts, vehicles, hidden mounts on the side of racks, or anywhere traditional hardware will not fit. A Raspberry Pi 5 handles up to 11 cameras; a Raspberry Pi 4 handles up to 4. See CPU Recommendations for sizing.

For sizing the rest of the unit (RAM, storage, GPU) see Hardware Specifications. For storage hardware specifics see Storage Hardware Recommendations.

Key Requirements

1. Cooling is critical - Ensure the enclosure has good passive or ideally active (fan) cooling. Raspberry Pi units can last 7+ years, but only if cooling is adequate. Units that run hot will fail prematurely.

2. Storage for video recording - If using a Raspberry Pi to record video, you MUST use adequate external storage or an M.2 HAT with an appropriate drive. SD cards and USB memory sticks are not suitable for continuous video recording. See Storage Hardware Recommendations.

3. Power supply - Use the official 27W USB-C adapter on Raspberry Pi 5. Undersized power supplies cause undervolting and CPU compute errors under load.

Raspberry Pi AI Hat+ / AI Hat 2

The Raspberry Pi AI Hat+ and AI Hat 2 are M.2 HAT+ add-on boards featuring an on-board Hailo AI accelerator with up to 40 TOPS of neural network inference performance. The AI Hat+ is slightly faster than the AI Hat 2; either works fine for TetherBox. When installed on a Raspberry Pi 5, the accelerator enables TetherX AI video and audio analytics on up to 4 cameras - with all AI processing offloaded to the Hailo chip so the Raspberry Pi's CPU remains free for recording and other tasks.

What it enables:

• TetherX AI - AI-powered smart motion detection using object recognition to detect and classify people, vehicles, and animals, track their trajectory across frames, and make recordings searchable by what was seen
• TetherX Audio AI - Real-time audio event detection that classifies security-relevant sounds such as glass breaking, screaming, gunshots, smoke alarms, dog barking, and vehicle horns

Key details:

• Supports up to 4 cameras for AI analytics
• AI processing runs entirely on the Hailo accelerator - no CPU impact on the Raspberry Pi
• Fits the M.2 HAT+ slot - compatible with Raspberry Pi 5 enclosures that support the AI Hat+ / AI Hat 2 form factor
• TetherBox automatically detects the Hailo accelerator and enables AI analytics when available

Note: The AI Hat+ / AI Hat 2 uses the M.2 slot, so if you also need local storage for recording, use USB storage (SSD recommended) or an additional HAT for the M.2 drive. See Storage Hardware Recommendations for options.