Supported Platforms

pcu supports four In-CarPC platform families. Each has a different set of hardware features, so some pages in this documentation apply to one platform and not the others.

Platform	Hardware feature
In-CarPC CQ20	Ignition power sequencing
In-CarPC CQ40 series	Digital inputs and outputs, and ignition power sequencing with a selectable delay unit
In-CarPC CQ40N series	Ignition power sequencing, with a selectable delay unit
In-CarPC CQ50S series	Ignition power sequencing (four timers, all in seconds), and UPS mode and voltage readings

Platform support is still growing

pcu is new software, and the list above is where it stands today, not where it is going. Support is being added in two directions at once:

More models. pcu currently recognises the CQ20, the CQ40 series, the CQ40N series, and the CQ50S series. Older In-CarPC models are being backported, one family at a time, and more will be supported soon. If pcu does not recognise your machine, that is expected for now rather than a fault.

More features per model. Each platform only exposes the features pcu has implemented for it so far. Digital I/O on the CQ40N series, for example, is a later phase and is not available yet. The feature table below reflects the current release, so re-check it after an update rather than assuming it is fixed.

If your machine is not supported yet, use the CQUtils program preinstalled on the desktop in the meantime. It covers the older models and stays on the machine after pcu is installed, so you are not left without a way to configure the hardware.

Two things that help us:

• If pcu reports an unrecognised board on genuine In-CarPC hardware, send us the Detected board: line it prints (see below). That line is what we need to add the model.
• If you need a specific model or feature sooner, tell us. Contact In-CarPC support with the machine and what you are trying to do, and we will tell you where it sits in the queue.

How pcu detects your platform

Detection is automatic. On startup, pcu reads the board identity that the BIOS reports and matches it against the platforms it knows. There is no platform to pick and nothing to configure.

Before it writes anything to the hardware, pcu confirms the board really is the model it detected. If that check fails, it stops without touching the hardware. This is deliberate: pcu will not write to an MCU on hardware it does not recognise.

If pcu does not recognise the machine, it reports the board it found, for example:

Detected board: Dave's Discount Motherboards / TOASTER-9000

along with the list of supported systems. If you see this on genuine In-CarPC hardware, send that Detected board: line to In-CarPC support.

Feature comparison

Feature	In-CarPC CQ20	In-CarPC CQ40 series	In-CarPC CQ40N series	In-CarPC CQ50S series
Ignition timers	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Delay unit	No	Yes	Yes	No
Digital I/O	No	Yes	No	No
Firmware and status reporting	Yes	Firmware only	Yes	Yes

“Firmware and status reporting” covers the firmware version and the low-level register readout the MCU provides. The CQ40 series reports the firmware version of its ignition MCU, but has no register readout.

“Delay unit” is a CQ40 series and CQ40N series feature: most of their timers are counted in a unit you can switch between minutes and seconds. See The delay unit.

The app shows the same comparison on its Platforms page, with the configurations each model has been tested on:

The pcu-cli status command runs on every platform and prints whatever the connected hardware supports.

In-CarPC CQ20

The CQ20 is a fanless Intel Atom x6425E (Elkhart Lake) machine. Its ignition MCU is reached over the PCH SMBus. It provides the four-timer ignition power sequence described in Ignition Timers. It has no digital I/O.

On a CQ20, pcu-cli status reports:

• MCU Identity: CQ20 MCU
• Hardware Rev: DTB-IGN-MCU VER:10
• Firmware: 14

Tested configurations:

Operating system	BIOS	Validated
Windows 11 25H2 (x64)	CQ20B01	May 2026
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (x64)	CQ20B01	May 2026
Windows 11 26H2 (x64)	CQ20B01	Oct 2026
Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS (x64)	CQ20B01	Oct 2026
Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS (x64)	CQ20BET1	Oct 2026

In-CarPC CQ40 series

The CQ40 series covers the CQ41, CQ43, and CQ47 models. They share the same Haswell-era Intel platform and have two separate hardware paths. Digital I/O goes through the SuperIO GPIO ports. The ignition MCU is reached over the PCH SMBus and is the same ignition MCU as on the CQ40N. It is the only platform with Digital I/O: two digital inputs, two digital outputs, and an ignition sense line. It also provides the five ignition timers and the delay unit described in Ignition Timers.

Do not confuse the CQ40 series with the CQ40N series below. Despite the similar name they are different hardware, and pcu tells them apart automatically.

Changing the delay unit does not convert the stored values

Four of the five CQ40 timers are plain counts in the current delay unit. Switching the unit between minutes and seconds does not recalculate them, so a Force Off Timeout of 15 minutes becomes 15 seconds. This changes when the vehicle cuts power to the PC. See The delay unit.

On a CQ40 series machine, pcu-cli status reports its MCU identity as CQ40 GPIO Controller. The firmware version comes from the ignition MCU and is shown as an In-CarPC firmware name such as CQ40P06, or as R and two hex digits for a version pcu has no name for. If the ignition half is not connected, the firmware shows n/a. The Hardware Rev line shows n/a.

pcu connects with whichever half is reachable. If the SMBus half is missing (on Linux, because the i2c-dev module is not loaded) digital I/O still works. If the port I/O half is missing (on Linux, because of no CAP_SYS_RAWIO) the ignition timers still work. pcu reports the half that did not connect, with the reason and the fix, and fails only when both halves fail. See Connection Problems.

Tested configurations:

Operating system	BIOS	Validated
Windows 10 22H2 (x64)	CQ40B02	Apr 2026
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (x64)	CQ40B02	Oct 2026
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (x64)	CQ40B02	Oct 2026

What the CQ40 series runs cover

The October 2026 Ubuntu runs used the CLI: status, ignition timer writes with readback, a delay unit change, and digital I/O. The GUI was not run on those machines. The Windows run is from April 2026 and covers digital I/O only, so ignition timers on a CQ40 under Windows are not validated yet.

On Linux the CQ40 GPIO is reached through /dev/port, which needs elevated access. See Install on Linux for how that access is granted, and the Digital I/O page for what the channels do.

In-CarPC CQ40N series

The CQ40N series covers the CQ41N, CQ43N, and CQ47N models. They share a Skylake-era Intel platform, and their ignition MCU is reached over the PCH SMBus, the same bus the CQ20 uses. That matters on Linux: a CQ40N needs i2c group membership and the i2c-dev module, not the CAP_SYS_RAWIO capability the CQ40 series needs for its GPIO port I/O. See Install on Linux.

The CQ40N provides ignition power sequencing with five timers, four of which are counted in a delay unit you can switch between minutes and seconds. It has no digital I/O; that is a later phase for this series, so pcu-cli dio reports the feature is unavailable and exits with code 2. It has no ignition mode setting either, so nothing is shown for it in the app or the CLI.

On a CQ40N series machine, pcu-cli status reports its MCU identity as CQ40N Ignition MCU. Its firmware version is shown as an In-CarPC firmware name such as CQ40NP02, or as R and two hex digits for a version pcu has no name for. The Hardware Rev line shows n/a.

Tested configurations:

Operating system	BIOS	Validated
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (x64)	CQ40NB01	July 2026
Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS (x64)	CQ40NB01	October 2026
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (x64)	CQ40NB01	October 2026

Validation so far

The CQ40N series has been validated on Ubuntu, on a CQ41N. The runs cover board detection, the identity check, status readings, and timer writes with readback. The CQ43N and CQ47N have not been tested individually.

Windows is supported over the same SMBus path as the CQ20, but it has not been validated on CQ40N hardware yet, so it is not listed above. If something does not behave as this page describes, contact In-CarPC support.

In-CarPC CQ50S series

The CQ50S series covers the CQ53S, CQ55S, and CQ57S models, built on Tiger Lake Intel Core processors. Their ignition MCU is reached over the PCH SMBus, the same bus the CQ20 and CQ40N use, so on Linux it needs i2c group membership and the i2c-dev module too. See Install on Linux.

The CQ50S provides four ignition timers, all counted in seconds: the Ignition On Delay (ign-on-delay), Ignition Off Delay (ign-off-delay), Force Off Timeout (pw-off-delay) and UPS Off Delay (ups-off-delay). The values you save are kept when DC power is removed. There is no delay unit, no ignition mode setting, and no digital I/O, so pcu-cli dio reports the feature is unavailable and exits with code 2. See Ignition Timers for the ranges.

On a CQ50S series machine, pcu-cli status reports its MCU identity as CQ50S Ignition MCU. The firmware version is shown in the vendor’s form, such as V0.5.0-0.4. The Hardware Rev line shows n/a. The status also shows the ignition input, UPS Mode (Normal or On) and UPS Voltage, the voltage the MCU reports (for example 12.29 V, or Unknown when the reading is out of range).

Tested configurations:

Operating system	BIOS	Validated
Windows 11 26H2 (x64)	CQ50SB02	Oct 2026
Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS (x64)	CQ50SB02	Oct 2026

Both runs were on a CQ57S. The Windows run used pcu 1.2.0, which had only the Ignition Off Delay; Windows has not been run with pcu 1.2.1. Under Ubuntu 26.04.1, pcu 1.2.1 was run from the command line in October 2026 (the app was not checked in that run). The new timers were set, verified and stored, values outside each timer’s range were refused with nothing written, all four timers kept their values when DC power was removed, and UPS Mode read Normal on DC power and On while the unit ran on the UPS battery. The CQ53S and CQ55S have not been tested individually.

Checking the platform from a script

pcu-cli version --json includes the platform pcu detected, the full list of supported platforms, and their validated configurations. This is the machine-readable way to confirm what a fleet machine is before running platform-specific commands. See Scripting and Automation for the field reference.