Small, cheap computers

butch alline

HDMI, USB, Lan, WiFi, no fan, 5VDC power, Win 10 ( opt. ), fits in the palm of you hand.
See here: https://azulletech.com/
and here: http://www.pcmag.com/review/343775/azulle-quantum-access-lan-windows-10-fanless-mini-pc-stick

Who will be the first kid on the block with one of these? 

DH2ID

There are other inexpensive computers around, which really work. I use a PIPO for NAVTEX decoding, and it runs SmartSDR without any problems: https://www.amazon.com/Pipo-X9-Windows10-Android4-4-Computer/dp/B015J45BL4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qi...

Kevin

In the dark days when "netbooks" were popular I bought a Dell Atom-based laptop. Since then I avoided Atom and Celeron processors for any general purpose computer use. Things have probably changed since then but I haven't given either of these platforms a second chance preferring to stick with recent generations of Intel Core processors.

I'm interested in the Intel NUC series of of computers.

George KF2T

We use some of the NUC-style machines around our plant (TV broadcast station) for streaming program monitors, utility terminals for LAN-attached equipment, and such. They are surprisingly robust and capable. I'd say they would do quite well for SSDR. Trick comes when you add large and multiple monitors, loggers, clusters, web browsing, and all the "other" stuff we like to do while operating. Would be an interesting experiment.

Tim - W4TME

We use the higher end NUCs for demonstrating SmartSDR at hamfests.

Walt - KZ1F

Any particular model?

Tim - W4TME

NUC5I7RYH

k3Tim

Tim,

My Nuc will nuke your Nuc

nuc6i7kyk

a nice box but likely overkill for a SmartSDR. It's running Ubuntu doing Android Smartphones build that take 2 or 3 hours to compile.

BR,

k3Tim / 6

EA4GLI

Those NUC are nice and small, but I wouldn't call them cheap.

Kevin

Two out of three ain't bad. 

Or is that one out of two? They are nice.

Tim - W4TME

So sayeth Meatloaf.

W9OY

Or as my wife says Meatlump.  

I have a few of the Atom 3735 computers, including in this form factor running Win10  and though quite capable as a desktop, I can't really recommend them for SSDR.  The program runs but the computer soon runs out of overhead when you start adding DAX channels and other software.  Personally I wouldn't run anything less than a i3 and 4gb ram, preferably 8gb

73  W9OY

roger na4rr

This thing is getting OT as most 3 day old post.  But I've been using the NUC for my Flex for couple of years and they have been great.  I've been avoiding Windows10 like the plague but got interested in that stick that the OP linked to.  So ordered it from Amazon about 9pm Tuesday and it got here Wed(yesterday).  They must have used a drone to get it here that fast.  Plugged it in and had it going in less than five min. Mine was manufactured in June so I spend hour or so on the intel site updating the bios, wifi, and graphics drivers.  I actually like it.  Looks great on our big TV.  Down loaded SDR and fldigi.  Today I put a router on the 6700 and connected. The 6700 is in the rv and the computer stick is on the tv in the house.  I dont have a strong wifi signal so it is dropping out but when its there it seems to be running the radio just fine.  I got the one with the 2 usb ports and no Ethernet port.  I think that one would be better.   Going to connect it to the TV in the RV today and see how that works.  Happy Thanksgiving.

roger
na4rr

Kevin

Not sure about the thing getting OT so much but definitely interested in how this thing works out for you in different situations. I probably should not have been so quick to discount the idea.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Walt - KZ1F

Agreed Sal. One can get, likely more powerful, Dell Computers for less. Albeit they are bigger. Reading the writeup on Amazon, it does, in fact, have a fan. Some even consider it noisy. However, thank you Tim, I asked you a question you promptly answered. I appreciate your reply.

Here is the thing, for those interested. When I asked, and I forgot who, about if they rented time out. I was not thinking for myself as I already have a multi-compute node OpenStack cloud running in the basement. But those various nodes are all Dells that, at the time cost around $1,000-$1300. I can sit in my office/shack and simply submit jobs that will be assigned an ephemeral VM. If I need it running on a faster processor, I can live migrate it wherever I want it. The idea being, much as with AWS, you don't / shouldn't care on what machine it is running as you do not have access to the physical memory on the host nor the cpu count. State of the field now is on micro services. Rather than one monolithic process running doing everything the application is designed, or should be, to just rely on multiple micro services. Let's look at the classic queuing theory, gas station, or better yet, grocery store. Is the large lines at the registers due to the person at the register? If the bottle neck is the register then, yeah, open another line, but if it's not the clerk at the register but rather the person bagging it's less expensive and more agile to add a second bagger to the existing line rather than a register clerk and bagger to a new isle. That is how I decomposed XPSSDR and XPSDIGI. XPSLog takes input from topics on RabbitMQ fed by providers I have running on a Pine64. How does this relate? For the cost of one of my $1300 nodes one could have 3 NUC nodes, a a couple of those NUC machines, one could have for their very own, a multi-node cloud for running whatever they desired, be it Windows 10 or Linux or a combination, Need more power? Add another compute node. Granted, I suspect some simply don't care what I did; others, however might spark an idea based on this.

I hope all are having or had a very Happy Thanksgiving. And for those not in the US, celebrate today something you are thankful for.

MH_Flexer

I just ordered one of the Intel i3 boxes from Newegg. It will be going under the dinette seat in my Motorhome, right next to my Flex 6500. I have all my radio and local LAN running on 13v. The Intel NUC will run on my battery power as well. Right now, using the IOS app and my iPad, I can operate all day off grid. Here is the Newegg deal: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAA0S5319619&cm_re=Intel_nuc-_-9SIAA0S5319619-_-Product