[chbot] CHCH Robotics Group, meeting notes, 19 Dec 2016

[Volker Kuhlmann]

On Mon 19 Dec 2016 22:04:49 NZDT +1300, Mark Atherton wrote:

> Corey brought in some home made ‘embedded Xmas trees’, along with a
> commercial version manufactured by FutureInTech, with some help from
> his father (Mark B), and Ivo.

Can one buy these somewhere? I might have a use for them, for friends'
children. Thanks.

> Andy G brought in a small PSU module with 5-36V in and 1.25 to 32V
> out buck converter. Unit can generate constant voltage or constant
> current. Also included is a status LCD, controlled by and STM8
> processor. USB type A socket is provided to allow 5V charging, and a
> Perspex enclosure. Yours for NZ$14 landed. Quite amazing.

Product and purchase URL please...? TIA

> ambient-light-controlled-brightness, and network interface. He also
> brought in a standalone PC in a small black box. Model number is
> J1900, is 2GHz dual core hyperthreaded CPU, 4G RAM, 128G SSD, also
> has a quad NIC, so is suitable as a firewall. His has also installed
> a SATA hard drive, for use as a cache.

J1900 is the model number of the Intel Celeron-class CPU! There is no
model number of the PC... with greetings from back yard China. Search
for mini PC, with and without J1900, there are other CPUs used in these
boxes too. If you try it, always get the slightly taller S02 case *and*
the SATA HDD kit, very little extra, the case in theory fits a 2.5" HDD
and you'll have trouble getting the just-right SATA cable otherwise. Or
put the disk external, I used 5mm M3 stand-off anyway for better
cooling. It is a low power fanless standard PC.

Tech specs are excellent and price is good, N/A in NZ with 4 NICs (not a
hub/switch!), there are similar systems with 1 NIC and media-hub specs
around, but I can not unreservedly recommend this approach. My first
board was faulty, but the seller was good and replaced it. The
replacement arrived wrapped in standard bubble wrap without any
antistatic protection! It deadlocked twice in 4 days, but it was also
getting very very hot (stress test).

Volker

-- 
Volker Kuhlmann
http://volker.top.geek.nz/	Please do not CC list postings to me.