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Survey: Any reliable EspressoBin V7 around?


barish

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The postfix V7 suggests that it will eventually succeed the EspressoBin V5 and in a long run, the V5 might disappear. Since I am about to start a business based on the EspressoBin, I would be really interested if there are good experiences regarding the V7 – as I had a very disappointing one, while the V5 seems to run very stable and reliably. By "reliable", I mean suitable for a home server running weeks and months without any bumps or hickups.

I'd also be interested whereelse I could find a community running the EspressoBin in reasonable numbers to investigate there as well.

 

Thanks in advance and sorry for the off-topic with respect to Armbian.

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On 8/7/2019 at 11:09 PM, barish said:

Since I am about to start a business based on the EspressoBin,

hhhm, did you get in touch with them personally, maybe even on the phone?

Explain them your ideas and trying to find a way to work together?

 

If not... oh my god.

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Hi @Tido, I am not yet in that stage, as I am still experimenting and investigating (as you see above) and still able to change SBCs altogether. Technically, I like the EspressoBin most of all, but their administration of business doesn't leave me impressed. Latest news on their web page from 2016, all products except two declared EOL, but still no explanation or news, no distribution network really... But what alternative, if you want SATA and GBit-ethernet at full speed and low energy consumption?

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Thanks for your suggestions, I have taken a look at those two boards designed by Solidrun, and they are valid alternatives, though the Clearfog needs a PCI extension for SATA (I need 2 ports) and the Helios4 consumes a little too much energy for permanent home use (IMHO).

I would even consider a Banana Pi (SATA faster than GbE is of no use anyhow), but it lacks a second SATA port and USB3...

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@gprovost Thanks for reporting! I achieved  a little below 4W at the wall plug (measured) with EspressoBin and two sleeping 2,5” SATA HDDs. I find that acceptable but still not perfect, considering that it’s doing *nothing* (except for heating up the home).

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2 minutes ago, barish said:

at the wall plug (measured)

I am absolutely with you, I also have a bad conscience having something using Nuclear Power for doing nothing. But then looking at families (I don't have children) they give a shit about standby consumption and others like fathers taking 5 papers to dry their hands if 2 would be more than enough.

Where is the balance/ justification?

 

To come back to the topic:

did you also check the efficiency of your powersupply (INput / OUTput) ?

Is it above 80% ?

 

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7 hours ago, Tido said:

did you also check the efficiency of your powersupply (INput / OUTput) ?

Is it above 80% ?

Since I am using a simple power plug (that once belonged to a router) for testing at the moment, I would guess that its efficiency at low power is less then 80%, while at full power (2A) it might go up to 90%, 95% (which is the usual behavior for switching power supplies). If I still measure less then 4W, all the better, isn't it. When ordering for production, I will of course take care of a good balance between price, dimensions and efficiency.

I asked @gprovost if he can provide me with a Helios4 board though, and if he does I could do some comparison.

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May I ask what your goal is? Do want a NAS like device or more of a Router/Switch kind of thing? 


If it is NAS is your main aim, I would definitely think about the Helios. Power consumption is not really an issue here, because as long as you use hdd's they will most probably consume more than the board. Remember, even WD My Clouds consume up to 10W.

 

If your more targeted towards Network/Router/Switch stuff, Clearfog is probably you're better option. With the two mpcie slots isn't a problem to drive up to 8 disks and it has 2 independet Gbit Ethernet ports (one switched to 6 slave ports).

 

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My goal is a NAS device for home use, aiming at non-technical persons. I want reasonable speed but don't need a speed monster, I assume the device will be sleeping most of the day, use cases being media streaming, address/calendar syncing, backup mobile devices (photos/videos) and backup computers. I will use 2x 2,5" hdds 2 or 3 TB each, one being a backup of the other. When the device is not working I would prefer a very low power consumption, when at full load, which is rather seldom, it can use 20W or even more.

I do like the idea that the device can be used as a switch and thus be placed onto the desk, where the ethernet cable from the wall goes into the device and the computer can be connected to it as well. But that's a bonus, not a must-have.

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Then the Helios or the Clearfog BASE would probably suit you best. They have the same processor (even SoM) but different carrier boards.
Helios has the advantage of offering you 4x SATA directly but only one Gbit Interface (could be expanded via usb3 though).
Clearfog BASE is similiar sized but offers 2x Gbit Ethernet (+1 if you use the sfp connector) and a mPCIe Port which can be used for SATA extender cards. (There is also the M.2 interface with only SATA populated. This might be used for a external ssd / hdd or even with multiple, there are some extender cards out there - all untested though.)

 

 

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10 hours ago, barish said:

My goal is a NAS device for home use, aiming at non-technical persons.

Helios, Qnap, Netgear ReadyNAS, ZyXEL NSA, Synology DS2,
Nice compact housing, they already have a community, additional software packages like Domoticz, updates, Linux, sleep mode for HDD and a regulated fan.

Why does the world need another NAS?

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11 hours ago, count-doku said:

Clearfog BASE

You’re right. That has been my second choice for some time. It’s quite a bit more expensive than the EspressoBin but should be worth it. I‘ll order one (there even is a German distributor) and test it. In the meantime, Globalscale might figure out their problems with the v7...

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On 8/13/2019 at 5:02 AM, gprovost said:

Helios4 is not a product from Solidrun, we are just using their System-on-Module.

It harnesses its processing capabilities from the ARMADA 38x-MicroSoM from SolidRun.  

and then you write later:

The Helios4 is an open source and open hardware project, therefore our objective is to publish any data related to the project on this Wiki.

https://wiki.kobol.io/

 

This is not a clear statement and an outsider can only guess what is fact.

We (Helios) use the SoM from SoildRun for our purpose  -  ...so everybody knows you are not the designer of the PCB.

 

or

We (Helios) have designed the SoM together with SolidRun and own the design. It is an Open Hardware project.

 

or something else but what you have written in this wiki, I don't understand.

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@Tido Kobol is the designer and owner of the carrier board which is what defines Helios4 product, and we have released on our wiki all the files (Schematics, PCB layout, BOM, etc...) of the carrier.

 

If tomorrow you are designing a product and decide to use a SoM from X vendor, are you going to say that your product is designed by X vendor ? No. But are you going to hide you are using X vendor SoM ? No if you want to be transparent.

 

I'm sure you will understand it's a tiny bit frustrating the assimilation / confusion when you put some much effort in a project... but we understand why it occurs. So it's something we learnt from this first product and for our next products we won't use anyone SoM.

 

Anyhow I don't think it's the right to carry on this conversation.

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