Page 7 – The DIY Life

Orange Pi 5 Plus Test & Review

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June 28, 2023

Today we’re going to be taking a look at the Orange Pi 5 Plus, a new SBC from Orange Pi based on the Rockchip RK3588 processor.

This is one of the cheapest SBCs that I’ve seen with the RK3588 processor. The base model variant with 4GB of RAM is currently only $89, which is $40 less than the 4GB Rock 5 Model B and the top end 16GB variant is $129 which is almost $60 less.

Here’s my video review of the Orange Pi 5 Plus:

Where To Get The Orange Pi 5 Plus

Orange Pi 5 Plus (Amazon) – Buy Here
Orange Pi 5 Plus (Aliexpress) – Buy Here

Equipment Used

Infiray P2 Pro Thermal Camera – Buy Here
Power Meter USB C Cable – Buy Here
Video Capture Box – Buy Here

Unboxing & First Look At The 5 Plus

The Orange Pi 5 Plus comes in a transparent plastic case with a branded sleeve around it. Within the case, the 5 Plus is protected by an anti-static sealed bag.

At first glance, this board shares a lot of similarities with the Rock 5 Model B, it has the same Pico ITX form factor, the same processor, same RAM configurations, it also has dual M.2 slots and supports 8K video decoding but there are some key differences which we’ll take a look at, with perhaps the most eye-catching being that the Orange Pi 5 Plus is quite a lot cheaper.

As I’ve already mentioned above, the 5 Plus is in a Pico ITX form factor and measures 100mm x 75mm.

In the centre of the board, we’ve got the RK3588 processor. This is an 8-core, 64-bit processor that consists of a 4-core Cortex A76 processor running at 2.4GHz and a 4-core Cortex A55 processor running at 1.8GHz. In addition to this, it’s got an Arm Mali G610 GPU.

Next to the CPU are the RAM chips, the board comes in a 4GB, 8GB and 16GB variants, each with LPDDR4 chips. This is the 16GB variant.

Along the side, we’ve got the main set of ports.

From top to bottom, we’ve got a USB type C power port to provide power to the board, below that are dual 2.5G Ethernet Ports which will allow for powerful networking projects like building a home router, then we’ve got 3 HDMI ports. The top two are HDMI outputs which support HDMI 2.1 at up to 8K60 and below that is an HDMI input that can capture up to 4K60. Alongside the HDMI ports are dual USB 2.0 ports.

Behind the USB ports is a 40-pin GPIO header with a speaker connector above it.

Then on the opposite side to the ports is a 3.5mm audio jack, a status LED, an onboard microphone, an IR receiver, the power button, dual USB 3.0 ports with a USB type C port with display port alongside it. Next to that is a maskROM button which is used to reflash the boot loader.

We’ve then got an M.2 E-Key slot which can be used for a WiFi module as the board does not have onboard WiFi.

Alongside it is an eMMC storage interface that supports optional storage modules from 16GB up to 256GB.

And above it are two ports, the left one is a real-time clock connector and the right one is for a 5V fan.

Flipping the board over. On the bottom, we’ve got a microSD card slot that supports up to a 128GB microSD card, an M.2 M-Key port with 4 PCIe 3.0 lanes for an NVME SSD up to a 2280 size.

Along the edge we’ve got three more ports, the left one is for a touchscreen interface, the middle one is a DSI display port for an LCD panel and next to that is a CSI camera input.

So the 5 Plus is quite a feature-rich board on the hardware side.

I wanted to use the same passive heat sink that I used on the Rock 5B so that cooling performance is kept equal, but unfortunately, this heat sink is not compatible with the Orange Pi 5 Plus, so I’m going to be running the tests without a heatsink and keeping an eye on the CPU temperature.

Operating System Options For The 5 Plus

On the software side, Orange Pi have a number of operating system images available including the usuals like Debian, Ubuntu and Android.

They also have their own Orange Pi OS images, one based on Arch Linux and one on Android. To complement the dual Ethernet ports, they also have an Open WRT image.

At the time of making this video, the Orange Pi OS Arch Linux and Android images are not yet available. So I’m going to try the Debian image, which is more appropriate to compare to the Rock 5 B in any case as it’s the same operating system I used for my Rock 5 B testing.

So first up, let’s install the operating system.

This is as simple as downloading the image from their website and then flashing it onto a MicroSD card, I’m using Balena Etcher to do this.

Then we insert the card into the 5 Plus, plug in our peripherals and then plug in power.

Testing The Orange Pi 5 Plus’ Performance

The first boot on Debian takes around 30 seconds to complete and it boots right into the desktop, so there is no login screen.

If we open up HTOP, we can see we have 8 processor cores listed, all relatively idle and then our 16GB of RAM.

First, let’s try playing back a YouTube video in the default browser. I’m going to do this at 1080P and then at 4K.

We’ll set the display resolution to 1080P. Then let’s open up Chromium, then go to YouTube and then open up Big Buck Bunny. I’ll open up stats for nerds and we can then set the playback resolution to 1080P as well.

Video playback in the window is near perfect, with only a few dropped frames.

And it’s the same running full screen.

Now let’s step it up to 4K. I’m going to first adjust the monitor resolution to 4K and then reopen the YouTube video, this time setting the playback resolution to 4K as well.

Playback in 4K starts off with a few issues and a few dropped frames but it seems to settle after a few seconds of playback.

It’s definitely not perfect and still drops frames during playback but it’s actually reasonably usable. This is much better than 4K playback was on the Rock 5 model B and if we open up HTOP, we can see we’re now only at around 20-30% CPU utilisation rather than the 70-80 we were getting on the Rock 5.

Even so, Android is probably a more suitable alternative operating system for 4K video playback if that’s what you’re going to be primarily using it for.

Next, let’s do a comparison with the Rock 5 B by running the Sysbench CPU benchmark.

Running the test, after 10 seconds we have processed a little over 5,343 events per second and we get a total score of 53,450.

For comparison over three consecutive tests;

The Rock 5 B managed an average of 53,642
The Khadas Edge 2 managed an average of 51,568
The Orange Pi 5 Plus managed an average of 53,436

So performance-wise, the Orange Pi 5 Plus is almost exactly the same as the Rock 5 Model B, which is to be expected running the same processor and similar hardware. The difference between the two is likely just due to variability between tests.

Power Consumption On The 5 Plus

Lastly, let’s take a look at power consumption.

To measure the 5 Plus’ power consumption, I used a USB-C cable that supports power delivery and indicates the power draw through it. This showed that the 5 Plus was not running on Power Delivery, which would have been indicated by a PD at the top.

But running at 5V, it draws about 2-3W when idle and this goes up to 6-8W when fully loaded.

Thermals weren’t really an issue without the heatsink, even running Youtube playback at 4K for about 10 minutes didn’t push the CPU temperature much over 40 degrees. If you are going to run heavy loads on the 5 Plus for long periods of time then you’ll probably need a heatsink.

Final Thoughts On The Orange Pi 5 Plus

At the price that the Orange Pi 5 Plus is being sold at, it’s a really attractive option for a powerful single-board computer with a good set of interfaces. As software is still in the early stages, it’ll be interesting to see what packages are released over the coming months.

Let me know what you think of the in the comments section below.

Raspberry Pi 4B Insane Overclock To 2.5 Ghz

Michael Klements

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June 2, 2023

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Raspberry Pi 4B Insane Overclock To 2.5 Ghz

Today we’re going to overclock a stock Raspberry Pi 4B as far as possible before it gives up. I decided to try this after I accidentally increased the clock speed of this particular board to 2.2GHz instead of the 2.0GHz that I usually use. The Pi still booted up just fine and I only noticed that it was running at 2.2GHz when I ran a stress test a while later.

Here’s my video of my overclocking results, read on for the write-up:

Purchase Links For This Project

Raspberry Pi 4B 8GB – Buy Here
Ice Cube Cooler – Buy Here
Ice Tower Cooler (Alternative) – Buy Here
Arctic Thermal Compound – Buy Here

Equipment Used

InfiRay P2 Pro Thermal Camera – Buy Here
Jobi Gorilla Pod – Buy Here
Smartphone Holder – Buy Here
Electric Screwdriver – Buy Here

Overclocking Test Setup and Process

The stock speed of a Raspberry Pi 4 model B board like this is 1.5GHz, but it is fairly common for people to overclock them a little with adequate cooling. For a while the maximum limit was 2.147GHz and that’s why I was surprised that the board booted at 2.2GHz. I then did some reading and found that this limit seems to have been removed on newer models like the Compute Module 4, Pi 400 and the 8GB variant of the Pi 4 B, most likely because they have an upgraded (PMIC) power management integrated circuit. It looks like quite a few people have managed to overclock their 8GB Pi 4 B’s up to around 2.2-2.3Ghz before running into issues.

So today we’re going to try overclocking this 8GB Pi 4 in a few increments until it starts behaving weirdly, just won’t boot anymore or has a hardware failure. I’m going to be monitoring the internal temperatures in software and the component temperatures with a thermal camera, so I’m hoping that we reach a boot or lock-up limit rather than having a hardware failure. Raspberry Pi’s are still quite hard to come by so I’d prefer not to destroy this one.

P2 Pro Thermal Camera Monitoring Overclock Raspberry Pi Temperature

At each clock frequency, we’re going to run a quick stress test to check that the CPU can actually handle being fully loaded. This will also show us the CPU temperature during the test so that we can keep an eye on the thermals. We’ll then also run a Sysbench Benchmark to get a numerical value that we can use to compare the performance of the Pi at each increment.

Monitoring The Pi’s External Temperature

To monitor the component temperatures when we overclock the Pi, I’m going to be using the new P2 Pro by InfiRay.

This is a new tiny thermal camera that weighs just 9g and plugs into iOS or Android smartphones, turning it into a high-resolution thermal camera with a range of colour pallets. Don’t let its size fool you, compared to other entry-level thermal cameras, and even well-known smartphone-attached thermal cameras, this camera gives you around 2.5 times the resolution, 2.5 times the refresh rate and four times the measurement range.

P2 Pro Comparison With Similar Entry Level Camera

The P2 Pro also has a trick up its sleeve. Not only does it have a typical wide-angle lens for looking at large objects a short distance away. It also includes a magnetic macro lens that snaps onto the front of the camera and lets you see amazing detail close up – like inspecting small components on a PCB.

Infiray is a large thermal imaging company that released their first thermal sensor back in 2015. So, while this is a new product in their lineup, they have a wide range of industrial products and they’ve been around for a number of years.

Overclocking The Pi 4B And Testing It’s Performance

To start off, let’s get a baseline result from a stock Pi 4B running at the standard base frequency of 1.5GHz. From past experience, I already know that the Pi 4 runs into thermal throttling really quickly if you don’t use a heat sink so I’m going to use a standard stick-on heat sink for this first test.

From this first test, it’s pretty obvious that we’re going to need better cooling if we want to overclock the Pi. Not even a minute into the test we were already well over 70°C, so increasing the clock speed by even a small amount is going to push us into thermal throttling.

Test At Stock Frequency With Stick On Heatsink

Even so, I ran the Sysbench benchmark and got a total number of events of 785.

To provide additional cooling, I’m going to use an Ice Cube cooler which I’ve used in many of my previous builds and I already know does a really good job. I prefer the Sunfounder Ice Cube cooler over an Ice Tower cooler as the cooling plate extends to cover the RAM, USB and Ethernet controller chips surrounding the CPU and not just the CPU itself.

I’m also going to use thermal paste between the CPU and the cooler to improve thermal conductivity so that we’re hopefully not limited by inadequate cooling in any of the tests.

Arctic Thermal Paste For Ice Cube Cooler

Now let’s get the Pi booted up and see what improvement has been made by adding the Ice Cube cooler.

You’ll notice on the thermal camera that the fins on the cooler as well as the arms and even the ports on the Pi are all similar to the background temperature. This is because metals are reflective and essentially behave like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding infrared radiation. We can however still see the base of the Ice Cube cooler around the CPU, which is the area we’re interested in anyway.

Metallic Surfaces Don't Show Up Under Thermal Camera

Running the stress test, we can see our CPU clock frequency is sitting at 1.5Ghz and after a minute the temperature stabilises at around 34°C. So the Ice Cube cooler is working well – this is half of what we were at with the standard heat sink.

Running the Sysbench benchmark, we get a total number of events of 813. This is a slight improvement over the standard heatsink which is surprising given that we weren’t near the thermal throttling limit of the Pi.

Next, let’s try to overclock the Pi. I increased the clock speed to 2GHz and rebooted it. Running the stress test, the temperature now reaches around 37°C after a minute, so we’ve got a 3°C increase over the base frequency which honestly isn’t much. On Sysbench we get 1031 events, so an increase of over 25% which is great.

Next, let’s step it up to 2.2GHz. For this frequency, I’m also going to increase over_voltage to 10. This adjusts the core CPU voltage to accommodate the higher clock speeds.

Increasing Overvoltage To 10 In Overclock To 2.2GHz

At 2.2GHz we get a slight temperature increase of 2°C up to 39°C.

On Sysbench we get another 13% increase in performance, getting a total of 1173 events.

The Pi still looks fine thermally both in software and on the camera so let’s increase it to 2.3Ghz. To increase it to 2.3Ghz we need to also enable force_turbo. This improves stability by making your Pi run continuously at the set clock speed rather than dynamically adjusting the clock speed to match the workload. This setting voids your warranty though and you’re now obviously risking damage to your Pi, so don’t do this unless you’re prepared to potentially permanently damage your Pi and don’t leave your Pi running for long periods of time with this setting enabled.

At 2.3Ghz we get another temperature increase but this time of only 1°C to 40°C and in Sysbench we get a total of 1164 events, which is actually slightly worse than the performance at 2.2GHz.

I then went up in smaller increments, each time expecting the new frequency to be the last that the Pi would boot up successfully.

At each frequency, the Pi did boot up and I ran the stress test and Sysbench benchmark in increments from 2.35GHz to 2.475GHz.

At an overclock frequency from 2.3GHz to 2.45GHz, we had an average increase in performance of about 15%, but at 2.45GHz I started noticing the Pi doing a few weird things. The cursor started flickering every so often and at 2.475GHz some of the files in directories wouldn’t show up. But in each case, the Pi was still able to capture the screen contents, run the stress test successfully for about 2 minutes and run the Sysbench benchmark.

I then tried 2.5Ghz and since I hadn’t expected the Pi to boot up beyond 2.3Ghz, I didn’t have much hope for this. But after a brief boot screen, it did actually boot up into the desktop.

Ice Cube Cooler On Pi 4B Running At 2.5GHz

But all wasn’t well and the Pi was struggling.

The first time it booted, I tried running the screen capture utility and it immediately locked up.

Lock Up At 2.5GHz Running Screen Recorder

I then decided to skip the screen capture and just try to run the stress test and that too locked up.

I then tried to run the Sysbench benchmark and even that locked up.

So the Pi booted and was indicating that it was running at 2.5Ghz, but if I put any form of load onto it then it locked up.

So that marked the end of my testing. This might have been a power issue since the CPU seemed to actually be ok running at 2.5Ghz but if you put any load onto it then it may have caused the supply voltage to dip enough to lock up.

Looking At The Pi Using The P2 Pro

After my overclock tests, I then had some fun playing around with the thermal camera. You can see from the thermal images of the Pi and Ice Cube Cooler just how much better the resolution on the P2 Pro is compared to a slightly cheaper standalone camera.

Thermal Image Comparison P2 Pro and Basic Camera

This alternate thermal camera only costs $60 less than the P2 Pro and even combining a photo with the thermal image like some cameras do doesn’t look nearly as good.

Thermal Image Comparison With Photo Overlay

Some other things that I found interesting under the thermal camera were how the surface mount components in the power circuit around the USB-C port start up in sequence when the Pi is powered up, and also how quickly they cool down when the Pi is shut down. Watch my video at the beginning of this post to see this clearly.

You can also watch the Pi boot up from the bottom of the board.

As I mentioned earlier, thermal cameras can’t see the temperature of metallic surfaces because they’re reflective. But I wondered whether spraying an Ice Tower cooler black would mask the metal and allow the thermal camera to actually see the heat from the cooler.

So I sprayed one of my coolers black for science…

I put it onto the Pi with some thermal compound and I booted the cold Pi up at 2.0Ghz. I left the camera recording for two minutes while running the same stress test and you can now actually see the heat sink warming up.

After 3 minutes I tried unplugging the fan, which lead to a 10°C rise in temperature over the next three minutes. Plugging it back in brought the temperature back down again.

Ice Tower Cooler Now Showing Up On Thermal Camera

Final Thoughts On Overclocking A Pi 4

I’m curious to see if anyone else has managed to overclock their Pi 4 or even a CM4 or Pi 400 to 2.5Ghz or higher, and also whether you were able to run any tests on it. I’m aware of Claude Schwartz managing to overclock a CM4 module to 3.0GHz using Ice Spray and a firmware bypass. Let me know of any others in the comments section below.

Aside from the limitations in the power circuits, there is an element of silicon lottery involved. Some CPU’s will be able to be overclocked higher than others, so there might be a couple of Pi 4B’s out there that can go beyond 2.5Ghz.

If you’re interested in getting yourself a really small but powerful thermal camera that’s great for getting up close with PCBs and small electronics, the P2 Pro is available from InfiRay’s Amazon stores in a range of countries for $299. If you order one using my coupon code Klements123, you’ll get $20 off your order.

Here are some additional purchase links

US customers – Buy Here
CA customers – Buy Here
UK customers – Buy Here
GE customers – Buy Here
FR customers – Buy Here
SP customers – Buy Here
IT customers – Buy Here
Others – Buy Here

Can You Power Your Pi With A Power Bank Instead Of A UPS?

Michael Klements

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May 17, 2023

2

Can You Power Your Pi With A Power Bank Instead Of A UPS?

Today we’re going to be answering a question that has come up quite a lot in videos where I’ve used a small purpose-built UPS to power a Raspberry Pi – that is whether you could just use a power bank instead.

Here’s my video answer to the question, read on for the write-up:

Components & Equipment Used For The Test

Shargeek Storm 2 (Web Store) – Buy Here
Shargeek Storm 2 (Amazon) – Buy Here
Alternate Power Banks – Buy Here
Pi Sugar 3 Plus UPS – Buy Here
Pi UPS – Buy Here
Portable Monitor – Buy Here

Tool & Equipment Used:

USB Power Tester – Buy Here
Electric Screwdriver – Buy Here
TS100 Soldering Iron – Buy Here

Some of the above parts are affiliate links. By purchasing products through the above links, you’ll be supporting this channel, at no additional cost to you.

UPS’ Used In Previous Projects

The UPS hats or shields that I’ve used in previous videos are these two, the Pi Sugar 3 Plus and the Geekworm UPS V5:

I used the Geekworm UPS V5 in my mini desktop case build. This UPS costs around $35 to $40 without batteries. It takes two 18650 lithium-ion cells and uses these to provide power through three USB ports on the front of the hat and to inject power to the Pi through the GPIO pins. It’s also got an I2C bus which transmits a range of data to the Pi like whether it is plugged in and what the battery capacity is, and you can also get your Pi to safely shut down when the battery voltage drops below a certain limit.

I used the Pi Sugar 3 Plus in my mini server rack build. This one costs around $50 and comes with an included 5000mAh battery pack. This has largely the same features as the Geekworm UPS but it doesn’t have the USB ports on the front. It does however have a better interface, the settings can all be adjusted and managed through a web dashboard rather than through Python scripts, and I found it to be a lot more stable and reliable.

So the main question is, could you use a power bank to power a Raspberry Pi? Then there is the follow-up question, if you can then why would you use one of these UPS shields instead? Power banks are often a lot cheaper or have significantly higher battery capacity.

Which Power Banks Are We Going To Test?

To find out if we can use a power bank, I’ve got two to test. These represent the two extremes of what is available in the power bank market.

The first is a cheap $15 power bank that has a 6000mAh battery. It can output up to 2.1A through two USB type A ports. It is charged at a maximum of 1A through a microUSB port between them.

The second is the Shargeek Storm 2. This is a $220 power bank that has a 25,600mAh battery. It also has a range of USB ports including one USB type A port and two USB type C ports that support power delivery. In addition to these, there is also a DC barrel jack that supports DC input and output within an adjustable range.

Shargeek sent me the Storm 2 to try out and share with you, so I thought it would be a good device for this comparison. You may have already seen one of their eye-catching power banks online with a cyberpunk-style transparent case, leaving the batteries and PCB visible. But apart from the stylish design, they also offer great performance and a host of features which we’ll take a look at during this comparison.

Can We Power A Raspberry Pi With A Power Bank?

The main issue I see when people ask whether they can just use a power bank is that they’re generally asking because it’s an easy way to save money. A $20 power bank is obviously half the price of a $40 UPS and you can still use it to power and charge other devices.

The issue is that these cheap power banks often only have USB A ports and usually only support a little over 2A, or about 10W. If you’re familiar with the Pi’s power supply, this is a 3A, or 15W USB C supply.

Now this is probably not an issue if you’re running a barebones Pi with no connected drives or peripherals, but it will likely be a problem if you try powering a full desktop setup like the one in my 3D-printed desktop case. This has an SSD, an OLED display, a PWM fan and its got a wireless mouse and keyboard receiver plugged into it.

So let’s start by trying to power a Pi by itself with our first power bank.

So that has booted up and doesn’t seem to have any issues. I can open up a Chromium tab or VLC media player (which puts a load onto the CPU) and we don’t get any under-voltage warnings coming from the Pi.

I put my USB power meter onto it and found that it was drawing a little under half an amp when idle on the desktop.

Next, let’s try powering the Pi in my desktop case setup.

The first time I tried to boot it up, it looked like it was going to start up. It loaded the stats display script but then locked up.

I tried it again a few times and it did eventually boot up but instantly came up with a low-power warning. The little lighting bolt warning stays up almost continuously and the Pi is clearly running at reduced performance – it’s very lagging even just moving windows around.

With my power meter connected, it looks like the Pi uses a maximum of around 1.4A when booting up and then stabilises under 1A when on the desktop.

Current Draw On Desktop Setup With Cheap Power Bank

At 1A we’re still well below the 2A rating on the power bank so it should be able to keep the voltage over 5V but it doesn’t. So this cheaper power bank is not really suitable to run any more than a barebones Pi.

So now let’s try powering it with the Storm 2.

The Storm 2’s type A port can do 18W, so we should be able to power the Pi from that port without any issues but it also has two USB type C ports which both support power delivery. The one marked C1 can do up to 100W and the one marked C2 can do up to 30W. I’m going to use the Storm 2’s included USB C cable to power the Pi using the lower-powered USB C port.

This time the Pi has booted up and is running without any low-voltage warnings. It’s also a lot more responsive when opening up applications so it doesn’t seem to be performance limited.

Raspberry Pi Desktop Setup Stats Display

On the Storm’s display, we can see that it is drawing a little over 4W.

Power Draw From Storm 2 Powering Desktop Setup

We’ve got a lot of capacity available, so let’s try to hook up the portable monitor to the Storm 2 as well so that our whole setup is running from the power bank.

With the monitor added, we’re now drawing a little over 5W on the display’s port and under 5W on the Pi’s port, with a combination of just over 10W.

The Storm 2 has a 25,600mAh battery or more appropriately 93.5Wh, made up of 8 lithium-ion cells. So we could power this portable setup including the monitor for around 9 hours. Shargeek chose 93.5Wh as most airlines have a limit of 100Wh for power banks or portable batteries, so it is a high-capacity power bank but you can still travel with it.

Storm 2 Capacity and Fire Rated Enclosure

The onboard controller has a built-in battery protection system which includes over-voltage protection, short circuit protection and extreme temperature protection. The lithium-ion cells are manufactured by Samsung, so are good quality, and the housing is V0 fireproof so they have taken safety seriously when designing it.

Can We Power Additional Pi’s With The Storm 2?

Another interesting feature of the Storm 2 is the DC barrel jack next to the USB ports. This can be used as either an input or an output and its voltage is adjustable through the display.

If we set it to 12V, we can even power my whole Turing Pi 2 build.

And even plug the monitor into it, drawing a total of 17W. So we could power this setup of 4 networked Pi’s in a fanned enclosure and with a portable monitor for over 5 hours.

Storm 2 Powering Turing Pi 2 and Monitor

Once the battery is drained, Shargeek claim that you can fully recharge the Storm 2 in 1.5 hours. I tested this by fully draining it and then recharging it with my USB C adaptor from my MacBook which supports up to 140W. It charged up to 80% in an hour and reached 100% after 1 hour and 35 mins.

Why Use A UPS Instead Of A Power Bank?

So it clearly is possible to power a Raspberry Pi with the right power bank, and even additional peripherals like a portable display. So does this mean a power bank would be a better choice? Well, this is where it depends on what you want to do with it because a UPS and a Power Bank have similar features but are not really the same thing.

A power bank is great to make your Raspberry Pi setup portable for a period of time, but this is not why we use a UPS. A UPS is there to ensure that your Pi stays powered through minor power interruptions and in the event of an extended interruption, it gives the Pi an opportunity to safely shut down.

There are two important features that make a UPS different to a power bank.

The first is that a UPS is designed to run for long periods of time with power on – and batteries don’t like being fully charged for long periods of time. So most good quality UPS’ will have a feature to limit the maximum charge and discharge level of the connected battery. They’ll then only charge or discharge the battery between these limits. This protects the battery and prolongs its life. They also usually direct power from the supply to the load once the battery is full so that you’re not constantly drawing power from the batteries – again prolonging their life.

The second is something I’ve mentioned previously and that is that they are able to tell the Pi to safely shut down when the battery is running low. This protects your Pi and whatever you had running on it in the event of a longer power outage – something that a power bank won’t do either.

UPS Settings To Limit Maximum Discharge & Shutdown

So it really depends on what you’re wanting to do with your Pi. If you are connecting batteries to it to keep it running through a power outage then a UPS is the correct choice. If you’re wanting to make your Pi setup portable then a good quality power bank is the correct choice, and you’ll be able to use it to power other things as well – just make sure that your power bank is able to meet the power requirements of the Pi. You’ll generally be ok with any power bank that can supply 3A through at least one of its ports, most likely a USB C port.

Final Thoughts On The Shargeek Storm 2

Shargeek have a range of good quality power banks and accessories available through their web store or on Amazon.

The Storm 2 sells for $229.00, which is obviously a lot of money for a power bank, but you’re getting a solid set of features and a quality product that’ll likely last for a number of years. Not many power banks even support power delivery, never mind doing it at up to 100W and the inclusion of the DC power output makes it quite versatile. You could probably power small laptops or mini computers directly from this port since they usually take an 18V input. Shargeek even offer a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re not happy with your Storm 2.

So I hope this post has answered some of the questions that you might have had about powering your Pi with a power bank or a UPS. If you’ve got any other questions on either of these power supplies, leave a comment down below and I’ll try my best to answer it.

I Made A Pico ITX Case For My Rock 5 Model B

Michael Klements

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May 3, 2023

3

I Made A Pico ITX Case For My Rock 5 Model B

Following on from my initial review of the Rock 5 Model B, I eventually managed to get it to boot from an NVME drive. Embarrassingly this was as simple as missing a checkbox on the bootloader reflashing tool – but it now works and boots from the NVME drive really well.

So the next step is to turn it into a computer that I can actually keep on my desk without worrying about something shorting shorting out the components on the PCB or dust collecting on the surface.

Here’s my video of the build, read on for the write-up:

What You’ll Need To Make Your Own Rock 5 B Case

To make it easier for you to build your Rock 5 B into a mini desktop computer, I have put together a kit that includes the components and screws you need to house your Rock 5 B and Heatsink:

Rock 5 B Case Kit – Buy Here

Alternatively, you can make up your own case with the below hardware:

Rock 5 Model B (Amazon) – Buy Here
Rock 5 Model B (Allnet) – Buy Here
Rock 5 Passive Heatsink (Allnet) – Buy Here
1TB NVME Drive – Buy Here
40mm RGB Fan – Buy Here
EZ Fan 2 Module (Optional) – Buy Here
M3 Brass Inserts – Buy Here
M3 Button Head Screws – Buy Here
M2.5 Brass Standoffs – Buy Here
M2.5 Button Head Screws – Buy Here

Tool & Equipment Used:

Creality Ender-3 S1 Pro – Buy Here
Gweike Cloud Laser – Buy Here
Electric Screwdriver – Buy Here
TS100 Soldering Iron – Buy Here

Some of the above parts are affiliate links. By purchasing products through the above links, you’ll be supporting this channel, at no additional cost to you.

Designing The Rock 5 B Pico ITX Case

The form factor of the Rock 5 Model B is Pico ITX, so while it is slightly wider and longer than a Raspberry Pi, it’s not far off fitting into my Raspberry Pi desktop case design with a few tweaks.

So I opened the model up in TinkerCAD and made a few changes to it so that the Rock 5 fits into the case vertically with all of the primary ports accessible through the back.

I also designed a small adaptor that will screw onto the board and allow the power button to be pressed from the front of the case. I’ve added a small extension onto this bracket in the hopes that it will pick up the light from the status LED, allowing it to serve a dual purpose.

I then designed the side panels in Inkscape to be laser cut from some clear acrylic. The main side panel has space to mount a 40mm fan directly over the heatsink on the CPU for additional cooling. The opposite side panel has ventilation holes for the air to escape over the NVME drive and four holes for some standoffs to mount the Rock 5 onto.

I also added the small button adaptor to the acrylic design so that it’s clear to pick up the LEDs light.

So that’s the design done, now let’s get the components made up.

Making Up The Case Components

To start with, I 3D printed the case in black PLA with a 30% infill. I also sliced it on its side so that it didn’t need any supports – this will make the print cleaner and we won’t have to remove any supports afterwards.

3D Printing The Housing, Almost Complete

While that was printing, I laser cut the side panels and button adaptor from a sheet of 2mm clear acrylic. You could also use 3mm coloured acrylic sheets if you’d like to add some flair to the case.

After a few hours of printing, the body of the case was complete.

To finish it off, we need to add some M3 brass inserts to the corners for the side panel screws to screw into. These will make the holes more durable if we need to remove the side panels so we don’t have to worry about stripping the threads.

We’ll just melt these into place using a soldering iron.

There are four on each side of the case, eight in total. The case is then ready to install the Rock 5 B into.

Installing The Rock 5 Model B & Fan

Before installing the Rock 5 into the case, I’m going to re-install the NVME drive after flashing a fresh install of Debian onto it.

Flashing the OS onto an NVME drive is so much faster than the SD cards I’m used to. It took about 5 seconds to flash the image and 7 seconds to validate it.

We can then install the NVME drive in the M.2 slot and secure it with a single M2x3mm screw.

The Rock 5 looks like it fits into the housing quite nicely and all of the ports line up with enough clearance around them, so let’s get it mounted onto the side panel.

I’m going to mount it with four M2.5x12mm brass standoffs along with button head screws and nuts.

We’ll need to peel off the protective film on the side panel before installing the standoffs. I’m going to leave the outer film in place so that I don’t get fingerprints all over it while mounting the Rock 5 B.

I’m installing the standoffs with the M2.3 button head screw on the outside. This makes it easier to mount the Rock 5, by just placing it onto the male threads, and also keeps the outside of the case looking neat.

Design Update: After struggling to install the button adaptor directly onto the Rock 5, I added a 5th hole to the side panel so that an additional standoff can be used to mount the button adaptor. So make sure that you install five brass standoffs in this step instead of the four shown.

We can then place the Rock 5 B onto the standoffs and secure it with some M2.5 nuts.

The button adaptor needs to be mounted onto the hole above the HDMI input.

This was a bit of a challenge to get a screw through the back of, but I eventually managed to get it into place. Don’t tighten the nut yet as you’ll need the adaptor to be loose to guide it through the hole in the front of the case. If you added a 5th standoff to the side panel as per the design update then this step is much easier to do.

It feels like it’s going to work well, it lines up well and is easy to push the button through the front of the case.

The adaptor needs to be moved to overlap the button while installing the side panel so that it can then be pushed through the cutout to the front of the case.

We can then hold the panel in place with four M3x8mm button head screws. Remember to remove the protective film before tightening the screws otherwise, some of the film will be caught underneath the screws and will be difficult to be peeled off.

Then we can push the button adaptor through the cutout and tighten the nut holding it in place. There is enough flex in the acrylic that this nut can be quite tight and still won’t prevent the button from being pressed. Ideally, you want the adaptor to be resting on the face of the button so that there isn’t a gap that needs to be closed to press it.

Next, let’s mount the fan onto the opposite side panel. I’m going to use the M3 screws and nuts that came with the fan for this and I’m mounting it so that it is pushing air into the case. Again, make sure that you peel the protective film off before tightening the screws or it’ll be difficult to remove.

We can plug the fan into the 5V and GND pins on the Rock 5. The fan will also run on 3.3V, it’ll be quieter but will have slightly reduced performance.

Then we can close up the main side panel with another four M3x8mm button head screws.

And that’s the case complete, let’s get it hooked up to a power supply and monitor to try out.

Using The Rock 5 B Desktop Case

The Rock 5 B comes on automatically when it gets power, so we don’t need to push the power button to boot it up the first time.

It also boots up really quickly from the NVME drive. From the time you plug it in, it takes about 13 seconds to arrive at the login screen.

Now let’s shut it down and see if the power button works to wake it up again.

Testing The Power Button On Rock 5 Model B

So there is a similar problem to the Raspberry Pi with this setup. Shutting down the board doesn’t remove power from the 5V pins, so the fan continues to run indefinitely. A workaround would be to use a PWM fan or one of these EzFan modules that require a GPIO pin to be pulled high to turn the fan on, that way when the board shuts down, the GPIO pin would turn the fan off as well.

That aside, it looks like the button works correctly to wake it back up.

The button adaptor doesn’t look that bright on camera but the button lights up pretty well using the internal LED.

Let me know what you think of this Rock 5 B case in the comments section below and let me know if you’d like to see anything added or changed in the design. As with my other case designs, I’ve put a kit together for it in my Etsy store if you’d like to get one for your Rock 5 B.

Take Power With You On Days Out – EcoFlow River 2 Power Station Review

Michael Klements

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April 26, 2023

0

Take Power With You On Days Out – EcoFlow River 2 Power Station Review

Today we’re going to be taking a look at the EcoFlow River 2 portable power station. This is an all-in-one battery, charger, inverter and DC power supply in a compact and portable package. It’ll take care of your power needs on days out, at work sites or on camping trips. EcoFlow have sent me the River 2 along with their 110W solar panel to try out, so let’s get it unboxed and then we’ll take a closer look at what it has to offer.

Here’s my video review of the EcoFlow River 2, read on for the written review:

Where To Buy The River 2

The River 2 can be bought directly from EcoFlow’s web store or alternately from most major camping and outdoors suppliers.

EcoFlow River 2 – Buy Here
EcoFlow River 2 Pro – Coming May 2023
EcoFlow River 2 Max – Buy Here
EcoFlow 110W Solar Panel – Buy Here

Equipment Used

Power Meter – Buy Here

Unboxing & First Look

The River 2 arrives in a branded box that is a little larger, mostly in the vertical direction, than a shoe box. Like with other EcoFlow products, the River 2 is well-protected with sealed edges and moulded foam inserts.

In the box, we’ve got the River 2 Power Station, a mains power cable, a car charger cable and a quick start guide. So there really isn’t much in the box, but that’s a good thing because EcoFlow have integrated everything you need into the River 2, so you don’t need to carry around additional charger bricks, adaptors or regulators.

Inside the River 2 is a 256Wh Lithium Iron Phosphate battery which is good for over 3000 full power cycles. So if you used the full battery capacity every day, it would still last almost 10 years and still have 80% of its original capacity.

Lithium Ion Phosphate batteries are also less prone to combustion and thermal runaway than Lithium-Ion batteries and the integrated Battery Management System continuously monitors the voltage, current and temperature to ensure that it stays within safe operating limits.

River 2 Charging Options

Using the built-in mains charger, they claim that you can charge the EcoFlow River 2 at up to 360W which will take it from 0 to 100% in just one hour – which we’re going to test later. So even if you’ve forgotten to charge your Power Station the day before your trip, you should still have enough time to charge it while you prepare your things before heading out.

The River 2 also gives you three other ways to charge it. You can use the included car charger cable to charge it at up to 100W while you drive to your destination, or charge it using up to 110W of solar power, or even charge it using your laptop charger at up to 60W through the dual-purpose USB type C port on the front.

One thing to keep in mind with the River 2 is that, unlike some other power stations, you can’t use multiple charging methods at the same time. So for example you can’t have it plugged into mains and charging from USB C to get it to charge faster.

The solar input allows you to input up to 110W of solar power, meaning that you can fully charge an empty battery in around 3 hours or just keep it topped up while you’re using it on a sunny day.

To keep the battery and inverter cool, there is a fan between the power inputs on the back.

This isn’t always on, it’s PWM controlled and only comes on under higher loads, particularly when charging or supplying high AC or DC outputs. There is a fan symbol that is shown on the display on the front when the fan is running. It’s also cleverly positioned under the handle so it can’t be easily blocked if the device is pushed up against a flat surface.

AC & DC Power Outlets

To use the stored power, there are a range of ports and outlets on the front of the River 2. On the left side of the display is a DC output which can provide 12V up to 100W.

On the right side of the display is an AC outlet which is rated for 300W but can deliver up to 600W using EcoFlow’s X-Boost mode, which we’ll take a look at in a little.

Beneath the display are three USB ports, two type A ports which can each do 2.4A and one type C port which supports power delivery up to 20V and 60W. This is the same port that can be used to charge the River 2.

The display on the front of the River 2 is similar to that on other EcoFlow models and gives you a lot of information on the status of the device. From left to right, it shows you the time to fully charged or to empty depending on whether the battery is being charged or drained, it shows you the battery capacity within a power draw animation ring and then it shows you the total power input and power output in watts alongside it.

The display turns itself off after a few seconds to save power, but you can wake it up again by short pressing the power button. You can tell whether the River 2 is on or off by the small LED below the display which slowly fades on and off when it the unit is on.

You can also use the River 2 as a UPS which will pass power through from mains to your connected device and in the event of a power outage, will switch over in under 30ms, so you won’t even notice that you’ve lost mains power.

Charging Up To 100% In 1hr

Now that we’ve had a look at the features of the River 2, let’s try do some tests on it. The first thing that we’re going to test is the claim that you can charge the EcoFlow River 2 from empty to 100% in one hour.

Out of the box, the River 2 had a 29% charge and this went up to 37% while checking the charging options. So, let’s drain that completely first and we can then test the claim that it can be fully charged in under an hour.

I hooked it up to one of my 3D printers, which uses about 50W once heated and left it to drain completely. The River 2 stops the AC outlet when the battery is depleted to prevent over-discharge, but the battery management system and display remain active a while longer.

Once it was empty and indicating 0%, I hooked up the AC charger and timed how long it took to charge to 100% capacity.

After a few seconds, the display indicated that it would be fully charged in 57 mins, and in a little under half an hour the battery was 43% charged and the display indicated 33 mins remaining. So it was still on track to complete the charge in under an hour.

Charging From 0 to 100 End Time Prediction

After 57 minutes, the battery was full and the power input ramped down to 0W. So the management system is quite good at predicting the time it needs to fully charge the battery with a consistent power supply and you can definitely fully charge the River 2 in under an hour as they claim.

Testing The River 2’s DC Outlet

Next, I tried the DC outlet on a small 36W air pump like you would use for camping.

This ran well as you’d expect and the display indicated that it could power the pump for around 6 hours.

Testing The River 2’s AC Outlet & X-Boost

The AC outlet is where the River 2 gets interesting. It is equipped with a 300W AC inverter, but using EcoFlow’s X-Boost technology, they claim that you can run most appliances up to 600W without overloading it. This is not to say that it can output 600W, it means that it can power 600W devices so that they are able to function albeit often at reduced performance. This works best on appliances that do not have any smart power supplies – ones with heating elements and similar resistive loads work best.

For my test, I’m going to try power this electric brush with a heating element that has three stages, with the highest setting drawing 800W.

The River 2 was able to power the brush through all three settings and you can see the displayed output power doesn’t go over 350W.

If you watch my review video, you’ll hear that the motor in the brush sounds like it’s slowing down at higher heat settings. X-Boost is able to power the brush on the highest setting by still only outputting 300W. It does this by intelligently reducing the output voltage so that the inverter is not overloaded but is still powering the appliance.

As mentioned previously, this leads to a slight reduction in the performance of the appliance, but it does at least give you a way to use it.

There are also some limitations with X-Boost. You can’t use it while the River 2 is charging and because it is changing the supply voltage, there may be a further reduction in performance if you are using multiple devices on it. So you really only want to use a single AC appliance if you’re using X-Boost. This is not so much an issue on the River 2 since it only has a single AC outlet but is something to be aware of on their larger power stations like the Delta series.

You can also turn X-Boost off in the settings menu in the app if this is something you don’t want to use.

Testing The USB C Charging Port

I tried the USB C port to charge my MacBook and it indicated that it was charging at 60W which is the maximum that they claim it can do.

Likewise, plugging the MacBooks charger into the River 2 allowed it to charge at 60W.

Testing EcoFlow’s 110W Solar Panel On The River 2

EcoFlow’s 110W solar panel is made up of mono-crystalline silicon cells on a waterproof foldable panel which can be set up using the carrier bag as a stand.

I really like this design, it’s compact when folded up and the carrier bag feels like it is really good quality with rubberised water-resistant zips.

The surface of the solar panel is a bit weird, I’ve never seen a solar panel look like this, it’s almost like a rubberised surface as well, but I guess that’s part of what makes it waterproof and durable.

To hook it up to the River 2, you just connect the panel to the included XT60 charging cable and then plug this into the port on the back.

With the panel in full afternoon sun, I first got a little over 90W out of it.

As with any solar panel, it needs to be facing the sun directly to get the most power out. By rotating it just a few degrees to better face the sun, I got an extra 10W.

Solar Charging Setup River 2 & EcoFlow Solar Panel

The panels are also chainable, so you can hook up multiple 110W solar panels to their larger power stations if you’d like to. The River 2 only supports up to 110W of solar input so we’re only able to use a single panel.

Using The River 2 With EcoFlow’s App

Lastly, you can also hook the River 2 up to your smartphone through Bluetooth or WiFi and then use their app to monitor and control it as well as change its settings.

From the main screen, you can see the time remaining to fully charged or empty depending on whether the battery is being used or charged, you can also see the current rates of charge and discharge in watts and of each individual port below that.

You can turn the AC or DC inputs or outputs on or off remotely through the app as well. So you’ve got a lot more control than what you can do on the River 2 itself.

You can also access the device settings which allows you to do things like turn X-Boost on or off, set timeouts, manage charge and discharge levels and even reduce the maximum power that the River 2 can draw from mains or a car charger when charging.

So if we set the charging limit down to a maximum of 100W then it limits the charger draw to 100W.

This is useful if you’re at a campsite or charging it from another low-capacity power source. Without this, it’ll just trip or overload the device that you’re trying to charge it from.

Final Thoughts On The EcoFlow River 2

In my opinion, one of the best features of the River 2 is just how portable it is for the features it includes.

It weighs only 3.5kg, or less than a gallon of milk for those who aren’t on the metric system. The flat top and sides mean that it is stackable, unlike the previous generation River, so it’ll fit right in amongst your bags and equipment. It’s even got rubber feet on the bottom so that it doesn’t slide around.

Overall I’m quite impressed with the River 2. The build quality is great, it’s got a good set of features for its size and price. The lithium iron phosphate battery design means that it should last you a number of years.

The only drawbacks are probably going to be the relatively low battery capacity and inverter power output because of its compact size. If those are too low for you then the River 2 Max doubles up on them as an alternative and the River 2 Pro which is launching early May has three times the battery capacity of the River 2. So EcoFlow have you covered with a range of options and any model in the River series is going to be a great companion when you need power on days out or for short camping trips.

EcoFlow River 2 Series Portable Power Station

Let me know what you think of the EcoFlow River 2 in the comments section below and if there is anything else you’d like to see me test on it.

Level Up Your Homelab With The Raspberry Pi CM4 Compute Blade

Michael Klements

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March 23, 2023

1

Level Up Your Homelab With The Raspberry Pi CM4 Compute Blade

Today we’re going to be taking a look at the Compute Blade, a rack-mountable PoE (Power over Ethernet) carrier board for a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4. They are designed to allow you to stack up to 20 blades, each carrying a Pi CM4 module, into 1U of 19″ rack space. So you’re able to create a low-profile cluster with up to 80 ARM cores, 160GB of RAM and 160TB of NVMe storage.

The Compute Blade has been designed by Ivan from Uptime Labs, who began working on the concept in 2020 and has now launched the Blade through a Kickstarter campaign which is due to end a little before mid-April.

Since the original version, Ivan has been through 8 iterations, taking in feedback from the community and adapting the design to suit.

While a 20-node cluster is probably overkill for most people in a home environment, a 4-node cluster in his 3D printable enclosure with two 40mm fans on the back is perfect for a home lab.

Here’s my video review of the Compute Blade, read on for the written review:

Purchase Links

The Compute Blade is not yet available to buy through traditional channels but is available through the Uptime Labs Kickstarter campaign. I’ll update the links below when the product is available to purchase through a web store after funding.

Compute Blade – Kickstarter Campaign
Raspberry Pi CM4 Module – Buy Here
Crucial NVME Drive – Buy Here
Noctua 40 x 20 Fan – Buy Here

Equipment Used

Power Meter – Buy Here
Gweike Cloud Laser – Buy Here

First Look At The Compute Blade

Taking a look at the board from end to end, at the front we’ve got one of two addressable RGB LEDs which are user-programmable. Alongside that is a Gigabit Ethernet port which supports PoE or power over Ethernet at up to 30W.

We’ve got a programmable button, a second RGB LED and three other status LEDs for SSD, power and activity.

Alongside them is a UART port and a selector with hardware switchable WiFi, Bluetooth and EEPROM write protection.

Dip Switch Selector For WiFi, Bluetooth and EEPROM Write Protection

We’ve then got a full-size HDMI port, with the CM4 module area and sockets alongside it. Underneath the CM4 module is a TPM 2.0 security chip that allows you to secure-boot your Pi. This is strategically covered by the CM4 module for added security.

Next to the CM4 module area is the PoE power converter which steps the PoE voltage down to 5.1V.

Above that is a microSD card slot and a USB A port, and next to those is an M.2 M-key slot which supports NVMe SSDs up to 22110.

Below that is an expansion port for some optional add-ons like a real-time clock module or a Zymbit hardware security module that Ivan has been working on.

Then we’ve got a USB C port and boot button which can be used to flash the boot loader on the CM4 module and finally there is a fan port on the back. The fan port is designed to be used with his fan modules that the blade will slide to plug into.

On the back of the blade, we’ve just got some manufacturing details on the PCB silkscreen.

Preparing The Compute Blade For First Boot

To get the Blade ready to boot up, we need to install a Raspberry Pi CM4 module and a boot drive. I’m using a CM4 Lite module, meaning that it doesn’t have onboard eMMC storage and this one also doesn’t have onboard WiFi or Bluetooth. This is perfect for the blade since we’re going to be booting from the NVMe drive in any case and we’re going to be using the Ethernet port on the front.

For the boot drive, I’m using a 1TB NVMe drive which I’ve preloaded with Raspberry Pi OS Lite. I pre-configured the operating system to enable SSH and I added myself as a user. You can also boot from a microSD card plugged into the slot on the blade if you don’t want to use an NVMe drive, or if you want to use the NVMe drive as a storage drive only, but I prefer the reliability of using it as the boot drive.

We can then install this awesome custom red heat sink over the CM4 module which has cooling pads for the CPU and RAM chips.

Putting The Compute Blade Into A Ventilated Enclosure

Before I power up the Blade, I’m going to make up an enclosure to hold it along with a 40mm fan at the back. This will be similar to Ivan’s 3D printable design for 4 blades but this one will be for one or two Blades and it’ll be made out of clear laser-cut acrylic.

One of the primary drivers behind the Blades design is that Ivan wanted to make them easy to swap out or replace if there is an issue with one. You can simply turn off power to the device and then slide it out of the chassis without affecting the surrounding blades or having to remove the whole rack – so we’re going to retain that in this enclosure design.

Compute Blade Case Download

I laser cut the enclosure components from 2mm clear acrylic and glued them together along the edges.

I’m using the same Noctua fan that the Uptime Labs fan module uses but I’m just going to mount this directly onto the back of the enclosure.

I’ll plug it into 5V and GND, so it’ll be running at full speed all the time. The Blade does have two of the Pi’s GPIO pins available on the fan connector, so you can implement PWM control if you’d like to, that way the Blade or cluster of Blades will run a lot quieter.

With that done, let’s boot up the Blade and try running some tests on it.

Compute Blade First Boot

If you’re using an older CM4 module like I am, then it probably has a bootloader version on it that doesn’t support booting from the NVMe drive. You’ll need to update the boot loader otherwise your Pi will just get stuck saying that no SD Card or Network boot location was found.

CM4 modules shipped out after July 2021 should have the new boot loader installed, but you can see this one’s boot loader version is from February 2021.

Fortunately, this is quite easy to do right on the Compute Blade, you just need to boot it up with the button next to the USB port pressed, then connect it to another computer using a USB C cable (I used another Raspberry Pi) and then follow a few command prompts to reflash the boot loader.

After that, the Compute Blade should boot up from the NVMe drive and will then be accessible on your network.

I’m using a second Pi to SSH into the Compute Blade to do some testing.

If we use the command lsblk, we can see our connected NVME drive.

Running A Drive Speed Test

With the Compute Blade now booted, lets install hdparm to run a drive speed test.

sudo apt-get install hdparm

We can run the test by entering this command with the drive name that showed up when we ran lsblk.

sudo hdparm -tT /dev/nvme0n1

I’m going to run this test three times as it might change a little each time we run the test.

So we get a cached sequential read speed of a little over 1000 MB/s and a sequential read speed a little over 375 MB/sec. This is much lower than what the drive is capable of but it isn’t a limitation of the Blade, but actually of the Pi CM4 module which only has a PCIe Gen 2 x1 bus available.

Thermal Testing The Compute Blade

Next, let’s try running some thermal tests.

I’ll do two tests on the Pi, both using a utility called CPU Burn, the first running in the enclosure with the fan running, and then with the Blade out of the enclosure and without a fan, so just passively cooled by the large heat sink.

To install CPU Burn, enter the following commands:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ssvb/cpuburn-arm/master/cpuburn-a53.S
gcc -o cpuburn-a53 cpuburn-a53.S

Let’s try the test with the fan first. We can run the test by entering:

while true; do vcgencmd measure_clock arm; vcgencmd measure_temp; sleep 10; done& ./cpuburn-a53

After running the test for a little over 20 minutes, the CPU temperature stabilised at around 37 degrees, which is really low for all four cores being maxed out continuously.

Thermal Testing Compute Blade Running CPU Burn

Looking at the heat sink through a thermal camera, we can see that it is heating up but it’s also not much over 32 degrees.

Thermal Camera Look At Heatsink In Enclosure

Now let’s take the blade out of the enclosure and run the test again.

After 20 minutes outside of the case, with only passive cooling, the CPU temperature has stabilised at around 56 degrees, which is still quite good considering this is under full load continuously.

Looking at the heatsink through a thermal camera, we can see that it has heated up quite a lot more than when it was in the enclosure, it is now around 52 degrees.

Thermal Camera Look At Heatsink On Pi Compute Blade

So you’ll be able to get away without a fan if your Blade isn’t running in a confined space but you’ll most likely need a fan if you rack mount it as intended.

The Compute Blade’s Power Consumption

Power consumption when idle is around 4W, so it doesn’t use much more than the CM4 module uses alone.

Energy Consumption Of Compute Blade No Load

With all four cores maxed out, consumption goes up to around 7W, which is still really power efficient. Even with a 20-node cluster with all 80 cores maxed out, you’d be using less than 150W.

Energy Consumption Of Compute Blade Full Load

Final Thoughts On The Compute Blade

There are also some other features of the Blade that I haven’t yet tried out. You can turn off the status LEDs if you aren’t a fan of flashing lights by entering some commands in the terminal. The two addressable LEDs are connected to GPIO18 on the Pi and are programmable, so you can use your own scripts to get them to indicate specific metrics or errors. Similarly, the button on the front of the Blade is connected to GPIO20, so you can program that to do whatever you’d like as well, like initiate a safe shutdown.

So the Compute Blade is a feature-rich board that is going to be great for a home lab or to pack a significant amount of computing power into a single unit of rack space. There are a lot of benefits to running individual smaller computing nodes rather than a number of virtual machines on a single more powerful computer.

Let me know what you think of the Compute Blade in the comments section below and let me know if there is anything you’d like to see me try on it. Also, check out the Kickstarter page if you’re interested in getting one, Ivan has already blown past his first funding milestone.

Make A Tiny Raspberry Pi Based Cyberdeck

Michael Klements

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March 8, 2023

4

Make A Tiny Raspberry Pi Based Cyberdeck

I’ve had a Hyperpixel 4 display in my project cupboard for about two years now. I bought it because it looked like the perfect display to pair with a Raspberry Pi to build a tiny Cyberdeck because it plugs into and is driven entirely through the Pi’s GPIO pins.

Hyperpixel 4 Display Plugs Directly Into Pi 4 GPIO Pins

So when Atomstack reached out and asked me if I would like to try out their new Atomstack X30 Pro laser engraving and cutting machine, I thought that this would be a great project to build with it.

I’m going to make up the Cyberdeck in a clamshell design with the display mounted directly onto the Raspberry Pi in the top half and then a small keyboard in the bottom half. I found a re-purposed keyboard from a Blackberry online which has a small custom carrier board on it to make the keyboard and trackpad act as a USB-connected keyboard and mouse. So, I’m going to build this into the bottom half.

To make up the case components, I’m going to use the new Atomstack X30 Pro to laser-cut and engrave some 3mm plywood sheets. You can find out more about the X30 Pro in my unboxing and review post.

Here’s my video of the build, read on for the write up;

What You Need To Build Your Own Tiny Cyberdeck

Raspberry Pi 4B – Buy Here
Hyperpixel 4 Display – Buy Here
32GB Sandisk Ultra MicroSD Card – Buy Here
Blackberry Keyboard & Controller – Buy Here
M2.5 Button Head Screws – Buy Here
Short USB C Cable – Buy Here

Tool & Equipment Used

Atomstack X30 Pro – Buy Here
Atomstack Honeycomb Bed – Buy Here
Power Meter – Buy Here

Some of the above parts are affiliate links. By purchasing products through the above links, you’ll be supporting my projects, at no additional cost to you.

Designing The Tiny Cyberdeck Components

I designed the two halves of the Cyberdeck in Inkscape. It’s essentially two boxes, one that will hold the Pi and display and form the top half of the clamshell and then a second to hold the keyboard in the bottom.

Holding the two halves together are these hinges, which are shaped this way to limit the opening range of travel to a 45-degree angle. It’ll also hopefully be able to sit on a desk when it’s open without toppling over. I’ll have to see about this as there is a lot of weight in the top half with the Pi and display both there.

I also put my initials onto the top plate as a logo to engrave.

Cyberdeck Case CAD File Download

Cutting The Components On The X30 Pro

Let’s load a piece of plywood and engrave and cut the top half components. I’ve set Lightburn to engrave the logo first so that the part doesn’t shift when it is cut. I’ll leave the air assist off for the engraving and then turn it on when it starts cutting.

If you watch my video, you’ll see that the laser runs back and forth in lines, called scan lines, to mark the wood and create the logo.

Once that’s done we can turn on air assist to start the cutting.

Now we’ve got the first sheet of components cut. Next, let’s cut the components for the bottom half.

Assembling The Cyberdeck

To assemble the cyberdeck, let’s first glue the bottom sections of each half together. These fit together using the interlocking tabs that we’ve cut into them, we just need to make sure that we put them in the right way around.

I’m using PVA wood glue to glue the components together. You can use clamps to hold them together while the glue dries for a stronger bond.

The keyboard housing goes together in a similar way, again making sure that the sides with the hinge tabs are installed the correct way around. The cutouts for the back strips should face upwards towards the surface of the keyboard.

Assembling The Keyboard Half Of The Case

With those drying, we can mount the display onto the Raspberry Pi. It comes with a set of standoffs and a header extension, so let’s plug the extension into the GPIO pins.

We can then screw the standoffs into the back of the display.

Then press the display into place on the Pi.

Plugging Raspberry Pi Into Displays GPIO Pins

Now let’s mount the display and Pi stack into the top half of the Cyberdeck. The screws that hold the Pi onto the display’s standoffs are too short to go through the plywood as well, so I’m going to replace them with some M2.5x12mm screws.

Screwing Display Stack Into Cyberdeck Case

I’ve prepared a microSD card with Raspberry Pi OS on it and I’ve pre-configured the software for the Hyperpixel 4 display, so it should work automatically shortly after booting up. The microSD card will still be accessible through the slot on the side of the Cyberdeck, so we don’t have to open it up again if we need to re-flash the card.

We can then press the bezel into place around the display. I could add a drop of glue to the edges to make sure that it doesn’t fall out again, but it actually fits into place quite well without glue.

Next, let’s do the same with the keyboard. We’ll position it within the cutout and then glue the bezel into place to hold the keyboard.

Installing Keyboard Into Bottom Half Of Case

Then we need to add the hinges to join the two halves together. These just use some M3x12mm screws, nuts and washers to mount them onto the two halves. I’m using two nuts on each so that the nuts can be tightened against each other and not the hinge so that the hinge is able to move freely.

We also need to make sure that they are positioned correctly so that the end stops stop the display from opening too far.

Lastly, I’m going to glue some felt strips onto the outer edges so that the display doesn’t rub against the keyboard when it is closed as this might scratch it.

That’s the Cyberdeck complete. I really like the clamshell design and how compact it is when it’s folded up.

Using The Cyberdeck

To use the Cyberdeck, we need to plug in a short USB C cable between the keyboard and the Pi as well as a power cable.

A straight USB C cable is fine if you’re using it as a handheld device, but if you want to use it on a desk then you’ll need to use a cable with a 90-degree connector otherwise it’ll rest on the connector and won’t lie flat on the desk.

Once it boots we can use the touchscreen or trackpad to move the cursor and open applications and we can type in commands using the keyboard.

There is an under-voltage warning coming up periodically with this cable. So it probably isn’t able to supply enough power to drive the display and keyboard attached to the Pi as well.

This doesn’t come up if I use my USB-C adaptor directly, but this doesn’t have a 90-degree connector on it.

The Cyberdeck uses around 4-6W when running, so it can be powered through a power bank for a couple of hours if you’d like it to be completely portable.

I think it’s come out really well, let me know what you think of the Cyberdeck in the comments section below and let me know if there is anything that you think I could improve upon or change.

Atomstack X30 Pro Unboxing & Testing

Michael Klements

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March 8, 2023

1

Atomstack has recently launched the X30 Pro. This is their new flagship gantry-style laser engraving and cutting machine that now has a 6-core 33W laser module, which is the most powerful diode laser available on these style machines. It also comes with a fantastic air assist system to give you really clean cuts.

They sent me the X30 Pro to try out and share with you, so I’m going to be using it to make a Raspberry Pi based cyberdeck from 3mm plywood sheets. But first, let’s get it unboxed and run some tests on it to see how well it performs.

Where To Buy One?

Atomstack’s machines are available through their web store and Amazon store:

Atomstack X30 Pro – Buy Here
Atomstack Honeycomb Bed – Buy Here
Atomstack Laser Enclosure – Buy Here

Some of the above parts are affiliate links. By purchasing products through the above links, you’ll be supporting my projects, at no additional cost to you.

Unboxing The Atomstack X30 Pro

The X30 Pro arrives partially assembled, with all of the parts really well protected with individual foam trays and inserts.

They include everything you need to get set up and running, including tools, safety glasses and manuals. They also include a couple of sample plywood and acrylic pieces to test the laser on, along with software and test cutting files on a USB flash drive.

Assembly is about as easy as it can be without the machine being entirely pre-assembled. The main part of the assembly process is to assemble the aluminium extrusions that make up the y-axis frame. So you should be able to get the laser assembled and running in less than an hour.

The screws are even set out in packs that match each step in the assembly portion of the manual.

Having assembled a number of these style machines in the past, it took me around 15 minutes to get it assembled and ready to run some test cuts.

Main Selling Points Of The X30 Pro

The new 33W diode laser module combines the light produced from 6 6W lasers into a single focal point, a step up of 50% over their previous flagship, the X20 Pro.

The actual laser module itself is not all that much larger than that on the X20 Pro although you can see a bit of a size increase.

The increase in power allows you to cut through much thicker materials, or to cut thinner materials even faster. They claim it will even cut 0.1mm stainless steel sheets, so it is a really powerful machine.

There are two other things that I think set this machine apart from its competitors, besides the more powerful laser, the first is the display that allows complete offline control of the machine.

So you can plug a microSD card into the controller and then control the positioning and cutting directly on the machine without a connected computer. I actually use this quite often on the X20 Pro, it has its limitations but it works pretty well for straightforward jobs.

The second is the air assist system.

There are other machines available with air assist, but the air assist on the Atomstack machines is really good. So much so that I actually use my older X20 Pro to cut all of my plywood parts for my projects and for products in my Etsy store instead of my more powerful CO2 laser. My CO2 machine also has air assist, this one just does a better job at getting the cuts to look really clean.

Cutting & Engraving Tests on Plywood Sheets

The air assist compressor is adjustable and connects to the top of the laser module where it is then directed down to a stream around the lens and onto the cutting area. It actually performs a secondary function – the stream of air around the lens keeps it clean as well.

For the cutting surface, they give you a stainless steel sheet to protect your desk or work surface from the laser, but you’ll want to use some prisms or a honeycomb bed to raise the workpiece slightly when you’re cutting. This is so that you’re not charring the back of the piece and you’ve got some space for the smoke to escape. I’m using an Atomstack honeycomb surface that I bought to use with the X20 Pro.

It’s really important to wear eye protection when working with these open gantry style lasers, this high-power laser can permanently damage your vision in a fraction of a second if something goes wrong. Atomstack provides a pair of safety glasses with the X30 Pro kit, but you should really get a pair of glasses from a reputable optics company that has done testing on the glasses and provides some form of certification.

I’m going to run some cutting and engraving tests on a piece of 3mm plywood as this is the material that I’m going to be using for the Cyberdeck. I’m using Lightburn on a connected laptop to run the tests. The laser is going to cut a range of 5mm blocks at different speeds and laser powers and we’ll then be able to see which settings produce the best quality cuts.

Cutting Test

To start I’m going to do a cutting test with a range of 10 to 100mm/s for the speed and 0 to 100% power.

From that test, we only managed to cut through a few of the higher power settings at low speed in the bottom right corner, so I’ve set the speed up a bit too high for this material.

You’ll also notice how much cleaner the engraving looks on the numbers along the bottom of the vertical axis without the air assist off. So that’s something to keep in mind – don’t use air assist with engraving, only use it when you’re cutting.

These sheets are not the same material as the 3mm basswood sheets that are commonly available online for laser cutting, they’re a much better quality construction-grade plywood. So it takes a lot more power to cut them. Let’s turn down the speed a bit and try a second test.

So we’ve had much better success on the second test with most of the bottom right half of the test cutting through. So that gives me a good idea of what settings I can use to get through the plywood. To cut these sheets for projects, I’m probably going to go with something around the higher end of the laser’s power – let’s go with 90% power and 15mm/s speed.

Engraving Test

Next, let’s try running an engraving test to get an idea of what settings will work to engrave a logo onto the Cyberdeck. This is quite similar to the cutting test but the laser runs back and forth across the whole area of the square to mark it.

Clearly, the bottom row’s speeds are too low and just burnt through the wood entirely, but we have some good results in the middle of this range.

Cutting Project Components On The X30 Pro

After the materials tests, I wanted to try cutting some plywood components for my cyberdeck project. I set Lightburn to engrave the logo first so that the part doesn’t shift when it is cut. I’ll leave the air assist off for the engraving and then turn it on when it starts cutting.

If you watch my video, you’ll see that the laser runs back and forth in lines, called scan lines, to mark the wood and create the logo.

Once that’s done we can turn on air assist to start the cutting.

As with any of these open-style gantry machines, one of the biggest drawbacks is that they produce a lot of smoke when cutting. There isn’t really an easy way to capture or direct it away from the work area, so you’ll need to work in a well-ventilated space.

Atomstack also sells an enclosure for the laser which makes it easier to connect up to an extraction fan, so that’s definitely something you’ll want to consider if you’re using it in a smaller space.

Taking a close look at the pieces, you can see how well the air assist works on the X30 Pro. There is virtually no charring or smoke marks on the surface of the cut.

Cutting Other Materials On The Atomstack X30 Pro

I also tried cutting a few other materials using the Atomstack X30 Pro to test its capabilities.

As I mentioned earlier, the plywood that I’ve used is much stronger than basswood sheets that are usually marketed for these machines, the X30 Pro cuts through these sheets really easily and at high speed. It’ll get through the included sheet at about 60% power at 15mm/s.

It can also cut through black or dark opaque acrylic sheets. This required a higher power, cutting through at around 80% power at 3mm/s.

Finally, I wanted to try stainless steel sheets. I have these shims which have their thicknesses etched onto them, so I tried the 0.05mm one first. Atomstack’s settings suggestion was for 16mm/s and 60% power, which I thought sounded a bit too fast and at a bit too low power, but it managed to cut through the stainless steel perfectly.

It does warp the metal slightly around the edges because of the heat, but the results were better than I expected.

I also tried with a 0.1mm sheet, which is double the thickness of the first, and I wasn’t able to get it to cut all the way through this sheet even with different settings. It got partway through some areas but I couldn’t get a full clean cutout. This is high-grade stainless steel so that may play into it as well. Honestly, I was impressed that it could make it through the 0.05mm sheet.

Final Thoughts On The X30 Pro

I was really impressed by the results of my cutting tests, the X30 Pro is a really powerful and capable machine. The increase in laser power means that I can cut plywood components around 30% faster than I could on my X20 Pro, which is a significant saving.

I can’t see myself using the machine to cut stainless steel very often, but it is impressive that it is able to.

The air assist on Atomstack machines is probably my favourite feature. As I mentioned earlier in the post, it even produces better cutting results than my CO2 laser which costs more than double the price.

It is a pricey machine, being over $1,000, but it’s the perfect workshop companion if you do a lot of sheet woodwork or you see yourself making personalised components. If you are going to be running it in a smaller workshop space or bedroom then you’ll definitely want to go with the ventilated enclosure so that you’re able to properly extract the smoke and fumes from the work surface.

Let me know what you think of it and if you have anything else you’d like to see me try out on it in the comments section below.

Build A Raspberry Pi NAS For $35 Using All New Parts

Michael Klements

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February 8, 2023

10

Build A Raspberry Pi NAS For $35 Using All New Parts

Today we’re going to be building a Raspberry Pi based NAS (network attached storage) device using all new parts for as little as possible. If you don’t know what a NAS is, it’s essentially a small computer that is hooked up to a storage drive and acts as a file server on your network, allowing you to access your files from any device.

This is not the first one I’ve built. I’ve actually built a few of these in the past, but they’ve all turned out to be quite costly. So for this build, the primary focus is going to be on building a fully functional NAS as cheaply as possible. To do this, we’re obviously going to have to cut some corners and make some sacrifices. So, I expect it to be slow and it probably won’t have a huge storage capacity, but it will be perfect as a first NAS build for someone who doesn’t want to spend a lot of money or if you’re just wanting to build one to learn how they work and how to set them up.

Here’s my video of the build, read on for my written guide:

Choosing The NAS Components

To start we’re going to need a cheap computer, and they don’t come cheaper than the Raspberry Pi Zero – the original being just $5. The trouble with the original is that it is now quite underpowered and it doesn’t have any onboard networking abilities, so we’d need to add a USB WiFi or Ethernet adaptor which adds to the cost. So, I’m rather going to splash out on the $15 Pi Zero 2 W.

This is the second version of the Pi Zero, which has an upgraded 64-bit CPU that matches the launch version of the Pi 3. The W means that it’s got built-in WiFi, so we can use this as our network interface and we then don’t need any additional adaptors or dongles.

For storage, an SSD is the obviously reliable answer, but the cheapest one I could find from a reputable brand was for $35 – more than double the price of the Pi Zero 2 W.

This was also a 2.5″ SATA drive which would then require a USB adaptor. Since the Pi Zero’s USB port is a micro-USB port, we’d also need another adaptor to convert it from USB A to micro-USB. So we’d be in for close to $50 in total for storage.

Instead, I found one of these 128G Sandisk Ultra Dual drives, which were made as flash drives for Android phones. This has already got a microUSB port to plug directly into the Pi without any additional adaptors.

The best part is that this was only $12, and you can even get a 16Gb one for $7 or a 32GB one for $8 if you’d like to go a little cheaper.

The last component I need to buy is the microSD card to load the operating system onto. I used a 32GB Sandisk Ultra card which was $6.

So I was all in on the parts for $33, leaving a couple of dollars for a fan and heatsink. You don’t need a fan if you’re not using the Pi in an enclosure, but I want to design a 3D printable enclosure for it so that it looks the part when it’s done. So, I’m using a small 30mm 5V fan and an aluminium heatsink.

Tools & Equipment Used

Creality Ender-3 S1 Pro – Buy Here
Electric Screwdriver – Buy Here
TS100 Soldering Iron – Buy Here
Power Meter – Buy Here

Designing The NAS Enclosure

To design the enclosure, I used Fusion360. I designed it to look somewhat like a 2-bay NAS that houses the Pi Zero with the ports kept internal so that the storage drive would also be within the NAS. I also made a slot along the side that fed to the back for the power cable to pass through.

Download the 3D Printing Files

I made the enclosure into a two-part design, with the bays sliding out as a carrier tray for the internal components. The Pi, storage and fan will all be mounted onto this tray so that there is no need to worry about disconnecting cables or jumpers when sliding it out.

Finishing Off The Enclosure

I 3D printed the two parts in black PLA on my Creality Ender 3 – it took about 19 hours to print both and used just less than a dollar’s worth of filament.

The two components can be printed largely without supports by printing the outer shell with the back wall on the print bed as shown in the photograph above and the inner shell in its standard orientation (oriented as shown on the desk below) with the bottom on the print bed

I removed the support for the fan cutout and brim, and the enclosure was then ready to mount the NAS components into.

I designed two versions of the enclosure, one which you can screw the Pi directly onto and this version which requires some M2.5 brass inserts. The brass inserts make it a bit more durable and it’s easier to install or remove the Pi multiple times without stripping the threads. I have designed the tray around inserts that are 4.5mm long and 3.8mm in diameter.

These brass inserts are melted into place using a soldering iron.

Installing The NAS Components

We can then mount the Pi onto the brass standoffs with some M2.5x6mm button head screws.

Now let’s mount the fan. I’m using the fan to pull air into the case and I’m mounting it using some M2.5x12mm button head screws and M2.5 nuts on the back.

I’m plugging the fan into the Pi’s 3.3V and GND pins so that it runs a bit quieter than at 5V.

Next let’s install the drive. The housing on the drive that protects the USB ports gets in the way of the adjacent power cable, so I’m going to remove it by snapping off the grey slider cover.

Sandisk Drive Enclosure Clashes With Ports

We can then plug the stripped-down drive into the Pi’s micro-USB port.

Next let’s add our power cable alongside it. There is a fair amount of room below the Pi for the USB cable to bend, but you might need to use a cable that has a flexible lead (like a braided lead) so that you aren’t putting strain on the port.

Flashing The OS and First Boot

Lastly, we need to add our microSD card, which I’ve flashed with Raspberry Pi OS Lite using the Raspberry Pi imager.

There are a few things we need to do in the settings tab before flashing the image. We’re going to be using this as a headless Pi, meaning we want to access it from another computer on our network to set it up rather than have to plug it into a monitor, keyboard and mouse as well. So we need to give it a name to identify it on our network. I’m going to call it miniNAS.

We need to enable SSH so that we can access it remotely. I’ll leave the username as pi but change the password. Then add your WiFi network name and password, and set your region.

Make sure that you get these all correct or your Pi won’t connect to your network and you won’t be able to access it, so you’ll need to do this step again.

We can then put the microSD card into the Pi and that’s the hardware complete. So we can slide the tray into the housing and get it powered up.

Once your Pi is running, leave it for about 5 minutes to allow it time to run through the first boot and connect to your WiFi network.

Installing The NAS Software – OMV

We then need to find the IP address of our Pi. We can do this through our router’s DHCP table or by using a utility like Angry IP scanner. We’re looking for a Raspberry Pi or device called miniNAS that recently joined the network.

With the IP address, we can then SSH into the Pi to continue setting it up. I’m going to use the terminal on a second Raspberry Pi for this, you can also use a utility like Putty to do this from a Windows PC.

Enter the following command to ssh into the pi:

ssh pi@<Your IP>

We’ll need to enter the username and password that were set up when flashing the microSD card and we then have access to the Pi.

Next, let’s run a quick update by entering:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Then enter this command to download and run the Open Media Vault install script – this will install and set up everything needed to run Open Media Vault on the Pi:

wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenMediaVault-Plugin-Developers/installScript/master/install | sudo bash

When it finishes, it’ll recommend restarting the Pi. Do not do this or you’ll have wasted the last half hour of your life like I did because the OMV setup disables the WiFi connection by default so you’ll then either need to start again by re-flashing the OS image, or find a way to add an Ethernet adaptor to the Pi to be able to access it again.

I reflashed the card and landed back at the above screen a while later. From here you can go into the OMV workbench through a browser by going to the Pi’s IP address. You’ll be prompted for a login, which is “admin” and “openmediavault” by default.

You can then go to Network and Interfaces and then recreate your WiFi network connection. You’ll also need to click on the tick in the yellow box to apply the changes for them to take effect.

I also did this through OMV first aid in the terminal although I’m fairly certain you don’t need to do both, but I didn’t want to take a chance and have to start again for a third time.

sudo omv-firstaid

Setting Up OMV

Once restarted, we can move on to setting up OMV. I’m going to go over this quite briefly here but PiMyLifeUp has a good guide if you’d like to follow along. We essentially need to wipe and mount our storage drive, which is our 128GB Sandisk drive:

Then create a shared folder on our drive called MiniNAS for our files to be saved in:

And finally, enable a sharing service for access through windows:

You can also create user accounts with different access rights to each folder that you create and set up a dashboard to monitor your miniNAS through this web interface.

Testing The Cheap NAS

Now that we’ve got OMV set up and running, let’s try it out and see how good, or rather how bad it is.

We first need to add our shared folder as a network location. This depends on the operating system you’re using but can be done from the top bar in your file browser on Windows 11:

Then enter your shared folder’s network location address or use the browse button to find it:

Once we have access to it, we can then try copying some files across to the NAS. Let’s start by trying to copy a 600 MB video file and see what speeds we get.

It seems to stabilise at an average of around 4.5MB/s. This is a bit less than I was expecting, but honestly isn’t terrible. It’s obviously not great for large files like this but if you want an easy network location to store documents and small files then this is quite usable.

I still need to do some experimenting with the speed to see where the bottleneck is as I expected this to be a bit closer to 10-15MB/s since the WiFi and USB speeds on the Pi Zero 2 W should manage significantly more than the 4.5MB/s I’m currently getting. But in any case, we have a perfectly functional NAS that cost $35 to build and we can easily add more storage, or more reliable storage in the future if we’d like to.

Another interesting aspect of this NAS is that it runs at just over 1W, so it’ll run for an entire year and only consume a few cents to a dollar’s worth of electricity.

Let me know what you think of my budget NAS in the comments section below and let me know what you think the first upgrade should be.

I 3D Printed A Raspberry Pi Case That AI Designed

Michael Klements

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January 18, 2023

1

I 3D Printed A Raspberry Pi Case That AI Designed

I’ve recently watched a few videos where people have been experimenting with Dream Studio’s AI image generator. So, I thought I’d try giving it a few prompts to generate interesting desktop computer case designs that I could turn into a new case for my Raspberry Pi.

Like with any software package, there was a bit of a learning curve in getting meaningful results out of it. I quickly discovered that putting the words “Raspberry Pi” into the prompt typically resulted in some sort of green PCB showing up in the image – which didn’t resemble a Raspberry Pi at all and wasn’t all that useful for an enclosure.

I had better success using prompts along the lines of “desktop computer case” or “mini desktop computer” with words like “modern”, “futuristic” or “high tech”.

DreamStudio - Desktop Computer Case Design

Steampunk designs came up with some interesting results as well. I quite like this design that came up and might try to turn this into the case as a future project – this might be a project to get my resin printer out for.

After an hour or so of generating images, I eventually got a few images that looked like they could be used for a case design, and this is the design that best caught my eye. So, I’m going to try to model this design and then adapt it to house my Raspberry Pi.

Dreamstudio AI Raspberry Pi Desktop Case Design

Here’s my video of the project, read on for the written guide:

What You Need For This Project

Raspberry Pi 4B – Buy Here
40mm RGB Fan – Buy Here
EZ Fan 2 Module – Buy Here
40mm Fan Mesh Cover – Buy Here
32GB Sandisk Ultra MicroSD Card – Buy Here
M2.5 Brass Inserts – Buy Here
M2.5 Button Head Screws – Buy Here
5mm Blue LEDs – Buy Here

Tool & Equipment Used:

Creality Ender-3 S1 Pro – Buy Here
Gweike Cloud Laser – Buy Here
- Use my discount code MK200 on checkout to get $200 off
Electric Screwdriver – Buy Here
TS100 Soldering Iron – Buy Here
Knipex Wire Strippers – Buy Here

Some of the above parts are affiliate links. By purchasing products through the above links, you’ll be supporting my projects, at no additional cost to you.

Modelling The AI Case Design

The AI design looked simple enough to 3D print but there are a couple of issues that I’ll have to work through. I’m not really sure what’s going on at the base of the case, it seems like part of the case is touching the desk at the front but then looks like it’s elevated at the back. So I have to work through these when modelling the case.

AI Design small desktop computer futuristic design

To draw up a 3D model of the design, I used Autodesk’s Fusion360.

I started off getting the general shape looking like the AI image. I then hollowed it out, and added the exterior features and a window at the front. I then dropped the Raspberry Pi in and made the port cutouts on the back and sides.

Fusion360 Modelling Of AI Generated Computer Case Design

To cool the Pi, I added a cutout to mount a 40mm fan onto the back of the case. This will push cool air into the case and it will then exhaust through the fine vents on the side and the gaps around the ports.

40mm Fan Cutout On Back Of Raspberry Pi AI Case

Download The CAD Files – Pi Case CAD Files

I’m not sure what the blue things inside the case are intended to be, but I’m going to cut those from some blue acrylic and stick them inside the case along with some small LEDs to light them up.

I’ve split the design up into a few different parts so that I can print them in black and white separately as I don’t have a dual extruder printer.

Making Up The AI Case Components

I printed the case components out individually in either black or white PLA. The bottom half of the case was a bit of a challenge to print with the small legs at the back. I tried a couple of orientations but eventually printed it upright with printed supports along the whole base.

The 3D printed parts need a few M2.5 threaded brass inserts to hold the Pi in place and to hold the two main case components together. We’ll just melt these into place in the prepared holes using a soldering iron.

M2.5 Brass Inserts To Be Melted Into Place

I’ve ground two of the inserts down a bit for the lower profile arms on the front of the AI case that need to slot in underneath the Pi.

Ground Down Brass Inserts For Front Legs

With the brass inserts all in place, the case components are complete and we can start installing the Pi and fan components.

Brass Inserts Melted Into Place On Top Cover

Installing The Raspberry Pi and Fan

For cooling, I’ve got a 40mm RGB fan which I’ve salvaged from my stash of fans on my only fans Pi case.

I’m going to install a mesh cover over it as I think this will fit in well with the look of the vented side panel on the AI case.

The fan is held in place with the M3 screws and nuts that came with it. I’ve installed the fan with the hub facing outwards so that it pulls air into the case.

Next let’s mount the Raspberry Pi. I’m using a 2GB Raspberry Pi 4 and I’m going to add a small heatsink onto the CPU to help with cooling. There is probably enough space within the case to fit in an Ice Tower cooler but I’d like to keep it as open as possible so that the blue acrylic pieces and fan are visible.

To hold the Pi in place, I’m using four M2.5 x 6mm button head screws which screw into the brass inserts that we’ve melted into the base.

This fan isn’t a PWM fan and I’d like to be able to turn it on or off depending on the CPU temperature, so I’m going to use one of these EZ Fan 2 modules designed by Jeremy Cook. This tiny module allows you to use a 2-wire fan like a 3-wire fan so that you can turn the fan on or off using one of the Pi’s GPIO pins. These are also great if you’ve got an older 5V Noctua fan that doesn’t have PWM control.

I’m plugging the fan into 5V, GND and GPIO14 with a short set of jumpers that I made up.

Lastly, we need to glue the small front leg onto the underside of this case section. I’m just going to use some super glue to hold it in place.

That’s the bottom half of the case down, now let’s finish off the top half.

Completing The Top AI Case Half

To finish off the top half, we first need to stick these white accent pieces onto the side of the case. I’m going to use some superglue on these as well.

3D Printed Accents Glued Into Place With Superglue

We can also stick the front bezel onto the AI case while we’ve got the super glue out.

Now let’s make up the blue acrylic pieces. I laser cut these from 3mm fluorescent blue acrylic which I’ll stack together to form each of the three main pieces.

I’ve made up a string of three 5mm blue LEDs and the three middle pieces have an extra cutout at the back for the LED to light them up.

To make each one up, we need to peel off the protective film, then clamp the stack of five pieces together, and finally add a few drops of acrylic adhesive to the cutout to seep in between the layers to glue them together.

Then we just need to do that two more times to make up three in total. I’ve also glued a white strip onto the base of each one to lighten them up a bit more when they’re stuck onto the black case surface.

Completed Blue Accent Pieces, White Strip Underneath

We can then glue the LEDs into place in each acrylic piece using some hot glue.

And then glue the pieces into place on the inside of the case.

To finish off the top of the AI case, we just need to add an acrylic panel to the front. I laser cut the front panel from a sheet of 2mm clear acrylic.

I’m also going to stick this into place within the bezel using some super glue as we shouldn’t need to remove it.

Now we just need to plug the blue LEDs into the Raspberry Pi – I’m connecting them to 5V and GND.

Then we can close the case up with three M2.5 x 6mm button head screws and peel the protective film off of the front panel.

Acrylic Front Panel Protective Film Removed

I really like how the back fan has come out with the black mesh over it.

First Boot Of The AI Case & Powering The LEDs

Now that the case is complete, we just need to add a microSD card through the slot in the front and we can then try boot it up and see what it looks like.

The light-up blue inserts have come out really well and give the AI case a really unique look. The design is probably not all that practical but it definitely looks cool.

Using a simple script to set GPIO pin 14 high or low, we can also turn the fan on or off. I’ll probably adapt my PWM fan script that I use on my SSD case to simple on/off control for this, but at least the functionality is here and the Ez Fan 2 module is working correctly.

Simple Python Script To Turn Fan On Or Off

Overall I’m really happy with how this design turned out and I think I managed to get it looking closer to the AI image than I was expecting to be able to.

DreamStudio AI Generated Pi Case Design 3D Printed

Let me know what you think of it in the comments section below, and also let me know if you think I should try making up one of the steampunk case designs that the AI generator came up with.

The DIY LifeTech & Electronics

The DIY LifeTech & Electronics

Where To Get The Orange Pi 5 Plus

Equipment Used

Unboxing & First Look At The 5 Plus

Operating System Options For The 5 Plus

Testing The Orange Pi 5 Plus’ Performance

Power Consumption On The 5 Plus

Final Thoughts On The Orange Pi 5 Plus

Purchase Links For This Project

Equipment Used

Overclocking Test Setup and Process

Monitoring The Pi’s External Temperature

Overclocking The Pi 4B And Testing It’s Performance

Looking At The Pi Using The P2 Pro

Final Thoughts On Overclocking A Pi 4

Components & Equipment Used For The Test

Tool & Equipment Used:

UPS’ Used In Previous Projects

Which Power Banks Are We Going To Test?

Can We Power A Raspberry Pi With A Power Bank?

Can We Power Additional Pi’s With The Storm 2?

Why Use A UPS Instead Of A Power Bank?

Final Thoughts On The Shargeek Storm 2

What You’ll Need To Make Your Own Rock 5 B Case

Designing The Rock 5 B Pico ITX Case

Making Up The Case Components

Installing The Rock 5 Model B & Fan

Using The Rock 5 B Desktop Case

Where To Buy The River 2

Equipment Used

Unboxing & First Look

River 2 Charging Options

AC & DC Power Outlets

Charging Up To 100% In 1hr

Testing The River 2’s DC Outlet

Testing The River 2’s AC Outlet & X-Boost

Testing The USB C Charging Port

Testing EcoFlow’s 110W Solar Panel On The River 2

Using The River 2 With EcoFlow’s App

Final Thoughts On The EcoFlow River 2

Purchase Links

Equipment Used

First Look At The Compute Blade

Preparing The Compute Blade For First Boot

Putting The Compute Blade Into A Ventilated Enclosure

Compute Blade First Boot

Running A Drive Speed Test

Thermal Testing The Compute Blade

The Compute Blade’s Power Consumption

Final Thoughts On The Compute Blade

What You Need To Build Your Own Tiny Cyberdeck

Tool & Equipment Used

Designing The Tiny Cyberdeck Components

Cutting The Components On The X30 Pro

Assembling The Cyberdeck

Using The Cyberdeck

Where To Buy One?

Unboxing The Atomstack X30 Pro

Main Selling Points Of The X30 Pro

Cutting & Engraving Tests on Plywood Sheets

Cutting Test

Engraving Test

Cutting Project Components On The X30 Pro

Cutting Other Materials On The Atomstack X30 Pro

Final Thoughts On The X30 Pro

Choosing The NAS Components

Component Purchase Links

Tools & Equipment Used

Designing The NAS Enclosure

Finishing Off The Enclosure

Installing The NAS Components

Flashing The OS and First Boot

Installing The NAS Software – OMV

Setting Up OMV

Testing The Cheap NAS

What You Need For This Project

Tool & Equipment Used:

Modelling The AI Case Design

Making Up The AI Case Components