I got a AMD Ryzen 5 2400G, Asus X370-A Prime mainboard, a pair of G.Skill F4-3000C16D (Aegis) 8 GB DDR4 RAM modules, a AData XPG SX8200 512 GB NVMe SSD (M.2-2280), be quiet Pure Power 11 400W power supply, all in a Chieftec Elox HC-10b case.

So far, so good; RAM is working at 3000MHz, CPU slightly overclocked at 3750 MHz.

The particular mainboard has two PCI slots (hard to find these days :-), and can take up to 4 RAM modules (max. 64 GB).

posted at: 19:03 | path: /review | permanent link

Epson has a line of EcoTank inkjet printers which promises to bring the ink cost down thanks to ink tanks that can be poured into the printer, no ink cardridges. The printer is about 230 € (May 2019).

It is a multi-function device, i.e. printer/scanner/copier, with several limitations: no fax, no duplex, no automatic document feeder, no card reader. Higher priced models add these features. The printer does WiFi and WiFi Direct -- installation is a bit cumbersome due to the lack of a display.

Linux support is acceptable, Epson provides PPD files which integrate nicely with lsb, but does not support those files. Hard to find: http://download.ebz.epson.net/dsc/search/01/search/?OSC=LX Tested with Ubuntu 18.04.

The scanner part is also supported, I've so far tested the network support (should also work over USB): http://support.epson.net/linux/en/imagescanv3.php. Tested with Ubuntu 19.04.

posted at: 17:05 | path: /review | permanent link

GLi's AR150 is a 802.11n WiFi router with two ethernet ports (WAN, LAN). It comes with OpenWrt pre-installed. The unique features (for a 25€ device) is PoE 802.3af support.

Other features: 400 MHz Atheros MIPS CPU, 64 MB RAM, 16 MB SPI flash, 1x USB 2.0, 4 GPIOs + UART on a 2.54 mm header (nicely marked)

posted at: 23:04 | path: /review | permanent link

Got a TP-Link TL-POE10R Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) splitter (Ver: 4.0), complying with IEEE 802.4af; output is selectable: 5V/9V/12V into a 5.5mm OD, 2.1mm ID center positive barrel receptacle. Ethernet supports up to 1000Mbps.

It is not galvanically isolated and has a ground loop issue.

PCB top

There is a Feeling Technology FP5001 PWM (pulse width modulation) controller with SCP (short-circuit protection) / DTC (duty control); click to enlarge.

PCB bottom

There is a Linear LTC4257 PoE interface controller; click to enlarge.

Images courtesy Armin Langhofer.

posted at: 21:55 | path: /review | permanent link

Got another Zyxel GS1900-8HP switch, with 70 W PoE. Read a nice review.

Unfortunately, the root shell capability is gone with firmware 2.10. Playing with EEE (Energy-Efficient Ethernet, IEEE 802.3az) and LLDP (Link Layer Discovery Protocol, IEEE 802.1ab) now...

posted at: 23:54 | path: /review | permanent link