Categories
Devices router

Router on Intel N100

Since Cisco SMB devices like RV320 are now end of life. And there are no good successors for this device. DYI routers on Intel N100 with 2.5 gbit ports and pfSense community edition might be an option to upgrade the router.

One HW example is Topton N100. That is a mini PC with Intel N100 + DDR5 single channel RAM + NVMe. It is fanless.

Categories
Devices Flash

Movespeed fun drive

Spinner. with 256GB flash drive inside. It is kind of fun. Another Movespeed flash. Model YSUFUN5-256GSN. This time with an advertised speed 500MB/s

Both Type-A and Type-C ports work at more or less same rates.

Categories
Devices Flash

Movespeed U Drive

256GB Flash drive YSUYVP-256GSN from Chinese brand Movespeed. It is advertised as a 1000 MB/s transfer rate. Made from metal. Got both type-C and type-A ports.

Type-C speed

Categories
Devices USB Charging USB meter

WITRN C4 Pro

WITRN C4 Pro. Yet another power meter. TYPE-C only. Voltages up to 48v supported, also up to 10A current. USB-PD standard is evolving and currently allows 240W charging, so power meters need to be upgraded too.

WITRN has different software for firmware updates and to explore curves. Both PC software and firmware are in active development.

Categories
Devices Flash

Kingston DTX/128GB

Kingston DataTreveler Exodia 128GB USB 3.2

Kingston DTX/128

CrystalDiksMark 8 results


Crystal Dew World: https://crystalmark.info/

  • MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
  • KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

[Read]
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 112.742 MB/s [ 107.5 IOPS] < 73749.06 us>
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 110.769 MB/s [ 105.6 IOPS] < 9459.44 us>
RND 4KiB (Q= 32, T= 1): 6.571 MB/s [ 1604.2 IOPS] < 19895.02 us>
RND 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 6.017 MB/s [ 1469.0 IOPS] < 679.74 us>

[Write]
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 11.092 MB/s [ 10.6 IOPS] <700412.00 us>
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 11.922 MB/s [ 11.4 IOPS] < 85698.35 us>
RND 4KiB (Q= 32, T= 1): 1.128 MB/s [ 275.4 IOPS] <114998.19 us>
RND 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 1.083 MB/s [ 264.4 IOPS] < 3773.49 us>

Profile: Default
Test: 1 GiB (x5) [G: 82% (95/115GiB)]
Mode: [Admin]
Time: Measure 5 sec / Interval 5 sec
Date: 2023/01/08 10:10:18
OS: Windows 11 Professional 10.0 Build 22621
Comment: Kingston DTX/128GB

Categories
Devices USB Charging USB meter

POWER-Z KM002C

ChargeLab new product. USB power meter with up to PD 3.1 support

With higher voltage (50v) and current (6A)

The device is not PC Software compatible with KM001 KM001C. First versions of application was about 90% Chinese. With almost no English translation.

Power-Z Lab 2.0

(Update for 2022-04-05) But that is getting better. Version 1.2.8 is more usable with better English support

Power-Z Lab 2.0 v1.2.8

Despite the similar name, design is changed a lot since KM001C devices

Protocol MTK-PE is not detected by KM002C

Firmware 1.1.0 is unstable and has to be updated before using the device. Firmware update is possible for Power-Z Lab application.

To Download and apply new firmware Press “Chip button” on Update Firmware tab

Link to Dropbox from ChargeLab

Link to Google Drive from ChargeLab

Categories
air quality

Qingping CGS1

Qingping Air Detector (AKA ClearGrass Air Detector) is one of the best portable devices reviewed yet.

Impressive tech specs and design. Can be used both: as portable and not portable. And in a mixed way too. Good sensors for tvoc, t/rh, co2. High-resolution touch screen, Wi-Fi (that remember all Wi-Fi you were connected to), ambient light sensors, android and ios mobile app. And all that for a bit more than 100$ (incl. Delivery). For this price tag, it is a kind of flawless device. So the minor issues are not critical at all. Like it might have a different CO2 sensor (SenseAir S8 instead of Sensirion SDC30 for example) inside. But since S8 is not bad. It is still ok.

Pros

  • 1800 mAh battery (~4 hours of battery life)
  • Compact (9x9x7cm, 218g)
  • Calibration (tvoc, CO2) may be done manually
  • Correct t/RH and CO2 measurements
  • High resolution display with good viewangles
  • Touchscreen and good UI usablility
  • Keep multiple Wi-Fi AP settings
  • Weather and time sync from Internet
  • Ambient light sensor
  • Good thermal design and active airflow
  • Mobile App and 3-rd party app support
  • Wireless (OTA) update w/o app needed

Cons

  • CO2 high level is starting 2000ppm.
  • Disassemble is not trivial.
  • There might be other sensors inside.
  • No alarm clock (but should it be there?)

Device inside: https://wiki.liutyi.info/display/CO2/Qingping+CGS1+inside

Device App: https://wiki.liutyi.info/display/CO2/Qingping+plus+app

Device Thermal: https://wiki.liutyi.info/display/CO2/Qingping+CGS1+Thermal

Manufacturer link: https://www.qingping.co/air-monitor/overview

AliExpress price ~110$

Categories
air quality Devices

Protmex PTH-5

Yet another highly portable standalone CO2 Meter. This one with great battery life. One of the recommended devices. It is not absolutely flawless but is ok to buy. It got fast, accurate, and low power t/RH sensor (Sensirion SHTC3). Its CO2 sensor is kind of average (Cubic 1106 probably). Charging 5v 1A

Pros

  • 2400 mAh battery (~20 hours of battery life)
  • Small and relatively lightweight (8x3cm, 145g)
  • Calibration can be done manually
  • Correct t/RH during normal operation

Cons

  • Leading zero in CO2 display
  • CO2 measurements might sometimes be wrong
  • CO2 measurements delay is on power on
  • CO2 measurement interval is 16/4 sec (10 sec average)
  • t/RH measurements during charging is a bit incorrect
  • Display view angles are not perfect

Device inside https://wiki.liutyi.info/display/CO2/PTH-5+inside

AliExpress Price: ~60$ (may change)

Categories
apple

What is wrong with MagSafe Qi 15W

That is quite a long story of smartphone makers are trying to create powerful Qi charging devices. And usually, they are all fails. Wireless chargers are still noticeably slower than wired. And also less power-efficient. And also not reliable. With some previous wireless charging docks, you someday waking up with your phone not charged at all. And there are a couple of reasons for that. First is coils misalignment, which reduces all (speed, efficiency, and reliability). The second is power loss and related overheating (affects speed and efficiency). So what is good about Apple MagSafe 15W Qi charger. It solves the first issue. Coils are now aligned. So you can be more or less sure that you will get your phone charged. But it mostly ignores the second. Qi charger is still overheating. And that is slowing down the charging process. Yes, it is an aluminum body, and that is kind of good news. But that is definitely not enough. So for a period of 3-5 hours of wireless charging, you will get 15W only for a short period of time. Usually, it is about 5-7 minutes. And the most interesting part there is 7.5W charger may charge faster than the 15W charger just because of less initial overheating.

So the usual charging may look like graphs below

That is just about 4 hours. But results may vary a lot. That is highly dependent on temperature (room temperature, phone temperature, table temperature), on do you charge with a charger below or above the phone. Do you use a case or does the phone do some background tasks. Do your air moving in the room. It impacts Qi charging speed much more if compared to wired charging.

Wired charging from same 20W power adapter:

It is for the same conditions, same case, same temperature, same table. Just about twice faster. And power consumed is 14.5Wh instead of 22Wh to charge an iphone 10.78 Wh battery (while phone is on, but not in use). That is about 3 times more energy lost on generating heat.

So How to get 15W we pay for? That is easy :). You need to place the phone (without a case) in some cold place with airflow for at least the first 30 minutes of charging.

And if you got proper cooling you will get something like:

Still a bit worse than wire charging in the room. But anyway we got our 15W Qi. It exists and it is fast. (That is kind of sarcasm).

So what is wrong with Apple Magsafe Charger?

  • it is slow
  • it consumes more power
  • it is expensive

One more thing.. about power consumption. Idle power consumption is also might be an issue. Lightning cable inserted in 20W AC adapter consume much less power (0.0025W) in idle mode (when you do not charge anything) than MagSafe charger (0.34-0.5W). So if you kind of eco-friendly person you better plug out the MagSafe charger every time you are done with charging.

Categories
air quality

AWAIR Element

A new device from one of the best manufacturer of home air quality monitors – AWAIR Element (AWAIR REV3E)

This one is less expensive, but keep best feature of AWAIR 2.

What changed in Awair Element (in compare to Awair 2)?

  • Plastic case
  • Little bit smaller
  • No microphone and no speaker (no sound)
  • No Sub-1GHz wireless
  • Integrated antennas
  • Less expensive

So I would say nothing critical was removed to achieve better price. It is still a good design, both internal and external. Same air quality sensors:

  • t/RH (Sensirion SHT30)
  • TVOC (Sensirion SGP30)
  • PM2.5 (Honeywell HPMA115S0)
  • CO2 (Telaire T6703-5K)

Automatic firmware update, fast new device setup, ambient light sensor, 24h clock mode, and other good features are still in place.

Device support some integrations like: IFTT, Amazon alexa, Google Assistance (not tested).

See what is inside Awair element.

Amazon: 149$ (~175$ with taxes custom and forwarding to Ukraine)

Awair site: 149$