Got one of these a couple weeks ago. Loaded HamPi on a SD card and I’m really liking this. Is it the fastest machine, not by a long shot but it’s a good running little machine. I. Like the fact that I can pop out the SD card and then have a portable personal machine as well. Great 2 in one package.
I sold all my Pi3s when the market was up, paid off my mortgage! If you have a power meter, let me know what you see and I'll report back on the Quadra. Re: Vara, I haven't used it yet, but it's on the list to play with when I get to a more FM friendly area - very few signals here.
NOTE: "reports of radio interference caused by the power adapters that the Quadra uses" ...when connected to and powering a monitor. But remote VNC control seems fine. See the blog post linked at the top of the Inovato website for "amateur radio operators".
I wrote my post before watching the entire video. This actually is a Tanix TX6. I have two of the TX6's running Armbian. So far, I have been able to get many of my ham apps running on these machines. I am anxious to try the Inovato image on my TX6's. I wish I knew about these two months ago, it would have saved a lot of time using their image.
Does this mean that the board is a re-purposed cable/satellite board? What monitor did you hook it up to? I have a couple of retired LCD monitors by Samsung, LG and Asus that have HDMI input.
I should get some to run "Build a Pi" or "Ham-Pi". It probably can also run Pi-Hole for a DNS Svr too.🤔 That this is as cheap as chips!👍🍻 Linux to a Windows user like me is like opening up Pardora's Box.📦
Steve, tnx for the quick unpack of the Quadra and updating process. I have now successfully updated my little "cool" mini box here. I have been in the IT forte for about 35 years with Uncle Sam and about ready to retire. This is a really neat gadget. I have a large curve screen monitor above my shack desk and was thankful for your tip about geometry and setting up the Quadra initially on the monitor that you are going to use. Good stuff. I am excited to now be able to run HamClock here in the shack for about $70? I got all the extras including the power adapter to ensure I did not have any trouble with the brick that was supplied. Very nice find! Take care and thanks for the video. 73, Dan AB5VJ On a mountaintop in South Central PA.
Neat. No GPIO header, so it doesn't look like you can put an mmdvm board on it. You should be able to use a dongle maybe, so you could put pi-star on it? I'm grabbing one.
For HTPC even the Pi4 isn't good enough and I've moved on to (yes more expensive) a Beelink U59 and never looked back. I've since upgraded to a 2TB NvME and 4K playback is flawless.
Yeah, I keep my Pi4 at 720p60 at best. This was originally an android TV box and the android client might be more lightweight. TH-cam's website is horrendous to CPUs.
Exactly! Velcro it to the back of your radio - it will either be a weight tax for not figuring out what to do with it... or it will be the perfect match when you do!
Hey Steve, I dunno if it would be fair to call it a pi killer. Sure, pi ran off with the pool guy, but I'd take it back tomorrow, provided pi passes the virus screening.
Hey Steve, I picked up one of the "build your own" "Compatible TV boxes" listed on the Inovato website, under the article "Install the Quadra firmware on an Android TV box". After I unboxed it I tried it as is, was impressed with what it does for the price. Then I found the IMG file for that particular box so I could revert back if I wanted to, then downloaded and installed the Quadra firmware image per the instructions. It worked flawlessly, first time. I want to know more about these folks at Inovato as they are providing a great service to Hams IMHO, as someone took the time and effort to do this for our community and others. Hats off to them! K7KS
I set up a Quadra to run HamClock on my TV. HamClock runs and looks great on my 43" plasma panel. 2 questions: 1) the quadra desktop/home screen is too big for the 43" display, the tool bar and top bars are cut off--how to resize just the desktop? 2) when I reboot Quadra, it auto-start HamClock setup, can I disable that? Thanks for any help! KD0MMF
#1 in raspi-config there is an "underscan" option, turn that on and it should help (or off) #2 I'm not sure where Inovato put the startup script for ham clock. I don't have that version. They do have a forum or you could ask some of the other users on the TOADs discord.
Holy crap! Almost every ham TH-camr I follow is reviewing this thing this week! Just for grins I followed your link and it's running a 404 error that pretty much says that due to w6lg's review earlier this week their server has crashed and they're backordered for a while. Lol It's crazy that this was posted 10 months ago, but didn't catch on until this week??
Inovatto just released more ham apps in the default OS load, so it's getting popular. I thought this was older than 10 months! I thought time was flying fast... Thanks for watching!
I was ready to buy one, until I saw the international postage (to Australia). When you include that, the cheap disappears. Don't get me wrong: this is a great package. It's just the postage freight charges, making it cost MORE than the Raspberry Pi.
If someone can come up with a good field portable solution for a monitor to connect this thing to, I'd be tempted to try it. I've used VNC on an Android tablet with a RPi and found it really clunky. The on-screen keyboard in VNC sucks especially badly. And I never figured out how to right-click. The other problem with the RPi was its lack of robustness. Lots of crashes with FLdigi, and very susceptible to RFI, though maybe a metal case would have helped.
We just did a while series on SDR software. If you're going to do some light listening it should be great. Any advanced decoding (AMBE modes) or trunking might be tough. It would certainly do a waterfall/IF tap setup for an old radio.
No GPIO. No composite video. No analog audio. No video playback higher than 360p. It has a good price tag of $30. However, being so restrictive means that use cases will be tiny. They won't make shit for sales.
I don't disagree with your evaluation of WSJT-X being hard to run for a ham app. It seems that it can take advantage of as many CPU cycles as your system can throw at it. I have seen a full waterfall cause an AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE lag a couple seconds on decode. I was running Ubuntu Mate, so no background Windows junk either.
When I was editing I thought there might be some SDR software that could compete with WSJT-X... but they are basically doing the same thing. I would love to see a Ham app so CPU intense that I need the latest bleeding edge PC!
I am totally blind, so I wonder if there’s any software that would make this thing talk to me? Does this have any embedded speech? Or is that possible to be programmed! I guess if there’s anything that drives me nuts in him “radio“ is all these damn screens! But I guess that’s advancements in technology. Oh boy! 1:151:201:231:532:28
I am a complete novice when it comes to the OS of these devices. Pi included. Do you have videos showing the basics of how to make these work for ham radio? Learn better by watching than reading. Thx for the videos!!
Hello Chris! I have quite a few videos featuring the raspberry pi and linux software. I'm with you, I learn better by watching than reading - but I also do pretty good with getting stuck and thing figuring out the puzzle to get unstuck. That really makes things click for me. Take a look at my linux or pi playlists and give something a shot and see what happens. Then join us on TOADs discord in #sbc (single board computers) and ask any questions in a more interactive format. Try this one: th-cam.com/video/pJciqSuKRfQ/w-d-xo.html
I could give you more info on the board I have a good idea what actual product that is and would also like to spend like 5 mins inside the term of that device myself as you probably watch LTT he had a video recently about these devices being Uber sketch
If it's not already in your image, you can do "sudo apt install wsjtx" or you can install the latest firmware that is full of ham apps. If neither of thise work. Join us in thr TOADs discord and share some screen caps. (Link in description)
The short answer is yes, but you'd need a USB device like this: amzn.to/3XIBAwm and then you'd need to install and configure the software. Sounds like a fun project!
Thanks, just ordered one. Did you see that there is a "Build your own" option. There's a link in the blue bar at the top of the page. There are three devices on Amazon you can order and flash with their firmware. The cheapest is $29 but with Prime shipping and next day delivery.
These are really great values. Be aware that the power supply makes a lot of RF in the 1-10 MHz range. I may post a video, the spectrum is super nasty and the radiative power of these emissions is enough to swamp my 7610 on 40M even across the house.
Wow! The creator made note on their website that the power supply was bad, but I didn't know it was that bad. To be honest I didn't use the power supply Because I have so many of these power supplies for raspberry pis and things
Even though I ferrites on both the power and HDMI cables, it generated so much RFI that I had to shut it down because of interference to my 2 meter repeater. I did not use the power module that came with it but rather a 3A 5V USB port. This computer is a great idea and the cost cannot be beaten but it is unusable anywhere near sensitive radio equipment.
The fix in the video above is to replace the included power adapter with a known clean source using a USB power cable. This cable is now available from inovato as well and is included in the HamClock Bundle. Steve demonstrates this works.
when are they going to learn to put the 12 volt converter on the board. This has a 5 volt in using the same plug as many of my 12 volt plugs. I can see a problem some time with that.
@@temporarilyoffline I don't know if someone set up a standard, but I ordered from Amazon some connecters all the same size and it hits everything I have! My charger for 18650, AA, AAA C, D batteries. My "O2 Cool" fans, the hat for my PI that has the 5V converter and fan, My Colman lights, The power to my cameras I put around my house. I have not found many that this one size doesn't fit. That is almost a standard! I have many cables set up to run things from my 100 AH battery when the power is out.
@@temporarilyofflineWell done! Engine 51, Squad 51 KMG365. Me a few buddies I grew up with still say they when we see vehicles leaving a fire station...lol. My fav part of thst show. I was like 24 before I learned that lactated Ringer's wasn't in fact a miracle drug. In the show...man has a massive heart attack and is in cardiac arrest... Start a lactated ringer's drip. Kid falls off his bike and cuts his leg...start a lactated ringer's trip. That stuff fixed everything! Even asked my mom why we didn't have any in the medicine cabinet. Rampart...this is squad 51.... Out. 😉
Hey Future Steve. Do you appreciate Past Steve making this purchase? Interested minds want to know. lol. I don’t know where I have been since this gadget looks perfect for my needs. Linux is my love language so what could go wrong. I am waiting for a bundle to become available and will order when it does. As you guys said on your CaHR stream I will leave a fellow retired person alone and wait somewhat patiently. 😅 All the best from north Texas. 73 de KI5HXm
This little box "does the thing"... you can pay more for more powerful machine, but it won't ham any faster. They have a "hamclock bundle" now that looks really good. Since then I've gotten a couple of Raspberry Pi 5s because TH-cam.
@@temporarilyoffline yes it looks pretty capable of low cpu tasking. I wonder if it could do ham clock and SDR play at same time. I would love to rely on just this cute box instead of having to use winblows for SDR. All the best
Hamclock is a resource hog - so I'd recommend nothing else runs while you're doing ham clock - no reason you couldn't turn it off when you wanted to work anything else. SDR software is also pretty hoggy - the machine can do it, but the software isn't super optimized since we have modern/fast computers. FT8/JS8 works well, and of course APRS or other packet modes will be fine. @@brentjohnson6654
Nice piece of kit. That is the plus model with wifi and usb hub, so $39.95. I have 2 of them sitting here that I bought after Sean reviewed them a month or so ago. I'll get to them sooner or later.
No idea what this is all about... Are you connecting a raspberry pi to internet and than playing to have a ham-radio?? That is not the same as having a transciever and broadcast and receive with it! Here 's my question: why?? A hamradio is not a computer and vice versa!
Ham Radio Transceivers and Computers get along great together... all the way back to the Commodore 64 and Apple IIe days. What I did in this video is called FT8 and it was a quick way to show how this sweet little $30 computer can work well for your ham radio station - especially portable!
If you're into portable ops, digital modes, need a computer based logger, want a ham clock or a weather display in your shack - this is an extremely affordable way to make that happen - $29 for a computer that you can do any ham or ham adjacent work with is a great deal. This improves my transceiver by opening up the world of digital modes and expanding my reach and testing abilities.
I've had one for a while now...doesn't seem to like the Grid tracker and wsjtx combo. Mine shuts down after a little while running them both. Seems to be ok with wsjtx by itself, tho. Had hampi on it, too, but have since done a restore to the default setup. Still a decent device, but would rather have a raspberry pi...if I was actually able to get my hands on one that is!
This is a great deal when Pis are un-obtainium. Did you get any log messages when GT/WSJT-X shutdown? I don't run GT much, so nothing springs to mind right away.
@@temporarilyoffline i didn't think to check, honestly. It literally just shut down as tho I did it from the top right shutdown menu...I'm not really I Linux guy so not sure where to look for any log files... Dont get me wrong, I like it and will continue to use it. Good way to get my Linux feet wet, as it were. Great vids, by the way!
@@prmailers Thanks! Check /var/log/messages right after the crash. You'll have to scroll back up to the last message before shutdown - all the boot up messages will be in there from your reboot.
@@temporarilyoffline thanks for the info! Took me a few tries to figure out I had to SU to be able to view the file. Lots of "Greek" in the file, but I saw a couple references to GPU faults so I suspect it couldn't handle the demands of GT. Might try it without using the show Spots option and perhaps any other unnecessary windows that might be open. I'm a member of the G90 gang, btw...💪cool and capable little radio!
@@prmailers I'll put it on the list of things to play with in a video (but its a long list). Good that you're digging in! You can't hurt the box, the worst that you'll run into is having to reload the OS - so if you have any data that you care about, make plans for backup (WSJT-X QSO logs?)
There is a single board PC like this one but better, its the T95 MAX and I have yet to find a way to flash it to Armbian. Maybe you can take a crack at it?
On the inovatto page, I believe they have instructions on how to boot their image on the T95. If not, I'd still try their method first. I don't have a T95 to try it out.
I have tried that multiple times without success. I of course used the audio port and depressed the button inside it while booting it form the USB poer and the linux/armbian image and also tried all the USB ports. Might be an issue with the particular one I have...@@temporarilyoffline
Hmm, the only other thing I would think of is that there is some kind of jumper inside or JTAG section... but if it has an exposed USB port or an SD card slot, that would be the better way to load firmware for sure. So I'd guess they would have used that first.
I've ordered one, hopefully here this week. Also got the power cord recommended to elevate RF. Does it have an SD card size limitation? Will any bluetooth keyboard work? I'd like to get a cheap, fold-up one. TIA!
Dropping this comment here so it might actually get seen. What would you say the odds are to get RTTY to transmit working from a qrp like xiegu x6100 ?
@@temporarilyoffline I see from their site that they forewarn about the wall wart interfering with comms for Amateurs. That's awesome! Thirty bucks is a great price! Is it U.S. made? I might have missed that. Did try to look on the site but never ran across mfg source.
I like JS8Call. I wish I knew Linux. I had to rely on others to get it going. I like to get VarAC running but I normally rely on scripts others have run and set up like Jason Build a PI
The short answer is InovatoOS is built on Ubuntu and so is DragonOS so "Yes". The longer answer is that it won't be super easy. Probably not all that bad.
From the benchmarks it seems to be more than 5 times faster than Pi 3B. Hovever the absence of any GPIO makes it a system than cannot substitute a Pi 3 or 4. Perhaps for retrogaming it is a good machine.
They are - The creators grabbed an Android TV box and built a linux image to open them up for us. You can buy the T95 Set top box and use their image from their website - or you can get their box and use the T95 images. pretty neat. amzn.to/3vVvRXT
Does it have built-in audio input? I am been looking for a new Broadcastify system for streaming besides an old laptop. My old raspberry pie is in dust and I’ve been wanting the more all in one SPC to replace it with.
Input? I'm not sure. It has a TRS jack and comes with Spotify and several videos installed for demos. I used a radio with a built-in audio interface in my tests.
Having never worked with anything except a windows machine or a basic DOS on some test equipment Linux is very greek to me or german or french or...well, you get the idea. This will be an adventure.
So far the GUI has been sufficiently similar to Windows that I'm able to suus out the menus. As long as I don't have to go under the hood anytime too soon. I may take off the case as well since an online buddy is sending his custom case for the Quadra to me complete with Anderson Powerpoles. Whoopee. Also I haven't checked but do you think brltty is still installed by default on the most recently shipped units? @@temporarilyoffline
@AlvinMcManus I don't yet have a video on the DE-19 with the G90, but check this one out for some pointers: th-cam.com/video/vF9BWZ1EqHM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=0frpxzmpR5sCY2XU
There is a USB port model that came out when raspberry pi's got expensive. Take your mmdvm modem and attach it to this: amzn.to/3GARMZs and then it plugs into a USB port.
Well you just cost me $80, but these are a great find. These will free up 2 PIs for other uses, and get rid of a noisy fan in the 3D printer setup as well.
These are not shipping where I am at, but I appreciate this company and the founder providing instructions on how to install their firmware for off the shelf Android TV boxes such as T95 Mini which are available in Asia. I just ordered one to test out
Jason's work would translate over very well to this box - maybe a few (solvable) hiccups along the way. There is also a pretty easy path forward to making this an MMDVM hotspot even though there aren't GPIOs for the modem. Its a great platform to leverage.
As a near complete neophyte to Ubuntu, I rooted Android phones about a dozen years ago, where to go and best way to learn the syntax needed for these devices? I haven't touch a raspberry pi either. TYIA 73 WB3BIT
This would be a great place to start - getting a super cheap Ubuntu machine. From there, find the "application" (not computer program but something like "I want to do digital modes") and down the rabbit hole you go! I have a couple of videos here about installing and configuring software. Out of the box, these are very much "windows-like" machines with GUI interfaces that you just mouse around in. Feel free to join us over on TOADs discord and ask any questions and we'll help out. Link in description.
Nice Steve, and the $100.00 tip of the day, brltty has to go. I would bet that has caused me no end of trouble over the last year of me going ham digital.
Check out this page: www.inovato.com/article/install They give you some info on getting an "Android TV Box" from amazon and loading their Linux image on it.
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I appreciate your videos, but my wife wants me to stop watching them. Because every time I do you cost me money. Keep up the good work Steve 73s
It can be our little secret!
I bought 2 of them, if I have problems, can I call you?😂😂😂
@@matteng2332 Yeah, my hourly rate is pretty reasonable!
I bet you wife spends more on unnecessities that you.
The Quadra apppears to be a very nice computer for sure. Maybe not too much of a problem to run WSJT-X. More RAM would be handy, though.
Right!? I feel like these machines could really do well with a high speed expansion bus RAM upgrades or GPU upgrades would become a thing.
Got one of these a couple weeks ago. Loaded HamPi on a SD card and I’m really liking this. Is it the fastest machine, not by a long shot but it’s a good running little machine. I. Like the fact that I can pop out the SD card and then have a portable personal machine as well. Great 2 in one package.
That's a great idea to have multiple SD card loadouts!
I was going to watch this video but then I realized you were temporarily offline. 😉
#TeamReplay FTW!
Isn't there a law prohibiting how may times a person can say "nice" when shilling a Chinese product? Just asking. Thank you for the video (thumbs up!)
Not at all
Keeping my Pi-400 but I can see this is a good step. 4GB ram would be nice and I'd pay more for that.
There really should be a RAM Bus for adding more ram to these things... right?
Totally Off Subject... Do you have the $15million MegaMillians ticket bought in Luck?
I wish - and there are only 3 places in luck it could have been purchased too!
Q: Power consumption? Compared to RPi 3?
Q: Have you tested VARA FM (WIDE)?
I sold all my Pi3s when the market was up, paid off my mortgage! If you have a power meter, let me know what you see and I'll report back on the Quadra.
Re: Vara, I haven't used it yet, but it's on the list to play with when I get to a more FM friendly area - very few signals here.
Site lists them as 35 dollars now, but that's still a lot more reasonable than the bad jokes they're asking for a RasPi.
Exactly!
NOTE: "reports of radio interference caused by the power adapters that the Quadra uses" ...when connected to and powering a monitor. But remote VNC control seems fine. See the blog post linked at the top of the Inovato website for "amateur radio operators".
I'm working on a demo/fix for this
I wrote my post before watching the entire video. This actually is a Tanix TX6. I have two of the TX6's running Armbian. So far, I have been able to get many of my ham apps running on these machines. I am anxious to try the Inovato image on my TX6's. I wish I knew about these two months ago, it would have saved a lot of time using their image.
I'm in the same boat. I found out yesterday that these were TX6 machines... about the same price too.
Does this mean that the board is a re-purposed cable/satellite board? What monitor did you hook it up to? I have a couple of retired LCD monitors by Samsung, LG and Asus that have HDMI input.
Any HDMI monitor will work just fine. Its an "Android TV" box - basically a different form factor smart phone without the phone's radios in it.
It is powering an LG 21" just fine with great resolution and picture clarity. Pretty...🤩@@temporarilyoffline
@@AlvinMcManus good to hear!
Just got a Black Friday Special 27" LCD and it looks great. @@temporarilyoffline
I find I use my i-break-it tool kit more than my i-fix-it tool kit.
For me they go hand in hand :-D
@@temporarilyoffline ditto. LOL
too many killers, but Pi still live
Long live the Pi! I just wished you could get your hands on one for "real" momey
I should get some to run "Build a Pi" or "Ham-Pi".
It probably can also run Pi-Hole for a DNS Svr too.🤔
That this is as cheap as chips!👍🍻
Linux to a Windows user like me is like opening up Pardora's Box.📦
It will be a lot of fun!
Steve, tnx for the quick unpack of the Quadra and updating process. I have now successfully updated my little "cool" mini box here. I have been in the IT forte for about 35 years with Uncle Sam and about ready to retire. This is a really neat gadget. I have a large curve screen monitor above my shack desk and was thankful for your tip about geometry and setting up the Quadra initially on the monitor that you are going to use. Good stuff. I am excited to now be able to run HamClock here in the shack for about $70? I got all the extras including the power adapter to ensure I did not have any trouble with the brick that was supplied. Very nice find! Take care and thanks for the video. 73, Dan AB5VJ On a mountaintop in South Central PA.
Awesome! Glad it helped!
Neat. No GPIO header, so it doesn't look like you can put an mmdvm board on it. You should be able to use a dongle maybe, so you could put pi-star on it? I'm grabbing one.
Yes, pi-star with that usb-hat-holder thing you have
For HTPC even the Pi4 isn't good enough and I've moved on to (yes more expensive) a Beelink U59 and never looked back. I've since upgraded to a 2TB NvME and 4K playback is flawless.
Yeah, I keep my Pi4 at 720p60 at best. This was originally an android TV box and the android client might be more lightweight. TH-cam's website is horrendous to CPUs.
I've got one already. Have no idea what I'm going to do with it yet, but at the price it seemed wrong not to pick one up.
Exactly! Velcro it to the back of your radio - it will either be a weight tax for not figuring out what to do with it... or it will be the perfect match when you do!
Hey Steve, I dunno if it would be fair to call it a pi killer. Sure, pi ran off with the pool guy, but I'd take it back tomorrow, provided pi passes the virus screening.
Well said sir!
I paid $104 for a Pi Zero 2w.... but you're right, I'd go back to Pi tell it how sorry I am for straying.
Doesnt come with a BT adapter built in .. But included with the USB hub is a BT dongle ..
Yes
Hey Steve, I picked up one of the "build your own" "Compatible TV boxes" listed on the Inovato website, under the article "Install the Quadra firmware on an Android TV box". After I unboxed it I tried it as is, was impressed with what it does for the price. Then I found the IMG file for that particular box so I could revert back if I wanted to, then downloaded and installed the Quadra firmware image per the instructions. It worked flawlessly, first time. I want to know more about these folks at Inovato as they are providing a great service to Hams IMHO, as someone took the time and effort to do this for our community and others. Hats off to them! K7KS
That's great news! The Inovato guys are awesome, you can reach out to them on their website
I could see it being used for portable packet radio applications. Hell you could even install it right into the TNC.
Exactly!
I set up a Quadra to run HamClock on my TV. HamClock runs and looks great on my 43" plasma panel. 2 questions: 1) the quadra desktop/home screen is too big for the 43" display, the tool bar and top bars are cut off--how to resize just the desktop? 2) when I reboot Quadra, it auto-start HamClock setup, can I disable that? Thanks for any help! KD0MMF
#1 in raspi-config there is an "underscan" option, turn that on and it should help (or off)
#2 I'm not sure where Inovato put the startup script for ham clock. I don't have that version. They do have a forum or you could ask some of the other users on the TOADs discord.
That and a (tr) uSDX and you are good, as long as it's SSB is clean??
Right!
Holy crap! Almost every ham TH-camr I follow is reviewing this thing this week!
Just for grins I followed your link and it's running a 404 error that pretty much says that due to w6lg's review earlier this week their server has crashed and they're backordered for a while. Lol
It's crazy that this was posted 10 months ago, but didn't catch on until this week??
Inovatto just released more ham apps in the default OS load, so it's getting popular. I thought this was older than 10 months! I thought time was flying fast... Thanks for watching!
I was ready to buy one, until I saw the international postage (to Australia). When you include that, the cheap disappears.
Don't get me wrong: this is a great package. It's just the postage freight charges, making it cost MORE than the Raspberry Pi.
He has links to a DIY version, can you get that model local and then use his image?
If someone can come up with a good field portable solution for a monitor to connect this thing to, I'd be tempted to try it. I've used VNC on an Android tablet with a RPi and found it really clunky. The on-screen keyboard in VNC sucks especially badly. And I never figured out how to right-click. The other problem with the RPi was its lack of robustness. Lots of crashes with FLdigi, and very susceptible to RFI, though maybe a metal case would have helped.
I'm looking for a good monitor, seeing what fits good in the lid of a case. Stay tuned.
Steve, I'm considering ordering the Quadra. Do you think it has the ability to run a Rtl sdr rig as well, this would make a nice receiver go package.
We just did a while series on SDR software. If you're going to do some light listening it should be great. Any advanced decoding (AMBE modes) or trunking might be tough. It would certainly do a waterfall/IF tap setup for an old radio.
No GPIO. No composite video. No analog audio. No video playback higher than 360p. It has a good price tag of $30. However, being so restrictive means that use cases will be tiny. They won't make shit for sales.
Good points, thanks for watching
I don't disagree with your evaluation of WSJT-X being hard to run for a ham app. It seems that it can take advantage of as many CPU cycles as your system can throw at it. I have seen a full waterfall cause an AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE lag a couple seconds on decode. I was running Ubuntu Mate, so no background Windows junk either.
When I was editing I thought there might be some SDR software that could compete with WSJT-X... but they are basically doing the same thing. I would love to see a Ham app so CPU intense that I need the latest bleeding edge PC!
I ordered mine but having to wait for stock. Mine comes with HamClock pre installed. Can't wait to get this baby.
Nice! He's selling out fast!
I am totally blind, so I wonder if there’s any software that would make this thing talk to me? Does this have any embedded speech? Or is that possible to be programmed! I guess if there’s anything that drives me nuts in him “radio“ is all these damn screens! But I guess that’s advancements in technology. Oh boy! 1:15 1:20 1:23 1:53 2:28
This is a tiny little linux computer, so any linux software with accessibility built-in will work just fine on this.
I am a complete novice when it comes to the OS of these devices. Pi included. Do you have videos showing the basics of how to make these work for ham radio? Learn better by watching than reading. Thx for the videos!!
Hello Chris! I have quite a few videos featuring the raspberry pi and linux software. I'm with you, I learn better by watching than reading - but I also do pretty good with getting stuck and thing figuring out the puzzle to get unstuck. That really makes things click for me. Take a look at my linux or pi playlists and give something a shot and see what happens. Then join us on TOADs discord in #sbc (single board computers) and ask any questions in a more interactive format. Try this one: th-cam.com/video/pJciqSuKRfQ/w-d-xo.html
I could give you more info on the board I have a good idea what actual product that is and would also like to spend like 5 mins inside the term of that device myself as you probably watch LTT he had a video recently about these devices being Uber sketch
Ok, thanks!
Would this work with the new QRP-Labs QMX, or would the radio’s sound card take care of the digital modes?
Yes and yes. Would work fine.
RPi is out-of-stock everywhere, and I know no one could get it on advertising price but at x2~x4.
Exactly - this is good price/performance minus GPIO. So many uses at so little cost.
anyone get allstarlink to run on it? Getting DAHDI to compile has been a (insert applicable analogy for failure here)
Not me, getting stuck somewhere specific?
The Tanix TX6 is a 3 year old Android TV Box, you can run EmuElec if your into Retro gaming
That sounds like fun
It's a mess out there. **Car drives by at 60 mph.***
It is Wisconsin.
lol, you 'mericans giving weather people names, a bit of snow is just called another tuesday in canada
That storm actually missed us. Nothing to see here, right?
I hope you do a series on this. I bought mine a month ago and barely use it because “Linux”. I’d like to learn and that’s why I bought mine
Hey Nick! I'd love to. What are some of the things you're looking to understand?
@@temporarilyoffline Linux
Linux for dummies 🤣😂😅
@@503Nick Most of my videos involving computers use Linux, but here is a good one to start with: th-cam.com/video/pJciqSuKRfQ/w-d-xo.html
I couldn't get WSJTX to install. it keeps saying 2 not upgraded
If it's not already in your image, you can do "sudo apt install wsjtx" or you can install the latest firmware that is full of ham apps. If neither of thise work. Join us in thr TOADs discord and share some screen caps. (Link in description)
I just got mine today and noticed all the ham software is pre-loaded. Did you inspire them?
I did! Hams really wanted this mini computer!
2GB Ram sucks
Yeah. More = better!
Would one be able to run an AllStar node with something like this?
The short answer is yes, but you'd need a USB device like this: amzn.to/3XIBAwm and then you'd need to install and configure the software. Sounds like a fun project!
OMG! thermal interface looks like a nightmare :(
What would improve it?
Thanks, just ordered one. Did you see that there is a "Build your own" option. There's a link in the blue bar at the top of the page. There are three devices on Amazon you can order and flash with their firmware. The cheapest is $29 but with Prime shipping and next day delivery.
I saw that today, but not when I got mine. Interesting that they are encouraging people like that.
Can you link to the Amazon version please?
@@powerplus101 here you go: amzn.to/3ZaW1n8
These are really great values. Be aware that the power supply makes a lot of RF in the 1-10 MHz range. I may post a video, the spectrum is super nasty and the radiative power of these emissions is enough to swamp my 7610 on 40M even across the house.
Wow! The creator made note on their website that the power supply was bad, but I didn't know it was that bad. To be honest I didn't use the power supply Because I have so many of these power supplies for raspberry pis and things
Even though I ferrites on both the power and HDMI cables, it generated so much RFI that I had to shut it down because of interference to my 2 meter repeater. I did not use the power module that came with it but rather a 3A 5V USB port. This computer is a great idea and the cost cannot be beaten but it is unusable anywhere near sensitive radio equipment.
I ran into the same problem: th-cam.com/video/2dZ9aNXhiok/w-d-xo.htmlsi=uHetcFVAB4FPDkyA
The fix in the video above is to replace the included power adapter with a known clean source using a USB power cable. This cable is now available from inovato as well and is included in the HamClock Bundle. Steve demonstrates this works.
How to send it to Europe ? I see only Canada and USA ...
In the blue box on the top of the page there is a link to their image and the original device - so you can DIY - really nice of them to add that info.
Mine is set to arrive Friday🎉 got non-ham thing planned for it , but might grab another next pay cycle for ham stuffs. Thanks for the overview Steve-o
You got it Bro!
I'm going to setup HamClock for my qth.
@@k9eihamradio Great idea! There are a lot of neat ham dashboards.
you didnt compare power consumption of this vs rpi
I have a few more videos on this coming out soon.
when are they going to learn to put the 12 volt converter on the board. This has a 5 volt in using the same plug as many of my 12 volt plugs. I can see a problem some time with that.
Is there an actual standard for DC-Barrel Jacks? I've seen them all over the place in size and polarity.
@@temporarilyoffline I don't know if someone set up a standard, but I ordered from Amazon some connecters all the same size and it hits everything I have! My charger for 18650, AA, AAA C, D batteries. My "O2 Cool" fans, the hat for my PI that has the 5V converter and fan, My Colman lights, The power to my cameras I put around my house. I have not found many that this one size doesn't fit. That is almost a standard! I have many cables set up to run things from my 100 AH battery when the power is out.
Who was "KMG365"...back in the 70s. Not HAM...was a city/gov...maybe country.... Radio. 😜
EMERGENCY
@@temporarilyofflineWell done! Engine 51, Squad 51 KMG365.
Me a few buddies I grew up with still say they when we see vehicles leaving a fire station...lol.
My fav part of thst show. I was like 24 before I learned that lactated Ringer's wasn't in fact a miracle drug. In the show...man has a massive heart attack and is in cardiac arrest... Start a lactated ringer's drip. Kid falls off his bike and cuts his leg...start a lactated ringer's trip. That stuff fixed everything! Even asked my mom why we didn't have any in the medicine cabinet.
Rampart...this is squad 51.... Out. 😉
Star trek the next generation did that with anaprovoline - used it for everything. Must be the same stuff.
I would prefer 1G eth, and 4GiB ram
I could use more RAM for sure!
HAM apps aside... I reckon I can't complain for $40 shipped. I bought one just for trying out.
Yeah, it's a great toy
Could you hook up a Shari node through this?
Physical hardware: yes... Not sure about the arch Linux all-star image though, might require some extra effort.
Hey Future Steve. Do you appreciate Past Steve making this purchase? Interested minds want to know. lol. I don’t know where I have been since this gadget looks perfect for my needs. Linux is my love language so what could go wrong. I am waiting for a bundle to become available and will order when it does. As you guys said on your CaHR stream I will leave a fellow retired person alone and wait somewhat patiently. 😅 All the best from north Texas. 73 de KI5HXm
This little box "does the thing"... you can pay more for more powerful machine, but it won't ham any faster. They have a "hamclock bundle" now that looks really good. Since then I've gotten a couple of Raspberry Pi 5s because TH-cam.
@@temporarilyoffline yes it looks pretty capable of low cpu tasking. I wonder if it could do ham clock and SDR play at same time. I would love to rely on just this cute box instead of having to use winblows for SDR. All the best
Hamclock is a resource hog - so I'd recommend nothing else runs while you're doing ham clock - no reason you couldn't turn it off when you wanted to work anything else. SDR software is also pretty hoggy - the machine can do it, but the software isn't super optimized since we have modern/fast computers. FT8/JS8 works well, and of course APRS or other packet modes will be fine. @@brentjohnson6654
Arnt those the android media boxes they reflashed
Yes they are.
Nice piece of kit. That is the plus model with wifi and usb hub, so $39.95. I have 2 of them sitting here that I bought after Sean reviewed them a month or so ago. I'll get to them sooner or later.
Yep - sooner or later...
We need to onow if it will run the repeator controlers
If it runs on a Pi and can interface with the repeater over USB, you should be golden.
No idea what this is all about... Are you connecting a raspberry pi to internet and than playing to have a ham-radio?? That is not the same as having a transciever and broadcast and receive with it! Here 's my question: why?? A hamradio is not a computer and vice versa!
Ham Radio Transceivers and Computers get along great together... all the way back to the Commodore 64 and Apple IIe days. What I did in this video is called FT8 and it was a quick way to show how this sweet little $30 computer can work well for your ham radio station - especially portable!
@@temporarilyoffline but what does it do?? What do you gain with it?? Does it improve your transciever?
If you're into portable ops, digital modes, need a computer based logger, want a ham clock or a weather display in your shack - this is an extremely affordable way to make that happen - $29 for a computer that you can do any ham or ham adjacent work with is a great deal. This improves my transceiver by opening up the world of digital modes and expanding my reach and testing abilities.
Country of manufacture, please?
Made in China, where everything is made these days.
I've had one for a while now...doesn't seem to like the Grid tracker and wsjtx combo. Mine shuts down after a little while running them both. Seems to be ok with wsjtx by itself, tho.
Had hampi on it, too, but have since done a restore to the default setup. Still a decent device, but would rather have a raspberry pi...if I was actually able to get my hands on one that is!
This is a great deal when Pis are un-obtainium. Did you get any log messages when GT/WSJT-X shutdown? I don't run GT much, so nothing springs to mind right away.
@@temporarilyoffline i didn't think to check, honestly. It literally just shut down as tho I did it from the top right shutdown menu...I'm not really I Linux guy so not sure where to look for any log files...
Dont get me wrong, I like it and will continue to use it. Good way to get my Linux feet wet, as it were.
Great vids, by the way!
@@prmailers Thanks! Check /var/log/messages right after the crash. You'll have to scroll back up to the last message before shutdown - all the boot up messages will be in there from your reboot.
@@temporarilyoffline thanks for the info!
Took me a few tries to figure out I had to SU to be able to view the file.
Lots of "Greek" in the file, but I saw a couple references to GPU faults so I suspect it couldn't handle the demands of GT. Might try it without using the show Spots option and perhaps any other unnecessary windows that might be open.
I'm a member of the G90 gang, btw...💪cool and capable little radio!
@@prmailers I'll put it on the list of things to play with in a video (but its a long list). Good that you're digging in! You can't hurt the box, the worst that you'll run into is having to reload the OS - so if you have any data that you care about, make plans for backup (WSJT-X QSO logs?)
There is a single board PC like this one but better, its the T95 MAX and I have yet to find a way to flash it to Armbian. Maybe you can take a crack at it?
On the inovatto page, I believe they have instructions on how to boot their image on the T95. If not, I'd still try their method first. I don't have a T95 to try it out.
I have tried that multiple times without success. I of course used the audio port and depressed the button inside it while booting it form the USB poer and the linux/armbian image and also tried all the USB ports. Might be an issue with the particular one I have...@@temporarilyoffline
Hmm, the only other thing I would think of is that there is some kind of jumper inside or JTAG section... but if it has an exposed USB port or an SD card slot, that would be the better way to load firmware for sure. So I'd guess they would have used that first.
1:37 I have the same problem with those bags
The struggle is real!
I've ordered one, hopefully here this week. Also got the power cord recommended to elevate RF. Does it have an SD card size limitation? Will any bluetooth keyboard work? I'd like to get a cheap, fold-up one. TIA!
I put in a 64GB SD card, no problems. I haven't played with a Bluetooth keyboard yet, but it shouldn't be a problem if it works with Linux.
Dropping this comment here so it might actually get seen.
What would you say the odds are to get RTTY to transmit working from a qrp like xiegu x6100 ?
Should work great from FLDigi. Do you have a hardware encoder? The built in RTTY modem/decoder only seems to work on a single RTTY mode.
Thanks for the introduction! At that price they'll likely fly off the shelf!
I hope it sells out today!
@@temporarilyoffline I see from their site that they forewarn about the wall wart interfering with comms for Amateurs. That's awesome! Thirty bucks is a great price! Is it U.S. made? I might have missed that. Did try to look on the site but never ran across mfg source.
@kb9mtd-aaronwebb it's made in China, but AFAIK it's a US company. It is impossible to make anything 100% in the US. The power supply is tossible.
@@temporarilyoffline true. I still will likely get one to at least mess with. It could relieve my older pi doing adsb.
I like JS8Call. I wish I knew Linux. I had to rely on others to get it going. I like to get VarAC running but I normally rely on scripts others have run and set up like Jason Build a PI
Jason is awesome! Build-a-Pi (now 73 Linux) is a great foundation.
Super awesome! Send it, I want one! That thing is better then my laptop!!!
I should put the craptop on the benchmarks list too!
Anyone know if this SBC will run Dragon OS? Looking for something small to run op25...
The short answer is InovatoOS is built on Ubuntu and so is DragonOS so "Yes". The longer answer is that it won't be super easy. Probably not all that bad.
Can't get it outside Burgerstan
There is a link on top of there website to get a box from Amazon and then use their SD image. Hope that helps!
From the benchmarks it seems to be more than 5 times faster than Pi 3B. Hovever the absence of any GPIO makes it a system than cannot substitute a Pi 3 or 4. Perhaps for retrogaming it is a good machine.
Right, there is always a catch
These look like streamer boxes
They are - The creators grabbed an Android TV box and built a linux image to open them up for us. You can buy the T95 Set top box and use their image from their website - or you can get their box and use the T95 images. pretty neat. amzn.to/3vVvRXT
😃👍👏👏👏
🫠😉😇🖐🖖🤘
Nice device, but unfortunately they won’t send to VK land.
amzn.to/3ZaW1n8
@@temporarilyoffline I’ll have a look. You may find this of interest.
th-cam.com/video/y9vXDy_zt4I/w-d-xo.html
@@JohnVK5JAK that is pretty cool, thanks for sharing.
I would look out the window like your older video and say, Nope! lol
29.95! I like saving money. :)
Just got back in from plowing the last 24hrs of snow... NOPE is right!
no gigabit ethernet? :(
I don't think the internal storage or video performance can keep up with gigabit ethernet. It's not targeted at that market.
I liked your video. Some of it you did a little fast so I ended up replaying it a lot. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Does it have built-in audio input? I am been looking for a new Broadcastify system for streaming besides an old laptop. My old raspberry pie is in dust and I’ve been wanting the more all in one SPC to replace it with.
Input? I'm not sure. It has a TRS jack and comes with Spotify and several videos installed for demos. I used a radio with a built-in audio interface in my tests.
Having never worked with anything except a windows machine or a basic DOS on some test equipment Linux is very greek to me or german or french or...well, you get the idea. This will be an adventure.
The cost of entry and the access to (google for) knowledge will make the learning curve less.
So far the GUI has been sufficiently similar to Windows that I'm able to suus out the menus. As long as I don't have to go under the hood anytime too soon. I may take off the case as well since an online buddy is sending his custom case for the Quadra to me complete with Anderson Powerpoles. Whoopee.
Also I haven't checked but do you think brltty is still installed by default on the most recently shipped units? @@temporarilyoffline
My issue is trying to figure out the audio for WJST-X with the G90 and DE-19 box. I have yet to figure it out. @@temporarilyoffline
brltty was not installed on the box I got! Yay
@AlvinMcManus I don't yet have a video on the DE-19 with the G90, but check this one out for some pointers: th-cam.com/video/vF9BWZ1EqHM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=0frpxzmpR5sCY2XU
Not sure this has been asked but where would you plug in an mmdvm?
There is a USB port model that came out when raspberry pi's got expensive. Take your mmdvm modem and attach it to this: amzn.to/3GARMZs and then it plugs into a USB port.
You know Aviato?
I do not.
No GB Ethernet.
Nope
Well you just cost me $80, but these are a great find. These will free up 2 PIs for other uses, and get rid of a noisy fan in the 3D printer setup as well.
Nah, I saved you $400 not buying replacement PIs! "Half Full" bro!
@@temporarilyoffline Good point. They shipped same day - I have the tracking number in hand. Pretty impressive for a budget friendly setup.
@@MattHeere yeah, they were very responsive when I reached out to them. I'm impressed.
These are not shipping where I am at, but I appreciate this company and the founder providing instructions on how to install their firmware for off the shelf Android TV boxes such as T95 Mini which are available in Asia. I just ordered one to test out
They seem like really good folks!
@@temporarilyoffline I would gladly buy from him when I am back in the states to support this project!
Thanks for the video. I'm hoping that I can use this with a NABU computer as a interface to the net server.
You bet!
Great video! Have you found a way for it to be a "hotspot" like the build a pi script offers?
Jason's work would translate over very well to this box - maybe a few (solvable) hiccups along the way. There is also a pretty easy path forward to making this an MMDVM hotspot even though there aren't GPIOs for the modem. Its a great platform to leverage.
As a near complete neophyte to Ubuntu, I rooted Android phones about a dozen years ago, where to go and best way to learn the syntax needed for these devices? I haven't touch a raspberry pi either. TYIA 73 WB3BIT
This would be a great place to start - getting a super cheap Ubuntu machine. From there, find the "application" (not computer program but something like "I want to do digital modes") and down the rabbit hole you go!
I have a couple of videos here about installing and configuring software. Out of the box, these are very much "windows-like" machines with GUI interfaces that you just mouse around in. Feel free to join us over on TOADs discord and ask any questions and we'll help out. Link in description.
@@temporarilyoffline Ordered one today. Thanks!
Ordered....can't go wrong for the price....even as a hamclock if nothing else
Exactly - cheaper than an alarm clock!
It's only really a Pi killer when it has the software support.
What's missing?
And GPIO ports...👍
Nice Steve, and the $100.00 tip of the day, brltty has to go. I would bet that has caused me no end of trouble over the last year of me going ham digital.
Exactly!
Where did the usb hub come from?
It's an option at checkout to get the Bluetooth and USB Hub on Inovato's site
@@temporarilyoffline Not seeing it
OK finally found it. Not obvious to be seen on the web site.
sadly they don't ship to Europe
Check out this page: www.inovato.com/article/install They give you some info on getting an "Android TV Box" from amazon and loading their Linux image on it.
Thanks Steve. I just ordered one…I want to setup Winlink on it.
This would be great for Winlink. I ran that on my Pi3 which is slower.
Think it could run SDRtrunk?
I don't have experience with SDRTrunk, but if it can run on a Pi3, it will run faster on the Quadra
Does it FT8 to my Boofwang? 😂
It can!
The Quadra is a 12v is it not?
5v