We’ve previously covered inexpensive Kimax’ Ethernet & WiFi HDD enclosures for 2.5″ SATA drives, powered by MediaTek processor and running OpenWrt. If you need something more powerful and versatile yet still affordable, the easiest way is now likely to go with SBC based solutions such as ODROID-HC1/HC2 or dual SATA NAS enclosure for RockPro64.
There may be another interesting option, as I’ve just been informed about another model of those networked HDD enclosure called Blueendless X3 “HDD NAS case” with Ethernet only (no WiFi), and that is equipped with the same Marvel ARMADA 3720 dual core Cortex-A53 processor as found in Marvell ESPRESSOBin board.
Blueendless X3 specifications:
- SoC – Marvell ARMADA 3720 (88F3720) dual core Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.1 GHz
- System Memory – 512 MB DDR3
- Storage – 16GB eMMC flash for OS, SATA 3.0 interface for 2.5″ drives based on ASMedia ASM1092R port multiplier
- Networking – 1x Gigabit Ethernet
- USB – 1x USB 3.0 port
- Power Supply – 12V/2A
- Dimensions – 118 x 110 x 33 mm (Metal case)
The enclosure support Windows, MAC, Android and iOS via “Xcloud” app, and ships with an Ethernet cable, a power supply and cord, and a user manual. The company claims a transfer rate of 60-70 MB/s over Gigabit Ethernet.
That’s about all we know from the public information available, but Gábor who tipped me about the HDD enclosure and owns one, told me “it’s hacker friendly, it has got a Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS running on it with SSH access, and the root password is root”. This is promising since users should be able to leverage ESPRESSOBin documentation, and modify the OS to fit their needs, and not necessarily have to use Xcloud app. If you plan to keep on using the default firmware, you’ll want to change that root password through.
Blueendless is apparently a brand from Kimax who made the previous enclosure we covered, and X3 (aka BS-X3) enclosure is currently sold on Aliexpress for $65.51 shipped, but I was told it was going for just $48 last week-end, so maybe the promotion will come back.
You can watch an unboxing and short review of Blueendless BS-X3 in the video below (Russian language).
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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nice idea, but why the heck no 3.5″ bay.. and severely castrated the available interfaces
I’ve just noticed there’s a 3.5″ model which takes two drives. Blueendless X8: ~$127 shipped
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Gigabit-Ethernet-NAS-HDD-Enclosure-Smart-HDD-Case-for-2-5-3-5-Hard-Disk-Gigabit/32956088003.html.
Nobody did a teardown of this device yet? Probably you van attach 2 sata’s on the small device also. Seems to be the same mainboard, only rotated 180°.
The ASMedia ASM1092R is not a SATA controller, the SoC has one built in, it’s a port multiplier. I guess this is how they also enable one USB 3.0 port.
Another possibility is that they may be using the same board for X3 and X8 models as mentioned in another comment. The X8 model has two SATA interfaces which must go through ASM1092R, and since they only made one board, they also left it on the X3 model. Of course, this is TBC.
Regardless, that’s a port multiplier, not a SATA controller.
Port multiplier in JBOD mode but unfortunately the R variants also allow for RAID0, RAID1 and SPAN.
I’ve x8 model. it’s seems to me that it’s possible to soldier chortcuts to change jbod to an other Raid 1/ Independed disks.
Surely the transfer rate should be 60/70MBs not 60/70Mbs (the former being Megabytes, the latter Megabits?)
> Gábor who tipped me about the HDD enclosure and owns one
Can’t you ask Gábor whether he can have a look inside to hopefully spot the connectors for a 2nd drive (since why adding an ASM1092R if not for two SATA drives?) and whether he can share
dmesgoutput of his device?I actually did, but it’s not that easy to access the board, and two screws are now damaged on his enclosure. So we’d have to wait until somebody else gets a sample. Maybe I’ll try to get one too.
Hello there,
as Jean-Luc wrote, unfortunately I couldn’t disassemble the board. The dmesg output is quite strange as well, there are no hardware logs, only things connected to systemd like these:
[ 6.314758] systemd[1]: Starting udev Coldplug all Devices…
[ 6.331709] systemd[1]: user.slice changed dead -> active
[ 6.331743] systemd[1]: user.slice: Job user.slice/start finished, result=done
[ 6.331779] systemd[1]: Created slice User and Session Slice.
[ 6.351741] systemd[1]: slices.target changed dead -> active
[ 6.351772] systemd[1]: slices.target: Job slices.target/start finished, result=done
It starts at 6 seconds. It must be some kind of dmesg setting, but couldn’t figure out it yet. Any tips are welcome.
What I was interested in is power consumption, which is 2 watts idle and 4 watts at full load – without a disk.
I’m not sure if the following is of any use (on the internal eMMC):
dd if=/dev/zero of=pr bs=1048576 count=1024
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 31.3747 s, 34.2 MB/s
It just feels much faster than microSD cards I use in other development boards (Sandisk Extreme A1 and A2) when compiling software.
Is the output from
journalctl -kdifferent?It’s quite the same.
Might have to adjust the kernel loglevel values.
I received my unit and have done a teardown. Details can be found at https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Blueendless_BS-X3
Can a serial console be attached somewhere?
I’ve added photos of the PCB top and bottom where you can see a possible 4 pin serial at J2. Haven’t had time to determine pin out yet and am leaving on a vacation in the morning.
Like others already wrote: ssh user: “root”, password: “root”
Mine did not boot properly until I connected the disk, after that I could log in.
I did changed the default password and updated the system.
Also found that the actual file server is located here:
http://www.zsuncloud.com/fwdepart/fwsrv/blue_fw.tar.gz
Except few scripts this is the only non-ubuntu software on the machine I could find.
Disable goonas (the actual server):
systemclt stop goonas
systemctl disable goonas
Disable FW update:
/etc/rc.local
#/usr/sbin/blueRestart.sh &
#/usr/goonas/fwsrv &
The hdd default mount point is /etc/disk. If you want to move it somewhere else, or repartition the disk, you should edit this script: /usr/sbin/hdd-add.sh (or the following udev rule)
if [ $counts -eq 0 ] ; then
#we only mount 1 times
echo “mount /dev/$1 to /etc/disk.” >> /var/log/hdd.log
# sudo mount /dev/$1 /etc/disk
# exit 0
fi
it is called by /etc/udev/rules.d/95-usb-flash.rules
#these line for hdd partions
ACTION==”add”, NAME=”%k”, KERNEL==”sd[a-z][0-9]”, SUBSYSTEM==”block”, ENV{ID_BUS}==”ata”, ENV{DEVPATH}==”*.sata*”, RUN+=”/usr/sbin/hdd-add.sh %k”
ACTION==”remove”, NAME=”%k”, KERNEL==”sd[a-z][0-9]”, SUBSYSTEM==”block”, ENV{ID_BUS}==”ata”, ENV{DEVPATH}==”*.sata*”, RUN+=”/usr/sbin/hdd-remove.sh %k”
Hello Jean-Luc,
Question: Blueendless X3 have media server function?
I would like to watch on TV the files stored in Blueendless X3 device. It is possible?
In the Youtube clip I did not see the Settings page in the device interface.
Thx
Catalin
I don’t think it has specific media server functions, and for instance, It won’t do transcoding, but you can obviously watch video files stored in Blueendless X3 device.
Hello again,
how can play on TV files located on X3 devices?
Thx
X3 is like a Windows share on your PC.
Unfortunately my LG smart TV does not have the possibility to search the shared drive network
I see, maybe you’d need to enable DLNA/UPnP via something like miniDLNA
Hi! It’s possible to install all linux software, because we have ubuntu 16.04 inside. I’m also able to install openmediavault
Hey, could you please tell me how did you manage to install OMV on this hardware?
hi Stan, you should follow guides from google how to install omv to debian/ubuntu. also it’s possible to install pihole there
Hello, can anyone help me obtain the Xcloud windows application please?
The official link is down
Thanks
Hi there, I have the same problem: no XCloud software available for windows and no App available for iOS, were you able to find it somewhere else?
Hi I have the same issue, were you be able to solve the problem ?
i want to know if can i put users in this nas or groups( of works) and if 512 memory ram is ok or is too low?
Anyone know if the drive can be NTFS? Thanks.
hello, admin, I’m sending this message because I need help, I bought the X8 case but I can’t find the website anymore, do you still have the software to send it to me, please
Hi,
I have the Blueendless X8 NAS. This NAS can be accessed via SSH over the LAN. You need to figure it out the actual IP got from the router. The user and password is root.
from there we can start working. I got inside and got some hardware info. They are on the image. I have to figure out how to port a NAS operating system to this hardware. A point to start can be the Marvell ESPRESSObin. The yocto project seems a startpoint to port a source code too this platform.
Do you now where is uart pins. I just broke OS(