GL.iNet Spitz AX review – Part 2: a router with 5G NR, WiFi 6, 2.5GbE, failover and load balancing

Gl.iNet Spitz AX review 5G failover testing

Earlier this month I introduced the GL.iNet Spitz AX (aka GL-X3000NR) router with 2.5GbE, WiFi 6, and 5G NR cellular connectivity listing the specifications, doing an unboxing, and going through the initial setup. I’ve now received a new SIM card for testing and installed it into the router to continue the review. 4G/5G cellular connectivity on Spitz AX router After powering the router, the SIM card was detected and showed a 5G connection, but quickly fell back to 4G as can be seen with the cyan icon in the screenshot below. Shortly after, I lost 4G data connectivity, and after a while, the modem was not detected at all. But after restarting the router, and clicking on the “Auto Setup” icon everything looked to be working fine and I was always on a 5G connection from “house 1”. You’ll notice an envelop icon on the top right corner of the […]

Programming RejsaCAN-ESP32-S3 CAN bus board with Arduino for car “hacking”

RejsaCAN-ESP32-S3 review

The RejsaCAN-ESP32-S3 is an ESP32-S3 board suitable for developers who want to build a car-related project. It can control or read the data from the OBD-II connector in your car using 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi or/and Bluetooth 5 (LE), or for IoT projects, connecting a sensor to the board and sending data to an app, the cloud, or log the data to a microSD Card. The board is designed to be small enough to be installed in a car.   The board is an evolution of the previous ESP32-based RejsaCAN-ESP32 with the developer – Magnus Thomé –  switching to the ESP32-S3 chip as previously announced. The main specifications are similar, but the ESP32-S3 is a newer LX7 processor with Bluetooth LE 5.0 support, and the ESP32 board had to use a USB-to-serial chip to communicate or upload the program through a PC, but the new board uses the USB interface on […]

Beelink SER6 Pro 7735HS Review – Windows 11 benchmarks, USB4 port tested with NVIDIA RTX 3050 eGPU’s

Beelink SER6 Pro 7735HS review

Previously I reviewed Beelink’s SER6 Pro mini PC when it was released with an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H processor, mentioning that a ‘refreshed’ model had since been released. Beelink have kindly sent me this updated model which now uses an AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS. Given this is virtually an identical processor with just a 50 MHz improvement to the boost frequency, this review will look at confirming that the Windows performance is just as good as before and also revisiting the issues faced previously with the USB4 port. Spoiler alert: the USB4 now works perfectly! Beelink SER6 Pro 7735S specification Beelink list the SER6 Pro 7735HS specifications as: with the only differences to the original SER6 Pro being firstly the AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS processor which has a Max Turbo Frequency of 4.75GHz, and secondly that two variations are also available: one with ports exactly the same as the original […]

SONOFF SNZB-02D review – A Zigbee temperature & humidity sensor with a 2.5-inch display

Sonoff SNZB-02D review

We’ve previously tested the SNZB-02 Zigbee temperature and humidity sensor with the SONOFF NSPanel Pro smart panel, but ITEAD has now launched the SONOFF SNZB-02D that integrated the same features plus a 2.5-inch display to visualize the data. They’ve sent us a SNZB-02 sample for review, so after listing the specifications we’ll test SONOFF’s latest Zigbee sensor with Home Assistant. SONOFF SNZB-02D specifications Display – 2.5-inch black&white display Connectivity – Zigbee 3.0 Sensors Temperature sensor with -9.9°C to 60°C range, ±0.2°C accuracy Humidity sensor with 5%—95%RH range, ±2%RH accuracy Battery – 3V CR2450 coin-cell battery good for about 2 years with a 5-second polling rate Dimensions – 62.5 x 59.5 x 18.5mm Material – PC Color: White Unboxing and first try We’ll find the sensor in the usual orange package used for Zigbee devices. The SNZB-02D sensor comes with a quick start guide and a pre-installed battery. Just pull the […]

Creality Ender-3 S1 Pro review – Part 2: Engraving and 3D printing

Creality Ender 3 S1 Pro 3D Printer laser Engraver

Earlier this year, I received the Creality Ender-3 S1 Pro 2-in-1 3D printer & laser engraver and in the first part of the review, I showed the package content and how to assemble the system either to use it as a 3D printer or a laser engraver, but didn’t start it at the time. I’ve now had time to play with both laser engraving (less luck with cutting) and 3D printing, so I’ll report my experience in the second part of the review. Creality Ender-3 S1 Pro laser engraving Since in the last part of the review I had the 10W laser module installed on the 3D printer, I decided to start the testing with laser engraving and cutting. Contrary to the TwoTrees TS2 laser engraver I reviewed last year, the Creality Ender-3D S1 Pro laser engraving kit does not support autofocus, so I used the provided multi-level fixed-focus bar […]

GL.iNet Spitz AX (GL-X3000NR) 5G NR WiFi 6 router review – Part 1: Specs, unboxing, and first boot

GL-X3000NR 5G NR WiFi 6 router review

GL.iNet Spitz AX, also known as GL-X3000NR, is a compact 5G NR WiFi 6 router running OpenWrt 21.02 on a MediaTek Filogic 820 (TM7981A) dual-core Cortex-A53 processor coupled with 512MB DDR4 and 8GB eMMC flash, as well 2.5GbE and GbE interfaces, and a USB 2.0 port. The company sent us a Spitz AX router for evaluation, and in the first part of the review, we’ll go through the specifications, and do an unboxing and a teardown, before connecting it for a first boot. GL.iNet Spitz AX router specifications SoC – MediaTek MT7981A (Filogic 820) dual-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.3 GHz System Memory – 512 MB DDR4 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card slot up 1+ TB Networking 1x 2.5GbE WAN Ethernet port 1x Gigabit Ethernet LAN port Dual-band IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax WiFi 6 up to 574Mbps (2.4GHz), 2402Mbps (5GHz) RM520N-GL 5G cellular modem and 2x Nano SIM card slots […]

Review of TwoTrees TTC 450 CNC router machine with 80W and 500W spindles

TwoTrees TTC450 CNC router machine review

TwoTrees TTC 450 is a CNC router machine for precision cutting with a working area of 460x460x80 mm. The machine can handle 2D and 3D, 3-axis X, Y, Z movement, features a 32-bit microcontroller,  a touchscreen control display, and supports WiFi network connection. The TTC 450 can also read files on an SD card for offline operation, and workpieces can be made of a variety of materials such as wood, acrylic, Plastwood, carbon fiber sheet, aluminum, metal, and various engineering plastic materials. TTC 450 CNC router specifications Work Area – 450 x 450 X 80 mm Body Material – Metal frame & Aluminium 4080U Profile Drive System – Translation screw drive with double Y-axis system Mainboard – DLC32 V2.1 (ESP32-based as found in TwoTrees TS2 laser engraver) Stepper Driver – A4988 1.3A Stepper Motors – 17HS8401S, NEMA23 20mN.m Spindle – 74W, 8000RPM Max Speed – 800mm/Min Running Accuracy – +/-0.1mm […]

BIGTREETECH Pi v1.2 – A Raspberry Pi-sized Allwinner H616 SBC for 3D printers

Allwinner H616 BTT Pi v1.2 SBC

BIGTREETECH Pi v1.2, also known as the BBT Pi v1.2, is a Raspberry Pi-sized Allwinner H616 single board computer (SBC) specially designed for 3D printers with many of the same ports as the Raspberry Pi 3/4, but also features 12V-24V DC power input and connectors for the ADXL345 3-axis accelerometer, CAN Bus, and so on. The board is equipped with 1GB RAM, a microSD card slot to run the operating system (Debian 11 with Klipper), a 4K capable micro HDMI port, Fast Ethernet and WiFi 4 networking, four USB ports, and the usual 40-pin Raspberry Pi header. BTT Pi specifications: SoC – Allwinner H616 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1.5GHz with Arm Mali G31 MP2 with support for OpenGL ES 3.2 System Memory – 1GB DDR3L SDRAM Storage – MicroSD card slot Video Output Micro HDMI 2.0a port up to 4Kp60 resolution SPI port for display Audio – 3.5mm audio jack […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC