Reviews

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on ANNKE NC800 security camera review – Part 2: color night vision, vehicle & human detection

ANNKE NC800 security camera review – Part 2: color night vision, vehicle & human detection

Security camera soft light

I started the review of ANNKE NC800 security camera with color night vision last month by checking out the specifications and package content. I’ve now had time to install and test the camera with a focus on night image quality and person and vehicle detection. ANNKE NC800 installation The camera should be powered by a PoE injector, but since I don’t have any spare one, I just used an Ethernet cable and a 12V power supply. The kit includes bits to make sure the Ethernet cable is waterproof, but I would have had to cut the plastic bit on top of my connector, so I skipped that part. The cable is also protected from rain and sun where I’ll install it. I also installed a MicroSD card after formatting it to FAT32 to make sure it is recognized by the system, but it may not be necessary as the card […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on UP Xtreme i11 mini PC review with Ubuntu 20.04, Edge Insights for Vision

UP Xtreme i11 mini PC review with Ubuntu 20.04, Edge Insights for Vision

UP Xtreme i11 review Edge Insights for Vision

UP Xtreme i11 is both a single board computer and a mini PC powered by an Intel Tiger Lake processor and designed for industrial edge applications. I received the one sample of the mini PC called “UP Xtreme i11 Edge Compute Enabling Kit” last December based on an Intel Core i7-1185GRE processor, fitted with 16GB RAM, a 128GB SSD, and pre-loaded with Ubuntu 20.04 operating system. I’ve now had more time to play with the system, and I’ll report my experience with Ubuntu 20.04 and Edge Insights for Vision, a computer vision framework that’s part of the getting started guide. The latter was missing from my package possibly because customs opened the package, and forgot to put it back in. The most important part is “devkit” is used as username and password. Software for UP Xtreme i11 and Fan Control While Ubuntu 20.04 is pre-installed on the mini PC, it’s […]

Posted on by Ian W MORRISON (Linuxium) - 4 Comments on Aerofara Aero 2 Pro Review – A Celeron N5105 mini PC tested with Windows 11, Ubuntu 20.04

Aerofara Aero 2 Pro Review – A Celeron N5105 mini PC tested with Windows 11, Ubuntu 20.04

aerofara aero 2 pro mini pc

Aerofara’s Aero 2 Pro is an Intel Jasper Lake mini PC and one of the very few new mini PCs to include a VGA port. Aerofara kindly sent one for review and I’ve looked at performance running both Windows and Ubuntu. Aero 2 Pro Hardware Overview The Aero 2 Pro physically consists of a 120 x 120 x 23mm (4.72 x 4.72 x 0.91 inches) rectangular metal case with inset front and back plastic panels. As an actively cooled mini PC, it uses Intel’s 10 nm Jasper Lake N5105 processor which is a quad-core 4-thread 2.00 GHz Celeron processor boosting to 2.90 GHz with Intel’s UHD Graphics. The front panel is bereft of anything save a pinhole which is illuminated blue when the device is powered on. The rear panel includes the power jack, a USB 3.1 port, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on Review of ANNKE NC800 Smart IP camera with color night vision – Part 1: unboxing

Review of ANNKE NC800 Smart IP camera with color night vision – Part 1: unboxing

ANNKE NightChroma NC800 Review

ANNKE NC800 is a 4K security camera with people and vehicle detection, and other AI features as tested in our Annke CZ400 review. The main differentiating factor is support for “true full color” night vision that does not rely on a spotlight, but instead a “soft light”, a BSI sensor, and f/1.0 aperture as we’ll explain in a bit more detail below. The company sent me a sample for evaluation, and today I’ll check out the specifications of the “NightChroma NC800” camera and the content of the package, before installing and focusing testing on night capture in the second part of the review. ANNKE NC800 (I91BQ) specifications Camera Image Sensor – 1/1.2″ Progressive Scan CMOS Video Codec Main stream – H.265+/H.265/H.264+/H.264 Sub-stream – H.265/H.264/MJPEG Third stream – H.265/H.264 Framerate and Video Resolution 20 fps @ 3840×2160, 3072×1728 50 Hz: 25 fps @ 2688×1520, 1920×1080, 1280×720 60 Hz: 30 fps @ […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 73 Comments on Fixing performance issues with Realtek RTL8156B 2.5GbE USB dongle in Ubuntu

Fixing performance issues with Realtek RTL8156B 2.5GbE USB dongle in Ubuntu

cdc_ncm vs r8152 drivers ubuntu

A few days ago, I reviewed a USB 3.0 to 2.5 Gbps Ethernet adapter based on Realtek RTL8156B chip in Ubuntu 20.04, and let’s say the reliability and performance were underwhelming. I got some recommendations like changing cables, the MTU size, etc… Playing around with cables did no help, but one comment mentioned the cdc_ncm driver could be the issue, followed by another saying that updating to Linux kernel 5.14 should install the correct r8152 driver… So I just did that:

This upgraded Linux 5.13 (shipped with Ubuntu 20.04 + HWE) to Linux 5.14, but still no luck as the system kept using the cdc_ncm driver with a half-duplex link:

But then I thought I may have to use udev rules to prevent loading the cdc_ncm driver, and there’s indeed 50-usb-realtek-net.rules in r8152 driver to do just that. So I copied the file in /etc/udev/rules.d/ folder. Since I […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 28 Comments on USB 3.0 to 2.5Gbps Ethernet adapter review

USB 3.0 to 2.5Gbps Ethernet adapter review

USB to LAN 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

Late last month, I received hardware to test 2.5GbE and WiFi 6 with namely a Radxa E25 SBC, Xiaomi AX6000 WiFi 6 router, and an 8-port TP-Link 2.5GbE switch. I intended to start testing 2.5GbE networking with UP Xtreme i11 mini PC and Radxa E25, but I thought it might be a good idea to get a USB 3.0 to 2.5Gbps Ethernet adapter just in case. I purchased a no-name dongle for under $15 (475 THB on Lazada) in Thailand, but a USB 3.0 dongle that looks exactly the same can also be purchased on Aliexpress with either a USB Type-A port or a USB Type-C port. There’s some issue with Radxa E25 (it won’t boot it), so I ended up testing the dongle with UP Xtreme i11 mini PC. USB 3.0 to 2.5Gbps Ethernet adapter unboxing The package, marked “USB to LAN Gigabit Ethernet Adapter”, has “USB 3.0” and […]

Posted on by Ian W MORRISON (Linuxium) - 12 Comments on Beelink GTR5 Review – An AMD Ryzen 9 mini PC tested with Windows 11, Ubuntu 20.04

Beelink GTR5 Review – An AMD Ryzen 9 mini PC tested with Windows 11, Ubuntu 20.04

Beelink GT5 Review AMD Ryzen 9 mini PC

Beelink’s GTR5 is their most powerful mini PC to date and has been released as part of their ‘GT’ series of slightly larger mini PCs that are notable for expandable storage configurations together with multiple ports and characterized by the inclusion of a fingerprint scanner. Featuring an AMD Ryzen 9 mobile processor with Radeon Graphics, Beelink kindly sent one for review and I’ve looked at performance running both Windows and Ubuntu. Hardware Overview The Beelink GTR5 physically consists of a 168 x 120 x 39mm (6.61 x 4.72 x 1.54 inches) rectangular metal case. As an actively cooled mini PC, it uses AMD’s ‘Zen 3’ Ryzen 9 5900HX processor which is an eight-core 16-thread 3.3 GHz mobile processor boosting up to 4.6 GHz together with Radeon Graphics. The front panel has an illuminated power button, a ‘CLR CMOS’ button, a USB 3.1 port, a Type-C USB 3.1 port, and a […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on Review of GL.inet GL-S10 BLE to MQTT gateway with MQTT X open-source client

Review of GL.inet GL-S10 BLE to MQTT gateway with MQTT X open-source client

GL.inet GL-S10 review

I started the review of GL.inet GL-S10 BLE to MQTT gateway in December by doing an unboxing and a teardown of the ESP32 gateway and BLE beacon provided. I’ve now had to play with the device and recommended app and software, and it took longer than expected since I encountered several issues during testing, most of which should now be resolved with new firmware, and documentation will be updated very soon. I mostly followed the steps from the detailed user manual for this review. The first time I did was to install the GL-S10 Tool App for Android, then power the gateway while pressing its button to enter pairing mode and soon enough the gateway was detected. Note you should probably not share the MAC address of your devices as there’s no security by default, and anybody would be able to access the information with the tools we’ll use below. […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC