USB to LAN 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

USB 3.0 to 2.5Gbps Ethernet adapter review

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 […]

Penkesu Computer

DIY Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W handheld PC (mostly) makes use of off-the-shelf parts

The Penkesu Computer is a DIY handheld PC powered by a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W SBC, and mostly comprised of off-the-shelf parts including a 7.9-inch display from Waveshare, replacement hinges for the Gameboy Advance SP, a 48-key mechanical keyboard fitted with Kailh low profile Choc V1 switches, and so on. Penk also happens to have designed the CutiePi tablet with Raspberry Pi CM4, and designed the Penkesu Computer (ペンケース in Japanese) as a side project without having to “worry too much about commercial viability” and as a way to remind himself why he started tinkering. Penkesu Computer handheld PC specifications: SBC – Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W with Broadcom RP3A0 SiP with Broadcom BCM2710A1 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.0 GHz, 512MB RAM, MicroSD card slot Display – 7.9-inch IPS display with capacitive touch screen, 1280x 400 resolution, connected over HDMI via flat cable through an Adafruit adapter Keyboard – […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
10.1-inch Raspberry Pi PC portrait mode

10.1-inch RPI All-in-One PC review with Raspberry Pi 4

A couple of months ago I received “RPI All-in-One”, a 10.1-inch touchscreen display for Raspberry Pi boards, listed the specifications, checked out the package content, installed a Raspberry Pi 4 inside the display before booting my new all-in-one (AiO) PC successfully. I’ve now had time to spend more time with the PC/display and see how it performs under various conditions. I also tested HDMI and USB-C input features with a laptop and mini PC. Fan or fanless operation? After updating Raspberry Pi OS, I ran sbc-bench.sh script together with rpi-monitor to see how the Raspberry Pi 4 with 1GB RAM would perform under load with the (noisy) fan enabled.

  No throttling was detected, and the temperature never exceeded 56°C in a room with an ambient temperature of 26°C. I then disconnect the fan, but it turns out the fan can also be easily disabled in the OSD menu […]

Raspberry Pi Zero W connected to PC

USB add-on boards leverage Raspberry Pi Zero test pads, USB Gadget mode

I’ve just come across a few USB boards that take advantage of the Raspberry Pi Zero (W) test pads to add one or more USB Type-A ports to the board without soldering. The first one is “Catda Raspberry Pi zero WH USB expansion board” which I found on Banggood for $9.99. It’s a kit that ships with a USB Zero plug expansion module, an acrylic “isolation protection cover”, an acrylic transparent light diffraction protection cover plus M2.5 screws and nuts for mounting it to the Raspberry Pi Zero WH board, but it should work any Raspberry Pi Zero including the new Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W board since it relies on pogo pin to connect the four test pads for USB data and power, and those are in the same position for all Pi Zero boards. You can then plug it into a laptop or computer to power the board […]

Linux 5.16 release

Linux 5.16 Release – Main Changes, Arm, RISC-V and MIPS architectures

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 5.16: Not a lot here since -rc8, which is not unexpected. We had that extra week due to the holidays, and it’s not like we had lots of last-minute things that needed to be sorted out. So this mainly contains some driver fixes (mainly networking and rdma), a cgroup credential use fix, a few core networking fixes, a couple of last-minute reverts, and some other random noise. The appended shortlog is so small that you might as well scroll through it. This obviously means that the merge window for 5.17 opens tomorrow, and I’m happy to say I already have several pending early pull requests. I wish I had even more, because this merge window is going to be somewhat painful due to unfortunate travel for family reasons. So I’ll be doing most of it on the road on a laptop […]

Beelink Expand F USB-C Dock

Beelink Expand F USB-C dock takes M.2 SSD and 2.5-inch SATA drive

Beelink has previously introduced USB docks with the Expand X smartphone dock and Expand M with an SSD. The company’s latest Beelink Expand F USB-C dock looks really like a mini PC from the outside with the usual USB, HDMI, Ethernet, and audio ports, and it can also be fitted with an M.2 2280 SATA SSD and/or a 2.5-inch SATA drive. It can be useful to add PC-like connectivity to a smartphone or add additional storage to a laptop without cluttering your desk with multiple USB drives, and/or potentially saving some USB ports on the host machine. Beelink Expand F specifications: Storage Options No storage, i.e. bring your own SATA drive(s) via M.2 socket up to 440 MB/s and/or 2.5-inch SATA bay 512GB SATA III M.2 SSD 512GB SATA III M.2 SSD plus 1TB SATA HDD Video Output – 2x HDMI ports up to 4K resolution Audio – 3.5mm audio […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
Stellar Data Recovery Professional

Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows could save your day (Sponsored)

Even if you backup your data regularly, data loss can still occur for a variety of reasons be it a power failure, a user mistake, hardware failure, or even viruses or malware like ransomware. But luckily there are professional data recovery software programs that could help save your day, or even your job, such as Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows, previously known as Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Professional, that can recover lost or deleted data from any storage media including HDDs, SSDs, USB drives & optical media (CD or DVD), and it even works with the latest Windows 11 operating system. Stellar Data Recovery Professional supports recovery from NTFS, exFAT and FAT (FAT16/FAT32) formatted drives, even on crashed and unbootable systems, and a new feature is data retrieval from a partially burnt or scratched CD/DVD. The software can restore all types of data including documents, emails, photos, videos, […]

ODROID N2+ Ubuntu 21.10 review

ODROID-N2+ review with Ubuntu 21.10 using Wayland and Panfrost

ODROID-N2+ was launched in July 2020, but I only got the Amlogic S922X Rev C SBC recently with Hardkernel wanting me to test their latest Ubuntu 21.10 image with the Panfrost open-source GPU driver. ODROID-N2+ Kit Unboxing Let’s start by checking out the kit I received from the Korean SBC manufacturer. The package includes ODROID-N2+ single board computer fitted with a 32GB eMMC flash module, a 12V/2A power supply with an EU plug adapter, an 80mm fan kit, and a USB 3.0 to eMMC reader. ODROID-N2+ is now only available with 4GB RAM, as the old ODROID-N2 with 2GB was deprecated, and we get four USB 3.0 ports, HDMI 2.0 video output,  Gigabit Ethernet networking, and a 40-pin GPIO header with the board cooled by a larger heatsink attached to the bottom of the board. Fan installation, first boot, and system information As we’ll see below the fan is not […]

Boardcon CM3588 Rockchip RK3588 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications