Has anyone used a MeLE Quieter2 Mini PC to run their rig?

[scotty38]

9 minutes ago, Padraic M said:

Hmmm. Oh well, will probably exchange for SATA, or hold on to it and use it as an external drive. It's a pity MeLE don't provide specs on their website.

I found the specs on Amazon but it's on their site too as far as I can tell:

 

https://mele.cn/PCHD28/124-en.html

[Stuart1971]

1 hour ago, Padraic M said:

Hmmm. Oh well, will probably exchange for SATA, or hold on to it and use it as an external drive. It's a pity MeLE don't provide specs on their website.

Shows it here on there site….

 

[Padraic M]

It's  all a bit ambiguous as MeLE also have instructions in their FAQ for installing NVMe SSDs in the Quieter2!

So, the machine arrived by courier today from amazon.de complete with WD 1TB NVMe SSD, and the great news is that it works! I've just cloned the original Win 10 installation from the 128GB eMMC drive to the new NVMe drive and made it the primary boot device. Tomorrow's job is to install all the astro drivers and applications.

[Ibbo!]

I have installed a 1 TB WD NVMe that was on offer.

So far I have used it for solar collection and get around 46 fps compared to the 58 fps on the Dell SFF with a samsung Me, but seeing as this is supposed to be used in the field I am quite happy with that so far.

 

I have not cloned the Win 10 across is there a benfit to that ?

The Venus sers i took the other day with 300 x 300 ROI did a whopping 390 fps

The usb/serial arrived today at last and so did the snow so that will be tried tomorrow if the weather co-operates.

 

So far i have the QSI CCD,  lodestar,ZWO 178 mono, the Hitech astro hub,shoestring Dc focus controller,  Nina and firecapture all up and running.

Also Any desk.

I plan to try Sharpcap as well.

I would like a better 12v screen as I'm using a 12v TV at the moment that is a bit grainy. I am going to hook it to a PCmointor to see what thats like when I get the usb/serial and the mount up and running.

I have run it via wifi indoors but not yet in the obs as I have a network for that and transfering 10 to 60 Gb of solar data is best done by cable.

Baby steps.

[fireballxl5]

9 hours ago, Padraic M said:

I've just cloned the original Win 10 installation from the 128GB eMMC drive to the new NVMe drive

could I ask which cloning sw you used to do this? I have a NVMe M.2 that I would like to make my primary Win drive...

CS, Andy

[Padraic M]

Hi @fireballxl5 the SSD I bought is a Western Digital Blue SN570 NVMe 1TB. The standard WD cloning/utilities tool is Acronis True Image which you can download for free from the WD website. It will only run on a PC that has a WD SSD installed so may not work for you, but there are other packages that do the same thing.

One caveat though - having successfully booted from the SSD after migration, I then spent the usual couple of hours trying to get the PC to boot from that drive consistently. PC went into a loop of prompting for keyboard layout and restarting. Note that you can still enter BIOS and change the boot drive back to the original 128GB eMMC. The sequence that finally worked for me (although this may not happen to you) was:

- Initialise the new drive as a GPT (GUID Partition Table) in Disk Management 
- Clone the OS in Acronis. Acronis asks you to remove the old boot drive, which of course can't be done. If there's any uncertainty over which drive is being used for boot, check the BIOS boot settings. To enter BIOS, restart to the Intel logo, then press Del repeatedly until the BIOS interface comes up.
- Reboot to the new OS on the WD SSD.

If you have the same issues as I did then do the following:
- Create a USB recovery drive in Acronis (32GB USB flash drive used - needs to be 8+GB I think)
- With the USB recovery drive inserted into the Quieter2, change the BIOS boot option 1 to the USB drive and reboot. It will recover the factory-installed OS.
- Reboot again, it should now boot from the new SSD. Check this in Windows either through Windows Explorer (C: drive is ~1TB) and through Disk Management (C: drive is ~1TB, Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Basic Data Partition) )

@Ibbo!

The NVMe drive is ~10 times faster than the eMMC so boot and execution times should be a lot better. Also, NVMe is reportedly more reliable/durable than eMMC so putting the frequent read/write activity on the SSD and less frequent access (storage of installation images, static files etc.) on the eMMC may extend the life of the PC.

 

[Psionmark]

On 01/01/2022 at 21:17, Padraic M said:

Hi Ian, I was looking into this today, and while it's not 100% gospel (no specs whatsoever on the MeLE website), it actually looks like it runs on 12V, not 5V. Cuiv the Lazy Geek just bought a cable to convert from DC jack to USB C male and it didn't blow up; also, an Amazon listing shows:

Interestingly the same Amazon listing says:

  

I'm using the Pegasus Pocket Powerbox Advanced so the equivalent USB C male - 2.1mm DC jack female is also available for €6.

I'm thinking of pushing the button on this.

I’ve just got one of these Mini PC’s and am looking for a portable power solution. So could I use one of the AAOTOKK adapters above with a 5v to 12v converter plugged into my powerbank? I currently use a 5v to 12v to power my mount but it’s only .8 Amp.

[PlankWithANailIn]

Has anyone tried running one of these from a 13.8v supply?

[Starflyer]

On 17/05/2022 at 09:02, PlankWithANailIn said:

Has anyone tried running one of these from a 13.8v supply?

I've used mine with both a 13.8v Maplin power supply and a leisure battery, which usually gives 13 - 13.5v, for a few months now. These have powered all my 12v astro kit for many years with no ill effects.

[Dark Raven]

Patriot Astro has several videos on testing hardware and configuring AP software on MiniPCs (Quieter2/3) from MeLE

Edited July 8, 2022 by Dark Raven

[Skyline]

I have one of these and can be powered very easily using this combination:

RUNCCI-YUN 1.2M Car Cigar Lighter... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07PPRDCTM?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

AAOTOKK Type C Power Adapter Type... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07XZ7Q2N7?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I have the mini pc attached onto one of my finder shoes.