Right, as requested, the summary. A lot of people recommended Soekris, described as being "built like tanks", The Net4801, for example, has CF for booting, 3 x ethernet, and a serial port. http://www.soekris.com . There was some concern about the longevity of their power supplies, however. Also had multiple pointers to http://yawarra.com.au, who stock soekris and PC Engines WRAP systems. Some people suggested looking on trademe for linksys WRT54GL's, and putting openwrt or similar on them, although serial ports could be an issue there. Also put forward was the ALIX series (http://www.pcengines.ch/alix.htm), also available from http://nicegear.co.nz in Christchurch And then a colleague sent me to opengear.com, who do these little boxes that look like the old milan media converters, which come in a variety of options, with up to 4 x RJ45 serial ports (cisco pinout), multiple ethernets, usb, temperature monitor, dry contact connectors, and even versons with 3G cellular or 802.11 WiFi - http://www.opengear.com. These look like they have quite some potential. So in no particular order, soekris http://www.soekris.com yawarra http://yawarra.com.au mini-box http://www.mini-box.com.au/purchase/browse-detail.asp?menuId=48&start=1&laCode=ENGAU&productId=174 mini-box http://www.mini-box.com.au/purchase/inner-page.asp?laCode=ENGAU&menuId=44&pageId=220 ITX board http://store.mp3car.com/Fanless_Morex_T1610_Mini_ITX_Case_p/enc-030-w.htm openrd http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-openrdcdetails.aspx Atom boards http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=384988 FIT PC http://www.fit-pc2.com Alix http://www.pcengines.ch/alix.htm http://www.nicegear.co.nz opengear http://www.opengear.com/product-acm5000-images.html
On 03/23/10 09:41 AM, Ian Batterbee wrote:
Right, as requested, the summary.
Thanks Ian. This is brilliant.
... Soekris, ... There was some concern about the longevity of their power supplies, however.
I've only used Soekris a little bit and haven't had a problem, but the wall wart that I was loaned with it looked like the ones that can be bought from Jaycar. These are dirt cheap wall warts and I have to admit that I've blown up one from Jaycar. Getting an over specified power supply probably isn't a bad idea. Cheers, Lloyd
On 24/03/10 09:15, Lloyd Parkes wrote:
I've only used Soekris a little bit and haven't had a problem, but the wall wart that I was loaned with it looked like the ones that can be bought from Jaycar. These are dirt cheap wall warts and I have to admit that I've blown up one from Jaycar. Getting an over specified power supply probably isn't a bad idea.
I'd echo that. We've got a number of Soekris and Alix boxes in the field, and mostly they're been bulletproof, surviving power supply events that killed other equipment. Since we use a lot of PoE, we always have a stock of unused 12Vdc power supplies. We always use >= 1A PSUs for Soekris & Alix boxes in the field, but I have had Alix boards running happily on 0.5A PSUs. Soekris boxes (even the gutless 4501) are quite a bit thirstier than Alix boards, and I don't know why -- I'd put at least 1.5A @12V on a 4801 or 5501, possibly more with the latter. Soekris sell 1.5A PSUs at US$15 one-off (US$13 qty 5+), excluding the mains lead which you'd have to source locally; Jaycar, for example sell a small regulated switchmode plugpack of similar spec for NZ$26.50 (retail) or $20.90 qty 6+ (and Jaycar prices include GST). -- don
On Wed, 2010-03-24 at 10:36 +1300, Don Stokes wrote:
On 24/03/10 09:15, Lloyd Parkes wrote:
I've only used Soekris a little bit and haven't had a problem, but the wall wart that I was loaned with it looked like the ones that can be bought from Jaycar. These are dirt cheap wall warts and I have to admit that I've blown up one from Jaycar. Getting an over specified power supply probably isn't a bad idea.
I'd echo that. We've got a number of Soekris and Alix boxes in the field, and mostly they're been bulletproof, surviving power supply events that killed other equipment.
Since we use a lot of PoE, we always have a stock of unused 12Vdc power supplies. We always use >= 1A PSUs for Soekris & Alix boxes in the field, but I have had Alix boards running happily on 0.5A PSUs. Soekris boxes (even the gutless 4501) are quite a bit thirstier than Alix boards, and I don't know why -- I'd put at least 1.5A @12V on a 4801 or 5501, possibly more with the latter.
Soekris sell 1.5A PSUs at US$15 one-off (US$13 qty 5+), excluding the mains lead which you'd have to source locally; Jaycar, for example sell a small regulated switchmode plugpack of similar spec for NZ$26.50 (retail) or $20.90 qty 6+ (and Jaycar prices include GST).
Citylink has something like 200-300 soekris boxes in service (mixture of 4501 and 4801). We've had lots of issues with power supplies. We were using a Dick Smith wall wart (12VDC, 1A, transformer) and they have a tendency to deteriorate with age. They were particularly problematic at sites where the quality of building power is poor (regular power cuts for example). This resulted in a very high failure rate after a couple years in the field, usually triggered by a power cut on site. We are now using a smaller switchmode power supply (12VDC, 1.5A) from Jaycar. So far they are proving more reliable but I don't know if we've had them in the field long enough to say they are any more reliable in the long term. By contrast, we've got something like 300 Cisco switches, and I don't recall ever having a power supply fail. Dylan
participants (4)
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Don Stokes -
Dylan Hall -
Ian Batterbee -
Lloyd Parkes