Author Archives: John Hagensieker

MiniRack Build Out And Review

Seems like in the last year or two home networking folks have started building up MiniRack Home Lab servers. A typical network server rack is 19″ and the minirack form factor is 10″.

My build is inspired by Jeff Geerling. Jeff is a Tech Guy who specializes in all things Raspberry Pi. Anyone who owns a Pi probably knows about him. Essentially, my build will consist of 3 Raspberry Pi computers and a JetKVM.

Raspberry Pi 4 with POE+. – An MMDVM board is used as a gateway for DMR Ham Radio.
Raspberry Pi 5 with GeekPi POE+ and 256GB NVME Hat. Additionally, a HiFiBerry DAC8x Digital to Analog converter for streaming audio. Lyrion Music server and Squeezelite and deployed.
Raspberry Pi 5 with the same Geekpi POE+ and this NVME houses a 4TB NVME drive with Samba. Also, it has a mini RTL-SDR for running OP25 which is a P25 Phase 1 and Phase 2 decoder. I use it to track two trunking communications systems. (Police Scanner)
JetKVM – used to control the Pi with the 4TB drive. Lastly, KVM stands for Keyboard, Video, and Mouse and is similar to IPMI accessibility.

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Dovoh Laser Level H3-360G Review

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Dovoh Laser Level H3-360G Review

Dovoh H3-360G

Like any ordinary guy I love me some tools. And the higher tech they are, the better. Laser Level manufacturer Dovoh provided John’s Tech Blog their high accuracy H3-360G Laser Level with their DR1 Receiver. Although the sample was provided for free the opinions you see written here are mine.

From a professional standpoint I could have used one of these in my working years. I aligned and certified Aircraft Visual Landing Aids at Navy and Marine Corps Air Stations. Surveying was a big part of aligning glide slopes. One set of aids consists of 4 boxes. The center of each lens should be within 1 inch of each box on average.

I could have set this up and verified that check in seconds. As it stood it took some time to survey all the boxes, record elevations, do some math, etc.
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Auto-Vox Back Up Camera Review

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Auto-Vox Back Up Camera Review

Auto-Vox Back Up Camera

The nice folks at Auto-Vox have provided me their Wireless Solar Back Up Camera ($116.98) to review.

This is a perfect product for me to shake down since I don’t have a backup camera on my small camper. I have tried other backup cams, however, this camera has a solid mounting mechanism which attaches behind your license plate.

Other manufacturers sometimes use magnetic mounts. I’m always afraid one big bump will either misalign the camera or have it fall off completely. No worries here with a positively mounted bracket. That being said the camera barely fits on my camper license plate mount because it is attached to a turn signal/brake light.
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Benfei Adapters And Docking Station

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Benfei Adapters And Docking Station

I’m a MacBookAir fanatic. Anyone with a MacBookAir can tell you that due to its slim design there are a few standard ports missing. There is no ethernet port, no SD card slot, and only a couple of USB-C ports. Adapters are a must. The nice folks at Benfei sent me a few adapters and a docking station to test and review. The adapters are as follows:

USB C to ethernet ($9.99)
USB-C 3-IN-1 Hub ($9.99)
2.5 inch Hard Drive Enclosure ($9.99)
Laptop Stand with Docking Station ($39.99)

Benfei Adapters

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LaserPecker 5 Review

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LaserPecker 5

With a name like LaserPecker, you know it has to be great. And with a 5th generation LaserPecker 5, ($2899) it really has to be great. The LP5 is a combination 20 watt 450 nanometer (nm) blue diode laser and a 20 watt 1064 nm IR fiber laser. This allows for engraving on a large variety of materials to include wood, paper, leather, metals and plastics and a whole lot of other items.

It currently only has one other straight up competitor with the inclusion of the 20 watt fiber laser. I was super excited to test this as my other combo lasers are 10 watt diode and 2 watt 1064nm IR lasers. I do have a dedicated 30 watt fiber laser and I’m very curious to see how it compares to that.

Additionally, I have tested the LP4 and it kind of fell into the “Fantastic Hardware, Not So Fantastic Software” category as far as I was concerned. So I’ll be focusing a bit more on LaserPecker Design Space software. And I’ll be looking at Lightburn integration for the LaserPecker 5.
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Sainlogic Weather Station SA1 Review

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Sainlogic Weather Station SA1 Review

Sainlogic Weather Station SA1

Over the years I have dabbled with weather stations. However, I haven’t touched one for ages. The older I get though, the more I realize that weather is something I stay on top of more and more. I’m old but I still ride a bicycle and daily I check the temperature and wind to see if I can ride. I was pretty happy when Sainlogic approached me to test and review their new SA1 Home Weather Station ($69.99).

After I unboxed the SA1 and did a quick setup I came to realize that I personally would level up to one of their higher end stations if I were spending my own money. Allow me to explain why.

The following comment is not meant to be negative in any fashion. And it pertains only to me and others like me. I mentioned WIND earlier. Every morning I ask my Alexa what the temperature is and then what the wind is. Also, I won’t go out if the wind is 10 mph or faster unless it is blowing West or South West. I want to be able to look at that screen and see the wind speed and direction.

I imagine that 98% of people are content to look outside and say “It sure is windy, eh?”. So I know I am the exception here. All I am saying here is that wind speed is a super important statistic to me. And what I’m really saying is that I WOULD BUY A MORE EXPENSIVE WEATHER STATION FROM SAINLOGIC to satisfy MY requirements. In absolutely no way am I dismissing the SA1. But the fact is, the SA1 does not display wind speed on its screen. It can however we obtained from the app “Weatherseed” at any time. Weatherseed is required to set up the SA1.

All this being said I’ll start my shakedown of the Sainlogic Weather Station SA1 and I think it is pretty darn cool.
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GMKtek Intel N150 Mini PC Setup And Review

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GMKtek Intel N150 Mini PC Setup And Review

GMKtek Intel N150

A while back I bought a GMKtek G3 which I reviewed here. I put it in the guest room on the TV and it serves up as a Logitechmedia client to a nearby stereo. Also, I use it as a Police Scanner with an RTL-SDR device. Lastly, it can be used to stream anything in a browser such as Sling, Netflix, Hulu, etc. Something happened recently which led me to purchase a new GMKtek Intel N150, G2 Plus Nucbox.

A reader CC’d me on an email to GMKtek. This person was quite unhappy with their Nucbox. Now I don’t mind when someone emails me and tells me their harrowing tales but I do mind when adding me to an email implies that I’ll write a bad review about that product for them. I do so love writing negative reviews but I don’t have anything negative to say about GMKtek. I contacted GMKtek and told them I had nothing to do with the email and that I didn’t know the person. The good news is that they told me they’d investigate and try to help the author. Right after that I have no idea what happened. GMKtek treated me awesome though.

So while looking at the latest offerings I was kind of shocked to see an Intel N150 with 12 GB of onboard DDR5 RAM, and a 512 GB M.2 2242 SSD with Windows 11 pre-installed. The price was amazing as well at just less than $150. By comparison my first PC, a 486SX cost nearly $3000.
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Dummies Guide For Cariboulite SDR

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Dummies Guide For Cariboulite SDR

Cariboulite SDR

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Worst actually. I own a LOT of Software Defined Radios. And for some odd reason if I see something new and cool with SDR I like to shake it down and give it a try. Even though the Cariboulite SDR Hat device for Raspberry Pi has been around a few years I decided to give it a try.

I am just going to say this up front. This is a story of great hardware and abysmal software. Your money seemingly just buys stress and grief. Oh, it does work. But the software is pretty awful and very difficult to configure. It should not be this way for a $150 device.
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Abbree AR-318 Mini Mobile Radio Review

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Abbree AR-318 Mini Mobile Radio Review

Abbree AR-318

If there is one thing I hate about my own blog is that I seldom have time to review things I purchase with my own money. I almost always have 2 or 3 items either on the table or inbound at any given time. The tech that I buy with my own cash gets pushed way down the list. One such item is the Abbree AR-318 Mini Mobile Radio ($77).

I could spend a week researching the origins of this radio who makes it, and who rebrands it. It seems to be identical to the Baojie BJ-318. Searching for information is not as easy as it should be though. So far I haven’t uncovered a ton of usable information other than a product manual.
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GRECELL T200 240 Watt Portable Power Station Review

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GRECELL T200 240 Watt Portable Power Station Review

GRECELL T200 240 Watt Portable Power Station

Every home should have a portable power station for emergencies or for just the convenience of keeping small electronic devices charged. Phones, tablets, laptops, radios are among the many things that can be charged. I was recently contacted by GRECELL and asked to review their GRECELL T200 240 Watt Portable Power Station. Current pricing is $129 on Amazon with a $40 off coupon. Unsure how long the coupon will be available. That means that now is the time to get one.

As luck would have it we experienced a winter storm a day or two after I received the T200. I had begun some endurance testing and then decided to top off the device for the storm.

I put it in our bedroom and sure enough the power went out. As much as anything the light came in super handy. It provided great light sufficient to find my phone. From there I was able to check on loved ones. Also I was able to walk around the home and inspect items outside such as fallen tree limbs.

The light was a great tool for inspecting around our property.
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