GMKtec NucBox G3 Review

I caught a great deal on Amazon for the Intel N100 based GMKtec NucBox G3. The barebones kit is probably the best way to go at $119. Guys like me always have sticks of RAM laying around and even NVME SSD’s.

GMKtec NucBox G3 Intel N100

The Intel N100 is a 4 core processor with a Turbo Boost up to 3.40 GHz. This little box rocks.

The Intel N100 is a low wattage draw (6 watts) chipset that tops most Celeron and Atom chips at a modest cost. It is roughly comparable to an Intel N95 chipset.

With the NucBox G3 there are a ton of connectivity options as well. Best of all is a 2.5 GHz Ethernet Connector. Toss in some USB connectors and a couple of 4K, 60 Hz HDMI connectors and a 3.5mm microphone / speaker jack and you have a winner.

This is a perfect desktop machine for the kids or for the guest room. It would be right at home in the camper as well. It also is an economical platform for supporting that one piece of hardware that is far away from the wired network such as a CNC machine.

I slapped mine in the guest room and am in the process of bookmarking streaming services such as Sling, Netflix, Hulu, and my Plex Media Server. That essentially is the extent of how we use a Firestick or Roku. I can’t count the number of times that the Sling app has been non-responsive on Roku, FireTV, and LGTV. Web steaming always seems to work. This may be the answer.
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Casio F-91W Sensor Watch

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Casio F-91W Sensor Watch

I’m not trying to be too fancy. But I fancy myself a horologist.

horologist

noun

ho·rol·o·gist hə-ˈrä-lə-jist

: a person skilled in the practice or theory of horology

: a maker of clocks or watches

Translation: I like watches! And I enjoy the study of time. Atomic clocks, GPS pulses per second (PPS), Biblical time, etc. The history of time keeping is fascinating as is the history of the wrist watch. Did you know that men kept pocket watches and when the wrist watch was invented it was pretty much shunned as being not very manly?

That is until people started getting shot at in wars. It became much more practical to have both hands free and knowing what time it was at a glance.

So a fancy horologist such as myself probably likes very expensive and complicated watches, you’d think. Not so fast. This blog is about a $20 wrist watch which has been in production since 1989. The Casio F-91W.

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Ecobee vs Nest

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Ecobee vs Nest

3rd Generation Nest. Ecobee vs Nest

Since I moved back to the US in 2015 or so one of the first things I did was to purchase a Nest Learning Thermostat. At that time they were called Nest Labs. Now they are Google Nest. In this blog we’ll examine Ecobee vs Nest thermostats.

Recently I had a new package unit installed at our home. Previously we had a gas furnace and A/C package unit, however, this time we went with a heat pump. My HVAC installer told me he didn’t like using Nest with 2 or more stage heating or cooling units. While my 3rd generation Nest still seemed to work it only took me a day to realize the indoor temperature was reading too high. Also, it seemed to think it was about 30 degrees cooler outside. A trip to the Googler revealed I wasn’t the only one.

I still have a Nest upstairs and it continues to work fine.

One of its best features is that their API incorporates into my Home Automation console. Ditto for Ecobee, which is on the left. Nest on the right.

Home Assistant Dashboard

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Auto-Vox Solar4B Wireless Backup Camera

Auto-Vox Wireless Backup Camera Solar4B

I was recently contacted by a Auto-Vox and was provided their Solar4B Wireless Backup Camera ($169) for review. At the time of the review there was a $50 off coupon available at the Amazon link above.

Auto-Vox did not apply any conditions to the review nor did they pay for the review. Conversely, what you will read here is what I actually think of the camera.

First of all, they couldn’t have selected a better person to review this. I have a 17′ Rockwood A122 pop up camper and have always wanted some form of backup camera mounted on the rear of it.

You’d think every single camper in the world would have wiring and connectors preinstalled. But you would be wrong for thinking that. An Auto-vox backup camera is perfect for my situation.
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ARS Rescue Rooter HVAC Review POFS Award Winner

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ARS Rescue Rooter HVAC Review POFS Award Winner

ARS RESCUE ROOTER EARNS TOP PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT AWARD.

I usually reserve my coveted “Piece Of Fucking Shit” Award for tech components. Today however, we are breaking new ground and awarding it to an HVAC service. ARS Rescue Rooter.

When your furnace or air conditioning goes out, the customer expectation is to show up within 5 minutes of calling and fix it within 10 minutes. ARS response time is actually very good, But let me spin my yarn.

It is 2 or 3 days before Christmas. I’m at the sink and the vent that usually blows hot air starts blowing ice cold air on my feet. I go outside where the furnace is and it “STINKS”. There is clearly something wrong with the combustion on the furnace.

I go flip the breaker and restart. It blows hot air for about an hour and then turns cold again. When I go outside again, it stinks even worse.

I call ARS and they actually show up in less than an hour. The Tech was kind and went right to work. When he opened the furnace panel it was obvious the burners were not blowing tight, blue jets of flame. It was mostly orange and it wasn’t a compressed jet. It was clearly dangerous.

Tech tells me I need new burners and it will cost $570 to install them.

While he is talking I notice a red light blinking on the Ignition Control Board. I ask him about it. He has no manual, says that doesn’t know what the code means but says that we’ll change the burners and go from there.

The blink code 7 times was a Flame Rollout Switch trip. That means the burner flames are rolling back inside. The switch is a thermal switch that chops the flow of gas to prevent a build up of heat, flame, CO², and prevent a fire.

Hey, he’s the HVAC pro.
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Capturing NOAA Satellite Imagery With RTL-SDR

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Capturing NOAA Satellite Imagery With RTL-SDR

NOAA Satellite Imagery

In this entry I’ll show you how to grab NOAA Satellite Imagery. There are still 3 operational satellites. NOAA 15, 18, and 19. NOAA 15 started acting up last October but is still functional. The pic just to the left is from NOAA 15.

Did you know that ANYONE with the right hardware can download telemetry from these satellites?

Not only that, it can be done pretty cheaply. All it takes is a computer, an antenna, a USB RTL-SDR device, and some free computer software.

It isn’t that difficult either but does take some time to get it working correctly.

And for the purposes of the blog, I am doing this on a Linux (Ubuntu) laptop. But you can do it on Windows as well.
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Building A Linux Computer For Offline Use

HP 15.6″ FHD 15-ef2030tg for a Linux Computer

I talk a lot about having a computer set up for off grid situations. But let’s build our own Linux computer that we can use both online and especially offline. I’ll try to teach you some valuable tips along the way.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the picture next to this shows Windows. That’s a stock photo of the laptop I’m using for this project. The HP 15.6″ FHD 15-ef2030tg.

I picked this up for a song and it was so cheap, I believe, because this is a model from 2021 that is probably the last of its stock. It has decent specs though and this thing is IDEAL for a Linux computer.
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20 Years With Linux

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20 Years With Linux

The other day I plugged in a USB GPS device that has an old Sirf Star IV chipset in it. The serial port speed on Linux is typically 9600 baud and this GPS module had a communication speed of 4800 baud. To get them playing nicely with each other I starting to type in the command “setserial” and then it all came flooding back to me.

Sometime around 2003 or 2004 I was in Okinawa. I think Windows XP was the thing but I probably still had a Windows ME box. Windows 98 SE and Windows ME were AWFUL. Windows XP was much improved but a lot of hardware support didn’t cross over in the earlier days. So I had to keep both platforms running for a while. Anyway, it was during this stint in Okinawa that I decided I was going to start using this thing called Linux that I was reading about in all the computer magazines. By golly if you used Linux you were something known as a POWER USER. I wanted to be a POWER USER too.

The most practical way to get Linux in those days and in those conditions (living on a Japanese island with slow internet) was to go to the Exchange and buy a boxed set of Red Hat Linux. I can’t remember if it was Version 3 or 4. It came in a big box with a gigantic book that seemed to be written for much smarter people than myself.

Surprisingly, installation wasn’t that difficult, except after I completed it, my modem wouldn’t work. I had absolutely no idea what to do. So I grabbed that big book and used a Windows computer that did connect to the internet to start looking for answers. This was no easy task and it took me a day or two to figure out there was a serial port conflict. Then it took me a day or two to figure out what to do about it. The solution was a “setserial” command.

When I heard that modem squawk and connect for the 1st time after dozens of command line attempts, I WAS HOOKED. I was the King Of Linux. Since that time I have always had a Linux laptop. And I am currently working through the 5th generation of Raspberry Pi’s.
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VK-172 GPS Review

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HiLetgo VK-172 USB GPS Review

VK-172 GPS

U-blox 7020 in VK-172 GPS

I’m on a GPS kick lately and picked up a HiLetgo VK-172 GPS dongle ($12) from Amazon.

It claims to have a U-blox 7020 chipset inside but if I know anything it’s that most GPS modules you buy online that claim to be U-blox are usually counterfeit.

We might be in good shape here because the 7020 chipset is an older generation product according to U-blox.

The 7020 chipset is a GPS/GLONASS (Russian positioning system) and is small and low powered. It is my understanding that it will not do GPS and GLONASS simultaneously. You have to select one or the other in U-blox software. United States GPS is a bit more accurate than GLONASS and it seems to be default set to GPS. We’ll keep that setting for initial testing and toggle it to GLONASS later (if we can).

You can find these VK-172 GPS dongles all over the place but I think a large number of them have counterfeit chipsets.

Let’s test it with U-blox U-center software to see if it indeed an authentic chipset.
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Mygica A681B TV Tuner Review

Earns John’s Tech Blog’s Coveted Piece Of Fucking Shit Award

Mygica A681B

Not a lot of hardware has the distinction of earning my coveted “Piece Of Fucking Shit Award”. But here we are.

I wrote a blog on using a computer offline and recommended a TV tuner from Hauppauge which probably costs around $75. As a swell public service, while scouring the net doing research on TV tuners, I found a Mygica A681B on Amazon for around half the price. And it claimed to work on Linux.

So I bought one.

What a mistake that was. Even though this thing does actually work it is still a POS.
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