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Odroid XU-4 or?

Rolf Ekstrand
 

Greetings y'all

Thinking about making some additions here to expand my set up here as the condx are improving on the higher bands.  This means additional antennas and of course more Kiwis, and as I am running a Rpi4 here I guess there also have to be some thought about replacing this. Thus I like to put the question out there. Would for example an Odroid XU-4 be a better choice or is there something else out there in regards to reasonable priced SBC's     In regards to this I must also consider the Internet service as we are on a connection  here (Thanks Spectrum ) that consistently fails or slows down to a mere crawl.  Well that's why we use the WD, but with more Kiwis it will put more load on the system and we probably need something else than the Rpi4.

Any thoughts regarding this?

73  Rolf K9DZT



 
 
Edward (W3ENR / K3WRG)
 

I have fun with SBCs but I don't regret recently switching to a more full blown system. 

I was lucky to have an underutilized Intel NUC in the shack. It's not new. I believe it is a 7th generation processor, dual core, not the quad.  Ubuntu was an easy install.  The CPU tests as being about the same, maybe slightly better (~10%), than the eBay used machine that Rob mentioned here a couple months ago, though I think the NUC is still more expensive (though probably less power hungry). 

A major motivator for me was that decoding FST4W with WD will be, per Rob, considerably more CPU intensive.

I literally haven't touched the NUC since the first time I ran WSPRDaemon after the install.  Except to use the display to show PSK Reporter or wspr.rocks maps while WD runs in the background.

God bless the SBCs but I'm not going back.

Edward

W3ENR



On 7/22/21 10:18 AM, Rolf Ekstrand wrote:

Greetings y'all

Thinking about making some additions here to expand my set up here as the condx are improving on the higher bands.  This means additional antennas and of course more Kiwis, and as I am running a Rpi4 here I guess there also have to be some thought about replacing this. Thus I like to put the question out there. Would for example an Odroid XU-4 be a better choice or is there something else out there in regards to reasonable priced SBC's     In regards to this I must also consider the Internet service as we are on a connection  here (Thanks Spectrum ) that consistently fails or slows down to a mere crawl.  Well that's why we use the WD, but with more Kiwis it will put more load on the system and we probably need something else than the Rpi4.

Any thoughts regarding this?

73  Rolf K9DZT



 
 

Rob Robinett
 

Yes, the Pis and Odroids are not good long term platforms for WD.
I have been very happy with the used Lenovo Thinkcentre m93p Tiny with an i5/8GB which cost less than $100.  It consumes 10W at idle which jumps to 36W during the 1-=20 seconds that WD is decoding wav files. But any i5+ with 4+GB RAM is a good long term choice for WD sites.
CPU performance, reliability and low power consumption are available on many x86 platforms, just choose one which is supported by Ubuntu 20.x

On Thu, Jul 22, 2021 at 7:58 AM Edward Hammond <manager@...> wrote:

I have fun with SBCs but I don't regret recently switching to a more full blown system. 

I was lucky to have an underutilized Intel NUC in the shack. It's not new. I believe it is a 7th generation processor, dual core, not the quad.  Ubuntu was an easy install.  The CPU tests as being about the same, maybe slightly better (~10%), than the eBay used machine that Rob mentioned here a couple months ago, though I think the NUC is still more expensive (though probably less power hungry). 

A major motivator for me was that decoding FST4W with WD will be, per Rob, considerably more CPU intensive.

I literally haven't touched the NUC since the first time I ran WSPRDaemon after the install.  Except to use the display to show PSK Reporter or wspr.rocks maps while WD runs in the background.

God bless the SBCs but I'm not going back.

Edward

W3ENR



On 7/22/21 10:18 AM, Rolf Ekstrand wrote:
Greetings y'all

Thinking about making some additions here to expand my set up here as the condx are improving on the higher bands.  This means additional antennas and of course more Kiwis, and as I am running a Rpi4 here I guess there also have to be some thought about replacing this. Thus I like to put the question out there. Would for example an Odroid XU-4 be a better choice or is there something else out there in regards to reasonable priced SBC's     In regards to this I must also consider the Internet service as we are on a connection  here (Thanks Spectrum ) that consistently fails or slows down to a mere crawl.  Well that's why we use the WD, but with more Kiwis it will put more load on the system and we probably need something else than the Rpi4.

Any thoughts regarding this?

73  Rolf K9DZT



 
 



--
Rob Robinett
AI6VN
mobile: +1 650 218 8896
Glenn Elmore
 

The eBay ThinkCentres suggested by Holger are much more capable than RPI4s and pretty small, low power and affordable. I think they can handle 50+ wspr bands even when bands are busy. 
I've been running one totally headless for some time with excellent results.

On Jul 22, 2021 7:18 AM, Rolf Ekstrand <rekstrand@...> wrote:
Greetings y'all

Thinking about making some additions here to expand my set up here as the condx are improving on the higher bands.  This means additional antennas and of course more Kiwis, and as I am running a Rpi4 here I guess there also have to be some thought about replacing this. Thus I like to put the question out there. Would for example an Odroid XU-4 be a better choice or is there something else out there in regards to reasonable priced SBC's     In regards to this I must also consider the Internet service as we are on a connection  here (Thanks Spectrum ) that consistently fails or slows down to a mere crawl.  Well that's why we use the WD, but with more Kiwis it will put more load on the system and we probably need something else than the Rpi4.

Any thoughts regarding this?

73  Rolf K9DZT



 
 

Stu C
 

I was running a couple of virtual machines under VMware Esxi server for WSPR and FT8, the CPU is a i3-6100 and combined some days I'd hit about 60,000 spots.
That Virtual host is also running about four other uses at any one time, including a Virtual Win 10 desktop.

As rob says the instantaneous CPU is what seems to make a big difference, I could tell if FT8 decoding stopped as the host fan stopped the rhythmic cycling under load.

Stu
Jim Lill
 

I use an XU4 for 26 channels of WD, have been for a year+ with success

On 7/22/21 10:18 AM, Rolf Ekstrand wrote:

Greetings y'all

Thinking about making some additions here to expand my set up here as the condx are improving on the higher bands.  This means additional antennas and of course more Kiwis, and as I am running a Rpi4 here I guess there also have to be some thought about replacing this. Thus I like to put the question out there. Would for example an Odroid XU-4 be a better choice or is there something else out there in regards to reasonable priced SBC's     In regards to this I must also consider the Internet service as we are on a connection  here (Thanks Spectrum ) that consistently fails or slows down to a mere crawl.  Well that's why we use the WD, but with more Kiwis it will put more load on the system and we probably need something else than the Rpi4.

Any thoughts regarding this?

73  Rolf K9DZT



 
 

Rolf Ekstrand
 

Thanks all,

Based on what Rob is saying  in regards to the capabilities of the upcoming WD 3.0 I think it's time to move beyond the SBC's like an overclocked Rpi -4/400 or the XU4 as a WD server.   I am looking at the different alternatives as I am going along, but have not yet made up my mind how to proceed with the expansion project.   

73  Rolf  K9DZT
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