$70 Dual LAN Mini PC w/ i3-1115G4, 8GB, internal PSU

[nandEater]

How long are you leaving the battery out? A CMOS clear should reset the password




Everything looks good inside the system - I would suggest pulling cables like serial, audio, fan, and seeing if there's a short there. If that doesn't expose anything, you could pull the SSD and try to boot as well. Next would be memory, just to at least see if you can get it to power on. If these steps don't work, it's likely you unfortunately have a DOA




Sounds like an awesome project!




I can confirm the jumper is for the MiniPCIe/mSATA slot - there wasn't the ability to add a auto-detecting multiplexer to that slot, so a jumper is used to determine PCIe or SATA.




Curiously.. can you tell what signage software it is? I'll be honest, those signage suites have all sorts of watchdogs and other monitoring apps that do everything they can to keep the signage up in case something closes/minimizes it, so you may be better off just blowing away the OS and starting fresh. The system should be licensed for Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021, so you should just be able to reload that and it will be activated.




Clever idea!

I was able to exit out of the signage program. I poked around a bit didn't really see anything interesting.
I'm running pfsense on mine at the moment. I might pick up another one.

 

[nandEater]

I can fit 3 nvme ssd in this thing. 1 2280 size, and two 2242 sized nvme

 

[nandEater]

anyone know how many pcie lanes the nvme m.2 slot has?

edit i asked chatgpt and it gave me some commands to run in my pfsense shell

The M.2 slot supports PCIe 4.0 ×4, ?

 

[Valve1138]

Guys he definitely bought one.

I have not!

yet…

 

[nandEater]

I have not!

yet…

I bought a second one. Oops

 

[leadphalanx]

Getting closer to finishing a 3D-printed mod to replace the bottom plate. Supports a 15x80mm fan and will have a couple of spots to mount extra NICs. Going to print it in off-white for some old-school vibes. Also - these are a perfect fit in 10" mini-racks. Any suggestions before I finish the design?

 

[epicurean]

@leadphalanx Wow! hope you are able to share the stl with us

 

[nandEater]

Getting closer to finishing a 3D-printed mod to replace the bottom plate. Supports a 15x80mm fan and will have a couple of spots to mount extra NICs. Going to print it in off-white for some old-school vibes. Also - these are a perfect fit in 10" mini-racks. Any suggestions before I finish the design?

mounting holes for feet would be nice so there could be airflow on the bottom if placed on a flat surface.

 

[leadphalanx]

Hmm, I wonder what a good diameter hole would best support that - my plan was just using rubber stick-on feet. The grille is set up to allow at least some air-flow when on a flat surface even without feet, but I'm sure attaching feet would increase it.

 

[nmpu]

Hmm, I wonder what a good diameter hole would best support that - my plan was just using rubber stick-on feet. The grille is set up to allow at least some air-flow when on a flat surface even without feet, but I'm sure attaching feet would increase it.

Maybe just a detent for screw and self-stick foot. People can drill their own hole. The Dell Edge 6x0 boxes have a 19mm diameter foot with a 3mm machine screw. I would just see what's cheap on AliExpress and design for that.

 

[leadphalanx]

Lot more work than I thought it'd be starting out for sure, but this is the first time I've really done this sort of design work (just modelling for game dev previously) - but it's getting close. Ethernet mounting points are on both sides of the box just to have those options. Perhaps I should just fill the openings with break-away panels?

 

[epicurean]

Lot more work than I thought it'd be starting out for sure, but this is the first time I've really done this sort of design work (just modelling for game dev previously) - but it's getting close. Ethernet mounting points are on both sides of the box just to have those options. Perhaps I should just fill the openings with break-away panels?

It looks awesome but I think it wont be an easy print. Yes, I do agree filling the openings with breakaway panels help

 

[leadphalanx]

Finished my first test print using SUNLU 'bone white' PETG . A lot went well, but I managed to put the posts that connect it to the chassis in the entirely wrong spot (measure twice!). As I suspected the overhangs/detents will need some kind of support to help printing. Corners of the first couple layers lifted off the bed, so I'll have to add 'mouse ears' to correct that apparently. Also my breakaway ethernet holes weren't very 'breakaway' so I'll have to adjust that as well.

(I'm also very new to 3d printing)

 

[epicurean]

Awesome! Where did you find the power connector for your 8015 fan?

 

[nexox]

A lot went well, but I managed to put the posts that connect it to the chassis in the entirely wrong spot (measure twice!). As I suspected the overhangs/detents will need some kind of support to help printing. Corners of the first couple layers lifted off the bed, so I'll have to add 'mouse ears' to correct that apparently.

The raised sections just need a small amount of supports around the internal perimeters of the screw holes, not that supporting all of those sections would take long, but it's easier to clean off smaller supports. If you radius the outside corners in the XY plane that tends to keep PETG stuck down better than sharp corners.

Looks pretty good for an early prototype.

 

[leadphalanx]

Awesome! Where did you find the power connector for your 8015 fan?

This may take a little more tinkering to find the best solution - I can use the pins the original blower fan was using, but the Positive/ground pins are swapped. Not sure if it puts out enough power to spin at full speed, or if the other 2 pins do anything.

Edit: more info just in case someone is wondering - The plastic bit the original fan cable clips into can be removed. I swapped pins 1 and 2 on my 15mm fan (you can release the inner connectors by pressing in the clips on the side of the housing). Make sure the clip/ridges on your fan connector are facing towards the interior of the box.




And print attempt 2 is much nicer, but I have some more dialing in to do with this PETG - getting bulging corners. The height for the chassis mounting holes is off by 0.5mm, and I can also bring the posts in towards the interior juuuuuust a bit. The supports helped a good bit, not perfect but definitely better.


you can see why I elongated the screw holes for mounting the NIC - the mounts on the NIC are not even.

 

[Markess]

Got mine today. $55 BO accepted almost immediately. Manufacture date was 11/30/21. Pretty of grubby, with lots of caked on dust both inside and outside in the ports & ventilation holes. I suppose not totally unexpected in a signage appliance, but this one will require a bit of clean-up before I use it (for pfSense). Fired right into Windows IOT though & no BIOS Password.

 

[Markess]

@Wellington Thanks for all the wisdom you've shared!

Something that stuck out to me from reading through this.. it seems the fan is a bit problematic for home use, and truthfully, that was put there so we could hit a higher ambient temperature metric for certain customers installing these in tricky environments. If your workloads exist in an air conditioned environment, and you're not punishing your SSD on a regular basis, you can remove that fan entirely. It was simply meant to keep the SSD and memory cooler in installations over ~35C ambient

Maybe a dumb question, but when you're talking about removing the fan, is it just the one over the RAM, or the one on the CPU Heatsink as well? I'll be using mine as a home Firewall/Router (pfSense), so it won't get much of a workout and ambient temps will always be under ~24C. My inclination is to assume the heatsink needs some airflow, but I'm often accused of overengineering everything, so thought I'd ask.

Cheers!

 

[nandEater]

I got my second one. It was pretty dusty and a bit sticky. I got it all cleaned up but the psu has a annoying coil whine unlike my first unit.

 

[nandEater]

I'm going to replace the psu with an external one. It's too noisy for me.