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Post by jhornbr225 on Feb 14, 2018 16:21:52 GMT -5
OK, I ran a Crystal Disk Mark 6.0 on the two drives. First Image - Built in 64GB EMMC. Second Image Samsung SSD on USB3. Third Image - My Desktop's SSD. Is it worth spending the time and effort to image the drive and using the SSD as the boot/system drive? Attachments:
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Post by SNOtwistR on Feb 14, 2018 17:21:08 GMT -5
It certainly looks like that would be much faster going to ssd. SNO
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Post by jhornbr225 on Feb 14, 2018 19:01:06 GMT -5
I was hoping it would be. I just didn't have anything to compare it to, or a basis for those numbers. I can tell the numbers are better, but I'm not sure exactly what to expect or look for. Do you have any suggestions on imaging the drive, software wise? I don't want to mess up my supposedly valid WIN10 license.
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Post by SNOtwistR on Feb 14, 2018 21:33:59 GMT -5
maybe a cloud based if there is such a thing SNO
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Post by jhornbr225 on Feb 14, 2018 22:13:25 GMT -5
I'll be using a Samsung EVO 850 Drive. Samsung had a migration tool for download. The clone was successful, but I may do it again, because as soon as it was finished and I went to shut down, there were Windows updates to install. Not a big deal, it didn't take that long to create the image.
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Post by jhornbr225 on Feb 19, 2018 0:15:33 GMT -5
I decided to have some PCB's fabricated. I used EasyEDA to create Gerber files, and then I think I'll send them to JLCPCB, as they will fabricate 10 boards up to 10cm x 10cm for $2. I cheated and put 3 designs on one board, and I'll cut them with the Dremel when they get here. The first pic is the front of the boards. The left side is 2 copies of the Inductor/Cap filter board for Mickz's SMPS power supply design. Putting 2 of them on the overall big board evened things out. Not that I really need 20 of those. I could not put all three boards in a line and have it be less than 10cm. Leaving one corner of the board blank also seems silly. The right side on the top is the SMPS board itself. Those two boards got mounting holes for mounting in the aluminium case. The lower right corner is my Arduino Pro Micro controller board/PT2257 Electronic Volume control board. I was even able to add a few extra pads and traces to be able to have spare inputs and outputs, utilizing all the I/O on the chip. I gave myself 1 spare output with a FET switching to ground. I've got two spare 5V Digital inputs, and 4 spare analog inputs. I didn't include mounting holes as that board is already getting bigger than I wanted. I'll probably heat shrink it, or double side tape it to something. The second pic is the backside of the board. I'll have to wait a few days to submit the order, until the 22nd, as it's Chinese new year.
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Post by jhornbr225 on Feb 19, 2018 0:23:24 GMT -5
I've been playing with the BeeLink, trying to get update 1709 to install. The Fall Creators Update. It's been failing since Dec 9th. After cleaning up the downloaded files, and using the "Media Creation Tool" as Microsoft calls it, I got it to fail, but at least this time I got some sort of code on it. I forget the exact code, but it seemed to have something to do with drivers or lack of free disk space. I've decided to create a recovery USB stick, and a repair DVD, then I'll do some cleanup, and re-image the drive to the SSD. The site also said to have 20GB free space to install the Fall Creators Update, which I don't have, even with the 64GB drive on the Beelink. So, I'm hoping that once it get it imaged and running on the 256GB SSD, maybe I'll give it another shot.
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Post by jhornbr225 on Feb 22, 2018 12:34:45 GMT -5
Oh my gosh, that Beelink!
In an attempt to get better boot times, I used Samsung's Imaging software to Image the drive on the Beelink, and put it on a EVO 850 Drive. That didn't work. I had expected to maybe to have to a repair after trying to boot, so I made a Windows Recovery Disk, and a USB stick with system files on it. After failing to boot on the Samsung after changing the boot order, I attempted a repair, which failed. Then for some reason, even the built in 64GB drive would not boot any more. It would not repair either. After much reading, DISKPARTing, trying all sorts of rebuilds on the bootingstuff, etc, I thought I had bricked the Beelink. The only option appeared to be to re-install WIN10. So I re-installed and got it to boot. Then I figured, if I can re-install and get the built in drive to boot, why not re-install on the SSD, and use that? Well, by default, you can't install Windows on a USB drive, using WIN10 Home. But I found a utility WIN to USB, that made an image on a USB drive that simulates Windows To Go for WIN10 Home. Now it boots, but it's not any faster. To get Fast Startup to work on WIN10, you need to be able to Hibernate. I found that Hibernate is disabled on Windows To Go by default, because you are expected to be plugging in your USB device into different computers all the time, and resuming from Hibernate on a different PC than you last worked on last would be bad. I found that you could re-enable it with a Group Policy, if you were never going to unplug the USB drive from the one computer that you were using. Well, Group Policy Editor is not installed in WIN10 Home. I tried all sorts of Hacks to install it, but to no avail. I ended up just editing the registry to add the fields required to Hibernate a Portable Operating System. It took a while, but Hibernate finally showed up, and I enabled Fast Startup. The problem then was that, when I did a shutdown, the Hard Drive light never went out, and the PC's power LED never turned off, even after waiting several minutes. With the original drive, I believe the Power LED went out after 15-20 seconds, after shutdown. Since the light never turned off, I had to hold the power button for 10 seconds to force shutdown. Of course then it warned me on the next boot not to unplug the USB before shutdown was complete. If I shut off Fast Startup, the LED went out right away.
So, even though the drive is much faster, it still takes 1:45 until I hear music. I believe it's due to all the extra steps needed for the OS to boot from USB, and maybe from a little latency of the USB connection, and maybe it's just a slow computer.
I did manage to find the drivers for the BT3 Pro, as after I re-installed WIN10, I had about 8 Unknown Devices in Device manager, and no Sound and no WiFi. After installing the drivers, everybody looks happy.
So it looks like my experiment to get an SSD in the Beelink is a failure. I'l be going back to the original built in drive. I need to install the drivers there, copy over my Driveline stuff, re-install drivers for the GPS, and activate WIN10. Hopefully all that will work OK.
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Post by jhornbr225 on Feb 22, 2018 13:11:30 GMT -5
OK, I got the drivers installed, but now Windows won't activate. Bummer!
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Post by jhornbr225 on Feb 22, 2018 14:42:56 GMT -5
OK, a 45 minute call to Microsoft, and I am re-activated!
I think I am back in business. It ends up I thought that I had installed the wrong version of WIN10. On Microsoft's site, they showed that the BT3 Pro was activated, but it showed that it was WIN10 Core. The tech told me that Core and Home are the same.
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Post by jhornbr225 on Mar 3, 2018 22:34:02 GMT -5
My circuit boards arrived this week as well. Front and Back shown here. The darker spots at the bottom of the board are a reflection of the camera taking the picture. Not bad, it took about a week, including shipping. Cost was $2 +$18 shipping. So, $20 for 10 boards, and there are 4 circuits per board. So 50 cents per circuit. Pretty cool. I was so excited in getting these designed and getting them fabricated, that I completely forgot about a little board I'll need for the PC in the Accord. I need the PT2257 Electronic Volume control on a board all by itself, with the analog input and output caps, decoupling cap, both a 9V regulator and a 5V regulator on the board, along with their filter caps. I should of left off one of the SMPS filter boards and added that board. Doh! Hindsight is 20/20.
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Post by jhornbr225 on Mar 9, 2018 12:56:38 GMT -5
After some correspondence with Mini-box about the M2-ATX, I find that there is no separate enclosure for it. They have confirmed that the board is the same size as the DCDC-USB-200. The enclosure for that is $4.50. I ordered one, and with shipping it was $7.30. I'll have to drill a couple holes as the M2-ATX only mounts with 2 screws instead of 4, and there will have to be a hole cut for the 20 Pin connector to get out. But those mods do not appear to be too bad. That should be perfect for the Accord.
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Post by jhornbr225 on Mar 15, 2018 19:51:45 GMT -5
I modified the case for the DCDC -USB-200 today. I had to punch out the 4 corner standoffs, and drill two new holes to install two if the standoffs in different locations to support the M2-ATX. It took a little doing. I'm sure when they are manufactured, they have the holes punched already to the proper size, and a press to install the standoffs. But overall not too bad for a manual operation. If you don't want to go through the trouble of using the standoffs that you took out, you could just use new ones, as long as they are the right height. The board is a tight fit in there, height wise. So the board has to be the right height off the floor, or the top of the case won't go on. I then trimmed the top cover so that the 20 pin connector could go through it. I also trimmed so that I could use the 4 pin right next to it. Overall, not bad, I think. It's protected and has ventilation. I did not install one of the small screws that holds the cover on. If it poked through the insulator for the 12V lead, it would short out to ground. That 12V red wire in the upper right of the last pic is right where the screw ends up being. There are supposed to be a total of 6 screws holding the cover on. I think 5 will be OK. I also soldered up a couple heavy 4 AWG lugs for the two amplifier's power and ground cables. Last week I figured I had not powered up the Panda for a while, so I powered it up and found that it also was struggling to update to the Fall Creators Update. I did the Media Creation Tool method of updating, and it worked the first try. It was much easier than the Beelink. The only problem, and it was not even a surprise, was the fact that WiFi quit working after the update, exactly like it did last time. So I re-installed the same driver I did last time, and it works again.
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Post by jhornbr225 on Mar 23, 2018 19:15:32 GMT -5
I've created another set of PCB's for the Accord Car PC. The one for the Tacoma had the Volume control chip on the same board as the Arduino. In the Accord, the Arduino will be up front, I'll send audio to the back via optical cable. I also have some multi-conductor cable that will send the I2C for the volume control and some control signals for the amplifiers and the crossover, which will all be in the back. The front Arduino board has a relay on it that is controlled by the Arduino that keeps power to the Arduino until the PC is shut down. On the back control board there are 2 relays, one switches on to give power to the remote control for the crossover, and another that will turn on the amplifiers. During boot, I will turn on the crossover first, then after I am sure everything is booted, I'll turn on the amps. Damn, I just figured out that if I hook the rear board to the battery connection coming from the distribution block, the 9V and 5V regulators will be on all the time. That will also make the optical to RCA converter be on all the time. I have extra conductors in my multi-conductor cable, I'll have to use one to turn on an external relay to supply power to the rear control board. I ordered a 10 pack of 5V relays, and a 10 pack of 12V relays, they should be here early next week. Left picture is the front side. Right picture is somehow a mirror image of the backside. I hope it gets manufactured OK. On the website, when you create the gerbers, they advertise their associated sites, JLCPCB, and LCSC. The PCB's (10 boards again), were $2 again, and the shipping was $18.47 again. I decided to check out their parts website, as they were offering a $6 coupon. I put a cart together of some basic components that you always need. Resistors, some caps, diodes, a couple breadboards, etc. About $16 worth, then I got $6 off. I then checked shipping, and it was high enough to make me question if I really wanted the stuff. But then I saw there was a link for free shipping when shipped along with a PCB order! Score! So I'm getting my boards and a bunch of components for like $30. And they will come DHL, like 4 days, probably the middle of next week.
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Post by flylear45 on Mar 25, 2018 11:15:04 GMT -5
Good deal!
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