New device to run CMX (and more)
Posted: Sat 20 Jan 2024 1:19 pm
I found a nice device (Inovato Quadra) as an alternative to the Raspberry Pi to run CMX on and this post is supposed to be a kind of review of it.
The device is the Inovato Quadra, originally I guess made for radio enthousiasts (in CMX terms: the wxnow file users) but powerful enough to run additional software like CMX and its utilities. Because CMX uses a lot of space with longer series you may consider using a an additional SSD (I use a 128 Gb SSD). Almost obligatory is the additional Wifi dongle, any will do, but they have a Wifi 5 dongle in their program so order it with the bundle.
Installed is Debian 11 (bullseye) and a lot of software (too much to list here but be assured, it is enough). It also is prepared for VNC which makes it easy to handle. The keyboard as is available beside the bundle, is not required.
I will shortly describe how I set it up. A photo of the whole thing concludes the review.
The price is currently $49 for the bundle without keyboard. If you don't have a wifi dongle lying around add $11,- to that.
They ship to US, EU, and CA, UK, AU, NZ. In EU (but most likely elsewhere too) you are for customs 21% + handling. Having payed that I find it still better and cheaper than the RPi for which I have to buy additional housing, cooling etc... The standard eMMC storage I think is also an advantage to the RPi which still has the SD card standard.
My first and second impressions are good.
I am curious to other experiences with the Inovato and CMX combination.
NOTE: The photo is somewhat large so the dimensions of the machine may be overestimated but it measures 12x12x7 cm (Height x Width x Depth)
NOTE2: I think you can run Home Automation / Domoticz in parallel to CMX as well
The device is the Inovato Quadra, originally I guess made for radio enthousiasts (in CMX terms: the wxnow file users) but powerful enough to run additional software like CMX and its utilities. Because CMX uses a lot of space with longer series you may consider using a an additional SSD (I use a 128 Gb SSD). Almost obligatory is the additional Wifi dongle, any will do, but they have a Wifi 5 dongle in their program so order it with the bundle.
Installed is Debian 11 (bullseye) and a lot of software (too much to list here but be assured, it is enough). It also is prepared for VNC which makes it easy to handle. The keyboard as is available beside the bundle, is not required.
I will shortly describe how I set it up. A photo of the whole thing concludes the review.
- Unpack, construct the standard and set up according to the instructions
- For CMX use, ignore the advised setup, but please go for the headless setup as I describe below.
For the headless setup do the following:- Connect to your router via wired ethernet, check the IP it is getting and make your VNC connection
- Choose Applications=>Settings=>Armbian Config
- Choose Network and setup the Wifi
- Choose System and set CPU speed lowest to highest and Governor ondemand
- Choose Personal and set Timezone, locale and Hostname
- Unplug the ethernet cable and Reboot
- If all is well you can now login via any terminal app like e.g. mobaXterm or the command screen of the VNC. NOTE: if you do not use the USB Wifi dongle but the internal Wifi you won't be able to have a fixed IP-address and handling the machine via a VNC or whatever will be more a nuisance.
- At this point your are ready for CMX but take your time to play around, especially with the backup and factory restore as Inovato describes on their site. For here I will continue with the CMX install.
- Because I chose to use an SSD from where I would run CMX I had to prepare that first. Simply connect your SSD to the free USB and run mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sda (or something alike). Think about where you want to mount the SSD and make the fstab entry. You may reboot to test the fstab entry or mount manually)
- When done, install mono the regular way (e.g. according to this procedure)
- When done copy the CMX installation to it's place and set it up with the wizard. Restart en continue via the local website as usual.
- Install CMX as a daemon (almost obligatory with this machine)
The price is currently $49 for the bundle without keyboard. If you don't have a wifi dongle lying around add $11,- to that.
They ship to US, EU, and CA, UK, AU, NZ. In EU (but most likely elsewhere too) you are for customs 21% + handling. Having payed that I find it still better and cheaper than the RPi for which I have to buy additional housing, cooling etc... The standard eMMC storage I think is also an advantage to the RPi which still has the SD card standard.
My first and second impressions are good.
I am curious to other experiences with the Inovato and CMX combination.
NOTE: The photo is somewhat large so the dimensions of the machine may be overestimated but it measures 12x12x7 cm (Height x Width x Depth)
NOTE2: I think you can run Home Automation / Domoticz in parallel to CMX as well