I didn't expect to see QLC making an appearance. I've used it in theatre settings where a full RGB control board was prohibitively expensive. It sounds like you have a lot of those lights, and so one of the more powerful features of QLC is the matrices function, where you can set up many fixtures in a grid array, and QLC will do the heavy lifting of automating light patterns. I haven't considered using it in a 24/7 running home automation environment, but you should be able to interface it with Home Assistant or OpenHAB, and have QLC auto-lanch on startup. Sounds like a cool project.
Interesting SBC - It says it has I2C, UART and programmable GPIO's - But no mention of an exposed SPI bus? Any idea if there's a way to access a HW SPI bus?
@@MiesvanderLippe I just like seeing more x86 alternatives, rather than something being arm all the time. Compatibility is still quite important and a lot of things just work on x86, so no need to reconfigure and recompile for that platform (especially for much older software). Not saying arm is bad, just like seeing more alternatives.
Without that PCIE slot on the carrier board I would have called this pointless as a mini-pc would provide all that functionality in a smaller more convenient form factor. I have a pair of Delta 3's that have a GPIO interface.
I think the main use case would be plugging the PC module into a custom board for whatever you're doing. The carrier board is mainly for testing and development.
I didn't expect to see QLC making an appearance. I've used it in theatre settings where a full RGB control board was prohibitively expensive. It sounds like you have a lot of those lights, and so one of the more powerful features of QLC is the matrices function, where you can set up many fixtures in a grid array, and QLC will do the heavy lifting of automating light patterns. I haven't considered using it in a 24/7 running home automation environment, but you should be able to interface it with Home Assistant or OpenHAB, and have QLC auto-lanch on startup. Sounds like a cool project.
Great review, Thanks Steve.
Interesting SBC - It says it has I2C, UART and programmable GPIO's - But no mention of an exposed SPI bus? Any idea if there's a way to access a HW SPI bus?
These kinds of boards are just too expensive. For almost the same price you can get x86 mini pcs...
finally, something that isn't arm.
Why would you prefer Intel over Arm in this form factor / power budget? Is software compatibility still a thing to you?
@@MiesvanderLippe I just like seeing more x86 alternatives, rather than something being arm all the time. Compatibility is still quite important and a lot of things just work on x86, so no need to reconfigure and recompile for that platform (especially for much older software). Not saying arm is bad, just like seeing more alternatives.
You can get one in na case, from Ali with 16GB of ram for less than £100 with ssd even.
Where to use this? Why is is so expensive?
I think the 8gb of ram and the price are holding this back a ton.
bios package c-state limit has bad value. i bet it goes to near 1W idle with C8 allowed
Without that PCIE slot on the carrier board I would have called this pointless as a mini-pc would provide all that functionality in a smaller more convenient form factor. I have a pair of Delta 3's that have a GPIO interface.
I think the main use case would be plugging the PC module into a custom board for whatever you're doing. The carrier board is mainly for testing and development.
@@rocketman221projects This is what they intended.