Topic: An economical alternative to upload your WX data.

[DanS]

I was looking at the Raspberry PI and the Meteohub/Meteoplug options to get my aging and power hungry desktop replaced for my 24/7 wx uploader when I came across the HP Thin Client as a possibility. I ordered one off e-Bay along with a new 2.5 IDE hard disk. I swapped theThin Client's flash drive for the new 2.5 IDE drive and loaded Windows XP Pro and webcam software/PWS software/UPS software, etc. and it all came to life. Since the Thin Client uses no fans (convection cooled) it's now quieter and only draws around 20 watts of power including with the HDD. Total cost around $35 USD.
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[DanS]

forgot to add, that price includes shipping/postage and a memory upgrade.

[CNYWeather]

$35?? You're kidding right?


You can hook up a monitor I assume for loading of everything Dan? the you run it headless or something?
Very cool setup.

[DanS]

Yes to hooking up a monitor (VGA connector). It's a standard X86 type PC that comes with a IDE header flash drive with an OS loaded that you can remove and replace with a hard drive. It has 6 USB ports, a serial, VGA, mouse, keyboard ports. It alone cost around $20 then the hard drive, memory upgrade (didn't really need that though), makes up the rest of the $35. I figure the energy savings should pay for itself in no time.

[okieman98]

i have spoken with dan about his set up, i am going to give it a try, he has been very helpful . so far here is where i am at and cost for me.

1.
New Open Box HP T5545 Thin Client Eden 1.0GHz 512MB 512MB Flash Memory 29.99 came with stand keyboard and mouse
2.
laptop hard drives x3 free from old laptops laying around. put one in external hard drive case cost 7.99 for 250 gig storage one of the others will be mounted in the thin client,
3.
External White USB Slim 8x DVDRW DL DVD CD RW Burner Writer Drive All PC and Mac cost 11.74
all from ebay, waiting on stuff to come in will update

[okieman98]

external; cd rw

[DanS]

Looking good. don't forget a small IDE cable (about 16" or so) 44 pin, female to female, to plug the laptop drive in with. It plugs into where your flash memory used to be.

[erikmm]

Been running this setup (HP Thin client T510) for a couple of years now, and it is very stable

[Bushman]

Is the external CD/DVD needed??

[okieman98]

yes to load the new os like windows xp, i just got one that did dvd r to save stuff to disc , if i want to, since i was buying one, could not find the one i had, going to put up a cam later.

[Bushman]

In case you did not know, if you have the .iso on another machine you can load windows from a USB stick.  Pretty easy.

[okieman98]

all my laptops and pc are windows 10 do not think this will run it. might be wrong, not sure, i am going to try to run windows 7 on it. most i have read run xp as os. i do not have it so, going to try what i have, by no means i claim to be a computer guy lol, so every input is very helpful, i am really not sure how to copy it to a stick never done it. would like to have xp pro are xp something i know others has running. u have a good point the drive would not be needed if u have that and would be great back up as well

[Old Tele man]

DanS - what model was that HP thin client that you bought?

[okieman98]

 HP T5545 Thin Client Eden 1.0GHz 512MB 512MB Flash

[okieman98]

sorry i miss the question was to dan lol need to put my glasses on i guess

[graculus]

In case you did not know, if you have the .iso on another machine you can load windows from a USB stick.  Pretty easy.

I had an earlier model, XP era, HP Thin Client and the bios was pretty locked down, it would not allow boot from USB.

[weatherc]

Since the Thin Client uses no fans (convection cooled) it's now quieter and only draws around 20 watts of power including with the HDD.

Just my 2 €urocents...20 watts for a such small thing are a lot.
My MiniITX-mobo with fullblown PCI-connector + 4G RAM + SSD draws 9.5 watt.

[broadstairs]

Also adding my UK solution a Gigabyte Brix Bxbt-1900 which will run W10 (apparently - mine is running W7) and uses around 9-11W. Although it is somewhat more expensive at a few pence under £100 if you already have a 2.5n hdd and memory sodimm spare.

Stuart

[DanS]

DanS - what model was that HP thin client that you bought?

sorry for the delay in responding, Internet was down for about 9 hours. I bought the t5540. Same as member okieman98's (t5545) with 128m less flash memory (which gets pulled out anyway and replaced with the harddrive). He got a pretty good deal with the stand included.

[okieman98]

ok i thought if i am doing this might as well show it along the way, the client came in today. looks brand new like it has never been used,
  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

so it they have one in a metal type case i would recommend buying one of those because of the snap plastic cover very hard to get off and on for me. got it open and took a look inside so i could see what dans was talking about it was pretty much straight forward.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

but the hard drives i have will not work have to find a converter from 44 pin ide female because these drives i belive are sata are something , looking info up on them to find out more
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[DanS]

Yes you have two sata type hdd's.
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

you need this.

[okieman98]

i found this on ebay wounder if i can use this to with the 44 pin ribbon cord and i would just mount on out side

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  

[Garth Bock]

I used an Atom based mini-computer years ago running XP and my weather software years ago. It was great at the time but it was not expandable. Due to it's lower power processor I decided the day its power supply died to move back to a Dell. I was able to get a Dell dual core desktop that could handle dual drives running at 7200 rpm.

As for XP...you might want to try to load it with Win7/10 or Ubuntu Linux. I would worry about running it and being open to hacks and viruses. Just my 2 Hillary bucks.......

[DanS]

I saw those also but I'm not sure if they would work or not being it's used backwards this way, that is, they're advertised with the 44 pin side connected to a 2.5"  hdd and the sata side to the PC mainboard. Besides, the small cost difference between these adapters verses a laptop drive and either had to be ordered in the mail anyway, I decided on a tried and proven approach. It would be interesting to see if it does work though. If it does work, the increase in speed/data transfer would be an improvement. Here's a helpful article.

Also,  Sata uses 12, 5 and 3.3 volts but the 44 pin IDE header on the thin client only provides 5 volts. This would mean you need to locate 12 and 3.3 volt sources on the main board (the sata solder pads next to the 44 pin ide header) and tap off to the sata connection to the hdd.

[okieman98]

thanks everyone for there input i was wanting to use the drives i had but i am not that good with a iron even tho i build rc boats like this one
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  american pride is her name , power plugs is about as good as i get lol.

what about this drive i think it will work and its in the usa so shipping faster
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201608823155?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT