Via Epia Mini-ITX PC
- Thread starter 123
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pete_c
Guru
I have purchased a number of these style PC's from this company. A while ago they offered similiar small cases (like the cases) 1.6 Celerons-1Gig memory but no HD/CD for 99. I am using one today for my CarPC. I initially purchased 6. I like these too. I am using them as firewalls, small PC's, NAS boxes or TS computers. Personally its the Mini-Itx case that I really like. This type of low powered MB works well for a CarPC, Firewall or NAS box. First time though that I have seen these with 120VAC power supplies. The ones that I have came with 12VDC 60W Morex internal PS with bricks. T
Any chance you have a Kill-a-watt and could take some real world wattage measurements on the firewall or NAS box?
DrunkenLizard
Active Member
pete_c
Guru
The old ones that I have are using 60 watt 12 VDC Morex power supplies. I do not have a kill a watt around though. I did notice with the 60Watt PS I could not power up an additional video card until I upped the PS to 140Watt. These come with a standard small computer 120V PS which more than likely would be over 100Watts. I have a few of the Epia MB's which I am currently using one for a CarPC. The video is great on these boards.
I got mine today. It seems to have more in the box than I anticipated. I found a serial to IR adapter in the box and mine has a Linux Custom Server program on it.
Downside. I push the eject button on the DVD RW drive and the yellow led flashes a few time and the motor clunks, but it does not open.
I did find the Interact-TV users ;installation and configuration manuals on their web site.
Downside. I push the eject button on the DVD RW drive and the yellow led flashes a few time and the motor clunks, but it does not open.
I did find the Interact-TV users ;installation and configuration manuals on their web site.
pete_c
Guru
I haven't looked at my purchase yet. its still in the box.
On my previous purchase of similar cased PCs from the same company I had the same issue relating to slim CD DVD drives. The previous models did not come with DVD drives but rather a CF bootable reader. What I saw was that if I tighened the support screws for the slim drive it would sometimes bend the drive a bit so that it didn't work. I really never figured this out until I played a bit. I would configure the PC with the slim drive connected but not mounted. I would put it all together and put the cover on it and would notice that the CD drive didn't eject any more. Try first to remove the slim drive mounting screws. They are very small. Remove all four of them and try again. If the drive is still an issue the company is very good about replacements.
On my previous purchase of similar cased PCs from the same company I had the same issue relating to slim CD DVD drives. The previous models did not come with DVD drives but rather a CF bootable reader. What I saw was that if I tighened the support screws for the slim drive it would sometimes bend the drive a bit so that it didn't work. I really never figured this out until I played a bit. I would configure the PC with the slim drive connected but not mounted. I would put it all together and put the cover on it and would notice that the CD drive didn't eject any more. Try first to remove the slim drive mounting screws. They are very small. Remove all four of them and try again. If the drive is still an issue the company is very good about replacements.
Thank you for your input on the drive.
I will try your suggestions.
I found that the drive tray was hanging up on the front panel. Had to bend and twist the internal drive tray a bit. Still not quite centered, but best I could do with a case made in China. Guess I could do some filing or hole elongation.
I will try your suggestions.
I found that the drive tray was hanging up on the front panel. Had to bend and twist the internal drive tray a bit. Still not quite centered, but best I could do with a case made in China. Guess I could do some filing or hole elongation.
pete_c
Guru
These make great CarPC's and firewalls. I have two setup as Smoothwall firewalls. You can turn it into a low powered low cost HA box. I am in the process of retrofitting a dual core mini-itx MB in one of the cases for my newest HA box in order to move to a smaller footprint. Currently using these style boxes for testing (including previous purchases from same company). Historically have also used these to drive touchscreen LCD's. Three different setups for carpc -
1 - Epia CPU MB - as sold - thinking of doing a dual setup with this box - boot os from flash and HD and USB for media - the video from this board is suited for playing back DiVx & MP3 files to LCDs in the car along with NAV screen.
2 - Dual core Atom based MB - retrofit in same case - using both CF based boot linux OS and SATA drives
3 - 1.6 Ghz Celeron - previous purchase from same company - using CF based boot linux OS.
1 - Epia CPU MB - as sold - thinking of doing a dual setup with this box - boot os from flash and HD and USB for media - the video from this board is suited for playing back DiVx & MP3 files to LCDs in the car along with NAV screen.
2 - Dual core Atom based MB - retrofit in same case - using both CF based boot linux OS and SATA drives
3 - 1.6 Ghz Celeron - previous purchase from same company - using CF based boot linux OS.
Are any of you using thses to drive touch screens for CQC? If so, how do they perform with more complicated displays such as the Flash based radar images?
I considered picking one up to test, but the specs appear to be on par with the HP t5700 thin clients, and those are a bit weak with the Flash pages.
I considered picking one up to test, but the specs appear to be on par with the HP t5700 thin clients, and those are a bit weak with the Flash pages.
123
Senior Member
I received the PC, connected it to a monitor, powered it up, and (drum roll please) ... no image. 
"DON'T PANIC!"
"Contents may have settled during transport."
While grumbiling about the headache of returning the defective device, I opened it up and checked its connections. I think reseating the memory card did the trick (I noticed a fleck of something red sitting on the connector; not sure if it was the culprit); it fired up and, yes, it has an OS.
Surprise! Surprise! This device is an early-model PVR, called "Telly", from Interact-TV. This unit is a Telly Model MC800. This page shows an MC1200 and it includes a photo of the IR keyboard.
The hard-drive contains Interact-TV's PVR application running on a customized Linux. Interact-TV's "In the News" section has recent articles but their support page appears to be stale (last posts are dated 2004). I attempted to register the product but their site reported my serial number was invalid. There are several manuals available for download. I don't plan to use it as a PVR but I think I'll get familiar with it before swapping out the drive.
The fit and finish is very good and I didn't experience the misaligned DVD-drive problem reported by BLH. Two screws hold the lid in place and four more screws hold an internal mounting plate for the DVD-drive and hard-drive. The motherboard is equipped with a daughterboard for connecting two PCI expansion cards. One slot has a TV tuner card and the other is free.
The unit comes with a 40 Gb ATA hard-drive and there's a connector, and room, for another drive.
There's an onboard IR receiver (mounted behind a circular window on the front) that handles communications with an IR keyboard. The keyboard has an integrated pointing device (button on the right for pointing and button on the left for clicking) and many dedicated function keys for driving the PVR. The keyboard takes 4 AA batteries (included). I'm hoping I can get this to work under Windows XP.
The kit also includes a handheld IR remote with a trackball (2 AA's; included) and an ActiSys IR220L IrDA RS-232 interface. I'm not sure what it's for (serves as an IR extender in the event the main unit's IR receiver is obstructed?) because its specs indicate an operating distance of 1 meter.
My plan is to replace my existing HA server with this unit. It will also drive a wall-mounted touchscreen in our kitchen. The HA server is located in the basement but I want to extend the built-in IR receiver, up into the kitchen, so we can use the IR keyboard.
"DON'T PANIC!"
"Contents may have settled during transport."
While grumbiling about the headache of returning the defective device, I opened it up and checked its connections. I think reseating the memory card did the trick (I noticed a fleck of something red sitting on the connector; not sure if it was the culprit); it fired up and, yes, it has an OS.
Surprise! Surprise! This device is an early-model PVR, called "Telly", from Interact-TV. This unit is a Telly Model MC800. This page shows an MC1200 and it includes a photo of the IR keyboard.
The hard-drive contains Interact-TV's PVR application running on a customized Linux. Interact-TV's "In the News" section has recent articles but their support page appears to be stale (last posts are dated 2004). I attempted to register the product but their site reported my serial number was invalid. There are several manuals available for download. I don't plan to use it as a PVR but I think I'll get familiar with it before swapping out the drive.
The fit and finish is very good and I didn't experience the misaligned DVD-drive problem reported by BLH. Two screws hold the lid in place and four more screws hold an internal mounting plate for the DVD-drive and hard-drive. The motherboard is equipped with a daughterboard for connecting two PCI expansion cards. One slot has a TV tuner card and the other is free.
The unit comes with a 40 Gb ATA hard-drive and there's a connector, and room, for another drive.
There's an onboard IR receiver (mounted behind a circular window on the front) that handles communications with an IR keyboard. The keyboard has an integrated pointing device (button on the right for pointing and button on the left for clicking) and many dedicated function keys for driving the PVR. The keyboard takes 4 AA batteries (included). I'm hoping I can get this to work under Windows XP.
The kit also includes a handheld IR remote with a trackball (2 AA's; included) and an ActiSys IR220L IrDA RS-232 interface. I'm not sure what it's for (serves as an IR extender in the event the main unit's IR receiver is obstructed?) because its specs indicate an operating distance of 1 meter.
My plan is to replace my existing HA server with this unit. It will also drive a wall-mounted touchscreen in our kitchen. The HA server is located in the basement but I want to extend the built-in IR receiver, up into the kitchen, so we can use the IR keyboard.
OK you got exactly what I got.
Mine would not tune any TV channels and I found the PCI Daughter Card had popped out of the main boards PCI connector. Also the DVD drive door was rubbing on the front panel. Both are fixed now. The tuner does not do off the air digital and I didn't expect it to.
Mine came with a ACT-200L Interface and I have not tried it yet.
The remote was a surprise to me. I had never seen a remote with a Trackball built in.
Have you had a chance to try it out? Mine doesn't have any sound output and I have looked at all the settings and jumpers and can't get sound. Like making sure the jumper on the motherboard was not set to S/PDIF and the settings in the software was set to Stereo Analog.
I did try it with the UBUNTU 9.04 desktop that can run from the CD and it has sound. So I am guessing it is the software or I messed it up somehow.
I used your link to the exact Users Manual for the unit. I had found a similar one. Maybe I can now find my answers. Thanks for the link.
My software looks old as some of the Telly Screens shown in the on line manuals are not in mine. Maybe that is another reason my sound is not there and trying to play a DVD results in a brief flash on the scree and then the menu shows again.
Mine would not tune any TV channels and I found the PCI Daughter Card had popped out of the main boards PCI connector. Also the DVD drive door was rubbing on the front panel. Both are fixed now. The tuner does not do off the air digital and I didn't expect it to.
Mine came with a ACT-200L Interface and I have not tried it yet.
The remote was a surprise to me. I had never seen a remote with a Trackball built in.
Have you had a chance to try it out? Mine doesn't have any sound output and I have looked at all the settings and jumpers and can't get sound. Like making sure the jumper on the motherboard was not set to S/PDIF and the settings in the software was set to Stereo Analog.
I did try it with the UBUNTU 9.04 desktop that can run from the CD and it has sound. So I am guessing it is the software or I messed it up somehow.
I used your link to the exact Users Manual for the unit. I had found a similar one. Maybe I can now find my answers. Thanks for the link.
My software looks old as some of the Telly Screens shown in the on line manuals are not in mine. Maybe that is another reason my sound is not there and trying to play a DVD results in a brief flash on the scree and then the menu shows again.
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