Notes on Meetings:

March 2025 -

MQTT notes: winget install mosquitto mqtt_serve_tester ps-mqtt-sqlite winget install –id=thomasnordquist.MQTT-Explorer -e DB Browser for SQLite

May 2025 -

More detail on this project:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD3WD

https://www.cd3wdproject.org/

It’s been 2 years since my HumLUG presentation on “Internet in a Box”. Here’s a link to the slides.

I’ve found that IIAB works better from a x86 machine rather than a Raspberry Pi, especially if you’re going to load up Open Street Maps and expect to be zooming around between the 10 levels of detail.

Today I got x86 IIAB resurrected in it’s April 2023 configuration and am now updating what content I can.

Questions about IIAB are welcome!

Video of the presentation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19XeHLMtnmnT88G4iZ0vgbz75rODm58Nk/view

June 2025

Dec 2025

In deference to most members’ sensibilities, the photos of my “machine stacks & racks” cabling have not been included.

What’s the Purpose of a 10” Server Rack?

Portability
Organization
Clean look
Good for multiples of 1U items

Pros

Enforces discipline & planning
Concentrates compute
Works well with Tiny/Mini/Micro 1L PCs

Cons

Stuff that doesn’t fit:
- Various MiniPCs
- Cheaper Chinese units > 1U height
- Taller Intel NUCs
- External hard drives
No solution to power or power‑brick issues
When 10” isn’t really 10”: inside rails = 8.75”
Ventilation challenges

Mini‑ITX Examples

NAS boards
Questions to solve:
- Where’s the power supply going?
- Where’s SATA storage going to go?

Minisforum BD795i SE Example

16 cores, 32 threads, 128GB RAM
Questions to solve:
- Where’s the GPU going to go?
- Where’s the power supply going to go?

Current Favorite Value MiniPC — Peladn WO4

But it doesn’t fit in 1U!

Heard about it from this YT video:
https://youtu.be/tp_iQpjSctM?si=Z9NkQtaPiEiAFa6z

Make sure you get the right configuration — they sell multiple variants:
https://peladn.us/products/peladn-ha-4-mini-pc-amd-ryzen-5-7640hs?variant=50551604576573

Specs:

AMD Ryzen 5 7640HS
6‑core / 12‑thread CPU
32GB DDR5 RAM
1TB NVMe
2 NICs:
- 1 × 2.5Gb
- 1 × 1Gb
2 NVMe slots
~$384 with 10% discount code Geek1201
Ships from US warehouse

Why it’s compelling:

Worth it for the RAM alone
Great for a Proxmox node with Ceph storage due to:
- 2nd NIC
- 2nd NVMe slot