New clone idea: How about a PC-G850VS or PC-E500 clone?

[blackjetrock]

(09-04-2024 07:00 AM)Chr Yoko Wrote:  

(09-03-2024 08:35 AM)blackjetrock Wrote:  I have a uconsole on order since Jan 2024, also hoping for delivery before the end of the year. I also have a CM4 devterm and use that quite a bit. It does burn quite a bit of power, turning the brightness of the screen down helps a bit, but a set of two 18650s lasts about 2 hours, maybe a bit more. It gets quite hot too. Very much different to the PC-G850VSs I have. They are definitely low power devices. The heat seal connectors all seem to be degraded now, though.

Thx for your feedback on the Devterm using the same CM4 module.

That is quite an issue to get with the CM4 only 2h out of a couple of 18650 that contain way more energy than a 4xAAA HP71 style setup ....
Can't you downvolt/down clock the CM4 to reduce its energy needs ? :
A CM4 can play YT videos, run Chromium, so it is way more powerfull for some calculators or Basic-PC emulations.

Also the Clockworks computers can use several other CM than the CM4, including a Risk V one. Might be interesting to explore too.

The time that you get from an 18650 depends a lot on the quality of the 18650s. Initially I had cheaper batteries and got barely an hour. I then hunted for and paid more for better batteries. The best way is to weigh them, the heavier the better. Which was the case with the batteries I have. The heavier ones (47g I think) are about 2 hours, the lighter ones not.

The backlight burns a lot of power and turning that down helps a lot. I'm not sure there is any clock throttling. I'm happy as I use it for editing and programming and 2 hours is fine. It I want more time then I swap the batteries for charged ones. This can be done live as there's two 18650s in parallel. Or a shutdown and restart which doesn't take very long.

I did play YT once, for a few hours with a PSU plugged in and the screen went haywire after a while. I think it got too hot. There is a fan in the DevTerm but I've never seen or heard it run. I think it only turns on at higher temperatures.

I replaced the trackball for a better quality one and I have a 3D printed cover. I also use the printer now and again to print labels.

I find it a useful and nice device to use, overall. Maybe a bit niche.