garycase Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 I think a power supply with a wider input range would be better. Why? Considering that the requirement is that ... ... it needs to be 12V. ... there doesn't seem to be any advantage to the added complexity of a multi-range unit. Quote Link to comment
dmacias Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 Agree -- I'd forgotten about the Pico units. They would indeed be a good choice for powering an UnRAID box, if you can find a case small enough to meet your needs. But as I noted above, if 4TB is all you need for this, a simple 2-drive WD EX2 is likely a better choice -- lower power; much smaller; and very reliable. Come on, it's a perfect build for a Q25 and a few nas drives Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 Agree -- I'd forgotten about the Pico units. They would indeed be a good choice for powering an UnRAID box, if you can find a case small enough to meet your needs. But as I noted above, if 4TB is all you need for this, a simple 2-drive WD EX2 is likely a better choice -- lower power; much smaller; and very reliable. Come on, it's a perfect build for a Q25 and a few nas drives As I'm sure you know, I'm a HUGE fan of the PC-Q25B. However, the Q25B has nearly 8 times the volume of the EX2 !! (7.74 times to be precise) I suspect space is at a premium on the sailboat ... so the much smaller EX2 seems like a better fit IF 4TB is definitely enough space (something FurrorNos clearly needs to consider). Quote Link to comment
dmacias Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 I think a power supply with a wider input range would be better. Why? Considering that the requirement is that ... ... it needs to be 12V. ... there doesn't seem to be any advantage to the added complexity of a multi-range unit. I would say be careful about your power source and how it interacts with the power supply on this. Depending how you set up your system (or if you make a mistake such as leaving this on or set the start to all batteries during ignition) you're going to have some high and lows on the power and the power conversion system may not like it (watch out for autopilots, generally you run them all the time and during heavy seas they will keep varying the load sharply making your electrical system somewhat dynamic on the voltage). Its not impossible, just be careful overall and as always, safety first. It isn't any more complex or expensive. There are also PICO wide range power supplies but I think they are only 12-24v. For automotive or marine environments there can be times that it may drop below 12 volts or fluctuate. For example if you crank the engine in car, it would reset the computer when the voltage drops. I think any automotive power supply would be a better fit. I agree on the space issue. There really aren't any mini-itx cases smaller than the q25 that would hold more than a couple 2.5" drives or one 3.5" Quote Link to comment
NAS Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 If it was me I would be using only SSD. I would keep at least one offline spare as you wont be able to source one readily. Also i would insert a fairly sizable UPS onto the system (maybe even the whole boat). Assuming you dont need to be able to power this 24*7 whilst at sea the UPS + your normal power source should save you having to do very accurate power calculations now and increase you up time considerably. Constantly using the UPS will kill it earlier than normal but they are cheap in the grand scale of things. Quote Link to comment
dmacias Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 I don't think you would want a ups. It would be very inefficient converting from dc on boat to ac for ups to dc for ups battery back to ac then to dc again. A separate 12v battery & dc-dc power supply would be better. A car or boat is like a large ups anyway. Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 Agree -- a UPS is not a good idea when you've already got a large DC supply. VERY inefficient -- not to mention a rather large space consumer Quote Link to comment
Necrotic Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 I don't think you would want a ups. It would be very inefficient converting from dc on boat to ac for ups to dc for ups battery back to ac then to dc again. A separate 12v battery & dc-dc power supply would be better. A car or boat is like a large ups anyway. Right, but I think you can get some 12V UPS systems that basically work one way. They only charge, they don't discharge back to the boat. So when you turn on the engine, it falls back to the local UPS and doesn't drop the voltage. Then again, this is adding another source of power and danger to the boat (such of a fire). Quote Link to comment
NAS Posted May 9, 2014 Share Posted May 9, 2014 No one said DC>AC. Plenty of DC UPS out there and plenty of boat specific battery solutions. Whatever solution you choose if you want reliability you have no choice you need a UPS. It is no different to running a server in a home other than the power source you have on a boat is even more unreliable. Quote Link to comment
dmacias Posted May 9, 2014 Share Posted May 9, 2014 Fair enough. I just assumed you meant AC cause there aren't really any DC ups because there are rv/marine solutions. Which would involve an isolation charging module and an extra 12v battery. You wouldn't necessarily need that if your battery system can already handle your load needs. A dsatx, m2, m3 or m4 power supply will provide 12, 5, 3.3v regulated voltage on as low as 6v. They can turn on, off or standby your computer or shut down if battery discharge reaches a certain level. Some have options that can be set by jumpers or usb and can be monitored. It is a little different in that with a car, marine or rv you already have a backup battery and charging system. Now only if your usage needs exceed that you might need an isolated external battery. Quote Link to comment
FurrorNos Posted May 9, 2014 Author Share Posted May 9, 2014 Wow thanks for all the great ideas!! I checked out the Cloud EX2 - it looks ideal except I can't find any descriptions regarding how to replace failed drives. The pico-itx form factor also looks like a viable option, but I can't find any which have more than 1 SATA port. I've only spent about 20m looking though - I'm going to keep pursuing this. I will definitely leave port with a bunch of 64GB SD cards - thats a fantastic idea and will greatly decrease shipping cost/risk. -Jordan Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted May 9, 2014 Share Posted May 9, 2014 If the Cloud EX is set for RAID-1 and a drive fails, you simply pop out the bad drive and pop in a new one. Clearly it'd be a good idea to have a spare drive with you Quote Link to comment
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