Amount Paid: 149.00
Where purchased: Amazon
Where purchased: Amazon
Ordered one of these in to use as a Windows based NUC with N.I.N.A. Figured for the $150 for it new (8GB/512GB) and with it being a N5105 processor based unit should perform decent for captures. It was also advertised as coming with Windows 11 Pro (although some reviews report it's Windows 11 Home).
The unit arrived yesterday and upon unboxing, found that yes, it is powered from a USB C cable. But no, it will NOT work with a PD 3.0 USB C power supply. Apparently they use a propriety charger and you cannot use a very standard PD 3.0 capable plug to run this with (which is what you would frequently hook into a battery box).
The unit itself was very light and compact, which would make an ideal NUC to mount on the actual telescope rig when compared to something like the BeeLink U59 or the Intel NUC 11.
I did not spend any time with it once I was able to confirm that it would not run from a portable battery power unit, as that is one of the prime requirements I have. You can apparently create your own custom cable using a USB C trigger device, but I'm not going to jump through those kinds of hoops when one can go pay a little more for a base unit and get one that uses a standardized 5.5x2.5mm power plug.
They advertise this as coming with Windows 11 Pro but some responses on the Amazon feedback report that theirs shipped with Windows 11 Home. I never got that far since as soon as I saw it could not be powered simply from a 12v solution I realized it was not going to work for me.
The only other NUC that I have used that is similar is the MeLe Quieter units... but they will run from a PD 3.0 power port.
If you are going to only be running from AC power, this would probably be a very decent unit to use. But as I said, since it was not able to be easily ran from my 12v systems, it was immediately a no-go for me.
I probably should have done the OS install/setup and tested it out... but I didn't feel right about doing that since I knew it was going to be returned.
The unit arrived yesterday and upon unboxing, found that yes, it is powered from a USB C cable. But no, it will NOT work with a PD 3.0 USB C power supply. Apparently they use a propriety charger and you cannot use a very standard PD 3.0 capable plug to run this with (which is what you would frequently hook into a battery box).
The unit itself was very light and compact, which would make an ideal NUC to mount on the actual telescope rig when compared to something like the BeeLink U59 or the Intel NUC 11.
I did not spend any time with it once I was able to confirm that it would not run from a portable battery power unit, as that is one of the prime requirements I have. You can apparently create your own custom cable using a USB C trigger device, but I'm not going to jump through those kinds of hoops when one can go pay a little more for a base unit and get one that uses a standardized 5.5x2.5mm power plug.
They advertise this as coming with Windows 11 Pro but some responses on the Amazon feedback report that theirs shipped with Windows 11 Home. I never got that far since as soon as I saw it could not be powered simply from a 12v solution I realized it was not going to work for me.
The only other NUC that I have used that is similar is the MeLe Quieter units... but they will run from a PD 3.0 power port.
If you are going to only be running from AC power, this would probably be a very decent unit to use. But as I said, since it was not able to be easily ran from my 12v systems, it was immediately a no-go for me.
I probably should have done the OS install/setup and tested it out... but I didn't feel right about doing that since I knew it was going to be returned.
