Zimaboard - Single board hackable system

[Jay85]

Whats everyone done with these? Have not heard these get mentioned here yet.

I won one in a raffle and thinking about using it for personal cloud storage but i've seen people set these up for all sorts of crazy ideas.

 

[Jay85]

Not looking to sell it are you? I wanted to try one as a pfsense box

What model did you win btw, the 832?

Got the middle 432 , currently setting it up for a Personal cloud server.

I might do at some point, but right now i just want to have a play with it . The docker OS is pretty awesome too, very configurable!

 

[Jay85]

on a more serious note this thing has realtek network ports and everything iv seen to do with pfsense, opnsense etc wont work properly with realtek nic and needs intel.

Ah i didn't know that, i think people who have got it working have used add on boards through the pcie connector but then that's an extra cost.

 

[Jay85]

Finally finished setting up my Personal Cloud Server using Nextcloud and Tailscape tonight, its been a journey and learnt a lot from it. Thanks to a lot of help from the people over at Ice Whale as well. Highly recommend it to anyone who wants a personal cloud server and wants remote access to it.

 

[Jay85]

Isnt it easier to vpn home to samba shares?

Never used Samba before so wouldn't know. Nextcloud has an easy interface and an easy setup process with abit of configuring to do in the config file and you're pretty much done. All the DNS stuff is done on the VPN side with Tailscale so its just a matter of linking each client and done.

The only thing i can't get working is the Nextcloud app on iphone to connect to the server. Not sure why but it works if i use tailscale to link through CasaOS to then open Nextcloud via web browser. I think it might be how iphone issue and not allowing apps to stay open when you're on something else.

Any recommendations for a fix?

 

[Jay85]

Abit of an update on the Zimaboard, new 3D printed case so i can mount my 2TB Samsung 870 drive properly and hold the pcie adapter for my nvme drive more securely. Also got some connectors to play with so i can wire up a fan to attach to a 3D printed bracket! Having a ton of fun with this! I had an absolute headache last night as well trying to get the drive to work properly as i was getting forbidden errors when trying to sync files from my desktop and mobile devices.

It all came down to ownership/permissions issues in the end which i thought i had done correctly. I had used sudo chown -R casaos:casaos /mnt/{your drive name} but after some googling i've realised i should have used www-data instead of casaos:casaos. After this change, a quick reboot and it all works again as it should. I need to read into this some more as to why but for now just happy it works.

 

[Jay85]

That case is a neat idea! did you design it yourself or is there now a zima modding scene?

I got a buddy of mine to print this for me that i found on thingiverse, the dimensions are nearly perfect! Just the screw hole for the standoff for the pcie adapter wasn't in the right place so i had to tap my own in. The case allows for upto 4 x 2.5" drives, even though the print says it allows upto 2.

Zimaboard dual HDD and pcie m2 adapter by simonetraversi_

The 3D-printed stand for the ZimaBoard is a versatile and practical accessory designed to enhance storage capabilities. With slots to accommodate two 2.5-inch HDDs, it offers ample space for expanding storage capacity. Additionally, the stand includes a PCIe to M.2 adapter, enabling seamless...

www.thingiverse.com

 

[Jay85]

Cool, I was not aware of the mods on thingiverse, there are quite a lot including a rack mount!

It looks like there is no way to power more than 2x sata SSD's directly through the Zimaboard though, and while there is a pcie to 5x sata adapter you'd need to power the drives with a separate power supply.

Is it possible to power 2x sata SSD and 2x nvme at the same time?

im getting an adapter soon for this to do just that, its on the zimaboard official website:

SATA Y-Cable for ZimaBoard 2.5 inch HDD 3.5 inch HDD Raid free NAS unraid

INTRODUCTION Ready to dock! We designed the layout of ZimaBoard to be highly compact. Both the compactness of the interface and convenience are concerned. The overall design needs to be light and thin enough to minimize the space occupation of the whole machine and have a certain degree of...

shop.zimaboard.com

I guess if you want more than 2 sata drives you would need a sata pcie adapter in place of the nvme adapter.

 

[Jay85]

Hehe I know you can power 2x sata with that cable, although the following article suggests they have to be SSD and not HD, which also had me wondering if the native power supply can power 2x sata and 2x nvme all at once, as while you have them available it would not necessarily mean they could all be powered if populated.

Is a ZimaBoard the Right Choice for Me? - Martin Rowan

The ZimaBoard is a small hackable x86 server, but is its versatility a strength or a weakness, compared to many purpose built alternatives?

www.martinrowan.co.uk

When you suggested the case could house 4x 2.5", I saw the pcie to 5x sata on the Zima shop but that does not supply the power afaik and so I was wondering if they could be powered natively through the Zimaboard but the above article suggests you will need an additional external power supply to power more than 2x sata.

Good point, i missed that. I wonder how you would power the drives then. Maybe through external usb power?

 

[Jay85]

Abit more work on the board tonight, taking advantage of the cpu fan connector on the underside of the board. I've managed to find some picoblade connectors with the correct pitch and size so use that to pair and solder on a 3 pin female fan connector, adding a resistor inbetween to lower the speed without having to mess with the bios as its not a pwm fan anyway. All hooked up and working as it should be, brilliant! , another 2TB drive on the way for more storage option so hopefully that'll be the last piece of the puzzle for awhile.

 

[Jay85]

 

[Jay85]

Looks badass.

Interested what is the total power usage now with 1x nvme, 1x ssd, 1x fan? (idle and under load)

I'd be surprised if it was more than 10w tbh, the Zimaboard on its own draws around 6w. I'll get a wattman on it and find out.