Anyone using a Mele Mini Fanless PC for astro?

RugbyRene (Rene) · #1 21-04-2023, 09:56 AM

Hi all,

I'm looking at replacing my ASUS mini PC for something smaller and lighter and have seen these doing the rounds. Wondering if anyone has had any experience and what they thought of them.

https://mele.cn/PCHD28/129-en.html

Rene

AnakChan (Sean) · #2 21-04-2023, 02:12 PM

At least with my astro friends here in W.A., there have been quite a few MeLE Quieter2/3 adopters and they seem to love it. Some have stayed loyal to the MeLE line and upgraded from 2 to 3.

The folks run mainly N.I.N.A. but SGP too. Note that with the MeLE Quieter 2 (and the J4125 CPU), Stellarium can be a little sluggish and therefore the Quieter 3 (with the N5105 CPU) runs Stellarium better. But if you're more of into CdC, then it seems Quieter 2 would suffice. IMO though, may as well go for the newer Quieter 3.

Personally for me I went with the NUCBox line instead - currently on the NUCBox7 which has the even more powerful N6005 CPU, but I don't know if I'd recommend it. Whilst all the aforementioned mini-computers operate with 12V, the NUCBox 7's N6005 seems to be more demanding than the other 2 even at 12V.

But both brands do well.

Drac0 (Mark) · #3 21-04-2023, 03:00 PM

Been using the Quieter3Q since January without an issue running APT, PHD2 & Stellarium and associated software, powered off a Pegasus Astro Pocket Powerbox Advance Gen - though I made my own power lead for a couple of dollars.

At home I connect to it via my home network & on the road use a cheap TP-Link travel router. It does have the ability to operate as a WiFi hotspot but this doesn't start automatically on boot so you need to run a script if you wish to go that way, I never bothered trying it myself.

The mount, imaging camera & guide scope all connect directly to the 3Q, leaving the 4th USB free, I connect the PPAG2 here but that isn't necessary unless you want to access the PPAG2 configuration so you could connect another device or even a USB hub if needed.

I got the 8/128GB version and added a 1TB NVMe & moved the OS & boot to that which sped things up substantially as the installed EMMC drive is pretty slow.

All in all very happy with it for a portable imaging system.

Cheers,
Mark

ChrisD (Chris) · #4 21-04-2023, 08:59 PM

I'm also using a Mele Quieter3Q. I'm using NINA with PHD2, Greenswamp and Stellarium and it works flawlessly and feels very responsive. It comes Windows 11 Pro so you can connect using Remote Desktop if you want.

If you buy one definitely save your money and go for the version with the smallest EMMC and just install a 1T NVMe as Mark suggested. I never use the EMMC.

You can configure wifi hotspot in the windows 11 setting to run at startup if you need to.

Chris

Drac0 (Mark) · #5 21-04-2023, 10:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisD

You can configure wifi hotspot in the windows 11 setting to run at startup if you need to.

Chris

That's good to hear, apparently didn't apparently in Win 10. Might look into it for when on the road.

Cheers,
Mark

AdamJL · #6 22-04-2023, 08:34 AM

Yep I’ve got one (3Q). Very nice machine. Wish it had just one extra USB port but that’s all

Cyberman (Rob) · #7 23-04-2023, 07:07 PM

I’ve got the quieter 3c. Very happy so far.

notsamj (Sam) · #8 25-04-2023, 04:37 PM

Yep same, 3q. No complaints

AaronH · #9 28-04-2023, 04:47 PM

I'm running a Quieter2Q with Linux (KStars/Ekos/Indi). It's fantastic.

However, I have found the WiFi to be marginal. My computer rides on top of the OTA, and could get into situations where the mount/OTA would end up between it and the router, causing very slow speeds. A cheap Edimax WiFi AC600 dongle fixed that. I now run both built-in and USB WiFi to be sure I'll always have connectivity.

netwolf · #10 05-05-2023, 04:07 PM

Hey also been looking at this, has anyone used these for Planetary capture, just wondering if they hold up with the fast frame rates coming from camera for that work.

Drac0 (Mark) · #11 05-05-2023, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by netwolf

Hey also been looking at this, has anyone used these for Planetary capture, just wondering if they hold up with the fast frame rates coming from camera for that work.

As long as you add an NMVe drive & install the system onto that it's fine for planetary capture. I've had ~100 fps with no issues. Don't even consider just the EEMC, it's useless except as a storage device - I keep drivers & apps on it in case I need to re-install.

Cheers,
Mark

RugbyRene (Rene) · #12 16-05-2023, 02:26 PM

Hi all,

So I bought a Mele 3Q and installed Ubuntu on it so I can run Kstars. After installing Ubuntu I enabled remote desktop and tried to connect through my Win11 laptop. It tried to connect but kept crashing. If I then connected an HDMI cable to Mele so I could see the desktop on my big monitor and then tried to remote in there was no problems. Once I disconnected the Mele from the HDMI the remote session crashed.

Anyone got any idea what's going on? I have another Ubuntu machine that I connect to with no issues.

Rene

BlakPhoenix (Rohan) · #13 16-05-2023, 07:46 PM

Have a 3C and it runs NINA with a bunch of plugins/addons well. Plate solves are fast but I would recommend upgrading the internal storage to nvme for planetary as Drac0 said. Not needed for DSO imaging (but does help with general load times if that bothers you). No issues with RMP but I just run the stock Win11 install.

The wifi is patchy and can easily be blocked if you mount it onto a metal surface like a losmandy bar. I use a USB wifi switch to create a network that the Mele connects to so I don't need to worry about wifi connectivity chanign as the mount slews around.

Drac0 (Mark) · #14 16-05-2023, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RugbyRene

Hi all,

So I bought a Mele 3Q and installed Ubuntu on it so I can run Kstars. After installing Ubuntu I enabled remote desktop and tried to connect through my Win11 laptop. It tried to connect but kept crashing. If I then connected an HDMI cable to Mele so I could see the desktop on my big monitor and then tried to remote in there was no problems. Once I disconnected the Mele from the HDMI the remote session crashed.

Anyone got any idea what's going on? I have another Ubuntu machine that I connect to with no issues.

Rene

Strange, sort of sounds like the desktop is only loading correctly when connected to a monitor. Can the RDP client be set to launch the desktop at a specified resolution? Been sometime since I used Linux so not sure what's changed in the last couple of decades or what I can remember...

Maybe someone more up to date with Linux can help.

Cheers,
Mark

RugbyRene (Rene) · #15 17-05-2023, 06:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drac0

Strange, sort of sounds like the desktop is only loading correctly when connected to a monitor. Can the RDP client be set to launch the desktop at a specified resolution? Been sometime since I used Linux so not sure what's changed in the last couple of decades or what I can remember...

Maybe someone more up to date with Linux can help.

Cheers,
Mark

Well I’m not sure if this is the reason (and it would be weird if it was) but another astroPC that I use is on version 20.6.4 whilst I loaded up version 22.x.x to the new PC. The old PC loaded up fine and I could remote into it. I’ve got the 20.6.4 distro so I’ll load that up on the Mele and see what happens. If it works then I’ll leave it and put it down to a quirk in the newest version.

Rene

RugbyRene (Rene) · #16 17-05-2023, 03:12 PM

So I installed v20.04.6 of ubuntu and after a little bit of config I finally got it working so don't know why ver 22 didn't work.

Drac0 (Mark) · #17 17-05-2023, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RugbyRene

So I installed v20.04.6 of ubuntu and after a little bit of config I finally got it working so don't know why ver 22 didn't work.

Seems strange, they've done something wrong in the update it seems.

DebinOz (Deborah) · #18 26-12-2024, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drac0

I got the 8/128GB version and added a 1TB NVMe & moved the OS & boot to that which sped things up substantially as the installed EMMC drive is pretty slow.

All in all very happy with it for a portable imaging system.

Cheers,
Mark

Were you able to move the system and all the software onto the nvme directly? I would like to do this and have installed the drive but am afraid to wreck my setup. How did you copy it across?

Drac0 (Mark) · #19 26-12-2024, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DebinOz

Were you able to move the system and all the software onto the nvme directly? I would like to do this and have installed the drive but am afraid to wreck my setup. How did you copy it across?

Hi Deborah,

I did mine with a clean install. As mine is used purely for astro it wasn't hard to back up the needed files, re-install everything and restore the configuration files.

The other option you have is to use third party software and clone the drive. There are a number of good, free utilities to do this & numerous guides online.

Cheers,
Mark

RobK (Rob) · #20 30-12-2024, 02:00 PM

Hi Deborah,
I set up my Q3 following this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta5t4dCEjNc

worked a treat

cheers
Rob