Recherche avancée

Médias (1)

Mot : - Tags -/blender

Autres articles (97)

  • MediaSPIP 0.1 Beta version

    25 avril 2011, par

    MediaSPIP 0.1 beta is the first version of MediaSPIP proclaimed as "usable".
    The zip file provided here only contains the sources of MediaSPIP in its standalone version.
    To get a working installation, you must manually install all-software dependencies on the server.
    If you want to use this archive for an installation in "farm mode", you will also need to proceed to other manual (...)

  • Multilang : améliorer l’interface pour les blocs multilingues

    18 février 2011, par

    Multilang est un plugin supplémentaire qui n’est pas activé par défaut lors de l’initialisation de MediaSPIP.
    Après son activation, une préconfiguration est mise en place automatiquement par MediaSPIP init permettant à la nouvelle fonctionnalité d’être automatiquement opérationnelle. Il n’est donc pas obligatoire de passer par une étape de configuration pour cela.

  • ANNEXE : Les plugins utilisés spécifiquement pour la ferme

    5 mars 2010, par

    Le site central/maître de la ferme a besoin d’utiliser plusieurs plugins supplémentaires vis à vis des canaux pour son bon fonctionnement. le plugin Gestion de la mutualisation ; le plugin inscription3 pour gérer les inscriptions et les demandes de création d’instance de mutualisation dès l’inscription des utilisateurs ; le plugin verifier qui fournit une API de vérification des champs (utilisé par inscription3) ; le plugin champs extras v2 nécessité par inscription3 (...)

Sur d’autres sites (7599)

  • How to Check Website Traffic As Accurately As Possible

    18 août 2023, par Erin — Analytics Tips

    If you want to learn about the health of your website and the success of your digital marketing initiatives, there are few better ways than checking your website traffic. 

    It’s a great way to get a quick dopamine hit when things are up, but you can also use traffic levels to identify issues, learn more about your users or benchmark your performance. That means you need a reliable and easy way to check your website traffic over time — as well as a way to check out your competitors’ traffic levels, too. 

    In this article, we’ll show you how to do just that. You’ll learn how to check website traffic for both your and your competitor’s sites and discover why some methods of checking website traffic are better than others. 

    Why check website traffic ? 

    Dopamine hits aside, it’s important to constantly monitor your website’s traffic for several reasons.

    There are five reasons to check website traffic

    Benchmark site performance

    Keeping regular tabs on your traffic levels is a great way to track your website’s performance over time. It can help you plan for the future or identify problems. 

    For instance, growing traffic levels may mean expanding your business’s offering or investing in more inventory. On the flip side, decreasing traffic levels may suggest it’s time to revamp your marketing strategies or look into issues impacting your SEO. 

    Analyse user behaviour

    Checking website traffic and user behaviour lets marketing managers understand how users interact with your website. Which pages are they visiting ? Which CTAs do they click on ? What can you do to encourage users to take the actions you want ? You can also identify issues that lead to high bounce rates and other problems. 

    The better you understand user behaviour, the easier it will be to give them what they want. For example, you may find that users spend more time on your landing pages than they do your blog pages. You could use that information to revise how you create blog posts or focus on creating more landing pages. 

    Improve the user experience

    Once you understand how users behave on your website, you can use that information to fix errors, update your content and improve the user experience for the site. 

    You can even personalise the experience for customers, leading to significant growth. Research shows companies that grow faster derive 40% more of their revenue from personalisation. 

    That could come in the form of sweeping personalisations — like rearranging your website’s navigation bar based on user behaviour — or individual personalisation that uses analytics to transform sections or entire pages of your site based on user behaviour. 

    Optimise marketing strategies

    You can use website traffic reports to understand where users are coming from and optimise your marketing plan accordingly. You may want to double down on organic traffic, for instance, or invest more in PPC advertising. Knowing current traffic estimates and how these traffic levels have trended over time can help you benchmark your campaigns and prioritise your efforts. 

    Increasing traffic levels from other countries can also help you identify new marketing opportunities. If you start seeing significant traffic levels from a neighbouring country or a large market, it could be time to take your business international and launch a cross-border campaign. 

    Filter unwanted traffic

    A not-insignificant portion of your site’s traffic may be coming from bots and other unwanted sources. These can compromise the quality of your analytics and make it harder to draw insights. You may not be able to get rid of this traffic, but you can use analytics tools to remove it from your stats. 

    How to check website traffic on Matomo

    If you want to check your website’s traffic, you’d be forgiven for heading to Google Analytics first. It’s the most popular analytics tool on the market, after all. But if you want a more reliable assessment of your website’s traffic, then we recommend using Matomo alongside Google Analytics. 

    The Matomo web analytics platform is an open-source solution that helps you collect accurate data about your website’s traffic and make more informed decisions as a result — all while enhancing the customer experience and ensuring GDPR compliance and user privacy. 

    Matomo also offers multiple ways to check website traffic :

    Let’s look at all of them one by one. 

    The visits log report is a unique rundown of all of the individual visitors to your site. This offers a much more granular view than other tools that just show the total number of visitors for a given period. 

    The Visits log report is a unique rundown of your site's visitors

    You can access the visits log report by clicking on the reporting menu, then clicking Visitor and Visits Log. From there, you’ll be able to scroll through every user session and see the following information :

    • The location of the user
    • The total number of actions they took
    • The length of time on site
    • How they arrived at your site
    • And the device they used to access your site 

    This may be overwhelming if your site receives thousands of visitors at a time. But it’s a great way to understand users at an individual level and appreciate the lifetime activity of specific users. 

    The Real-time visitor map is a visual display of users’ location for a given timeframe. If you have an international website, it’s a fantastic way to see exactly where in the world your traffic comes from.

    Use the Real-time Map to see the location of users over a given timeframe

    You can access the Real-time Visitor Map by clicking Visitor in the main navigation menu and then Real-time Map. The map itself is colour-coded. Larger orange bubbles represent recent visits, and smaller dark orange and grey bubbles represent older visits. The map will refresh every five seconds, and new users appear with a flashing effect. 

    If you run TV or radio adverts, Matomo’s Real-time Map provides an immediate read on the effectiveness of your campaign. If your map lights up in the minutes following your ad, you know it’s been effective. It can also help you identify the source of bot attacks, too. 

    Finally, the Visits in Real-time report provides a snapshot of who is browsing your website. You can access this report under Visitors > Real-time and add it to your custom dashboards as a widget. 

    Open the report, and you’ll see the real-time flow of your site’s users and counters for visits and pageviews over the last 30 minutes and 24 hours. The report refreshes every five seconds with new users added to the top of the report with a fade-in effect.

    Use the Visits in Real-Time report to get a snapshot of your site's most recent visitors

    The report provides a snapshot of each visitor, including :

    • Whether they are new or a returning 
    • Their country
    • Their browser
    • Their operating system
    • The number of actions they took
    • The time they spent on the site
    • The channel they came in from
    • Whether the visitor converted a goal

    3 other ways to check website traffic

    You don’t need to use Matomo to check your website traffic. Here are three other tools you can use instead. 

    How to check website traffic on Google Analytics

    Google Analytics is usually the first starting point for anyone looking to check their website traffic. It’s free to use, incredibly popular and offers a wide range of traffic reports. 

    Google Analytics lets you break down historical traffic data almost any way you wish. You can split traffic by acquisition channel (organic, social media, direct, etc.) by country, device or demographic.

    Google Analytics can split website traffic by channel

    It also provides real-time traffic reports that give you a snapshot of users on your site right now and over the last 30 minutes. 

    Google Analytics 4 shows the number of users over the last 30 minutes

    Google Analytics may be one of the most popular ways to check website traffic, but it could be better. Google Analytics 4 is difficult to use compared to its predecessor, and it also limits the amount of data you can track in accordance with privacy laws. If users refuse your cookie consent, Google Analytics won’t record these visits. In other words, you aren’t getting a complete view of your traffic by using Google Analytics alone. 

    That’s why it’s important to use Google Analytics alongside other web analytics tools (like Matomo) that don’t suffer from the same privacy issues. That way, you can make sure you track every single user who visits your site. 

    How to check website traffic on Google Search Console

    Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that lets you analyse the search traffic that your site gets from Google. 

    The top-line report shows you how many times your website has appeared in Google Search, how many clicks it has received, the average clickthrough rate and the average position of your website in the search results. 

    Google Search Console is a great way to understand what you rank for and how much traffic your organic rankings generate. It will also show you which pages are indexed in Google and whether there are any crawling errors. 

    Unfortunately, Google Search Console is limited if you want to get a complete view of your traffic. While you can analyse search traffic in a huge amount of detail, it will not tell you how users who access your website directly or via social media behave. 

    How to check website traffic on Similarweb

    Similarweb is a website analysis tool that estimates the total traffic of any site on the internet. It is one of the best tools for estimating how much traffic your competitors receive. 

    What’s great about Similarweb is that it estimates total traffic, not just traffic from search engines like many SEO tools. It even breaks down traffic by different channels, allowing you to see how your website compares against your competitors. 

    As you can see from the image above, Similarweb provides an estimate of total visits, bounce rate, the average number of pages users view per visit and the average duration on the site. The company also has a free browser extension that lets you check website traffic estimates as you browse the web. 

    You can use Similarweb for free to a point. But to really get the most out of this tool, you’ll need to upgrade to a premium plan which starts at $125 per user per month. 

    The price isn’t the only downside of using Similarweb to check the traffic of your own and your competitor’s websites. Ultimately, Similarweb is only an estimate — even if it’s a reasonably accurate one — and it’s no match for a comprehensive analytics tool. 

    7 website traffic metrics to track

    Now that you know how to check your website’s traffic, you can start to analyse it. You can use plenty of metrics to assess the quality of your website traffic, but here are some of the most important metrics to track. 

    • New visitors : These are users who have never visited your website before. They are a great sign that your marketing efforts are working and your site is reaching more people. But it’s also important to track how they behave on the website to ensure your site caters effectively to new visitors. 
    • Returning visitors : Returning visitors are coming back to your site for a reason : either they like the content you’re creating or they want to make a purchase. Both instances are great. The more returning visitors, the better. 
    • Bounce rate : This is a measure of how many users leave your website without taking action. Different analytics tools measure this metric differently.
    • Session duration : This is the length of time users spend on your website, and it can be a great gauge of whether they find your site engaging. Especially when combined with the metric below. 
    • Pages per session : This measures how many different pages users visit on average. The more pages they visit and the longer users spend on your website, the more engaging it is. 
    • Traffic source : Traffic can come from a variety of sources (organic, direct, social media, referral, etc.) Tracking which sources generate the most traffic can help you analyse and prioritise your marketing efforts. 
    • User demographics : This broad metric tells you more about who the users are that visit your website, what device they use, what country they come from, etc. While the bulk of your website traffic will come from the countries you target, an influx of new users from other countries can open the door to new opportunities.

    Why do my traffic reports differ ?

    If you use more than one of the methods above to check your website traffic, you’ll quickly realise that every traffic report differs. In some cases, the reasons are obvious. Any tool that estimates your traffic without adding code to your website is just that : an estimate. Tools like Similarweb will never offer the accuracy of analytics platforms like Matomo and Google Analytics. 

    But what about the differences between these analytics platforms themselves ? While each platform has a different way of recording user behaviour, significant differences in website traffic reports between analytics platforms are usually a result of how each platform handles user privacy. 

    A platform like Google Analytics requires users to accept a cookie consent banner to track them. If they accept, great. Google collects all of the data that any other analytics platform does. It may even collect more. If users reject cookie consent banners, however, then Google Analytics can’t track these visitors at all. They simply won’t show up in your traffic reports. 

    That doesn’t happen with all analytics platforms, however. A privacy-focused alternative like Matomo doesn’t require cookie consent banners (apart from in the United Kingdom and Germany) and can therefore continue to track visitors even after they have rejected a cookie consent screen from Google Analytics. This means that virtually all of your website traffic will be tracked regardless of whether users accept a cookie consent banner or not. And it’s why traffic reports in Matomo are often much higher than they are in Google Analytics.

    Matomo doesn't need cookie consent, so you see a complete view of your traffic

    Given that around half (47.32%) of adults in the European Union refuse to allow the use of personal data tracking for advertising purposes and that 95% of people will reject additional cookies when it is easy to do so, this means you could have vastly different traffic reports — and be missing out on a significant amount of user data. 

    If you’re serious about using web analytics to improve your website and optimise your marketing campaigns, then it is essential to use another analytics platform alongside Google Analytics. 

    Get more accurate traffic reports with Matomo

    There are several methods to check website traffic. Some, like Similarweb, can provide estimates on your competitors’ traffic levels. Others, like Google Analytics, are free. But data doesn’t lie. Only privacy-focused analytics solutions like Matomo can provide accurate reports that account for every visitor. 

    Join over one million organisations using Matomo to accurately check their website traffic. Try it for free alongside GA today. No credit card required. 

  • iOS 17’s Impact on Marketing : Navigating Privacy Changes

    22 septembre 2023, par Erin — Analytics Tips, Marketing

    In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, staying up-to-date with the latest changes is paramount. One such significant change came on 18 September 2023, in the form of iOS 17, Apple’s latest operating system update. With iOS 17, Apple has introduced new privacy features that are set to have a profound impact on marketers and how they track and analyse user behaviour. 

    In this blog, we will explore what iOS 17 is, how it affects tracking, which tracking parameters are impacted, what remains unaffected, and most importantly, how marketers can future-proof their campaign tracking URLs.

    What is iOS 17 ?

    iOS 17 is the latest update to Apple’s mobile operating system, used on millions of iPhones worldwide. While iOS updates often bring new features and improvements, iOS 17 has made waves in the digital marketing community due to its emphasis on user privacy.

    How does iOS 17 affect tracking ?

    One of the key features of iOS 17 that concerns marketers is its impact on tracking. Apple’s new update aims to enhance user privacy by limiting the information that can be tracked and collected by third-party entities, particularly through query parameters in URLs. This means that certain tracking mechanisms that marketers have relied on for years are now rendered ineffective on iOS 17 devices.

    Campaign tracking URLs, also known as tracking parameters or UTM parameters, are special codes added to the end of URLs. They are used by marketers to track various aspects of a user’s interaction with a digital marketing campaign. These parameters provide valuable data, such as the source of traffic, the medium through which users arrived and specific campaign details.

    For example, with Matomo (mtm) tracking parameters, a campaign tracking URL might look like this :

    https://www.example.com/products/example_product?mtm_campaign=summer-sale

    Generated Campaign URL

    Understanding the impact of iOS 17 on campaign tracking URLs is essential for marketers who rely on this data to measure the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns.

    Which campaign tracking parameters are affected by iOS 17 ?

    Several tracking parameters commonly used by marketers will no longer work as expected on iOS 17. Some of these include :

    • Facebook (fbclid) : Employed for tracking Facebook advertising campaigns. 
    • Instagram (igshid) : Used to track user interactions with Instagram ads.
    • Google Ads (gclid) : Used to track Google Ads campaigns. 
    • Twitter (twclid) : Used to track user interactions with Twitter ads. 
    • Microsoft Ads (msclkid) : Employed for tracking Microsoft Ads campaigns. 
    • Mailchimp (mc_eid) : Used by Mailchimp for email campaign tracking. 

    These changes are significant, as they disrupt many of the common tracking methods that marketers rely on to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns.

    Which campaign tracking parameters are not affected by iOS 17 ?

    While many tracking parameters have been impacted, there are still some that remain unaffected on iOS 17. However, it’s important to note that the status of these parameters might change in the future as Apple continues to prioritise user privacy. Some of the tracking parameters that are still working as of now include :

    • Matomo (mtm) : Matomo campaign tracking parameters. 
    • Google Analytics (UTMs) : Google Analytics campaign tracking parameters.
    • Pinterest (epik) : Used for tracking Pinterest campaigns. 
    • Klaviyo (_kx) : Klaviyo for email marketing tracking. 
    • TikTok (tt-) : Used for tracking TikTok ad interactions. 
    • Hubspot (hsa) : Used for tracking Hubspot campaigns. 

    While these parameters offer some reprieve for marketers, it’s essential to keep a close eye on any potential changes in their functionality as Apple continues to roll out privacy-friendly features.

    How are Matomo users impacted ?

    Fortunately, Matomo, as a leading privacy-friendly web analytics solution, remains unaffected by the changes introduced by iOS 17. Specifically :

    For Matomo users who rely on mtm or UTMs

    If you’re using Matomo or GA tracking parameters, you can rest assured that iOS 17’s changes won’t affect your tracking capabilities in Matomo.

    Attention to gclids (Google Ads) and msclkid (Bing Ads)

    If you use Google Ads or Bing Ads tracking parameters with Matomo’s Advertising Conversion Export feature for tracking, iOS 17 presents a challenge. Your gclids and msclkids may not provide the same level of tracking accuracy on Apple mobile devices. This is a critical consideration, especially if your ad campaigns target mobile users.

    To stay informed about changes in the digital marketing landscape, including updates related to iOS 17, sign up for our newsletter where we regularly provide updates and insights on adapting your tracking and marketing strategies to ensure compliance and respect user privacy.

    How to future-proof your campaign tracking

    Given the impact of iOS 17 on tracking, it’s crucial for marketers to adapt and future-proof their campaign tracking strategies. Here are some steps you can take to mitigate the affects of iOS 17 on your marketing campaigns :

    Monitor platform updates

    Expect updates from advertising and analytics platforms in response to Apple’s privacy changes. These platforms are likely to develop alternative tracking methods or adapt existing ones to comply with iOS 17’s restrictions. Stay informed about these updates and incorporate them into your tracking strategy.

    Prioritise privacy-friendly tech stacks

    In the ever-evolving digital marketing landscape, it’s crucial to prioritise privacy-friendly tech stacks. Privacy-friendly tracking tools like Matomo are essential for maintaining trust and respecting user privacy.

    Matomo ensures the privacy of your users and analytics data. When using Matomo, you retain control of your data ; nobody else does. This commitment to user privacy aligns with the changing digital marketing landscape, where privacy is taking centre stage.

    Transition from affected campaign tracking parameters

    If you’ve been using tools like Mailchimp, whose campaign tracking URLs have been affected by iOS 17, consider transitioning to the campaign tracking URL parameters of your analytics solution. Whether you choose Matomo or Google Analytics, these solutions can help you understand how your email marketing campaigns are performing.

    Focus on data privacy compliance

    Embrace data privacy compliance practices. As privacy regulations evolve, it’s essential to prioritise transparency in data collection. Ensure that your tracking methods align with privacy standards to maintain trust with your audience.

    Regularly review and adapt

    The digital marketing landscape is dynamic, and iOS 17 is just one example of how quickly things can change. Regularly review your tracking methods and adapt to new developments in the industry. Staying agile and informed is key to long-term success.

    Marketers’ path forward

    iOS 17 has reshaped mobile user privacy, challenging marketers to adapt. While some tracking parameters are affected, savvy marketers can still thrive by embracing unique tracking solutions, staying informed about platform updates, and prioritising data privacy. 

    Explore Matomo for privacy-friendly analytics and navigate this evolving landscape successfully with our 21-day free trial – no credit card required. 

  • My SBC Collection

    31 décembre 2023, par Multimedia Mike — General

    Like many computer nerds in the last decade, I have accumulated more than a few single-board computers, or “SBCs”, which are small computers based around a system-on-a-chip (SoC) that nearly always features an ARM CPU at its core. Surprisingly few of these units are Raspberry Pi units, though that brand has come to exemplify and dominate the product category.

    Also, as is the case for many computer nerds, most of these SBCs lay fallow for years at a time. Equipped with an inexpensive lightbox that I procured in the last year, I decided I could at least create glamour shots of various units and catalog them in a blog post.

    While Raspberry Pi still enjoys the most mindshare far and away, and while I do have a few Raspberry Pi units in my inventory, I have always been a bigger fan of the ODROID brand, which works with convenient importers around the world (in the USA, I can vouch for Ameridroid, to whom I’ve forked over a fair amount of cash for these computing toys).

    As mentioned, Raspberry Pi undisputedly has the most mindshare of all these SBC brands and I often wonder why… and then I immediately remind myself that it has the biggest ecosystem, and has a variety of turnkey projects and applications (such as Pi-hole and PiVPN) that promise a lower barrier to entry — as well as a slightly lower price point — than some of these other options. ODROID had a decent ecosystem for awhile, especially considering the monthly ODROID Magazine, though that ceased publication in July 2020. The Raspberry Pi and its variants were famously difficult to come by due to the global chip shortage from 2021-2023. Meanwhile, I had no trouble procuring these boards during the same timeframe.

    So let’s delve into the collection…

    Cubieboard
    The Raspberry Pi came out in 2012 and by 2013 I was somewhat coveting one to hack on. Finally ! An accessible ARM platform to play with. I had heard of the BeagleBoard for years but never tried to get my hands on one. I was thinking about taking the plunge on a new Raspberry Pi, but a colleague told me I should skip that and go with this new hotness called the Cubieboard, based on an Allwinner SoC. The big value-add that this board had vs. a Raspberry Pi was that it had a SATA adapter. Although now that it has been a decade, it only now occurs to me to quander whether it was true SATA or a USB-to-SATA bridge. Looking it up now, I’m led to believe that the SoC supported the functionality natively.

    Anyway, I did get it up and running but never did much with it, thus setting the tone for future SBC endeavors. No photos because I gave it to another tech enthusiast years ago, whose SBC collection dwarfs my own.

    ODROID-XU4
    I can’t recall exactly when or how I first encountered the ODROID brand. I probably read about it on some enthusiast page or another circa 2014 and decided to try one out. I eventually acquired a total of 3 of these ODROID-XU4 units, each with a different case, 1 with a fan and 2 passively-cooled :

    Collection of ODROID-XU4 SBCs

    Collection of ODROID-XU4 SBCs

    This is based on the Samsung Exynos 5422 SoC, the same series as was used in their Note 3 phone released in 2013. It has been a fun chip to play with. The XU4 was also my first introduction to the eMMC storage solution that is commonly supported on the ODROID SBCs (alongside micro-SD). eMMC offers many benefits over SD in terms of read/write speed as well as well as longevity/write cycles. That’s getting less relevant these days, however, as more and more SBCs are being released with direct NVMe SSD support.

    I had initially wanted to make a retro-gaming device built on this platform (see the handheld section later for more meditations on that). In support of this common hobbyist goal, there is this nifty case XU4 case which apes the aesthetic of the Nintendo N64 :

    ODROID-XU4 N64-style case

    ODROID-XU4 N64-style case

    It even has a cool programmable LCD screen. Maybe one day I’ll find a use for it.

    For awhile, one of these XU4 units (likely the noisy, fan-cooled one) was contributing results to the FFmpeg FATE system.

    While it features gigabit ethernet and a USB3 port, I once tried to see if I could get 2 Gbps throughput with the unit using a USB3-gigabit dongle. I had curious results in that the total amount of traffic throughput could never exceed 1 Gbps across both interfaces. I.e., if 1 interface was dealing with 1 Gbps and the other interface tried to run at 1 Gbps, they would both only run at 500 Mbps. That remains a mystery to me since I don’t see that limitation with Intel chips.

    Still, the XU4 has been useful for a variety of projects and prototyping over the years.

    ODROID-HC2 NAS
    I find that a lot of my fellow nerds massively overengineer their homelab NAS setups. I’ll explore this in a future post. For my part, people tend to find my homelab NAS solution slightly underengineered. This is the ODROID-HC2 (the “HC” stands for “Home Cloud”) :

    ODROID-HC2 NAS

    ODROID-HC2 NAS

    It has the same guts as the ODROID-XU4 except no video output and the USB3 function is leveraged for a SATA bridge. This allows you to plug a SATA hard drive directly into the unit :

    ODROID-HC2 NAS uncovered

    ODROID-HC2 NAS uncovered

    Believe it or not, this has been my home NAS solution for something like 6 or 7 years now– I don’t clearly remember when I purchased it and put it into service.

    But isn’t this sort of irresponsible ? What about a failure of the main drive ? That’s why I have an external drive connected for backing up the most important data via rsync :

    ODROID-HC2 NAS backup enclosure

    ODROID-HC2 NAS backup enclosure

    The power consumption can’t be beat– Profiling for a few weeks of average usage worked out to 4.5 kWh for the ODROID-HC2… per month.

    ODROID-C2
    I was on a kick of ordering more SBCs at one point. This is the ODROID-C2, equipped with a 64-bit Amlogic SoC :

    ODROID-C2

    ODROID-C2

    I had this on the FATE farm for awhile, performing 64-bit ARM builds (vs. the XU4’s 32-bit builds). As memory serves, it was unreliable and would occasionally freeze up.

    Here is a view of the eMMC storage through the bottom of the translucent case :

    Bottom of ODROID-C2 with view of eMMC storage

    Bottom of ODROID-C2 with view of eMMC storage

    ODROID-N2+
    Out of all my ODROID SBCs, this is the unit that I long to “get back to” the most– the ODROID-N2+ :

    ODROID-N2+

    ODROID-N2+

    Very capable unit that makes a great little desktop. I have some projects I want to develop using it so that it will force me to have a focused development environment.

    Raspberry Pi
    Eventually, I did break down and get a Raspberry Pi. I had a specific purpose in mind and, much to my surprise, I have stuck to it :

    Original Raspberry Pi

    Original Raspberry Pi

    I was using one of the ODROID-XU4 units as a VPN gateway. Eventually, I wanted to convert the XU4 to something else and I decided to run the VPN gateway as an appliance on the simplest device I could. So I procured this complete hand-me-down unit from eBay and went to work. This was also the first time I discovered the DietPi distribution and this box has been in service running Wireguard via PiVPN for many years.

    I also have a Raspberry Pi 3B+ kicking around somewhere. I used it as a Steam Link device for awhile.

    SOPINE + Baseboard
    Also procured when I was on this “let’s buy random SBCs” kick. The Pine64 SOPINE is actually a compute module that comes in the form factor of a memory module.

    Pine64 SOPINE Compute Module

    Pine64 SOPINE Compute Module

    Back to using Allwinner SoCs. In order to make this thing useful, you need to place it in something. It’s possible to get a mini-ITX form factor board that can accommodate 7 of these modules. Before going to that extreme, there is this much simpler baseboard which can also use eMMC for storage.

    Baseboard with SOPINE, eMMC, and heat sinks

    Baseboard with SOPINE, eMMC, and heat sinks

    I really need to find an appropriate case for this one as it currently performs its duty while sitting on an anti-static bag.

    NanoPi NEO3
    I enjoy running the DietPi distribution on many of these SBCs (as it’s developed not just for Raspberry Pi). I have also found their website to be a useful resource for discovering new SBCs. That’s how I found the NanoPi series and zeroed in on this NEO3 unit, sporting a Rockchip SoC, and photographed here with some American currency in order to illustrate its relative size :

    NanoPi NEO3

    NanoPi NEO3

    I often forget about this computer because it’s off in another room, just quietly performing its assigned duty.

    MangoPi MQ-Pro
    So far, I’ve heard of these fruits prepending the Greek letter pi for naming small computing products :

    • Raspberry – the O.G.
    • Banana – seems to be popular for hobbyist router/switches
    • Orange
    • Atomic
    • Nano
    • Mango

    Okay, so the AtomicPi and NanoPi names don’t really make sense considering the fruit convention.

    Anyway, the newest entry is the MangoPi. These showed up on Ameridroid a few months ago. There are 2 variants : the MQ-Pro and the MQ-Quad. I picked one and rolled with it.

    MangoPi MQ-Pro pieces arrive

    MangoPi MQ-Pro pieces arrive

    When it arrived, I unpacked it, assembled the pieces, downloaded a distro, tossed that on a micro-SD card, connected a monitor and keyboard to it via its USB-C port, got the distro up and running, configured the wireless networking with a static IP address and installed sshd, and it was ready to go as a headless server for an edge application.

    MangoPi MQ-Pro components, ready for assembly

    MangoPi MQ-Pro components, ready for assembly

    The unit came with no instructions that I can recall. After I got it set up, I remember thinking, “What is wrong with me ? Why is it that I just know how to do all of this without any documentation ?”

    MangoPi MQ-Pro in first test

    MangoPi MQ-Pro in first test

    Only after I got it up and running and poked around a bit did I realize that this SBC doesn’t have an ARM SoC– it’s a RISC-V SoC. It uses the Allwinner D1, so it looks like I came full circle back to Allwinner.

    MangoPi MQ-Pro with more US coinage for scale

    MangoPi MQ-Pro with more US coinage for scale

    So I now have my first piece of RISC-V hobbyist kit, although I learned recently from Kostya that it’s not that great for multimedia.

    Handheld Gaming Units
    The folks at Hardkernel have also produced a series of handheld retro-gaming devices called ODROID-GO. The first one resembled the original Nintendo Game Boy, came as a kit to be assembled, and emulated 5 classic consoles. It also had some hackability to it. Quite a cool little device, and inexpensive too. I have since passed it along to another gaming enthusiast.

    Later came the ODROID-GO Advance, also a kit, but emulating more devices. I was extremely eager to get my hands on this since it could emulate SNES in addition to NES. It also features a headphone jack, unlike the earlier model. True to form, after I received mine, it took me about 13 months before I got around to assembling it. After that, the biggest challenge I had was trying to find an appropriate case for it.

    ODROID-GO Advance with case and headphones

    ODROID-GO Advance with case and headphones

    Even though it may try to copy the general aesthetic and form factor of the Game Boy Advance, cases for the GBA don’t fit this correctly.

    Further, Hardkernel have also released the ODROID-GO Super and Ultra models that do more and more. The Advance, Super, and Ultra models have powerful SoCs and feature much more hackability than the first ODROID-GO model.

    I know that the guts of the Advance have been used in other products as well. The same is likely true for the Super and Ultra.

    Ultimately, the ODROID-GO Advance was just another project I assembled and then set aside since I like the idea of playing old games much more than actually doing it. Plus, the fact has finally crystalized in my mind over the past few years that I have never enjoyed handheld gaming and likely will never enjoy handheld gaming, even after I started wearing glasses. Not that I’m averse to old Game Boy / Color / Advance games, but if I’m going to play them, I’d rather emulate them on a large display.

    The Future
    In some of my weaker moments, I consider ordering up certain Banana Pi products (like the Banana Pi BPI-R2) with a case and doing my own router tricks using some open source router/firewall solution. And then I remind myself that my existing prosumer-type home router is doing just fine. But maybe one day…

    The post My SBC Collection first appeared on Breaking Eggs And Making Omelettes.