Posts Tagged ‘energy’

Exploring ESXi ARM Fling v2.0 with the Turing Pi Mini ITX Board

Tuesday, November 26th, 2024

As an avid enthusiast of VMware’s innovations, I’m diving headfirst into the ESXi ARM Fling v2.0, which is built on the robust VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 8.0.3b codebase. The ARM architecture has always intrigued me, and with this latest version, VMware has pushed the boundaries of what’s possible with ESXi on ARM devices. It’s a playground full of potential for anyone experimenting with lightweight, power-efficient infrastructures.

 

The Turing Pi Journey

After much anticipation, my Turing Pi Mini ITX boards have arrived! These boards are compatible with the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, offering a modular, scalable setup perfect for ARM experimentation. With a few Compute Module 4s ready to go, I’m eager to bring this setup to life. However, finding a suitable case for the Turing Pi board has proven to be a bit of a challenge.

Case Conundrum

While Turing Pi has announced an official ITX case for their boards, it’s currently on preorder and comes with a hefty price tag. For now, I’ve decided to go with a practical and versatile option: the Streamcom Mini ITX OpenBench case. Its open-frame design is functional, and it’ll keep the board accessible during testing and configuration.

I’m also considering crafting my own custom case. Using laser-cut wood or acrylic is an appealing option, offering the opportunity to create something unique and tailored to my specific requirements. But for now, the OpenBench case will do nicely as I explore the ESXi ARM Fling.

Why ESXi ARM Fling v2.0?

The ESXi ARM Fling project is an exciting venture for anyone who loves to experiment with virtualization. Running ESXi on ARM hardware offers several advantages:

  • Energy efficiency: ARM boards consume far less power compared to traditional x86 systems.
  • Cost-effectiveness: Affordable hardware like the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 makes it accessible to a wider audience.
  • Flexibility: The compact form factor of ARM devices is ideal for edge computing, IoT, or even small-scale home labs.

The v2.0 update introduces enhanced support, better performance, and bug fixes, making it an excellent choice for exploring the ARM ecosystem.

What’s Next?

With the hardware in hand and the ESXi ARM Fling v2.0 ready to install, I’m planning to dive into:

  1. Setting up and configuring the Turing Pi board with ESXi.
  2. Testing the system’s stability, performance, and scalability using multiple Raspberry Pi Compute Modules.
  3. Exploring practical use cases, such as lightweight Kubernetes clusters or edge computing applications.

I’ll share updates on the build process, challenges, and performance insights in future posts. For now, I’m excited to get started and see what this setup can achieve.

Stay tuned for more! If you’ve experimented with the ESXi ARM Fling or have tips for working with the Turing Pi board, I’d love to hear from you.

Post to Twitter

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in All, computing, ExpertsExchange, Hancock's VMware Half Hour, homelab, Raspberry Pi, vExpert, Virtualisation, Virtualization, VMware | Comments Off on Exploring ESXi ARM Fling v2.0 with the Turing Pi Mini ITX Board

Example Electricity Energy Usage Graphs

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

Here are some examples of the custom graphs which can be generated with Powometer Software connected to Wattson manufactured by DIY Kyoto


click the thumbnails to zoom the image

Post to Twitter

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in All, electricity, gadgets | Comments Off on Example Electricity Energy Usage Graphs

Real-Time Energy Usage on Blog

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

Real-time energy usage readout of electricity used in our house is now available for all to see. Average consumption is approx 3000 watts (3kW). If it increases to approx 6000 watts (6kW) then someone in the household has put the kettle or cooker on for tea! Between the hours of 12.30 – 7.30 GMT Economy 7 starts and in the winter the storage heaters turn on, so expect some high wattage readings between these hours.

Just refresh the web-page to see it change.

I blogged about this here.

Post to Twitter

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in All, house | Comments Off on Real-Time Energy Usage on Blog

Real-Time Energy Usage on Twitter

Monday, March 30th, 2009

I blogged about my gadget Wattson,[here] if you missed it.

Well with some super software from Crispin called Powometer over at myenergyusage.org, I can now link my Wattson to the Internet and update twitter on my energy usage!

UPDATE 2nd April 2009 Crispin has done some work that now allows me to show you all LIVE power usage in watts!

Post to Twitter

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in All, electricity, house, wattson | Comments Off on Real-Time Energy Usage on Twitter

Polar Bear Killer!

Saturday, October 27th, 2007

207kw
20.7kW (realtime reading of electricity being consumed at 1.30am 27/10/07)

Maybe I need to change the subject title, doesn’t seem very nice, and what’s this go to do with the FishHouse Blog. You’ll probably hear this term more and more, as we all strive for a greener planet and reduce our carbon foot prints! Has the penny dropped yet! But we all need electricity to run our fish houses, every year I see more and more people leave the hobby, and close fish houses, and it’s not surprising with rising energy costs. But don’t all hobbies cost money!!!?

To celebrate my big birthday coming up in November, I’ve purchased myself a present from Better Generation, it’s a Smart Electricity Meter called a Wattson by DIY Kyoto. I’ve already got a few power meters, that I purchased in October 2005, see my review here these record the power being used by an individual appliance, or if you use a four/six-way adaptor, you can measure combined power, I’ve been using these in my fish house for years. But want I wanted was a device that could measure total power consumed after the electricity meter before the consumer unit (fusebox), transmit it remotely to a display in the house, and finally output and record the information to a PC, so I can compare electricity consumption versus temperature in the fish house and outside during the winter and summer months. Also looking at the electricity used by our Economy 7 Storage and Immersion Heaters.

I pre-ordered this unit, at the beginning of October ’07, and it arrived yesterday it’s FANTASTIC!. I’m not going to write a review, because there our lots of fab reviews out there about the product, check Better Generation for one.

It’s a designer gadget with mood lighting that measures electicity consumed and outputs it to a PC.

Wattson01
The Wattson smart electricity meter showing 21,000 Watts (21kW) being used at 1.30am last night, when the storage heaters came on! Average consumption is about 3kW in the house. This is mainly the fish house and computers in the house, most other electrical appliances are negligible by comparison, but if high wattage appliance is turned-on, e.g. kettle, Wattson spots it! and flashes changes from purple flashing to red!

Post to Twitter

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in All, fish house | Comments Off on Polar Bear Killer!