No. of Recommendations: 1
I'm moving this to a new thread, since it will drift way off the original topic.
From Rayvt:
Of course! ;-)
Very diy.
Buy a used HP T620 or T520 or T630 thin client on ebay. Make sure you get one that includes the AC power brick/adapter, and 4GB-8GB ram, and an SSD.
like: https://www.ebay.com/itm/156460983475 or https://www.ebay.com/itm/326109395019
Or a new mini-PC with N100/N150 CPU. $100-$150. (Those are so cute I am tempted to buy one just because.)
I bought a couple T620's a while back for $35 each, incl shipping.
It takes a special power pack, but you can use a non-HP one by adding one resistor. It takes a non-standard SSD, which are available from Aliexpress pretty cheap. Add a USB pocket hard drive for more storage -- 16GB is pretty small.
I used to buy hp refurbished desktop(s) before I discovered the thin clients. You don't need much CPU power.
Install Debian Linux. Then write bash scripts to download data, do the screen calculations, and email you the results.The thin clients are interesting, but I was thinking either very low-power (e.g.: RPi 2020 or RPi-Zero-2W), or going for the NUC mini-PC's. I have to say I am not a Bash guy, so I would probably do this in Python and have a cron job running periodically.
--G
No. of Recommendations: 1
The thin clients are interesting, but I was thinking either very low-power (e.g.: RPi 2020 or RPi-Zero-2W), or going for the NUC mini-PC's.
I can tell you that a PI-zero-anything is not going to be powerful enough. Works fine for a pihole, but that's about it. A PI that is powerful enough and with enough RAM & storage is going to cost more than a used thin client. A well-configured PI is much more of a DIY project than a HP T620.
One of the mini-PC's would work, albeit 3X-4X more expensive. It'll probably have a more powerful CPU, but you don't really need all that much power. Many of these would be cheaper than a comparable PI.
I started off with a Pogoplug E02 ($10) as proof-of-concept and then upgraded to a T620 ($35). Start off cheap, upgrade when/if necessary, not much loss if you decide to ditch it.
I would probably do this in Python and have a cron job running periodically.
That would work. Have also seen people using R for financial screening stuff.
I have been banging bash & C for several decades and stuck with what I was conversant with.
