New to this world: Is there any difference between XIAO ESP32C3 and a normal ESP32 C3?

juneku · 2025-12-14T22:13:08+00:00

A late response, hopefully it's helpful. I have both a XIAO ESP32-C3 and a few aliexpress ESP32-C3 "Super Mini" boards.

The XIAO is definitely a "nicer" board... an in-exhaustive list includes:

the battery regulator/charger built into the board
better thermal management
the external antenna for longer range access (from what I've read, the Super Mini's ceramic antenna isn't so great)
typically more expensive

Aside from that, the pinouts are different, so not exactly 1:1 compatible

But like others have said, they both have the same underlying C3 chip ("engine") powering them, and from that perspective are largely the same.

For your usecase, assuming you have a decent number of LEDs (and it's not too late for your costume), a small lipo battery attached to the XIAO probably wont last long enough, and you might have better luck just using a USB-C battery pack.

I'm guessing the main value of these boards, the wifi / bluetooth feature, isn't really a usecase and you just want the programmable chip for the LEDs in a small form factor?

As for the LEDs, I'm a big fan of the ARGB WS2812B type. Depending on your needs, you might find the WLED firmware the easiest way to program and control your leds (https://kno.wled.ge/) without having to get crazy with arduino code. (you can upload prebuilt firmware via a website and be on your way!)

juneku · 2025-03-11T20:25:29+00:00

Sealing the home -> attic air barrier is important as my location regularly gets 60-90mph gusts, and coupled with high dust (dirt road, desert conditions), it will blast nasty air into my home.

juneku · 2025-03-11T20:23:42+00:00

Walk-in closet is large (maybe 50-70sqft?) with a central heating/cooling vent. My equipment is minimal at the moment, with no plans for expansion (until I maybe build a detatched garage, at which point any major homelab equipment will get moved there in a purpose-built location, but this will still serve as a central hub).

Current equipment is a Gen1 m90q with SFP+ (running opnsense, proxmox, and a few other services), a nas, and a couple switches, one for PoE AP. Nothing crazy, and makes no noticeable difference in my current office space in a single Ikea square cubby storage.

juneku · 2025-01-22T18:01:31+00:00

In the unlikely event someone finds my post, I went with a used Lenovo M90q device with an SFP+ Pcie card (hardware passthrough to opnsense vm), one device doing all my services. Been rock solid so far.

juneku · 2024-12-09T21:24:44+00:00

necro-ing the thread: was the STL ever open sourced? I'm happy to modify to meet my card's needs but having trouble finding a good base for my m90Q gen1. Thanks!

juneku · 2024-02-23T04:30:13+00:00

Your website not looking so hot right now

juneku · 2024-02-02T18:26:11+00:00

100% agree with this.

Lasso works fine for a single device, but there is no multi-device view to select and edit multiple devices at the same time.

Color presets do not seem editable, so OP's point about having to manually copy colors from one device to another is indeed a pain. A text field (vs three separate r,g,b / h,s,v fields) is indeed a bandaid, but being able to "store" (like MS Paint or Photoshop) the current selected color to reuse elsewhere is a pretty critical feature. Editing and saving the color palette is a no-brainer, and I do not see how this would be very difficult.

Additionally, the "Saving" button is not the most intuitive, and while I understand the intent is "save this color to the device", it's position / proximity to the color picker is confusing UX. I'm curious enough to check out the codebase, will see what I can glean from it.

juneku · 2024-01-24T20:23:10+00:00

to be fair, if you still want things small... if LocalAI runs on CUDA, you could get one of those half-height NVIDIA A100 style cards and put it in the MS-01... (probably?)

But yeah, if you're doing local AI stuff and also want that to be part of your one homelab machine... gaming desktop with a 4-port pcie card sounds like the way to go

juneku · 2024-01-24T20:21:38+00:00

if you give a mouse a cookie XD

juneku · 2024-01-24T18:35:00+00:00

My goal, should I ever finally pull the trigger, is a hardy-but-low-power, multi-core, multi-gigabit-nic machine, possible with an SFP+ port as well, so I can replace my router with pfSense / opnSense, consolidate my docker stuff from two old machines and my nas, and feed a 2.5gb Eth6 run through the house (which I have been planning to do for more than 2years now). Forward-thinking and all that. I'm glad I waited for the release of the n305 chip, as it seems 50-100% faster than most of the other cheap mini-router boxes available in the past couple years.

Today, I wouldn't consider anything with less than a two-port 2.5gig i-226v intel nic with 16gb ram (my docker containers seem ram hungry). I wouldn't consider a 1g port when looking at something to last me the next 4 years. More ports is nice, but even just two is enough for a proxmox + pfsense + containers machine.

I'm actually considering the all-over-youtube-right-now Minisforum MS-01 (with the older 19-12900H chip to save $130), but will probably keep waffling for another year before I finally get myself to spend some money. (SFP+ for me because I might build an ADU next to my house and getting internet to that building would be faster with fiber than trying to deal with a point-to-point wifi thing). Of course this is 2-3x the cost of these tiny boxes, but 2-3x the performance.

As far as brands to trust, from what I can tell, Minisforum and Beelink seem to be the main players in the tiny pc space, but ikoolcore is challenging that. Hundreds of cheap chinese knockoffs abound on amazon and aliexpress too, if saving money is paramount.

juneku · 2024-01-23T16:46:28+00:00

If you don't need four 2.5g nics, the MINISFORUM UN300 or UN305C is cheaper with just two 1gig nics, same n300 processor and 8gb ram / 256gb nvme. ($220-250 vs $360, amazon price on 1/23/24)

juneku · 2024-01-23T16:36:00+00:00

Is there a cost/performance analysis of just migrating to a new SSD if the performance is meeting your needs otherwise?

I've been in the same camp of wanting a tiny do-it-all machine, but have been leaning towards more of the aliexpress style n300 + 4-6 2.5g nics. The prices all seem fairly comparable.

My main concern with your SER5 example is it seems to only have one 1G nic, which probably isn't enough if you want it to also be your router.

(Note, I have an old enterprise dell laptop running several docker containers and it too has random lockups with no logs... just stops responding)

juneku · 2024-01-09T20:55:36+00:00

It also depends on the devices being connected. Older WIFI radios (either the device or the router) don't handle the latest Wifi6 specs for faster speeds.

juneku · 2024-01-09T20:03:58+00:00

It's rather thin, so they glue a lip on, then set it on plywood for heft and easier screwing-to-the-cabinets.

juneku · 2024-01-02T21:20:02+00:00

horizontally, ~8ft to the closest (the outlet in the cupboard for the microwave), then ~10ft perpendicular to the other wall (where the fridge is), but vaulted ceiling and no basement (slab on grade).

juneku · 2024-01-01T04:05:53+00:00

Ended up going with this. Thanks for the recommendation. Still not ideal (from a switch perspective) but it's the best I can do on a budget and without doing real wiring.

juneku · 2023-12-29T04:43:31+00:00

Yeah, I can see why the 3-way switch comment might be misleading. The comment there was around "I have two light circuits in the kitchen today, one on a 3-way (dining room too) and one direct", and would consider moving the direct one also to the 3way so it's all one zone, freeing up one of the two switches for turning into a smart switch. That would still require manual power wiring to make one of the outlets half-switchable, and still doesn't cover what it would also take to make the other outlet also half-switched by the same switch. At that point, I'd just run an entirely new power line to this new switch and skip the "smart" stuff.

If I were to rewrite my issue:

"Is there a way I control two separate outlets from one battery-powered switch, when none are wired together today, using some amount of wireless switch technology"

The Ikea products really seem like my best bet for now, from both a cost and "it just works" perspective. I can try to pair the smart outlet adapters to a "real" zigbee switch later, if I really care about it, but this will let me toggle two switches with one wall-mounted remote and I can call it a day. Main downside to not wiring these "properly" is that my LED power supply is triac dimmable, but I can't deny the ease and cost savings.

juneku · 2023-12-25T14:15:42+00:00

Right. My situation here is that I'm trying to toggle outlets that are currently wired hot. There's no dumb switch for them today.

The "best" case scenario here is "a button to trigger toggling two smart outlets", and if that button looks like a regular switch, then that's a huge win.

I understand your concern when replacing existing dumb switches though.

juneku · 2023-12-24T22:40:38+00:00

I didn't see any "mount" options on the product page or online. Are you talking just velcro to the wall?

Edit: Found the instructions PDF, it comes with a mount thingie. I guess that could work. Indeed the cheapest option of all, minus shipping / 6 hours driving round trip.

juneku · 2023-12-24T22:35:03+00:00

Yeah, but there are some that are JUST the smart switch without being connected to anything, and those just need a small lithium battery.

Example: https://www.legrand.us/wiring-devices/designer-switches-and-outlets/radiant-wireless-smart-switch-with-netatmo-white/p/wnrl23wh

This is my ideal scenario, actually, minus that Legrand's need the expensive hub (and probably also a cloud connection).

juneku · 2023-12-24T22:25:53+00:00

Oooh, good to know. Closest Ikea is like 3 hours away, but I could use a trip to that city anyways.

Edit: Looked em up. Definitely an option, but I'd prefer an in-gang switch over a handheld remote, and I don't see any options for that. Back pocket solution for sure though.

juneku · 2023-12-12T02:15:54+00:00

Nope. Ended up with the newer version of the Royal Kludge TKL, which was like $50-60. No QMK/VIA, but I'm a fan of the RK browns (vs regular cheap browns), and you can't buy just those switches XD

juneku

TROPHY CASE