More Undervalued Hardware Companions

This is a follow up to the Tiny Undervalued Hardware Companions article. While the original covered quite a lot of small valuable hardware companions – as time passed – I made friends with several more of them.

These are:

• Angle USB-B Adapters
• Gigabit LAN Adapter
• Inductive Phone Charger
• Additional Power Adapters
• Hardware PSU Switch
• Remote USB-C Microphone
• Small Powerful USB-C Chargers
• Smallest USB-A to USB-C Adapter
• Battery Dust Blower
• Tiny Bits
• Tiny Bits Electric Screwdriver
• Battery Soldering Iron
• NVMe SSD USB-C Case

Angle USB-B Adapters

After I started to Print on FreeBSD I noticed that the USB-B cables I have stick out quite far out of the back of my scanner – I did not wanted to bend them too hard – so I got an 90 angle adapters.

They also come as USB-C to USB-B adapters if needed.

You can find them for about $1.50 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the ANGLE USB-B ADAPTER keywords in their search.

Gigabit LAN Adapter

Numerous times I have found myself in the middle of some transfer which I did not wanted to break – and I needed additional LAN interface – this is where USB-C adapter comes handy.

More on FreeBSD is detected as RTL8251/8153 gigabit adapter and supported by the ue(4) driver.

FreeBSD # dmesg (...) ugen0.6: at usbus0 ure0 on uhub0 ure0: on usbus0 miibus0: on ure0 rgephy0: PHY 0 on miibus0 rgephy0: none, 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseT-FDX, 1000baseT-FDX-master, auto ue0: on ure0 ue0: Ethernet address: 00:e0:4c:68:00:81 ue0: link state changed to DOWN

You can get one for about $3 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the LAN USB-C GIGABIT keywords in their search.

Inductive Phone Charger

I usually attach some USB-C cable to charge my phone … but as I often need to check various notifications and reply to them – using phone attached to a cable was no fun at all … so I got inductive phone charger instead.

You can it for about $6 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the INDUCTIVE PHONE CHARGER keywords in their search.

Small Powerful USB-C Chargers

The times when you need a large PSU brick and a thick unmanageable cable to charge your 65W laptop are long gone.

I currently only own one laptop that I am not able to charge using this way – my 2011 ThinkPad W520 – this one needs at least 135W charger (from ThinkPad W510) – as the ‘dedicated’ one for W520 is even larger 170W PSU.

The white one is more compact and is able to give 65W of power on its USB-C port.

The larger black one is able to charge TWO laptops with 65W power draw each simultaneously.

You can get them for about $5 for the white one and $20 the black one – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the USB-C CHARGER keywords in their search.

Hardware PSU Switch

I usually ‘kill’ my AMD Based FreeBSD Desktop with a ON/OFF switch on its PSU – but not all PSUs have this switch – so you can get one ‘on the cable’ with this one.

You can get one for about $3 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the PSU SWITCH CABLE keywords in their search.

Remote USB-C Microphone

While Bluetooth mostly works for accessories that I pair with my phone – I prefer not to use Bluetooth on FreeBSD – as it sometimes can break the suspend/resume cycle. Pity that we do not name other protocols after kings from the past – as Bluetooth is named after the 10th century Scandinavian Viking king Harald Bluetooth who peacefully united Norway and Denmark.

Accidentally I also found a remote microphone that works flawlessly on FreeBSD.

You can get one for about $4 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the REMOTE USB-C MICROPHONE keywords in their search.

Additional Power Adapters

While I already had myself covered with various C13/C14 and C5/C6 adapter – I also find a different beast. USB-C to C7/C8 adapters.

You can get them for about $2 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the C7 C8 USB-C ADAPTER keywords in their search.

Smallest USB-A to USB-C Adapter

I have seen various adapter or cables from USB-A to USB-C but never such a tiny one.

It almost does not stick out of the port.

You can get one for about $2 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the USB-C ADAPTER keywords in their search.

Battery Dust Blower

From time to time I bought another compressed air to blow the dust out of my computers (and not only). Sometimes I used large car compressor – but that was very loud and was not at my hand reach – need to take everything with my to garage … not ideal … and buying more and more compressed air also seemed pointless.

Also accidentally I found a battery powered dust blower that I can charge with USB-C port – has 3 speeds – it is very powerful (as for such small device) at maximum speed – does the job it needs to do.

You can it for about $11 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the DUST BLOWER keywords in their search.

Tiny Bits

While I do 90% of the possible screws with my two screwdrivers – sometimes the screws you meet are smaller or with various different standards like TORX for example. This can be easily addressed with some small set of additional tiny bits for such occasions.

You can get such set for about $7 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the BITS PRECISION keywords in their search.

Tiny Bits Electric Screwdriver

… and while on the bits and screw topic … I also added electric screwdriver to the set – you get to appreciate it when there are a lot of screws 🙂

Its also charged by the USB-C port for convenience.

You can get one for about $11 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the ELECTRIC SCREWDRIVER keywords in their search.

Battery Soldering Iron

After I got the Electric Screwdriver and Dust Blower I was curious if there are any other small similar tools … and I also found Battery Powered Soldering Iron 🙂

While it is not as ‘hot’ as regular 110V/230V attached ones – its a lot more suitable for precision jobs.

Also charged on USB-C port.

You can get one for about $11 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the BATTERY SOLDERING IRON keywords in their search.

NVMe SSD USB-C Case

To be honest I was even surprises that something like that exists – I expected SATA SSD to USB-C cases … but not for NVMe.

This one also works really great under FreeBSD UNIX.

FreeBSD # dmesg (...) ugen1.2: at usbus1 umass0 on uhub1 umass0: on usbus1 umass0: SCSI over Bulk-Only; quirks = 0x4000 umass0:6:0: Attached to scbus6 da0 at umass-sim0 bus 0 scbus6 target 0 lun 0 da0: Fixed Direct Access SPC-4 SCSI device da0: Serial Number 012345678913 da0: 400.000MB/s transfers da0: 1953514MB (4000797360 512 byte sectors) da0: quirks=0x2 FreeBSD # usbconfig (...) ugen1.2: at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=SUPER (5.0Gbps) pwr=ON (224mA) FreeBSD # lsblk -d DEVICE SIZE MODEL ada0 7.3T Samsung SSD 870 QVO 8TB ada1 233G Samsung SSD 860 EVO mSATA 250GB cd0 0B Optiarc DVD RW AD-7740H da0 1.9T SSK SSK Storage - 9T TOTAL SYSTEM STORAGE FreeBSD # diskinfo -v da0 da0 512 # sectorsize 2048408248320 # mediasize in bytes (1.9T) 4000797360 # mediasize in sectors 0 # stripesize 0 # stripeoffset 249038 # Cylinders according to firmware. 255 # Heads according to firmware. 63 # Sectors according to firmware. SSK SSK Storage # Disk descr. 012345678913 # Disk ident. umass-sim0 # Attachment No # TRIM/UNMAP support 0 # Rotation rate in RPM Not_Zoned # Zone Mode FreeBSD # sensors.sh (...) DISKS/TEMPERATURES ------------------------------------ smart.ada0.airflow_temperature_cel: 33.0C smart.ada1.airflow_temperature_cel: 42.0C smart.da0.temperature: 33.0C

Even the temperature and S.M.A.R.T information is passed thru – really nice.

I have put some 2TB NVMe inside for the test – its displayed as SSK SSK Storage on the lsblk(8) output.

You can get one for about $11 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the SSK USB NVME keywords in their search.

Summary

Another set of accessories and tools that make life easier – feel free to share what other ones make your life easier.

Regards.

EOF