After my efforts to add network attached storage to my Asus router failed (well, it did work, but only with USB 1.1 speed) I started looking for a flexible solution to attach a large hard drive to my network.

After looking at some strange IDE NAS drive enclosures on eBay, I came across the Addonics NAS Adapter - a small network dongle that provides the missing link between ethernet and USB. The feature list on the website was perfect, as the unit supports both SMB ("Samba" = Windows networking) and FTP and on top of that has a build in Bit Torrent client. For $55 the price was right and I ordered the adapter from ShopAddonics.com.

I have been using the NAS Adapter for a week now and I am quite impressed. I am using the unit with a 500GB Hitachi SATA drive in an USB 2.0 enclosure and the adapter recognizes and uses the hard drive flawlessly. Over SMB I get speeds around 8MB/sec when using Ethernet and around 2MB/sec over Wifi, which is in line with the expected speed for those networks. The NAS adapter runs smoothly even under heavy load (4 torrents, uploading to the HDD via wifi and streaming a video off the drive at he same time is no problem). The unit is entirely controlled via a web interface and can act both as a DHCP client or server. Both SMB and FTP allow multiple users and access levels.

The build in bit torrent client is reasonably fast and can handle up to 4 downloads simultaneously. Performance is quite solid and the unit is capable to resume downloads after a reboot (even though the manual claims differently).



Overall I am quite impressed with this small device and was curious to find out what's ticking on the inside. Unfortunately, the casing had no visible way of opening it and I didn't want to break the small device, so I did some Internet research.

What I found:

This device is an OEM product, meaning that Addonics only does QA control, but did not develop this unit. The 'official' part number seems to be WANSER-R. I was not able to find the actual manufacturer, but on the inside seems to be a RDC R3210 system on a chip. the R3210 is a 32bit RISC processor, running at 133Mhz. It has buildin ethernet and USB, plus dual DMA controllers, making it quite fitting for the job.

You can find the specs sheet of the R3210 in PDF here.

My Addonics NAS Adapter came with firmware 1.33c, which was stable but I found a 1.42b update on the this site (look for WANSER-R). Make sure you read the included readme. The 1.42b appears to be solid as well and I've noticed an increase in BitTorrent performance. Unfortunately, Addonics has not made any of the recent firmware updates available through their site. The unit appears to be linux based and there is an OpenWRT build for the R3210, but I did not make any attempt at flashing this unit with 3rd party firmware.

While browsing through eBay recently I noticed that one of my old eBay favorites is on sale again, after being unavailable for several years.

The Russian DRSB-01 Geiger counter, a minimalistic Russian "main stream" radioactive radiation detector, stuck somewhere in 1983. I recall ordering mine several years ago, from the same seller, just for the fact that it was unique, cheap and reminded me a bit of my cold war kid childhood.

The device turns our to be reasonable well made, with a great sensitivity, making it a possible cheap tool for weekend antique hunters. While it has no scales, you can hear an audible click every time it detects radiation (just like in the movies!). It also has a green LED which also indicates the detection visibly and a red LED that appears be the GTFO, as it comes on at a certain detection rate. I tried mine with an old (non-Coleman) camping gas lantern "sock", which was supposed to be radioactive and the DRSB-01 goes totally nuts in direct contact with the plastic bag it was in.



Found the video above on Youtube. While I paid a bit less for my DRSB-01, since I bought it years ago, even at the current prices this seems to be a good value if you have a need for a simple detector style Geiger counter. The only annoyance is that my unit emits a high frequency sound that can get annoying if you can hear it.

The following item I found recently while browsing thru the vintage video game section of eBay. While the item is far from being vintage (Made in 2007), I was fascinated and decided to invest $20 bucks in this console, claiming to be a Nintendo Entertainment System clone and capable of playing NES cartridges.

The item arrived in a colorful box with instructions on the back. A/V cord and 2 controllers were included. The console itself is quite small (about 4 stacked CD cases) and very light, but the plastic case is well made and also the controllers are fairly decent. All cords are a comfortable 5 ft long, including the controllers.

After hooking the console up and inserting a Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt cartridge ($0.59 @ local GameCrazy) I push the power button and the console really seems to do what it claims: pretend to be a NES system. The picture quality is 'authentic' good and the sound, while a bit muted, is mostly accurate.

After playing Super Mario Bros for a bit I decided to try out Duck Hunt and got the original Nintendo Zapper from 1985 ($2.99 @ local GameCrazy). Since the unit has the original NES connectors, connecting was no problem and the Zapper worked like a charm. After trying a few different NES games, the only minor problems I could find was in Kirby, the sound seems a bit off and some minor graphics errors appear on the edge of the screen, but did not affect the game play.

Overall the unit is quite nice, on the inside a single custom chip seems to do all the work. For $20 bucks quite a travel back in time.

Want your own? Check out these eBay search results: