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Asus R2H



A nifty little thing. Its a x86 tablet, shaped roughly like a VHS tape, weighing about two pounds. I got it for 30 Euro on ebay (seems to be common for one in decent condition).
Its mostly useless, considering the poor processor, rather high power consumption and generally old hardware. But its cool, and actually has some potential. I used it as a Server at the 32C3. With Ethernet, Wi-Fi and USB Ports usage as Server, AP, Router, UMTS gateway and such things come to mind.

Features


Tested with Arch Linux (a little bit), and used with Devuan in 2015 and 2016.
  • Asus R2H, 7.2" tablet style PC compatible
    • Intel 910GML Express
      • Intel Celeron M 353 0.9GHz
      • 768MB DDR2 PC2-5300 (256MB on board, 512MB module)
      • 60GB 1.8" hard drive with IDE ZIF interface
        • I tried two other drives with the same interface, but none worked
      • Intel GMA 900
        • acceleration $file, 3D $file
    • I/O
      • 7.2" matte, 800x480 resistive touchscreen
        • touch $file, brightness $file
      • Wi-Fi $file, Bluetooth $file, Broadband $file, GPS $file (killswitch $file)
        • GPS lacks support as far as I could find out
      • Fast Ethernet $file
      • 2 USB 2.0 $file, 1 USB 2.0 mini $file
      • Headphone $file, Speakers $file, Mic $file
      • AV out $file, proprietary mini VGA $file
      • card reader $file
      • fingerprint reader $file
      • 1.3MP camera $file
    • Power
      • cpufreq only via p4mod
        • count that as a "no", it does not improve the power consumption at all
      • S2R $file, S2D $file
      • 7.4V two- and four-cell batteries
        • readily available on ebay, but expensive
        • rebuilding is easy (see below)
      • overall power consumption is around >10W
        • I consider that a pretty poor performance for such a small and slow device
      • ACPI events $file, keys $file

Recycle them batteries


Batteries for the R2H are available on ebay, but rather expensive. Even the small pack costs about 30 euro. And I would assume that those are years old warehouse stock and half flat anyway.
Luckily, rebuilding old packs is (technically) quite easy for the R2H. Just replace the Cells and there you go. Except that the very flat prismatic cells used for these packs are made of pure, refined unobtanium. Nothing to be found on ebay, ali or banggood. Huh.
In the end, I just ripped the pack apart and cut a hole in the back and build a small compartment around out of the cut-offs and some plastic scraps. It fits 4 18650 cell, which are around twice as thick as the original cells. Looks ugly, but is cheap, easy to build and provides roughly the same performance.

Disposition


Given away for a project. Link may come if the project gets done.
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