Ivan Kuleshov

For the past few weeks, I’ve been working on a solution based on Nvidia Spark (and other on-premises tech) to save on cloud tokens without sacrificing quality whenever possible. It’s a bit of a wild vibe-coding at this stage, but it seems like this is how every project starts these days. Such are the times… Repost please if you’re interested in this solution. Feedback is appreciated! Solution uses several approaches simultaneously to get the most out of the local device. But at the same time, you don’t have to suffer through very long waiting times or stupid responses from LLMs.

@Hadmut Yes, that was the plan

@Merocle Makes sense. But occupies one of the rare USB ports on modern flat notebooks and mobiles. Does it allow to power notebooks and mobiles while giving them ethernet over usb?

This is a bit serious. I really need your feedback. Long story short, I think Ethernet is a relic of the past and should be confined to walls and floors. Modern laptops and many devices are moving away from it in favor of Wi-Fi, which isn’t always convenient and ends up requiring adapters and dongles on desks. So I thought, what if we made a router with USB ports that essentially act as USB-to-Ethernet adapters inside the router? In my personal experience, this would be super cool for certain use cases. For example, at a conference booth, WiFi or Ethernet could be used as an uplink to the router. And the router could have a VPN set up to the company network. For a HomeLab, this is a pretty neat setup as a demo stand. And it would work just fine as a travel router, too. Would you like to see a device like this come to life? This could very well be the first hardware product from developers, made for developers. I mean, from JetBrains. On the technical side, I have some rough ideas for features and unique capabilities. For example, automatic detection of the WAN port regardless of where you plug in the network (the device has 2 Ethernet ports). I’d be happy to dive into the details in the near future. I’d appreciate it if you shared this post - if only because it adds a bit of variety to your feed, which I’m sure is full of AI content and news about AI, offering something tangible and practical.

(a) update was installed overnight I thought they wanted to simplify the numbering system last time 🙃

@Old_winter It's in the description Usb-c ports here for network connection for end devices

@Merocle This has existed for ages. My old router from like 20 years ago had Usb ports for storage and printers. I never used it.

@CanDemi75349162 There’s no need to use cables longer than 2 meters. This is a last-mile device. It connects to an Ethernet port, and from there, a USB-C cable connects to the end devices.

@Merocle you want raw speed & reliability you go for ethernet. this is basically a hub/docking station. instead of eth now you need usb cables. best of luck extending those further than 2m. if within a rack why not just buy a 2.5/5/10gbps SW with real rack/lab backplane speed betwn ports.

@dothebart making the device open source as much as possible :)

@Merocle Ok, so we taught people not to plug in thumb drives they found on the parking lot, but now they should plug into this? ;-)

@MilenialFulcrum Simple usb to ethernet inside for back compatibility. Four of them. So it's like usual ethernet router but with adapters to USB. And more control

@Merocle I was asking because I read the description and it sort sounded like that device but with more ports. Do you simply want the USB C directly on the router? Most home routers are not near to the desk work areas

Do you remember the days when salespeople used to proofread their own emails and actually write them themselves?

@wasfuernmuell Router. It will have Wan port for uplink and DHCP for internal network

@Merocle so a switch but with usb? a router is something else… won’t work with nac.

@AndreaBarisani @dmatos Thank you! I will check

@Merocle @dmatos We have an open design you can adapt if you desire: github.com/usbarmory/usba…

@digitaljarhead I thought about openwrt. And make it open source (if possible, sometimes because of the CPU datasheets it's not allowed)

@Merocle make it run Opnsense and take my money!

@MilenialFulcrum That's not a dock station but router. All is in the description. Like last mile device for network on the working table

@Merocle This idea but with multiple ports?

@Jerome04475418 The use case not to replace Ethernet completely, just last mile (2 meters to devices)

@Merocle USB cables are short. Range comes with ethernet. So it feels easier to attach a USB to Ethernet adapter at the end of these long rj45. These adapters are dirt cheap so it would not be too difficult to create hard rj45 to USB cables

@jwkicklighter I don't offer to use USB instead of Ethernet in the the building. Only on working place

@Merocle My first thought is: good luck running that across an office building without power/connection issues

@shrimpala No, it's on the description :) You can connect few devices via USB to the Router

@Merocle So a docking station? My main monitor does this all for free: 60W PD, Gigabit Ethernet via USB 3.0 Dongle, peripherals, DP over USB-C 4k@120hz all over a single USB-C cable to the MBP. Seriously feels like the future.

Yes, PoE is also an option, but PD won't work (the power output is too low). I'm leaning more toward a high-wattage power supply and PD on all USB ports. Plus, the router will be able to provide statistics and information on PD, and there will be more flexibility than with just a switch and adapters.

@Merocle So, basically a regular router with a couple of these? No PoE though.

Nvidia is more Open AI than OpenAI

Wow, I think that was back in kindergarten. But no 😭 Do you remember when you joined X? I do! #MyXAnniversary

@geerlingguy @eevblog It’s surprising that someone who describes themselves as a ‘creator’ can’t create a preview image. I actually feel sorry for him

@Merocle @eevblog That thumbnail performed well, giving that video outlier performance on his channel

What an arsehole. Direct ripoff of @geerlingguy 's thumbnail.