Etcher Pro onboard storage? Network access?

Does the Etcher Pro have any onboard storage where we can save image files to it and then not have to use a source device in slot 1?

This would allow us to use all 16 slots for programming instead of source in 1 slot and 15 slots for programming the devices?

As a follow on question, with the SD, microSD and USB on each slot, is it possible to use all three on a single slot simultaneously? Or only one at a time?

Last question - can it be used over the network say in a browser? Or with network attached storage for the images?

Hey @shawaj,

  • There is very little onboard storage so you can’t really store an image and therefore users don’t have access to it. I see your point but your other option is to use a custom URL (we are working to improve the UX there so you can use shorter urls and also save them).

  • For the second questions, unfortunately, you can only use one drive type per slot for hardware reasons but you can mix drive types in different slots

  • We are working to expand network capabilities when we’ll release daisy-chaining where you’ll be able to use EtcherPro via a browser or Etcher on your computer. It’s difficult to estimate when we’ll release this but it shouldn’t be too long.

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I received my “beta” USA device earlier this week and finally got a chance to fire it up today and while it was sitting idle allegedly in “sleep” mode I kept hearing a little chirping/whirring, and I finally realized it was the fan in the EtcherPro spinning up every second for a split second. I’m hoping this is just a PWM or digital/analog output quirk that can be fixed in the firmware so that it doesn’t ACTUALLY spin up unless the temperature is getting above some nominal level AND the device is actually being utilized, that said the power supply also doesn’t appear to be fully idling, possibly because the microcontroller isn’t going into a deep sleep with the touchscreen wired to an “interrupt” to wake it up, so the power supply was fairly warm even sitting with the microcontroller not really doing anything other than “sleeping” and the screen off/sleeping.

So yeah… only hours after unboxing the EtcherPro I popped the hood and I discovered that there IS a microSD slot on the PCB!!!

I also discovered that the fan cable’s connector wasn’t fully seated on the pins of the board, so I pushed that on fully and I’ll see if that helps with the noise while idle. My original placement after plugging it in and going through the initial steps of connecting it to my WiFi so I can test the URL fetch functionality was on a carpeted floor, so that may have also contributed to the build up of heat in the power supply, but I’ll try and take some measurements with my Flir One while idle and during a heavy imaging session to see how warm and loud it gets.

@konmouz could this microSD slot be used for additional local storage or is it only for recovery of the EtcherPro firmware if an online update fails for some reason?

Hey @dragon788, thanks for feedback!

  • We are aware of the fan noise issue. It doesn’t affect the effectiveness of the fan but the noise might be annoying, so we are working to find a better PWM configuration. Should be fixed with a software update.

  • The extra microSD on the PCB is just for flashing the compute module if need be, and unfortunately can’t be used for storage.

  • The device is only going into a power saving sleep mode and not a deep sleep. The logic behind that is that EtcherPro is constantly looking for new updates while in sleep mode.

Can’t wait for an update for the fan, I tend to have sensitive hearing and pick up on things like CRT whine or a laptop power adapter that is starting to die, so the fan noise was killing me.

It’s too bad the uSD slot can’t be dual utilized, but it makes sense since to boot/recover from it there are probably some direct connections to interrupt/boot pins on the compute module.

I hope in the future the update check process could be set to once a day or once a week (or a pushed out event since polling is inefficient and produces a lot of unnecessary traffic, ESPECIALLY if the device never ends up going online), and that seems like a lot of wasted energy just to stay up to date.