Salvaged ITX Motherboard Running Ubuntu

Recently, while working on a web based access control system, the manufacture deemed the main web server portion of the system bad. Since the board was a year old, warranty was out and the manufacture would not repair it. A new board was ordered and installed. Instead of throwing the old board out, I decided to see if it could be brought back to life.

The board is a MX280NI made by BCM. The processor is the Intel Atom N2800 1.86GHz and is max out with 4 Gig of RAM. Since the board is Mini-ITX form factor (6.7″x6.7″), its pretty small.

A nice feature of this motherboard is the versatile power connections and input voltages. A standard 12 vdc plug can be used to power this motherboard. A connection for a separate battery backup is also provided. The Voltage range is 9 – 19 vdc.

After a little trouble shooting, I found the solid state hard drive was bad. After the drive was removed, the motherboard would boot using a windows 10 USB boot drive. A replacement drive was found for $20.00 on amazon and arrived the next day.

After downloading the Ubuntu ISO from their website, it was loaded on the SSD. Flrig and WSJT-X were available in the Ubuntu Software app.

Even though the processor is not a power house, Ubuntu seems to be running well. No final plans have been made for this board yet and for the now will be used to test Amateur Radio programs. As different programs are tested posts will be made.

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