tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2725467917923006212024-03-14T03:43:39.243-07:00NAVNi-StuffNAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-12106465028475389922019-10-26T12:41:00.001-07:002019-10-28T15:08:00.642-07:00DIY LI-Ion Powerwall<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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Some time ago I got the opportunity to create a powerwall (or more specifically a 'solar generator') for a local scouting group.</div>
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They were donated some solar panels but did not have any means to store this solar power and wield at their desired time (mostly during food prep and during night time).</div>
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So I started collecting old laptop batteries and e-bike batteries. </div>
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Begun the arduous process of dismanteling these, testing them and sorting them.</div>
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I eventually ended up creating a 7s22p battery.</div>
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Bill Off Material:</div>
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154 18650 batteries</div>
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Power inverter</div>
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Solar charger</div>
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MT50</div>
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AC Socket</div>
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DC socket (12V and 5V)</div>
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Reason for the metal enclosure</div>
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The true nature of the this powerwall is rather to be a solar generator to be taken along during a scouting camp. So I still needed to keep it somewhat mobile but safe to use and most importantly protect the users in case something does go wrong with this DIY setup.</div>
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<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-83330668769079411912017-12-08T05:00:00.000-08:002019-02-22T15:29:05.970-08:00My IOT garage - the componentsOne of the gripes I have with my garage is that I have no way of checking whether the garage doors are closed or not.<br />
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Why would this be an issue? Well it happened before that one of the remotes get accidentally hit and one of my garage doors opens up without me knowing it. As I do not have a line of sight onto the garage doors from my house, I have no way of checking without actually walking up to my garage and seeing if it is closed or not.<br />
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Also, garage doors are not really known for their security, if somebody forces up one of the garage doors, I will not know until it is too late.<br />
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A second issue with the garage doors is that I only can open them with my remotes. The keypad I used to have was broken and I took it away, as just pushing the up arrow opened up my garage doors 😨<br />
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So what components am I planning to use:<br />
A raspberry pi in a case that can be mounted on a DIN rail.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4kMSXEPiYCZ6P8Dyz0K2cOJYBWw2rVJ7dzRx_Yo7fbDnKLI1g39ThQ5AITDDCh2ynfpKLSYHOu9hBS0rY6fw2ofx5Ev5RjJ63U0mysEF7SRMrbhUs8GRonJTV8xjwo8O19_W7v7RXZrqe/s1600/IMG_20171208_133717.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4kMSXEPiYCZ6P8Dyz0K2cOJYBWw2rVJ7dzRx_Yo7fbDnKLI1g39ThQ5AITDDCh2ynfpKLSYHOu9hBS0rY6fw2ofx5Ev5RjJ63U0mysEF7SRMrbhUs8GRonJTV8xjwo8O19_W7v7RXZrqe/s320/IMG_20171208_133717.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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A waterproof keypad with RFID reader<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn7ydWDCpVrip9WFswALtqLhXzmuSK1ZtU2zWOR2wV89AZKefxz1IfNDCBdkFHR4rTuept3MHNiqvEuKoqUxovXJCnT651X1WGBnL0uJRgILIBxiN-I-WXSsnfUc5Nw-Tub1G4BfYez7lr/s1600/IMG_20171208_135201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn7ydWDCpVrip9WFswALtqLhXzmuSK1ZtU2zWOR2wV89AZKefxz1IfNDCBdkFHR4rTuept3MHNiqvEuKoqUxovXJCnT651X1WGBnL0uJRgILIBxiN-I-WXSsnfUc5Nw-Tub1G4BfYez7lr/s320/IMG_20171208_135201.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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2 reed switches to detect if my garage doors are open (female connectors already soldered on)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9mzRrYoIECEJLPCcw8Yfkb0AYrzXRpFFSKbr5I12jW5zjdvQhESK3fjPyXjHyCxaOQO6EQKBIgIqJSrzep_v_CmrMckRGs1zozMfMMWpke6PS33vP_8yOD9Ts8LBh_8SiWi5CCC2vOdnq/s1600/IMG_20171208_133747.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9mzRrYoIECEJLPCcw8Yfkb0AYrzXRpFFSKbr5I12jW5zjdvQhESK3fjPyXjHyCxaOQO6EQKBIgIqJSrzep_v_CmrMckRGs1zozMfMMWpke6PS33vP_8yOD9Ts8LBh_8SiWi5CCC2vOdnq/s320/IMG_20171208_133747.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Why the DIN rail housing?<br />
Well there is a fuse box in my garage that has DIN rails where I could mount the raspberry pi to keep dust and insects out. I might mount it closer to the garage doors in testing phase. But eventually it should end up there.<br />
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As the leads from the keypad are quit short, a UTP cable was sacrificed to lengthen most leads coming from the keypad.<br />
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Next to the above components there are 2 additional items to add. An power transformer for the keypad and one for the raspberry pi.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPLhokTA0nyPDUfMzus-wdtpR79axjgvvBe5o5qHNkSgq18zrGsUJcVg-aFZYpJYXWmOSBcThihBfzC7nkuuj6VJssdZ_GfqZm4Q7gX_N291g5srs18XJPmP9fonar8ukfiFm1chB3sKq2/s1600/IMG_20180507_232734.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPLhokTA0nyPDUfMzus-wdtpR79axjgvvBe5o5qHNkSgq18zrGsUJcVg-aFZYpJYXWmOSBcThihBfzC7nkuuj6VJssdZ_GfqZm4Q7gX_N291g5srs18XJPmP9fonar8ukfiFm1chB3sKq2/s320/IMG_20180507_232734.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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The leads on the reed switches are too short to be installed comfortably. So a second UTP cable was sacrificed for the greater good. Its plugs were cut off and on one end they were soldered to the reed switches.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_DHwUQvk4dcO7H5woJt3Xt1ZO85nTAtHRenf75w-goW5jhmAazHrKGdAme5L4r__S2eQ6Nqw24b-vZus2TCQRco2fsBz-BLD0HkzGYi2FGRt4iOGQR2VS5PFnZ1GkCOqPwVfpVLY93BHW/s1600/IMG_20180513_142848.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_DHwUQvk4dcO7H5woJt3Xt1ZO85nTAtHRenf75w-goW5jhmAazHrKGdAme5L4r__S2eQ6Nqw24b-vZus2TCQRco2fsBz-BLD0HkzGYi2FGRt4iOGQR2VS5PFnZ1GkCOqPwVfpVLY93BHW/s320/IMG_20180513_142848.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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On the other end some connectors were soldered on to connect to the raspberry pi.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl5lliBpshVr8HpxD9XVfBxd9rpuo39rLzXqza5JjVTkRdT3nlLNz7_IliKoZYcp_7eq4Bwziu8dwdHf_iu4WW1lsjbdSSnMlEss0sMnbSlkJvZPyR9U34QhBBxR32pIm_MwzNWmoDrG2I/s1600/IMG_20180513_231826.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl5lliBpshVr8HpxD9XVfBxd9rpuo39rLzXqza5JjVTkRdT3nlLNz7_IliKoZYcp_7eq4Bwziu8dwdHf_iu4WW1lsjbdSSnMlEss0sMnbSlkJvZPyR9U34QhBBxR32pIm_MwzNWmoDrG2I/s320/IMG_20180513_231826.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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However, above setup failed miserably.<br />
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The location where this DIN rail housing was located, is not able to connect over WiFi to my house WiFi network. Most probably due to some brick walls, the distance and the fact that my garage and the small workshop between the garage and my home have metal roofs.<br />
And I tried a lot of options and tweaks.<br />
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<li>The power adapter for the Raspberry pi, did not seem to be able to provide enough power for the RPi (and the wifi dongle)</li>
<li>An ad hoc setup with another RPi, a beefy power supply and an 12dbi antenna still was not able to connect to my WiFi network.</li>
<li>I then setup a dedicated RPi access point, also with a 12 dbi antenna, but this did not help either.</li>
<li>So, I moved the second RPi in my workshop (the one adjoining my garage) to the closest point to my house. Then I got some wifi signal from my dedicated RPi access point, but pretty intermittent.</li>
<li>Then finally, after using a wifi analyzer, decided to switch back to my regular access point, and voila, connection....</li>
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Well most of the time, from time to time connection still drops away, but thats more like every few weeks rather than hours.<br />
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So how was I able to move the RPi with the limited leads on the reed switches?<br />
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<ul>
<li>I combined 2 <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/716">RJ45 breakout boards</a>, 2 <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/643">RJ45 8 pin connectors</a>, 25 meters of UTP cable.</li>
<li>On one side I soldered the leads of the read switches to the RJ45 breakout board</li>
<li>On the other side I resoldered the connecters for my RPi GPIO pins to the other RJ45 breakout board.</li>
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I now have some very basic python code that reads out the GPIO pins and transfers the status of the reed switches to a basic python web service at my house.<br />
The basic python web service receives the messages from my garage, and depending on the status of the reed switches will make one or two LEDs blink to indicate an open garage door.<br />
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The end of the struggle, ...no.<br />
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<li>Occasionally the connection still drops. The I need to reboot the RPi in my workshop. But I also need to disconnect the wifi adapter before doing so. That's because the WiFi dongle does not get activated when rebooting. Only when you plug it in afterwards, it works.</li>
<li>The python code seems to fail from time to time without an apparent reason. Although very basic and naive code wise, I would expect it to just keep working.</li>
<li>When either the connection or the python code fails, it is not immediately apparent.</li>
<li>The keyboard works, but is beeping error sequence. Although everything worked with a dedicated power supply when testing it out, when mounting it on my garage it continuously flashes error. Especially if I turn on my TL lights :-S</li>
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Future plans<br />
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<li>Some monitoring to see when either the connection dropped or the python code stopped working.</li>
<li>Improve Python code to aggregate the readouts when status does not change and send the aggregated readouts occasionally instead of a call each second.</li>
<li>Some alerting solution to sms/IM me whenever the status of one of the garage doors changes as I am not constantly looking at the LED equipped RPi.</li>
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<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-81473703673637356882016-08-29T11:29:00.001-07:002016-08-29T11:31:05.870-07:00Case for Meade ETX125 ECI recently purchased a second hand Meade ETX125. Unfortunately it came without a case to safely store and transport it in.<br />
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I went on a search for an appropriate case and ended up buying a mobile tool box from <a href="http://www.keter.com/en/mobile-gear-cart-22">Keter</a> in a local DIY store.<br />
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It jus barely fits my telescope. But as it is lacking some padding I purchased some hard insulation, pipe insulation and sound insulation. After going to work with some scissors, box cutters and spay glue I ended up with an already pretty decent housing for my freshly bought telescope.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfPPndt48xT1RbtesElMKvD-uy9CZyJb-G6mkeJor49Du1cN-exlQXy4JGP-s4jALJB7ijp5dCOUTc1I-c4aEUP-jWqI-PrD2Uti10keJLGLUD4mKT3sFGORvoIjPVLMK8n78Z22FBOJO6/s1600/IMG_20160826_213000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfPPndt48xT1RbtesElMKvD-uy9CZyJb-G6mkeJor49Du1cN-exlQXy4JGP-s4jALJB7ijp5dCOUTc1I-c4aEUP-jWqI-PrD2Uti10keJLGLUD4mKT3sFGORvoIjPVLMK8n78Z22FBOJO6/s320/IMG_20160826_213000.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Empty tool box with tool insert removed</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw95qPNYNNFxz5R3mdheH12dUXUKmv7TE-9rx12mVZ1JrT2x-sHhTFNd9_nCxj-4WU9vh7gCVJnw36O1mmsQQqb7aLZlzvy_H-vlUy5kFPjf4p6ZRSoOnS2RWc8oG7vFnyS47Pecg-2zmQ/s1600/IMG_20160826_220155.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw95qPNYNNFxz5R3mdheH12dUXUKmv7TE-9rx12mVZ1JrT2x-sHhTFNd9_nCxj-4WU9vh7gCVJnw36O1mmsQQqb7aLZlzvy_H-vlUy5kFPjf4p6ZRSoOnS2RWc8oG7vFnyS47Pecg-2zmQ/s320/IMG_20160826_220155.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After gluing on some padding on the sides and adding the insulation</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiMvLc0HPH3BGRvnPwoZW8IqW6LfsJo3vMji-OkTuz4EYXSC8cbizFYXEQWh4QIAQUEwBxLWKgFkboHd0TfoKPWRbGpaj97T6QTJiDfDPx6ItO4GWaCO0QBALGlxIRifa61U8k9Hk-3kVI/s1600/IMG_20160828_150539.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiMvLc0HPH3BGRvnPwoZW8IqW6LfsJo3vMji-OkTuz4EYXSC8cbizFYXEQWh4QIAQUEwBxLWKgFkboHd0TfoKPWRbGpaj97T6QTJiDfDPx6ItO4GWaCO0QBALGlxIRifa61U8k9Hk-3kVI/s320/IMG_20160828_150539.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The end result with some sound insulation for further padding and a more 'classy' look</td></tr>
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I might give this a spin and see if I can later on add some small storage for the GoTo controller, manuals, eye pieces, ...<br />
<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-30145655137626097772015-10-31T17:09:00.001-07:002015-10-31T17:09:18.646-07:00Scrap wood tableSome time ago I got inspired by <a href="http://www.instructables.com/id/Scrap-Table/">this scrap table</a> to make my own version.<br />
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I started out by collecting scrap wood from several sources. The table contains wood from an old bed, a coffee table, pallets, rubberwood countertop, ...<br />
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I ripped all these to similar widths, while trying to maximize the number of strips I could get out of one piece of wood. Each time I had a batch of these strips I marked the positions where the threaded rods needed to be and made the necessary oval openings with a router.<br />
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Initially I just drilled these holes, but due the temporary nature of my work setup and the time between working on this project the measurements were not consistent enough. And having only a 10mm drill bit for 10 mm diameter threaded rods did not leave much room for error. This became clear after an initial test fitting which almost did not come apart again.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D0iuzYcybUk/VjVU4eaQd-I/AAAAAAAAEgY/fEvStWlNVjw/s1600/IMG_20151009_114214.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D0iuzYcybUk/VjVU4eaQd-I/AAAAAAAAEgY/fEvStWlNVjw/s320/IMG_20151009_114214.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5ni0VwJRAeM/VjVU6tVBZKI/AAAAAAAAEgY/_5d9mN1aNH4/s1600/IMG_20151014_191308.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5ni0VwJRAeM/VjVU6tVBZKI/AAAAAAAAEgY/_5d9mN1aNH4/s320/IMG_20151014_191308.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<br />
Putting the table top together took a lot of work and repetition.<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Fit,</li>
<li>Glue,</li>
<li>Clamp,</li>
<li>Repeat</li>
<li>...</li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fKdjs0AQJ0s/VjVU1iZDFeI/AAAAAAAAEgY/ONQxT4VRaRc/s1600/IMG_20151008_210209.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fKdjs0AQJ0s/VjVU1iZDFeI/AAAAAAAAEgY/ONQxT4VRaRc/s320/IMG_20151008_210209.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Once the table top was assembled, I straightened out the ends with a circular hand saw.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ht0gYHN1su4/VjVU5cbmQcI/AAAAAAAAEgY/OJO2kMoBz4M/s1600/IMG_20151010_155429.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ht0gYHN1su4/VjVU5cbmQcI/AAAAAAAAEgY/OJO2kMoBz4M/s320/IMG_20151010_155429.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Due to some 'not-so-precise' measurements, I also had to plug some holes in the table top with some spare wood.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A9VoUSUqFh4/VjVU1zvNbxI/AAAAAAAAEgY/1vBJm98VcVo/s1600/IMG_20151009_090445.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A9VoUSUqFh4/VjVU1zvNbxI/AAAAAAAAEgY/1vBJm98VcVo/s320/IMG_20151009_090445.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0YJSsNVB_b0/VjVU2PUELaI/AAAAAAAAEgY/dEX1yo80pEE/s1600/IMG_20151009_091018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0YJSsNVB_b0/VjVU2PUELaI/AAAAAAAAEgY/dEX1yo80pEE/s320/IMG_20151009_091018.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<br />
Once glued in place I used a chisel to level it roughly and sanded it down further with the manual plane.<br />
<br />
I first planned on just sanding the table top flat, but that just generated too much fine dust. Therefore I switched to a manual plane. That sure is a workout :-)<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ttL1qegFCDQ/VjVU6aLQcaI/AAAAAAAAEhM/PeIu9AGMAsY/s1600/IMG_20151011_132613.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ttL1qegFCDQ/VjVU6aLQcaI/AAAAAAAAEhM/PeIu9AGMAsY/s320/IMG_20151011_132613.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />
The final planing was done with an electric belt sander with very fine grain sand paper.<br />
<br />
Eventually I would like to make an extendable table out of this. This directed the distances between the threaded rods. But as I need the table sooner than I could make this an extendable table, I made some temporary support structure.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VHt43m-Vakk/VjVU7LBaWUI/AAAAAAAAEg8/qXwQAYuB6FY/s1600/IMG_20151023_113933.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VHt43m-Vakk/VjVU7LBaWUI/AAAAAAAAEg8/qXwQAYuB6FY/s320/IMG_20151023_113933.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8Dk_Q6OPpuI/VjVU8CpgtwI/AAAAAAAAEgY/DU-hQECnKdQ/s1600/IMG_20151023_115840.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8Dk_Q6OPpuI/VjVU8CpgtwI/AAAAAAAAEgY/DU-hQECnKdQ/s320/IMG_20151023_115840.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Although, making this into an extendable table will be a future project. For now, I will enjoy the table as it is.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xFR_xSuvkD8/VjVU8d_JgZI/AAAAAAAAEgY/mAbr71ZICH0/s1600/IMG_20151030_100713.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xFR_xSuvkD8/VjVU8d_JgZI/AAAAAAAAEgY/mAbr71ZICH0/s320/IMG_20151030_100713.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-46036857269477729212015-06-29T23:41:00.001-07:002015-06-30T15:11:34.481-07:00Raspberry Pi astrophotography<i><u>note: this article is a work in progress, stay tuned for updates</u></i><br />
<br />
I recently bought a very basic telescope (Celestron Travel Scope 70), not exactly a high end telescope, but I'm still able to get some nice views on planets like Saturn, Jupiter and its moons, Venus and off course the moon.<br />
<br />
Being enthusiastic about what I could see with this telescope I have tried taking photographs by manually putting my cell phone camera against the eye piece and minimize my trembling while pushing the button to take picture. <br />
<br />
Not surprising that image quality is far from good. For pics of the moon, it sometimes works out ok.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vBdeUHKWfJ4/VYMzz7uGzMI/AAAAAAAAEL4/NsCbi-sqc-E/s1600/moon_cropped.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vBdeUHKWfJ4/VYMzz7uGzMI/AAAAAAAAEL4/NsCbi-sqc-E/s320/moon_cropped.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">cropped image of the moon taken with my cell phone camera held against my telescopes eye piece</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
But while the features of Saturn are just distinguishable with the naked eye, it's almost impossible to take a nice picture with the methods described above.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-etJLKqH-wyY/VYM3IFKjULI/AAAAAAAAEMg/GQooRlzUrBo/s1600/saturn_manual_travelscope.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-etJLKqH-wyY/VYM3IFKjULI/AAAAAAAAEMg/GQooRlzUrBo/s320/saturn_manual_travelscope.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">image of Saturn taken with my cell phone camera held against my telescopes eye piece</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
Also Jupiter and its moons are hard to catch.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kbSYKhGh3xE/VYM3IiJTruI/AAAAAAAAEMk/aiTZtaiTDYQ/s1600/jupiter_moons_manual_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kbSYKhGh3xE/VYM3IiJTruI/AAAAAAAAEMk/aiTZtaiTDYQ/s320/jupiter_moons_manual_2.jpg" width="237" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">image of Jupiter and moons taken with my cell phone camera held against my telescopes eye piece</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<h2>
Taking it up a notch</h2>
<br />
Due to this less than ideal situation I decided to take things up a notch and use a raspberry pi camera. I printed an adapter for the Pi Camera to slide over my eye piece using my 3D printer. After some filing and a paint job I have the adapter ready and I secure the Pi Camera into the adapter with some duct tape.<br />
<br />
The idea is to eliminate tremor from holding the cell phone against the eye piece and being able to control the camera remotely. Eventually I would like to be able to take a clear picture of both Saturn and Jupiter (and its moons).<br />
<br />
<h2>
Raspberry Pi setup</h2>
<br />
<ul>
<li>I started from a regular raspbian install</li>
<li>I enabled the camera, allowed ssh, expanded the file system, </li>
<li>disabled the led on the pi camera [<a href="http://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2013/05/how-to-disable-the-red-led-on-the-pi-camera-module/">Ref</a>]</li>
<li>and configure my wireless setup.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<h3>
Powering the raspberry pi</h3>
I use an USB battery to power the Raspberry Pi setup.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Mount Raspberry pi on telescope.</h3>
Currently the Raspberry Pi is basically mounted on the telescope with some zip ties.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdp5b_J1n_JymaYQGjgir6Jyd8ji3AqTYnMGbyPrsE2oyLmLtQvH3tmKPo4rpfKHMQGDA8_gW216mHC4sjL0AcCIRpf9o-aOBQinB2sl4Jcq8OAGb0pHV9p5IAC25Vdo3fbvJ_C1soVTJR/s1600/telescopi1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdp5b_J1n_JymaYQGjgir6Jyd8ji3AqTYnMGbyPrsE2oyLmLtQvH3tmKPo4rpfKHMQGDA8_gW216mHC4sjL0AcCIRpf9o-aOBQinB2sl4Jcq8OAGb0pHV9p5IAC25Vdo3fbvJ_C1soVTJR/s200/telescopi1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
To be more comfortable I might need to add a longer ribbon cable between the camera and the Raspberry Pi.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Aiming the telescope</h3>
While the Raspberry Pi camera is on the telescope it would be hard to aim it very precisely. Therefore, I setup streaming so I could check the aiming of the telescope with a laptop or cell phone (as long as I am within reach of my WiFi network) by following <a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/how-to-build-and-run-mjpg-streamer-on-the-raspberry-pi">this guide</a>.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Taking pictures with Raspberry Pi</h3>
<br />
Once I somewhat correctly aimed my telescope I could use the regular Raspberry Pi Camera commands to take pictures of the celestial bodies.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Impressions so far</h2>
The pictures I took were not so good as the ones taken with the cell phone, but that is probably due to the low resolution used to take the pictures with the Raspberry Pi Camer.<br />
<br />
The way the current adapter is made, it is very fidgety to get it well aligned with the projection from the eye piece. I have the impression I will have to redesign the eye piece adapter even further to make fitting the adapter on the eye piece easier and to put the raspberry pi camera lens even closer to the eye piece.<br />
<br />
Luckily both the Raspberry Pi and the laptop used for aiming were both within reach of my WiFi.<br />
<br />
The USB battery could provide sufficient power for the 1 hour I have been testing my setup.<br />
<br />
Some test results from 29/06/2015:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHdxeAoyO4X4Z1xpSHM2zfApPXM0wBnYVfjqQag1gGBriF32_FgtbQKsNlNr1uYZlSaT7XS3Z48k0yyYWehPVaoVIDmbkSjKSbsxsxNlbL-k-tsJc0gFaPZv9QCXQ8UH0Yy8CBA1bOSS1d/s1600/pic201506292111260021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHdxeAoyO4X4Z1xpSHM2zfApPXM0wBnYVfjqQag1gGBriF32_FgtbQKsNlNr1uYZlSaT7XS3Z48k0yyYWehPVaoVIDmbkSjKSbsxsxNlbL-k-tsJc0gFaPZv9QCXQ8UH0Yy8CBA1bOSS1d/s320/pic201506292111260021.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moon in 640x480 resolution</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpsfdvOICmVoJUJx-UJp9UQagfwfqyauPsWveB0FUjV9D94nG2jfLSV7DmxnneekCD8Gx41Dhruqi1VWcy_gH77iBbpYRg9xDxVMpQUrUYSe4aPG9lJUrsLpnXFMmnXvZduxhqjBL3AlE9/s1600/pic201506292102560001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpsfdvOICmVoJUJx-UJp9UQagfwfqyauPsWveB0FUjV9D94nG2jfLSV7DmxnneekCD8Gx41Dhruqi1VWcy_gH77iBbpYRg9xDxVMpQUrUYSe4aPG9lJUrsLpnXFMmnXvZduxhqjBL3AlE9/s320/pic201506292102560001.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Saturn in 640x480 resolution</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Test results 30/06/2015:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4uNdY1EnKmBcFKmB1nR2vsg2wdcCs41ENSsEQYeblnc-m5rkKth-o9dFz8hW95mDICRqLw8BuWsU4OEanZ2ZSkNAqeqOa9fHj9brT4ljkivKgPvUkRZsyPxJmfxsA1MSVpHBg2VmBQuE5/s1600/moon_high_res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4uNdY1EnKmBcFKmB1nR2vsg2wdcCs41ENSsEQYeblnc-m5rkKth-o9dFz8hW95mDICRqLw8BuWsU4OEanZ2ZSkNAqeqOa9fHj9brT4ljkivKgPvUkRZsyPxJmfxsA1MSVpHBg2VmBQuE5/s320/moon_high_res.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">moon in 2592 x 1944 resolution</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUeYqcHI7eewUFRUv_eQqgLDceJvklk9WdxJwIhj2R2mvooWNjM-OupdOpMkyC3mPmjzbSXoQm2puezRp45rjZfEflVn0DgolEddhVNo2py0-WWB1g59qZ87bs1_GAAylhD4VnQGOPIXwA/s1600/saturn_high_res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUeYqcHI7eewUFRUv_eQqgLDceJvklk9WdxJwIhj2R2mvooWNjM-OupdOpMkyC3mPmjzbSXoQm2puezRp45rjZfEflVn0DgolEddhVNo2py0-WWB1g59qZ87bs1_GAAylhD4VnQGOPIXwA/s320/saturn_high_res.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">saturn in 2592 x 1944 resolution</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTsyTzIzJhL0BRcz9Yiq52WC3tbu4R2IxzBiN_Ft9K74kxylTJ1pbsVZWuzlab1RJnP33Jpw2Ew4BXv3ZnpSLRc5qmaGQwl1Bk8s6bznlaRyYm2VkuyJhl7hVPjAbtsTX36aXR7wA_HYTQ/s1600/arcturus_high_res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTsyTzIzJhL0BRcz9Yiq52WC3tbu4R2IxzBiN_Ft9K74kxylTJ1pbsVZWuzlab1RJnP33Jpw2Ew4BXv3ZnpSLRc5qmaGQwl1Bk8s6bznlaRyYm2VkuyJhl7hVPjAbtsTX36aXR7wA_HYTQ/s320/arcturus_high_res.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">arcturus in 2592 x 1944 resolution</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Although shot in higher resolution, the improvement is not that great. The Saturn pic at least shows some interesting shadows. Not sure whether this is due to my setup, or taking pictures in 'automatic' mode (without defining ISO, brightness, contrast, ...), atmosphere (very warm when pictures were taken) or the limits of my telescope (although naked eye observatory is quit good).<br />
<br />
<h2>
Future ideas / improvements</h2>
<br />
<ul>
<li>I need to improve the resolution (max resolution is 2592 x 1944, would much better than 640 x 480)</li>
<li>Definitely need to start experimenting with my camera settings to get better images</li>
<li>automated following / finding, although my Raspberry Pi setup is streaming so I can aim the telescope somewhat while looking at my laptop screen, it would be cool to punch in a celestial body to find and/or follow</li>
<li>touchscreen control on Raspberry Pi</li>
<li>Have the raspberry pi act as its own APD (or the laptop that is controlling the Raspberry Pi camera) for when I'm not within my home's WiFi range.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
References</h2>
<br />
http://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2013/05/how-to-disable-the-red-led-on-the-pi-camera-module/<br />
http://pi.gbaman.info/?p=150<br />
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/camera/python/README.md<br />
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/camera/raspicam/README.md<br />
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/camera/raspicam/raspistill.md<br />
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/camera/raspicam/timelapse.md<br />
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/camera/raspicam/raspivid.md<br />
http://zeusbox.net/blog/<br />
http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/how-to-build-and-run-mjpg-streamer-on-the-raspberry-pi<br />
<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-40715236032470896662015-04-09T06:38:00.002-07:002015-04-09T14:35:39.438-07:00Solving pauzes in 3D print when using OctoPrintAfter I installed <a href="http://octoprint.org/">OctoPrint</a> on my <a href="https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-2-model-b/">Raspberry Pi 2 model B</a> running <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a>, my prints regularly paused, resulting in bad prints with lots of blobs. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaRE_g7PniEA2M8WVCzf1nW2x3a_3VjyQHg7rUEOvozttnO7M1oPDQAj4pNmnrlztbXVDkcAD_ehnH5rTQqzqFtjRighuPtG2DYNHVntn_MgUDyXQndHU-E3HAyQREEVb3LxZnkoNLvx6Y/s1600/bad_print_due_to_too_low_current.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaRE_g7PniEA2M8WVCzf1nW2x3a_3VjyQHg7rUEOvozttnO7M1oPDQAj4pNmnrlztbXVDkcAD_ehnH5rTQqzqFtjRighuPtG2DYNHVntn_MgUDyXQndHU-E3HAyQREEVb3LxZnkoNLvx6Y/s1600/bad_print_due_to_too_low_current.jpg" height="237" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
When googling around for this, a lot of solutions came down to replacing a defective USB cable with a new one. However, in my case I was sure that the issue was not caused by a bad USB cable as printing directly from laptop using the same USB cable went fine.<br />
<br />
The solution to this problem simply came down to adding the following line to the /boot/config.txt file of my Raspbian install:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">max_usb_current=1</span><br />
<br />
Please also read the <a href="http://hackaday.com/2015/04/06/more-power-for-raspberry-pi-usb-ports/">following article</a> providing some more information.</div>
NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-31691304535036715652014-11-30T06:02:00.002-08:002014-11-30T06:02:56.707-08:00From drift wood to tea light holder in 10 minutes flatThis summer, on the beach, I found a nice piece of drift wood that I brought home with me.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hWRY6_4-L7g/VHsdl03n1DI/AAAAAAAABSo/tGLY99vbqG0/s1600/IMG_20141129_155142.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hWRY6_4-L7g/VHsdl03n1DI/AAAAAAAABSo/tGLY99vbqG0/s1600/IMG_20141129_155142.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I let it dry for a few months and yesterday I transformed it in a tea light holder in just a few minutes.<br />
<br />
I started out be positioning some tea lights on the wood to see what would look nice. I marked the location of the tea lights on the log and took it outside.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pFF_FoKV4Tg/VHsdjzpGwiI/AAAAAAAABSg/E0y8EVDLmdg/s1600/IMG_20141129_155319.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pFF_FoKV4Tg/VHsdjzpGwiI/AAAAAAAABSg/E0y8EVDLmdg/s1600/IMG_20141129_155319.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Once outside, I mounted a hole saw on my hand drill and carefully started to drill out the marked locations. I made sure I was not drilling whole the way through. After this, I cleaned up the holes with a small chissel.<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XuYyv6Kte-k/VHsd3YU06VI/AAAAAAAABTg/hnYYH_f6LKI/s1600/IMG_20141129_160402.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XuYyv6Kte-k/VHsd3YU06VI/AAAAAAAABTg/hnYYH_f6LKI/s1600/IMG_20141129_160402.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n7r0NdRnNoQ/VHsdyD87BLI/AAAAAAAABTQ/M-TolRfXri8/s1600/IMG_20141130_140118.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n7r0NdRnNoQ/VHsdyD87BLI/AAAAAAAABTQ/M-TolRfXri8/s1600/IMG_20141130_140118.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
So after 10 minutes of work I had a nice present for my wife. :-)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6hbgRv0Qmm8/VHsdvhTN0fI/AAAAAAAABTI/jCZ8V_Zo5B8/s1600/IMG_20141130_140434.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6hbgRv0Qmm8/VHsdvhTN0fI/AAAAAAAABTI/jCZ8V_Zo5B8/s1600/IMG_20141130_140434.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-63670872434584124932014-03-13T15:45:00.000-07:002014-03-13T15:45:00.518-07:00No POST / beep / boot after memory upgradeI'm in progress of getting an old backup server back in service for taking backups of my fathers computer. One of the upgrades, next to external storage, was to replace current 4GB memory with 4 x 4 GB memory DIMMS.<br />
<br />
So after consulting the manual of my <a href="http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M4A785TDV_EVO/">Asus M4A785TD-V EVO</a> to see what memory was supported, I bought a <a href="http://www.corsair.com/en/xms3-16gb-dual-channel-ddr3-memory-kit-cmx16gx3m4a1333c9">16GB Corsair memory kit</a>.<br />
<br />
To my horror, after installing the DIMMS, the server no longer boots!!!!!!<br />
<br />
So I tried all kinds of DIMM configurations, reset the CMOS, removed the motherboard battery, unplugged all devices, BIOS upgrade, ... all to no avail<br />
<br />
Major panic, sweat, sickness, anger,....<br />
<br />
Then I noticed after the n'th test that when inserting the new DIMM's a LED flashed on the motherboard. Than it hit me, the DIMMS are situated next to the motherboard's power connector and when pushing on the power connector, it nudged itself slightly deeper into the socket.<br />
<br />
Reboot<br />
<br />
TADAAAAA a working system!!!!<br />
<br />
<br />
Finally I can continue setting up this system. Lesson learnt: always check all connectors.NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-85673324166394940212014-01-06T14:17:00.003-08:002014-06-03T13:36:34.206-07:00Cubieboard based NAS<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u style="background-color: #ffe599;">STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS</u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u style="background-color: #ffe599;"><br /></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u style="background-color: #ffe599;">This is still a work in progress and if you got tips or comments, let me know. I will update this blog post as I am further in my setup.</u></b></div>
<br />
<br />
One of the downsides of using a <a href="http://navni-stuff.blogspot.be/2012/09/raspberry-pi-nas.html">Raspberry pi as a NAS</a> solution is a somewhat low speed in transferring data. This is partially caused by the fact that in my previous NAS setup I'm using external USB HD's.<br />
<br />
I came across some the <a href="http://cubieboard.org/">cubieboard</a> and what jumped out to me in the specs is that it has a SATA connector on the board, so I immediately wanted to give it a try.<br />
<br />
Through ebay I bought a 'Cubieboard A10 ARM Development board luxurious package'. This kit contained a cubieboard one (developer edition), an enclosure, a 3.5" HDD addon board, a TTL to Serial cable, a breadboard with VGA connector, a uSD breakout PCB and a heatsink. I was especially interested in the 3.5" HDD addon board as I am planning to combine the cubieboard with a Seagate 2TB SSHD.<br />
<br />
To make this whole setup work I had to buy a microSD card to host the OS and an external power adapter (Ansmann APS 1500 traveller) to supply adequate power to the cubieboard and the HD.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Hardware setup</h2>
<br />
<ol>
<li>Seagate 2TB SSHD 3.5"</li>
<li>Cubieboard mounted in its enclosure</li>
<li>3.5" HD adapter</li>
<li>external power supply (providing 12V, 1500mA)</li>
</ol>
<br />
<h2>
Writing a linux image to the microSD card</h2>
<div>
The microSD card came with an adapter card that could easily be plugged into my computer.</div>
<div>
I downloaded/unpacked the <a href="http://cubian.org/downloads/">Cubian image</a> and write it to the microSD card.<br />
<br />
<i>I first went for the Lubuntu image, but that starts a XWindows by default, which is too much overhead for what will essentially be a headless node. Turning off the XWindows environment would be too much work so I decided to go for the Cubian image, which is a debian derivative. As the raspberry pi NAS also uses a debain flavoured distro, I think this might be the safest path to take.</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h2>
Wiring up the whole things boils down to:</h2>
<ul>
<li>plugging in the power adpater into the HDD adapter</li>
<li>running an USB to barrel connector cable fro mthe HDD adpater to the cubieboard</li>
<li>plugging the SATA connector in the SSHD drive</li>
<li>plugging the yellow/black cable of the SATA connector into the HDD adapter board's 12V OUT connector</li>
<li>plugging the SATA data cable and the 5V red/black cable into the cubieboard</li>
<li>plugging in the microSD card with the freshly written Lububntu image</li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8UVusDprDE8/UrxFLFgpEqI/AAAAAAAAA7E/pIkaB2KNIQM/s1600/2013-12-26+15.59.13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8UVusDprDE8/UrxFLFgpEqI/AAAAAAAAA7E/pIkaB2KNIQM/s320/2013-12-26+15.59.13.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h2>
Configuring Cubian</h2>
<div>
Changing keyboard settings</div>
<div>
As I'm not living in the US, the default keyboard mapping needs to be changed. I tried<br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration</span></span><br />
but that didn't help changing my keymap.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo apt-get install console-data</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">If this does not automatically starts the interface for setting your keymap, execute the following.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-data</span></div>
<div>
<br />
Change the hostname:<br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo hostname cubienas</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div>
<h3>
Updating the system</h3>
</div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo apt-get update</span></div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"></span><br />
<div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo apt-get upgrade</span></div>
<h3>
Securing the cubieboard</h3>
<b>Adjust Cubie user</b><br />
The default user is 'cubie' with password 'cubie'. So that definitely needed to change to start securing the cubieboard. </div>
<div>
<br />
<b>Add new users</b></div>
<div>
I added my own user to the system for 'day-to-day' access. This same user is used on several of my systems.<br />
<br />
<b>SSH access</b></div>
<div>
By default sshd is enabled but beware, cubian has sshd running on port 36000. So for logging into the cubie NAS you need to define the port:<br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">ssh <user>@<ip address of cubieboard> -p 36000</span><br />
<br />
<b>password-less SSH access</b><br />
When enforcing <a href="http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2008/11/3-steps-to-perform-ssh-login-without-password-using-ssh-keygen-ssh-copy-id/">ssh login without providing password</a> you need to copy your public key to the cubieboard. Unfortunately, ssh-copy-id assumes default port 22. You can circumvent this, as indicated <a href="http://unix.stackexchange.com/a/66074">here</a>, like so:<br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">ssh-copy-id-i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub "<user>@<ip address of cubieboard> -p 36000"</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Disabling ssh for cubie user</b><br />
<TODOcument><br />
<br />
<b>Other</b></div>
<div>
Other security related configurations following o.a. this <a href="http://spenserj.com/blog/2013/07/15/securing-a-linux-server/">blog</a> or this <a href="http://mattwilcox.net/archives/setting-up-a-secure-home-web-server-with-raspberry-pi/">blog</a> (last one is more specific to raspberry pi, but most things can be applied to the cubieboard).<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<h3>
Sharing the data</h3>
<b>Preparing the SSHD</b><br />
First thing to do is to foresee a file system for the hard drive:<br />
<br />
<div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo fdisk -l</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo fdisk /dev/sda</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1</span></div>
<br />
<div>
</div>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b>Mount the hard drive</b></div>
</div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo mkdir /home/shares</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo mkdir /home/shares/public</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.old</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">copy fstab file, just to be sure</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">sudo vi /etc/fstab</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">/dev/sda1 /home/shares/public ext3 defaults 0 1</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">sudo apt-get install samba</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">sudo cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.old</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;">sudo vim /etc/samba/smb.conf</span><br />
<br />
I had some trouble accessing my samba share but this is the current entry in smb.conf that works for me.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">[DISK]</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">comment = disk</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">path = /home/shares/public</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">create mask = 0775</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">directory mask = 0775</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">browseable = yes</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">guest ok = yes</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">#valid users = @users</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">#force group = users</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">read only = no</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">public = yes</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">writable = yes</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo service samba restart</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
restarts samba and activates the changes you added</div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo smbpasswd -a <username></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">adds the day-to-day user to the samba users</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>I was able to mount the cubie NAS share automatically on my notebook by adding the following in <span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">/etc/fstab</span></span> and running <span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo mount -a</span></span> afterwards:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">//192.168.0.191/disk /home/someuser/central_storage/cubiedisk cifs username=sambauser,password=sambapassword 0 0</span><br />
<br />
I also wanted to access the raspberry pi NAS from the cubieboard in a similar fashion to allow me to copy the content more easily. So I added the following to the cubienas' <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">/etc/fstab</span>:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;">//192.168.0.190/usb /home/someuser/central_storage/Disk1 cifs username=somePiUser,password=thePassowrd 0 0</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
However this did not initially work I had to install some extra software on the cubieboad to make it work:</div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo apt-get install ciffs-utils</span></div>
<br />
After installing the ciffs-utils and running <span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo mount -a</span></span>, I had access to the raspberry pi's data.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<h2>
Metrics</h2>
</div>
<div>
First test I did was copy an 734MB iso file from my notebook to both the raspberry pi nas and the cubienas.<br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">$ time cp ~/Downloads/ubuntu-12.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso ./cubiedisk/</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">real<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>6m31.366s</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">user<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>0m0.004s</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sys<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>0m2.992s</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">$ </span><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">time cp ~/Downloads/ubuntu-12.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso ./Disk1/</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">real<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">6m29.708s</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">user<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>0m0.000s</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sys<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>0m2.888s</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div>
What?! It took approx as much time to copy it to the raspberry pi NAS setup as it did to copy it to the cubieboard. The only explanation I have for this is that I'm connecting to these NAS setups via powerlan. And that might just be too slow to make a difference when transferring data.<br />
<br />
When I'm having my laptop connected to the switch close to the NAS setups these are the results:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">$ time cp ~/Downloads/ubuntu-12.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso ./cubiedisk/</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">real<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>1m13.440s</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">user<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>0m0.020s</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sys<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>0m4.916s</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">$ time cp ~/Downloads/ubuntu-12.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso ./Disk1/</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">real<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>1m41.975s</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">user<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>0m0.036s</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">sys<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">0m3.432s</span></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
When doing a similar test on the NAS' themselves these are the results:</div>
<div>
<u>cubieNAS:</u></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">$ time cp ./ubuntu-12.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso ./copy.iso</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">real </span><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">0m28.707s</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">user 0m0.080s</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sys 0m10.910s</span></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<u>raspberryNAS:</u></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">$ time cp ./ubuntu-12.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso ./copy.iso</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">real </span><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">1m38.976s</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">user 0m0.260s</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sys 0m43.710s</span></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Some other options to tests are:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Newer and (hopefully) better performing powerLAN devices.</li>
<li>Setup a wireless router connected to the switch next to the NAS setups.</li>
<li>See if mounting the disks using NFS might be better performing than mounting them as Samba mounts</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h2>
Unresponsive CubieNAS</h2>
Each attempt at synching the cubieboard overnight with my other storage ended up with an unresponsive CubiebardNAS setup. I could enter the necessary credentials for ssh, but I never get to a prompt. After a few times even booting no longer succeeds. The last message appearing on my screen is "Mali: Mali device driver loaded" and than nothing. To be sure there was nothing else happening in the back ground I connected a UDB-serial cable to the cubieboards TTL connector and executed:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">cu -s 115200 -l /dev/ttyUSB0</span><br />
<br />
just after booting. This showed me similar data as on the connected screen but it also showed<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">[ <span style="color: lime;">OK</span> ] Activating lvm and md swap...done.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">[....] Checking file systems...fsck from util-linux 2.20.1</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">/dev/sda1 contains a file system with errors, check forced.</span></span><br />
<br />
and a progress bar showing the fsck progress.<br />
<br />
So several cold reboots caused some errors on de file system. So I guess I will need to be patient until the fsck is finished.<br />
<br />
I continued to check the hard drive using the SMART disk monitoring tools, following <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/magazine/monitoring-hard-disks-smart">this article</a>. These tests did not turn up any hard drive problems, so basically cold rebooting the cubieboad NAS caused the file system errors. I haven't looked at setting up SMART as a daemon, but I'll investigate it in the future to have this setup on all my machines.<br />
<br />
The next test I performed was to start syncing again between my raspberry pi NAS and the cubieboad NAS and redirecting all output to log files on the SATA drive. If something was going to happen during sync I hoped the log files might contain some clues after I reboot the system. But actually, after a lot of big syncs the cubieboard was still up and running. So I guess the system freezes were caused by any output of the syncing not being redirected to output files.<br />
<br />
<ToBeContinued><br />
<br /></div>
NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-16560883811297330592013-11-05T13:46:00.000-08:002013-11-06T14:00:30.325-08:00Messing around with Arduino and LCDJust playing a bit with an <a href="http://www.arduino.cc/">Arduino</a> and an HD44780 <a href="http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/LiquidCrystal">LCD</a> in preparation of an upcoming project.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Oswu3V9upyU/Unll-CfLhAI/AAAAAAAAA5k/-naogL1bAlc/s1600/LCD_test.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Oswu3V9upyU/Unll-CfLhAI/AAAAAAAAA5k/-naogL1bAlc/s320/LCD_test.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Added a MQ-4 sensor to the mix<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g4E2AXRLBP4/Unq7uKIZagI/AAAAAAAAA6I/jiWOidDPTbY/s1600/2013-11-06+22.52.43.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g4E2AXRLBP4/Unq7uKIZagI/AAAAAAAAA6I/jiWOidDPTbY/s320/2013-11-06+22.52.43.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-50894665190144847582013-10-13T12:49:00.000-07:002013-12-04T13:44:06.206-08:00Custom 3D printed external hard drive rackI have some external hard drives laying around that have the tendency to overheat after extended usage when stacked one on top of the other .<br />
<br />
So I designed some frame components and printed them on my Prusa Mendel RepRap to form an extendable rack.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XSF3hyqR0Cw/Ulq3kSGpaQI/AAAAAAAAA2w/1sJYGpmvCnQ/s1600/2013-10-12+12.18.37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XSF3hyqR0Cw/Ulq3kSGpaQI/AAAAAAAAA2w/1sJYGpmvCnQ/s320/2013-10-12+12.18.37.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cGlLK4YFMd0/Ulq3ksTl7BI/AAAAAAAAA20/DLfQ4ZHSmJE/s1600/2013-10-13+13.36.26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cGlLK4YFMd0/Ulq3ksTl7BI/AAAAAAAAA20/DLfQ4ZHSmJE/s320/2013-10-13+13.36.26.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ACoEwNJk2kU/Ulrxc7UZE0I/AAAAAAAAA5E/jKRyPc4sYZ0/s1600/2013-10-13+17.43.03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ACoEwNJk2kU/Ulrxc7UZE0I/AAAAAAAAA5E/jKRyPc4sYZ0/s320/2013-10-13+17.43.03.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-74537194610649405492013-06-16T06:35:00.002-07:002013-06-16T09:20:40.344-07:00Prusa Mendel RepRap build, day x...y...zIt has been a while since I blogged about my Prusa Mendel RepRap build.<br />
<br />
Basically it boils down to a serious lack of free time and when I had time to work on my Prusa Mendel, it did not leave me enough time to blog about it.<br />
<br />
<b>The good news</b>? Well it's working!!!!!!!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://i2.ytimg.com/vi/yzZ_7_3GaIw/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yzZ_7_3GaIw?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yzZ_7_3GaIw?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
<br />
<br />
<b>The bad news</b>? Well it took me a long time to finish it :-) For the remainder of the post I'll try to list tips & tricks that were useful to me.<br />
<br />
<h2>
<b>Build weekend</b></h2>
I say the most helpful thing for me to finish this project was going to a RepRap build weekend. This was hosted at the Ghent fablab <a href="http://www.timelab.org/">Timelab</a>. A build weekend has the advantage that you either get to work on your own or someone else his RepRap. It is a place were a lot of people are working on the same thing and thus encounter the same or similar problems. There are also always people present that can provide you with technical help, tips and tricks. <br />
<br />
In my case, I went there to help build someone else his RepRap. This greatly sped up his build as I was already familiar with the construction of the mechanical parts. On the other hand it, I got stuck during wiring of my RepRap. During the build weekend I got confirmation that the way I wired up everything till that moment was valid and got a heads up on the testing and calibration phases following the wiring of the Prusa Mendel.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Wiring diagram</h2>
A big help during the wiring of my RepRap was the following wiring schema:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://reprap.org/mediawiki/images/6/6d/Rampswire14.svg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://reprap.org/mediawiki/images/6/6d/Rampswire14.svg" width="226" /></a></div>
This provides you with all detail required to connect your components to the ramps 1.4 board.<br />
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />
<h2>
Wiring</h2>
<div>
<h3>
Ramps board mounting</h3>
One big factor during wiring is deciding where you are going to mount your electronics. In my case, due to the fact that I didn't have a lot of cabling laying around I decided to mount the electronics on top as this causes me to extend the least amount of cables to connect to the ramps board.</div>
<div>
<br />
Basically not such a good idea. As the preferred location for the PLA/ABS spool is .... on top of the prusa mendel. So now it is just plain in the way.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Wires to use</h3>
Next, invest in the appropriate wiring to to wire up your components to your board. In a rush to get my RepRap build, I went to a local hardware store and bought a few meters of stereo cable. Although conducting well enough, it caused some connectors to detach themselves as the wires weighed too much.<br />
<br />
Just the extra effort of looking for 'ramps 1.4 wiring kit' on ebay and some waiting would have saved me a lot of frustration and would have caused me not to end up with a frankenstein build. My next item on my todo list is actually repositioning the arduino with ramps board and rewiring everything using this wiring kit.</div>
<br />
<h2>
Power</h2>
You actually need to attach all power connections to the Ramps board. If not you'll spend an entire evening trying to figure out why some parts of your printer work fine while other parts don't.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Getting to print</h2>
I tried out my printer with some calibration files that I downloaded from the internet. I slice them using Cura and then load the gcode files in Pronterface and print them there.<br />
<br />
One thing that clearly helped getting a better success to failure ratio is to lower the speed dramatically. Remember, hich speeds might cause your belts to slip, which in turn will cause failed prints.<br />
<br />
<h2>
DIY belt tensioner</h2>
Due to the length of my build and after first usage there seemed to be too much slack on my belts. The belt of my X-axis was no problem as I can easily reach the clamps and adjust them en the tension on the belt. However, the Y-axis was a pain. I am no longer able to reach the clamps and I was not looking forward to unassembling, reassembling and recalibrating the heated print bed. Therefore I decided to employ a belt tensioner. Trying to print one failed twice (due to slack belt) so I decided to put one together myself.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9xSWMkk_L2Y/Ub3lg6cDVKI/AAAAAAAAAzc/bzKtCh1Fdcw/s1600/2013-06-16+17.00.43.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9xSWMkk_L2Y/Ub3lg6cDVKI/AAAAAAAAAzc/bzKtCh1Fdcw/s200/2013-06-16+17.00.43.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<h2>
Every print an adventure</h2>
<br />
I must say that till now, each print is an adventure. You get your hopes up after each successfull print, followed by crushed hopes due to a failure on you next print. Never think you are finished tuning this machine.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Double check</h2>
<br />
Regularly check your printer structure. On 2 occasions I had parts of my printbed and extruder coming slightly apart (no major disasters, but anyway). Some parts of the printer are under a lot of stress or get shaken a lot so trembling can unmake your printer :-)<br />
<br />
<i>Previous post regarding my Prusa Mendel Reprap build:</i><br />
<a href="http://navni-stuff.blogspot.be/2012/11/prusa-mendel-reprap-build-part1.html">Prusa Mendel RepRap build,day 1</a><br />
<a href="http://navni-stuff.blogspot.be/2012/11/prusa-mendel-reprap-build-part2.html">Prusa Mendel RepRap build, day2</a><br />
<a href="http://navni-stuff.blogspot.be/2012/11/prusa-mendel-reprap-build-day-3.html">Prusa Mendel RepRap build, day 3</a><br />
<a href="http://navni-stuff.blogspot.be/2012/12/prusa-mendel-reprap-build-day-4-5.html">Prusa Mendel RepRap build, day 4 & 5</a><br />
<a href="http://navni-stuff.blogspot.be/2012/12/prusa-mendel-reprap-build-day-6.html">Prusa Mendel RepRap build, day 6</a><br />
<a href="http://navni-stuff.blogspot.be/2012/12/prusa-mendel-reprap-build-day-7.html">Prusa Mendel RepRap build, day 7</a><br />
<a href="http://navni-stuff.blogspot.be/2012/12/prusa-mendel-reprap-build-day-8.html">Prusa Mendel RepRap build, day 8</a><br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-78612798021861626582012-12-21T07:40:00.001-08:002013-06-15T05:52:26.846-07:00Prusa Mendel RepRap build, updateToday I finally received my Chinese power supply for the RepRap. Now I can finally continue my build. Although, due to the holidays and family visits that might only be Tuesday evening the earliest.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RDlasw-LZug/UNSCU3uC_TI/AAAAAAAAAlM/1NxRZ0IOCAQ/s1600/2012-12-21+16.35.11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RDlasw-LZug/UNSCU3uC_TI/AAAAAAAAAlM/1NxRZ0IOCAQ/s320/2012-12-21+16.35.11.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Merry X-mas and Happy New year everyone.NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-37731758186557632272012-12-11T13:58:00.004-08:002012-12-11T13:58:59.278-08:00Prusa Mendel RepRap build, day 8Yesterday I recieved 2 extra belt clamps from the people from<a href="http://www.reprap-france.com/"> reprap france</a> where I bought my kit. I fabricated my own belt clamps out of thin MDF but they seemed too flimsy for usage. So after explaining my problem they were willing to send me these two clamps for free.<br />
<br />
So I mirked the holes of the clamps on the base plate using a drill bit, before drilling the actual holes. Be sure to double check these as one pair of holes were incorrectly marked, so now I have 6 holes in my base plate :-) (you can see them below the nearest belt clamp)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f4AQEC1izyc/UMenGH59anI/AAAAAAAAAkk/maLYoSGjIAE/s1600/2012-12-11+22.33.27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f4AQEC1izyc/UMenGH59anI/AAAAAAAAAkk/maLYoSGjIAE/s200/2012-12-11+22.33.27.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
So after the Y-axis belt was fixed I could finally install the print bed.<br />
<br />
Not that much progress, but I'm currently reading up on how to mount the heated PCB for the print bed. I already have the glass plate laying around, but it seems that ideally I still require some insulation between the current print bed and the heated PCB. Also, it is still not clear to me how to install the thermistor for the heated PCB and how to wire it up.<br />
<br />
I also will still need to mount the hot end into the extruder and wire up the leads of the hot end thermistor and the heater resistor.<br />
<br />
Once these to steps are done I can start mounting the end stops en connect the electronics. Status so far:<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O_7EAUtRP4g/UMenDaZZRYI/AAAAAAAAAkc/TAy7oXLlueU/s1600/2012-12-11+22.34.10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O_7EAUtRP4g/UMenDaZZRYI/AAAAAAAAAkc/TAy7oXLlueU/s200/2012-12-11+22.34.10.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
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<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-48365326014557205642012-12-05T22:52:00.005-08:002012-12-05T22:52:57.892-08:00Prusa Mendel RepRap build, day 7I mounted the extruder on the X- carriage and installed the belt for the X-carriage.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W7BK2NbaHQA/UL52Vz-yPJI/AAAAAAAAAiM/VeT_9Ta2XHI/s1600/2012-12-04+23.15.34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W7BK2NbaHQA/UL52Vz-yPJI/AAAAAAAAAiM/VeT_9Ta2XHI/s200/2012-12-04+23.15.34.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Today I tackled the assembly of the J-Head mk-V hot end. This alreaday came preassembled, but it still requires installing the heater resistor and thermistor.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--sRXwxYIqFc/UL52ft3u5WI/AAAAAAAAAik/76BY356IkAo/s1600/2012-12-04+23.14.41.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--sRXwxYIqFc/UL52ft3u5WI/AAAAAAAAAik/76BY356IkAo/s200/2012-12-04+23.14.41.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eyphY7kZWoc/UL-69oXwl8I/AAAAAAAAAjQ/kUarm_jgVac/s1600/2012-12-05+21.06.20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eyphY7kZWoc/UL-69oXwl8I/AAAAAAAAAjQ/kUarm_jgVac/s200/2012-12-05+21.06.20.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
<br />
I have been going over the documentation in <a href="http://www.reprap.org/wiki/J-head#Mk_V_2">the reprap wiki</a> a few times, just to be sure. I just tried to see if the heater resistor fits the destined hole. I was a tight fit and with some light pushing found that the resistor got stuck on one side.<br />
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As the Heater resistor wouldn't budge anymore I applied some more force and eventually got the resistor to be at the center of the hole. Due to the tight fit I guess I won't need muffler repair putty or aluminium foil to make the fit.<br />
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I then installed the thermistor and slid the insulation tubing over the leads.<br />
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As the thermistor can move freely I fixed it to the hot end with some kapton tape. I also bent the leads slightly to allow it to be connected to the Reprap electronics.<br />
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Does the hot end work? Well we will have to wait until the power supply arrives. Also still need to install the hot end in the extruder. But that's for another day.<br />
<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-35353911141599460102012-12-03T23:35:00.001-08:002012-12-03T23:35:30.898-08:00Prusa Mendel RepRap build, day 6I put some glue super glue on the part that snapped and I used a reshaped packaging staple from some cardboard box in an attempt to make the snapped part even sturdier.<br />
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While I was gluing, I also attached the base plate to the Y-axis support. and left these to dry.<br />
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In the mean time I attached the X-axis threaded rods to the stepper motors on top of the Reprap with some aluminium couplers.<br />
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After the glue dried, I aligned the Y-axis belt on the base platform. I went looking for the belt clamps so I could mark the holes that needed to be drilled in the base platform. The bag containing all 3D printed parts contained 3 belt clamps and 2 remaining rod clamps.<br />
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This is enough for attaching the Y-axis belt to the base platform, but I need 4 in total as I also need 2 belt clamps on the X-axis. The holes in the rod clamps to not line up to the holes of the belt clamps. I guess I'll keep the best belt clamps for the X-axis belt and either fabricate my own Y-axis belt clamps from some thin MDF or use the rod clamps turned upside down.<br />
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At this point I tightened up the complete frame, until now I hand tightened everything. It's slightly unnerving to hear light pinging noises as the plastic printed parts have to deal with some real pressure :-)<br />
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Now I left the frame of the Reprap to start work on the wade extruder. This extruder was also printed slightly sturdier than the original one. So, again I had to use the M3x16 bolts instead of the supplied M3x10 bolts. And as before, I also needed to use the nut-spacer trick to safely attach the motor to the extruder component.<br />
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The nut-spacer trick is also working for the extruder-motor connection situated under the big cog. There is still enough room between the bolt head and the cog.<br />
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I probably have to slow down a bit, as only this weekend I ordered my Chinese power supply for the Reprap and I suppose I shouldn't expect it at my doorstep tomorrow. So far for build day 6 :-)<br />
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<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-80641813532582800532012-12-01T00:19:00.002-08:002012-12-03T23:12:28.436-08:00Prusa Mendel RepRap build, day 4 & 5<h2>
Day 4</h2>
No english version of the eMotionTech Prusa precision kit exists, just a french and spanish version. So I'm trying my best with the french version (luckely this is the 3rd language I know, but the technical french vocabulary is quite unknown to me)<br />
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When mounting the supports for one of the plates (the 4 supports are in front of the Prusa frame in <a href="http://navni-stuff.blogspot.be/2012/11/prusa-mendel-reprap-build-day-3.html">previous post</a>) I saw the bolts could not pass the threaded rod connecting the side triangles on the bottom. That's because the rod needed to be mounted below the bottom-side threaded rods instead of on top of it. Thanks for the people of eMotionTech to help me out on this (although I found out myself before I got there answer back). Just shows I really should stick to the french version of the manual :-)<br />
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I don't have super glue laying around, so I cannot fix the base plate to the supports.<br />
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The second hurdle was mounting the Y-axis motor to the Y-motor bracket. Apparently this is an updated bracket compared to the stock one. It's much sturdier. Unfortunately there aren't any longer bolts left to spare in the kit. So this concluded day 4 of the construction.<br />
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Day 5</h2>
I bought some M3x16 bolts (the only M3 bolts I could find) in the hard ware store so I could mount the Y-axis motor. Although I forgot to purchase some super glue.<br />
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Unfortunately these bolts are about 2 mm too long. I solved this by placing an M3 nut between the washer and the head of the bolt.<br />
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I could now continue building the X-axis parts. You need M3x16 bolts for this to, so I'm glad I bought some extras to day :-) . All went well until I applied some pressure on the left side component when pushing the slide rods through. I heard a crack and the mounting bracket for the motor cracked. Guess I will need that super glue even more now :-(<br />
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2 of the mounting point are still good, so after gluing that part, I guess all will be well.<br />
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I mounted the X-axis construction into the frame and mounted the motors on top of the frame. So that concludes build day 5 :-)<br />
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<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-354841337860784692012-11-28T23:30:00.002-08:002012-11-28T23:46:06.281-08:00Prusa Mendel RepRap build, day 3Tightened the complete frame, added the bottom threaded rod (so part 5 of the manual is finished) and started on the Y-axis (part 6 of the manual):<br />
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I just found out the eMotionTech manual is slightly different (at least for the Prusa Mendel Precision kit I ordered) from the online <a href="http://garyhodgson.com/reprap/prusa-mendel-visual-instructions/">Prusa Mendel Visual instructions</a>. Unfortunately it's in <a href="http://fr.scribd.com/doc/110622506/Prusa-Mendel-V21-Visual-Instructions-FRENCH">french</a>, I'll see if I can track down the English version.NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-92101621022688102022012-11-28T00:06:00.002-08:002012-11-28T23:30:51.135-08:00Prusa Mendel RepRap build, day 2Yesterday I had 40 minutes of free time and I got the part 4 of the construction manual completed.<br />
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<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-63305205967326329462012-11-26T23:22:00.002-08:002012-11-28T23:31:02.066-08:00Prusa Mendel RepRap build, day 1During the last months I have been considering buying a 3D printer. It has been a careful consideration and I even have been helping on an <a href="http://navni-stuff.blogspot.com/2012/10/short-report-on-ultimaker-build-weekend.html">ultimaker build</a> during a build weekend, just to get the hang of it. The build weekend certainly did not quench my thirst for a 3D printer.<br />
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Although the ultimaker is a remarkable nice machine, I doesn't fit my budget. So after some browsing I ended up on the <a href="http://www.3ders.org/index.html">3ders.org</a> website that contains a <a href="http://www.3ders.org/pricecompare/3dprinters/">3D printer price comparison list</a> that gets updated from time to time. So I went for the cheapest and closest option (to keep shipping costs as low as possible): <a href="http://www.reprap-france.com/">RepRap France - eMotion Tech</a>. I went for their <a href="http://www.reprap-france.com/46-kit-reprap-prusa-iteration2-precision.html">Prusa Mendel precision kit</a>. So after paying and waiting a box finally arrived at my doorstep.<br />
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I went quickly through the box, to see if most parts were there. I know some plates are still on their way, but nothing stops me from already starting the build<br />
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There seems to be 5 footed <span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">frame vertex</span> and only 1 <span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">frame vertex instead of 4 footed and 2 regulars</span>, but that only impacts the looks, not functionality. Hopefully that will be the only surprise I'll encounter in this build, *fingers crossed*.<br />
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So this is the result of 1 hour of spare time :-)<br />
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<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-17594780291548797752012-10-21T13:27:00.004-07:002012-10-22T00:25:05.596-07:00Short report on Ultimaker build weekend at Buda labs<br />
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This weekend I participated in an <a href="http://ultimaker.com/">Ultimaker</a> build weekend @<a href="http://www.designregio-kortrijk.be/budalab">Buda::lab</a><br />
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Together with the guys from <a href="http://www.timelab.org/">timelab</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fab_lab">fablab</a> from Ghent) Buda::lab (fablab from Kortrijk) a few teams started building Ultimaker 3D printers. I volunteered in helping build a 3D printer (my budget isn't big a enough at this time to afford one :-) ).<br />
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I was teamed up with <a href="http://www.jo3ri.be/home">jo3ri</a> to build his 3D printer and helped out wherever I could. Sometimes a second pair of hands can be very helpful.<br />
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Some images<br />
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some vids<br />
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<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-40515811889844030962012-09-08T14:38:00.001-07:002014-01-06T14:19:33.864-08:00Raspberry Pi NASThis documents my setup of my Raspberry Pi as a cheap NAS<br />
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Initially I followed <a href="http://elinux.org/R-Pi_NAS">http://elinux.org/R-Pi_NAS</a> but ran into some problems. Especially the section on 'Adding USB storage' and more specifically 'Remount USB storage on startup' don't seem to be working for me. (might be my fault)<br />
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I finally got things working by following some tips on this <a href="http://www.simonthepiman.com/how_to_setup_windows_file_server.php">page</a> which actually made my system work.<br />
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<span style="background-color: lime;"><i>I'm currently experimenting with a cubieboard as alternative to this raspberry pi NAS setup. Read about it <a href="http://navni-stuff.blogspot.be/2014/01/cubieboard-based-nas.html">here</a>.</i></span><br />
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The following is a rude mash-up of the above mentioned sources, so all credit to them.<br />
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So basically, once logged in to your raspberry pi that is connected to the internet, you can do the following:<br />
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<b>General setup</b><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo apt-get update</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">to put your system up-to-date</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">sudo apt-get install samba samba-common-bin</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">installs samba binaries</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">sudo apt-get install autofs</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">allows you to automatically remount your usb drive when your raspberry pi restarts</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo mkdir /home/shares</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo mkdir /home/shares/public</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo mkdir /home/shares/public/disk1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">sets up the directory structure where your USB hard drive will get mounted</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">fstab setup</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.old</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">copy fstab file, just to be sure</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">sudo vi /etc/fstab</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">edit the fstab file by adding the following to the end</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">/dev/sda1 /home/shares/public/disk1 ext3 defaults 0 0</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><i>(I defined my USB drive as ext3 as I reformatted it to ext3 before starting to use it)</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo mount -a</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">mounts all drives that are not mounted yet</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">ls -al /homes/shares/public/disk1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ideal time to see if you messed up your fstab file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">automount setup</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo vi /etc/auto.master</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">add the following</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">/media/ /etc/auto.ext-usb --timeout=10,defaults,user,exec,uid=1000</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">after</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">+auto.master</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Samba setup</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.old</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">copy file, just to be sure</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo vi /etc/samba/smb.conf</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">edit the file, add the following to the end of the file:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">### USB share definition###########################</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">[usb]</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">comment = USB</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sharepath = /home/shares/public/disk1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">writeable = yes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">valid users = @users</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">force group = users</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">create mask = 0660</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">directory mask = 0771</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">browseable = yes</span></div>
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###################################################</div>
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<div style="font-family: inherit;">
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<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo service samba restart</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
restarts samba and activates the changes you added</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">sudo smbpasswd -a pi</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">adds the pi user to the samba users</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So I hope I got this complete and correct. Please also consult the 2 sources I mention at the beginning as these form the bases of my mash-up.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LMmkLp_j-v8/UNQXfm9ZbwI/AAAAAAAAAk8/9xcgFatfIzY/s1600/2012-12-21+07.53.33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LMmkLp_j-v8/UNQXfm9ZbwI/AAAAAAAAAk8/9xcgFatfIzY/s320/2012-12-21+07.53.33.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-6520216108952647992012-08-18T02:25:00.000-07:002012-08-18T02:25:02.278-07:00Second Raspberry piSo what happened with the first Raspberry pi? Well I sold it to a colleague of mine.<br />
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Unfortunately by selling all required elements of my first working Raspberry pi setup, I had no HDMI cable left to configure the second.<br />
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So while waiting for the HDMI cable, I also ordered one of the <a href="http://adafruit.com/products/859">plexi</a> <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:24461">enclosures</a> for the raspberry pi designed by <a href="http://adafruit.com/">adafuit</a> on ebay.<br />
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Voila, here's my setup:<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gM9_TdXWb5Y/UC9e8tvDynI/AAAAAAAAAaI/oLYaRQdWF1g/s1600/2012-08-18+00.20.58.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gM9_TdXWb5Y/UC9e8tvDynI/AAAAAAAAAaI/oLYaRQdWF1g/s400/2012-08-18+00.20.58.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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What's next? I'll try to setup a NAS with this raspberry pi, a self powered USB hub and some external USB hard drives. (If I find a few minutes of spare time :-) )NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-14921148077354305212012-07-11T13:35:00.000-07:002012-07-11T13:35:00.391-07:00My first Raspberry Pi alive and kickingJust wrote the Debian image on my first Raspberry Pi, hooked it up to power and video out to my TV and....<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Rx7hHIQiRT4/T_3hABeuzsI/AAAAAAAAAZg/KHZ2oSLQG0c/s1600/2012-07-10+22.51.10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Rx7hHIQiRT4/T_3hABeuzsI/AAAAAAAAAZg/KHZ2oSLQG0c/s320/2012-07-10+22.51.10.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">first boot of my Raspberry pi</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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First I followed the 'SD card setup with linux' in the <a href="http://www.themagpi.com/">MagPi</a> issue 2, but that did not seem to work. On my version of Ubuntu I did the following:<br />
<ul>
<li>inserted the SD card in to the SD card reader of my laptop (automatically appeared as /dev/sdb1)</li>
<li>did not unmount it</li>
<li>executed the following command '<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">sudo dd if=./debian6-19-04-2012.img of=/dev/sdb bs=1M</span></span>' </li>
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<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272546791792300621.post-75771205763218867472012-06-20T13:14:00.000-07:002012-06-20T13:14:00.823-07:00RebootSo it's been a while. In the last year I tried to combine being a new father, doing a full time job, having a long commute, doing sports several times a week en continue my Japanese evening class.<br />
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No wonder blogging and home projects fell a bit behind.<br />
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It became apparent during this year that Japanese evening classes just was too much and giving how my latest exam went I'm pretty much sure that quitting is the right thing to do :-)<br />
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Now to get me going on my home projects again I ordered a little, very popular gadget that just was dropped at my doorstep today.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
A Raspberry Pi !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
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<br />NAVNihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10714628835487965636noreply@blogger.com0