Few weeks back started to have trouble with my trusty Raidon/Stardom SL3620-2S-LB2 NAS storage. After reboot it would work for few hours and then go crazy. It would loose configuration and unable to detect hard drives. In some cases it would “forget” configuration and had to use default user account to log in. It would report: no hard drives detected.
What I did was to replace ceramic capacitor 472 500v and capacitor 1500 16V (marked in red) from power supply..
Just a short intro on this great and cheap network box that I found on ebay for $30-40. You can connect to it 8 DS18B20/DS1822 based temperature sensors, one Honeywell HIH-4000 series humidity sensor, plus few relay. And if you get in to it could program it to do automation tasks (home automation, IP relay, hydroponics, weather station, etc).
For $30 you can get this board called WebControl (8 ports), its made by cainetworks.com There are two version PLC and BRE. You can find on Ebay. The major problem is that during power up they will fire relays. Have used this for garage door, but had problem that it would open garage door during power up. Solution at bottom of this post.
Some info:
WebControl™ has 8 digital inputs, 3 analog inputs(based on 10bit A/D converter, full scale 0-3V), up to 8 optional DS18B20/DS1822 based temperature sensors, one optional Honeywell HIH-4000 series humidity sensor, 20 custom definable timers to combine and define its 8 digital output in any sequence of those combined input.
The user manual for PLC version and BRE version.
Customs plug-ins xapmcsWebControl and
Link 2 details
Solution to power up problem by Support Team at CAI Networks, Inc.
Thanks for writing to us. The processor during power up do reset on all the
output. That is probably the cause for the power on trigger.If you could delay the power going to the relay board for a fraction of a
second, that will be fine. Otherwise, you will have to modify the
WebControl board by adding a 2.2k resistor and 47mF capacitor connected in
series. Between the 5V regulator and 16 pin AUX connector, there is a chip
marked U5, if you look the chip pin 22 now is grounded. Using a soldering
gun to desolder pin 22, and connect a wire from chip pin 22 to the resistor
and capacitor. The positive side of the capacitor connects to 3/3.3V
regulator output, the other end of the resistor connected to the ground.By this modification, the output during power on will be disabled for about
0.5 second. That is good enough to get rid of processor reset caused spike
in the output.
Interesting links
+ Fix temperature sensor, sample PLC code link or link2
+ Moco is a scaleable software system for monitoring and control of analog and digital I/O points. link
+ Weather station link
This post is for Ethernet relay boards that you can find on Ebay or Amazon under $40. This is great way to start home automation. My long term plan is do home automation with these boards. At this moment I dont have time for this, if anyone does this please email me…
My other post relating to making one by your self using old HP print server link
For $30 you can get this board called WebControl (8 ports), its made by cainetworks.com There are two version PLC and BRE. You can find on Ebay. I have 2 of these, one major problem is that during power up they will fire relays. Have used this for garage door, but had problem that it would open garage door during power up.
More details on CAI WebControl at my other post. Customs plug-ins xapmcsWebControl
For $30 you can get this interesting thing, it will do almost anything. NAS Network USB Storage BT download (NS K330)
YouTube video as well. Also you could run Snake OS on it.
For over $80 you can get these link
This is continuation of my other DIY car diagnostic post relating to ELM 327 and VCDS cables.
I am only going to list names of software that are useful when it comes to DIY car diagnostics: service manuals and technical data.
ALL DATA – CD’s for US cars (includes OEM data, service manuals) This is software that most of US car repair shops use. Great but expensive.
Autodata – Same as All Data, includes EU models of cars. (must have)
Vivid WorkshopData – Great source of OEM data and Service Manual. (must have)
Bently Publishers – link Manuals for almost all cars. Expensive, manuals for one car cost over $100.
WIN ELSA – Service manuals for VW, Audi, Skoda cars. Used by dealer services.
ETKA – the official electronic parts catalog (EPC) for Volkswagen Group. Online version
For some strange reason it was very hard to find these drivers on web. So here it is..
ELM 327 Win 7 Drivers or
ELM327 Win7
Instructions:
Windows 7
Driver installation:
Double click on the ‘CDM20600’ icon (big round red circle) a DOS box will open and close again – that’s it. This has installed the virtual com port drivers required to use the ELM 327 lead.
A very useful utility is also included ‘ftdi_ports_vista.gadget’ this install a sidebar gadget that lets you see what virtual com port number is in use (changes each time you plug the lead in). Please install this also. PLEASE NOTE THIS MAY NOT WORK ON ALL VERSIONS OF 7. If it doesn’t work don’t worry it’s not essential for operation.
Plug the ELM lead into your USB port and wait a few seconds, windows will detect the device and install drivers. When the installation is complete you will see the com port number in the sidebar gadget.
If you are new to DIY car repair or trying to figure out what that yellow MIL lamp represent, this post is for you. This will be short intro on ODB2 and cheap car diagnostic tool like ELM 327 and VCDS. Majority of error cods can be fixes easily and do not require car mechanic service. On average ELM costs about $20-30 and VCDS (VAG COM) from $20-350. I will only talk about cables that connect to PC and not handheld units, from my experience PC version of cable is more particle and can be used with many types of software giving you flexibility.
General Info:
As of 1996 all car have have to OBD-II compliant vehicle. There are five communication protocols: J1850 PWM, J1850 VPW, ISO9141-2, ISO14230-4 (also known as Keyword Protocol 2000), and more recently, ISO15765-4/SAE J2480 (a “flavor” of CAN). US car manufacturers were not allowed to use CAN until model year 2003, but as of model year 2008 and going forward, all vehicles will use the CAN protocol. ODB-II port looks like this
PWM The connector must have pins 2, 4, 5, 10, and 16
VPW The connector must have pins 2, 4, 5, and 16, but not 10.
ISO The connector must have pins 4, 5, 7, and 16. Pin 15 may or may not be present.
CAN The connector must have pins 4, 5, 6, 14, and 16
ODB in you car is located: Database of ODB connectors
Now, you might ask you self, which ODB cable should I get?? From my experience, all of these protocol can be addressed with 2 cables. If you have US/Japan car then get ELM 327 cable, if you have VW or Audi then get VCDS.
What is ELM 327:
ELM 327 cable supports all of above protocols and can be considered as universal cable if such thing exist. These cables cost only $20-30 and are cheap way to get started with ODB code decoding.. At this moment 1.4 version is most current. These cable have USB and Bluetooth version as well. For Windows 7 ELM drivers visit my other post.
Good source for ELM 327 cables is ebay, they are cheap and easy to find…
Now, you will need some software to use them..
The free version is scan tool, the software that I like are Scan Master ELM (75 euros) and ODB spy. If you ask me, Scan Master is best ELM 327 software, giving you wide range of tools and charts.
note: for some newer VW and AUDI cars ELM 327 will work as well (I think its 2006 and newer). ELM 327 is to fast for most older VW and Audi cars and needs to be slowed down.
Free software
+ Scantool 1.21 (free)
+ Easy OBDII 2.4.0 (free)
+ OBD2Crazy wOBD 1.40 (free)
ELM 327 Links
Fiat and ELM 327 software
ELM 327 tech specs
Make your own with LCD
Make your own Can get parts from website for $35.
ELM 327 Can Bus IC
Iphone REV
Torque for Android
yhasi.com For Mac OS X ELM 327 software as well.
VCDS and VAG-COM
VCDS is great tool for VW and Audi cars, you can diagnose car code, performance test and so on. The best part is that you “adapt” parameters on your car like: daylight running light, auto lock, height of your car, and etc.
The original cables can be found at link. For $350 you get original software VCDS and cable. On Ebay and some other website you can find Chinese version of these cables called VCDS, at this moment version 11 is current. The Chinese version of this cable cost only $20-30, so called VCDS clones. I use this cables with great results, just keep in mind that you can not upgrade these cables or use any other software but the version that they are marked for.
note: Do not get VAG-COM KKL 409, this is old cable that works only on older and slower on-board computers.
My comments:
If you just starting with this, get ELM 327 since its cheap and can be used for many different type of cars.
By using 8-port patch panel (cost 11 euros / 16$) create 4 port POE injector. This is very simple /cheap project when it comes to POE injector.
This is done by wiring RJ45 pins (3,6,1,2) for networks to other patch panel port, and wiring power to Rj45 pins (8,7to negative DC & 5,4 to positive DC) to POE panel ports.
Full details at
https://wiki.linz.funkfeuer.at/funkfeuer/HowTo/passive_PoE_en
See my other POE wiring and cheap ebay POE injectors posts
This is great free software that will allow you mount / edit / delete files on Ext2 formatted disk. In my case it was disk from NAS storage.
http://www.fs-driver.org/index.html
This is on on-going post and will update it from time to time…
You might ask your self: What CCTV camera should I get? IP, Non-IP, wirelss, type, brand and so on.
Please refer to my other post relating to CCTV wiring, CCTV server and so on .
lets start …
CMOS and CCD chip-set
There are two common types of CCTV cameras, CMOS and CCD. CMOS based cameras are generally cheaper but do not produce as clear or sharp images as CCD cameras. CCD cameras provide pin-point clarity and are much more expensive.
Resolution
Analog camera use TVL marking, the number of television lines that the camera is capable of producing.
Cheap are in range of 380 TVL
Mid range about 420 TVL
Higher resolution cameras of over 500 TVL
note: anything bellow 420 TVL will have very hard time recognizing faces or see any moving objects.
IP cameras
IP camera use same type resolution as you home Digital Camera. 1Mega pixel, all way up to 5Mpix
IP camera image formats
IP cameras can broadcast images in following formats: Jpeg, M-JPEG, Mpeg, and Video stream (port). This all depend on brand and quality of camera.
Video compression algorithms are divided in two groups: Frame based compression (JPEG, Wavelet, JPEG 2000) and Stream based compression (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, MPEG-7). Usage of stream based compression algorithms enables greater savings on storage space and network bandwidth but these algorithms require higher computing performance.
IR cut-off filter
Infrared (IR) cut-off filters are used with color CCD or CMOS imagers to produce accurate color images.
Cameras with IR cut-off filters are more expensive but provide better color images, this has to do with Day & Night functionality. Read a link for mode details.
Light
Light levels are usually measured in Lux.
Typical light levels are:
+ Full Summer Sunlight: 50,000 Lux
+ Dull Daylight: 10,000 Lux
+ Shop/Office environment: 500 Lux
+ Dawn/Dusk: 1 – 10 Lux
+ Main Street Lighting: 30 Lux
+ Side Street Lighting: 0.5 – 3 Lux
The golden rule: give the camera approximately 10 times its quoted minimum scene illumination. The major problem is when they do not have enough light to produce a picture
If you need very low light camera setup you have two options: 1. get (IR) InfraRed illuminator ($20-80 on ebay). 2. Get camera that has 2 image sensors. B/W sensor for night recording and other for day recording. These are best but expensive.
IR InfraRed illuminator
note: IR do not work behind glass (windows), they creates reflections.
CCTV camera Lens
Use this Lens calculator
and Axis one
PTZ – non PTZ
Good PTZ camera cost at least $400-$500. On ebay you can find cheap $100 versions, with have low quality images. Also PTZ cameras with IR can’t work in outdoor dome, so will have hard time getting them to work outdoor.
Digital PTZ: this is not real PTZ, there are no moving parts. Its simply camera with at least 1 megapixel with digital zoom.
What I would do: For the price of one good PTZ camera you can get 2 or 3 non-ptz camera. Get more non-ptz cameras and place then well. This way you get more coverage for less money.
Motion detection
Use motion detection when ever possible. Most CCTV system have motion detection zoning which will eliminate fake alarms. Record only what you need, otherwise you will record to much of unwanted stuff, that will take time to review.
Recording Rates
As a guide to different applications the following may be useful:
Application
Car Parking, external people movement 0.5-2fps
Office, shop 2fps
Money counting 3.5-7.5fps
Traffic monitoring 5-25fps
Recording Quality
The common standards for composite video signals are as follows
CIF 352 x 288
2CIF 704 x 288
D1 704 x 576 (DVD level quality)
Better video quality large files, this will depend on you Hard Drive size. Keep at least 15 days or recording.
Recording formats
There are few (MPEG4, H264, Divx, Avi, and etc) This depends on your CCTV DVR system. Also different formats produce better quality then others, as well as, different size files.
Google for CCTV tools for bandwidth disk space usage calculators.
So what camera should I get? This depends your budget and specific needs.
Some budget info:
+ Cheap IP camera $100-150 (low image quality, cheap Chinese products, Ebay)
+ Good IP camera >$300
+ Mobotix, the best IP camera for outdoor and night recording, >$1200
+ PTZ, cheap $120-150, good PTZ >$500+
Start by looking at sample images at link
Please refer to my other post relating to CCTV wiring, CCTV server and so on .
We all got one, so what do we do with old laptop… Some ideas..
You choice should be based on what is working on non working on the laptop, second how old it is. For most of these project you dont need battery anyway.
1. Photo Frame. This is what I have done with mine. It was very old laptop Intel P2 running on Win 98.
Link
If your laptop is old Win98SE type laptop, read the above link. It shows few trick how to get most out of old laptop.
2. If laptop has S-video or HDMI output use it as Media center. Play movies, divx, mp3, netflix and etc.
2.1 If newer install Windows 7 media center
2.2 If older, Install Linux distribution, then install Linux Media (linuxmce.com, xbmc.org, www.mythtv.org, List of top 5)
3. Use Laptop LCD as extra screen. This will require taking LCD out and buying LCD controller.
Link, or this link
4. Use Laptop LCD as secondary screen (software version)
The alternative is to use software to share your graphics card’s output over the network. To do this, you can use a free piece of software called ZoneScreen.
5. Upgrade memory. Use a memory checker, such as the one at www.crucial.com, to find out how much memory your laptop can handle, and what type you need. Order from Crucial or search for used memory on Ebay. Replacing laptop memory is easy.
6. If laptop has good size hard drive, could use it NAS storage server. Could attach USB external drives as well, or even use it as print server.
6.1 Install Windows, enable folder sharing
6.2 Install Free Nas, actually there is not installation for this. Insert CD in disk tray, and enable boot from CD. That’s all
Link on how to build cheap NAS server.
7. If newer, use it as CCTV security server. Could also use cheap USB cams to get started (see: 7.3).
7.1 Install Win XP, Install Blue Iris. Use as CCTV server (see my post on CCTV servers) CCTV Categories on right>
7.2 Install Linux distribution, install zoneminder Linux video camera security and surveillance solution
7.3 For simple/mini home surveillance use Yawcam (www.yawcam.com), a free program that works with most external webcams USB, and also the internal webcam on laptops. When the app senses motion, it will send a photo from the webcam to you as an e-mail.
8. home automation server
The system is controlled by software installed on your laptop, and a master unit which plugs into a wall socket and a USB or serial port on your laptop. You can find out more at www.domialifestyle.com
9. Kitchen PC
A cool way to reuse laptop. Link. “KitcheNET is a project which aims to provide an easy method to reuse obsolete laptops and desktops as a low power, limited feature, dedicated internet appliance for home use in say a kitchen. (internet, schedule, music station, etc)”
10. Audio Station
The easiest way to turn the laptop into an audio workstation is to install the Ubuntu Studio (www.ubuntostudio.org), which has many of the latest audio tools, plug-ins, and libraries for create MIDI and recorded audio tracks.
11. Stream Video to Video Game Consoles (Sony PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360)
TVersity (www.tversity.com) is one good piece of streaming software. For PS3 (and Xbox 360 owners) is PS3 Media Server (http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/), it works well for streaming high-def video.
Note: you need an Intel Core 2 Duo processor-powered machine to support 1080p streaming
Wiring POE camera is simple. POE is unified standard for wiring POE devices using regular network cable (cat 5e and 6). You just simply connected one side of network cable to the camera and other side to the POE interface. Power-over-Ethernet is an extension to the IEEE802 standard opening the possibility to power remote nodes using the standard CAT5 data cable. Special network switches or midspan injectors provide 48V to the network.
Important: The network cable that is plugged to POE adapter should only connect to POE device like camera. Be careful, connecting non-poe camera to POE switch will destroy the camera. Mark the POE cables properly.
Now the good stuff, basically you have two options depending on how many POE devices you have or plan to have..
POE switch: ($100 – 150)
POE injector ($40-50):
These are good solution if you have only one POE camera. If you camera is POE (read manual to 100% sure) then you only need POE Injector. Connect network cable to POE injector marked as POE device, the other end of this cable goes to camera. Install power to injector, connect small network cable (DATA) to you hub. IMPORTANT: make sure you connect POE network output to camera only.
Mix mode
POE for non-POE camera
you can use POE injector and POE splitter.
For DIY solutions read my other post for more info..
World clock is part of Win 7 OS (free), you just need to add other time zones. To do so..
This instruction if for Blue Iris software but can be used for any CCTV DVR server..
Technicality there are few way to do this… They depend on your ISP using NAT protocol and how much time you want to spend on it. Lets see:
If you ISP does NOT use NAT then you can do following.
1. On you DSL/Cable modem go to dynamic DNS tab and register for one of those dynamic addresses. While in DSL/Cable modem setup, go to port forward, pick a port (ex 88, don’t use 80), setup port forwarding for port 88 to destination IP (IP address of you CCTV server). In Blue Iris web server option change web server port to 88 as well, restart the server.
Dynamic DNS
note: RISK: with this setup you are exposing you server to world. Your DSL/cable modem can be hacked (very unlikely), and well as BI server if some bug in the BI security is discovered/published.
Any ISP setup, even behind firewalls or NAT (easiest)
1. On Blue Iris server simply go to www.logmein.com and create a account. Download and install the Log Me In (free) software. From remote location, log in to your www.logmein.com account, pick your server from ACCESS list. you will have to install web browser add-on for first time users. You should see you CCTV server desktop. So when ever you want to remote log in, go to www.logmein.com, log in to your account and that’s it. Simple…
note: this setup creates a lots of network traffic on you home and remote location. The quality depends on network speed. This is fine setup for occasional remote monitoring.
2. my setup
On Blue Iris server start BI web server. Go to www.logmein.com and create account. Download and install the Hamachi service. Under NETWORK tab create new network. Create Mesh network and give it a name. Download the installer and install it on you BI server and remote computer. Start the Hamachi. On remote location, right lick on server name, click on BROWSE. In IE add this address as trusted web site so Active-x would install. Now you have full access of you BI web server as if you were home.
Blue Iris web server files
http://yourIP/default.html (IE only, active X)
http://yourIP/jpegpush.htm (Java applet, all browsers)
http://yourIP/jpegpull.htm (Java script, all browsers, auto refresh)
http://yourIP/cell.htm (cell phone version, jpeg auto refresh, slow rate, live feed only) (use this for remote monitoring)
http://yourIP/mobile.htm (cell phone version, jpeg auto refresh, slow rate, + archive)
http://yourIP/iphone.htm (Iphone version, jpeg auto refresh, slow rate, live feed only)
These are things that I have found while using the Blue Iris CCTV for last year or so…
reduce CPU usages
+ switch from MPEG4 to MJPEG
+ switch recording codecs from MPEG4 to XVID
+ use good video card
+ lower fps on each camera to 5fps (update setting on the camera and BI as well)
+ Lower the resolution
+ disable Web server if not using
+ remove or minimize “Text and Graphic Overlays”
+ defrag you disk
+ disable audio
+ auto rest your server every 3 days, free up resources.
+ checked recording location (does it exists)
DIY server setup info.
P4 CPU is good for 2-3 camera setup
Dual Core 4-8 camera setup
read my other post for more info
Blue Iris CPU usage reported by other users
General Blue Iris setup guide
http://www.cam-it.org/cms/?Blue_Iris_Surveillance_Software
Forum
http://www.cam-it.org/smf/index.php
This fix works for Mac and Windows VLC players.
Performance issues
goto Tools->Preferences->Input/Codecs->Other Codecs->FFmpeg
Check the ‘allow speed tricks’ box and select ‘all’ for ‘skip the loop filter for h.264 decoding’
Slow start, fixes issues with long load times on big mkv files
UPDATE: this last setting, might give you errors while playing AVI-Divx files..
