tech

Jul 29 2019

Home server update

Just a quick update on my home server.  I finally got a chance to try out the replacement KCMA-D8 board I got.  Sadly it does not have working video.  Thankfully the seller is shipping me another one.  I also talked to my wife and she agrees that we can mount it on the wall in the mechanical room to reduce the temperature in the crawlspace under the stairs.  While not an ideal location, it is better than where it sites now since the mechanical room is always open (litter boxes for the cats).  I am hoping it won’t get too hot in there in the winter with the server, the water heater & the furnace in there.

By • computers, tech • 0

Jul 29 2019

Temperature & Humidity Sensors

I’m planning on starting to make some 433MHz temperature & humidity sensors based on this Instructable.  I will also have to build a programmer, based on this Instructable.

Parts list for the programmer (Amazon works best for me) is as follows.

The parts list for the sensors is as follows

As you can see, I made some substitutes to work with what I can find on Amazon but for the most part it is the same component.s

By • computers, networking, smart house, tech • 0

Jul 13 2019

Home server

Well,

Last night I moved my home server from an old crappy tower case to a Rosewill RSV-L4500 4U rackmount case.  No rack to put it in so it sits on its side but oh well.  So much room in it, plenty of room for my ASUS KCMA-D8 motherboard.  Will be really nice when I get the replacement board so I can use both CPU sockets and have 16 true cores and hopefully 128GB of RAM.  If not, I’ll have either 64GB (like I do now) or 96GB of RAM.  Both of which are a huge improvement over the 24GB I had before.

By • Server, smart house, tech • 0

Jun 19 2019

funtoo Linux

I’ve decided that I really have no reason to have Windows on my laptop since I don’t use it all that often so tonight I’m going to embark on installing funtoo Linux on it.  It will most definitely be an interesting time but given the age of my laptop shouldn’t have to many surprises.

By • computers, tech • 0

May 7 2019

Weird Hobby

My wife loves her crocheting.  No big deal and not that weird.  Me being the good husband I am however decided to write an app that will allow her to quickly generate a temperature blanket pattern.  For those that don’t know, a temperature blanket is where you assign a color to a temp or range of temps and then track the high or low temp for a year.  You use that to determine what color each day will be.  Also means that even with the same color mapping, each year would be a different pattern.  I am close to done and I cannot wait to have her use it.

By • random, tech • 0

Mar 8 2019

Home Server & Network Updates

Well, due to Meraki not supporting IPv6 on their MX appliances I have removed it from my network.  I am now back to running a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter, specifically the EdgeRouter X SFP.  With a 1Gbe Fiber link between it and my Meraki MS220-8P just because I can (everything purchased from http://fs.com and working great).  I have also replaced my Meraki MR33 AP with a Cambium e410 AP that I got for free.  While it is still a cloud managed AP (for now at least as I have yet to get the on-premise controller working in KVM) there is no license fee which is nice.  Although the cnMaestro software is a little harder to navigate than Meraki’s, I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it.

On the home server front, right now I have unRAID running on an Intel Core i7-4770 in a ASRock H97M Pro4 motherboard with 24GB of RAM.  This will soon be upgraded to dual AMD Opteron 4280s in an ASUS KCMA-D8 motherboard with 128GB of RAM.  I got gifted the motherboard, and the processors and RAM were very cheap.  Just waiting on the adapters to be able to mount Socket AM3 HSFs on the board, the HSFs themselves & a new PSU as my current 500w one will not be big enough to power everything.  The i7, its motherboard & RAM will go into our gaming desktop, giving it a nice upgrade from an i5-2500 & 8GB of RAM.

By • tech • 0

Nov 8 2018

New Home Server

Well,

I have come to the conclusion that I am in need of a new home server.  My combination of a HP N40L for storage, a HP Laptop for Plex and a Raspberry Pi 3 as a Home Assistant machine just isn’t working well anymore.  Of course, I can’t afford to go out and buy brand new gear (for the most part).  I am considering “old” LGA 1356 Intel E5-2670 Xeons (around $80 each), a motherboard to support two of them, rackmount case (new Norco RPC-5224 and probably the most expensive part of the build), new PSU, an additional SAS/SATA controller so I can use the case properly, etc.  Just need to determine if I want to do Ubuntu with ZOL & root on ZFS or if I want to go with FreeBSD and a beta install of Docker.  I’ll run as much as I can outside of Docker containers, but some will need to be containers.  I’m also thinking of putting the server in the garage, although I have no clue how hot it gets in there in the summer which worries me.  I would love to be able to run two fiber runs out there to do a connection between my current  Meraki MS220-8P and my old Dell PowerConnect 2724 (LAG between them just because I can), would also give me the ability to upgrade to 10Gig at some point in the future.

By • smart house, tech • 0

Jun 11 2018

Sitemap

Well,

I have been working to update my site for better searching.  I think I now have an XML sitemap for Google ready to go.  However, I’m not 100% sure if it is working yet.

By • Server, tech • 0

May 30 2018

Meraki MX Appliances

Well, I am starting to get frustrated with Meraki and their MX appliances.  They have been promising to add IPv6 support to them for a while but they have yet to add it.  This is an issue since most cell providers only offer IPv6 address to their phones & hotspots.  This means that I am not able to connect to work via VPN when I am and about.  Also means that I’m unable to connect to home via VPN and also check my personal site’s IPv6 address (I have a MX64 at home that I got for free).  I most definitely will be switching back to Ubiquiti at home once my license has expired for my Meraki gear.

By • networking, tech • 0

May 3 2018

Phone & such

Well,

A couple of weeks ago I managed to drop my phone and break the screen on it.  I’m not at the Apple Store in the Mall of America waiting for them to finish replacing the screen and playing around on a nice shiny new iMac Pro.  I love the screen and the touch pad on it, not sure about the keyboard and mouse yet.  I think the mouse would be ok with its speed turned up.  The keyboard just does not have near enough travel for me….

By • phones, tech • 0

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