Category Archives: hardware

from Sparcs to Ipods, with other gear and gadgets

power supply woes.

2006.10.13 – 6:46 pm PDT

So yea, my server has been down effectively since Saturday.  This means that my blog/website has been offline.
Well, last weekend the power supply in my server decided to get really hot and die.  On Sunday, I replaced it with one from another computer, and it met an untimely hot death also.  So Monday I ordered a new expensive (better?) power supply, an Antec TPII-550, which got here today.  The ones I had been using before were el cheapo Chiefmax 650 watt, of which I have gone through about 4 of them in the last year, 3 in just my server.  I know the load can’t be that much in my server, and yet it eats power supplies like candy.  Each one of the dead power supplies I have taken apart, and looked at them closely to see what’s going on.  Wow, they are just burning up with heat, rosin is just all over, and solder seems to have bridged some parts of the breadboard.  One of the big capacitors in the supply was completely de-soldered and rattling around inside the case upon remove from the computer.  Good thing I didn’t try to turn it on for shits and giggles before I installed the Antec.
  Things seem fine so far.  Oh yea, and when I got the new Antec P/S there is just a huge ugly rats nest of cables that come out of the thing, it took me 20 minutes just to get them somewhat untangeled.  Also not to mention I don’t even need half of the wires that come out of the thing, so they are cable tied and tucked away, hopefuly not restricting too much airflow.  I need a modular power supply.
EDIT: Oh yea, the Antec has an 80,000 hour MTBF.  The Chiefmax has none.
[tags]power, downtime, power_supply, ranting[/tags]

By px | Also posted in personal | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

lirc and my new remote

2006.08.26 – 8:41 am PDT

I got an infared remote and usb dongle receiver last week for pretty cheap, and here is my progress on getting the remote to work so far.

Plugging in the USB dongle shows us that the device looks like a HID Keyboard Device to my laptop.

ohci_hcd 0000:00:03.0: wakeup
usb 2-1: new low speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 8
usb 2-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
input: Libra-Q26 / 1.0 as /class/input/input7
input,hiddev96: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Libra-Q26 / 1.0] on usb-0000:00:03.0-1

Pressing the number keys while with a text window focused quickly showed that the numbers worked fine, and also the OK button (and Enter near the number pad) worked the same as pressing Enter on the keyboard. Also pressing the close button attempted to close the terminal I was working in. (Good thing Gnome Terminal asked me if I really wanted too.)

As you can tell most of the buttons on the remote already function for things before we even setup LIRC. Even the arrow buttons move the justl ike the keyboard arrow keys, channel up/down is page up/down.

LIRC was easy for me to install with a quick

$ emerge lirc -tav

After which I then decided to see what else needed to be recompiled due to the new USE flag.

$ emerge -tav –newuse world

After installing LIRC and recompiling, I could find no configuration availible for my new remote, I took to the easy task of creating a configuration for it using the irrecord program. irrecord will output a nice file named libra-q26.conf

$ irrecord -H dev/input -d /dev/input/event3 libra-q26

Here is the libra-q26.conf I created using irrecord. You will need to rename the file to /etc/lircd.conf or wherever you told lirc to look.
NOTES: My attempts to get the TV button to work failed. I have no idea why. The receiver lights up when it receives a signal. It lights up with the TV button. Using the irw utility shows codes comming from other buttons, but nothing from the TV button. Ohwell, so only 50/51 buttons work. I’m still happy.

Now to work on getting applications to work, Totem, VLC, and whatever else I want to control with my remote…

Resources:
HowTo LIRC Gentoo-Wiki.com
LIRC Remotes
more tips on using LIRC

[tags]LIRC, Libra-Q26, USB, Gentoo, Linux[/tags]

By px | Also posted in Linux | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

battery update

2006.07.10 – 5:04 pm PDT

Mon Jul 10 17:02:57 MST 2006
alarm:                   unsupported
present:                 yes
design capacity:         8800 mWh
last full capacity:      8331 mWh
battery technology:      rechargeable
design voltage:          10800 mV
design capacity warning: 833 mWh
design capacity low:     416 mWh
capacity granularity 1:  264 mWh
capacity granularity 2:  8 mWh
model number:            351s1
serial number:           001
battery type:            LiOn
OEM info:                OEM
present:                 yes
capacity state:          ok
charging state:          charging
present rate:            unknown
remaining capacity:      180 mWh
present voltage:         11068 mV

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new battery update

2006.07.08 – 5:10 am PDT

I haven’t really been using the new battery that much, I kept it around a 40% discharge, then I charge it up or let it sit, and use my older battery, and leave it plugged in to the wall. Since doing the initial charge cycles, the battery doesn’t appear to have lost any more capacity.

Sat Jul  8 05:07:58 MST 2006
alarm:                   unsupported
present:                 yes
design capacity:         8800 mWh
last full capacity:      8549 mWh
battery technology:      rechargeable
design voltage:          10800 mV
design capacity warning: 854 mWh
design capacity low:     427 mWh
capacity granularity 1:  264 mWh
capacity granularity 2:  8 mWh
model number:            351s1
serial number:           001
battery type:            LiOn
OEM info:                OEM
present:                 yes
capacity state:          ok
charging state:          charged
present rate:            unknown
remaining capacity:      8549 mWh
present voltage:         12629 mV

[tags]battery notes, battery, laptop battery, notebook, computers, laptops, technology, hardware, Lithium Ion, statistics, update[/tags]

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Novation Xio

2006.07.05 – 5:27 pm PDT

I like drooling over music gadets. I’d really like to play with one of these synths. Maybe for my birthday. :)
(test..)

By px | Also posted in blogs, music | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

new battery.

2006.06.20 – 5:26 pm PDT

i got a new battery for my laptop. i got a pretty good deal on it after doing a little research.

my previous battery was only a 8000mAh, this one is 8800mAh, but max is 8792mAh. i don’t know what the orignal battery info

i’m in the middle of breaking it in while writing this. i’m on day 2 of a 3 day process. much of the process is waiting, either for warm battery to cool down, or power to charge up.

the new battery seems to last around 2 1/2 hours on my laptop doing usual sometimes cpu intensive tasks.

I really wish laptops has a better way of knowing when to charge their battery while connected to a power source.
this would optimize battery life i’m sure.
perhaps if we could control it through the acpi somehow?
send a fake event to the acpi? or the power system isnt capable of being disconnected unless physically disconnected. hrmmf :(

rrd + gnome-power reporting statistics on usage? with a little math that would provide a nice idea of the actual lifespan of the battery i belive.

Click to continue reading “new battery.”

By px | Also posted in thoughts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

this is broken.

2006.06.20 – 5:26 pm PDT
Jun 20 17:13:13 pmobilex psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio2/input0 lost sync at byte 4
Jun 20 17:13:13 pmobilex psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio2/input0 lost sync at byte 1
Jun 20 17:13:13 pmobilex psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio2/input0 - driver resynched.
Jun 20 17:13:42 pmobilex psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio2/input0 lost sync at byte 1
Jun 20 17:13:42 pmobilex psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio2/input0 lost sync at byte 1
Jun 20 17:13:42 pmobilex psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio2/input0 lost sync at byte 1
Jun 20 17:13:42 pmobilex psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio2/input0 lost sync at byte 4

that crap really gets on my nerves. i just wish that the touchpad settings didn’t get hosed. various useful function of the touchpad stop working or become crap like the side scroll areas. why couldn’t it atleast reload my settings again automagicaly. my touchpad with its defaults are just way too jumpy for my tastes.

while writing this there was 52 more lines of junk appended to my syslog.

By px | Also posted in Linux | Comments (0)

193046

2006.06.08 – 6:55 am PDT

i need to mod my laptop with an external antenna connector using the alt cable line. [via]

i have no real idea, where inside my laptop i could properly mount it though.

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friends’ laptop

2006.05.31 – 9:42 pm PDT

ok, well we ditched windows xp on the laptop, and i decided to reinstall the latest version of ubuntu on it. it runs ubuntu pretty well for being an older system, but linux does love old hardware. i managed to get my Proxim RangeLAN pcmcia 802.11 card to work using wpasupplicant, which apparently is not the default yet for ubuntu. but outside of that, ubuntu managed to detect everything else, including the ATI radeon mobility for xorg. it even setup the power/frequency scaling on the processor; a Mobile AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1700+. they also want me to install a video player, and some games for entertainment.

By px | Also posted in Linux, Ubuntu | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

a friends’ “dead” laptop

2006.05.28 – 1:44 am PDT

Using UBCD Insert is INSERT Version 1.2.14 modified for Ultimate Boot CD I was able to read an NTFS partition on a hard drive that was locked using Compaq DriveLock.

The newer version of INSERT 1.3.6 cannot boot the kernel without locking up, unless you use the failsafe.

Now if only I could wipe the whole drive.

all this leads me to belive that the linux 2.4.x kernel series can override the disklock somehow.

update:
ok so i got the drive wiped nicely. drivelock is still in effect so we have to hit enter a few times every power up/reboot. but atleast the laptop allows the HDD to be booted.
Ubuntu installs OK. Microsoft XP installed OK.

By px | Also posted in Linux, technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

another one bites the dust.

2006.05.21 – 6:07 am PDT

well the 650W power supply in my server went pop last night. my dad smelled something burning, and i wasn’t at home. he called me, and while he was on the phone i heard a nice pop. i had him shut everything down for safety. when i got home, i smelled around, and it was my server that stunk. i hooked up my power supply tester, flipped the switch, and the lights on the tester flashed on quickly and then stayed off. the power supply on the other hand got nice and warm so i turned it off. now to find another power supply. i think the power here is “dirty” compared to what my computers used to run off. i need some UPS’/power conditioners again.

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