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Batocera and LCDProc

To finish off a retro PC running Batocera, I purchased a second hand Alutek case. There isn’t a lot of information about it online any more, but I did find this page from 2007. The case comes with an Imon VFD which I wanted to utilize but Batocera doesn’t come with LCDProc installed. I’ve not had much experience with Arch Linux, but thankfully the Batocera team have a very helpful page dedicated to recompiling it from source. The source I compiled was from version 38 and after a trial run I had to upgrade the host to Ubuntu 22.04, after that upgrade the guide worked mostly flawlessly. The stock ‘.config’ worked well and installed on the host PC fine. When I made modifications there was issues with drivers – the USB keyboard would be detected… Read More »Batocera and LCDProc

Mystery Auction 2022

After some poor auction bids I ended up with two boxes, one of very old computer cards and one with 4 single board computers – which is what drew me to it. In the box with the cards, most of the interesting ones looked like they had been damaged. The single board computers were four somewhat identical motherboards with TFT LCD’s , 2.5 inch IDE hard drives, GSM modules and some basic I/O ports. After checking the larger and older cards, there was nothing that could be saved, it looked like they had something large dropped on them. From what I can tell they were custom cards that plug into a back plane that acts as a bus between them. The only chip of value I found was an Intel MG80C186XL-20 which was apparently military… Read More »Mystery Auction 2022

LinuxCNC and Tuya Smart Plugs

It has been a long wait to have automatic dust extraction on my PrintNC. It comprises of two elements: An extractor – to replace the 20-30 year old Vax/Bunnings bucket combo, and a smart plug to have it automatically turning it on and off. The Extractor The extractor was purchased second hand at a great price ($50AUD). The 5 inch nozzle was reduced to 4 inches, mainly because of the price of 5 inch PVC pipe. The flexible tube is 100mm Ag pipe. I had initially planned to use all Ag pipe, but there was performance issues during testing when using long lengths of it. Automation – Tuya Smart Plug To turn the extractor on and off I purchased a Powertech Smart Plug from Jaycar on sale ($19AUD). My researched shows it was based on… Read More »LinuxCNC and Tuya Smart Plugs

V-Carve Inlay with Estlcam – Solved

I’ve wanted to do some wooden inlays for a while. I’m reluctant to learn any new software since Estlcam has been awesome to use for everything else. I’m sure there will be a need to move on at some point, but that time is not today 🙂 I did buy a month subscription for Carveco to complete an inlay, but it turns out I didn’t need it. I found a way to perform the same functions in Estlcam. By following most of this tutorial for Carveco, I was able to use the same basic idea in Estlcam. The basics behind why it works: WARNING – Manually start your spindle before starting the male carving as its “Start layer” is 5mm below the timber surface. If needed, add a have a small shape to mill at… Read More »V-Carve Inlay with Estlcam – Solved

PrintNC – CNC

For those not familiar with the PrintNC project: Home page, Wiki. This has been a project that’s been in design and construction for over a year. Main delays have were due to shipping, manufacturing and poor quality replacements, over all poor communication from vendors, but mostly the reluctance to spend the money – What can I say, I’m cheap 🙂 This CNC was (as it is for many) to replace my MP-CNC that has been mostly unreliable and needed another rebuild. It got to the point the mancave was getting so hot, that plastic parts under tension were warping over time. For the record, it was 52 degrees C this summer. Design and Purchase I went with the default size as it gives me about the same size of work area as the MP-CNC for… Read More »PrintNC – CNC

VeloCloud 520 (5×0) to Opensource (WIP)

I was lucky enough to find and purchase a Velocloud 520 for $5AUD at a swap meet. After some research here and removing the case, I was able to work out enough of the systems specifications to get Ubuntu to boot reliably. Firstly I removed the press out plastic cover for the onboard USB serial port. This helped working out the bootup sequence. From there I tried installing any Linux distro that output to a serial console, but they all failed and rebooted after a few minutes. After a while I worked out it was approximately, if not exactly the same length of time. Thanks to bubbadestroy for this idea, I purchased a mPCI-E to PCI-E adapter so I could get video output using a low end NVidia graphics card. This allowed confirmation on the… Read More »VeloCloud 520 (5×0) to Opensource (WIP)

ESP32/CDP/LLDP/DHCP – Third Edition

This is the third major update to the CDP/LLDP packet sniffer (First, Second). The main processor is now the ESP32 microprocessor. Of the available packages, I’ve chosen the TTGO T-Display. I would like to give a shout-out to Colin for his assistance, and for testing what has been (at times) some cringe worthy code. There has been some pretty poor work-arounds to resolve issues, and then (hopefully) cleaned them up later. If you notice any remaining please let me know. You can see below that the wiring is far simpler than the previous versions. This is thanks to the T-Displays extra built in options. The major changes in the T-Display: built in TFT, charging circuit, and Bluetooth. The red mosfet is used to distribute power to peripheral devices. The reason for the mosfet is to… Read More »ESP32/CDP/LLDP/DHCP – Third Edition

C.H.I.P Resurrection

I was one of the lucky people to buy multiple C.H.I.P’s as part of the Kick Starter campaign. So far I’ve honestly not used them for much and they were gathering dust. As part of my ventures into Home Assistant, I wanted zoned audio. So it made sense to try Shairport-Sync on the Chip’s. In general is should be easy enough to get it sorted, in 3 lines your done. Unfortunately previous projects on the Chip’s made them unusable, so they needed re-imaging. Unfortunately the company is no longer supporting them, but thankfully their guides, flash images and community are still preserved. I had tried previously to reimage using windows running VirtualBox, but there was USB driver issues. A physical Ubuntu box worked fine. This script makes flashing them a breeze. Followed by this guide… Read More »C.H.I.P Resurrection

Home Assistant

After having Home Assistant recommended too me, I’ve had a few months to enjoy customising it. Rather than spinning up a ubuntu install and then installing over the top, I went with the HASS.IO install which is comprised of a series of docker images. I had not used docker before, so that added to the learning curve. Integrations (addons) I use: Climate and Temperature: Samsung Air Conditioner – Compared to previous scripts I’ve used, this has been the most reliable. The script polls current room temperatures and also interact with the air conditioners (see image below) ESP Home: D1-Mini’s with max6675 modules for K-Type temperature probes These are used to monitor my smokers temperatures (see image below). ESP-01’s with  1-Wire Dallas DS18b20’s for room temperature for rooms without Samsung Air Conditioners reporting the room temperatures.… Read More »Home Assistant

Gym Ball Pizza Oven

You may have seen these around (1,2, etc..). This is my take on it and anything that could have been done better. The biggest gym ball I could find locally was 70cm. The Formply was from a former project. Perlite from Bunnings. I found later that I could have saved money by going to an aquaponics specialist. I bought 4 of them. 5x 25L bags would have been better. Coreflute sheet. The 2 sheets of Formply where screwed together to form a larger surface. The 2 circles where engraved with a nail in a piece of wood that had the other end screwed into the middle, then rotated. The gym ball was over inflated to make sure it didn’t move, then covered in Cling-wrap. I would seek alternatives to Cling-wrap, I had a heck of a… Read More »Gym Ball Pizza Oven