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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xml:lang="en-us">
<title>Benjamin Jacobs | Log</title>
<link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/feed.xml" />
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/" /><id>/</id>
<updated>2028-01-20T21:38:33Z</updated>
<generator>Hugo 0.125.4</generator>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[If You Give a Hobbyist a Harddrive]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2024/01/16-upgrading_server/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2024/01/16-upgrading_server/</id>
<updated>2024-01-16T07:31:00Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[I recently bought a 2TB hard drive for my home server. I use this server to host NextCloud and you can never have enough storage space. This server is an Inspiron 560s from 2008. It only has two hard drive bays and already has two hard drives.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[I recently bought a 2TB hard drive for my home server. I use this server to host NextCloud and you can never have enough storage space.
This server is an Inspiron 560s from 2008. It only has two hard drive bays and already has two hard drives. There is however a dvd bay and a SD-card bay. The new hard drive fits just perfectly in the SD-card bay, so thatās its new home.
=> drive_door.jpg š¼ Hard Drive Door
### The hobbyist will need to try out a new file system
A few months back, I watched a video about ZFS and was convinced to give it a try. The only problem is that it is pretty daunting to even think about trying out.
> There must be so much extra stuff that needs to be learned just to access the file system. Since ZFS is designed to work with other drives, will every drive be required to use ZFS?
These fears are not founded though. It is true that there is some extra software that is required in order to manage ZFS, but it is honestly so much easier than having to deal with parted, or fstab. All I needed to do to format and setup the new disk under ZFS was
zpool create MyPool sda
For me, the strongest selling point of ZFS is that it makes storage work closer to RAM. When running a program, I donāt need to specify which ram stick I want to have my software run in. It just figures it out for me. ZFS has this idea of pools where each pool is made up of one or more hard drives. When I put a file in the file pool, I donāt know which hard drive the data is going into, just that it is being taken care of for me.
I migrated a second 1TB drive in the server to ZFS and added it to my main pool. So instead of having 3 drives to manage, I have the boot drive, and a 3TB storage space.
### While theyāre at it, the hobbyist might as well upgrade the OS
I havenāt updated the OS since I originally setup the machine in 2018. Iām running Ubuntu 18.04 and it has recently gone out of long term support. There are still 4 years left of security maintenance, but I figure since Iām working on the machine now, I might as well upgrade to a newer OS. I would like to try out Debian 12.
I backed up the main drive to my newly created pool and got ready to upgrade the OS. Thereās nothing like some spring cleaning where you can get rid of the residue from all your weird decisions you made in the past 6 years and start fresh.
Creating the installation medium was my first hurdle. For whatever reason, I always have trouble creating an USB installer. I primarily use Mac as my daily driver and Iāve pretty much always relied on the Raspberry Pi Imager for Mac. With newer updates to the software, it feels like it is a lot harder to burn a USB stick with anything that isnāt Raspbian. So I switched over to my windows machine and I went through several programs trying to find one that will actually burn an ISO and make the drive bootable. I settled for Rufus.
I donāt know why, but no matter what I have tried I just canāt get the BIOS to recognize my USB. The machine is old enough that it doesnāt know what UEFI is, but the one time I was able to get the machine to recognize the drive was when it was formatted with GPT which should be UEFI only. I have spent hours making tweaks and re-imaging that poor USB stick to no avail.
### The hobbyist is ready to sleep now
At this point, it might be better to just give up for now. Itās not necessary that I upgrade the OS (In fact I foresee that it would cause more heartache trying to get everything up and running again from a fresh start). There are still several years left of support for the current OS and I got everything done that I was originally intending to do.
Iām really happy with how ZFS has turned out and I should just see how it goes moving forward. The next thing to figure out is how to get docker volumes to live in my pool. But thatās a problem for another day.
]]></content>
<category term="projects" label="Projects" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/projects/" />
<published>2024-01-16T07:31:00Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[Rewriting my Site Generator]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2024/01/13-rewriting_site_gen/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2024/01/13-rewriting_site_gen/</id>
<updated>2024-01-13T21:30:00Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[Itās a new year and a new me. Now that I have finally graduated, I feel that I have more time to work on my side projects. One of the first big things I have done is rewriting my site generator once again.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[Itās a new year and a new me. Now that I have finally graduated, I feel that I have more time to work on my side projects. One of the first big things I have done is rewriting my site generator once again.
=> gemini://benjaminja.info/log/2023/09/03-simple_site_gen/ Simple Site Generator
Rather than creating my own templating engine, I decided to use [tera].
=> https://keats.github.io/tera/docs/ tera
Keeping similar vibes to my original site generator: any additional features is implemented through shell scripts. There are a few important features baked in with the generator and all of the very site specific features are python scripts I created.
It is inspired by [kiln]
=> https://kiln.adnano.co kiln
> ~~but from all of my research it seems that the site has gone down as well as the repo that was holding it.~~
> Update 2024-01-16:
> It turns out that source hut was hit by a DDoS attack and kiln was part of the cross-fire. Everything seems to be back up now.
## Configuration
Here is a copy of my configuration file for https.
"proc/pretty-url.py",
"proc/tags.py", # tags script creates the tag system for my log"proc/pretty-url.py",
]
"proc/proc_html.py",
]
md = { ext = "html", cmd = ["gmi-conv", "-i", "md", "-o", "html"] }
gmi = { ext = "html", cmd = ["gmi-conv", "-i", "gmi", "-o", "html"] }
As an example of what a file might go through, I will show you how this file gets rendered. Letās say that I have the text
{% raw -%}
The site was rendered at {{ now | ftime(fmt="%B %e, %Y @ %r %:z") }}
{%- endraw %}
Here is the output:
> The site was rendered at {{ now | ftime(fmt="%B %e, %Y @ %r %:z") }}
First, the `pretty-url.py` script will be run which renames this file from `content/log/2024/01/13-rewriting_site_gen.md` to `content/log/2024/01/13-rewriting_site_gen/index.md`. After that the `tags.py` script will be run which adds this file to the `capsule` and `projects` tags. The `pretty-url.py` script gets run again for any generated files, then the rendering starts.
Since this is an `md` file, it will get rendered. After being rendered it will be converted to html using `gmi-conv -i md -o html`. (There is another configuration rendering to gemini). After it is converted, the file will be passed through several templates. To be specific:
1. `templates/logs/2024/_root.html` which adds the title, date, and mentions.
2. `templates/_root.html` which adds the base html boilerplate.
Weāre not done yet, finally the `proc_html.py` script gets run. This will use beautiful soup to find any code blocks and adds formatting to it as well as differentiates gemini links as gemini links.
āāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāā
I have two configurations running. One for html and one for gemini. I only need to write my capsule once and it will be rendered to both endpoints which is pretty nice.
## Making this Publicly Available
There are still a few oddities about the software that Iām not very happy with. I also want to add a bunch of documentation so that you can actually know how to use it. So I wonāt be releasing my site generator until it is in better shape.
This software is probably a bit into the āYou need to be a computer wiz to use this softwareā territory, but If I were to add some sane 3rd party scripts and some good tutorials, I think it might could be usable by an average person.
]]></content>
<category term="capsule" label="Capsule" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/capsule/" />
<category term="projects" label="Projects" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/projects/" />
<published>2024-01-13T21:30:00Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[Simple Site Generator]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/09/03-simple_site_gen/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/09/03-simple_site_gen/</id>
<updated>2023-09-03T08:06:00Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[Itās been a while since I last posted. I have been busy working on my weatherstation. Iāll need to write about that soon, but for now I want to talk about the state of my capsule.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[Itās been a while since I last posted. I have been busy working on my weatherstation. Iāll need to write about that soon, but for now I want to talk about the state of my capsule.
During my breaks from the weatherstation, I have been working on my own site generator. I have finally got it to the point where I can start using it in production. Thereās definitely a lot of work left to be done before I can publish it for others to use.
I have been calling it `simple-site` for now, though Iāll probably think of a better name when I actually release it. I have designed the generator to be as simple possible while allowing for complexity to come if desired.
The design starts out with templating. I designed my own simple templating engine that I found works surprisingly well. Each document will be rendered and passed to a chain of configured templates. To get added functionality, scripts can be created which will behave like functions in the templating engine. If you need more control, then generator scripts can be used to make alterations to the structure of the site.
Since I have migrated my capsule over to the new system, I have most likely missed a few things.
### Example
Here is a pretty simple example of what my generator does. Hopefully it can help visualize whatās going on.
+- content
| +- index.gmi
| +- my-image.jpg
+- templates
| +- base.gmi
+- site.toml
$ simple-site site.toml
Rendering "index.gmi" with template "base.gmi"Copying "my-image.jpg"
]]></content>
<category term="projects" label="Projects" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/projects/" />
<category term="capsule" label="Capsule" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/capsule/" />
<category term="gemini" label="Gemini" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/gemini/" />
<published>2023-09-03T08:06:00Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[Installing Ethernet]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/06/26-upgrading_internet/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/06/26-upgrading_internet/</id>
<updated>2023-06-26T18:52:00Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[My house used to be connected to Comcast before we switched over to a local fiber ISP. This switch has happened years ago and the house was outfitted with coax back in the Comcast days. Of course now, there is no use for Coax.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[My house used to be connected to Comcast before we switched over to a local fiber ISP. This switch has happened years ago and the house was outfitted with coax back in the Comcast days. Of course now, there is no use for Coax. The local antenna stations are not great and we donāt have cable coming in either. So I figured that I would replace our existing coax with ethernet.
We have three coax ports. One in the basement that goes outside along the wall. And two in the house that share the same wall across two floors. The basement port was very easy to replace as I just had to poke the ethernet out the wall and re-enter into the boiler roomāwhere the networking is located.
Iām still planning out how to replace the two remaining ports. My original plan was to attach the existing coax cable to the ethernet cable and pull it through the wall up into the attic without having to cut any access holes. This would work great in theory, but I have found that there is only one coax cable coming into the attic. This means that somewhere in the wall is a coax splitter.
=> example.png š¼ It might be easier to see an example of what I mean.
Iām not entirely certain that this is how the cable was installed, but it seems that way. There are two possible solutions that I can think of to make this work: Make the existing access point hole bigger in the attic so that I can pull the splitter through and not have to cut the walls. I could remove the box on the second floor and remove the splitter from that access point and replace the box in the future.
If I were to cut in the attic, it is possible that I will reduce structural integrity. If I were to remove the outlet box, I may have to make repairs to the wall. The box may not be attached to any studs, free floating on the drywall with mounting ears. This might make it easier for me to remove the box without damaging the wall.
When I get the chance, Iāll try to remove that box and see if Iām right about the splitter.
## Update - Retrofitting telephone wire
2023-06-28
alextheuxguy responded and said that he was lucky that the phone jacks were wired with Cat5e. Thatās pretty cool! And now that I think of it, when I was last in the attic I saw some mysterious 8-wire unsheathed cable up there that looked suspiciously like ethernet. I know there is a telephone jack in the dining room, so maybe I would also be able to retrofit the telephone jack with ethernet.
Iāll have some more investigating to do.
Thanks for the tip Alex!
]]></content>
<category term="home-improvement" label="Home-Improvement" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/home-improvement/" />
<published>2023-06-26T18:52:00Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[Communicating with my weatherstation]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/06/24-comms_with_weatherstation/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/06/24-comms_with_weatherstation/</id>
<updated>2023-06-24T18:42:00Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[In my original plan for my weatherstation, I would wirelessly send weatherdata to a ground station. I have given up on this idea primarily because managing a rechargeable battery would introduce too many variables. Now, I have decided to have a cable that connects between the ground station and the sensors.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[In my original plan for my weatherstation, I would wirelessly send weatherdata to a ground station. I have given up on this idea primarily because managing a rechargeable battery would introduce too many variables.
Now, I have decided to have a cable that connects between the ground station and the sensors. I will be using an ethernet cable as the medium, but I wonāt be using the ethernet protocol. Having a network card on the station is more overhead than I would like.
The original plan was to connect the serial lines directly. This is not a great idea, since plain datalines cannot go a long distance without losing integrity. Instead, making the lines differential twisted pairsāwhich ethernet is already made ofāwould allow for longer reliable distance. I just donāt know how I would convert a line into a twisted differential pair.
I discovered that CAN bus could be the better option for me. It stands for Controller Area Network, and is designed to be a light weight alternative to Ethernet. CAN is generally used in cars and in industrial settings.
Now I just need to come up with a protocol to manage the weatherstation. Iāve discovered a protocol called CANopen which seems very interesting. Iām currently stuck trying to decide whether I want to fully implement CANopen, or if I want to develop my own protocol that is inspired from CANopen. There is a lot of stuff that goes on with CANopen that I donāt necessarily need (particularly since I donāt plan to integrate the weatherstation with other CANopen devices).
There is a library for CANopen called CANopenNode, however I would have to make my own compatibility layer with it since no has done that for the Teensy4.0. It might just be better for me to design my own partial CANopen library.
Maybe Iāve gone too far into CAN, and would have been better off just using an Ethernet card. Iāve had fun working with CAN and CANopen, so I donāt think I have wasted my own time here, but sometimes I wonder if it would have been better to use a different board that has ethernet built-in.
]]></content>
<category term="side-project" label="Side-Project" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/side-project/" />
<category term="weather-station" label="Weather-Station" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/weather-station/" />
<published>2023-06-24T18:42:00Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[My weather vane is now better than new]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/04/30-repaired_weather_vane/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/04/30-repaired_weather_vane/</id>
<updated>2023-04-30T17:12:00Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[Yesterday, I wrote about how I broke and repaird my weather-vane After it got repaired, I was able to get the sensor working in software. Everything worked, but there was one thing odd about the sensor.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[=> /log/2023/04/29-broke_weather_vane/ Yesterday, I wrote about how I broke and repaird my weather-vane
After it got repaired, I was able to get the sensor working in software. Everything worked, but there was one thing odd about the sensor.
To give some background, the sensor can tell the direction of the wind by triggering one of 8 magnetic reed switches each connected to a resistor. If I measure the resistance of the sensor, I can tell which direction the wind is blowing.
The east resistor measured infinite ohms. In hindsight this is obviously a problem, but I thought that everything was normal until after I did my repair. Why would there be a reed switch that connects to an infinite resistor? This is the same as having a switch connected to nothing.
I took apart the sensor once again to look for any damage. I was only hoping that I wouldnāt have a busted reed switch. After some continuity testing, I found this on the east sensor:
=> broken_reed.jpg š¼ A reed switch that has been pulled off the circuit board
This must be something that has been broken for over 6 years now. I was able to make the repair, luckily it was pretty simple. Just a jumper from the resistor to the reed switch.
=> repaired_reed.jpg š¼ The repaired sensor
I canāt describe just how happy I am about this.
If the wind points between two of the sensors, then it will no longer think the wind has spontaneously pointed east.
]]></content>
<category term="projects" label="Projects" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/projects/" />
<category term="weather-station" label="Weather-Station" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/weather-station/" />
<published>2023-04-30T17:12:00Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[Whoops, I broke my weather vane]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/04/29-broke_weather_vane/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/04/29-broke_weather_vane/</id>
<updated>2023-04-29T17:47:00Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[I am working on my weatherstation project now, and Iām going to finish it for real! Yesterday I was opening up the weather-vane to reverse-engineer the board it has and make sure what I already know is correct.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[I am working on my weatherstation project now, and Iām going to finish it for real! Yesterday I was opening up the weather-vane to reverse-engineer the board it has and make sure what I already know is correct.
I was able to get my picture and put it all back together; there was only one problem. The sensor no longer worked! It turns out that when I took the board out of the housing, I also pulled the cable a bit too hard and broke the connection to the board, whoops.
Fixing the board should be pretty easy, I just have to remove whatās left of the wires, and solder the wires back in. To make sure that the wires donāt fall apart again, I decided to use solid core wires and connect the cable to that.
Everything went pretty well until I accidentally ripped one of the pads off the circuit board, whoops. I am just lucky that the pad I pulled off had a simple connection that I could easily bypass.
I was able to fix the sensor just fine. It looks a little silly, but thatās ok. The one thing that Iām more annoyed at than anything else is that I didnāt need to take apart the sensor. I had already done that around 6 years ago, and uploaded it to my wordpress blog.
=> /log/2017/04/04-weatherstation/ My blog where I analyzed the weather-vane.
=> sensor-back.jpg š¼ Back of the repaird weather-vane
=> sensor-front.jpg š¼ Front of the repaird weather-vane
]]></content>
<category term="projects" label="Projects" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/projects/" />
<category term="weather-station" label="Weather-Station" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/weather-station/" />
<published>2023-04-29T17:47:00Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[Planning PWS Hardware]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/04/16-planning_pws_hardware/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/04/16-planning_pws_hardware/</id>
<updated>2023-04-16T17:26:00Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[It has been a dream of mine to create my own personal weather station (PWS). Iāve been working on this project for over 6 years now. Due to school and scope creep: I have not been able to complete this project.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[It has been a dream of mine to create my own personal weather station (PWS). Iāve been working on this project for over 6 years now. Due to school and scope creep: I have not been able to complete this project. This time will be different. I have a plan. This plan has been split up into two parts: hardware and software. In previous iterations, I have developed hardware and software at the same time without a clear plan, which I believe is part of the reason why it has taken me so long.
With this semester is almost over, I have done a bit of planning so I can hit the ground running with this project. I want to have the hardware installed as soon as reasonably possible so that I can start work on the software remotely.
The general idea for this project is to have a weather station that hosts a web-app. This would allow you to view the current weather conditions from anywhere in the building.
In order to do this, I will have a raspberry pi to host the server and communicate with the station hardware. The station hardware will include a weather vane, rain meter, temperature, humidity, pressure, and possibly a uv-index sensor. This will all be directly controlled by a teensy.
## Hardware plan
The raspberry pi will sit on the roof in a shady spot. It will be connected to the internet via ethernet and get power over ethernet (PoE). The pi will interface with the teensy using CAN over an ethernet cable. Itās possible that the pi could be placed indoors, but I want to attach a camera as a little bonus thing. The teensy will be directly connected with all the sensors over i2c. The weather vane and rain meter donāt have any logic chips and so will need to be specially programmed.
## Software plan
The teensy will generally act as a bridge between the sensors and the pi. The weather vane and rain meter will need special logic which I will go into later. The teensy will respond to requests from the pi. The pi will run OctoWeather (PWS software that I am developing). I havenāt made any plans yet of how this software will work, but I have general ideas of what it will do in my projects page.
The weather vane has two parts: wind direction and wind speed. Both of these use reed switches to detect what is happening. The wind speed closes the circuit on every rotation (maybe every 180Āŗ I canāt quite remember which). The wind direction has eight reed switches each connected to a different resistance to detect which cardinal direction the wind is blowing in. The rain meter has one reed switch that triggers every time 0.01 inches has fallen. The wind speed and rain meter will need to have special software to asynchronously determine how much rain has fallen and how fast the wind is blowing. This should be relatively easy by using pin change interrupts. The wind direction can be connected to a voltage divider to measure resistance on an analog pin.
## What Iāve done so far
I have been able to install an ethernet cable that goes from the basement to the roof. I have also collected all of the hardware that I plan to use for this project.
=> ethernet_install.jpg š¼ Ethernet Going to the roof
=> pws_hardware.jpg š¼ Hardware I have so far
]]></content>
<category term="projects" label="Projects" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/projects/" />
<category term="weather-station" label="Weather-Station" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/weather-station/" />
<published>2023-04-16T17:26:00Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[Organizing My Life]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/02/26-organizing_my_life/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/02/26-organizing_my_life/</id>
<updated>2023-02-26T21:22:00Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[I have always been bad at organizing my life. It can be hard for me to know what to do and when to do it. This is a particularly big problem for me because of executive disfunction.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[I have always been bad at organizing my life. It can be hard for me to know what to do and when to do it. This is a particularly big problem for me because of executive disfunction. There are many ways in which I could go about keeping track of what needs to be done, but they all boil down to some sort of calendar system. That being said, each system has you think about things in a different way.
I have tried using my calendar app, various todo apps, and physical journaling. Each one has their pros and cons, but they all ultimately failed me in the sense that I have gotten out of the habbit of using them. Life has been getting overwelming recently and so I thought that it would be a good idea to get back into the habbit of using one of these.
It sounds a little odd, but I have found that physical journaling has been the most useful for me. I have a bit of a hard time expressing why this is, but I think it has to do with how a lot of effort needs to be put into writing in a journal. It is so easy to setup an app, that it is also easy to just ignore it. With journaling, what I write tends to sticks with me.
I follow the the bullet journal style of journaling which has been useful for me to have an organized todo list as well as being able to write down my random thoughts.
=> https://help.bulletjournal.com/en-US/articles/bullet-journaling-101-17356 Bullet Journaling 101
Of course, the bulletjournal site will try to sell you a journal or even a course on how to use it. I am just using a notebook a friend gifted to me.
=> journal.jpg š¼ My journal
Iāll eventually fall out of use with my journaling again, but thatās ok because all that matters is that it has been useful while it lasts.
]]></content>
<category term="life" label="Life" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/life/" />
<published>2023-02-26T21:22:00Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[How I deploy to my server]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/02/13-how_i_deploy/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/02/13-how_i_deploy/</id>
<updated>2023-02-14T17:25:00Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[I donāt run this capsule on a server that I physically own. I rent out my server from digitalocean. Since my server doesnāt need to have lots of computing power or memory, I have opted to use the cheapest server possible that pennies can buy.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[I donāt run this capsule on a server that I physically own. I rent out my server from digitalocean. Since my server doesnāt need to have lots of computing power or memory, I have opted to use the cheapest server possible that pennies can buy. The only problem is that the server is so underpowered: it is nearly impossible to install software from source. In this log, I will explain how I go about deploying software to my server.
=> https://digitalocean.com digitalocean.com
Iāve deployed my server as a droplet using a single shared CPU with 512 MB of memory. Because of these low specs, I have decided that all of my server/CGI software will run on native binaries to make using my capsule as smooth as possible.
The main server software that I use is made with Rust; a language known for its long and intensive compilations. I tried building it on my server and it took around 10 minutes before the build crashed from a lack of available memory. I would probably be better off cross compiling from my computer and uploading the binary than trying to find some workaround.
## Uploading to the server
Compiling software for the server can vary widely from language to language, but it is almost always the same to upload your built binary to the server. The way I do it is by having a `deploy.sh` script in the root of a project that will build, upload, and install the software on the server.
BINARY=path/to/binary
REMOTE=root@my_server
BINAME="$(basename "$BINARY")"BINDIR=/usr/local/bin
TMPDIR=/var/tmp
install -Dm755 ./$BINAME$BINDIR/$BINAME &&
rm ./$BINAME"
Of course depending on the type of software Iām deploying, the script may need to change to fit the projectās needs. I feel that it would be simpler to just scp the binary directly into the installed destination rather than installing it with a separate command, but I kind of like it. ## Deploying Rust Rust has become my goto language when it comes to compiled software. It supports a lot of language features that I like. It can feel like a high-level language while still allowing for low level control. My problem with Rust is with how difficult it is to cross compile. In theory, it is very easy to cross compile Rust, but when external libraries are used: the process becomes infinitely more complicated. You will first need to install a target for your toolchain (This is fairly easy). If the program doesnāt use any external libraries, you should be good to go. Otherwise, you will need to install a C cross compiling toolchain (This can be tricky depending on your host system) and tell rust the linker you will be using in `.cargo/config.toml`. If your build still fails, a library might be compiling C from source, so you will need to tell rust that any C code should be built using your cross compiling toolchain in an environment variable. If you still canāt cross compile the software, then get ready for a never ending rabbit hole. There is a tool that will help you do cross compiling that I wish I had known about before I spent a week learning how to do it manually. It is called āCrossā, and allows you to do cross compilations with very little hassle. => https://github.com/cross-rs/cross Cross You will need to have Docker installed for Cross to work, but I think I have read that it might be possible to configure Cross to use Zig as a linker/compiler instead of building inside a Docker container. Building with Cross is usually as simple as replacing `cargo` with `cross`. Depending on your needs, you may need to create a `Cross.toml` to customize your build, but that is still simpler than doing it manually.
TARGET=x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
BINAME=<binary>
BINARY=target/release/$TARGET/$BINAME
cross build --release --target $TARGET
## Deploying Go In comparison to Rust, Go is a walk in the park. All that is needed to cross compile Go is two environment variables: `GOOS` and `GOARCH`. I donāt know if there are any edge cases that might show up when building. I really should learn Go.
BINAME=<binary>
BINARY=$BINAME
GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 go build
I havenāt needed to do anything else for Go to work, but I also donāt know the language. If it were possible to use external libraries, then I would imagine that cross compilation could get more complicated, but I just donāt know enough about the language to know if thatās even possible. ## Deploying my capsule This isnāt a language, but I figure itās worth mentioning. When I deploy my capsule, I upload the project up to the server and then render it. This allows for semi-dynamic content that is stored exclusively on the server to be rendered into the capsule. The way I go about deploying the capsule is a little bit funky, but it works and thatās all that matters.
DIR="$(dirname -- "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")"SERVER='gemini@my_server'DEST='/path/to/capsule/data/'SOURCE="$DIR/."GEMINI="/var/www/gemini/my.site/"COMMAND="${1:-upload}"# Upload to the serverif["$COMMAND"="upload"]; then# Synchronize the project with the server rsync -rltp --delete-after -z --exclude='./git' --filter=':- .gitignore' -h "$SOURCE""$SERVER:$DEST" echo "Uploaded capsule"# Run the build section of the deploy script on the server ssh -t "$SERVER""cd $DEST ; ./deploy.sh build"elif["$COMMAND"="build"]; then# Render the capsule cd "$DIR" kiln build
RES=$?
if[ $RES -ne 0]; then exit $RES
fi# Copy the rendered files into the server folder rsync -r "${DEST}public/""$GEMINI" RES=$?
if[ $RES -ne 0]; then exit $RES
fielse echo "Invalid Command, should be one of [upload, build]"fi
I havenāt yet had the chance to deploy any other types of software, but I can imagine that some will be easier than others. Zig should be pretty simple, but C/C++ scares me. The thought of having to find or build libraries does not seem at all fun. Though C/C++ should still be easier than Rust.
]]></content>
<category term="projects" label="Projects" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/projects/" />
<category term="capsule" label="Capsule" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/capsule/" />
<category term="gemini" label="Gemini" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/gemini/" />
<published>2023-02-14T17:25:00Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[My Capsule Plans]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/02/10-capsule_plans/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/02/10-capsule_plans/</id>
<updated>2023-02-10T19:20:00Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[I have been getting fairly ambitious with ideas for my capsule. This is dangerous with me being in the middle of a heavy semester, so I am going to write down my plans and implement them later.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[I have been getting fairly ambitious with ideas for my capsule. This is dangerous with me being in the middle of a heavy semester, so I am going to write down my plans and implement them later. Hopefully I donāt end up working on these projects to avoid my schoolwork (I am writing this very log to distract myself from a project I need to do š).
## Serve my content on both gemini and https
At the moment, I am serving my capsule on the www under a proxy. This has been good, but I would like to have more control of how it looks. To do this, I want to serve my capsule natively on both gemini and https protocols.
I want the feel of the web version to be simple, but feel like it was meant for the web. Primarily so that I can have a navigation section and inline images.
If I were to do this, I might need to write most of my content in markdown so that I can convert it into http/gemtext without much fuss.
## Automated Gemmentions implementation
=> https://codeberg.org/bacardi55/gemini-mentions-rfc Gemini Mentions RFC
Seeing some of the implementations of gemini mentions has been really good. Notably Seanās implementation where mentions to a post are placed at the bottom of the page under āDiscussions about this entryā. I particularly like how it feels like Iām going through a big discussion thread without the need of looking through an aggregator.
=> gemini://gemini.conman.org/boston/2023/01/04.1 Thoughts on an implementation of Gemini mentions (The post where I first saw mentions being used)
I want to have a feature like this myself, but I also donāt want to do any of it by hand. The idea would be to have a gemmention CGI script that adds mentioned pages to a database, then ask the site generator to rebuild the capsule (Any mentions would be placed in a footing after the article).
Iāve already written a CGI program that can upload mentions to a database, but I have yet to figure out how to insert mentions into posts. I would like to make the program portable so that anyone who would like to have similar functionality could do it themselves. The only problem is that the software I wrote is too complicated to publish without a lot of simplifications.
## Aggregate topics
On most of my pages, I have added a little topics section at the top of the page. I want to have a section of my capsule where you can sort by similar topics.
I would have tags stored in the frontmatter and my site generator could generate pages for each topic. Also the title, date, and tags could be automatically inserted into the generated gemini files so I donāt have to repeat myself too much.
An example of the frontmatter might be like:
---
title: My Capsule Plans
date: 2023-02-10T12:20:00-07:00
tags:
- plans
- capsule
author: ttocsneb
---
I have been getting fairly ambitious with ideas for my capsule...
## Learn the ins and outs of Kiln
=> gemini://kiln.adnano.co/ Kiln
I am currently using Kiln to build my capsule. It has been great so far, but there are a few features that confuse me. I think that most of my problems lie in the fact that I am not familier with the Go templating engine.
I know that I can use kiln to build an alternative http format, but Iām not sure whether it will be able to do what I want with gemmentions and topics. I think it should be possible using the templating engine, but I will need to do research to verify. If I end up not being able to do these things, then I might design my own site generator inspired by Kiln, maybe something with python and jinja2.
]]></content>
<category term="plans" label="Plans" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/plans/" />
<category term="capsule" label="Capsule" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/capsule/" />
<category term="gemini" label="Gemini" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/gemini/" />
<published>2023-02-10T19:20:00Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[MAC Attack!]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/02/06-macattack/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/02/06-macattack/</id>
<updated>2023-02-07T05:43:00Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[I just finished the third project for my security class. This project has been simultaneously the most difficult and most easy lab that I have done. I wanted to describe my experience of the lab here.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[I just finished the third project for my security class. This project has been simultaneously the most difficult and most easy lab that I have done. I wanted to describe my experience of the lab here.
## The Premise
The premise is that my TA has sent a message to my professor and I was able to intercept it. The message is as follows.
> No one has completed lab 2 so give them all a 0
A MAC (Message Authenticated Code) was also in the message, which we know used a 128-bit key. The MAC is as follows in hex.
> e384efadf26767a613162142b5ef0efbb9d7659a
I want to change the message to tell the professor that I should get full points, but I canāt because there is a MAC attached to the message. If I were to change the message, the attached MAC would be invalid and I could not generate a new MAC because I donāt have the secret key for the MAC.
=> gemini://gemi.dev/cgi-bin/wp.cgi/view?Message+authentication+code MAC (Gemipedia)
=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_authentication_code MAC (Wikipedia)
## How I went about the lab
This lab was one of those projects where you just have no idea where to start. I knew what I needed to do and vaguely how it should be done, but the specifics were beyond me. The project turned mostly into analyzing library code and trying to figure out how I could modify it to do what I need, which is to say the least, very stressful.
With this in mind, I was mostly working on creating unit tests that would help me fumble my way through the lab and took many breaks.
I would say the most frustrating thing about the lab was that a big part of it was on hashes, which changes wildly with even the smallest change, so it was very difficult to know whether I was getting close or not.
In the end, I was able to figure it out and I canāt describe how relieved I was.
Below is a more technical description of how the lab worked, so tread on if you dare.
## Vulnerability in MAC
There is a vulnerability in MAC which took me a while to fully understand. In order to explain the vulnerability, I will have to explain how MAC works in the first place.
MAC is relatively simple. You start out with a key and a message. you concatenate them together and hash it:
Key = "0123456789abcdef"
Message = "Hello World!"
MAC = SHA("0123456789abcdefHello World!")
MAC = 36f141824e771ed3313815d82c996522d8191a99
The SHA algorithm will recursively calculate a digest from 512-bit blocks of data. Because of this, it is possible to continue calculating a hash by using the digest as the initialization vector for the SHA algorithm.
If we were to add to the end of the original message, hash that added bit with IV (initialization vector) being the original MAC, then we could pass this modified message and MAC to the professor and they would think the message was authentic.
The only problem is that SHA adds some information and padding to the end of the message internally to keep all blocks exactly 512 bits long. The solution is to simply add the padding to the end of the message, but before our added bit. One last thing to deal with is that SHA adds the length of the hashed string at the end of the last block, so we will need to know the length of the key for this to work.
## The Attack
We are given pretty much everything we need for the attack. The most difficult thing will be figuring out how to modify the IV. According to my teacher, golangās API for SHA allows setting the IV, but most languages donāt provide that functionality. I had to download a SHA-1 library and modify it myself to allow for setting an initialization vector. Analyzing the library and making it work for what I need was probably one of the most hair pulling things I have done.
Adding the padding to the message wasnāt too difficult, particularly with the aid of unit testing.
In the end I was able to generate this message to send to my teacher; posing as my TA with a valid MAC. The message itself looks a little corrupted, but that is a problem to deal with another day.
> Message: No one has completed lab 2 so give them all a 0\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x01\xf8P.S. Except for ttocsneb, Give him 100%
> MAC: d338d12365cd75f5f13673991d9cd1359e355b2e
## Prevention from this kind of attack
The best way to prevent this attack from being possible would be to use HMAC instead. It essentially performs two hashes with the key being manipulated in a way that I can not understand.
=> gemini://gemi.dev/cgi-bin/wp.cgi/view?HMAC HMAC (Gemipedia)
=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAC HMAC (Wikipedia)
]]></content>
<category term="school" label="School" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/school/" />
<category term="projects" label="Projects" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/projects/" />
<published>2023-02-07T05:43:00Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[School has begun]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/01/15-school_has_begun/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2023/01/15-school_has_begun/</id>
<updated>2023-01-15T17:06:00Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[I find it funny that I chose to start a gemlog right as school started. I was fully expecting to be able to put out more content than I have so far, but thatās ok. School should probably have a higher priority than my hobbies.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[I find it funny that I chose to start a gemlog right as school started. I was fully expecting to be able to put out more content than I have so far, but thatās ok. School should probably have a higher priority than my hobbies.
Iām almost done with school! Iāll be taking my final CS classes this semester with a few generals. For spring and summer terms, I just need to take 3 GEs and I will be graduated! The first week has already passed, so I have a pretty good idea of how this semester will go. I will be taking these classes this semester:
//wait for an available packet
time_point t = Clock::now();
while(!successfull && timeDiff(t, Clock::now()) < eeprom::listenTime) {
sleep_for(500ms);
successfull = checkForPacket();
count++;
}
//If we are desyncing, compensate.
count -= (eeprom::listenTime /500) /2;
if(count !=0) {
reloadTime += (count *500);
cout <<"Desynced by "<< count *500<<"ms, adjusting"<< endl;
}
Every time the weather station successfully sends a packet: the program will process the data. Upload the weather. And send any commands.Ā Since I have a website to check the current weather/station status;Ā I need to have some way of getting that data to the website.Ā So I decided to use MySQL for data storage and transfer.
MySQL
I am not very skilled in MySQL; after all, Iāve only just learned it.Ā My plan for the database is to hold the weather for 24 hours to display on the website and to move information from one program to another without the hassle of parsing individual files.Ā Here are the tables I have made, displayed in a table.
Website
The website Iām making is designed to be for me only: to get information about the station without SSHing into the baseStation.Ā If I wanted to get the weather, I would use Weather Underground.Ā Also, I donāt think a Raspberry Pi Zero is equipped to handle more traffic than my immediate family.
The website is fairly straightforward, Iām using the [SB Admin] Bootstrap template.Ā A few pages: One displaying the status, and other useful information.Ā Another with the current weather with a 24-hour graph of previous temperatures, pressure, humidity, rain, and wind.Ā Iām using PHP to connect to the MySQL database to get the weather/status information.
=> https://startbootstrap.com/template-overviews/sb-admin/ SB Admin
In the future, I want to have a page for configuring the weather station from the website.Ā Such as setting EEPROM variables on the weatherStation, or resetting the system remotely.Ā One worry I have is permissions.Ā I want the website unable to process these commands unless I am logged in.Ā However I have never done anything like that before, so could be more difficult than I think.Ā Of course, it could also be much easier than I think as well.
## Conclusion
As I continue to work on this project, I want to post once a week, or whenever I work on the weatherStation.Ā That way I could give more detail, and include more code snippets to help anyone who might find this website who is also building their own weather station.Ā I hope to get this project done in the next month;Ā I also was planning to get it done a year ago so donāt expect too much.
]]></content>
<category term="wordpress" label="Wordpress" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/wordpress/" />
<category term="weather-station" label="Weather-Station" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/weather-station/" />
<published>2018-05-18T18:21:09Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[WeatherStation]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2018/04/09-weatherstation/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2018/04/09-weatherstation/</id>
<updated>2018-04-09T18:12:09Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[šĀ GitHub Repository šĀ WeatherStation Posts This is an ongoing project, see the above links for more information on the project A number of years ago, my father got a home weather station for his birthday.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[=> https://github.com/ttocsneb/Weather-Station šĀ GitHub Repository
=> /tag/weather-station/ šĀ WeatherStation Posts
> This is an ongoing project, see the above links for more information on the project
A number of years ago, my father got a home weather station for his birthday.Ā It is a simple station that reads wind, rain, temperature, and humidity.Ā It was a good for seeing how much rain we got, or how hot it is at our house.Ā Somewhat recently, it broke, we arenāt sure what happened, but I decided to recycle the parts and create a new, better weather station.
My plan is to make a weather station that uploads its data to [wunderground.com] using their [PWS Upload Protocol]. The problem is that I need to send the weather data through a GET request, which I need a device with wifi.Ā I could use an ArduinoĀ with wifi, but I donāt think that our wifi has a good enough range to use from the roof.Ā So I am using an [RF24L01+] module from the station to a raspberry pi 0 baseĀ station, which will upload the data.
=> https://www.wunderground.com/ wunderground.com
=> http://wiki.wunderground.com/index.php/PWS_-_Upload_Protocol PWS Upload Protocol
=> https://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/Nrf24L01-2.4GHz-HowTo RF24L01+
The idea is simple but has a number of problems that need to be addressed, such as power.Ā I plan to use a Li-ion battery with a solar panel to charge.
### RF24 Protocol
Every 30 seconds, the station will activate the radio, and send the weather data down to the base station, then listen for any commands for the next 2 seconds.Ā This will allow me to make changes to some constants in the station without having to reflash.Ā I should also be able to ask the stationĀ to do things, such as reset.
The commands are single chars followed by whatever else is needed.Ā ie āSā is for setting the value of a constant, followed by a char of the code for the constant to be changed, followed by the value.Ā If the command is a request, the station will send a packet back to the base.
### Solar Power
I am using an Adafruit Feather chip which has a Li-ion charging circuit built-in, so all I need to do is connect a solar panel to the charger.Ā However, I ran into an issue, where when the power drops too low to charge, then rises back, the charging circuit will stop charging as expected, but will not start charging again until the solar panel is disconnected and reconnected.Ā I plan to create a circuit with a mosfetĀ and voltage reader so that the station can deactivate the solar panel when it canāt supply enough current.
]]></content>
<category term="wordpress" label="Wordpress" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/wordpress/" />
<category term="weather-station" label="Weather-Station" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/weather-station/" />
<published>2018-04-09T18:12:09Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[rcProtocol update]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2018/02/23-rcprotocol_update/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2018/02/23-rcprotocol_update/</id>
<updated>2018-02-23T01:37:32Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[It has been far too long since the last update, near the end of October.Ā Since then I have been able to make a bunch of improvements.Ā When I last posted, the remote could only pair and connect,Ā now constant communication works, telemetry works, the remote even reconnects after resets.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[It has been far too long since the last update, near the end of October.Ā Since then I have been able to make a bunch of improvements.Ā When I last posted, the remote could only pair and connect,Ā now constant communication works, telemetry works, the remote even reconnects after resets.
I have also been able to fly my quad with the remote.
### Constant Communication
As the name implies, Constant communication allows for communications to be sent constantly.Ā In order for CC to work, both the receiver and transmitter call an update function during its program loop.Ā The transmitter is restricted to run update() at a certain interval designated by the receiverās settings. While the receiver can run update() as often as it is called.
There are several transmission types, dictated by the first byte in the packet. For example, 0xA0-0xAF are reserved for channel packets,Ā and 0xC0 is for disconnecting.Ā The receiver processes all of the packets in its update(), while the transmitter will send certain packets from different functions, such as the disconnect packet.
### Telemetry
Telemetry is sent by the receiver through ack-payloads.Ā At the moment, Telemetry is sent every time a packet is received.Ā I plan to make the frequency of telemetry packets set by the receiver settings.
I havenāt yet merged this to master yet, but telemetry has its own container class now.Ā It manages all of the bytes in the telemetry object into the proper data.Ā There are a bunch of things that can be sent through telemetry, and each needs its own implementation so the remote can enable/disable specific telemetry channels it uses. This allows for more efficient telemetry packets.
The telemetry class so far as only implemented, Battery Voltage, Current, Temperature, rpm, GPS, and alarms.
### Reconnects
For a normal receiver, if the receiver were to reset for whatever reason, there wouldnāt be much of a problem, since the transmitter will not care if it disconnected for a bit, but with this system, if that were to happen, it would have to go into connect mode, and do its handshake to make sure they can connect.Ā This is not good, so if the remote, or receiver is to reset while connected, it will immediately consider itself to be connected with that device, and check if the other device is listening.
## Things Still To Do
I think that the library is very close to being finished, but there are still things yet to do.Ā One of the things I want to do is create a container class for the channels similar to the telemetry class.
I want to have the channels be more standard so that the receiver can request certain channels, and the transmitter will know what to do.Ā I think this can be done by recreating the Telemetry class.Ā The remote would tell the Channels class which channels it can provide, and the receiver settings will contain information about which channels it needs.Ā When the two pair, it will check if the transmitter has the channels the receiver asked for.Ā If it works, then they will pair as normal, if they donāt match, a warning will be sent to the transmitterās firmware, and it can decide whether they can pair and if they do, which channels to send instead.
I think this is one of the big things that need to be done before the library can be considered finished, but there are still a few small things that I would like to implement, like signal strength, and other things that I canāt think of right now.
]]></content>
<category term="wordpress" label="Wordpress" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/wordpress/" />
<category term="drone" label="Drone" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/drone/" />
<published>2018-02-23T01:37:32Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[rcProtocol update]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2018/02/22-rcprotocol_update/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2018/02/22-rcprotocol_update/</id>
<updated>2018-02-23T01:37:32Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[It has been far too long since the last update, near the end of October.Ā Since then I have been able to make a bunch of improvements.Ā When I last posted, the remote could only pair and connect,Ā now constant communication works, telemetry works, the remote even reconnects after resets.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[It has been far too long since the last update, near the end of October.Ā Since then I have been able to make a bunch of improvements.Ā When I last posted, the remote could only pair and connect,Ā now constant communication works, telemetry works, the remote even reconnects after resets.
I have also been able to fly my quad with the remote.
There are several transmission types, dictated by the first byte in the packet. For example, 0xA0-0xAF are reserved for channel packets,Ā and 0xC0 is for disconnecting.Ā The receiver processes all of the packets in its update(), while the transmitter will send certain packets from different functions, such as the disconnect packet.
I havenāt yet merged this to master yet, but telemetry has its own container class now.Ā It manages all of the bytes in the telemetry object into the proper data.Ā There are a bunch of things that can be sent through telemetry, and each needs its own implementation so the remote can enable/disable specific telemetry channels it uses. This allows for more efficient telemetry packets.
The telemetry class so far as only implemented, Battery Voltage, Current, Temperature, rpm, GPS, and alarms.
I want to have the channels be more standard so that the receiver can request certain channels, and the transmitter will know what to do.Ā I think this can be done by recreating the Telemetry class.Ā The remote would tell the Channels class which channels it can provide, and the receiver settings will contain information about which channels it needs.Ā When the two pair, it will check if the transmitter has the channels the receiver asked for.Ā If it works, then they will pair as normal, if they donāt match, a warning will be sent to the transmitterās firmware, and it can decide whether they can pair and if they do, which channels to send instead.
I think this is one of the big things that need to be done before the library can be considered finished, but there are still a few small things that I would like to implement, like signal strength, and other things that I canāt think of right now.
]]></content>
<category term="wordpress" label="Wordpress" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/wordpress/" />
<category term="drone" label="Drone" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/drone/" />
<published>2018-02-23T01:37:32Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[rcProtocol]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2018/02/03-rcprotocol/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2018/02/03-rcprotocol/</id>
<updated>2018-02-04T04:29:25Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[š” Github Repository šĀ Library Documentation rcProtocol (working title) is a protocol for communications between transmitters and receivers.Ā It is not for receivers communicating with flight controllers.Ā I donāt intend this to become a standard, though that would be fun;Ā I intend this to be a niche system for hobbyists who want to make their own remote system without going through the effort of creating their own communications protocol.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[=> https://github.com/ttocsneb/rcProtocol š” Github Repository
=> http://ttocsneb.github.io/projects/rcprotocol/docs/html/annotated.html šĀ Library Documentation
rcProtocol (working title) is a protocol for communications between transmitters and receivers.Ā It is not for receivers communicating with flight controllers.Ā I donāt intend this to become a standard, though that would be fun;Ā I intend this to be a niche system for hobbyists who want to make their own remote system without going through the effort of creating their own communications protocol.
## Dependencies
There is only one dependency for the library, which is an [RF24L01(+)] chip with the [TMRh20 RF24] library.
=> https://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/Nrf24L01-2.4GHz-HowTo RF24L01(+)
=> https://github.com/nRF24/RF24 TMRh20 RF24
I have tried to keep my code system agnostic, so you could theoretically run rcProtocol anywhere RF24 can, but I canāt make any promises.
## Capabilities
rcProtocol allows remotes to be paired with more than one receiver.Ā Each receiver has its own settings that are sent to the remote when paired.Ā There are only simple radio specific settings at the moment, but I plan to give the receiver control of which channels are sent.Ā You can read all of the settings in the documentation [here].
=> http://www.ttocsneb.com/projects/rcprotocol/docs/html/classRCSettings.html here
There is a max of 15 channels that can be sent, this is with full 32-byte packets.Ā I might add the ability to sendĀ up to 16 unique channel packets, upping the theoretical channel maximum to 240 channels, though I would not recommend that.
Telemetry is also possible, by populating ACK packets.Ā At the time of writing (V0.3.0), You have to manually parse telemetry.Ā I plan to have standard stuff: Battery, Current, Temperature, RPM, Location, Alarms, etc.
An emergency reconnect system is enabled, making it so that if a board gets reset, it will automatically reconnect to the last device it was connected to before it reset.Ā This is useful because of the way the transmitter/receiver connect, doing its special handshake would not work in a power failure as it would take too much time.
## Usage
The protocol has two main classes: DeviceProtocolĀ (rcDeviceProtocol.h), and RemoteProtocol (rcRemoteProtocol.h).Ā The two classes mirror each other in functionality as they are for the receiver, and transmitter respectively.Ā They both have the same functions but are implemented slightly differently.
To pair with each other, both need to call pair().Ā The remote broadcasts its ID onto a pairing channel.Ā The receiver will collect this, then start broadcasting its ID, as well as settings.
To connect, they both have to have paired with each other and call connect().Ā The receiver will broadcast its ID on the remoteās channel.Ā The remote will then check if the ID is correct, then send a confirmation/denial response.Ā They will both load the settings, and test if communication is still possible.
Once they are connected, the remote is free to send data to the receiver.Ā Though currently, update() and disconnect() are the only communications the remote can send.
There are two other classes: RCGlobal; an internal class used by DeviceProtocol and RemoteProtocol, and RCSettings; a class that holds the settings for communications
]]></content>
<category term="wordpress" label="Wordpress" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/wordpress/" />
<category term="drone" label="Drone" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/drone/" />
<published>2018-02-04T04:29:25Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[RC Remote API: Pairing/Connecting]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2017/10/29-rc_remote_pairing/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2017/10/29-rc_remote_pairing/</id>
<updated>2017-10-29T16:37:43Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[I was able to get progress on the api for my remote. It can now successfully pair, and connect. I still have yet to send a steady stream of data; That will be my next goal.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[I was able to get progress on the api for my remote. It can now successfully pair, and connect. I still have yet to send a steady stream of data; That will be my next goal.
## Pairing
In order to pair, both the receiver, and transmitter must call the `pair` function. The remote will start announcing its ID on the `PAIR0` channel, the receiver will be listening on that channel for any data.
When data is received, the receiver will save the ID, switch to write mode on the received channel and send settings (currently that only consists of its ID). The transmitter will know that data was received, as auto-ack is turned on, and switch to receive mode, waiting for settings. When settings are received, it will pass them on to the remotes firmware to save.
## Connecting
When connecting, The receiver will go into write mode, announcing its ID on the remote ID channel saved from pairing. The transmitter will be listening on its channel. When it gets a transmission, it check if the ID sent was saved.
If any of the Saved IDs matches the sent ID, the transmitter will send back an OK, if not, it will send a FAIL, and will not connect to the receiver.
Right now, nothing happens after that. I will have both devices set a value that the device was connected, and which device it was connected to. This should allow the transmitter to know if it is okay to send data freely.
]]></content>
<category term="wordpress" label="Wordpress" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/wordpress/" />
<category term="drone" label="Drone" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/drone/" />
<published>2017-10-29T16:37:43Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[RC Remote Software]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2017/10/24-rc-remote-software/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2017/10/24-rc-remote-software/</id>
<updated>2017-10-24T15:00:22Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[Over the course of the past year or so, I have torn apart an old RC Remote and put new electronics in. I think I have blogged about it before I rebuilt my website, and hope to restore those lost posts some day.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[Over the course of the past year or so, I have torn apart an old RC Remote and put new electronics in. I think I have blogged about it before I rebuilt my website, and hope to restore those lost posts some day. I have since stopped working on it until about a week ago.
=> remote_wiring.jpg š¼ remote_wiring
I discovered [PlatformIO], a plugin for Visual Studio Code, that allows for development on just about any embedded computer. This allowed me to start developing the software for my remote in full.
=> http://platformio.org/ PlatformIO
I have planned to write the software in two parts: The comms library, and the Remote software. The comms library is an API designed to work with nRF24L01 chips and is built for both the transmitter and receiver. The remote Software allows the comms library to work with the hardware of the remote.
## Comms Library
The comms library also has two parts: The Receiver, and the Transmitter. The receiver is the class a device connecting to the remote would use, while the transmitter is the class the remote would use. They are built to work with each other, and so both can be explained simultaneously.
The library will allow a transmitter to pair with more than one device, along with device-specific settings that would be stored in the transmitter (The library doesnāt save the settings, but asks the remote to save/retrieve them). When the transmitter connects, it waits for the receiver to announce its ID on the transmitterās channel, the transmitter will then load the settings for that device, and check if all the requirements are valid. If the requirements are not valid, the remote should warn the user, and ask what to do, while the device waits for further commands. If everything is good, the remote should alert the user that the connection was successful.
You should also be able to have add-ons: a device that can communicate with the receiver through the transmitter. An example of an add-on is a Gymbal remote; you would be able to control a gimbal mounted on a quadcopter from a second remote without having a second transmitter. The receiver can specify in the settings wither a specific add-on is required, and which channels from an add-on to send, or which telemetry channels to send to an add-on. The main transmitter is also considered to be an add-on (its ID is 0) so can have specific channels excluded from the transmission.
## Remote Software
The software for the remote handles all of the specifics that the comms library canāt. It will control the display, EEPROM, and handle inputs. The screen will be controlled by a UI class that controls several subscreen objects.
The menu structure will be set up something like this
mainscreen
|---Settings
|---System Settings
|---Connect On startup
|---Channels Graph
|---Reverse Channels
|---Change ID
|---Forget All receivers
|---etc
|---Receiver Settings
|---Change Name
|---Change Background Image
|---Forget This Receiver
|---etc
I have already gotten the basic structure for the UI setup, but I havenāt done much more than that. I plan to get a connection between the receiver and transmitter done next.
]]></content>
<category term="wordpress" label="Wordpress" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/wordpress/" />
<category term="drone" label="Drone" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/drone/" />
<published>2017-10-24T15:00:22Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[Weatherstation: Software]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2017/06/17-weatherstation_software/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2017/06/17-weatherstation_software/</id>
<updated>2017-06-17T21:27:42Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[I finished wiring the station, though I would not be surprised if I need to make some last minute adjustments. The last bit of wiring I have done is interfacing with the existing hardware. The rain gauge and anemometer connect directly to the board with an internal pull-up activated.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[I finished wiring the station, though I would not be surprised if I need to make some last minute adjustments. The last bit of wiring I have done is interfacing with the existing hardware. The rain gauge and anemometer connect directly to the board with an internal pull-up activated. The language is connected to D11 for PCINT7 which allows for interrupts. The weather vane is connected to A0 through a 5k7 resistor to act as a voltage divider with the resistors in the weather vain as the second resistor. The solar panel connects to the USB pin through a step-up converter to make sure there is a 5V output.
=> wiring.jpg š¼ wiring
As for the software, I created a simple flowchart of what the station will do.
=> flowchart.png š¼ flowchart
The Program will wait for commands, I expect to update once every 30 seconds. It will then process the command, then repeat. It is a very simple system. though will be slightly more complex than that.
I havenāt programmed the commands yet, rather got or getting the processes ready to be commanded. So far have had weatherdump mostly finished, as well as settingdump. They are not yet functional enough to be plugged into a communications API, but the framework is there.
WeatherDump
The weatherdump sends back all of the weather data from about the time the dump was requested. It should start out collecting the wind data as that takes at least 2 seconds. Everything else reads fairly quickly. Next is the weather vain, which just finds which of the eight reed switches are closed. The temperature and humidity come from the DHT22, and pressure comes from the MPL115. The grain count is stored in a variable that may or may not reset after each reading(I havenāt decided yet)
SettingDump
All of the settings are stored in the internal EEPROM. The settings are fairly simple, just conversions or other various settings regarding weather data. I am doing this so that if I find an error with my system, I can easily fix the small issues without having to take down the weather station and reflash it. I am mainly storing Integers, doubles, and booleans. As EEPROM stores its values as bytes and has no conversion systems, I have created a few converters. The first converter simplifies the booleans into bytes to conserve memory. The second converts Integers into two bytes. The third converts doubles into 5 bytes. It starts out by finding out how many bits the double needs to become a long. After that, the long is turned into 2 ints which are then saved using the previous writeInt command. The last 5th byte stores the number of bits the double is compressed by.
]]></content>
<category term="wordpress" label="Wordpress" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/wordpress/" />
<category term="weather-station" label="Weather-Station" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/weather-station/" />
<published>2017-06-17T21:27:42Z</published></entry>
<entry>
<title><![CDATA[Weather Station Part 2]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/gemini" hreflang="" href="gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2017/04/15-weatherstation_part2/" />
<id>gemini://benjaminja.com/log/2017/04/15-weatherstation_part2/</id>
<updated>2017-04-15T21:11:33Z</updated>
<summary type="gemini"><![CDATA[I have started working on the main board for the station. Adding the transceiver, barometer, temperature, and humidity sensor. It is going pretty well so far. I have not yet tested the rf24 module, though the two other modules I have confirmed to work.
]]></summary><content type="gemini"><![CDATA[I have started working on the main board for the station. Adding the transceiver, barometer, temperature, and humidity sensor. It is going pretty well so far. I have not yet tested the rf24 module, though the two other modules I have confirmed to work. The MPL115 works pretty well and seems to give good readings, though I canāt really test it without putting it in a vacuum chamber or climb a mountain, which is fairly difficult, let alone try to tether it to a computer. The humidity sensor reads humid in my mouth, and the temperature sensor senses the proper temperature.
=> chip_top.jpg š¼ chip_top
=> chip_wiring.jpg š¼ chip_wiring
I was also able to do some testing on the old equipment. Most of it worked how I expected it would, though with a little twist. I started with the wind meter.
The wind meter will be the easiest to implement. It has a single switch that pulses every 180Ā°. The switch closed most of the time except for when pulsing, which opens the circuit. It will be really easy to implement as I only need to find the amount of time between two pulses. The hard part will be finding the conversion rate between rpm and airspeed. I wouldnāt be surprised if the information is readily online, but if it is not, I can take a few readings in a car ride at a set speed in a no wind environment.
Next is the Rain Gage. It is fairly simple, though it will be a bit harder to implement. The Rain gauge collects water in a see-saw thing. the water goes to one side until its bucket fills up and rocks the see-saw to the other side. This process repeats, but on the other side. when the bucket falls, the switch is pulsed. To implement, you just have to keep track of how many times the bucket dropped. It is really simple in principle, though in practice will require the system to always be listening for the switch to switch. An interrupt should do the trick. As for conversions, I believe each bucket drop is 0.01in, as that was the increment of the station before it broke, but I will have to confirm; Probably by leaving it out on a rainy day with rain bucket as a base.
The last is the weather vain, arguably the most difficult to implement. There are eight switches, one for each direction. each switch is parallel to each other with a different resistor paired with each. The resistorās value seems to be random, making it more difficult to implement, though not by much. To implement, I would use a 100k5k7 pull-down resistor to get the following table. Though what I found interesting is that my readings from the last post are different to what the calculated resistance is.
I am certain that I am wrong about the resistance, either in my calculations, or my setup, but I remember reading the resistance on my meter to be correct.
## Edit
It turns out that I took out the resistor from a different box then what I thought I did for the pull-down resistor, it is actually a 5k7 resistor. Everything works out as it should though the West direction should read 4.254V instead of the actual 0V. I believe that a connection is somehow broken, but should work out fine in the final setup.
]]></content>
<category term="wordpress" label="Wordpress" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/wordpress/" />
<category term="weather-station" label="Weather-Station" scheme="gemini://benjaminja.com/tags/weather-station/" />
<published>2017-04-15T21:11:33Z</published></entry>
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