Creating a Minimalist CentOS Home Server

It's about time I wrote this, so here we go. I built a little NAS/home server over Christmas time a few months ago. It's based on a FM2 3.5Ghz dual core, a mATX Gigabyte board with eight Sata3 ports, and currently has three 4TB hard drives. I've been jumping between what OS to run on it for a while: first it had Arch, then some Debian, FreeBSD and now here we are at CentOS.

Why? Arch was stable but for fear of things going bad (Arch is not meant to be a server), I switched to Debian which had consistent issues with full network bandwidth causing the Ethernet driver to crash. I had high hopes for BSD then realized they dont support XFS anymore which means I couldn't mount my data drives. So here goes CentOS.

While this is meant for CentOS, most commands are similar and software names are the same, so it can be used as reference for other systems.

RC Mitsubishi Eclipse Part 1: 3D Modeled Shell

This here is one of my long term projects: a 1/8th scale remote controlled Mitsubishi Eclipse. I don't feel like going into much detail currently, but in this part I will be taking a 3D model of a 2nd generation Eclipse and creating a scaled mold that can be used in a vacuum former to create a shell for the car. A 3D model was very hard to find for free, but I did eventually find one.

First I had to import this .3ds formatted file into Solidworks. With a premium version, this can be done with the ScanTo3D feature. This must be first enabled under Tools>Add-Ins. Once done, the .3ds can be opened like any other SolidWorks file.

Then I could move on to modifying the model to the correct scale. However, this cannot be done to the part file as it is with the meshes. So, we convert this to a .STL which also allows us to modify and measure the model unlike the meshes. I then measured the length of the model and found the ratio of it to the needed length of the model to fit the 1/8th scale of the real car. This ratio is then inserted into the Scale feature (found under Insert>Features>Scale) which scales the model to the correct 1/8th scale.

The next step is to create the carbon fiber base chassis to fit the shell. This method (basing it off of a real car) makes it so much easier to design the car as not everything needs to be created from scratch. As for creating the actual shell, i'd need to get a hold of a vacuum form machine.

Modifying a Logitech Gaming Controller

I have a few projects that need to be easily interfaced with a computer to be used in games. I thought of using a Teensy cause it has USB support, but I had a sorta old Logitech controller that I wasn't using anymore. My idea was to bring out all the buttons and joysticks (potentiometers) to a header that could be accessed on the outside. Then this slimmed down controller could be put into a modular case that can be swapped between multiple gaming accessories such as a racing wheel or a guitar for Phase Shift (guitar hero for the PC). An since its a Logitech controller, it pretty much works in every game.

DIY Varaible Temp Soldering Iton

I still haven't spent the money to get a nice variable soldering iron for home use so I continue to make do with what I have or on the cheap. I'm getting really tired of no temp control so I thought of using a AC light dimmer to control it. A few short Googles later and sure enough someone else has already thought of this idea and tested it. 

Old Glider to RC Plane

After my utter failure in building a BluBaby RC plane, I decided to hit it again, but with a different approach. I know a decent amount about flight mechanics, but not so much on building one from scratch. So, I used a glider as the base for my plane and added electronics to make remote controlled, and then later a brushless motor. This plane will be Elevator and aileron only, simply because I don't want to deal with a rudder, and its not really necessary in the beginning (yank and bank all the way!)

How To Mod a NERF Raider CS-35

I won a Nerf Raider at a school event and so naturally I had to mod it.

A nice overview of the gun (and my mess).

Netbook Touchscreen Car PC

In this project I created a touchscreen car PC from an old Gateway netbook I had (the same one from this teardown post). The specs are about just right for what I need for a in car computer: 1.66ghz Atom N450, 1GB ram, GMA 3150 and a 10in 1024x600 display. All it has to do is run XBMC or some media player for listening to music and deal with a few peripherals such as a touch screen, media keys and possibly an OBD II bluetooth reader.

Running some XBMC, but still needs a bit of cleaning up.

An Arduino DIY Tachometer Display

The goal  of this project was to create some sort of display that would retrieve and display the rpm signal in an easy to read manor. I thought it would be nice to see this information while driving to see how the engine and the transmission react to different conditions. Though it maybe phased out by my custom touchscreen media center i'm working on now. That device would use a bluetooth OBDII reader that would give me much more than just rpm.

Using ADB and fastboot With Your Android Device

If you have found this page you are probably frantically looking for some fastboot or adb command and that's what I will give you - scroll to the end of the post and you'll find examples. For all you other people who are not freaking out about their bricked or non-booting phone...continue on. haha. 

What Are fastboot And ADB

fastboot and adb are two programs found in the Android development SDK that allow you to transfer files, install programs, flash images, and run commands on your Android phone. Another thing to note: ADB can only connect to your phone while it is in recovery or booted into the OS. fastboot can only be used when your device is in bootloader mode. Finally, one of the most important things (i think) in terms of android is to access the bootloader: turn off your device and hold Power and Volume Down at the same time. 

SDSMT FSAE Adventures?

Now that i'm in college i can finally join clubs that i can actually do fun stuff in. High school robotics was ok, but that doesn't compare to racing a Formula SAE car around a track. My college has had this program for a while so we have some older cars for new students to drive (dubbed the 03 car). It had some issues so we had to fix those first before driving.

This is the 2003 car for new drivers. 2012 car seen on left

Modding the NERF 6 Barrel Strongarm (Barrel Drop / Swap Mod)

Here at college we have Humans vs Zombies where we use Nerf guns to hunt down zombies (i think there's an assassin game later in the year). People have been buying Nerf guns for the past few months and modding them for better performance (pretty sure Walmart loves it haha). I got the Strongarm and then another one a few weeks later for driving someone on some errands. That means I could then do the barrel swap mod which allows for easy swapping of 6 rounds without having to reload individual darts after every shots. 

Here's an original Strongarm (notice the grey barrel supports). These are the main parts we'll be modding. Ok, stock except for the missing grip, haha.

Fixing "New XAMPP security concept" and "Port already in use" Errors With Apache

Now that im at college and have a decent internet connection, I wanted to try some cloud style music access. And by "style" I mean running my own server from my desktop with all my media and accessing it from my school issued laptop so i don't have to carry around all the music. I first tried Orb which basically installs a program on your computer and creates a database of your media and when you use their website to remote access it their servers contact your computer and stream the media to the remote computer. There are two problems with this: Orb is shutting down soon because it was bought out and media stream was in shitty quality. I then started to look for open source options that dint require a man-in-the-middle server to stream the media (aka i wanted a direct pipeline). I found the perfect choice: Ampache. Its based off of Apache (a basic, but powerful web server) and MySQL. I liked all of its features except that you have to do some server tinkering and i have had little experience, but it was actually quite easy because Apache and MySQL have been put into an installer package called XAMPP which makes it really easy to setup. There are step by step instructions here. Quick note: when installing XAMPP you only need Apache and MySQL for Ampache to work.

Using an Tiva-C Launchpad With Energia (Ardunio IDE for ARM)

If your'e a daily Hackaday reader you should've seen this post a week or so ago. It links to this ARM forum topic: some guy found a 25$ multi-use coupon and shared it with the community.  He and many others bought two tiva-c launchpads for a total of .98$ with the coupon (you can buy anything ya wanted but might as well get some MCUs). I was lucky enough to catch this before the coupon was discontinued and got my two launchpads and then went and searched on how to use them  There is of course the official TI C/C++ compilers or programs, but i wanted to go with something I already knew: Arduino. I remembered the Energia project from a while back that does exactly what I wanted: it uses the familiar Arduino "Wired" code and a similar IDE.

My Custom Android 2.2.2 Froyo Rom for LG Apex (US740)

In this post, i'll be writing about my adventures in creating a custom rom for a LG Apex (US740) on Froyo version 2.2.2. :)

This is What I Do When I'm Bored at Work

 Yes, that's right, schemes drawn on Home Depot receipts.

How to EASILY Dump your Android's Rom!

Well, I guess that is relative. There is no one click method for this, however, this the easiest i've found.

How to Root Any Android with Froyo (2.0)

The goal of this post is to show you how to root an Android device that runs the Froyo firmware, aka v2.0. I  found a LG Apex in the electronics recycling (pretty rare to find an android) and of course wanted to tinker with it. Just like with any other new project, you need to read as much as possible so you dont screw anything up. Rooting is actually quite simple: people have made programs that do it for you (just a few clicks).

Some Management Stuff

I have made a few changes and am thinking about a few others. I changed the templates to something a little easier to read and see hyperlinks in text. I also found some new code box html code. Do you like the new stuff? Should I do page breaks in longer posts (lots of scrolling)?

That is if anyone cares :)

R/C Themed Car Media Controls

The goal of this project is to interface some sort of media player with my radio with media controls easily accessible. After washing my ipod and the cellphone battery not fixing it (soemthing was drawing excessive current and killing the battery within a day of not being used (a new ipod battery didn't fix it either). So i set off with another idea: use my netbook.

Why?
-has my entire music collection
-can be interfaced with an arduino through processing.
-arduino will handle all the control interface reading.
-runs linux which is awesome
-Amarok media player
-small

Replace A-Arm and Steering Assembly on 1/16th scale 25A SCT RC from HobbyKing.

First off NEVER EVER drive these RCs without the body unless your are on some flat, huge surface. Hitting something will most likely break off the A-arms without the body protection. Long story short, I broke one and finally did this repair after the ~9.00$ of parts came in. I got all of these parts to be less than the first tier ~100g package, so shipping was only ~2.00$ :D.

Dogbone 2 pcs - 118B, A2023T and A2035 1 IN STOCK Front Shock Complete 2 pcs - 118B, A2023T and A2035 1 IN STOCK Front Susp.arm - L/R 2 pcs - 118B, A2023T and A2035 1 IN STOCK Steering Drag Link 1pc - 118B, A2023T and A2035 1 IN STOCK

The parts.