Jonathan Arbib

Just purchased a PC Engines Alix 3d3. online from MS Distribution (UK) for ~£110.00. I have a plan for it… read on…

Specs follow:

First Mod: Heatsink with fan!

I noticed that my processor was going up to the 50′s plus degrees when working, so I decided to keep it cool by adding a Heatsing with a FAN. I found one on Amazon.co.uk, specifically designed for Graphics chips, so I thought it would be ok for my Alix. It came with a self-adhesive strip on the bottom which made installation simple. Then after seeing that an 18V supply for the Alix was too high, and hmm… I ran out of adequate resistors to step down the voltage… I hooked on the 5V supply right behind the Serial port! And that ensures i get minimal fan spin, and hence virtually no noise from the fan. The airflow is enough to cool down the heatsink, as there is a noticeable difference when the fan is operational and not.

Update: While compiling the kernel the cpu temperature stays below 42 degrees (Celsius)

Application:

I am now trying to develop a home-made GPS tracker with a GPRS modem to “report back” the location… More on this coming soon!

So… I like playing around with my netoworks…

And today I finally had the time to achieve good results (and map it in Photoshop!)

List of items:

1. Netgear Router
2. Smoothwall Firewall
3. 10/100 Netgear Switch
4. Gigabit Netgear Switch
5. xen server
   1. Backup Server
   2. Samba Server
6. External hard drives
   1. 2 x 1 TB
   2. 1 x 500 GB
7. Thecus N4100Pro NAS
8. iMac
9. MaxValue 85 mbps Ethernet Over Power Adapters
10. Linksys WRT54GL Wireless Router

At Roehampton University the cafe sells Ubuntu cola! :)

Iridium Satellite Phone

The Iridium is the only Satellite phone which has the largest coverage over the globe. Perfect for remote areas, as Africa or Southern parts of Asia, as well as South America. It has a decent 3 hours talk time on the “super-sized” battery… But not an issue on this device I think, since its purpose is for emergency calls. Hence keeping the device off, with the battery removed perhaps will ensure a maximum life of the battery until the phone is really needed. A 12 V charger is also provided, which can (if in need) be ran off of a Solar panel for example… In the last years they have introduced also pay-as-you-go cards, which do not bind you to contracts or monthly expenses, which is perfect for the occasional use during trips…

a MUST have for remote explorers…

Garmin GPSMap 60CSx Handheld GPS Navigator

Garmin 60CSx will probably be my next gadget to join my “collection”…

It’s unfortunately on the pricey side… but it appears to be a very sturdy GPS unit!

There is an excellent review, which abundantly speaks about this unit, and its great details! It’s nice that it can take custom maps, and import/export to/from Google Earth, which is nice for Hiking, or off-path adventures, like *cough* *cough* Africa!

I’ll leave the reading to you :-)

Underwater Photography

Nikon Coolpix S500 (Silver)

Fantasea FS-500 60m Underwater Housing for Nikon Coolpix S500 Camera

This seems to be a good combination for a good camera and a cheap underwater Housing. The camera unfortunately could do better… But I still cannot find a good combination for a cheap underwater case and camera which will take good pictures underwater… Without spending too much…

So… I found this laying around one my harddrives… and thought someone might appreciate it :-)

These are the schematics to build a GSM jamming device, or more commonly called a GSM jammer. It should be pretty easy to adapt the frequency to the desired band… Seems like the third harmonic on the 800MHz is also able to jam WiFi signals at 2.4 GHz (because 800 * 3 is 2400 perhaps?)

I must say that this is NOT my work… But someone else’s… I did not look for the source or the author. Just posting this file for public use.

File can be downloaded from here.

Enjoy!