Category Archives: Hardware

Hardware

IP Camera doorbell without a cloud subscription

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I’ve been on a quest to find a decent looking doorbell camera that is easy on the wallet while also allowing for local storage recording (no cloud subscription.)

What I ended up with was the Hikvision DS-KB6003-WIP. It’s been great so far. The OEM version I got had a different firmware on it, so I flashed the official HikVision firmware just to stay proper.

Spec sheet:
HikVision Website
Alternate Link

Manual:
HikVision Website
Alternate Link

Device as listed on HikVisions website:
https://www.hikvision.com/Products/Video-Intercom/Wi-Fi-Door-Bell/DS-KB6003-WIP

Note this doorbell will ONLY work with MECHANICAL wired chimes. I could not get it to work with my digital chime (it would just chime incessantly or not power up the doorbell camera properly depending on how I used the dummy resistor provided.)

Installation was pretty straightforward. Make sure you have a good transformer and not a terrible one like I had. Connecting it to your WiFi network is a bit different. You have to use the Hik-Connect app to create a QR code with your wifi settings. The you simply need to point the QR code to the camera, and after a moment it will announce it connected to your network.

Once connected you can access the device via web browser by IP address (or continue using the hik-connect app.) The web interface requires a stupid plugin to work properly. Make sure you use IE or older Firefox version for plugin to work. The default username is admin, and the default password is admin+verification code found on the device sticker. For example, “adminHLPVTL”

Sign in on https://www.hik-connect.com/ and register device with hik-connect to get the doorbell button to do something instead of just saying “no account found.”

To configure with Zoneminder or other DVR software, the RTSP URL is as follows:

rtsp://USERNAME:PASSWORD@IP_ADDRESS:554/ch1/main/av_stream

CLI, Hardware, OS

Rasbperry Pi as a dashboard computer

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Here are my raw, unpolished notes on how I set up a raspberry pi to serve as a dashboard display:

Use Raspbian OS

Autostart Chrome in kiosk mode

Eliminate Chrome crash bubble thanks to this post

mkdir -p ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/
nano ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart

Add this line:
@chromium-browser --kiosk --app=<URL>

Mouse removal

sudo apt-get install unclutter

in ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart add

@unclutter -idle 5

Disable screen blank:

in /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf add

[SeatDefaults]
xserver-command=X -s 0 -dpms

Open up SSH & VNC

Pi / Preferences / Raspberry Pi Configuration: Interfaces tab

SSH: Enable
VNC: Enable

Increase swap file

sudo nano /etc/dphys-swapfile
CONF_SWAPSIZE=2048M

Configure NTP

sudo apt-get install openntpd ntpdate
sudo systemctl enable openntpd
sudo ntpdate <IP of NTP server>

edit /etc/openntpd/ntpd.conf and modify servers lines to fit your NTP server

Disable overscan

Pi / Preferences / Raspberry Pi Configuration: System tab
Overscan: Disable

Hardware

Installing Android Auto / Apple Carplay retrofit in Mazda CX3

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I just finished installing the Android Auto / Apple CarPlay retrofit kit into my 2016 Mazda CX-3 Grand Touring AWD. It’s sweet! The process to get it installed was a learning experience for me.

The CX-3 is not as popular as its bigger brother the CX-5 and therefore there wasn’t nearly as much information on how to do the retrofit. Of great help were various posts over at CX3 forum and this youtube video.

The steps to accomplish the retrofit are as follows, taken from the official Mazda guide

  1. Update Mazda firmware to latest 70.00+ version
    1. Firmware can be found here
  2. Remove glove compartment
  3. Remove Audio Panel 1
  4. Remove Audio Panel 2
  5. Remove Central display
    1. Be careful here. This will scratch up your dashboard. Do not ignore recommendations to lay down protective tape/other layer
  6. Remove Center Console Tray (or, in my case, the armrest attachment)
  7. Remove shift bezel
  8. Remove upper panel
  9. Remove/detach shift panel (Removal not necessary)
    1. I didn’t want to undo the shift knob, so I just unplugged the panel and rotated the whole assembly to the side. It was enough for the installation – no removal required.
  10. Remove console side panels
  11. Remove front console box
  12. Remove DVD/CD Player (if installed)
    1. Removal keys were not easy to find. I ended up using two small cutting knives I found in my kitchen. Insert into keyholes, angle them slightly, and pull.
  13. Remove Front Console
  14. Remove old USB hub from front console
  15. Replace USB hub in front console
  16. Wrap wiring in foam
  17. Route wiring and add zip ties
  18. Replace components in reverse order from how you removed them

The biggest challenges for me were the armrest and CD player. The rest of it was pretty straightforward. Here are some pictures of the process:

Mazda CX3 CMU removal
CX3 bezel removal
CX3 upper panel removed
CX3 front console removed
CX3 everything removed
CLI, Hardware

Generate SuperMicro IPMI license

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Thank-you, Peter Kleissner, for saving me from having to use my time machine to simply update my server’s BIOS: https://peterkleissner.com/2018/05/27/reverse-engineering-supermicro-ipmi/

https://twitter.com/kleissner/status/996955400787423232?lang=en

Supermicro IPMI License Key (for updating BIOS) = HMAC-SHA1-96(INPUT: MAC address of BMC, SECRET KEY: 85 44 E3 B4 7E CA 58 F9 58 30 43 F8)

echo -n 'bmc-mac' | xxd -r -p | openssl dgst -sha1 -mac HMAC -macopt hexkey:8544E3B47ECA58F9583043F8 | awk '{print $2}' | cut -c 1-24
CLI, Hardware, OS

Make FreeDOS boot ISO to flash BIOS

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I needed to flash the BIOS of one of my old server motherboards and to my dismay found the only way to do so was via DOS boot image. It was not straightforward so I thought I’d write it down. Thanks to pingtool & tummy.com for the information I needed to pull it off.

First, obtain a copy of FreeDOS ISO and extract it to a directory

  • mount -o loop <freedosISO.iso> <mount directory>
  • rsync -aP <mount directory> <directory you want files to copy to>

Next, copy the necessary flash utilities and firmware files to that same directory as above.

Lastly, use genisoimage to create a new ISO image based on the above folder. Modify -o output to wherever you want the ISO to go.

sudo apt install genisoimage
cd <folder you copied your files to>
mkisofs -o /tmp/freedos_biosupdate.iso -q -l -N \
   -boot-info-table -iso-level 4 -no-emul-boot \
   -b isolinux/isolinux.bin \
   -publisher "FreeDOS - www.freedos.org" \
   -A "FreeDOS beta9 Distribution" -V FDOS_BETA9 -v .

From here you can take the ISO and mount / burn it as needed. It will boot into FreeDOS. Tell it to go to a shell and away you go.

CLI, Hardware

Supermicro fans constantly spinning to 100% fix

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My fancy new Supermicro-powered AMD Epyc 7 series server is the bee’s knees. When I first set up I had an annoying problem though – the fans would spin to 100% and back down to normal speeds constantly. Logs kept spamming the same thing over and over:

SENSOR_NUMBER: 45
SENSOR_TYPE: Fan
SENSOR_NAME: FAN5            
EVENT_DESCRIPTION: Lower Critical going low
EVENT_DIRECTION: Assertion
EVENT SEVERITY:"information"
SENSOR_NUMBER: 45
SENSOR_TYPE: Fan
SENSOR_NAME: FAN5            
EVENT_DESCRIPTION: Lower Critical going low
EVENT_DIRECTION: De-assertion
EVENT SEVERITY:"information"

It was doing this for all 3 fans I had plugged in there. I finally came across this post which explained what the problem was. The fans I had installed defaulted to a low RPM mode, too low for the motherboard’s liking. The BMC would detect the low RPM and assume something was wrong and bring all fans to 100% in order to rescue the system. After doing this it would see the RPM go back to normal range and turn off the “emergency fan mode” only to turn back on when the RPMs of my fans went below the threshold.

The fix, thankfully, is pretty simple provided you have ipmitools installed. One simply has to use the tool to change the fan thresholds. For my Debian-based Proxmox install I did the following to quiet this beast:

apt install ipmitool
ipmitool sensor thresh FAN1 lower 300 300 400
ipmitool sensor thresh FAN2 lower 300 300 400
ipmitool sensor thresh FAN5 lower 300 300 400
#you'll want to modify the fans to correspond with your own server.

I ran the above commands to turn my 3 fans back to a sane speed. I got caught up for a while because I only ran this command on 2 of my 3 fans at first. The deafening noise continued. This is because if any fan in the system goes below, all fans spin up. Once I changed that third fan’s threshold all was gravy. My ears were ringing for a while, but they’re fine now.

CLI, Hardware, OS

Fix USB bluetooth in KDE Plasma on CentOS 7

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I spent too many hours trying to figure this stupid thing out.. but FINALLY! I have my bluetooth headset working in CentOS 7 with the KDE 4 Plasma environment. Read on if you dare…

First, you must configure dbus to allow your user to use the bluetooth dongle. Add the following above the closing /busconfig tag.  Be sure to replace USERNAME with your user account:

sudo nano /etc/dbus-1/system.d/bluetooth.conf
  <policy user="USERNAME">
    <allow send_destination="org.bluez"/>
    <allow send_interface="org.bluez.Agent1"/>
    <allow send_interface="org.bluez.GattCharacteristic1"/>
    <allow send_interface="org.bluez.GattDescriptor1"/>
    <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.ObjectManager"/>
    <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties"/>
  </policy>

Remove and re-plug the adapter in.

Next, follow Arch Linux’s excellent guide on how to pair a bluetooth device using bluetoothctl

bluetoothctl
[bluetooth]# power on
[bluetooth]# agent on
[bluetooth]# default-agent
[bluetooth]# scan on

Now make sure that your headset is in pairing mode. It should be discovered shortly. For example,

[NEW] Device 00:1D:43:6D:03:26 Lasmex LBT10

shows a device that calls itself “Lasmex LBT10” and has MAC address “00:1D:43:6D:03:26”. We will now use that MAC address to initiate the pairing:

[bluetooth]# pair 00:1D:43:6D:03:26

After pairing, you also need to explicitly connect the device (every time?):

[bluetooth]# connect 00:1D:43:6D:03:26

If you’re getting a connection error org.bluez.Error.Failed retry by killing existing PulseAudio daemon first:

$ pulseaudio -k
[bluetooth]# connect 00:1D:43:6D:03:26

Finally, configure pulseaudio to automatically switch all audio to your headset by adding the following line to the bottom of /etc/pulse/default.pa:

nano /etc/pulse/default.pa

# automatically switch to newly-connected devices
load-module module-switch-on-connect

Update 7/27: I rebooted my machine and lost my bluetooth, to my dismay. I discovered that my user needs to be a member of the audio group. Since I’m in an active directory environment I think the local audio group got removed at reboot. So, to restore it, as root I had to run this:

usermod -aG audio <user>

After doing that, to prevent logging out and back in again, you can do the following:

su - <USERNAME>

Once that’s done all the bluetoothctl commands worked again.

Hardware, OS

Sabrent USB AU-MMSA microphone not working in Windows 10

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I recently installed Windows 10 for my gaming VM and discovered that my microphone was no longer working. All the drivers were properly installed and sound worked fine, but there was nothing coming from the microphone.

My gaming VM uses a Sabrent USB External Stereo Sound Adapter model  AU-MMSA passed through for sound. This was most perplexing because it worked in other OSes, but not Windows 10.

After much digging I finally found this youtube video which outlined the problem: Microphone permissions to the system. The hybrid that Windows 10 is between Store apps / permissions and regular desktop apps reminds me of Windows ME. An unholy union.. terrible.

At any rate, the fix is to grant the system permission to use its own microphone, un-granting it first if necessary.

Go to Start / Settings (little gear icon in bottom left) then search for Microphone Privacy Settings. Click the big Change button beneath “Microphone access for this device is on”  at the top of that screen. Change the toggle to “off”, then change it back to “on” again. This fixed my microphone.

 

CLI, Hardware

Using a Bus Pirate to fix Seagate drives

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I wrote these notes almost three years ago but never published them. Since I’ve now referenced them again I’ll publish them albeit in a crude state.

7200.11 BSY bug

I had a need to fix the firmware of a Seagate  7200.11 BSY bug, which involved connecting to the RS232 serial ports on the drive and issuing a few commands to clear SMART data. Details here:

http://www.arvydas.co.uk/2012/07/fixing-a-seagate-7200-11-hard-drive-with-arduino/

http://hackaday.com/2012/07/30/recovering-from-a-seagate-hdd-firmware-bug/

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+BillFarrow/posts/ir1xnfu46TE

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:F1J2P5E3mrIJ:haquesprojects.com/embedded-device-hacking/using-a-bus-pirate-as-a-usb-ttl-serial-converter/+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

http://fillwithcoolblogname.blogspot.com/2011/02/fixing-seagate-720011-bsy-0-lba-fw-bug.html

Using a Bus Pirate:

Find out what device the bus pirate is given:

dmesg | tail

usb 1-1.6.3: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0

Next, add your user to the dialout group (thanks to here for the hint)

usermod -a -G dialout $USER

You may need to log out and log back in after issuing the above command for it to take effect.

Fire up a terminal editor (I used screen after learning about my options from here.)

screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200 8N1

Press Enter and you should be greeted with the Bus Pirate’s HiZ> prompt. Next, enter the following:

1. m – to change the mode
2. 3 – for UART mode
3. 7 – for 38400 bps
4. 1 – for 8 bits of data, no parity control
5. 1 – for 1 stop bit
6. 1 – for Idle 1 receive polarity
7. 2 – for Normal output type

At the “UART>” prompt. Enter “(0)” to show available macros:

UART>(0)
0.Macro menu
1.Transparent bridge
2.Live monitor
3.Bridge with flow control

Now enter “(3)”  (don’t forget the parenthesis – this burned me) to enter bridge mode with flow control and hit “y” at the “Are you sure?” prompt. The terminal will receive input from your device.

UART>(3)
UART bridge
Reset to exit
Are you sure?

Now plug in pins to hard drive. Use this site as a guide for which pins to use. The drive should be upside down to expose the controller board.
BP Gnd (top left) to Gnd on drive (Second pin from the left)
BP MISO (UART RX – bottom right) to TX on drive (far right pin)
BP MOSI (UART TX) to RX on drive (Seconf from the right pin)

I only ended up needing MISO & MOSI, ground wasn’t required.

Un-screw hard drive, add shim to prevent electrical contact

Power on drive

CTRL+Z

/2

(wait 30 seconds)

Z

(un-shim, re-screw hard drive)

U

/1

N1

Power down drive, wait few seconds, power back up

CTRL + Z

m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 (enter)

Clear SMART data

A couple years later I came across some old NAS drives that I wanted to use. I ran a full battery of burn-in tests using badblocks and the drives passed with flying colors. The only problem is they had SMART data saying Reallocated_Sector_Ct was past the threshold. Barely. I decided to roll the dice with these drives anyway given their proven performance currently and over the years.

The problem is FreeNAS will e-mail spam you about that SMART attribute. I couldn’t find a good way to suppress those alerts yet have them alert if that number gets worse, so I decided to cheat and clear all SMART data from those drives, thus getting FreeNAS happy with me yet alerting me if the reallocated sector count increases in the future.

I read a few sources to accomplish this with my bus pirate.

https://blog.zencoffee.org/2011/07/bus-pirate-as-ftdi-cable/

https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33886&start=20&mobile=mobile

https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33886&start=20

Use the same instructions as above for hooking up the bus pirate to the drive’s RS232 ports (to the right of the SATA port.)

Once you’ve serial connected to the drive, it’s three simple commands to clear the SMART data:

CTRL + Z
/1
N1
Hardware, OS

Installing Linux Mint 18.3 with NVIDIA GTX 1070

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I became very frustrated when trying to install the latest Linux Mint on my desktop, which contains an NVIDIA GTX 1070 graphics card. No matter what I tried I couldn’t even get the live CD environment to show up. It would stay at text, and even play the login sound, but no matter what I pressed I couldn’t get anything to come up on the display.

After much digging I came across an Ubuntu forum post which directed me to this manual describing different boot-time options. I had read somewhere that you want nomodeset to be enabled, but that didn’t cut it. Finally after reading the Ubuntu options I found the second half – vga=791

So, to install (and run for the first time before installing NVIDIA drivers) Linux Mint on a machine that has an NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1070, you have to edit the grub startup options (by pressing esc / tab) and append the following to the kernel line:

nomodeset vga=791

Also, if you manually partition the installation, make sure that the /boot partition is EXT2. I had first installed it as EXT4 but ran into strange problems.. restarting and making it EXT2 made those problems go away.