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Cool Stuff I've Done
Half blog, Half how-to guides, guaranteed no cohesion whatsoever.
(WIP) How to do Com0Com (remote radio station)
(WIP) How to use NanoVNA
How to calibrate and operate the NanoVNA (Vector Network Analyzer)
SAFE interface for Kidde CO/Smoke alarms
How I set up my home's smoke detectors to buzz my phone, with a battery backup
How to update all packages at once on Arch
Pretty straightforward terminal commands, but they need to be done in order to enable a seamless upgrade.
Headless Raspberry Pi Server (plus project guides)
This is a guide on how to do a pi completely headless - no screen or keyboard attached! (requires networking of course)
Install Windows Games on Arch (Steam)
Disk Drive Sanitization
How to safely remove data from various devices
My mobile ham Radio setup
All the radios in my car and how they work with/against each other
Freenas Notes
Notes on non-standard things I've done and hack band-aids that I've patched to keep the ship from sinking
MY Arch install, MY way!
How to install Arch Linux for dummies (me, I'm dummies) I've had to do this too often, so I might as well write it down.
New Server!
Maybe don't keep this open while migrating, dump-ass
Brother WiFi Scanner
Info on how to use the Brother ADS-1700W document scanner.
Requirements
2x Windows PC's (tested up to Windows 10 20H2 (2021 release), at least one with audio I/O. Com0Com and Hub4Com software VPN Software (I use SoftEther VPN for ease of use.) radio with serial (or virtual serial) control VoIP server (TeamSpeak, skype, etc) Vi...
Step 1: Set up VPN
Follow directions of VPN software to create a LAN connection. Windows PC acting as RCForb Server should run the VPN server (or a thrid Windows PC on the same network.) Server and Radio PC's should be able to "ping" each other with VPN active. I Recommend SoftE...
Step 2: set up COM port links & test
To make this easy, do the following setup OFF the VPN, with both PC's actually on the same LAN, and test with the VPN after verifying the setup. Due to the nature of serial ports, only one application/device can be connected to a COM port, which is why COM por...
CH 0: What can the NanoVNA do?
The NanoVNA is a device that can test single port and multi-port RF devices, using two ports: CH0 and CH1. The device emitts RF from CH0, and records the RF amplitude and phase at both CH0 and CH1 ports. RF at CH0 port is reflected power (S11 measurement), and...
CH 1: Set scale/sample rate of graphs
WIP
CH 2: Calibrate
WIP
CH 3: Test!
WIP
The Boards
The goal is to have my phone buzz/get an email when the smoke alarms in the house go off. The alarms I have are Kidde brand, dual smoke and CO detectors. All are wired on the same circuit with A/C power, and have a signal wire tying them together as well. I bo...
The UPS
I figure that, since the alarms have batteries, and my whole home automation system that I made these alarms report to is also on a conventional computer UPS, I decided this system also needs a battery backup. I chose a no-name generic 18650 Lithium cell UPS: ...
The PC interface
The device that interfaces these alarm boards with my server, and my phone, is the Zooz Zen17 Universal Relay. I chose this product specifically to interface with my Z-wave network, a low power short range 900MHz wireless network for home automation. This devi...
Terminal Commands
To Update: Run these commands in order: yay -Syy yay -S archlinux-keyring yay -Syu Note: if you are prompted to add GPG signatures after downloading updated packages in command 3, cancel the upgrade and re-start from the first command! All the downloaded pa...
Install yay
Yay is a direct replacement for Pacman, all the commands do the same thing, except with the added benefit of searching the AUR for package names as well as the normal repositories. Install Commands: sudo pacman -Syy sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel sudo pacm...
Base Headless Pi Setup
This page describes how to get a Pi to a base level headless configuration (ie, SSH & networking enabled, all packages up to date) Minimum sd card size is 4GB WARNING: Old method of Pi SD card setup NO LONGER WORKS! Used to be that you could just write the...
Project 1: GPS-based NTP server
Source: Microsecond accurate NTP with a Raspberry Pi and PPS GPS Info This page describes setting up a GPS module with a Pi to act as a Stratum 1 NTP server. The GPS module I purchased is from the NEO-xM line (6M, 7M, 8M). The board looks similar to this: Thi...
Project 2 [WIP]: Pi-Hole DNS level blocker with sync and recursive DNS
Sources: Craft Computing Video Unbound recursive DNS setup gravity-sync script to sync pi-holes Ultimage Guide on systemd on Raspberry Pi (reference only, nothing in this guide is required to make pi-hole work)
Project 3 [WIP]: Lenny Troll (phone anti-scammer bot)
Sources: https://lennytroll.com/ DIY guide highly recommends U.S. Robotics USR5637 USB Modem Modem Requirements: On-board harware controlled modem, "softmodems"/winmodems not supported. Must have voice capability (TAD/TAM capability) Another modem option...
Guide (works for games and normal Windows programs)
Source: Linux: How to play Diablo II: Resurrected (Open Beta) with Steam (Proton) Install Steam Enable the multilib repository. Install steam with yay -S steam Start steam minimized: add -silent flag to 'Exec' line in ~/.config/autostart/steam.desktop In...
Applies to all: Encryption!
The universal method for securely removing all data from a drive is to encrypt all the data in the first place! Erasing encrypted drives with the "Dumb" method MAY NOT always be complete, however. Encrypted drives need a section of data holding the decryption ...
Dumb but effective: overwrite data (HDD's and some SSD's)
For Spinning disk drives, and SSD's that don't support secure erase/sanitize commands, the only other option is to manually overwrite all the data on the drive. Why this is the least secure method of erasure: HDD's and SSD's self-manage bad sectors/blocks. Whe...
SATA SSD's: ATA Secure Erase
MOST SATA-based SSD's support some type of secure-erase. This is a much faster and more effective method of erasing data than the one as described in Dumb but Effective. Instead of overwriting with pseudorandom data at the OS level, which may leave some bad b...