Tuesday, 25 January 2011

1 Wire Networks Part2 (goodbye T1010)

OK, so it's been a while but I've been having fun.
After trying for some time to get Fuse to work on the T1010 thin client, I gave up. The Fuse module refused to work with the pre-compiled Kernel and the re-compiled Kernel refused to boot. Fail!
So, what to do?
The answer was easy but a little expensive, linitx.com sell PCEngines boards so I went there and bought an Alix 1D mini ITX board. Check the linitx site for specs. I already use an Alix2C1 as a firewall running m0n0wall which, apart from firmware upgrades, has been running 24/7 for nearly 3 years with no problems.

The install took next to no time using the Debian 5.07 netinstall CD, see www.debian.org for details, and the rest of the configuration took a few days of head scratching. I write lots of notes and refer to google otherwise I would be stuffed. I now have OWFS (which needs Fuse), NTP and the Blitzortung tracker running with no problems. The old T1010 did most of this anyway. I have also switched the 2x40 LCD from the T1010 so I have LCDproc running on the Alix.

The 1 wire network has sensors from Hobby Boards and ones I have cobbled together myself. My favourite has to be the LCD driver from Hobby Boards. This allows an OWFS based system to write information to an LCD display over the 1 wire network, the reason for wanting to play with OWFS in the first place. Using a few bits of script I now have a display of all 1 wire sensor readings without the need for Digitemp or an SSH session into the Alix.
I could post my scripts here but instead, see the links below, there should be sufficient information there. Or leave a comment and I will post more.
It's a bit sad to not be using the T1010 any more, I will have to find another use for it. Perhaps I will try to get the sound working and use it as an internet radio. But that's a project for another day.

Script Links
See post number 5 here: http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7632
Check the forum post here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/owfs/forums/forum/292717/topic/4019366

To change names in OWFS see here: http://owfs.org/index.php?page=aliases