Equipment/Hamming
| Hamming | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Model | VIA EPIA |
| Sub-category | Systems |
| Status | Good working order |
| Consumables | Unknown |
| Accessories | Unknown |
| Training requirement | Unknown |
| Training link | Unknown |
| ACnode | No |
| Owner | LHS |
| Origin | Aden |
| Location | Above the front-door 'space' |
Hamming is an x86-processor based VIA EPIA based system donated by User:Aden. It is old and was once doorbot. It ideally could be replaced with a modern Raspberry Pi 2 or Beaglebone Black.
It is running the daemons for the Notification Board, Orange LED Strip Moving Sign and National Rail clock - these are all connected to a powered USB hub.
It's also connected to some speakers so it can do the doorbot-sounds (historically GLaDOS voices) as well but this has been broken and out of use for a long time.
Hamming has 2 x hard drives in RAID1 - it has had the 'ticking drive sound of death' so this is likely a very good thing.
Useful note for crashes / restarts etc - run
export AUDIODEV=hw:0,0
before rebooting listeners.sh or PulseAudio won't work.
Hamming-Replacement
Yvan was kind enough to purchase a Raspberry Pi 2 as a replacement for Hamming. It is running Ubuntu MATE (a nice prepackaged spin) and we installed almost all of the same packages from Hamming onto Hamming-Replacement.
We're hoping to use a PoE power adapter for remote power management of Hamming-Replacement but retain the powered USB hub for the various serial devices. This will be a much more flexible, power efficient system with less moving parts.
TODO:
- Transition off Mini-PDU switch-on/off scripts for power-conservation (and make the script non-working directory dependent) (will be moved to adminstuff by Jasper, not vital to the running of the space really tho!)
- Copy host ssh keys from hamming to hamming-replacement to prevent auto-login errors
- Verify scripts are working with new RPi2 (Orange LED, etc)
- Verify remote logins work for existing users (copy ssh keys/homedirs)
- If everything is going well, change IP address/hostname of hamming-replacement to hamming (after hamming is set to DHCP as hamming-legacy?)
- Reboot both a couple of times, test out whether the moving signs work as previously intended, and then update all involved (wiki documentation, etc.)
- Wait a period of time after replacement, DBAN the hard drives, and then offer the hardware up for member projects