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Sunday, February 10, 2013

Good Hardware info App's for Linux

Here's a good Hardware info App for Linux...

Don

HardInfo: System Profiler and Benchmark

System Profiler and Benchmark

HardInfo can gather information about your system's hardware and operating system, perform benchmarks, and generate printable reports either in HTML or in plain text formats.

It can also be easily extended, for developer documentation and full source code (released under GNU GPL version 2) is available.

Getting HardInfo

The most recent version of HardInfo is 0.5.1, which was released on April 6, 2009. See the download page for download options.

See HardInfo Run

You can see a screencast that show HardInfo in action; it is a little outdated, but should give you an idea of how HardInfo works. Alternatively, you may also see some screenshots.

Reporting Bugs

Read More...
http://wiki.hardinfo.org/HomePage

Hardware Lister (lshw)

lshw (Hardware Lister) is a small tool to provide detailed information on the hardware configuration of the machine. It can report exact memory configuration, firmware version, mainboard configuration, CPU version and speed, cache configuration, bus speed, etc. on DMI-capable x86 or EFI (IA-64) systems and on some PowerPC machines (PowerMac G4 is known to work).

Requirements ¶

Linux 2.4.x or 2.6.x (2.2.x might work, though)
a PA-RISC, Alpha, IA-64 (Itanium), PowerPC or x86 based machine
an ANSI (or close enough to ANSI compliance) C++ compiler (tested with GCC 2.95.4 and 3.2.2)
for the (optional) GTK+ graphical user interface, you will need a complete GTK+ 2.4 development environment (gtk2-devel on RedHat/Fedora derivatives)

Information can be output in plain text, XML or HTML.

It currently supports DMI (x86 and EFI only), OpenFirmware device tree (PowerPC only), PCI/AGP, ISA PnP (x86), CPUID (x86), IDE/ATA/ATAPI, PCMCIA (only tested on x86), USB and SCSI.

System: SANE - Scanner Access Now Easy; PPPoE - PPP over Ethernet; FreeType; Speedtouch - USB DSL modem; RDist - file syncronization; synaptic - APT GUI; File Roller - Make/extract file archives; lshw :: HardwareLiSter - ezIX; Wireless Tools for Linux; Sudo; MTR - ping/traceroute tool; Information: ROX Desktop; Ethereal - Network Analyzer; TDFSB - 3D filesystem browser; GRUB - bootloader; XCruiser - 3D filesystem browser; CUPS - Common UNIX Printing System; LPRng - Print server

News 02-10-13: Hack a Day on Fact or Fiction with [Veronical Belmont]; Reflow oven courtesy of hurricane Sandy; Better PWM on the Raspberry Pi; Linux Today - Using xen-tools on Fedora; Using xen-tools on Fedora – blog.xen.org; Linux Today - Ouya Coming in June, and Game Development Ramps Up; Ouya Coming in June, and Game Development Ramps Up; Linux Today - Real Time Interactive IP LAN Monitoring with IPTraf Tool; Real Time Interactive IP LAN Monitoring with IPTraf Tool; BBC News - Curiosity Mars rover takes historic drill sample; iOS 6.1 banned from corporate servers due to Exchange snafu | ZDNet; Create A Countdown Timer Instantly; After Storm, Thousands Remain Stranded - NYTimes.com; HardInfo: System Profiler and Benchmark; ezIX

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Repairing broken plastic parts - YouTube

Here's an interesting Video on How To Repair Broken Plastic Parts using Steel Wire and a Power Supply or Battery Charger. I think this is a great idea. I think that I would change his procedure a bit. I would use longer pieces of wire and twist the ends together. Like you do with Twist Ties. The Plastic Covered ones, that come on your Bread and Electrical Products. You might even use the Plastic coated ones, instead of bare wire. The Plastic might be useful in filling in the gaps, made by the Hot Wire. They may smoke, burn or stink allot during the process, though. Perhaps you could do this, by using two pair of Needle Nose Pliers, to do the trick. If your fast, you could do this while the Wire is heating up. Or you could do your Twisting, after you turn off the Current. You should be able to go ahead and twist the wires while they are connected to the DC Power Source. Since the Wire is already Shorted, by the Leads. There should be no extra unexpected Sparking, happening. But, if you leave the Wire Shorted too long. Then you may melt it into or melt and Cut your Plastic Part right in two.

Watch the Video and you will see what I mean...

Don

Repairing broken plastic parts

Video Link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziPutFi1BlI

I noticed in the Video Comments, one miss conception about how he's doing this. Such as... "How much current are you passing through there? cuz it takes very little to kill someone so yuou should be very careful". He's using DC Current, not AC. 12 Volts DC, from a Power Supply (which I would be worried about blowing it's fuse or it up). I have been working on a 3 to 24 Volts DC Power Supply, made from Computer Power Supplies (PSU's) wired in Series. They are very Delicate, when wired in Series. So, I don't think I would use mine to do this. And 12 Volts from a Battery Charger, wont Shock You. It will make a Scarey Spark, if you touch two leads together. But, he's using Steel Heating Element Wire. Which is Designed to be Directly Shorted. This is how Heating Elements work. The wire is absorbing the Direct Short. So, no Scarey Spark. You could use a DC Welder at a very low Amperage, as well, to hear up your wire. But, too much will just melt it in two.

Here's a Suggestion in the Comments, that I don't quite get his idea on how to do this. It seems to me, that you would just be winding the Wire up even more... Here's the Comment...

"Just for info, you can make a perfectly straight wire by taking a length of it, holding one end in a set of pliers and the other end in a drill chuck. Spin for a few seconds and the tension in the wire will straighten it."

(Now, this part of his comment. Is what I was thinking too)...
"Also, in this case, wouldn't it have been better to encircle the whole plastic part with the wire (of course without shorting it ;-) ) ?"

"Anyway, nice video as ever."

Don

Published on Jan 25, 2013

A neat way to repair and reinforce cracked and broken plastic parts. It doesn't look pretty, but it's strong!
http://woodgears.ca/misc/plastic_repair.html

Category

Howto & Style
License

Standard YouTube License

Repairing Broken Plastic Parts using Steel Wire and a Power Supply or Battery Charger

: Using nichrome wire to repair broken plastic parts; Repairing broken plastic parts - YouTube

Monday, February 4, 2013

How To Make Solder Stencils from Aluminum Cans - DIY metal stencils – a step through - LowPowerLab

Here's an interesting article, on How To Make, DIY solder stencils from Aluminum Cans...

Don

DIY metal stencils – a step through

Posted on January 23, 2013

This is a step through to make your own metal stencils for PCB solder paste application. In the last post I described my trial and error details of picking the materials. I am using beverage can aluminum for the stencil material and transparency film for toner transfer. In the meantime I discovered that many other materials can be used, especially for the toner transfer medium, with various degrees of success. Read the notes at the end for details. This etching method will not produce the highest quality you can get. Laser cut stencils are higher quality but a lot more $$$. For my purposes such a home-made stencil serves me very well, and saves me a TON of time (I can now apply all the solder paste in one wipe instead of using a syringe to hand apply it on all the pads). Solder paste is very forgiving and even the most imperfect stencils I produced this way give good results after reflow. The whole point is to try to apply an approximately even amount of solder paste to the pads, such that during reflow, all your pins will look the same and won't form bridges. Overall I think the cost vs outcome/quality ratio is very good. Once you get the hang of this and develop your own routine and choice of materials, in less than 30 minutes, you can produce a high quality home-made metal stencil (almost comparable to a stainless steel laser cut).