

Constructing A Low-Power 2U Wireless Rack-Box 127
adelayde writes "Recently we decided to build ourselves a custom rack-mountable box that we could use as a web and DNS caching proxy and which would offer flexible wireless networking facilities and have an uniterruptible power supply. The result was a 2U rack-box with dual wireless networks built upon a low-power Via EPIA MiniITX motherboard. The box has two wireless networks built in with external antenna connectors, locking switches on the front to avoid tampering, a battery to give at least 20 mins of autonomous operation, a low wattage power supply and most importantly lots of blue LEDs :)"
ooh, impressive =) (Score:2, Interesting)
2. Profit
No ??? needed!
Seriously...
Re:ooh, impressive =) (Score:2)
Re:ooh, impressive =) (Score:2, Funny)
Yay LEDs (Score:3, Funny)
Oh yeah, and I already can't reach the site. *laugh*
Re:Yay LEDs (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Yay LEDs (Score:4, Funny)
"Lessons learned:
Blue LEDs are strangely attractive to technical people"
So true...
Asking for a /. (Score:5, Funny)
Let's see how long she lasts ...
Re:Asking for a /. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Asking for a /. (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.archive.org/web/freecache.php
http://www.archive.org/about/faqs.php
Freecache only stores files > 5 megs, and ONLY stores what you tell it to. Linking freecache-style to an index page will only cache that index (IF it's >5megs), not the whole site.
What is it with all the useless freecache links lately?
Re:Asking for a /. (Score:2)
Perhaps Freecache is unexpectedly useless.
Re:Asking for a /.? (Score:4, Informative)
http://hackish.org/~rufus/flakey.info/plinth/ [hackish.org]
Ummm... Priorities? (Score:5, Informative)
You may have meant that as a joke, but blue LEDs suck quite a lot more power than red or green ones.
When you care about power consumption, rather than coolness, come back and ask again.
Re:Ummm... Priorities? (Score:5, Informative)
Red: 3700cd/m2
Green: 40900cd/m2
Yellow: 15500cd/m2
White: 29650cd/m2
Blue: 4480cd/m2
Blue being quite a lot less bright, though somehow strangely alluring and the power consumption I think the same.
In the end even if they do draw a little more, surely it's not that much compared with the draw of the other components? The wireless cards for example seem to draw quite a lot. As what we were looking for was autonomy in the event of a brown-out (or someone tripping over the extension cable), the battery did the job and I don't think having a blue LED or two adversly affected things.
The comment was a bit of humour on as usual a rather dry subject.
Re:Ummm... Priorities? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Ummm... Priorities? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Ummm... Priorities? (Score:1, Interesting)
Wrong... (Score:1)
Re:Ummm... Priorities? (Score:5, Informative)
First of all, the human eye isn't the most sentitive to blue light, it much more sentitive to green. You can see the human eye's response curve here [gsu.edu] and a breakdown of color vs wavelength [gsu.edu].
Secondly, the lumen or candela rating already takes this into account. At the peak of photopic vision, 555 nm (green), there are 683 lumens per watt. If you had one watt of blue light, it would only be about 100 lumens, because the human eye is less sensitive to that wavelength.
In other words, one watt of green light appears brighter than one watt of blue light, because humans are more sensitive to that color. One lumen of green light is just as bright as one lumen on blue light, because the lumen measurement takes this into account. That's the whole point of lumens, they are watts times luminous efficacy for human vision.
Re:Ummm... Priorities? (Score:1)
Re:Ummm... Priorities? (Score:1)
Re:Ummm... Priorities? (Score:2)
The "cd" measurement is attuned to the spectral response of the human eye. If the output of the LEDs were radiometrically measured it would give a better inidication of how much overall emission is there. In general though, if you have three equally emissive light sources, one each of
Re:Ummm... Priorities? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Ummm... Priorities? (Score:1)
Re:Ummm... Priorities? (Score:4, Funny)
Come on. The CPU draws 30+ times as much power as those blue LEDs.
Re:Ummm... Priorities? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Ummm... Priorities? (Score:2)
Nope. But if one has the goal of the most energy-efficient system possible, using less than optimal parts for no reason other than "coolness" seems particularly unwise.
For a comparison (and to demonstrate my point, since two responders called me just plain wrong), a typical red LED has a peak current draw of 30ma, with the minimum continuous activity draw of only 2-3ma. A typical blue LED peaks at 50ma (not that
Re:Ummm... Priorities? (Score:1)
In other words, there are factors other than power consumption. The builder of the machine decided to use parts that suited his/her needs and desires. Why the hell do you care?
Re:Ummm... Priorities? (Score:2)
Try getting the high frequency CFs... Regular fluorescents bother me as well, and the HF ones do not. But anyway...
The builder of the machine decided to use parts that suited his needs and desires. Why the hell do you care?
I coundn't care less if he wanted to use a live yak as the case to this machine (actually, that sounds like a neat idea, IMO). But the FP post has the title "Constructing A Low-Power 2U Wireless Rack-Box",
Damn Blue LEDs (Score:1, Redundant)
(I was going to post a link to an article/long thread where a bunch of people bitched about blue LEDs, but I can't find it at the moment... Damn.)
Mirror linked on page (Score:4, Informative)
Re:insufficient! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:insufficient! (Score:1)
Re:insufficient! (Score:2)
Re:insufficient! (Score:4, Informative)
Then they used a LM317 linear regulator to provide 7V from 12V for the wireless bridge. The bridge's power supply was rated for 1.4 amps. A 5V drop over 1.4 amps is 7 Watts wasted as heat. Not impressive in something that's supposed to be low power. With their 20 DegC/watt heatsink, that is a 140 deg C temp rise from ambient to the TO-220 case. Easily out of spec. The wireless bridge surely doesn't draw the full 1.4A in operation, that's what saves them from their regulator melting.
They probably should have seen if their bridge would have run from the 5V line or if the bridge's power supply could handle 12V. They probably didn't even need the 7V regulator.
If they did need one, it would have been much better to use a switching regulator that would be around 95% efficient instead of their 58% efficient linear regulator. TI powertrends makes integrated switching regulator modules that would work perfectly. I used one for to power a digital camera off a 12V deep cycle battery so it could take photos on a timer for several days straight.
I also have to wonder why they used locking switches instead of just getting a case with a locking front panel. I've got a rack of such 2U cases at work, they're not hard to come by.
The switch from the 2nd hard drive's power was unecessary too, you can turn the drive off with software.
Re:insufficient! (Score:1, Informative)
While that can work for a while on the test bench, it only takes a modest power line ripple or age stress to make a system that is running that far off its designated voltage fail intermittently, or permanently. It's much safer to wire in the linear supply: also, in some cases, adding a bit of load on your primary p
LMxxx (Score:2)
Would you like to explain that?? (Score:5, Informative)
If you are referring to the capacitor voltage ratings, the only requirement there is that the voltage rating of the cap be more than the voltage actually applied to it. For example a 35 volt cap is just fine with 6 volts across it. It could even be a 1,000 volt rated cap with no ill effects.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
Re:Would you like to explain that?? (Score:1)
Heatsinking... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Heatsinking... (Score:1)
Switching is a lot easier today than back... (Score:3, Informative)
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark
Re:Ey (Score:1, Funny)
sexist computing (Score:4, Funny)
"Hey, Nice Rack!!"
Re:sexist computing (Score:4, Funny)
mini-itx performance (Score:2, Interesting)
I've been toying with the idea of making a HTPC-ish box, but the performance questions stop me from buying anything.
Re:mini-itx performance (Score:5, Interesting)
Also I believe the new VIA's have a special chip on them to help with the decoding, so you should be good there.
If you can live with only 2 PCI cards, go for it (You can always use USB Tuners as well). They do make very quiet systems.
A lot of people will use them as clients and have a server with the actual tuners in them though. Just another idea to toss out there.
2u = 2 much (Score:5, Interesting)
That being said, they could have simply used an ultraportable laptop with the screen unplugged and unnecessary parts removed/disabled.
You'd be amazed as to how little there really is inside a laptop. Think about it -- the drives and batteries take up about 75% of the chasis. Leave about another 10% for the power supply and heatsinking, and you've got a REALLY small PCB.
If space, not power, was their main concern, they could have also used one of the Shuttle cube boxes. They pack an incredibly strong punch for their size, and are usually on par with their desktop equivilants. Hell... they've even got an opteron box. The performance on the EPIA boards is horrific. What were they thinking designing a processor without a FPU? That being said, they're pretty cool because they're small, low-power, and widely availible (which laptop MBs strangely aren't). Still, they're pretty expensive considering that you're getting a PC which would have been considered pretty slow 4 years ago.
Re:2u = 2 much (Score:5, Insightful)
Smaller is not necessarily better (Score:4, Insightful)
He may have built this for remote locations
or heat filled rooms/closets. In those cases
you want decent space and decent airflow INSIDE
the box.
Laptops have neither, and tend to suffer heat
related problems easily enough.
Its good already that he went low power and
low thermal, and put it in a good solid spacious
chassis.
If dollars were a concern, going down to 1U
isn't bad, but no further for real applications.
Re:2u = 2 much (Score:1)
Re:2u = cheaper than 1U (Score:4, Interesting)
Most of their projects are of the "cheap and green" variety. They have built pedal powered repeaters, solar powered satellite receivers and the like.
I'm a bit appalled by their lack of engineering knowlege on some of their projects. But I do admire their "slap it together cheap" attitude. They are not building reliable, production level kit, they are tweaking items they found in the spare parts bin and making useful one-off projects.
the AC
Re:2u = 2 much (Score:2)
Mirror (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Mirror (Score:1)
Nice but ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Nice but ... (Score:3, Interesting)
My next purchase (Score:1)
Re:My next purchase (Score:2)
Hrmmm (Score:4, Interesting)
Sure, they integrated a wireless bridge into it, but with all that room, it doesn't look like anything special... So where's the nifty part that makes this thing "News For Nerds"?
Re:Hrmmm (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Hrmmm (Score:1, Insightful)
Sure, he integrated a comment about "News For Nerds" into it, but for such a short post, it doesn't look like anything special... So where's the nifty part that makes this thing "(Score:4, Interesting)"?
Re:Hrmmm (Score:2)
Ummmmm ... well, I guess they did build a neat breadboard for the power here.
I actually found that to be the single most technical thing in here. The importance or uniqueness here is lost on me, too, I must admit. :-|
I get the impression, too, that by the time all is said and done, they may well have actually saved some money in going with a BTO or COTS system instead of rolling their own. I know, that'd have not been nerdish enough for us, but still - to spend good money and come out with something tha
My 8 steps to building the same in less space. (Score:5, Funny)
2. Find and buy cheap notebook.
3. Get into argument with seller over shipping.
4. Wait for notebook to arive.
5. Pick up hammer.
6. Open notebook.
7. Hit notebook screen with hammer until it comes off.
8. Stick some WiFi cards in notebook and put it on shelf.
Mirror, and.. neat project! (Score:2)
Maybe they can hook up with the Huge Ass WiFi Backpack Guy from the other day?
Soekris (Score:2, Insightful)
Link: Soekris [soekris.com]
CPU (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:CPU (Score:1)
Re:Soekris (Score:1)
http://metrix.net/ [metrix.net]
"Low power"??? (Score:4, Informative)
I'm curious as to what their definition of "low power" is. Low, compared to a power-sucking P4 or Athlon, maybe, but probably not very low by low power standards.
I've just set up a similar system as an home file server (no wireless, though, and I've added a cheap DVDROM drive), and my box is sucking up around 55-60W, idle. That's measured via an actual wattmeter connected to the power cord, and not by multiplying V*A.
On second thought, maybe a soekris board and a 2.5" disk drive might have been a better solution (less RAM and CPU, which would probably be fine for an home fileserver, but the power usage would probably be in the 10-20W range).
Re:"Low power"??? (Score:1)
My ISP (http://www.aa.nu - amazing company...don't all run at once...) offers a racked EPIA 10000 with 250Gb storage and 512MB Ram on a 1Gb switch for ukp50 per month with service terms of a monthly 95th percentile of 1Mb/s per 1U. (I said DON'T all run at once...)
You have to buy the hardware from them for ukp500 + VAT but that is pretty much the going rate anyway...
I'm tempted as hell but i need to know if it will be able to cope with my Postfix/Amavi
Stress testing? (Score:2, Funny)
UPS battery naked ? (Score:3, Informative)
if that thing explodes in your rack you can throw away the hard drive, maybe the mainboard and wireless bridge
so far for a rendundant/autonome system
although a beowolf cluster of blue leds? hmmmmz...
Putting theory into practice (Score:2)
For those of you interested in applying this sort of thing in the real world, we'll be taking this box out into the field along with the rest of our kit in a couple of weeks in an event taking place simultaneously in Tarifa, Spain and Tangiers, Morocco, as well as elsewhere in the world.
Transacciones / Fadaiat [radiovague.com]
Shallow rack? (Score:2)
Re:Shallow rack? (Score:1)
thanks, i'll be here all week.
Previous /. article on homemade racks.. (Score:2, Interesting)
What about just using a used/refurb Xserve (Score:2)
* You can reduce the power consumption in the same way (hard drives etc)
* They are quite powerful
One thing I didn't understand
For the $1250 that this thing cost to build you could have a much better tested and reliable system. The thing with "homebrews" is
Re:What about just using a used/refurb Xserve (Score:2)
It's a shame that Bugs Bunny sold out to AOL.
nice but... (Score:2)
Re:nice but... (Score:2)
For a good idea of the sort of thing we do with this sort of thing, check out http://psand.net/itrike/ [psand.net].
In short two wireless networks are normally adequate, we use other APs in different locations as repeaters etc. Also this is to mount in a flight case or mobile vehicle, not a server room.
Suggestions (Score:2)
Also why use a switch for a hard drive? Just use hdparm to turn it on and off; I doubt the electronics on the drive take a lot of power in "sleep" mode. Besides, powering it on with a switch might be able to cause transient pulses that could be harmful to the IDE controller, may
Flash instead of a hard drive (Score:2)
Re:As usual, the s/n ratio sucks (Score:1, Interesting)
Too bad it wasn't yours.
I know this is going to be modded as flamebait, and I'm not trying to be insulting, but maybe instead of criticizing things, you should help improve things by posting something truly worthy of "Insightful"?
Re:What OS? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:rack mount wireless (Score:2)
read first, comment afterwards.
MOD THIS UP (Score:2)