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B2 + B3

How are you using your Bubba Two or Excito B3? Got pictures? Share here!
pcrene
Posts: 305
Joined: 17 May 2008, 15:49

B2 + B3

Post by pcrene »

Image
B3 1T + B-Stor 2T, B2 1T as backup
40 users active....
Opensat4all.Com
Cheeseboy
Posts: 789
Joined: 08 Apr 2007, 12:16

Re: B2 + B3

Post by Cheeseboy »

Wow!
That looks snug. I never dared to stack multiple units tightly together like that, I thought it would ruin the heat dissipation...

Here is a pic of my setup. Notice I have carefully set them apart to avoid overheating.
[picture removed since it is no longer formatted properly in the forum]
I guess I can forget about that and just stack them like you did.

Note that I only brought the Bubba server (mk 1) out for the photo op, It is no longer in use.
I must say that it is the best looking of the 3 though.

Hey Excito, could we please have the old shiny pastel coloured cases back?
I would pay extra to have my B3 look like that...
Last edited by Cheeseboy on 08 Jun 2013, 09:12, edited 1 time in total.
Ubi
Posts: 1549
Joined: 17 Jul 2007, 09:01

Re: B2 + B3

Post by Ubi »

Is this the onset for a bubba pr0n calendar or what :mrgreen: ?
Cheeseboy
Posts: 789
Joined: 08 Apr 2007, 12:16

Re: B2 + B3

Post by Cheeseboy »

Yep, Pr0n!

Here is some live action:
EDIT:
Sorry, it had to go. The motion httpd was not even close to stable enough..
.

Wow, motion works out of the box on b3!
pcrene
Posts: 305
Joined: 17 May 2008, 15:49

Re: B2 + B3

Post by pcrene »

ehhhh what is motion?

always curious to learn.......

Rene
B3 1T + B-Stor 2T, B2 1T as backup
40 users active....
Opensat4all.Com
Cheeseboy
Posts: 789
Joined: 08 Apr 2007, 12:16

Re: B2 + B3

Post by Cheeseboy »

Hi Rene,

Motion is a software package that lets you use a USB webcam (or indeed more complex cameras and video capture devices) to capture video. It will let you capture video by motion control (i.e. only recording when there is motion in the video stream, hence the name), but also do simple things as streaming video from a web cam.
It has a built-in webserver capable of showing streaming video. I only used it to stream very low-resolution video to the forum, but it failed.
I have tried to use this software before on the Bubba 1, but it failed to recognize a web camera.
This is why I was happy to see it working out-of-the-box on B3, even if it failed to stream video over the internet.

Cheers,

Kaasjunge
Clive
Posts: 164
Joined: 07 Mar 2007, 07:15

Re: B2 + B3

Post by Clive »

Cheeseboy wrote:
Note that I only brought the Bubba server (mk 1) out for the photo op, It is no longer in use.
I must say that it is the best looking of the 3 though.

Hey Excito, could we please have the old shiny pastel coloured cases back?
I would pay extra to have my B3 look like that...
I quite agree ! My recently deceased Bubba server is much better looking than my B3. Although my B3 runs alot cooler than my B1, I admit that I ran my B1 with a fan as without it the HD temperature went up to 60C. My B3 runs at a constant 41C without any additional cooling help. But I still prefer the B1 pastel cream colour to the blackblock of metal which is the B3.
Ubi
Posts: 1549
Joined: 17 Jul 2007, 09:01

Re: B2 + B3

Post by Ubi »

Yeah me too, but that's because we're all nerds that drool over construction diagrams. I guess regular people like the B3 look more.
pcrene
Posts: 305
Joined: 17 May 2008, 15:49

Re: B2 + B3

Post by pcrene »

Hello All and Cheeseboy,

The B2 is the backup of the B3 at this moment i am reinstalling it because
iyt prior run with raid and decided not to do that anymore.
A full unit as backup is better.
The heat when both are copying is 55'C and that is much......

Ill try motion with the reserve B2.

Rene
B3 1T + B-Stor 2T, B2 1T as backup
40 users active....
Opensat4all.Com
Cheeseboy
Posts: 789
Joined: 08 Apr 2007, 12:16

Re: B2 + B3

Post by Cheeseboy »

Hi All!

There should be more bubba pr0n here methinks...
I noticed my own picture above has become horribly distorted due to some update or change in the forum software.
You could always right-click the image and "open in new tab" or something.
Or change your settings in the "User Control Panel" -> "Board preferences" tab, and change "My board style" to anything but "prosilver Special edition".

Now here is the current setup (this pic also looks like crap and is cropped on the forum, unless you change "board style, or right-click on it) :
[EDIT1. picture removed since it is no longer formatted properly in the forum]
[EDIT2. I'll try uploading the pic rather than linking to it]
My setup
My setup
infrastructure_small.jpg (54.31 KiB) Viewed 34402 times
1. B3 WiFi
2. SATA port multiplier
3-4. S1 units with 3TB WD Greens
5. Old 3G-dongle that is used to send text messages from the server when it is running on the UPS and there is no network
6. Some switches.

All of this is virtually soundless. No device has a fan in it. The hardest part was to find a quiet Gigabit switch - they tend to make a very annoying hi-pitch noise even if there is no fan in them.

The whole setup with all disks, USB and network gear are supported by the same puny APC Back-UPS CS 350.
The UPS still reports only 14% load, and the system survives for about an hour (could probably do more if I hadn't configured apcupsd with pretty hefty margins).

In comparison my APC Back-UPS CS 650 that supports my desktop computer reports 35% utilization, and it gives up after only about 15 minutes of power-outage. Of course, here I made the margins even larger to give the PC time to save the states of any running virtual machines and then hibernate.

Looking forward to see more pics your own setups!

Cheers!

Cheeseboy
theWebalyst
Posts: 96
Joined: 27 May 2010, 14:53

Re: B2 + B3

Post by theWebalyst »

Bloody hell, how's that for memory... not bad given how many years its been running with a few crc errors and no re-formatting. Capacity? A bit more than 3T! :-)

@Cheeseboy, I like the photo, glad you reinstated it. Looks neat, especially compared to my first computer which was a homebuild (Nascom II) that I put in a cardboard box while at uni, and later graduated into a wooden fruit box (a very old one when fruit was packed in stuff that would make decent furniture!). I made a keyboard housing out of a lawnmower grassbox - actually quite space-age at the time.

I can't bear to part with the thing. It sits in my counselling room with a sheet over it and a large plant on top!

I digress, but you can perhaps appreciate how long my memory has been running without a reboot ;-)

Mark
Cheeseboy
Posts: 789
Joined: 08 Apr 2007, 12:16

Re: B2 + B3

Post by Cheeseboy »

Hehe, I can't wait until we get some kind of electronic equivalent of neurological memory.
Preferably endlessly extendible, editable and indexable.

Nascom 2, heh? You must be older than me...
My first was one of these (just external link to pic this time):
http://jscustom.theoldcomputer.com/imag ... system.jpg
Same period, but this came pre-assembled and was intended for business use. Released in 1977 I think, but I got it much later when it was retired from some company.

My dad had to get transformers to reduce the voltage from 220 to 110. Unfortunately they were too primitive to convert it from 50hz AC to the US standard 60hz, so the result was a constant flickering on the monochrome screen.
There was no sound-card as such, but a tone-generator for the purpose of recording data on magnetic cassette-tapes.
The ingenious programmers of games for this ancient hardware publicized schematics on how to build a build your own converter for the modulated output for the tape-recorder to pre-amp signals that could be put through to an amp/speaker. You could get simple sound effects with the games! Amazing!

I later "upgraded" to a Sinclair Spectrum with the same amount of RAM (48K), no floppies, no line-printer, no Disk Operating System, no word processors or VisiCalc - but with games in colour and proper sound. It cost about 4 times as much as the first system (without monitor).
theWebalyst
Posts: 96
Joined: 27 May 2010, 14:53

Re: B2 + B3

Post by theWebalyst »

Maybe I just started younger than you @cheeseboy ;-)

Yes I remember the Tandy TRS80 and used to go and look at one in the local shop. I built the Nascom in 1977, and immediately set about designing a DMA controller and Floppy Disk interface (because we only had tape storage then too). I laid out and etched the PCBs myself, wrote the code and a DOS from scratch all in hand coded assembly language. And it worked! For my DOS I had to manually keep track of the address on disk (track and sector number for saving a loading) but it worked. Did I mention, it worked!

And it got me my first job with computers (after 18 months designing radar magnetrons) where I was doing the same thing - designing computer systems and components and getting paid for it. Been hooked ever since, though my addiction is now under control and I do see the light of day. 8)

Never had a Spectrum, but had one of the early QLs and wrote and sold my own software for years, first on Nascom, then QL, then PC/Windows. I'm itching to create an Android app for fun and will have time before long, though I'm also being tempted in another direction: carpentry :-)

I love making things!

All a bit off topic - but I hope we'll be forgiven. One day, people will be reminiscing about their first Bubba like this :-)
Mark
Cheeseboy
Posts: 789
Joined: 08 Apr 2007, 12:16

Re: B2 + B3

Post by Cheeseboy »

theWebalyst wrote:Maybe I just started younger than you @cheeseboy
I sincerely hope not. That would give me a serious inferiority complex :-)
theWebalyst wrote:I built the Nascom in 1977, and immediately set about designing a DMA controller and Floppy Disk interface (because we only had tape storage then too). I laid out and etched the PCBs myself, wrote the code and a DOS from scratch all in hand coded assembly language. And it worked! For my DOS I had to manually keep track of the address on disk (track and sector number for saving a loading) but it worked. Did I mention, it worked!
In 1977 I was 6 years old, and had not yet started school. I had already begun to dabble in simple electronics.
I remember having learned to calculate Ohm values of resistors helping me being ahead of the rest of the class in maths.
I had some kind of tool made of stiff paper with three rotating disks inside that translated the colour-codes of the resistors to actual numbers. I etched my first PCB several years later. Actually, calling it a "PCB" is a bit of a misnomer: it was not a "Printed Circuit Board", more like a "Badly Hand-Drawn-With-a-Marker Before Etched" circuit board. And it was all basic analogue electronics like oscillators to generate sounds, or crude AM radio-transmitters using coils and capacitors. Just when I was starting to get interested in building/experimenting with digital electronics I discovered girls and alcohol, so it all came to an abrupt halt.

When it comes to writing software, I had the misfortune of having to learn it all backwards.
I started with a "high-level" language (due to job requirements), and then had to learn how it worked under the hood the hard way.

It is still fun though, for some strange/perverse reason...
All a bit off topic - but I hope we'll be forgiven. One day, people will be reminiscing about their first Bubba like this
I think you will find that this is the correct place for "off-topic". Just look through the history of this particular forum and you will find all kinds of nonsense (some of it written by yours truly) :-)

Cheers,

Cheeseboy
theWebalyst
Posts: 96
Joined: 27 May 2010, 14:53

Re: B2 + B3

Post by theWebalyst »

Well I confess I was aiming at the inferiority complex, but to succeed I'd have to claim a -ve age so I give in. You were ahead of me starting at 6, and I was indeed older so you probably have more time to play and watch what happens before we're all absorbed into an NSA simulation (which I think you said you looked forward to ;-))

My PCB was similar to yours - lots of pen - but also etch resistant tape and transfers which were necessary for such large complex circuits. I also never really got analogue - though I tried and tried - I think my soldering skills let me down. Though I did build and design a still working variable PSU (now occasionally used to charge the car battery!)

Any projects in hand? Aspirations?

Mark
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