PresencePi

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Published: 01 August 2020

Due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemie, we had to implement a hygiene plan before re-opening our boulder gym "Kletterthalia".

One part of this plan was to track the number of people in the room and display a chart on our website to let people know if it is worth to take a trip to the gym or not because it is full.

To aid the teller, I build a laser sensor barrier which tracks "objects" entering and leaving the room. Because these numbers can never be 100% accurate, we implemented a function to adjust the number in the tellers management software.

The laser sensor barrier was built using:

The code for my "PresencePi" alongside with some examples can be found on GitHub

SensorPush API - Save samples to InfluxDB

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Published: 27 July 2019

SensorPush recently introduced a API to query the temperature and humidity samples recorded by their smart sensors via G1 WIFI GATEWAY

 I wrote a little Python (3) tool to query the API and save the temperature and humidity time series to InfluxDB so it can be easily plotted with Grafana.

If you don't have an G1 WIFI Gateway and still want to plot your temperature, you can us another little tool I wrote to feed the CSV file which you can export via the Android App to InfluxDB.

The latest version can be found on GitHub: https://github.com/bolausson/SensorPush

SensorPush Grafan InfluxDB

SensorPush SensorSensorPush G1 WiFi Gateway

 

Azure - Fritz!Box: Site-to-Site VPN connection

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Published: 23 May 2018

If you do own a FRITZ!Box, it is fairly simple to setup a Site-to-Site VPN connection to your Azure virtual network.
This article will walk you through all steps using the GUI (2018.05.23)

By the way, you might want to change the default FRITZ!Box subnet (192.168.178.0/24) to something else e.g. (192.168.111.0/24), otherwise this tutorial might not work as your FRITZ!Box will prevent some required changes.

 

 

First Step: Create a "Virtual Network"

Create a "Virtual Network" in Azure with an address space of e.g. 10.3.0.0/16 and a default subnet of e.g. 10.3.0.0/24 which must not overlap with your network at home (e.g. 10.0.0.0/24).
Lets name the VNET "A2H-VNET" and the default Subnet "A2H-Default-Subnet"

Within this VNET, create another subnet, a "Gateway subnet". Again, this must not overlap with your home network or the default subnet "A2H-Default-Subnet". Since we only need this subnet to hold "Virtual Network Gateway" IP, we can use a e.g. 29 subnet. Something like this: 10.3.1.0/29

Once this has been created, the VNET "A2H-VNET" should look similar to this:

View after adding the "Virtual Network" Azure VNET with two subnets

Read more: Azure - Fritz!Box: Site-to-Site VPN connection

Pi-hole and DB-Navigator App

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Published: 29 January 2018

DB Navigator AppI just tried to book a train ticket via the DB Navigator app on an Android mobile from within my home network wich is using Pi-hole as DNS server to block advertising.

Picking the connection works fine, but once you try to book a ticket, you will get a warning unless you whitelist the following domains:

  • dpm.demdex.net
  • m.exactag.com
  • tags.tiqcdn.com
  • track.adform.net

(Maybe one can get away with a subset of those)

Demdex seems to be a Adobe service called "Adobe Audience Manager":

It’s a data management platform (DMP) that helps you build unique audience profiles so you can identify your most valuable segments and use them across any digital channel.

(https://www.adobe.com/data-analytics-cloud/audience-manager.html)

Exatag describes itself as:

Exactag combines classic marketing mix modeling and digital marketing attribution to create a revolutionary new cross-media approach: marketing mix attribution.
The result is a comprehensive platform for increasing efficiency across all digital and analogue marketing activities.

(https://www.exactag.com/en/)

Tiqcdn domain seems to belong to Tealium:

Tealium is a US American company [...] that sells enterprise tag management and marketing software.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tealium&oldid=807343845)

Adform is described as:

Adform is a global digital media advertising technology company. Based in Copenhagen, Denmark the company operates globally with its primary presence concentrated in the European, UK, and US markets. The company was the first pan-European DSP (Demand-side platform) [...]

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adform&oldid=817305135)

 

Good to know you are always on the right  being "tracked" using the DB-Navigator app...

Intel Core i7-6700K bent by CPU cooler "be quiet! DARK ROCK PRO 3"

Details
Published: 01 December 2017

My PC stopped working from out of sudden. No BIOS, no BEEP, nothing.

After checking all components OK, the last piece of the puzzle had to be the CPU (Intel Core i7-6700K) so I ordered a new mainboard and a new CPU.

The new mainboard + CPU arrived, have been installed and everything is working fine again.

Having the CPU laying around on my desk, I played around with it, and noticed, that the substrate looked somehow bent. I compared it to the CPU socket and the "dents" in the substrate perfectly match some plastic spacers of the socket 1151.

Searching for "Skylake bent" on the internet, brought my attention to this site: Skylake: Kühler können Sockel-1151-CPUs beschädigen

 I suspect that the cooler (be quiet! - DARK ROCK PRO 3) bent the substrate of the CPU over the course of 2 years until it failed.

The components involved:

  • CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K
  • Mainboard: ASUS Z170-A
  • Cooler: be quite! DARK ROCK PRO 3
  • Case: be quiet! Silent Base 800

The PC was assembled by me in October 2015 and broke down in November 2017. It was never moved, transported or physically abused (which would explain such a deformation).

Be aware of this issue if you use a heavy CPU cooler like the be quiet! DARK ROCK PRO 3. I will try to reach out to be quite! to see if there have been reports of those kind of incident.