Blog

Posted on

Exchange 2016 – ECP ERROR 500 – OWA Working Fine!

As an IT professional for over 20 years I have run into a lot of strange errors in my time. I also have an extensive home “production” lab so I can stay up to date on changes in tech and its fun! Recently I installed Exchange 2016 in a Hyper-V virtual machine. It was a simple migration from 2013. I was in the process of decommissioning an older Hyper-V host. Some of my guest vm’s were migrated while others were built from scratch.

I had  completed my migration and Exchange, OWA, & ECP were working just fine. About a month later I tried to access the ECP and was greeted with a 500 Error!

Tracking Down The Error

Continue reading “Exchange 2016 – ECP ERROR 500 – OWA Working Fine!”

Posted on

Cooling your Motioneye Pi Zero Security Camera

Welcome to part two of my post. Previously I spoke about building a security system using a Raspberry Pi Zero and MotioneyeOS. (Read Here) I built and installed the system in February and it was working great.  I even caught some Ass-Hat driving over my lawn and trash (Read Here). I ran into one issue with this system. Once Summer was here and the outside temperatures hit 90° (32°c) The processor temperature of the Pi Zero was topping 161° (72°C) and lack of cooling was causing my Pi Zeros to crash

According to the Raspberry Pi foundation the boards are specked to approach 80°C but mine were failing in the mid 70’s. So now to work on a solution.

How to cool your outdoor Motioneye camera

My first attempt was an obvious one – Paint the camera white.
The waterproof boxes I was using to house the camera had a clear cover. To reduce the amount of sunlight, I simply painted the box white

Painting the box was helpful and kept the system cooler , but it still wasn’t enough.  The next step was to vent the box simply by drilling a few small holes at the bottom. I know this compromises my “waterproof” concept, but I am hedging my bets if any rain water was to enter the box, it would remain at the bottom and not touch the electronics.

Still not good enough! I want to add a fan, but I only want the fan to run when the CPU hits a specific temperature. There is no need to run the fan on cool nights or during the winter. So I decided to use the GPIO pins on the PI Zero to control the fan.

Controlling the cooling fan via GPIO pins

Parts List

  • 5 Volt cooling fan
  • 1 NPN Transistor
  • 1 1KΩ Resistor (or equivalent)
  • Small breadboard
  • Soldering iron / solder
How to assemble

Its probably not a good idea to connect a fan directly to one of the GPIO pins, so I used a simple transistor and resistor to help limit the current being drawn via the pin

Continue reading “Cooling your Motioneye Pi Zero Security Camera”

Posted on

Motioneye Raspberry Pi Zero Security System

Camera systems are so inexpensive these days that it may make sense to purchase a Zmodo or Arlo system from Amazon and call it a day. What fun would that be? I love making little electronic projects and then improving on them as I go. Rather than install a pre-packaged surveillance system, motioneye here we come.

My system consists of four Raspberry Pi units running MotioneyeOS. Three of the four units are Pi Zeros that are my actual cameras, and the fourth is a Pi 3 that aggregates the feeds to one central monitoring station. The benefit of this is there is only one IP/domain that needs to be accessed in order to monitor all the cameras on my system. Continue reading “Motioneye Raspberry Pi Zero Security System”

Posted on

Easy Nginx Reverse Proxy

I’m a network engineer by trade and like many of us enjoy having an extensive home lab where I can run servers, learn and experiment in my free time. Not only do I find it very satisfying to build a “production” infrastructure at home, but it also helps me with my day-to-day work at my real job. A few years back I started converting my home lab to Hyper-V. I found a visualized environment easier to manage, plus I was able to work on various technologies without running multiple pieces of hardware (think electric bill)

Residential Internet Service = ONE IP ADDRESS

The only issue was talking to all my various projects from outside the network. I have residential internet service and am only allowed ONE IP address. This causes issues running services on separate internal servers on the same port and trying to reach them from the internet.

Continue reading “Easy Nginx Reverse Proxy”

Posted on

Woodbridge Wolfpack – Mini Golf Fundraiser

Wolfpack 2nd Annual Mini Golf Fundraiser
Saturday August 18th, 2018
Begins at 10:00 AM
Woodbridge Community Center
600 Main Street
Woodbridge, NJ 07095

This year Woodbridge Wolfpack will be hosting its second annual mini golf fundraiser on August 18th beginning at 10:00am. The golf course is located in the rear of the complex behind the ice skating rink.

Golfers will participate in a round of golf and all golfers are invited to stay for our barbecue afterwards. Food and non-alcoholic beverages are included in your registration fee.

SPONSORS NEEDED!

  • Single Hole Sponsorship – $250
    Sponsor a single hole for the golf outing. Your company name will appear on a hole for the day.
  • Double Hole Sponsorship – $400
    Sponsor two holes for the golf outing. Your company name will appear on two holes through the course.
  • Outing GOLD Sponsorship – $500
    Your company name will appear on signage welcoming golfers to the outing. Plus it will also be displayed throughout the course

    Just want to play golf and enjoy the BBQ
  • Golf and BBQ (Single Player) – $30.00
    This is for individuals who are interested in golfing and enjoying our BBQ following your round of golf.
  • Golf and BBQ (Foursome) – $100.00
    This is for groups of four golfers and our BBQ is included afterwards.
FOR MORE INFORMATION Please contact:

Coach Charlie Crispino – goal6009@gmail.com
or
Team Manager Joe Oliveri – joe@joeoliveri.com

if you are interested in sponsoring this event!

Proceeds will DIRECTLY BENEFIT the teams to help cover tournament travel costs and other expenses.

If you are unable to sponsor or attend the event, please post links on social media and invite your friends and family!

Link to this post – http://bit.ly/wolfpackgolf17

Thank you for reading my blog,
Joe

Don’t get lost on your way to the rink!

 

Posted on

Serafim Keybo – For Fathers Day!

Every year I try to pick out that unique Fathers Day gift that your Dad can use and probably will find interesting and fun. Lord knows Dad has plenty of aftershave, cologne, and wine. This year I am recommending the Serafim Keybo.

Projection Keyboard & Piano.. Tell me more..

A few moths ago I published a post, Don’t Throwaway That Old iMac Keyboard – Use It On Your Tablet. Since then I have been using my classic iMac Keyboard on my Samsung Galaxy Tablet and it has been working great. The only issue is I keep the tablet on my kitchen table and sometimes the keyboard gets in the way. I have become accustomed to using a keyboard on my tablet and was thinking there must be a better way. Continue reading “Serafim Keybo – For Fathers Day!”

Posted on

Today’s SUV Just The Hatchback of 1980?

The world has gone crazy for the SUV sport utility vehicle, and car manufactures are happy to churn them out by the millions. The only problem with true SUVs is their fuel economy. The SUV has been around since the 1970s but didn’t really catch on until the late 1980s early 90s. Ford and General motors had a great idea, lets cover the back of one of our light pickup trucks and the SUV was born!

The Early Days

In the early years the Chevrolet Blazer and Ford Bronco ruled the SUV market, but as time went on these trucks got a bad wrap. They were extremely inefficient and as we became a more earth “friendly” society the rest of the world shunned their noses at the “fat” Americans with their stupid SUVs.

Fast Forward 20 years

When we look at the SUV market today more then half of the units sold are compact crossover SUV’s. The crosover is simply a tall car. Its based on  a car design, rides more like a car and its efficiency is similar to a car. So my question is whats the point?

Hatchback vs Crossover SUV

Continue reading “Today’s SUV Just The Hatchback of 1980?”

Posted on

Weekend Project – Clean The Echo GT-2000 Exhaust Port.

I purchased my Echo GT-2000 trimmer almost 18 years ago and it has served me well. I’m usually if it ain’t broke don’t fix it kind of guy and haven’t done any maintenance on my GT-2000 ever. For the last 18 years its been pull the cord and start on the first try! That is until this season. I was able to get the trimmer running but it would stall the instant I would throttle it up.

Thinking to myself this is the end for the GT-2000, I actually started to look for a replacement. I looked  in Lowes and Home Depot but they weren’t selling the Echo brand. I decided to take a chance on fixing the unit and began looking for possible causes.

The Exhaust Was Oily and Black

Continue reading “Weekend Project – Clean The Echo GT-2000 Exhaust Port.”

Posted on

Emerald Green Mason Jar Night Light!

I have been making mason jar night lights for at least 10 years. I try to make them in various colors and styles. In addition to my Sun & Moon, Red, Green, White, Purple and Flickering Candle I have now added Emerald Green!

I know LED’s can be programmed for any color of the rainbow, however there is still something special about the standard 5mm led. I enjoy finding unique colors and adding them to my creations.

These emerald green buggers are truly a special color. Just look at the image below that shows the contrast between the emerald green and standard led.

Emerald Green Mason Jar Night Light

Continue reading “Emerald Green Mason Jar Night Light!”

Proudly powered by WordPress