Update to Router Table

I’ve updated my router table to give me a horizontal router capability.

In processing the Kitchen cabinets for the Little House in the Village, I found that previous setups to flush trim the edging on the panels was WAY too unwieldy – the panels were just too big to hold steady against even a 4 inch tall fence.  I realized that the surface of my new router table, being 27″ x 42″, gave me a great stable surface to hold the panels.  All I needed to do was attach a router so that its axis was parallel to the table top.

Tada!  Here is the new configuration and it works like a champ!  I could quickly set the cutting depth of the flush cutter to three thicknesses of paper (about 15.5 thousandths) and easily took down the edging to be flush with the plywood panel in just 2 or 3 passes with no tear out and no sanding necessary!!!!

Adding new home server to the Little House in the Village

Well, as we make progress on the Little House in the Village, the time has come to install its Home Server. This sophisticated computing system will monitor various systems throughout the house, provide security monitoring, generate reports that will get posted to the ‘cloud’ so we can access it from anywhere, and provide a webserver that will act as a portal to access the information locally. In evaluating the needs of this system, I decided that it was time to switch over to Linux since I only need server functions and don’t want the overhead and unreliability of a desktop GUI.

So, without further ado, let me introduce the Little House in the Village Webserver:

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The Little House in the Village Home Server

It’s there, really!  See that little clear box in the foreground…

Here’s a closer view…

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View showing the Server and its hard drive.

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Closeup of the top of the Server

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View showing the network and power connections.

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View showing the USB, SD card, and microHDMI connections.

So you think this looks like a toy?  Well, its a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 512MB RAM, 2GB Boot MMC memory, micro-SD slot (where I could put up to 32GB of SD memory), 10/100 Ethernet, USB 2.0 Host & Client connections, and HDMI video output.

Natively it will boot a Linux desktop based on Angstrom without any additional hardware.  I have it set up with a 2GB boot SD Card which boots up an ubuntu Linux Server and then switches over to a 160GB hard drive attached to the USB port.   I currently have it set up with Apache2, MySQL 5.5, PHP 5.1, and WordPress.

I don’t need a local display or keyboard since I can login over the network via ssh.

Here are some various screen shots…

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Logged in, showing the contents of a system directory.

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Showing system stats. Not very busy right now...

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The Little House in the Village Web Portal

Oh, and one other thing.  This little powerhouse consumes about 4 watts (including hard drive) :-)

 

 

First Baby Pictures!

Of the bluebirds, of course.

Bluebird Babies May2013

[img src=https://tomstudwell.com/wordpress/wp-content/flagallery/bluebird-babies-may2013/thumbs/thumbs_img_1393.jpg]2100Mama is getting ready to show off her babies...
Actually, she'd just as soon I leave them alone.
[img src=https://tomstudwell.com/wordpress/wp-content/flagallery/bluebird-babies-may2013/thumbs/thumbs_img_1394.jpg]1760Babies struggling to get a view of their new world.
[img src=https://tomstudwell.com/wordpress/wp-content/flagallery/bluebird-babies-may2013/thumbs/thumbs_img_1395.jpg]1670Almost there...
[img src=https://tomstudwell.com/wordpress/wp-content/flagallery/bluebird-babies-may2013/thumbs/thumbs_img_1396.jpg]1580Ah, stepping on its siblings, one lucky baby gets a view.
Probably pooping on the siblings too if the outside of the box is any indication!
[img src=https://tomstudwell.com/wordpress/wp-content/flagallery/bluebird-babies-may2013/thumbs/thumbs_img_1399.jpg]1540I think they're almost ready to come out.
[img src=https://tomstudwell.com/wordpress/wp-content/flagallery/bluebird-babies-may2013/thumbs/thumbs_img_1400.jpg]1480Won't be too much longer now.
[img src=https://tomstudwell.com/wordpress/wp-content/flagallery/bluebird-babies-may2013/thumbs/thumbs_img_1402.jpg]1440Almost there.
[img src=https://tomstudwell.com/wordpress/wp-content/flagallery/bluebird-babies-may2013/thumbs/thumbs_img_1416.jpg]1440A few more baby steps.
[img src=https://tomstudwell.com/wordpress/wp-content/flagallery/bluebird-babies-may2013/thumbs/thumbs_img_1402c.jpg]1430Meet baby bluebird!
[img src=https://tomstudwell.com/wordpress/wp-content/flagallery/bluebird-babies-may2013/thumbs/thumbs_img_1416c.jpg]1390Meet baby bluebird!

The Bluebirds are really busy now!

Not much more to say, the Bluebird parents are now on a constant shuttle to bring food to the babies.  They are very careful to keep potential interlopers away from the nest, dive bombing squirrels and other birds if they even think about getting close to the nest.

One aspect that I’ve been able to notice from my great viewpoint is that Papa takes care of cleaning out the nest.  I’ve seen him remove shell fragments and, interestingly, he doesn’t just drop them outside the box, but flies away in random directions to, presumably, spread the ‘trash’ in some untraceable way.  Very interesting…

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