Roomberry Project v.4

Coming off of the holiday weekend, we felt pretty good about last week’s success’. We were able to setup our hard-line serial tether on a test board, as well as set it up on a more permanent prototype board. However, a few issues occurred with our permanent version. After we put together the first board, we were running voltage measurements and were getting fairly strange numbers out of our 78L05 voltage regulator. Rather than getting a steady 5v out, we were only achieving around 2.25-2.3. After deciding to scrap that board and move on to a new version, we overcame the voltage issues, but ran into another problem with a faulty MAX232 transceiver chip. Over the weekend we will work to fix that issue in hopes to come back Monday with a completed serial tether.

In the mean time, Owen was able to make significant progress on our IR line-reading array. Our obstacle to work around line reading in the data center is that we do not want obvious lines of electrical tape or like objects running over the large gray tiles. We were able to fabricate up a better solution and we hope to improve on it while working towards our serial tether. Lastly, we also made great progress on setting up our QR code reader using a Pi NOIR camera. In partnership with an IR LED, this camera should be able to pick up QR codes of relatively small sizes, and relay the info to our bot, causing it to go in whichever direction it needs to be going.

Next week we plan on having our serial tether working, and in turn, will be able to get our roomba following lines in an attempt to setup a mock version of our data center path.

Roomberry Project v.3

Coming off of the rather disappointing results from last week in trying to get a serial connection set up between the Roomba and the Raspberry Pi, we have been able to make loads of progress. Jim made some great headway on getting a hard-line serial tether set up. We were able to successfully tether the Roomba to a laptop as well as a Raspberry Pi and communicate back and forth between them. Right now he is working on getting the circuit into a permanent state so we can start focusing our efforts on getting a working prototype. On Wednesday, we came up with a list of the next couple of goals that we need to reach.

The first and most important goal moving ahead is to figure out where all of our sensors and circuits will be sitting within/on the platform. The solution we came up with was to 3D print a redesigned vacuum tray that will be able to hold the Raspberry Pi, the serial hard-line, and batteries all in one place. Unfortunately, the estimated print time for our tray is slightly over eight hours, so prototyping and experimenting with various designs will be a slow process. However, once we get all of the hardware in a close to finalized place, the software work will go a lot smoother.

One of the last major software hurdles will be getting all of the pieces of the platform to start communicating with each other. Luckily, all this downtime in waiting for parts and having an unreliable tether to the ‘brain’ of the Roomba has given me plenty of time to experiment with the other sensors and parts. I have been able to transfer the IR line reader and DHT22 sensor back onto the Pi with relatively no issues. Right now, the state of the software is that I have everything working, but only by itself. I have a Python script for the IR sensor, a different one for the DHT22, etc.

Next week I’ll be working on combining all of these separate parts while Jim does the same, but on the hardware side of things.

Roomberry Project v.2

This past week had major ups in downs in terms of our project’s completion. We had setup a proper serial port connection in order to communicate with the Roomba via Pi, however early in the week we ran into some hurdles and could no longer communicate with the Roomba. Numerous attempts were made to solve this issue not only by us, but by fellow co-workers as well, but to no avail. Early next week we will attempt to make a hard-line serial connection from laptop to Roomba in a better attempt to solve the issue. With the lack of the Roomba platform we were still able to setup some of the other major parameters of the project. We have successfully setup a digital IR line reading device on a separate platform, as well as a DHT22 temperature/humidity sensor. In the following weeks we plan on setting up a QR code reader via a Pi NOIR camera to give us some reference points as to where our bot is in the data center.

The major task for next week will be setting up the hard-line serial circuit, and potentially getting some semi-permanent circuits setup on whichever platform we end up using.

Roomberry Project

Our primary objective for this “Roomberry Project” is to adequately gauge temperature and humidity data inside of a data center from various points. To do that, we decided to use the iCreate 2 Roomba platform. Over the past two and a half weeks, Owen and I have successfully gotten our Pi A+ to talk to the Roomba via serial port. Our goal for this week was to communicate with the Roomba, give it commands to move, stop and dock, as well as finding a proper charging solution for the Pi since it will not be utilizing the Roomba’s battery. As of today we have set up an inductive charging solution that will charge the on board LIPO battery while allowing it to run simultaneously.

Next week will primarily be working with our NOIR Pi camera and IR sensor array in an attempt to have the Roomberry become a line-following robot.

IOT Roomba Comes to Life

Our summer interns, Jimmy and Owen, have been hard at work on their Internet of Things project.  This week they got the Roomba connected to a Raspberry Pi over a serial connection. From there, they can SSH into the Pi over a WiFi connection and issue commands directly to the Roomba, and collect data from the Roomba. Ultimately, the Pi+Roomba will be autonomous, roaming around on its own and capturing environmental data.

Next they’ll be working on an inductive charging circuit to charge a LiPo battery to power the Pi independently of the Roomba, and giving the Roomba “sight” so it can identify where it is in 2D space as it takes environmental samples.

Stay tuned to our blog for future updates from the guys as they continue to report their progress.

 

DataYard’s 2016 Internship Program – Internet of Things Kick-Off!

On June 1st DataYard officially brought on two new summer interns for a specific and pretty cool project – to explore the Internet of Things (IoT)!

The chosen ones – Owen Devine and James Kinion – will be working with us through August to design, build, and deploy mobile units which report not only their own geographic location, but a slew of environmental variables as well. While we have a vague idea of how we at DataYard might accomplish this task, the interns have been set free in a sea of low-cost devices which when used together can accomplish almost anything.

We’re makers here at DataYard, and are super excited about the future of the IoT space. We got a 3D Printer for the office last Christmas, and Eric Wright has probably burned through twenty pounds of PLA over seventeen generations of a custom-fit phone Heads Up Display for his road bike. We built our own big-screen network status and reporting display, have daily DJ battles on a Raspberry Pi3 via Airplay to the MusicBox interface, and a Retrobox Pi3 for SNES emulation is coming soon – not even mentioning the custom solutions we put in place for clients every day.

We’re hoping to support the future of the IoT movement by getting some sharp young minds playing the field – and we plan to do that while deploying additional (and mobile) environmental monitoring to our data center – stay tuned for updates on DataYard’s continuing quest to innovate and create ways to Make IT Better!

Summer 2016 Internship,”Internet of Things”

During the summer of 2016 DataYard will sponsor a summer internship program for college students to explore robotics, sensors, and concepts related to IOT — the “Internet of Things”, hardware and software that uses network connections to bridge physical and virtual worlds.

What You Will Do?

Our interns will work on a real project that has a practical application. We want you to build a robot that will roam a physical space, take environmental measurements within that space, and upload the captured sensor data to a database in the cloud. Ultimately, the physical space we want the robot to roam is DataYard’s own data center.

This, by itself, is a pretty cool project that would provide some useful environmental data for DataYard. But, of course, we want to make it a little more challenging.

Not only do we want you to store the environmental measurements, but we want to know where in the physical space each environmental sample was taken. That means you’ll also need to figure out how to capture location data with the environmental sensor data.

Finally, we’d like you to create a way to visualize all the sensor data that your robot has captured. This portion of the project could be pretty software intensive, and will need to interact with databases and web servers to produce a graphical “heat map” of our data center space to show us the environmental conditions everywhere that the robot has been.

What Resources Will You Have Access To?

We’ve got a Maker space complete with tools and parts, including a Roomba robot built platform, Arduinos, Raspberry Pis, breadboards, voltmeters, sensors, motors, batteries, lots of other circuit components, and a Taz 5 3D printer to design and custom-print your own parts.

You’ll get guidance and support along the way, along with meetings with an advisor (at least twice weekly) to keep you moving in positive directions. Most of all, you need to be a self-starter who isn’t afraid of taking chances and making mistakes as you learn. You’ll get a chance to be creative, create a project plan, manage a budget (we’ll give you up to $500 to spend on extra parts you need), report on your progress, learn a ton about how stuff on the Internet works, make something cool and useful, AND make money doing something very few people get a chance to do.

What’s The Schedule & Pay?

Our internship program will run during the summer months of June, July, and August. We’re flexible on the exact stop and start dates. We’re expecting you to work on the project here in our office in Downtown Dayton up to 20 hour a week, and we’ll pay you $10/hr to soak up as much as you can while building something super cool.

Interested?

If you’re interested in participating in the DataYard 2016 IOT Internship Program please contact me, David Mezera, by email at [email protected] on or before April 30, 2016. Tell me why you think this program is for you. Thanks for your interest! I can’t wait to get you started!

[UPDATED 4/11/2016] I’ve gotten a lot of applicants, and I now understand that some of the local schools will be letting out in May. As a result, we’ll be closing the application window on Friday, April 15, so that we can make selections before April 22. Stay tuned!

Client Spotlight – Mikesell’s Project Overview

DataYard is proud to announce our latest partnership with the Mikesell’s Snack Food Company – the oldest potato chip company in the United States! Since 1910, Mikesell’s has been manufacturing and shipping delicious treats from right here in Dayton to the surrounding tri-state. DataYard and Mikesell’s were introduced via mutual partners and Technology First relationships, and we began discussing a full-scale technology redesign and refresh in May of this year.

Mikesell’s had an interesting predicament, albeit not out of the ordinary – recent restructuring of the internal technical team had brought with it a change in long-term vision and strategy. Mikesell’s new CIO, Steve Hangen, wanted to shift the focus of the internal technical resources away from supporting local servers and towards supporting internal processes. However that didn’t remove the reality that there were multiple (and fairly critical) line of business applications running internally on antiquated hardware. Pair that with an Internet bandwidth bottleneck and an outdated DR strategy, and the risk to business continuity was enough to make anyone sweat.

After months of planning and fine-tuning, DataYard and Mikesell’s finalized our strategy and partnership at the end of August. In a few separate installments, I’ll be describing the individual goals of the overall redesign – the how, what, and why.

  • Network topology redesign – DataYard completely re-imagined the WAN design, and has deployed a new network to centralize ownership and management of network services. We had to get creative in a few spots, and a description of these challenges will be an interesting read!
  • Active Directory Upgrade and Virtualization – Once the WAN was centralized, we needed to upgrade and migrate internal Active Directory (AD) services up into the DataYard cloud. One less administrative headache for Mikesell’s internal personnel! We’ll discuss the process, benefits, and challenges here in a later post.
  • Exchange Upgrade and Virtualization – After the AD project was completed we’ve now set our sights on the upgrade from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2016. This upgrade is happening simultaneously with the migration up to the DataYard cloud. The Exchange project will lighten the load on Mikesell’s staff, and the coming description of the objectives and execution should give valuable insight to anyone facing a similar challenge.
  • JDE Deployment – Mikesell’s is moving away from legacy line of business applications on an internal mainframe and towards the JD Edwards ERP solution in the DataYard cloud. This project will undoubtedly have its obstacles, but the resulting streamlining of operations will provide significant benefit and increased efficiency at Mikesell’s for years to come.
  • University of Dayton Project – DataYard is assisting seniors from UD and providing the needed infrastructure for the students’ MIS Capstone project. The development of this new application will result in the increased day-to-day effectiveness of Mikesell’s internal staff, as well as provide invaluable experience to future IT professionals.

I’m looking forward to sharing the details of these projects as DataYard knocks them out, one by one – starting with a description of the network topology redesign and deployment, coming soon.

Mikesell’s is a historic brand with deep roots in Dayton, and we are very excited to begin a long and successful partnership – stay tuned!

Linux Exploit Liability? Backspace 28 times to get in…Really?

Linux Exploit Liability? Backspace 28 times to get in…Really?

Recent headlines on a new Linux exploit have been spectacular:

  • How to hack any Linux machine just using backspace
  • Exploit Logs You Into Linux Systems After Hitting Backspace 28 Times
  • Log into most any Linux system by hitting backspace 28 times

The vulnerability lies within the Grub2 bootloader, a password management system used by some Linux systems upon startup. Unpatched, the exploit would cause the system to reboot or bring up a Grub rescue shell granting the user a full set of admin privileges — within the rescue function only.

What is the real danger? Ryan Chewning, DataYard Linux Systems Administrator, sees these as largely sensational pieces. “The exploit requires physical access to the Linux system, first and foremost,” he says. “Additionally, it is my experience that the feature being attacked is not widely used in the first place.”

Our bottom line? If you’re hosting in DataYard’s managed Linux environments, you need not worry. Physical access is controlled and systems are constantly updated with all necessary security patches.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please let us know!

DataYard Talks Linux Exploit Backspace 28

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Wishing you the gifts of the season — Peace, Joy, Hope

As we stop to celebrate the holidays, one of our real joys is the opportunity to thank you and wish you the very best in the year to come.

Warmest thoughts and best wishes for a wonderful holiday season and a very happy new year to come!

To honor the holidays, DataYard’s offices will be closed for normal business on December 24 and 25 for the Christmas holiday and on January 1 for New Year’s Day.

For non-urgent needs during this time, submit requests by web, email, or phone using the following:

Requests will be reviewed and handled as we return to regular business hours on December 28 and January 4, respectively.

Remember to follow us on Twitter, updated in real time as things happen!

  •  @DataYard – News, fun, tips and tidbits, etc.
  •  @DataYardTechOps – Behind the scenes on maintenance, outage info, etc.

Wishing you many happy celebrations,

David Mezera
President

*Note: Additional charges may apply. 24 x 7 service included in some plans.