Author: wusel

Two dead powersupplies of SheevaPlugs; it’s always the same capacitor which dies. (On the right, it spillt the electrolyte into the PSU, on the left it “only” started to break free …)

There is some discussion going on regarding dead SheevaPlug-PSUs, reworked PSUs for the new GuruPlug and why Sheevas and Gurus are dying more and more frequently the older (talking about weeks here) they get.
Personally, I own two SheevaPlugs, one purchased by mid-December 2009, the other one was delivered around January 2010. Well, both PSUs already died, in both it’s the same capacitor in the PSU that shows visual anomalies. And because of what I’ve seen after opening the PSUs, I personally don’t expect a replacement PSU to last much longer than 3 to 6 months each :(
From what can be learned from the issues of the GuuPlug, it’s not the PSU which heats up the box but the CPU; therefore I suspect, as SheevaPlug is built in some way similar to GuruPlug, that it’s the CPU which is literally frying the components of the PSU — until they finally give up and die. Thus, a replacement PSU would be boiled as well — and at least according to German law, 6 months after purchase it’s the customer who has to bring prove that a defect was there at the time of purchase to claim replacements free of charge …

Powering that SheevaPlug via a switched PSU for harddrives until – in about four weeks! – there might be a replacement PSU.

So, what to do? The most sensible thing to do right now, in my opinion, would be to address the (European) seller asking for a full refund both on SheevaPlugs as well as GuruPlugs, as they are proven to be unfit for the duty intended; they might not last longer that 3-6 months until burnung out — which was not advertized back then …
If you actually use them, your situation might be different; in that case, I’d request a preload of PSU replacements for the usual time electronic devices work/ran/stay usable, based on my experience I’ll need a new PSU every 3rd to 4th month, i. e. four per year. Thinking about using the SheevaPlugs for 4 to 5 years, I’d need a supply of 16 to 20 in total per Sheeva … And maybe I’d still lrequest a partial refund due to the lack of usability during each PSU failure and the time I need to spend replacing PSUs myself …
To be honest: I strongly assume that, if checked before Marketing started, they wouldn’t be allowed to be distributed within th EU at all, with all that heat and the heated PSU becoming a risk of fire …

Wärmebild: GuruPlug von unten (Quelle)

Ich war ja lange Zeit ein Fan dieser sog. »PlugComputer«; das Bild allerdings hat sich nun schlagartig gewandelt. Denn auch bei meinem grade mal ein halbes Jahr alten ersten SheevaPlug hat’s das Netzteil zerrissen, ein Ersatznetzteil wird lt. Aussage des Händlers NewIT voraussichtlich erst in vier Wochen bereit stehen. Aus diesem Grunde habe ich gestern per Express von Amazon für EUR 21,– eine USB-2-IDE/SATA-Lösung bestellt, die just in time heute geliefert und deren Netzteil heute abend jenen SheevaPlug reanimiert hat (es war die günstigste, schnell verfügbare 5V-Quelle …).
Zwei von zwei SheevaPlugs haben also nicht länger als 6 Monate funktioniert — Crap in Serie möchte man meinen. Aber es kommt ja noch besser: der SheevaPlug-Nachfolger GuruPlug ist das Paradebeispiel für ein Gerät, welches »broken by design« ist. Das folgende habe ich grade im NewIT-Forum gepostet:

According to a German user who directly ordered at GlobalScale, his GuruPlug Plus died (of heat) yesterday. Talking to his sales representative at GS, he was told to receive a new GP Plus with an “allegedly reworked board and power supply” shortly. Similar I’ve read in another forum the other day.
This leads to the question: why ist GlobalScale not talking to NewIT anymore or what is NewIT not telling it’s customers? Sorry folks, I’m rather fed up by now with GlobalScale’s crap.
I just revived my SheevaPlug of December 2009, which died last Sunday, by a €21 amazon express delivery of an 5V-PSU, as, as Jason told me, a replacement PSU from GlobalScale will need additional 4 WEEKS. I own 2 SheevaPlugs (via NewIT), both suffered death of the PSU already.
And now this GuruPlug nighmare: reworked PSU already included, but the 2 Gigabit ports are only working at 100? The CPU is burning like hell, there’s no way a reworked PSU seems to cure that design flaw, does it? Please see http://plugcomputer.org/plugforum/index.php?topic=1735.msg10695#msg10695
And, just by coincidence, I was pointed from a post at plugcomputer.org to http://www.newit.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,323.msg2025.html#msg2025 – nice to inform your still-waiting GP customers, but what about the ones that already received the broken-by-design version?
I really liked the service of NewIT, referred other people to them; but, frankly, Jason & all: this information policy sucks big time Sad You at least should have had the guts to post that information to your GuruPlug-Info-thread (http://www.newit.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,419.0.html)

Wärmebild: GuruPlug, eSATA-, USB- und GBit-Ports (Quelle)

Der GuruPlug entwickelt sich mehr und mehr zum Anti-Produkt für PlugComputer; ein Treppenwitz ist letztlich auch das, was angeblich alles verändert werden sol.

There a few changes to the GuruPlug Servers, these include:

• A new inductor on the motherboard
• A new daughterboard with a new power management chip
• More vents on the units
• A new external power supply unit

 
Von Software kannte ich ja den Begriff »Bananaware«; wie nennt man das bei Hardware?
Wie auch immer: bis auf weiteres kann ich aus eigener Erfahrung alsi nur von Anschaffung und Einsatz dieser Hardware abraten :(

Ich entleihe mir hier von Alexander Holler mal die Pin-Belegung des Pin-Headers im Seagate FreeAgent DockStar:

 9 7 5 3 1
10 8 6 4 2
RX TX GND 3.3V!

Hintergrund: Ich versuche nun dann doch, mal über dokumentierte Wege den DockStar zu einem Multi-Purpose-Gerät zu machen:

[...]
bash-3.2# ./pogo_u-boot_install.sh
Ready? Press ENTER to start, CTRL-C to quit!
Downloading new bootloader and verifying it...
Writing new bootloader...
Setting new boot configuration...
What device are you installing on? Type only the number of your device and pres.
1. Pogoplug v1 - Brick
2. Pogoplug v2 - Pink
3. DockStar
3
Writing DockStar Bootloader...
Installation is complete.
Continue by installing Plugbox Linux to a USB drive.
Reboot with '/sbin/reboot/' when you are ready.
Your LED will be red, organge, or off completely when booting Plugbox.
Just in case you chose the wrong device, just re-run the installer.

… allerdings noch mit meinem eigenen uImage:

bash-3.2# /sbin/reboot
The system is going down NOW!
Sending SIGTERM to all processes
Requesting system reboot
[ 615.770000] md: stopping all md devices.
[ 616.770000] Restarting system.
[ 616.770000] Reseting !!
U-Boot 1.1.4 (Jul 16 2009 - 21:02:16) Cloud Engines (3.4.16)
U-Boot code: 00600000 -> 0067FFF0 BSS: -> 00690D60
Soc: 88F6281 A0 (DDR2)
CPU running @ 1200Mhz L2 running @ 400Mhz
SysClock = 400Mhz , TClock = 200Mhz
DRAM CAS Latency = 5 tRP = 5 tRAS = 18 tRCD=6
DRAM CS[0] base 0x00000000 size 128MB
DRAM Total size 128MB 16bit width
Flash: 0 kB
Addresses 8M - 0M are saved for the U-Boot usage.
Mem malloc Initialization (8M - 7M): Done
NAND:256 MB
CPU : Marvell Feroceon (Rev 1)
CLOUD ENGINES BOARD: REDSTONE:1.0
Streaming disabled
Write allocate disabled
USB 0: host mode
PEX 0: interface detected no Link.
Net: egiga0 [PRIME], egiga1
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
Saving Environment to NAND...
Erasing Nand...Writing to Nand... done
NAND read: device 0 offset 0x2500000, size 0x40000
Reading data from 0x253f800 – 100% complete.
262144 bytes read: OK
## Starting application at 0x00C00000 ...
U-Boot 2009.11-00432-g1650ec9-dirty (Mar 07 2010 - 22:13:20)
PlugApps Pogoplug
SoC: Kirkwood 88F6281_A0
DRAM: 128 MB
NAND: 256 MiB
Using default environment
In: serial
Out: serial
Err: serial
Net: egiga0
88E1116 Initialized on egiga0
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
(Re)start USB...
USB: Register 10011 NbrPorts 1
USB EHCI 1.00
scanning bus for devices... 3 USB Device(s) found
scanning bus for storage devices... 1 Storage Device(s) found
Loading file "/boot/uImage" from usb device 0:1 (usbda1)
** File not found /boot/uImage
## Booting kernel from Legacy Image at 00800000 ...
Image Name: Linux-2.6.22.18
Image Type: ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
Data Size: 1976384 Bytes = 1.9 MB
Load Address: 00008000
Entry Point: 00008000
Verifying Checksum ... OK
Loading Kernel Image ... OK
OK
Starting kernel ...
Uncompressing Linux.............................................................

WTF? Ah, super; mein sda1 ist /boot und sieht so aus:

-sh-3.2# ls -la /tmp/.cemnt/mnt_sda1
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 1024 Mar 8 2010 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 160 Jan 1 00:00 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Jan 1 00:00 .cedata
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30 Mar 8 2010 .ceid
drwx------ 2 root root 12288 Mar 8 2010 lost+found
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 262144 Mar 8 2010 u-boot.bin.pagesize
-rw-r--r-- 1 1000 1000 2421824 Mar 8 2010 uImage

Hachja. mit »cd /tmp/.cemnt/mnt_sda1; ln -s . boot« also nochmal probieren ;)

USB 0: host mode
PEX 0: interface detected no Link.
Net: egiga0 [PRIME], egiga1
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
Saving Environment to NAND...
Erasing Nand...Writing to Nand... done
NAND read: device 0 offset 0x100000, size 0x300000
Reading data from 0x3ff800 – 100% complete.
3145728 bytes read: OK
## Booting image at 00800000 ...
Image Name: Linux-2.6.22.18
Created: 2009-08-31 23:31:05 UTC
Image Type: ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
Data Size: 1976384 Bytes = 1.9 MB
Load Address: 00008000
Entry Point: 00008000
Verifying Checksum ... OK
OK
Starting kernel ...
Uncompressing Linux.............................................................
[ 0.000000] Linux version 2.6.22.18 (bdietrich@brad-ux) (gcc version 4.2.1) 9
[ 0.000000] CPU: ARM926EJ-S [56251311] revision 1 (ARMv5TE), cr=00053177
[ 0.000000] Machine: Feroceon-KW
[ 0.000000] Using UBoot passing parameters structure
[...]
[ 18.270000] XCE: BLPARAMS: reading 2048 bytes @ a1800
[ 23.630000] XCE: XCE: LED -> CONNECTED
[ 26.570000] kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
[ 26.710000] EXT3 FS on sda2, internal journal
[ 26.710000] EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
[ 26.890000] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Sending discover...
Sending select for 192.168.5.243...
Lease of 192.168.5.243 obtained, lease time 21600
HWADDR 00 0x10 0x75 0x1a 0x72 0x0d
PIP0 114
PIP1 13
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:10:75:00:00:00
inet addr:192.168.5.243 Bcast:192.168.5.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:532
RX bytes:702 (702.0 B) TX bytes:1180 (1.1 KiB)
Interrupt:11
eth0:0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:10:75:00:00:00
inet addr:169.254.114.13 Bcast:169.254.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
Interrupt:11
Loading fs modules: Success
Loading tun.ko: Success
Loading xce.ko: Success
Starting hbplug: Success
starting pid 361, tty '': '/bin/sh'
[...]
-sh-3.2# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/mtdblock2 32.0M 16.9M 15.1M 53% /
/dev/sda1 10.4M 2.7M 7.5M 26% /new_root
none 61.6M 12.0k 61.5M 0% /tmp
/tmp/.cemnt/sda1 10.4M 2.7M 7.5M 26% /tmp/.cemnt/mnt_sda1
/tmp/.cemnt/sda2 763.3M 312.9M 434.9M 42% /tmp/.cemnt/mnt_sda2
-sh-3.2# ls -la /new_root/
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 1024 Jan 1 00:02 .
drwxr-xr-x 15 root root 0 Jan 1 1970 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Jan 1 00:00 .cedata
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30 Mar 8 2010 .ceid
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Jan 1 00:02 boot -> .
drwx------ 2 root root 12288 Mar 8 2010 lost+found
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 262144 Mar 8 2010 u-boot.bin.pagesize
-rw-r--r-- 1 1000 1000 2421824 Mar 8 2010 uImage 

Naja, noch nicht ganz das, was es werden sollte, aber immerhin, es bootet schon mal wieder durch in ein Linux ;)

It’s dead, Jim.

Yepp. War ja klar. Am 12.07.2009 habe ich ihn bekommen — am 13.06.2010 um 17:06 streicht auch mein zweiter SheevaPlug, der Erstkauf, die Segel. Das er »weg« was, hatte ich zwar schon früher am Abend bemerkt, ob der WM aber erst jetzt mich aufgemacht, ihn mal – untypischerweise – zu Powercyclen. Nur leider ist das Kistchen komplett tot, da gibt’s nix zu cyclen …
Also habe ich soeben ein Ersatznetzteil per Mail angefordert, mal sehen, ob NewIT auch diesmal kundenfreundlich und schnell helfen möchte und kann. Auch dieser Plug ist, sogar »ab Händler«, ein UBIFS-System, sodaß einfaches Austauschen der SC-Karte und Weiterarbeit mit einem Ersatz-Sheeva ausscheidet.
So schick das System ja ist — die Nachteile, insbesondere bedingt durch die beschissene Produktqualität seitens GlobalScale, scheinen doch jegliche Vorteile des In-Flash-OS aufzuheben :( Und zu »GlobalScale« fällt mir dann wirklich nur noch der Spruch mit Programmierern und dem Specht ein … *sigh*

Das von dir hochgeladene Video enthält Bearbeitungslisten. Dadurch können möglicherweise Probleme bei der Synchronisierung von Audio und Video auftreten. Weitere Informationen findest du in diesem Artikel.

Bei der von dir hochgeladenen MOV/MP4-Datei befindet sich der Index am Ende. Wir bevorzugen es, wenn du die Datei vor dem Hochladen so bearbeitest, dass sich der Index am Beginn der Datei befindet. In diesem Artikel findest du weitere Informationen.

Und die kodierte Datei (vei YouTube; lokal spielt mplayer die Quelle 1a ab) ist murks, anfangs nur grauer Pixelschleim :( Tja, einfach aus einem mit motion erstellten MPG1-Timelapse mit ffmpeg ein kürzeres x.264-File samt Sound zu machen und dann bei YouTube hochzuladen, dies war nicht von Erfolg gekrönt …