New toy – almost done – FluxEngine – stand-alone

Hello all.

Yes, I know. It’s been a long time since my last post, but I have a good reason. I have been busy, very very busy with a new 3D project.

Base on the fantastic work of David Given (https://cowlark.com) on FluxEngine I am in the process of developing a stand-alone device to read/write floppydisks (both 5,25 and 3,5 inch) to/from disk images. Please see David’s website on FluxEngine for more information on this part of the project.

You would say that the FluxEngine is the most difficult part made easy by David, and yes, that is true. What I am bringing to the party is the housing, fully 3D printed, the electronics to make it stand-alone, power supply, cooling etc. Interested? Please read on :)

Continue reading “New toy – almost done – FluxEngine – stand-alone”

Connecting a Synology MR2200ac to an RT2600ac fails – SOLVED

I recently replaced my trusty Synology RT1900ac with a “great, problem solving, multi-room Wi-Fi kit” from Asus, the Lyra MAP-AC2200. “The best of the best”. Yeah, … right.

Product photo of the very good but not very powerful Synology RT1900ac. At time of writing, no longer available and for good reason; get yourself an RT2600ac! You will not regret it.
Out with the old …

The problem with my apartment is that is about 60 years old, and some rooms are behind load-bearing walls. Not load-bearing for my ceiling, but load-bearing for the entire complex. Like 20cm thick reinforced concrete! Wi-Fi is problematic there. So this multi-room Wi-Fi set would solve that problem.

Product photo of the not-so-great-in-a-Wi-Fi-jungle: the Asus Lyra MAP-AC2200 Multi-Room Wi-Fi kit. Works fantastically in a free standing structure or an office building...
… in with the new.

Well it did; I got Wi-Fi, strong, fast, … for about 2 hours. Then a reboot of the closest Lyra node was needed. On top of that, incoming connections to the main node would no longer get through after about 4 days, so twice a week a full reboot of all nodes was needed, just to get a little Wi-Fi. After 6 months of this getting worse and worse, I was done. [Edit: turns out there is so much Wi-Fi signals here, the Lyra set gets confused … It’s a Wi-Fi jungle out here …]

In the end I had ping-spikes and drop-outs like crazy; sitting right next to the main node, pinging my ISP Modem through the Wi-Fi;

Still of a WhatsApp video I shot to show a friend the superb Wi-Fi you get with an Asus Lyra MAP-AC2200 kit.
What the hell, Asus? You call this “superb Wi-Fi coverage”? This is a ping from Laptop -> 1 meter open air -> Asus Lyra Main Node -> 2 meters ethernet cable -> ISP Modem.

Playing online games was simply impossible. So I took out my RT1900ac again and settled with Wi-Fi being poor or even non-existent in some rooms.

A few days ago, however, I had enough of that too and I took a leap and bought the Synology RT2600ac + MR2200ac combo. The set-up of the RT2600ac was a breeze, but I had seen that before, as this works exactly like the RT1900ac. In fact; I downloaded a configuration backup on the RT1900ac, uploaded it to the RT2600ac and done. Unplugged the old, installed the new. All done.

Product photo of the fantastic Synology RT2600ac
The Synology RT2600ac Router

Well, almost; I still had the Mesh-node MR2200ac to set-up.

Product photo of the Synology MR2200ac Mesh router; you can use this without an RT2600ac as well, it has the FULL SRM software on it.
The Synology MR2200ac Router / Mesh node

That should be a breeze, too, right? Well, not so much… Continue reading “Connecting a Synology MR2200ac to an RT2600ac fails – SOLVED”

Synology NAS software on non-Synology hardware

I am the proud owner of a Synology DS1512+. She’s getting old but she’s still one of my more sensible purchases. The hardware quality and ease-of-use of the Synology Disk Manager (DSM) still pleases me every day.

I need my NAS to be operational. I use it for all my important stuff but I also have the “urge” to develop my own tools for it. I need a platform to develop software on, without the risk of losing any of my data.

Recently I found XPEnology. Is it a Synology DSM clone? No. It IS the original Synology DSM, without alterations. You just need something to boot it with; a bootloader. Is it legal???? I’m not sure. And when in doubt, go for safe; consider it illegal.

In retrospect, setting-up a XPEnology NAS is surprisingly easy. But for most tutorials you need a Windows computer (windows-only software is used). But on a Mac, you don’t need (most of this) 3rd party software. You have a Mac! A Mac comes with tools, but what tool to use and how?

Continue reading “Synology NAS software on non-Synology hardware”

Adding more purpose to your iMac 27″, use it as monitor for any HDMI device, like your xbox, PS4, media player, set top box, etc. etc. etc.

Just a quick note for those wondering;

YES YOU CAN! Use a 27″ iMac in Target Display Mode with a non-Apple device on the other end of the cable!

The 27″ iMac (last sold in 2010) can be used as DisplayPort monitor. This is important!; the 24″ iMacs that came after the 27″ also have a Target Display Mode, but they require a ThunderBolt connection, as opposed to a Mini-DisplayPort connection.

(Source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204592) Continue reading “Adding more purpose to your iMac 27″, use it as monitor for any HDMI device, like your xbox, PS4, media player, set top box, etc. etc. etc.”

USB 3.0 on Macbook Pro 2011

Lucky enough to have a Macbook Pro 17″ with an ExpressCard/34 slot? Then you’re not lucky enough to have built-in USB 3.0. We can fix that! You need to spend about 10 to 15 USD. Interested? Read on! It took me months just to find this post which gave me a 10 minute solution.

Continue reading “USB 3.0 on Macbook Pro 2011”

Bluetooth 4.0LE Upgrade for MacbookPro 17″ – Enable handoff, continuity and instant hotspot

Yosemite introduces a lot of great features. I personally love Handoff where you can start a document or e-mail on one device and seamlessly continue it on a different one. I already had it working between my iPhone 5s and iPad Air but soon found that my Macbook Pro did not comply to the technical requirements.

I got it working now! If you want to know how; then read on!

[update oct 2nd, 2015]

With 10.11 El Capitan I followed the instructions to re-enable Continuity and found that my WiFi stopped working (‘No WiFi Hardware Found’). Turns out, all I needed to do was to disable kext-signing check with

Shell commandsudo nvram boot-args=kext-dev-mode=1
.
Continue reading “Bluetooth 4.0LE Upgrade for MacbookPro 17″ – Enable handoff, continuity and instant hotspot”

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