Provisioning Polycom Phones with DHCP Option 160 in pfSense, Meraki, and Mac OS X Server 10.11 El Capitan

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I started installing a new phone system for work.  It’s replacing the Comcast phones with a FreePBX server and new Polycom phones.  The great thing about this setup is that you can provision a large number quickly as long as you have the system setup correctly beforehand.  The only real difficulty was that I was testing the phones at my house that uses pfSense but my work uses a Meraki firewall for DHCP in one location and a Mac OS X Server in another and all three of these have different ways of setting DHCP options.  This is how to configure all three systems to send DHCP Option 160 to your phones with the ftp (or tftp/http) address and credentials.  This does not explain setting up your FreePBX system or Endpoint Manager.  For that I suggest checking out Crosstalk Solutions Youtube series FreePBX 13 Made Easy!

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Posted in pfSense, Random Technology

Reupholstering Jeep Cherokee XJ Sun Visors

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My wife and I bought a 1995 Jeep Cherokee XJ mostly for camping and road trips.  It was only $3,100 and is an automatic so she can drive it (for some reason, she doesn’t want to learn to drive a manual?!).  Cosmetically, it’s in pretty good shape except the inside looks really worn.  The headliner is sagging and the visors were all torn up.  I went ahead and replaced the headliner and decided to repair the visors too.

Gross and ripped old sun visor

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Posted in Isuzu, Uncategorized

Adding Filament Runout Detection to an Anycubic Kossel with Marlin 1.1.8 and BIQU 3D Filament Detection Module

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I have several Anycubic Kossel 3D Printers that work great for the price ($180-320 depending on the model).  One issue I’ve run into is when a reel of filament gets low, I can’t reliably print with it for fear of running out mid-print and wasting the plastic.  With some changes to the Marlin firmware (version 1.1.8 as of this writing) and adding a sensor for less than $5, I was able to fix this!  The inspiration came from a Thingiverse model by Nenex that mounts this cheap sensor to the 2020 extrusions that make up most of the Anycubic Kossel’s body.

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Posted in Random Technology

Fixing a Cheap 3d Printer Power Supply with a Blown NTC Thermister

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My older style Anycubic Kossel Pulley didn’t come with a heated bed or a power supply large enough to run it.  Although the newer Kossels Anycubic is making (as of early 2018) come with both, I had to purchase these separately and piece it together.  I spent all of $20 on eBay for the 360W supply and it worked great, until two months later when I smelled some smoke and the printer shut off mid-print.  Opening up the case, I found a NTC 5D-15 thermistor that was ashy and split in two.  This is how I fixed it.

 

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Posted in Random Technology

HAProxy in pfSense as a Reverse Proxy

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I run a virtualized Nextcloud server on my home server and it has its own domain that is forwarded to my home IP.  While playing with Nextcloud, I ran across OnlyOffice and setup another virtual server running the OnlyOffice Document Server.  The problem that I ran into is that pfSense redirected incoming traffic to my home IP only to the Nextcloud server and I didn’t have a method for forwarding traffic to the OnlyOffice server on its own subdomain.  Basically I wanted:

myserver.com -> Nextcloud 10.1.10.10

onlyoffice.myserver.com -> OnlyOffice 10.1.10.11

haproxy_pfsense (1).png

Since I’m not really an expert on this, I didn’t know that a reverse proxy is what I needed to make this happen.  After digging a little I found that pfSense has HAProxy and that can take the incoming traffic to the home IP and analyze if it was intended for myserver.com or onlyoffice.myserver.com and forward it to the correct server on my network.

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Posted in pfSense

AC-225 Welder Amperage Control with SCRs

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In an attempt to make my AC-225 decent at TIG welding, I added an amperage control circuit.  This allows me to plug in my homemade foot pedal and fine tune the arc as I’m welding.  Like most of my AC-225 modifications, most of the credit goes to Gregory Hildstrom for all the work he put into making this circuit and the other modifications he wrote about.  The other person who deserves much credit is Mike W who posted the original diagram.

AC-225 now with foot control!

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Posted in Welding

Quick and Easy DIY AR-15 Upper Receiver Vise Block

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I needed to install an AR-15 barrel on a new upper and didn’t want to pay $25 for a vise block.  Instead I used some scrap 2x4s and a few screws to make my own.

In the vise and ready to go

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Posted in Shooting

Replacing 1st Generation Trooper Front Wheel Bearings and Grease Seals

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Now to be honest, I don’t think I needed to replace my wheel bearings.  They could probably have just been cleaned and regreased, but the cost was around $70 for both front bearings and the grease seals, and since I was already doing a brake job and replacing the auto locking hubs, it wasn’t much more work.  Also, my Trooper is from 1991 and I think the bearings were never repacked since the factory.  The service manual says they need it every 30,000 miles, and I was about 180,000 miles overdue!

It’s always important to be comfortable when working on your car!

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Posted in Isuzu