Current
Computer and Associated Technology Activities
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Computers Page
Terry built is first
computer in 1978, three years before the introduction of the IBM-PC, using the
S-100 bus architecture and the CP/M and later MP/M operating systems and
WordStar for word processing. Construction of these very early computers
frequently requiring soldering skills.
Terry built and
maintains eight desktop computers in his home, networked with gigabit Ethernet
and supporting both an archival server and an SQL server was well as the
home automation system. Several of the
PC's are used for Terry's citizen science
activities. There are also three commercially
made PCs. He also has been
experimenting with single board computers such the Raspberry-Pi
in conjunction with his home automation and amateur
radio activities.
Desktop Personal
Computers
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* Personal PC
for Terry - also used part-time for citizen science projects
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* Personal PC for Lynn- - also used part-time for citizen science projects
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* Archive Server PC - 14 terabytes of online storage, for pictures, video,
audio, and data
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* Control PC manages the home automation system and the MySQL SQL server -
also used part-time for citizen science projects
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* Hamshack PC supporting Terry's amateur radio activities - also used part-time
for citizen science projects
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* Science PC running fulltime 24/7/365 for citizen science projects
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* Science2 PC running fulltime 24/7/365 for citizen science projects
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* Spare PC used for programming with the Raspberry Pi single board
computers - running fulltime 24/7/365 for citizen science projects
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Apple MacMini
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Dell Desktop used for playing around with Ubuntu Linux
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Microsoft Surface Laptop for travel connectivity
* These eight computers were constructed by Terry. PCs were constructed using:
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ANTEC cases of various vintages
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Gigabyte motherboards with Intel B460 chipsets and Intel
Gen 10 CPUs
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Several brands of power supplies and memory strips were used
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All disk drives from Seagate
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Video boards from NVIDIA and Intel
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Windows 10 Pro
The advantage of building desktop PCs as they can incrementally upgraded.
The recent upgrades are:
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CPU upgraded to Intel i7-10700 multi-core CPUs in the Science2 PC
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CPUs upgraded to Intel i7-4790 multi-core CPUs in the Hamshack and Control
PCs
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CPUs upgraded to Intel i5-4570 multi-core CPUs in the Personal PCs and
Science PC
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CPUs upgraded to Intel i3-3220 multi-core CPUS in the Archive, Control, and
Spare PCs
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Windows (C:) drive upgraded to Sandisk 256GB SSD on all PC's except Science
and Science2
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Power supplies upgraded from 400 Watts to 750 Watts in Personal PCs,
Hamshack, and Science PCs
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Memory upgraded to 32GB in all PCs except 64GB for Science2
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Video Cards upgraded in Personal PCs to GeForce GT 710
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Video Cards upgraded in Hamshack, Science PC, Science2 and Control PCs to GeForce GTX 1650
Single Board
Computers -
Raspberry Pi 3B+ and Raspberry Pi 4B
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Controller
for Remote Sensor
Arrays supplying environmental data to the home automation system via WiFi
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FlightAware receiving station for aircraft ADS-B transmission uploading to the
FlightAware System
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SDR-RTL USB dongle providing a wide band radio panadaptor covering 5-500MHz
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SHARI AllStar
Server
Our house has a
wired Cat 6 Gigabit Ethernet network with primary and spare connections in
multiple locations in each room using a multi-level star topology with one
master and seven second/third-level Netgear Gigabit switches. All PCs except the
Microsoft Surface Laptop are connected via the wired network. We also
support three vLANs, comprised of separate- secure, guest, and Internet of
Things (IoT) WiFi networks. We generally have between 35 and 45 IP
addresses in use on the various networks at any given time.