Mark's Blog

Modding the SheevaPlug rev 1.3 by adding an ESATA port is something you won’t do every day. Luckily the device (from Marvell and Globalscale) ships with schematics and Linux, therefore despite the tricky soldering part it is a task you can manage as weekend project. Here is how to do it once and right:

1. Order the ten necessary parts listed below (about 2€ per port).
2. Solder them, cut a hole in the case for the port.
3. Network boot your SheevaPlug and update its bootloader, U-Boot.
4. Update Linux kernel with enabled SATA drivers.

A word of advice: Better print this instruction and the large pictures. On to the details: Read more »

Tags: embedded, kernel, SheevaPlug

	Moved some small but important backups to Amazon’s #S3. Better to have the most important things off-shore.
	Just ordered parts for my #SheevaPlug from US to solder it an #ESATA port (2€ parts cost per port). C78, C79: Ceramic Multilayer Capacitor; Dielectric Characteristic: X7R; Capacitance: 0.1µF; Capacitance Tolerance: ~10%; Voltage Rating: 16V; Temperature Coefficient: ~15%; Capacitor Case Style: 0402; No. of Pins: 2; Mounting Type: SMD C164, C188, C189, C190: Ceramic Multilayer Capacitor; Dielectric Characteristic: X7R; Capacitance: 0.01µF; Capacitance Tolerance: ~10%; Voltage Rating: 16V; Temperature Coefficient: ~15%; Capacitor Case Style: 0402; No. of Pins: 2; Mounting Type: SMD C196, C197: Ceramic Multilayer Capacitor; Dielectric Characteristic: X5R; Capacitance: 1µF; Capacitance Tolerance: ~10%; Voltage Rating: 6.3V; Temperature Coefficient: ~15%; Capacitor Case Style: 0402; No. of Pins: 2; Mounting Type: SMD BIT7: Ferrite Chip Bead; Impedance: 60ohm; DC Resistance Max: 0.045ohm; DC Current Rating: 1.8A; Series: FC FB; Ferrite Case Style: 0603; No. of Pins: 2; Current Rating: 2.5A; eSATA connector: manufacturer FCI, part no. 10067172-70CLF; 7 pins, right angle See this post and this one.
	@gkob do you have any newsletter or announcement list to subscribe for #uberblick?
	@klapproth Masterplan: viele folgen, nämlich dem Plan einiger Macher. Negatives Bild ersterer, positives letzterer.

Tags: embedded, SheevaPlug

	Committed to wmark/anzu.
	Have updated the #gentoo #binhost s yesterday, new readme http://bit.ly/cQuef6 in #overlay mirror at #github with addresses.
	My #SheevaPlug crashed today, first time in six months. Full #backup is due anyway, so I have attached the HDD to my workstation for it.
	It didn’t crash, the power supply of my #SheevaPlug fried. They didn’t use solid capacitors.
	Now my #SheevaPlug has a internal lead-fleece battery as built-in #UPS, protecting it for about 40min. *yay* (Like Google’s deployment.)

Tags: anzu, ossdl overlay, SheevaPlug

Amazon and Rackspace both provide virtualized servers billed per hour. That makes deploying scalable applications, especially with distributed key/value stores, very handy: You could launch new servers just as load, customer count or requests increase.

Today I’ve run the Redis benchmark on the SheevaPlug, Amazon EC2 and Rackspace Cloudservers to see where a small Redis database will perform the best. Read more »

Tags: Amazon EC2, benchmark, cloud, Rackspace CloudServers, Redis, SheevaPlug