Further notes on the NSLU2 and QuickCam Pro 9000

I have been playing around with the webcam firmware that was the subject of my last post and have a number of random notes that I should put up here on using it.

A High-Resolution IP Webcam

Web cams are fairly ubiquitous things these days and by no means expensive. They can be good or bad depending on how much money you want to spend, but there is one almost-universal rule, which is that they connect to a host PC over USB. IP-based cameras that connect to a LAN via an RJ45 connector or wirelessly over 802.11 are quite a bit more useful, because they can be put almost anywhere, but they tend to cost a surprising amount and not provide much resolution. A low-end one like the LevelOne FCS1030 is NZ$260, and they go a lot more expensive than that. For example, the wireless D-Link DCS5300 sells for NZ$930 and it only does 320×240 pixels.

A Proportional 12V Fan Controller

The Ubuntu machine covered in my previous post lives in a cupboard with a wireless router and a DSL modem. Its not a very big cupboard, and… it gets rather warm in there. Even though the computer doesn’t use a lot of power, the heat doesn’t have anywhere much to go. Thats not good for longevity or reliability. I made a couple of 100mm diameter vents of the kind you use to vent clothes dryers, high and low, from the back of the cupboard into an adjacent storage room, but convection just didn’t seem to be doing enough, especially on warm days.

The answer was, of course, to add a fan.