Dashcat2 Build

Unpacking like a boss right now. Work week is done. I have three solid days to kick ass.

I've got another surprise development with the Dashcat cluster. I'll wait on that since the seller might puss out on the deal (doubtful, but it still happens). The photo I will post regarding that part will be serious hardware porn.

I looked at the circuit breaker box when I couldn't get the wall outlets in my lab to energize. I looked at the laundry room breaker, thinking there was sharing going on. Turns out my folks assigned a dedicated 20A circuit to my lab. Further, the workstation from which Dashcat is accessed was easier to loop around to the "laundry room" and plug into the washer outlet, taking the 1200W load of the UPS off of the lab circuit.

I still need to rig a power spider for the dryer outlet, but that will come later. I can't power up Dashcat without first replacing the CMOS batteries since they're old as hell and have started dying now. First world problems.

I've got a lot of work ahead. I doubt I will actually finish before the end of the month, but I'm aiming for it. The last thing I want is to hit the three year mark of this project without anything concrete to show for it.

Dashcat2 is no longer Dashcat2 in this 16 node trim. It's being renamed to Dashcat Legacy in order to avoid confusion with future generations.
 
First DashcatLegacy pic from the basement lab of Fragwell Manor. This is where the hammer falls. I'm done screwing around...

IMG_1358s.jpg


This is in addition to what's already in the system.

search engine tags: Dashcat2 , Dashcat Legacy, DashcatLegacy, Dashcat
 
Working on the machine. Hardware ends today. Photos to follow later. Right now it's chaos.

I'm giving the system some [H] style flair and it has a new layout now that I have the space for it.
 
MisterDNA said:
Working on the machine. Hardware ends today. Photos to follow later. Right now it's chaos.

I'm giving the system some [H] style flair and it has a new layout now that I have the space for it.
Click to expand...

Sweet. Some good comp pr0n!

Hope all has been going good!
 
Looks like photos will have to wait. The computer I use for them is having BSOD issues I haven't figured out yet. Might be time to reload it. I'm posting from a freaking Macbook, believe it or not. I'll deal with this tomorrow.

DashcatLegacy is undergoing a burn in right now. I only had enough cords for ten of the sixteen nodes. I'll have to track the others down or order some more. I'm testing the machine to see where the temperature in the new room stabilizes with no ventilation other than furnace flame air intake. Considering I built it to run in 110F ambient, I doubt it will go into thermal runaway since the concrete floors and walls conduct plenty of the excess away.

The green glow is deeper than I expected. It looks eerie.
 
If it's not one thing it's another.

Four days before I made the last post, my car was out of service due to transmission problems. I thought it was temporary, but it was for keeps. Later discoveries helped me figure out why.

I drove my dad's hunting truck (11MPG for a 70 mile roundtrip each day, same truck that hauled the trailer full of Dashcat parts last year) while working on finding another car and doing what I could in terms of getting situated at the new digs and getting Dashcat running.

The way I had the house set up was wearing me down. Two flights of stairs in stairways built for people a foot shorter than me just to go from my lab to the Ebay room was a knee killer. I moved the Ebay operation to the lab. I also moved my fitness gear to the former Ebay room in the attic.

What I should have done first was run Cat6 cable through the house before the basement was finished. Since the move, I've been running off of WiFi with no connection to the cluster. That changed mere minutes ago when I installed DD-WRT on one of my WRT54G routers and set up a bridge.

I've had to change the configuration of the cluster yet again (I'm getting tired of this). I was able to purchase a rackmount console for $5 and repair it without too much effort. To mount it, I had to move the blade cage back to the short rack. The console was worth it because, as it turned out, it's also an 8-port KVM.

A couple days ago I bought a new car. Well, not new. It's the same year and type as the dead one. The differences are this one is silver instead of green, the interior is black instead of that light shade of tan that's for men who don't get their hands dirty, it has 85,000 fewer miles on it, a sunroof, and a heated driver's seat. It doesn't, however, have that intake manifold gasket work done to it already so I'll be doing that repair before summer.

I'm mobile again, the house is taking shape, DashcatLegacy has internet access again, both racks are in a room where noise doesn't matter.

Now about the dead car:
I was unfamiliar with the power characteristics of GM's L67 supercharged V6 when the dead car was purchased in 2005. I had some idea that work had been done to it. I just didn't know what. After it died and I bought the one I have now, I realized Green Machine was pretty far from stock in the first place.

The stock pulley on the supercharger really is 3.8" in diameter while Green had a 3.25" pulley and no intercooler, which is supposed to be fatal at higher ambient temperatures. I believe it was the altitude that saved me there.

The exhaust system wasn't stock. I remember when the mufflers rusted through in 2006. They never looked anything like the ones on the silver car, which are definitely stock.

I don't know if the transmission had any work done to it. I will find that out when I rip it apart this summer to see what went bad in order to avoid the same thing on the silver car. I think it was just a matter of too much power. With the smaller pulley, the boost pressure was much higher than stock. Based on comparison between the two cars, I believe Green was running 80 horsepower or so more than stock. Torque was probably about 100lbft more and came on a lot sooner than stock. This is what killed the transmission. They're only rated for a certain amount. Beyond that point, you start trading longevity for mobility. The fact I wasn't able to just park the car when it starting acting funny was what ultimately did it in.

I am off work until January 2. It's no vacation. There's work to get done on Dashcat and a bunch of other things. My main challenge is to have my place both party and girlfriend ready by the new year. That includes completing Dashcat since it occupies so much of my brain capacity after three years.

I have a feeling Monoprice is going to get a pretty big order from me.

I need to post pictures.
 
Yeah it seems like you bought someone's mistreated race car before. Correct me if im wrong but L67 uses the eaton super right? How can you inter cool those bad boys? I was under the impression it was mounted to the intake.

Regardless its good to see you post again, I wish you luck with your endeavors.
 
IMG_1543s.jpg


It's hard to get a proper shot because of the way the furnace room is set up.

The server is upgrading to OS to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Seen to the left is my lab. At the bottom is Sandbox. That vertical rod on my IKEA desk is the microscope I picked up a couple months back for $200.
 
MisterDNA said:
If it's not one thing it's another.

Four days before I made the last post, my car was out of service due to transmission problems. I thought it was temporary, but it was for keeps. Later discoveries helped me figure out why.

I drove my dad's hunting truck (11MPG for a 70 mile roundtrip each day, same truck that hauled the trailer full of Dashcat parts last year) while working on finding another car and doing what I could in terms of getting situated at the new digs and getting Dashcat running.

The way I had the house set up was wearing me down. Two flights of stairs in stairways built for people a foot shorter than me just to go from my lab to the Ebay room was a knee killer. I moved the Ebay operation to the lab. I also moved my fitness gear to the former Ebay room in the attic.

What I should have done first was run Cat6 cable through the house before the basement was finished. Since the move, I've been running off of WiFi with no connection to the cluster. That changed mere minutes ago when I installed DD-WRT on one of my WRT54G routers and set up a bridge.

I've had to change the configuration of the cluster yet again (I'm getting tired of this). I was able to purchase a rackmount console for $5 and repair it without too much effort. To mount it, I had to move the blade cage back to the short rack. The console was worth it because, as it turned out, it's also an 8-port KVM.

A couple days ago I bought a new car. Well, not new. It's the same year and type as the dead one. The differences are this one is silver instead of green, the interior is black instead of that light shade of tan that's for men who don't get their hands dirty, it has 85,000 fewer miles on it, a sunroof, and a heated driver's seat. It doesn't, however, have that intake manifold gasket work done to it already so I'll be doing that repair before summer.

I'm mobile again, the house is taking shape, DashcatLegacy has internet access again, both racks are in a room where noise doesn't matter.

Now about the dead car:
I was unfamiliar with the power characteristics of GM's L67 supercharged V6 when the dead car was purchased in 2005. I had some idea that work had been done to it. I just didn't know what. After it died and I bought the one I have now, I realized Green Machine was pretty far from stock in the first place.

The stock pulley on the supercharger really is 3.8" in diameter while Green had a 3.25" pulley and no intercooler, which is supposed to be fatal at higher ambient temperatures. I believe it was the altitude that saved me there.

The exhaust system wasn't stock. I remember when the mufflers rusted through in 2006. They never looked anything like the ones on the silver car, which are definitely stock.

I don't know if the transmission had any work done to it. I will find that out when I rip it apart this summer to see what went bad in order to avoid the same thing on the silver car. I think it was just a matter of too much power. With the smaller pulley, the boost pressure was much higher than stock. Based on comparison between the two cars, I believe Green was running 80 horsepower or so more than stock. Torque was probably about 100lbft more and came on a lot sooner than stock. This is what killed the transmission. They're only rated for a certain amount. Beyond that point, you start trading longevity for mobility. The fact I wasn't able to just park the car when it starting acting funny was what ultimately did it in.

I am off work until January 2. It's no vacation. There's work to get done on Dashcat and a bunch of other things. My main challenge is to have my place both party and girlfriend ready by the new year. That includes completing Dashcat since it occupies so much of my brain capacity after three years.

I have a feeling Monoprice is going to get a pretty big order from me.

I need to post pictures.
Click to expand...

Well, when it comes down to it, the tranny is also a 4T60 series (Your's specifically is a 4T65E-HD), the second worst transmission ever built, only to be outdone by Chrysler groups 41TE Ultradrive trans. They are both junk, yet somehow derivatives of them both are still made today.

Best of luck with the fresh wheels. If you want the tranny to out last the engine this time, I'd flush it and get a shift kit for it. It'll be rougher to drive, but the clutch packs will thank you down the road.
 
I've been kicking the shit out of myself for the past two weeks. I took my time off from work to get everything straightened out on the homefront. Effectively, it was like 4.5 months of time travel. It's not in my nature to be a slacker and there's no damn way I'd ever want to disappoint my "fans" (quotes because I'm just a dude--a a non-celebrity).

The embarrassing part of all this is it took me longer than New Years Day.

I haven't died, but the fact I don't have the time to watch the Super Bowl is killing me.
 
MisterDNA said:
I've been kicking the shit out of myself for the past two weeks. I took my time off from work to get everything straightened out on the homefront. Effectively, it was like 4.5 months of time travel. It's not in my nature to be a slacker and there's no damn way I'd ever want to disappoint my "fans" (quotes because I'm just a dude--a a non-celebrity).

The embarrassing part of all this is it took me longer than New Years Day.

I haven't died, but the fact I don't have the time to watch the Super Bowl is killing me.
Click to expand...

Why watch the superbowl when you can work on the computers and pics! :p
 
Hagrid said:
Why watch the superbowl when you can work on the computers and pics! :p
Click to expand...

I need to take some more pics, but as I have half a fifth of bottom-gutter Rum in me right now I do not trust myself to operate anything more complex than a doorbell.
 
linuxwingnut4u said:
How easy is it to setup up one of those linux ice box. i have two of them with all the cables.
Click to expand...

It doesn't seem to be too difficult. From the front panel, everything major is accessible. Other than that, it's telnet or SNMP for control. Without the ICEcards that go in the servers, the green cables with the 2x3 connector on the server end (8P8C/RJ45 on the other end) don't do anything. The RS-232C cables are good for system console barf since the ICEBox will log output from that port for all connected systems.

I'm still learning this stuff and haven't had much time since I've been focusing on stuff I had to put on the back burner due to my financial situation after the split.

I'm determined to finish what I started, though. The end result's not going to be just this anymore, though.
 
According to a recent blood test, I might be heading down the same road as my mom. When certain markers show up, it's pretty obvious even if several things can produce such a result.

I'll know more in something like six months. In the meantime, I was given the advice to get as strong as I can in that time. It's win-win for me. Either I'm braced for chemo or I'm in the best shape of my life and perfectly healthy.

Challenge accepted. Either cancer is a no-show or I make it my bitch.

I'm torn on one aspect. I've been entirely without romance for almost two years now in the name of getting my life in order. I was planning to resume my search for love, but I don't know how I feel about it now. Dying lonely is pretty much the shittiest thing I can imagine, but leaving a woman brokenhearted by my passing is no doubt the shittiest.

In the name of the purest love I can imagine, I'd rather take that particular bullet for her.
 
I hope you don't get cancer. I've never had it, but that's one of many experiences I don't want to have ;) cancer pretty universally sucks, by all accounts.
 
It's been such a long time. I think I should be goin', yeah
And time doesn't wait for me, it keeps on rollin'

booting...
 
Awesome!

I love it when I check my email and there's a message saying there's a new post in this thread. It's projects like this that remind me that IT is still fun. Can't wait to see what's in store Mr DNA. :)
 
Updates so far:

The cluster has been parked because I was working on getting my financial situation not just squarely on steady ground, but a bit of a capstone achievement to show for it.

I was going to buy a Corvette, but not being able to have more than one passenger along for the ride is no fun. I bought a heavily modified 99 Camaro SS instead. This was back in May.

A month later, the exwife flipped out and filed a lawsuit, trying to get full custody of our child. I can't comment on specifics because it's still ongoing, but hiring a lawyer would have been entirely unnecessary for this.

I may have missed my calling in life. Law is actually fun. It's a lot like computer programming in a way. If I were to go to law school, I'd be more focused on copyright and patent law, though.

I haven't seen any signs of the cancer scare actually being real, but I still need the bloodwork in October to make sure.

There's a girl in my life now. I really don't know our status. We've both been so busy that the only time we've spent time together outside of work was three weeks ago. Since we work together, taking everything slow is just a wise idea. She's wonderful and the common ground we share makes things even more fun.

I wish I had video of her reaction when powerband of the Texasspeed 228R camshaft in my SS kicked in. She's a gearhead like I am.

The girlfriend from two years back got married recently. I hope it works out for her sake. Only time will tell. This new girl is more compatible by far, though I'm not about to call her a girlfriend.

The frontend machine for Dashcat2 decided to develop a problem that I can't reliably fix in any amount of time I'm willing to dedicate to the job while I have so much time-critical stuff going on so I built a new machine. Actually, it's older guts in a new case. It looks almost exactly like the i7 rig I used to have. Same type of case, and the exact same guts. I bought them back from my brother after he decided to upgrade.

I keep expecting it to freeze on return from sleep like the old machine did, but it's not. That's a plus. Now that I don't have to massage a machine just to get an hour of proper operation out of it, I can be a lot more productive.

My mom has been in and out of treatment and physical rehab since the stem cell transplant. It bought her time, but wasn't an outright cure. She came back home today after having to deal with another round of her blood counts going funky and paralysis trying to get the best of her. Her hair is growing back, but it's a little odd that my hair is longer than hers.
 
Sounds like you have a lot going on. Glad to hear everything seems to going okay, nice to have you back!
 
I need to give a quick update:

Brigham City, Utah was struck by tragedy the afternoon of September 10 when Alix Kristine Norman was murdered by her stepfather, just six days after her Sweet 16, a block away from where I live.

On September 13, I attended her candlelight vigil as a neighbor and learned she was also a kindred spirit as a fellow gamer (playing World of Warcraft until 3AM on a school night certainly qualifies for hard core gamer status). Feeling compelled to do something special, I set up about a hundred glow sticks in a tribute message that I felt would have longer duration than the candles. They did and the display was well-received.

A photo with some of my glowsticks can be seen in the first link until next Wednesday. A direct link to the photo is provided. Photo credit goes to my cousin, Erin Young, photographer for Box Elder News Journal.
http://benewsjournal.com/
http://benewsjournal.com/Photos/alixnorman.jpg

I have a nighttime photo of the rest of the glowsticks I'll post later.

On September 15, I was linked to her DeviantArt page and got the idea of turning her signature into decal form with my vinyl cutter. I ended up using the high-res version of this image as the source. I ran off one 12" prototype and 5 4" prototypes and attended her viewing both to pay my respects to a fallen kindred spirit and to give her mother and father the decals. Her mom was moved to tears and gave me permission for a proposed gift of a large number of the same decals. Alix was buried with one of the prototype decals with her and she's also wearing one of my glowsticks. Back at home, reading the funeral program and seeing familiar names, I realized I grew up with her mom and uncle.

I pulled an all-nighter, managing to make over 400 decals, about 200 of which have yet to be transfer-taped. The idea was I would deliver them during the night since I couldn't attend the funeral because of work. I ultimately decided to use one of my sick days, attending the funeral, where my sticker project was listed as an example of the many ways in which people grieve. At that point, it was my turn to be moved to tears.

Before the funeral, I had stripped all of my logo regalia from the Camaro and added a large version of the signature decal to the rear windshield where it will stay at least until it's time to store the car for the winter. The GoPro cameras I bought two weeks prior were still mounted. I recorded front and rear views of the funeral procession. I have to fix the corrupted files on the front camera. Reviewing the footage from the rear camera afterward, I found it remarkable how many people joined the procession. And that was despite it being a school day.

I don't know whether it was the lack or sleep or what, but I had been hallucinating all day, hearing cool music in the white noise of cooling fans and engine rumble, making me think I left a radio on or an ad was playing on a computer or something. At one point, I swore I could hear Ice Cube rapping to marching band music, but mostly I heard New Orleans Jazz mixed with Dimebag-style guitar. During the funeral, I swear I felt someone hug me the way you hug someone you won't be seeing for a very long time. I can't explain that, but I felt better.

The world lost a sweet, talented, and beautiful young woman with an incredible amount of potential. Additionally, as gamers, we've lost one of our own.
 
I've been working on this over the weekend. Plus a lot longer than that. Waiting for the Fall colors to peak was the big thing. I'm well aware this faces a DMCA copyright takedown unless UMG decides to be merciful so check it out ASAP. I uploaded it in 1080p so higher resolution is better even though it defaults to 480p I think.

In Loving Memory - Alix Kristine Norman
September 4, 1997 - September 10, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhCF7i2QnII

Launch!
 
Almost exactly six months ago, I had a blood test that showed a possibility I had cancer brewing.

I got the results of my follow-up test this week. It's not cancer.

It's Pre-Diabetes.

I was supposed to get stronger, but I didn't--physically, anyway. Instead, I spent my time preparing to be permanently sidelined when I ultimately didn't need to. I think it's a good problem to have, but my Pancreas is angry with me and I need to fix it.

I've basically been sentenced to being ripped and it's backed up by medical. That might not be enough to avoid future problems (future as in retirement age), but it will buy me time. Even then, my Grandma has been controlling her Diabetes for over 20 years now.

There's no shame in growing old. There's no shame in my hair turning gray as it has been since I was 17. So many have been denied that privilege: Several old friends, a few young friends, one long-distance nascent girlfriend from forever ago, and countless acquaintances. We honor our fallen by taking up the torches they drop. Their bucket list becomes ours.

From the oldest of my Elmers from my Ham Radio days to those like Alix, Jennifer, and Rachel, I've got quite the collection. I got shit to do, Goldblum. Don't wait for me to run out of gum.

As I state in the memorial video, there's more to this than just me messing around in my video editing program.

That's where I stand. I'm still alive. I'm still unbroken. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMfzZxIt9bA

... and there's more coming your way today.
 
Admitedly and understatement, but it is good news that it's not the Big C.
You can control or moderate diabetes with diet and exercise. Glad you are accepting the challenge & stepping up to make the life changes necessary.

As far as comments about aging...gray hair, etc., my philosophy is that it beats the alternative. At least you're still on the right side of the grass. :)
 
Wahoomcdaniel said:
Admitedly and understatement, but it is good news that it's not the Big C.
You can control or moderate diabetes with diet and exercise. Glad you are accepting the challenge & stepping up to make the life changes necessary.

As far as comments about aging...gray hair, etc., my philosophy is that it beats the alternative. At least you're still on the right side of the grass. :)
Click to expand...

Oh yeah! Based on the test, I'm not at the point where my Pancreas is damaged, but I'm insulin resistant and all that. Basically: I'm too fat.

The last time I was given the Prediabetic diagnosis was in 2008 and I worked to lose weight. Forward over five years, I'm the same weight I was at that point in time, but in 2008 I had something like 35% body fat. Today, I have 20%. I have 32 pounds more lean tissue/muscle than I did in 2008.

I've got plenty of friends who are either six feet under, scattered, or even bound for deep space in one case. I am in no hurry to join them.

I'm still going to continue to dye my hair, though, that will stop the moment my goatee starts to change.
 
I just looked at my stats here at the [H].

I joined the forum on February 8, 2004.

I'm going to make a guarantee to you all: By February 8, 2014, I will have Dashcat2 remotely interfaced with the ability to start up remotely via network commands instead of manual start via telnet. This is a huge learning curve for me.
 
This is the adult me paying complete attention while the kid in me cheers and does victory backflips.

IMG_2771s.jpg


I can not and will not screw this up.
 
Did you know her? Breast cancer, my mother battled it for nearly a decade in the 90s/2000. I read the obit. What a shame.
 
xjmtx said:
Did you know her? Breast cancer, my mother battled it for nearly a decade in the 90s/2000. I read the obit. What a shame.
Click to expand...

I'm sure I met her at some point when she was just little. I didn't know her, but the way my Facebook feed lit up I thought I had missed something Breast Cancer related because so many of her friends are my friends. Friends of friends pinked out the feed the rest of the way. A dear friend of mine was pretty close with her.

She was an amazing person. How many athletes donate all their winnings to charity? It's said that you either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain, but there wasn't a drop of evil in her. This is was just tragic.

Is your Mom okay?
 
MisterDNA said:
I'm sure I met her at some point when she was just little. I didn't know her, but the way my Facebook feed lit up I thought I had missed something Breast Cancer related because so many of her friends are my friends. Friends of friends pinked out the feed the rest of the way. A dear friend of mine was pretty close with her.

She was an amazing person. How many athletes donate all their winnings to charity? It's said that you either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain, but there wasn't a drop of evil in her. This is was just tragic.

Is your Mom okay?
Click to expand...

time for a PM.
 
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