Recently I was after a decent NAS storage device and came across this little beauty from Pluscom.

NAS

It is a powerful mini server that takes SATA / IDE ATA UP TO 2TB (2000GB) Capacity, enough to meet your high storage need.

STR-8132 also have too many other useful functions like Print server, SAMBA Server on LAN , Secure BT Download, One Touch Backup, USB 2.0 Storage and DHCP. Support Bit Torrent Download.

This device is more than a portable external enclosure and has an easy to configure ftp server from its user friendly web interface; it’s beyond portability in the way that users get to store and restore data at remote location using the ftp server capability.

STR-8132 is the best storage solution for home or small business networks, requiring no network experience. With capacities up to 2000GB and with support of SATA and IDE, your valuable documents, photos, music files or presentations can be accessed anytime by any computer on your network!

You no longer need to set up an ftp server through home computer. STR-8132, the Network attached storage (NAS) system is storage devices that can be accessed over a network, rather than directly being connected to the computer (such as an external USB hard drive). This enables multiple users to share the same storage space at once via Network.

BIT Torrent Secure Download: Once the download start you do not need the computer to leave on as the download will continue saving to the this Network attached caddy.

Access this caddy wired or Wireless: If this caddy is connected to a wireless Router and your computer has wireless adapter you can access this NAS wireless or by RJ45 Cable if connected to a wired Router / Switch or VIA USB cable if connected to your computer direct via USB cable.

Access this caddy from out side your home or office: If assign a public IP address to this caddy you can access it out side your office or home and can save to it too.

Support NTF & FAT32: VIA USB 2.0 it Supports FAT 32 + NTFS File formats and via LAN it only support FAT32.

Print Server: You can even connect printers to it (BUT see the text below also for printers.)

Cooling Fan: Built in large cooling fan for better heat dissipation.

Compatible with Windows 98se/Me/2000/XP/Vista MAC Linux

Powerful performance with a transfer-rate via RJ45 and USB port. With this device, you can take your Data, files, music, movies and so on.

Made of special aluminium alloy material which protect the hard driver from getting hot, which give your Hard drive longer life.

Features:-

* Support 2TB 2000GB SATA or IDE HDD
* Supports SAMBA Server on LAN
* Ethernet & USB2.0 combination interface
* Supports Print Server
* Supports 3.5″ SATA or IDE HDD
* With one-touch backup function
* Compatible with DSL routers/modems
* Supports FTP and DHCP
* Hot USB available for external enclosure, Udisk, HUB devices
* Supports one 10/100Mbps Ethernet Port Under network environment
* Supports Secure Bit Torrent download
* Chipset No: STR8132
* Built in large cooling fan for better heat dissipation
* Supports DHCP server, DHCP client or fix IP
* Supports Maximum HDD capacity
* Supports hardware reset function by pressing the reset switch
* USB 2.0 Storage
* Data transfer is twice as fast as competing models
* Data transfer is twice as fast as competing models
* Data Transfer rate: Ethernet up to 100Mbps, USB 2.0 upto 480 Mbps
* Password management provides secure access to HDD and web management
* Supports FAT32 and NTFS file formats by USB & FAT32 by LAN.
* Drive enclosure made of aluminium alloy good for heat dissipation
* Power, HDD, LAN, USB Activity LED lights
* USB host can connect to another USB enclosure, easy to expand storage

* Software: Web based disk access management software
* Supports Plug-play and Hot-plug
* System Log

Specifications:-
* Interface: Ethernet 10/100 ; USB2.0
* Data transfer rate: Ethernet up to: 100Mbs ; USB2.0 up to:480Mbs
* Suitability: 3.5″ SATA HDD \ 3.5″ IDE HDD
* Hot Plug: Supports Plug-play and Hot-plug
* Power: AC input: 100 – 240V ~50/60Hz
* DC output: 12V/3A,26W
* Material: Pain Aluminium

You will find this being sold on Ebay. I’ve fitted a 1TB disk to it and also had my printer hanging off it. It’s especially useful when you have a laptop and don’t want to have to plug the printer in all the time.
I can switch on the NAS and access my printer from my wireless laptop anywhere in the house.

Setting up a Wireless webcam is not as difficult as you might think.

Basically all you need to think about is

1. What do you need to record the image
2. How do you get that image into the PC
3. What do you need to do to show that image on the web

Firstly I went on to a well know auction site ( EBAY lol ) and bought a PCI capture card.

You will find a lot of these cards come with Windows software, but a component of Linux is V4L ( video for linux ) and luckily these cards use a connexant BTTV chip with is well supported under linux.

To enable this card all you have to do is add the following lines to your modprobe.conf file

alias char-major-81 videodev
alias char-major-81-0 bttv
options bttv card=77 tuner=-1 radio=0 triton1=0 vsfx=0 autoload=0

This will give you 4 different inputs you can use , so you could have 4 cameras connected up and displayed on your web page.

Next I bought the wireless camera kit.

You can find really cheap kits, but to be legal in the UK you need to buy a 2.4ghz one . By fitting the camera into a small case I could easily have it anywhere in my garden. ( The only downfall with the wireless camera is that with a normal cheap PP3 battery you only get around 2 hours of life )

A rough formula on how long your camera will stay alive for is

Note: Use of this formula does not guarantee that you will get the determined battery life. Other factors such as weather condition (temperature, humidity, etc.), and battery condition can extend/shorten the battery life.

So I have looked at putting a PP9 battery on instead, also I want to be able to stop the camera from working at night. So to combat this I have been looking into fitting a small light sensor between the battery and the camera.

The circuit for this can be found Dark/Light Activated Relay Circuit

In order to capture the camera pictures I used an application called fswebcam.

Then I had a shell script run every 5 minutes to capture the picture

/usr/local/bin/fswebcam -q \
 -d /dev/video0 -i 0   \
 --banner-colour "#44000000" --line-colour "#FF000000" \
 --title "GadgetDude" --subtitle "Garden Cam" \
 /w3/cam1.jpg

This basically captures the image from camera input 0, labels it and puts it in my web area.