Another Win For Linux

[Kellemora]

On the Security Camera's.
A WiFi card in a computer, although it sends and receives, it is designed to connect to Router.
The same applies to the Security Cameras, they must connect to a Router.
Apparently WiFi cards in computers are hand-shake devices. They can send and receive if you have them connected to a Router, but nothing can connect directly to them.
At least based on everything I've looked up so far.

Also Wireless Security Camera is a misnomer. It has to be wired to a Power Source, usually a Wall Wart.

I've had a few cameras that used the USB port, but they were not designed to be on all the time.
While Security Cameras are designed to be on all the time. And if you have a NVR you can record 24/7 also.

I was thinking, if the WiFi card could pick up the video from the camera, not worried about the sound, I could stick one of my old Sata Drives into the computer and let it record.

I think I will wait until they come, that way I will know the brand and what they do. It is possible they could be connected via USB cable and not need a separate power source. I won't know anything until they get here.

[yogi]

Yes, the WiFI card is a transceiver. They are tuned to the standard band of frequencies used for wireless routers: 900 MHz 2.4 GHz, 3.6 GHz, 4.9 GHz, 5 GHz, 5.9 GHz and 60 GHz. The routers you and I would have in our homes use 5 and 2.4 GHz and thus most of the WiFi peripherals, printers, laptops, mobile phones, Alexa, and probably remote cameras are all capable of communicating over these standard WiFi frequency bands. I realize that just because your WiFi card can pick up the camera's signal does not mean it can do anything intelligent with it. It must pass that on to a video processor.

All of this would work over a P2P (peer to peer) network. Normally your wireless peripherals would connect to the router to be routed, duh. However, every wireless device on your network would be capable of receiving the signal. Thus there is no reason why WiFi peer to peer communications cannot take place if the proper software is in place.

Having said all that, it's more likely that the camera uses Bluetooth. The same theory applies for P2P networking, but it's done on a different set of frequencies.

The only reason the camera would require routing is if it is going to operate over the Internet. There are services out there which will process the video and send it back to you over a web page. That method is great if you are on the road and have your smart phone set to watch the camera's action. If all your observing is going to be local, however, you don't need to connect to the Internet, and I'm guessing a router is optional in that case too. Any supported serial port will do, but I don't see why wireless P2P could not be an option as well.

[Kellemora]

I happened to talk to my brother last night, and he said they are cheap, and he got a case of them for $9.99 each, and the advertising for them is probably misleading.

Here is what they are: Zosi HD 800 TVL
They are supposed to work with PC, or Smart Phone, anywhere with 3g/WiFi.

He connected his hardwired using his existing BNC connectors to an NVR control box.
He used a 2 amp power supply for each, which he also already had in place.
Basically he was replacing his old Sam's Club cameras.
He's pleased with how they work, but doesn't know much about if they actually work on WiFi or not.

[yogi]

Interesting Links
REVIEWS: https://camerasecurityreviews.com/zosi- ... g2617a-us/
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/ZOSI-security-IR ... B00RWO0DZ4

Here is what I got from those links. This camera normally sells for $19,99 but the Google shopper can get you one for around $13. Seems cheap for a security camera. That's because it doesn't do much. It has a few video modes and they provide a way to select the one you like. But that's it. All you get is the camera and controller. It needs a 12V power supply which is not included. Also, the only option is to connect it to your DVR, or at least that's all I could dig up in these two links.

Going further to read the reviews from actual customers reveals that the camera performs exceptionally well but people are reporting problems with the mobile app and the computer connection. So, while the advertisement does not say anything technical about the broadcasting, apparently there is a way to connect the camera to your computer and the mass storage therein. The ability to work over 3G networks is also mentioned. I'm guessing all of that involves buying more pieces than that which comes with the original camera.

[Kellemora]

Hi Yogi, the package came last night. He only sent me two.
But these things are made of METAL not plastic, which surprised the heck out of me.
It is different than the one you linked to above.
Here is a link to the model I just received.

https://www.neweggbusiness.com/Product/ ... lsrc=aw.ds

It is a hardwired unit, NOT WiFi as my brother indicated.
And it has to be fed into a DVR. The DVR must have wifi to connect to a router if you want to view the images on a cell phone or computer.
At least what I learned about them last night. And yes I have to buy the power supply separately.
I don't know if I will use them or not. I can buy USB camera's that only need a USB cable connected to them.
I have one in my basement running on about 75 feet of USB, but it is old and cheap, hi hi.

[yogi]

The camera in your link is black and the camera in my link is white. Other than that it's the same camera. I see that my link to an Amazon retailer has upped the price since yesterday. It's now $20.99 instead of the $19.99 it listed for yesterday - in the exact same link!

[Kellemora]

Surprising they are made of metal.
But I see why they are so cheap.
Basically all they are is a camera with IR lighting.
No 3g or WiFi as the ad claimed.

I set them aside for now. Heck, I haven't even got to install an OS on the laptop I was messing with last week. And I want it working when I go to visit my son in July.

[yogi]

I did see a reference to 3G capability with that camera, but they never mentioned you have to add that on somehow. Same with the power supply. It has none.

I have the laptop for when I go on the road. Maybe I'll get back to seeing if I can render it useless by adding memory and installing a SSD in place of the HDD. After that I'll see what I can do about Linux. I'm pretty sure I can install at least one partition with Ubuntu -- that seems to be the configuration most documented on the Internet. I have bigger plans for it than that, but what I want to do may not be possible. If I make that determination I'll be in the market for a custom built laptop. But, I don't think I'll need to go to that extreme. The dead laptop was UEFI for my beta testing, but no security partitions to fight with. Don't see why I can't do the same with this MSI machine. Warranty be damned.

[Kellemora]

I've seen a lot of devices with stickers on them that say if the sticker is removed the warranty is void.
They may be able to say that, but I don't think it will hold water, unless opening something would cause damage.
The Magnuson/Moss Warranty Act covers a lot of things, and opening a device with replaceable parts will not void a warranty, even if they want you to think it will. If larger memory or hard drive can be replaced in a laptop, then opening it to do so cannot void the warranty. There is one loophole there though, if they claim their are no serviceable parts inside, that changes their liability. Note I did not say no user serviceable parts inside. A company cannot limit you to using only their service company, that too is against the law.

Heck, as a ham radio operator I bought many things that the booklet even showed how to fix certain problems, and doing so would not void the warranty. In fact they preferred if you gave it shot yourself first. They would even supply the replacement parts for free in many cases. MFJ was one of those companies who said if you can fix it yourself do so. But repairing was limited to repairs, not modifications to the equipment.

On a different note. I had a small bug zapper with very close wires wound in cylindrical fashion. It was designed to zap those small pesky gnats, more so than the bigger bugs. Trouble is, although it worked great on gnats, the big bugs would stick to it as they fry slowly, which would short out the darn thing.
I took it apart and replaced the small zapping capacitors with the largest I could fit into the case, but not so large that when a gnat got zapped the arc would not quit between the grid wires. It did take a little experimentation before I got just the write capacitor sizes, but after I did, that thing would explode even a dry June bug, hi hi.
I loved that little zapper and never could find another one. I wrote the company and asked if they still made it and where to get one. They sent a letter back saying they discontinued it due to complaints of it clogging with bugs.
This prompted me to send a letter back to them telling them what I did, and it not only solved the problem, but made the unit work perfectly. I didn't hear back from them for many months, then out of the blue a box arrived via UPS. In it were five of this model bug zapper, and a short note that said, UL will not allow us to upgrade the device and maintain UL approval. We are working on a new design. Enclosed please find our remaining inventory of Unit number such n such.

Their comment about UL made me curious. The only thing I could find was the capacitors created more current than the supporting device for the wires was rated for.

That being said, I do NOT use bug zappers outdoors, for the simple reason they attract the beneficial insects and almost always ignore the harmful insects. Of those that bite, they are usually female, and females are not attracted to light, UV or otherwise. So bug zappers will not kill those that tend to come around outside and bite you.

[yogi]

I don't know about the Magnuson Act, but I do know what MSI claims. They admit to having serviceable parts inside by saying explicitly that only an authorized service shop can replace the battery (which cannot be accessed from outside the enclosure like most other laptops), upgrade the memory, and/or replace the hard drive. It's pretty clear that guys like me have tried to do all those things and failed at which point they sent the machines back to MSI for "warranty" repairs. I'm not concerned about those particular items. I do have some concern about the nVidia card that's in there and the µP itself. If they go down and the seal is broken, they can easily claim I did the damage, Magnuson notwithstanding. You probably are correct about the legalities, but in order to get to that point I would be required to interact with them more than I'd care to. I've had the machine a couple months now and feel I got my money's worth out of the video card and processor. Time to void some warranties at the risk of doing battle with Microsoft. LOL

Underwriters Labs is a cool place. I used to play chess on the Motorola chess team and we would visit various companies who were in the league. Underwrites had a facility in the area where I lived so I got to go there. We did not get a tour of the place but we got to talk to some of the engineers who worked there. The only place I visited with the chess team that was even cooler was Argon National Labs, which was run by the U of Chicago at the time. We played in the Math Center and not anywhere near the accelerator. It turns out those math jocks are pretty boring folks. Anyway, it's a well earned honor to receive an Underwriters certification. You can't change anything without losing it. I can see how increasing the zap might create a danger to the consumer; sparks from fried insects starting fires in the room, for example. The increased current might also prove lethal to humans if they were grounded just right. Regardless, even if there were no dangers brought on by the improved design, Underwriters would have to put the new gizmo through all the rigors of its labs before issuing a new seal of approval.

[Kellemora]

When I manufactured and sold a Car Electricity Adapter (to convert 12 volts to 110 AC for tools that had motors with brushes, not for TVs or Radios), I only used UL approved and certified parts in hopes to get them to approve the final product. It doesn't exactly work like that they told me, hi hi. However, I was allowed to state in advertising and the instruction booklet that every component including the case was UL certified. But I could not even put the UL approved sticker on the unit itself, unless I paid them big bucks to test and approve the assembly. It seems like I remember for a much lower cost I could have got the UL Recognized symbol without the extensive testing, if they approved it for the intended use, and it met all their standards for such usage. It was still cost prohibitive at the time, and it is a good thing I never invested in getting the approval, because we never sold enough to cover those fees.

Although I'm not a fan of Consumers Digest, I did go through one of their testing labs a number of years ago.
Hate to say this, I was not really impressed on how they go about testing things.
They OMIT tests for normal everyday operating of things, and of the features that don't work right or never worked in the first place. They often rate a piece of crap as their BEST CHOICE, while placing the one which is truly the best near the bottom of their list. Yet they claim they are not paid and all of their testing is unbiased.

They were testing a new Hard Milled bar of soap, by comparing it to several other brands on the market considered hard milled. To determine the longevity of the bar of soap, they had this long metal I bar that moved back and forth across a dozen bars of soap. The I bar had a terrycloth washrag clipped to the I bar that would drag itself across each bar of soap at the same time and speed. After each pass a stream of water rewet the washcloths.
So, all the machine did was move the washcloth back and forth across the bars of soap.
Each bar of soap had two holes drilled from the backside to hold them in place, and as soon as the pin became exposed, that bar was given a ranking number, 1 being the first to show the bar top, and 12 for the last one to show the bar top.
The new bar came in around number 10 I think.

In another room they were testing single shot aerosol cans. About the same type of set-up too. A large I-beam moved up and down and on the downstroke pressed the dispenser cap. The different height cans were on blocks so they all were pressed by the I-beam. They sprayed into a tin duct work tube which was exhausted to outside. Three women sat on stools watching for which one ran out first, second third, etc. I have no idea what was in the cans, and had never seen any aerosol dispenser that only gave a single short burst when you pressed the nozzle, except for a tiny breath freshener. These were much larger cans, like air freshener or furniture polish came in.

They were testing several things there, but I don't remember what all because most of them we just passed by quickly.

Here is something I picked up for you:
"Thanks to the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975, it’s actually illegal for companies to void your warranty just because you repaired or modified something yourself. They have to prove that your DIY repair or modification caused something else in the device to malfunction. Which means those scary warranty stickers that you see on a lot of consumer electronics are actually meaningless…at least from a legal perspective."

And another:
"FTC Says 'Warranty Void If Removed' Stickers Are Bullshit, Warns Manufacturers They're Breaking the Law
Federal law says you can repair your own things, and manufacturers cannot force you to use their own repair services."

"Companies such as Sony and Microsoft pepper the edges of their game consoles with warning labels telling customers that breaking the seal voids the warranty. That’s illegal. Thanks to the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, no manufacturer is allowed to put repair restrictions on a device it offers a warranty on. Dozens of companies do it anyway, and the FTC has put them on notice. Apple, meanwhile, routinely tells customers not to use third party repair companies, and aftermarket parts regularly break iPhones due to software updates."

"The letters warn that FTC staff has concerns about the companies’ statements that consumers must use specified parts or service providers to keep their warranties intact," the FTC wrote in a press release. "Unless warrantors provide the parts or services for free or receive a waiver from the FTC, such statements generally are prohibited by the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, a law that governs consumer product warranties. Similarly, such statements may be deceptive under the FTC Act."

[yogi]

I think MSI might be on shaky grounds with the way they worded their warranty advisory. However, there is always a question of how the failure occurred. Typical warranties cover "parts and workmanship" for whatever period stated. If the processor died, for example, a sealed unit would guarantee that they put in a defective part. Otherwise it would be difficult to say if the part failed on it's own or if it failed due to my intervention. Likewise, the unit comes with 8GB RAM. If I decide to upgrade it on my own to 16GB, there would be some question about whether I did it the right way or not. It would be my word against theirs should the original memory card fail. As far as demanding I use MSI service and nothing else, I think Magnuson would cover that particular situation. Anybody with the proper training should be able to replace components. And, that "proper training" is the gray area I'd say isn't covered by law. It boils down to a question of how did the defect occur. Was it shipped from the factory defective, or did some intervention cause it to happen afterwards?


I had a subscription to Consumers Union magazine for several years. Like yourself I did not agree with their assessments, but I was very interested in their methods. I wanted to know what to look for. CU doesn't rate products as being best for their intended use. They rate things as best value for the money. Thus you will find bars of soap in the stores that are not recommended by CU but are superior in quality. Problem is they are more expensive and not worth the slight advantage they may have. My concerns with the way CU rates things has always been regarding how they determine value. That is a subjective judgment in my opinion. Then again, they never said it was anything else.

[Kellemora]

The three or four times I changed my mind on a product, based on information from Consumer Digest, and bought their Best Choice Pick, it was a lemon.

Most Recently, I was so pleased with how my LG electronics worked, namely my monitors, cell phones and the like.
When I redid our kitchen, I bought all LG appliances. None of them worked, some were internally damaged and not from the delivery company, and the service company had to keep waiting months for parts.
Then the service company with the contract went belly up and nobody told us.
Had to argue with them for months to fix the dryer, but they refused to fix the refrigerator.
I'm not kidding when I say not one appliance they delivered worked.
They did replace the stove five times in the first two months before we got one that did work.
However it had a dent on the top door. I had them bring out another one, figuring I could just swap the doors, since the one we had worked. They wouldn't let me do that, and the one they brought also did not work, so we just kept the one we had. I waited about two more months and had the service guy replace the top door because I told him it wouldn't seal properly. After I found out he was coming with a new door, I sprung the top door so it didn't seal right, hi hi.

[yogi]

My wife has an LG phone and it's acceptable. The voice quality is poor at best. When I talk to my daughters on that phone they sound like somebody else. I have no trouble recognizing their voices on my Pixel, which is only about four times the price of the LG phone. When we moved down here we looked over some LG appliances but decided to go with GE. I can't say which one of the two companies make the crapyest appliances.

Speaking of oven doors ... I had a KitchenAide stove in the old house. It was marvelous and we upgraded to their latest model when we redid the kitchen. I liked the stove because it had two overns. A full sized one on the bottom and a half size one on top of that. I almost always used the smaller of the two. Anyway, one day the bottom oven door was open, sitting at about a 60 degree angle as oven doors tend to do when not fully open. I decided I wanted to move the stove forward about a quarter inch to make it even with the counter tops. So, I grabbed onto the open oven door and pulled. Big mistake! The door pulled right off it's mount with seemingly little effort. I tried putting it back together but couldn't manage it. There is a spring loaded locking device inside the oven where the door is hinged. I could not open that spring lock in order to slide the door into it. Now, I figured they have a dozen illiterate illegal aliens at the factory putting these doors on the stoves as they move down the assembly line, so, how hard could it be? Turns out it's impossible. A call to the KitchenAide service center and $200 later it was fixed. He used a special crowbar looking device in order to engage the door, but even so it wasn't too easy for him, a man of experience. It's hard to believe those doors are so easy to remove but impossible to reattach.

[Kellemora]

Both of our oven doors lift off easily with a tug if you don't press the release button which is only an indent on the holding arm, not a hole it slides into.
If you take the door off and lay it on a counter, the bottom piece has button on each side that if you press it, you can take the bottom panel off and slide the outer glass out for cleaning, which also gives you access to the inner sealed in place glass for cleaning. So it does have some useful features.

As far as putting the doors back on, if you let the arm snap back inside. On ours, when you slide the door up, a metal bar swings out to prevent the spring hinge from closing. But if you snap the door off fast like I did, the bar does not have time to swing out and the hinge goes into the stove. Not Good! So I was faced with the same problem you had.
I never thought about using a crowbar, but what I did do was use the BBQ fork to tilt it out just far enough to slip a 3/4" copper pipe over the top. I should say, this didn't work the first four tries, hi hi. The pipe kept slipping off the curved top.
So, I took a hammer and beat the round pipe down on the end so it was a nearly flat oval. Then it fit over the curved top. Still slid off a couple of times, but once I got it out far enough to get the fork out of the way, I laid the fork shaft behind the hinge so it couldn't close all the way back again. This gave me just enough room to push the pipe down further and then it worked as it should, the little bar slid down and prevented the hinge from closing.
When you put the door back on, the bottom panel presses the lever of the lower bar moving it out of the way and then up and inside the door. Funny thing, it is just a flat piece of tin with one small bolt holding it in place.
I did learn it is best to press the little buttons twice before removing the door!
Once to get the door started, and once again for it to go past the second indent.
At the second indent is where the little tin blocker falls into place to keep the hinge from closing.

[yogi]

I knew somebody that worked at Best Buy. She claimed that they routinely removed those doors in order to jam the cooker though a tight spot. I asked how they put the door back on and she didn't know because she personally never had to do it. But, I was thinking, if the idiots in Best Buy's warehouse can do it, why can't I? The repair guy had more experience than I did but it didn't go quickly for him either, his special lever notwithstanding. I'm thinking there must be a trick to installing that door but I don't want to need to learn what it is.

[Kellemora]

My LG french door fridge leaks water somewhere between the outer and inner walls.
My best guess is the water tank itself must have a crack or a bad fitting.
The water runs down into the bottom of the freezer section where it freezes and build up until it then runs out the door onto the floor.
I used to bust out the ice once every two weeks, but now it's down to I do it every week so we don't get water on the floor.
They were supposed to fix this while it was under warranty, but never did, and the company with the work order went out of business and didn't turn the active work orders over to the factory office.
The only reason they finally fixed the dryer after a couple of years, was because they found they did have a parts order for the parts to fix it from the company that went defunct, so never filled the order or followed up on it.
Had they not found this order, the dryer would still be broke too. It still doesn't work quite right.

[yogi]

The GE fridge we had up north went south a few years after we owned it. It stopped cooling, but not altogether. We limped along for a few weeks then called in service. The tech had to disassemble the entire freezer section to get at the problem. It seems that for whatever reason the cooling coils were not working properly. Ice accumulated on the fins to a depth of a few inches. It was one solid block of ice when he opened it all up. I don't recall the exact price for repairs, but it came damned near half the price of a new unit. Maybe $600-$700. Normally I would have purchased a new fridge but we knew we weren't going to be living there that much longer. So, we had to let the ice melt for a few days and mop up the water on the floor in the process. Then the service guy was able to replace just about everything in sight. I think the motor was about the only thing that stayed in place. None of it was under warranty because I refused to purchase one of those extended warranty contracts. So I'm sure GE has a remote control switch that destroys their products if people don't submit to their warranty scam.

[Kellemora]

Not on a freezer, but did you know RCA used to install an electronic component called a Thermistor in their TV sets, and wired the circuit in such a way it could not be bypassed.
Think of a Thermistor like a carbon arc rod, a carbon arc rod burns to produce light in a motion picture projector, and is used for welding. The point is, they are Consumed in usage.
A Thermistor sorta works like this, it slowly consumes itself until it burns out, then the TV no longer works and requires a service call. I think the idea behind it was to keep TV shops in business. But as the price of TVs came down, folks would just toss the TV and buy a new one, and often not an RCA since they didn't last as long as other brands.

Don't laugh, my 89 to 100 dollar GoldStar AC I bought for my office 16 years ago, ran perfectly for 14 years, but the outside fins at the bottom were corroded away, and the layer of dirt on the inside area of the outside condenser was so hard it would no longer come off. The unit was still running when I replaced it before last summer with a 180 dollar Haier AC from WalMart. Now this Haier is over twice as noisy as the GoldStar, and has a cheaper quality remote too. Although it has lights on the front to tell you what mode you have it set at, you can't tell seated at my desk. At least the GoldStar showed the setting in the display. I doubt very much if this Haier will last more than 3 or 4 years. If it makes it to 5 years I will be surprised.

Years ago, I bought a huge GE window AC unit when I lived in that big house in Des Peres.
I didn't buy it until the middle of summer when it got so hot in the upstairs bedroom you couldn't sleep.
Come the next late spring when I started using it, it only ran for about a month before the blower motor went out.
I took it out, took it apart and replaced the blower motor with the exact same make and model motor.
Used it the rest of the summer, and for about 2/3 of the following summer, and the compressor started sticking.
I was about to buy a new AC unit when my uncle stopped by and said he could just add a larger start capacitor.
He did that for me a couple of days later, and it ran after that, but kept getting noisier and noisier and by the end of summer you couldn't sleep for the noise the compressor was making.
Luckily, that fall I moved into my Creve Coeur house where I was for 20 years. It had central air!

[yogi]

My understanding of thermisters comes from their use in radio electronics. They are merely resistors that change in value as the ambient temperature changes. They can decrease or increase resistance depending on what metal oxide they are made of. Thermisters do not self-destruct by design, at least not the ones I know about. There is a lot of expansion and contraction going on over time so that perhaps the joints of the wires attached to the element become weakened, but the resistor part isn't supposed to disintegrate. Typically they are used as current limiters. I would guess if your television drew enough current to blow a thermister it would be pouring out smoke before the limiter blew up.

Our gas hot water heater had a thermocoupler that would stop the gas flow if the pilot light went out for some reason. Like clockwork the thermocouple had to be replaced every 5 years if we wanted to shower with hot water. I'm guessing they too are some kind of themistor, but I can tell you for certain they are not the same ones you find in emergency communication equipment.

When I lived at home I had a window a/c unit that put out 10,000 btu of cold air. It was barely enough to cool two rooms, but it did a good job of removing the humidity. Thus sleeping was more comfortable if you didn't mind the noise from the compressor. I never heard of a quiet a/c unit. The best that can be done is to locate the compressor some distance from the window in the house so that the noise is greatly reduced. Central air is a great convenience, but even the blower motors are noisy. We have a Carrier system in this house and it makes a lot of noise. The Lenox we had previously was nearly dead quiet. Then again, I could get two Carriers for the price of one Lenox.