Serves the purpose of umpteen different shields (Logging,USB Host, Ethernet, Real time Clock etc) as well as overcoming some of the shortcomings of an 8 bit processor with 2kb of ram. (Classic noob question wanting to know if he can run his USB webcam from an Arduino to which the answer is always no without a lot of help).
Its cheap, you have to hack it to change its original use so fits in with the Arduino way of thinking. You could probably even program an arduino with it. It doesn't use much power so (at a push) it would run on batteries. Come completes with a power supply (Regulated 12V 2 amp) to feed itself and an arduino as well as some servos and stuff if you want.
It starts life as a Seagate Dockstar http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/network_storage/freeagent_dockstar/
and you convert it into a full blown computer (lacking one or two bits admittedly) with 128 Mb of Ram and a 32 bit processor. A bit of good old hacking from here http://www.jeff.doozan.com/debian/ and away it goes. It runs a fully fledged webserver, keeps time perfectly via ntp, pulls data from an arduino and graphs it , runs a USB webcam or two and you can add huge quantities of storage.
One or two caveats, the hacking page is for an early model Dockstar and new ones need slightly different treatment, but the software works fine. Its supposed to work with a USB flash drive, but its a bit picky about the type and none of mine worked, it runs a treat with an old laptop drive in a USB adapter though. The ability to drive Linux is a big advantage to setting it up and programming it to do what you want.
Its taken over my home monitoring system : http://pluggy.is-a-geek.com/ from a cut down PC. It doesn't struggle with the workload like the old one did and it uses less power (around 5 watts with the hard drive, arduino and 2 webcams). Happy bunny
There are a couple of times that I've been excited about turning some low-cost consumer commodity into a general purpose hackable platform, but these days I'm not sure that it's worth the effort. Those things tend to be very short-lived (replaced in the market by the next bigger better version that isn't necessarily hackable in the same way), and then you have a non-replaceable, non-duplicateable, probably non-repairable, "thing." (I have some Mattel JuiceBoxes, some cybiko systems, and a couple routers that just BARELY lasted long enough to get a DDWRT port. And a gameboy Advanced... There is "some" but not a lot info out there on each of these, but...)
That seems like a pretty cool device all on its own; the fact that it can be hacked just makes it a better deal! Its also inexpensive (always a plus in my book). Nice - thanks for posting this!
Based on Seagate's description, I'd guess that the built-in firmware won't have camera drivers, but any recent Linux you install will at least have that option (if they aren't already included. Which is highly likely).
I wonder what resolution the 2 that pluggy is running are at, and how much it taxes the CPU to stream video from them. I'm really interested in the idea of a networked video camera (with pan and tilt via Arduino) for peanuts.
Yes, it will run USB webcams itself. To be fair I had to fudge it to run the cameras one at a time. I couldn't get a picture from both of them simultaneously. One is a Logitech and the other is an A4tech. I use the linux program 'Motion' in snapshot mode to take the pictures of the meters. It could be the version of Debian (squeeze) which isn't in final release yet.
@ Ron T. Running one camera, is well within the processors capabilities without stressing it. They are both 640 * 480 and manage streaming at a few frames per second, although taking snapshots of meters every 10 minutes isn't a hard thing to do..... The software that comes with it just does file sharing across the internet, its pretty idiot proof but you have to pay for it after 12 months if you still want it to work across the internet. With the current version you need to register the thing on the internet before you can turn on SSH which is the way in....
If you scroll to the bottom of http://pluggy.is-a-geek.com/ the 2 pictures from the webcams are there. They only update once every 10 minutes, which is plenty considering what they are looking at. The curious colouring on the electric meter is probably to do with the combination IR (webcam that can see in the dark) and visible white light illumination. It also has a lens from some old reading glasses stuck over it so it focuses nearer.........
I have half a dozen of the darn things without a clue what to do with them.
Well clearly we should connect them to out Arduinos to start with! (but like I said, once you do that it get really hard for anyone to duplicate what you've done, anyway...)
I got one of these cameras Webcam Test 2023: Die besten im Vergleich and it can be moved around. But I know absolutely nothing of debian and stuff like that. Would you know, or be able to find out if it can be used with that station?
Since I wrote this it looks like they caught on to great potential of the Dockstar for hacking. I bought mine for £30, since then they've more than doubled in price - they aren't worth it at what they are asking now. Glad I got it when I did........
