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From: Walter Hafner <hafner@suncog13.forwiss.tu-muenchen.de>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: FreeBSD in the field (EXPO 2000)
Date: 03 Jun 1997 15:15:04 +0200
Organization: Inst. fuer Informatik, TU Muenchen, Germany
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Distribution: world
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Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:42165
Hi!
We (FORWISS Munich) just finished a WebCam project. The camera
manufacturer - Sensormatic - donated the whole project to the EXPO 2000
GmbH (The EXPO 2000 will take place in Hannover, Germany). Sensormatic
installed 4 SpeedDomes (pan/tilt camera domes), complete with
controlling equipment and so on.
When we got involved, the cameras were there, the EXPO webpages were
there, the web designers were waiting for input ... all that was
missing, was a solution how to get the camera images to the web
designers.
On one hand it had to be a CHEAP solution, since we are donating it to
the EXPO too, on the other hand it had to be a ROBUST solution, since I
live about 500 km away from the EXPO and in Hannover there's noone to
administer the system ...
After a little thought, I came up with a solution that was about 3500 DM
(~ 2000 $) and that runs very robust.
A cheap Pentium 133, running FreeBSD and equipped with Framegrabber and
ISDN adapters now sits beside the Sensormatic equipment:
FreeBSD PC:
- Matrox Meteor <--> Video Manager Output
Framegrabber (multiplexes the 4 SpeedDomes)
- cuaa0 <--> Video manager control
- cuaa1 <--> external ISDN 1 (ZyXEL omni.net)
- cuaa2 <--> external ISDN 2 (ZyXEL omni.net)
One ZyXEL is intended for dialin to allow remote configuration, the
other for dial-on-demand PPP to the web designers. The only reason we
use two ISDN adapters is remote debugging of the PPP
connection. Otherwise, one adapter would be sufficient, thanks to
'mgetty'. Great program!
The PC runs a cronjob that grabs 76 images from the whole area every n
minutes, converts them to jpg, uuencodes them and mails them to the web
designer via dial-on-demand PPP. I know, this solution (mail) is sick,
but I only have access to port 25 thanks to a dreaded firewall. Nothing
I can do about that.
Up to now, the system runs flawlessly! The web designers programmed a
java applet round the images and now the images are on the net:
http://www.expo2000.de/webpix/imagemap.html
The images are "clickable". Clicking somewhere on the image loads the
next image to the left/right/above/below.
The whole configuration (purchasing the PC, installing and configuring
the hardware, FreeBSD, mgetty, PPP) was about two weeks of work. The
program controlling the video manager was about 4 weeks of work, but
that's a different story.
So what's the bottom line?
I want to thank all of you for your efforts to make FreeBSD such a good
and stable system! In this group I got many very competent answers to
all my questions.
As you know all, there's this continous thread about FreeBSD
vs. Linux. Here's my opinion about it: I never ever played with the
thought of installing Linux in Hannover. Two reasons:
- Though Linux is quite stable, it is not "rock-stable". If you live 500
km away from your PC, you care about that. Another drawback of Linux
is the version/distribution chaos. I didn't want to get involved into
it by any means ...
- Support in the newsgroups. The main goal of Linux users in Usenet is
advocating Linux. The mail goal of FreeBSD users in Usenet is
providing information. Compared to other newsgroups the noise level is
very low.
In the meantime I even convinced my boss (Linux fan!) of the qualities
of FreeBSD: Check out HORUS in the commerce section of the 2.2.* CD ...
Keep on the good work!
-Walter
--
Walter Hafner_____________________________ hafner@forwiss.tu-muenchen.de
<A href=http://www.forwiss.tu-muenchen.de/~hafner/>*CLICK*</A>
I'd used email since about 1975, and it seems to to me that 15 years
of email is plenty for one lifetime. (Donald Knuth)