Blog

Table of contents

The main element of the manual is an example of hibernation setting with HASS WS, I will also show you how to set the computer to turn on using Wake on LAN (WOL). It is an application that allows you to manage your COMPUTER using home assistant, such as locking your PC, restarting, hibernating your COMPUTER, remotely monitoring gpu load.

It also provides useful sensors in the Home Assistant, such as:

• CPU Load – CPULoad,
• Processor Clock – CurrentClockSpeed,
• Start-up time – LastBootTime,
• Microphone display – MicrophoneActive,
• The current sound intensity from the system,
• GPU load,
• The amount of RAM consumed.

Setting this up allows you to create amazing automations to manage your laptop, computer or workstation.

Examples

• Hibernate, turn off your computer remotely, or turn on your TV or console,
• Press your computer when you turn on your TV, console, or connect to your phone.
• Turn on the light for a video call (when the camera is active),
• Send notifications to the Home Assistant mobile app under heavy CPU, GPU or Ram load,
• Sound control.

Requirements

• Home Assistant Server
• Windows 10 on the PC we want to control
• MQTT broker installed, configured in Home Assistant (you need to know the password for it).

It works by installing a service in Windows (which runs in the background) and communicates with the MQTT broker you have configured in your Home Assistant.

Installation and manual to control your PC

You can download the program from here: https://hassworkstationstorage.z6.web.core.windows.net/publish/setup.exe

You’ll see a blue “Windows Protected your PC” screen. This is because the user .exe a certificate without a digital signature from a known certification center (i.e. its own).

Click More Information > Still Run. If you don’t have .NET 5.0.1 installed, you’ll be prompted to install it. You will then receive a “Publisher cannot be verified” warning.

When finished, the application will start automatically. Now it’s time to set up the program.

Initial configuration settings

Before you configure the settings, make sure that the hass-workstation-service.exe is running.You can check this in Task Manager > details.

Configure settings with Home Assistant

Add a Home Assistant IP address (mine is http://192.168.68.124:8123/) The broker’s default port is 1883.

Type the user name and password into the MQTT of a broker, disable the “Use TLS” option, turn on Startup to start the service with the old computer. Finally, save your settings with the Save button.

After you change the state from NormalDisconnection to connected, you can start adding sensors. This part is obvious, just click add and select a sensor or command from the drop-down list. Then they will be available in the Home Assistant as entities.

Set remote hibernation in Windows

Select CustomCommand by typing in the Command field “shutdown / h“, the name field is the name that will be available as an entity e.g. in the Lovelace interface. To prevent your computer from waking up for no reason, set“Only allow a magic packet to wake the computer”. The device manager disables mouse and keyboard wake-up (HIF devices).

When you press the the added button, your computer will be put to sleep.

Wake on LAN in Home Assistant

The “Enable” button is shown in the hibernation preview screenshot, this is an option to turn on the computer from the Home Assistant, it is useful for remote startup of the computer and e.g. a connection to the remote RDP desktop or chrome remote desktop.

In the configuration.yaml file,add a switch with the mac address of the network adapter, enable the option in the network adapter settings nt. WOL (Magic Packet), sometimes there is an option to resume the computer from sleep modes.

One day the monitor had a symptom of power failure, did not turn on, was dead. The power button with the built-in blue LED is not lit.

The main damage to LCD monitors

• damage to power supplies and various types of drives
• damage to inverters
• damage to digital/analog converters
• damage to processors and EEPROM memory
• damage to the matrix electronics subject to the repair process and damage to the matrix screens to replace the entire sensor
• damage to lamps or LEDs in dies,
• damage to all kinds of tapes, signal wires

The repair process consisted of replacing the condesators of three 1000 uF,two 470 uF and one piece of 33 uF and 0.47 uF. This was a damage to the power supply.

Finding a solution to your damage

The lack of the specified voltage meant damage to the power supply, the most common damage to the power supplies are:

• faulty fuse
• damaged thermistor
• damaged capacitors
• damaged anti-interference filter
• damaged rectifier bridge

The fuse was 100% efficient, the voltage also occurred on the bridge. A common fault of this model is the damage to the capacitors.

The aforementioned loss of capacities of electrolytic capacitors resulting in malfunction of electronic systems and consequently the formation of serious damage.

Visual symptoms

That is, the physical, after which it can be concluded that our capacitors are damaged, are:

• Bulging of the top of capacitors
• Electrolyte leakage (usually leaves a dry, yellowish raid)
• Bulge of the upper part combined with electrolyte leakage

In the photo below you can see a minimal bulge, and you can see a huge bulge under the capacitor.

• 

In the previous photo you can see what is happening under the capacitor, sometimes it happens that the capacitor is at some distance down then the bulge from above does not need to be visible and the capacitor may have bulge from below.

The right choice of capacitors

To begin with, in order to be able to replace any capacitors, we need to acquire their replacements. When choosing the right capacitors, we need to focus on two parameters:

• Capacity (given in microfarads, indicated on the capacitor as uF)
• Operating voltage – that is, the maximum voltage with which the capacitor can operate marked as V.

The operating voltage may be higher, in the case of a monitor it is worth using capacitors of the highest quality, ie. ESR to have a longer peace of mind time.

• 

• 

• 

Table of Contents

First, I will show my custom router with an LTE modem on Linux-based OpenWRT distribution OS. The operating system of this network device enables many features. Also, I will discuss the short possibilities of many services and components, including hardware capabilities. We can transmit with gigabit speed for Ethernet LAN devices. Transmit on your wireless network at 866 Mbit/s speed on AC 5 GHz technology.

Make multiple ISP connections with OpenWRT

I can confirm that you can connect to separate multiple internet operators. It is possible as a failover connection in case of failure. Some connections are made through a first WAN interface, e.g., an ISP’s PPPoE bridge connected via Ethernet, but others may be established through a second interface, such as an LTE or 5G cellular modem.

We can have more bridges or routers through Ethernet cables, and LTE or 5G cellular connection simultaneously. All routing is powered by OpenWRT with ZBT Link WG-3526. Your household can have broadband connections with many Internet Service Providers at once. It can be established by automatic routing by the parameters set equal to the average throughput of our ISP connections.

We can make security enhancements like a VPN server on ZBT WG-3526

Connect to the VPN server service on the router to securely access devices inside the LAN. This can be done by PPTP Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol from other Linux, Windows, or Android remotely from the Internet when we are away from our router. Also, we can access company or web services as if we were in the office or home computer on the router’s external IP address.

All services obtain the external IP address assigned to your network in your Office or Home. This can easily make a possibility to log in to many services. The VPN server on a router can enhance authentication methods like IP whitelisting when your cellular connection in your phone has a dynamic IP address.

Specifications of ZBT Link WG-3526

Hardware

In the first place plenty (512 MB) of DDR3 RAM memory
SPI Flash main memory 16MB chip
Processor MT7621 (Dual-core 880MHz)
5* Five 1 Gigabit Ethernet wired interfaces with RJ45 ports
USB3 port
SIM card slot
PCI-E slot (internal)
MicroSD card slot with support for up to 128GB
SATA 3.0 port (optional, internal, it is not soldered in many cases)
2* Antenna 2.4 GHz (in package 5 dBi antennas)
2* Antenna 5 GHz (in package 5 dBi antennas)
2* LTE Antenna

Wireless

WLAN IEEE802.11 AC/A (MIMO 2×2) in other words maximum speed of the router is up to 866 Mbps on 5GHz
WLAN IEEE802.11 N/G/B (MIMO 2×2) up to 300 Mbps o 2.4 GHz

Software

Original SDK on the first movie
OpenWRT from 18.06 between 19.07.07 (the latest stable at the present time of writing this article) to the newest snapshot and version 22.03 which improves PPPoE performance with hardware NAT (HW NAT)
eCos is listed in the specification provided by the manufacturer

Advanced possibilities of ZBT WG-3526

• Connection by WAN Ethernet, WLAN, USB, or LTE QMI PCI-E modem together with failover by mwan3 or through two or multiple tracks,
• Router as NAS – samba3 share configurable by Luci,
• OpenVPN – VPN connection to all networks,
• WPS Push Button is the custom command which can be run on the web interface of the router or reset button,
• Scheduled torrent downloader on the router by the transmission server,
• Scheduled hosting services downloader on the router by pyload,
• Firewall,
• Dynamic DNS – DDNS with many providers like Duck DNS with auto-refresh of a public IP address of the domain from the WAN network with redirection to local devices,
• NAT,
• F2FS support for flash memory SD cards and USB3 drives,
• Wake on LAN.

Price of cheap router

In conclusion, the router was priced at about 80 USD on Aliexpress at buy time. I was able to find it at the price of 50 USD on Alibaba as an engineering sample. It is cheap for hardware with the possibility of SATA support, miniPCI, and OpenWRT. The Quectel EP06 a category 6 LTE modem was priced at about 60 USD as a sample on Alibaba, on Aliexpress it was priced at 80 USD. The maximum theoretical speed is 600 Mb/s of download. My best results are around 120 Mbit/s of download and 20 Mbit/s of upload.

Gallery of many possibilities for a powerful router that uses OpenWRT and is Linux-based

YouTube Playlist about routers

Table of Contents

To begin with, I will show you how to activate Windows Thin PC. At first, we install the system, then install the browser downloaded from another computer. I recommend Ungoogled Chromium 32-bit because the old Internet Explorer 8 browser does not open pages on a freshly installed system.

Needed tools

Windows Thin PC based on (Windows Embedded Standard 7) 32 bit (x86)
System Activator – crack

Windows Embedded is also very fast, I installed it on the HP Mini 5103 netbook and it works reliably, without unnecessary programs.

Installation and activation process

Let’s go to activation, afterward the installation, let’s activate Windows Thin PC, and download and unpack the activator from the link at the top of the page.

The activator does not require KMS emulation, Visual Studio libraries, or .NET framework, after all, you need to run “Activate.cmd” with administrative privileges.

Recommended programs

• Browser Ungoogled Chromium, because the IE8-11 browser is old. You can even watch YouTube efficiently on Intel Atom N455.
• Office suite Office 365 or Office 2016. I checked Office 365 (which is of course 2016 on Windows 7), so the latest available are Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook.
  To log in to your Microsoft account and activate the package, you need to update Internet Explorer from version 8 to the latest version, ie Internet Explorer 11. The configuration and installation of an unsupported program on Thin PC will be described in a separate post because it is a complicated process.
• Photo Viewer IrfanView, because Windows opens the image in Paint by default (in this case the listed Photo Gallery does not work).
• Video player VLC Media Player, because Thin PC does not have a built-in video player either.
• Notepad++ It’s really my liking, instead of the notebook delivered with Windows.
• Antivirus Any, preferably none, then you should disable Windows Defender and antivirus reporting because the system does not have Defender built-in.
• File Browser Total Commander, because the explorer is stripped of e.g. search.
• System optimization CCleaner.On my HP Mini netbook, I made an optimization after installing all drivers for Windows 7 x32, disabling some of the services, among others. from bug reporting, homegroup.

Optimizations

You can do this by selecting Start Menu -> All software -> Accessories -> Run, enter “msconfig” in the field. I also disabled some of the system’s visual effects performance enhancements.

Thanks to the very old Intel GMA3150 graphics built into the Intel Atom N455 consuming fewer resources, which reduced the CPU usage to 0 by the Desktop Window Manager – dwm.exe.

This can be set in Control Panel -> System -> Advanced System Settings -> Settings in the Performance tab.

Finally, we have working Windows on a cheap ultra mobile Netbook with one core Atom.

Video of the activation process

Graphic card working with HP 8470p laptop on Express Card slot. It was connected by EXP GDC riser. Below are shown configuration screens from GPU-Z and AIDA64.

The eGPU card was installed in an old ATX enclosure with Chieftec 560W power supply and was connected to a 1920×1200 22′ Samsung Monitor. The card in stress has 80 degrees Celcius.

When I turn on the laptop I have disconnected the ExpressCard slot and turned off Power Supply. Next on boot, I’m selecting an automated startup in setup and turning on PSU, and next connect the ExpressCard slot. I have installed the newest available Adrenalin drivers. 

The build is working with the nando4eva eGPU setup and DSDT modification for HP 8470p. I used BIOS revision F.74.

How to move the unmovable Steam game to a new library example with War Thunder game. In the first step, we need to go to “steamapps/common” folder in the Steam library. In this folder, we have a common launching game.

Next, we need to check the ID of the game for example War Thunder has an ID exactly 236390 number. We go to the Steam library store and get an ID from the link in the browser.

In the next step, we need to copy Steam-specific files from “steamapps” folder we move “appmanifest_236390.acf” to the new library Steam location.

The last step is to move cache files from „steamapps/shadercache/236390” to the new Steam library folder.

I want to confirm that my custom configuration works like a charm with different sticks of DIMM DDR4 memory. I have three different sticks of RAM, which configuration as follows:

• GoodRAM (Wilk Elektronik) IR2400D464L15S/8G @ 1200 MHz CL 15-15-39
• Micron 4ATF51264AZ-2G3B1 @ 1200 MHz CL 21-17-17-39
• Crucial BLS8G4D240FSB.16FBD @ 1200 MHz CL 21-17-17-39

The myth with different timings of RAM

We see I have different timings of sticks, but every stick has 1200 MHz (2400 MHz effective). Two sticks have XMPP profiles (Crucial and GoodRAM). Memory works as Dual DDR4 SDRAM (Dual Channel) with real clock 1067 MHz (DDR) which is effective clock 2133 MHz. I have modified BIOS which modification disables Intel ME Engine, maybe lower frequency is caused with this mod or untypical memory configuration.

Workstation with high RAM memory consumption

The two other sticks were bought on the Polish Allegro auction site. I have 20GB of memory and I want to extend it to 28GB. This workstation has three LCD screens and many programs and all of 20GB memory sometimes was used in 90%.

Errors of memory in MemTest86

The main problem in buying used sticks was that one of 8GB memory DDR4 sticks was not working properly, and I think that in my configuration was not working properly like on a photo below. This stick was returned to the seller, because it was broken and I received the next stick which was working properly.

The myth with different sticks and RAM memory sizes

Two other sticks have a different capacity and manufacturer like on the screen above. Three are different. I was thinking in my configuration it couldn’t work but it runs and works without any problem. No memory errors or bluescreens in Windows 10 and Ubuntu. It was working like a charm, do you have any doubts about DDR4 memory after reading this article?

The most common name of HEX colors can be interesting. We have many colors called FBI, cat, potter, artist, police. Every color has a name and can tell us everything about artistic inspiration. Maybe not in HEX nomenclature, because the world is colorful like a rainbow 🏳️‍🌈.

Poland has the national color of the flag, which translates everything about this strange country. In my opinion, the official flag color is on the right of the bottom image shown below, which tells everything about Poland.

The Polish flag is white and red, arranged in two parallel horizontal stripes of equal width. White at the top and red at the bottom. The current layout and shape of the Polish state emblem are determined by the Act of 1980, while its original appearance was initiated in 1919. The colors of the Polish flag refer to the colors of the Polish flag coat of arms, i.e. a white eagle on a red background. However, this is not the only reason why these two shades appear on our flag.

What is the true meaning of the colors of the Polish flag?

Taking into account the principles established by heraldry, that is, the science dedicated to the study of the development, meaning, and shape of the coat of arms, the colors of the Polish flag also play an important role in the tradition and history of Poland. White color is used to represent the shadow of silver, it is also said to represent water. However, the most important features that determine this color are purity and impeccability and the symbol of the white eagle on the coat of arms. Red is a sign of fire and blood. It is also said to symbolize virtues such as courage and bravery. At the same time, it represents the background on which the eagle is depicted. The colors of our national flag are an important symbol of the history, culture, and values of our country. It is also important to know the meaning of other elements that represent our country, to admire national symbols with patriotism and pride. The colors of the Polish flag are filled with demonstrations of history, experiences, and events that influenced the shape of our country.

Gumigota

Gumigote can be compared to the color of mustard and the setting sky at sunset. Gumiguta was once obtained by evaporating Garcinia tree sap and was originally used as yellow paint. It is currently used as a laxative.

Razzmatazz

This color was “invented” in 1993 by the crayon company Crayola. Under the unusual name of razzmatazz, there is a combination of red and pink. The CoolTRONIC.pl office is currently painted in a darker shade of Razzmatazz with a touch of black. More specifically, the razzmatazz is somewhere between red and magenta. I would never have thought of specifying this color other than pink, but we owe its current name to five-year-old Laura Bartolomea-Hill, who won the Crayola Name Competition for the color of a crayon.

Peridot

The term for a color that is mostly known to women is a green olive, it is the name of the herbal stone which also gave its name.

Feldgrau

From the German “field gray”, the color was the German uniforms in the time before West Germany and East Germany, during the two world wars.

Warm and cold colors

It is most reasonable to sort the names of colors into the division into cold and warm colors. An attempt to subordinate a specific color to a non-basic basic color may fail – when one person may find the raspberry color the closest to red, the other will claim that it is a shade of pink. The division below is indicative and the boundaries between the names are fluid.

Here is a very colorful link with strange inspiration to any color. Let’s make www great again 😉

I want to point out that today’s post is to show only that such an emoji exists in the charset which was named and standarized by Unicode organization in 1.1 version^[1].

Here is the discussed emoticon ☭ (U + 262D), which was added to the Unicode charaset in 1993.^[1] That is, this emoticon is found in almost all modern devices and was added after two years after the fall of the USSR.

Why do such emojis with sickle and hammer exist at all?

The first main reason is that communism is legal in most Western countries and there are communist parties, which is why such an emote was created.
In Poland, the use of communist symbols is punishable under Art. 256 § 2 of the Criminal Code.^[2]

Communication in text messages in the old days

To improve the ease of use of the first generation of phones in SMS messages. Although the use of communist symbols is prohibited in some countries, other countries are moving in this direction. Recently, the use of communist symbols was banned in 2016 in Brazil.^[4]

However, in 1993, after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc countries, many parties were using communist symbolism in the world. This was probably the main reason for adding this emoticon to the Unicode^[1].

Penalty in many countries

In Poland, the penalty for spreading communist symbolism is punishable by up to 2 years^[2]. The symbol appears in practically every device. In the opinion of Polish courts, if it is not a print, presentation, or object of communism activity to write about that cases is legal. I would like to emphasize that the graphic used as image only represents the Unicode symbol adapted to the specificity of the web page.

The last reason for the existing controversial soviet emoji

An emoticon does not depict as such a system as it prevailed in the USSR and the Eastern Block, as it was created earlier. The first social activists appropriated the symbol of the sickle and hammer according to some activists of the leftist idea, introducing a diametrically different system than the one that was to fulfill the idea of ​​a classless society.

Are there parties in today’s Europe that are heirs of the party before the fall of the Berlin Wall?

Only in the Czech Republic, is there a party that refers to the communist era, in the rest of Central and Eastern Europe there are no such parties directly. Thirty years ago, the communist parties had a great influence on public opinion, in the West, attempts were made to modify the doctrine by trying to introduce the so-called Eurocommunism.

Eurocommunism

An alternative was created for the communists in relation to the communist parties of the Eastern bloc. It was assumed the rejection of totalitarian Leninism, the ideology of the social revolution, and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The idea of a historical compromise between classes was proclaimed. In foreign policy, the Eurocommunists put their trust in the EEC and advocated the liquidation of the militarization of both blocs.^[3]

The communism emoji is a national symbol in the world

The hammer and sickle in the national coat of arms of Austria is not related to communism, together with the golden brick crown, it refers to the idea of solidarity of social classes: workers, peasants, and townspeople.^[3] The emblem of the Communist Party of China is a stylized version of the hammer and sickle. According to Art. 53 of the Constitution of the Communist Party of China, “the emblem and flag of the Party are the symbol and sign of the Communist Party of China.” The hammer and sickle are common in socialist countries such as Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos. ^[4]

Reception of communism in Poland after the transformation of the government system

“Nationwide CBOS (ed. note: in Poland) research on de-communization has brought very interesting conclusions. For example, in 2007, 65% of respondents said that it does not matter to them who is the patron saint of a street or square in their place of residence… More recent research from 2018 provides even more interesting observations. About 55% of the respondents said then that there had been no de-communization in their area recently, and about 29% of the respondents answered affirmatively. Moreover, when asked about the support for de-communization, the answers were very evenly distributed – 43% of the respondents to a greater or lesser extent approved of the de-communization of street names, and 44% were of the opposite opinion.”^[5]

Bibliographic note (accessed May 2, 2023)

[1] – “☭” U+262D: Hammer And Sickle (Unicode Character) (unicodeplus.com)

[2] – [Promotion of Nazism, communism, fascism, or other totalitarian regime] – Art. 256. – Penal Code. – Journal of Laws 2022.1138, i.e. – OpenLEX

[3] – Polish Wikipedia

[4] – English Wikipedia

[5] – Kultura w Polsce w XXI wieku, Konteksty społeczne, kulturowe i medialne. (In English: Culture in Poland in the 21st century, Social, cultural, and media contexts.) Ewa Dąbrowska-Prokopowska, Patrycja Goryń, Marta Faustyna Zaniewska, Publishing House of the University of Białystok, ISBN 978-83-7431-655-2, Białystok 2020

In this post, I will discuss the implementation of the landing page with graphics.

The main conception of logo project is to provide information about the company that was located in Warsaw.
Animations on the web page were tuned in blue color. Preloader is showing main CMYK color components.

The main element of a webpage is button helpline which interacts with the user and copy contents of to browser clipboard.
For mobile users helpline script was disabled.
The effect of the logo animation and the helpline button was a color shift that resembles the printing process.

The Google map is colorfully connected to the rest of the contact section. Adress details have been added to improve search results.

Styles have been encoded using SASS (gulp). Scripts are minimized and use jQuery, JavaScript with external libraries.