Ben Dellar

Using NFS Volumes on OpenMediaVault with Portainer

Yep this is another niche tech note after I spend ages figuring it out.

So I wanted to use an NFS share hosted on OpenMediaVault as a volume for a Docker container running on Portainer. It turns out there are a few default things that need adjusting to make this work and if you don’t get it right it just puts the volume on the local drive.

To use an NFS share do the following

Name the volume
Select NFS Volume
Enter the hostname
Select NFS instead of NFS4 in the version field
add a colon before /export/sharename so it is :/export/sharename

That’s it – now you can successfully use the NFS share as docker volume without a pile of errors!

Simple Repository Setup for Proxmox

For those of us using the great OS Proxmox to manage virtualisation one of the first challenges is fixing the default repositories as it will throw errors such as “401 Unauthorised” and “Failed to fetch https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/pve/dists/buster/InRelease”

This is caused by Proxmox shipping with some enterprise repositories switched on by default and is fairly quick and easy to resolve for anyone who wants to use the free repositories for development work. Just follow the below two steps. This is based off an install in August 2019 of Proxmox VE6.0-4.

Step 1

Remove the enterprise repository pointer by running “rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.list”

Step 2

Edit the main sources list to contain the correct and free repositories which won’t generate any errors. Edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list to match the below content:

deb http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian buster main contrib

deb http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib

# PVE pve-no-subscription repository provided by proxmox.com,
# NOT recommended for production use
deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve buster pve-no-subscription

# security updates
deb http://security.debian.org buster/updates main contrib

That’s it! Happy apting.

Automatic Software In The Loop (SITL) setup for ArduPilot

For those who use and develop using the ArduPilot autopilot software (as featured on DiyDrones and ArduPilot Discourse), a powerful simulation tool is available that can replicate all of the features of the autopilot without flying an actual aircraft. This is extremely useful for testing complex missions or parameter configurations without risking real hardware.

Flying a simulated ArduPlane UAV around Canberra from the comfort of my desk in Perth.

Unfortunately setting it up is a bit tricky, official instructions are available however to make life easier I have created an automatic script that you can run that will install and run the SITL software on a Ubuntu 14.04 Linux PC or virtual machine.

This software is licensed under GNU General Public License version 3 and the source code is available at https://bitbucket.org/dellarb/ardupilot-sitl

Download all attachments from Trello card as a zip file

**Unfortunately Trello changed their service in a way this no longer functions – I hope it was helpful to people over all this time**

Trello is amazing tool for co-ordination, planning and collaboration with the ability to assign cards, create due dates and checklists and also attach files. I have often found myself wanting to download all of the files associated with a card but have not found an easy way to do this without manually clicking and downloading on each one.

To simplify this I’ve created an online attachment downloading tool that you can export your card information to and it will create a single zip file of all attachments on the card:

Using OpenVPN on LXC Hosts

A common problem I encounter is trying to use OpenVPN on Linux containers hosted using LXC. LXC containers are a great, low resource way to virtualise things but need some extra setup for OpenVPN. Typically you get an error that looks something like:

 ERROR: Cannot open TUN/TAP dev /dev/net/tun: No such file or directory

Apache as reverse proxy for letsencrypt free https certificates

Scenario

You have a single incoming IP address and want to run multiple web servers for multiple sites behind this IP address on your local network. The best way to do this is using a reverse proxy server For example:

Your External IP is: 8.8.8.8 with and internal LAN of 10.1.1.X
Ports 80 (http) and 443 (https) have been forwarded from your external ip to an internal server at 10.1.1.2 which will handle the reverse proxy and SSL/TLS work using letsencrypt
You have other application web servers listening on port 80 on your internal LAN at 10.1.1.11 and 10.1.1.12 but these are not accessible from outside your network.
You have subdomain11.yourdomain.com and subdomain12.yourdomain.com both pointed to 8.8.8.8 and you want visitors to them to see the application servers at 10.1.1.11 and 10.1.1.12 respectively.
You want to provide secure https access to both subdomains but don’t want to configure this on each of the three servers separately.

This guide is based on using Apache2 on Ubuntu 16.04, some commands may differ slightly between different flavours of Linux but the core configuration for Apache2 should work on any distribution.

Simple set up for Turnigy 9XR (or similar) 6 position mode switching with APM Autopilots – No Hardware/Flashing Required

This is a cross post for one of my original blog posts on DIY Drones. It is included here for permanent reference.

Until recently my main TX was a Turnigy 9X and I (like many others) was using a hacked in 6 position POT switch to select modes on my various aircraft. Unfortunately the 9X has died so has been replaced by a shiny new 9XR. Rather then hack apart the 9XR (too pretty) I wanted to experiment with using the existing controls to select modes on my aircraft. I have seen several tutorials on this but none met all of my requirements below.

Not relying on guessing the position of the continuous POT switches
Gives a easy to read visual indicator of current mode
Uses only a single radio channel
All performed with the default software and hardware – no flashing/hacking required

The method I used was to combine the 3 position switch (ID0/1/2) with the Aileron Dir switch. Between these two switches there are six possible combinations which neatly matches the 6 modes of the APM ecosystem.

Team West Coast UAV in the 2016 Medical Express UAV Challenge

One of my passions is UAVs or drones of which I’ve built a number. Over the past year I’ve been working with a local team of fellow enthusiasts preparing an entry for the 2016 UAV Medical Express Challenge.

The competition involves a simulated scenario where teams must send an unmanned, autonomous aircraft a substantial distance (10-30km) away to locate a person who is unwell. Once located, an aircraft must land near the unwell individual and a blood sample will be placed in the aircraft. Next, the aircraft must autonomously take-off and return back to the launch site where that sample would be “tested” to help diagnose and treat the simulated casualty.

In September 2016 we received a “go” decision from the judges to proceed to Deliverable 2 where we must demonstrate our capability to complete the challenge. We submitted this yesterday and from here the judges will short-list the 20 teams that will get to attempt Deliverable 3 and enter the competition.

Our team blog contains the full details from Deliverable 2 including the written report and the accompanying video is below:

This challenge is an exciting opportunity to demonstrate the abilities of technology for doing good in our world. The fact we can develop this on tiny budgets with a DIY approach is a real testament to the amazing world we all live in.

I run a Tor Exit Relay (and so should you)

We’re all being monitored online in some way – that’s no surprise or secret. Many of us, myself included are not particularly concerned about this for most day to day things. We might not be doing anything “wrong” by the laws of our country so we go about our online business without much of a second thought.
For many people around the world this is not the case. Numerous governments create environments where online freedom is curtailed and censorship rules. They may restrict access to news, communication tools or even specific topics by keyword and will often punish people who attempt to access such information.

For the last few months I’ve been experimenting with hosting Tor relays on some virtual private servers across the internet as a way of helping to provide channels for people to access information and communicate more freely.

tormaple — The status screen for one of my exit relays showing a solid 40-50Mbit/sec a second of traffic passing through it.

Don’t throw it away – the future of spaceflight

An economist would ask the question; what is the price elasticity of the orbital space launch market? In simpler terms – what could the impact of space launch costs reducing but as much as 75% do to the commercial space industry.

spacex-landed

For my thoughts I want to take you back in time to some quotes in the early days of a new technical development:

“The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.”
Sir William Preece, chief engineer of the British Post Office, 1876

“Television won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.”
Darryl Zanuck, 20th Century Fox, 1946

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”
Ken Olson, President of Digital Equipment Corp 1977