Mastodawn

I've started work on getting the system back online, currently I've got the orangepi offline and am exploring whether my #pinephone could be used to host some of the services. I used jump drive to install the latest stable #postmarketos to the eMMC, enabled ssh, installed a number of dependencies and currently am slowly installing ruby to see if mastodon might actually work (it should fit within the specs, just)

Actually quite fun

smallsolar 1d ago

Overall we aren't doing super well with vegetables from the garden, courgettes have been small and quick to go mouldy, french beans have been sparse (though easier to manage as no sudden glut). This year I've commited a whole bed to tomatoes and must admit they seem to be doing well, just got my first red ones. And I've had mixed results with the aeroponics (but that's just an experiment)

I probably should have added some manure to the beds, but it quite possibly has been the very hot weather we've had.

#gardening

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smallsolar 2d ago

So it seems that it's the orangepi itself which is taking down the network, as soon as I turned it off everything else started to work.
Unsure what is happening here but it's not great - next step will be to boot it up, back it up and then reinstall Linux.

Solarcene will be offline for a little while longer, sorry

smallsolar 3d ago

Hmmm the solarcene network has gone down (we had similar issues a few months ago) won't be able to fix it until later today.

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smallsolar 4d ago

@Anomnomnomaly we got a portable Aircon machine 2 years ago (in a January sale), it's meant for a single room but we put it in the hall and use it to bring the upstairs temp down, it only drops it by 3degC but it's enough to stop our children descending into feral madness - well worth the investment.
So for a single room they are great and you prob could run it for a few hours in the evening and get your room down to comfortable temperature before actually going to sleep,

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smallsolar 4d ago

@ge0rg oh don't worry it's been a fun challenge!
Ive been unable to interrupt the boot process, uboot has a 0second delay so can't get in there. I've found what looks like a very similar firmware dump https://gitlab.com/ZX7520v3_Firmwares/F231/F231ET which has helped me look at the various boot scripts,
Ive been able to clear individual nvram with an exploit but unable to set nvram. Currently it's stuck in this AMT mode which means I can't send any web interface commands.

If I can get access and can open up the hardware it might make a rather cool off-grid static website server and only costs £10

ZX7520v3 Firmwares / F231 Series / F231ET_V1.3 · GitLab

A color screen model with a plug-in battery. It is the Wi-Fi 4 version and supports the B1, B3, B5, and B8 frequency bands.

GitLab

smallsolar 4d ago

I have been having fun with a #reverseengineering #sidequest seeing if I can get root access to a Tenda 4G185 MiFi device which runs Linux and is based on ZTE ZX297520V3. Inspired by @ge0rg Sadly the standard exploits seem to have been patched (no injections through the web interface) but I did manage to get serial access but can't seem to login despite everything pointing to the password being 'admin'.
I've managed to get it into a special debug mode called AMT mode, it has opened up 3 serial ports over usb, the first seems to use a protocol called AMT, the device has run a binary called `zte_amt` - I've never come across this and searches bring up Android Multi Tool or a lot of Intel AMT stuff which I don't think is correct - has anyone come across this protocol?

There is a suggestion there might also be #adb might be running as well so I'm going to focus on that for now

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smallsolar Jul 10

@anthropy @Lydie Daly BMS arrived and installed, adding it to an existing pack doesn't make it look super smart but it's nice and secure with some well placed cable ties to keep it fixed. All working with the app. Now to build a DIY power bank with a tool box and a mppt charger

smallsolar Jul 9

Anthropy Jul 9

Anyone in NL some free old solar panels (+inverter)? They're about 200Wp each, 4 total.

I'm replacing them with 450Wp panels of about the same size, since those are only around 50€ nowadays (and therefore I'd totally get it if people would prefer buying new panels instead).
They're about 20kg each and kinds large, I can't ship them, but they might fit in the back of your car (they kinda fit in my twingo at the time, stuck out the back a bit).
Feel free to reply to this if you're interested.

smallsolar Jul 6

Hart of the Wud Jul 6

Heads up #PermaComputing Berlin friends. Our next Meet-Up is approaching:

# permacomputing & postmarketOS #

13. July 2025 at 19:00
@offline
Lichtenrader Str. 49

Artist and Designer Chaline Bang ( @chalinebang ) will talk about her personal adventures and collective experiments in permacomputing. She is a member of the Rotterdam-based research group _permacomputing evenings_ and will share how they learned to build servers out of obsolete smartphones using postmarketOS. The group conducted experiments into practical techniques and aesthetic approaches as well as organizing public events with outside researchers.

http://berlin.permacomputing.net

smallsolar

ZX7520v3 Firmwares / F231 Series / F231ET_V1.3 · GitLab

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