Linux Reef Controller – NSLU2 Sensor Server
August 3rd, 2011 by Ronny
The Linksys NSLU2 Network Storage Link device can easily be hacked with a modified firmware and used as a sensor server for your LRC. Here’s how!
- First you gotta find one! Since they are not manufactured anymore this can be tough or expensive!
- A good place to start looking would be here: Cisco-Linksys Storage Link for USB 2.0 Disk Drives NSLU2
- Download the latest Unslung firmware from here.
- Follow the firmware flashing instructions provided in the Unslung Firmware README
- Make sure to follow the instructions TO THE LETTER!!
- After you have sucessfully flashed your NSLU2, ssh into it and perfrom the following commands to update it:
-
ipkg update
-
ipkg upgrade
-
DO_Reboot
- After the device reboots install some necessary packages
-
ipkg install openssh nano usbutils ntpclient
- Follow the guide here to fix an issue with the hardware clock and ntpclient
-
DO_Reboot
- Setup OWFS
-
nano -w /etc/ipkg/owfs-feed.conf
- Add the following to the
owfs-feed.conffile: -
src/gz owfs http://owfs.sourceforge.net/nslu2/packages
- Save the file and run the following commands:
-
ipkg update
-
ipkg install owfs owshell
-
run-owfs
- You should be able to access the owfs server from the built in web interface.
- http://DEVICEIP:3001/
-
DO_Reboot
- Your Linksys NSLU2 is now ready to serve as a OWFS sensor server
- Get yourself one of these and some sensors, plug them in and reboot the NSLU2 for the correct modules to load on boot.
- Once the device is rebooted you should be able to see the sensor Id’s listed in the web interface.
- You can also view all of the devices by using the following owfs commands in an ssh session
- List the one wire directory tree:
owdir
- List a sensor directory:
owdir /SENSORID
- Read sensor data:
owread /SENSORID/variable
- A temperature sensor read example in Farenheit
-
owread -F /28.2F2840020000/temperature
- Your Slug is now ready to be polled by the webserver via cron jobs and perl scripts!
