T23, FreeNAS, USB 2.0

[saidiadude]

I have an old (stock) T23 1.13GHz PIII 512MB that still runs great. I'd like to install FreeNAS on it and connect 2 USB 2.0 drives in a RAID configuration (back-end server). I need to stream HD home video to a PS3 front-end. From what I can gather, the old USB 1.1 ports won't be able to handle the 1080p video. Some questions:
- Has anyone installed FreeNAS on a T23? Anything to watch for (no wakeup on LAN, etc)?
- Any issues regarding 1080 streaming? Could the existing 1.1 USB ports handle HD video?
- I'm considering something like this: http://www.amazon.com/2-Port-PCMCIA-Car ... 0027Q4HXG/. Will the FreeNAS install (BSD) recognize the card?

I'm going to try FreeNAS 7.X on a CD and test out the stock T23 before I sink money into this project.
Just as FYI, I will also be installing a print server and a DLNA server of some sort. I'm not concerned about concurrent operation. Any suggestions? (perhaps the wrong place to ask - apologies).

Thanks for your input. I'll post updates if I decide to build out this project.

[robert213]

Most of us T30 owners, are using the same AKE USB 2.0 CardBus as the one listed in your Amazon Link.

Also, I noticed in the sixth photo, that this store provides the 5V power cord. This cord ought to be connected your machine's USB 1.1 port (to acquire 5V DC) whenever you are using an external HDD.

Also, Ignore the CD-ROM disc. It is required when using Windows 98. It is not required for Windows XP.

Browse this T2x & T3x board and you will see several favorable reviews of this USB 2.0 CardBus adapter. Also, you will learn of the differences between PCMCIA/PC Card and CardBus. (You almost always want the adapter with the brass plate with the eight raised dots.)

[saidiadude]

Thanks very much for your reply. Glad to hear that the CardBus adapter is well received. I've narrowed down the main issues to 2 areas:
- I'm concerned about FreeNAS (or BSD) detecting the card automatically on these machines
- Will the stock T23 (with this card) be able to stream 1080P video? The video will be stored on an external USB 2.0 drive.

I forgot to mention that I inherited a dock for the machine. Other than convenience, does the dock provide any advantage (speed, extra connections, etc) or should I connect the cables directly to the machine? I'm away from home at the moment, so I can't look up the dock model number. I believe that it's the smaller dock - port replicator, perhaps?

I'll do some more research on this board but I'm wondering if anyone has had any recent experience with FreeNAS on the T23. Some of the posts I found are a bit dated and refer to old versions of FreeNAS and/or don't mention High Definition video.

[ac12]

If you are going to run two hard drives off the USB card, I would get an external 5v power supply for the card. I highly doubt that the USB 1.0 port on the T23 will be able to power 2 hard drives. The USB 1.0 port has a lower current limit than the USB 2.0 ports. If the drives have their own power supply, the USB 1.0 port might work as a power source for the card.

[automobus]

The USB 1.0 port has a lower current limit than the USB 2.0 ports.

Excuse me, but you are mistaken or misinformed.



To the OP, saidiadude: for us to better help you, we need you first to tell us what throughput you need for your 1080P video. As a basic answer, if the onboard 100 megabit NIC is fast enough, then a USB2 card is fast enough.

[ac12]

After researching the specs, I stand corrected.

The USB 1.1 specs for the max current is 500mA (1/2 amp)
The USB 2.0 specs for the max current is 500mA (1/2 amp)
Both are the same.

USB 3.0 raises the max current to 900mA.

[saidiadude]

...
To the OP, saidiadude: for us to better help you, we need you first to tell us what throughput you need for your 1080P video. As a basic answer, if the onboard 100 megabit NIC is fast enough, then a USB2 card is fast enough.

I'd like to stream family video captured from my video camera. Camera is the Canon HF100. The settings are: 1920 x 1080, 17 Mbit/s. Ideally, the back-end would be the T23 with the USB 2.0 card. Front end is a PS3. Network is 10/100. A quick google search shows that the 10/100 network would be able to handle the bandwidth (no other load on the switch when streaming). I searched around this website and saw that the USB 2.0 card mentioned above may not be blazing fast. Would it be fast enough for the setup mentioned? I can purchase a Gigabit switch but it seems that the bottleneck may be the T23 because of the USB ports.

[automobus]

Those cheap CardBus USB2 cards at least as fast as 100-megabit Ethernet. Not blazing fast, but fast enough for your needs. Certainly fast enough for 17-megabit video.

[saidiadude]

Perfect, thanks automobus. I'll order two and see if I can set up a RAID and a print server. If I set up 2 usb drives as a RAID (one as a mirror), should I connect the drives to one card or should I hook up one per card?

[ac12]

Why not just use an old desktop or mini tower?
Then you can install the drives internally and it should all fit together better than using external drives.

[robert213]

I'd like to stream family video captured from my video camera. Camera is the Canon HF100.

Using my T30, I once created a series of videos that were downloaded to a server for a e-Learning course at the local university.

I may have posted my results in a thread on this board around SEP 2009. Using a FireWire CardBus Card and Windows Media Player, I was able to stop and pause digital camera from my T30's keyboard.

Process
Recorded with Unknown Digital Video Camera
Captured video using
Apricorn Dual Igniter 400 FireWire 1394 CardBus Card
http://www.superwarehouse.com/Apricorn_ ... 0/p/433528
Created *.avi (or maybe *.asf) file using Windows Media Player
Editted video using Adobe Premier
Exported to *.wmv, *.flv, and *.mpg using Any Video Convertor

In other words, you may wish to connect to your digital camera using FireWire cable instead of USB 2.0 cable.

[saidiadude]

Why not just use an old desktop or mini tower?
Then you can install the drives internally and it should all fit together better than using external drives.

Good question. I'm trying to re-purpose the T23. Also, my old desktops are power hungry (P4 era machines). I don't want to sink a lot of money into this setup as it's much more cost effective to buy an Atom based machine for about $150 (+ Disk drives). Another option is to pick up a Roku box that will play the video for about $100.

If I decide to get the Atom box or Roku, then the T23 will become my automobile computer diagnostic center. Either way, it will get used

BTW, the dock I have inherited is the 02K8668: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkPad_Port_Replicator
There's no SATA port on the dock, although there's a funny looking port to the right of the Parallel port.

[saidiadude]

Using my T30, I once created a series of videos that were downloaded to a server for a e-Learning course at the local university.

I may have posted my results in a thread on this board around SEP 2009. Using a FireWire CardBus Card and Windows Media Player, I was able to stop and pause digital camera from my T30's keyboard.

Process
Recorded with Unknown Digital Video Camera
Captured video using
Apricorn Dual Igniter 400 FireWire 1394 CardBus Card
http://www.superwarehouse.com/Apricorn_ ... 0/p/433528
Created *.avi (or maybe *.asf) file using Windows Media Player
Editted video using Adobe Premier
Exported to *.wmv, *.flv, and *.mpg using Any Video Convertor

In other words, you may wish to connect to your digital camera using FireWire cable instead of USB 2.0 cable.

My apologies - perhaps I didn't describe the problem properly. The video is captured on an SDHC card and is copied to a hard drive. It's unedited 1080p video. I don't want to down convert it. I would like to view this video on my Television. I'm not looking for live capture/recording either. I don't have firewire on the computer.

[saidiadude]

A quick update:
I bought the card mentioned above.
To test it out, I installed PS3mediaserver 1.5.0 on generic Win XP Home (i.e. No additional fine tuning). It streamed quite well to my PS3 but there were minor hiccups when XP would start allocating CPU/RAM to other programs. The video would sometimes freeze, the thumbnails would take a while to render, the hard drive would seek often (swap?).

I decided to start over and formatted the HD and installed FreeNAS 0.7.2.8191. I then installed PS3mediaserver 1.5.0. After some headaches with the PS3MS install, the system was brought to life. It streams 1080P extremely well (with the T23 UNDERclocked to 800MHz!) with 2 USB 2.0 500MB drives. CPU utilization is at 15%-25% when streaming. The hard drive swap space doesn't seem to be used, so the HD light rarely comes on. About half of the 512MB of RAM seems to be free. Overall, I am very pleased and impressed with the software (especially FreeNAS) and the fact that the antiquated T23 seems to have the perfect hardware for the backend of my system. BTW, I'm using a 10/100 router (openWRT is great!) for streaming. I can put off the purchase of a Gigabit switch for a while. I was thinking about upgrading to 1GB RAM on the T23 but the current setup doesn't seem to need it.

Automobus - I've decided to buy an eSata card as you suggested. I have 2 eSata docks that I'd like to use. On eBay and Amazon, some of the PCMCIA eSata card descriptions state that they are RAID cards. Is this a marketing thing or is there extra hardware in these cards to help with the RAID functionality provided by FreeNAS? Im going to keep the USB 2.0 card as well to setup a printer. Would it be an issue to install both cards? We don't use the printer often so both functions would not be used at the same time. Any issues with heat build up/ventilation of eSata card if the USB card is also installed? How about speed of eSata card if USB card is installed but not being used at the same time?

[automobus]

The "RAID" is marketing B.S. It is software RAID, through the driver. Possibly, the PCI ID could be different, but the chip inside is the same SiI as the non-raids. You can probably set up a software RAID with your NAS-server software.

You might not be able to use both cards simultaneously. So long as they do not have a thick chunk of plastic around the plugs, then the cards will fit together. More likely, the plugs will be stacked right atop each other. Unless you have slender USB/SATA plugs… Be careful and plan ahead of time, what you will have connected to each card.

The cards share a single PCI bus. If one is idle, then it should not detract from the other's performance. And even if both were doing work simultaneously, they will still perform well enough that you will not notice the difference with 100 megabit Ethernet.

I think the USB and SATA cards do not produce as much heat as a wireless card. In my experience, the primary source of heat around the CardBus slots is in fact chips on the system board. The cards themselves do not use much energy. I think it is completely safe to have both cards installed simultaneously. The ThinkPad is designed for two cards! You said you have this T23 connected to a Port Replicator? I think that will help a little bit, if it raises the computer up from the surface below. That can provide extra ventilation beneath the slots.

I dream of a temperature sensor add-in card. That would be neat!

Edit: T23 can accomodate a Type III card. There exist PCMCIA hard disks, and I imagine those draw 2 W or more. No way a USB controller burns that much!

[saidiadude]

Thanks for your detailed reply as usual, automobus. I have a port replicator but did not use it for the setup - I couldn't find any benefit to it as my USB connections were through the PCMCIA card (I had to connect/disconnect wires anyway, so I didn't bother with it). I do have a cooling pad with a fan that can run off the USB 1.1 port, so I can cool the system that way if needed. I'll have to figure out how to turn on the external fan based on CPU temp. I agree with you in that I wish the cards had temp sensors.

I hadn't considered the thickness of the connector plugs if 2 PCMCIA cards were used. I'll have to investigate further - thanks for the heads up! Also, HD prices had skyrocketed because of the flooding in Thailand. I can afford to wait a few months for HD prices to come down, but unfortunately that means no project to play with for a while I'll post an update here though once I install everything

I did run into a (minor) issue - is there a way to disable the screen on the T23? I'd like to use it as a headless server and free up some RAM that is being used for video. More importantly, I'd like to reduce power usage - no need to power up the screen if it is not being used. At the moment, I'm using the screensaver provided by FreeNAS but the backlight seems to stay on (I forgot to check to see if it goes out eventually).

[JBUK]

is there a way to disable the screen on the T23?

Yes, take your pick from :

1.In power settings set the LCD to turn off after x minutes.
2. Use Fn+F3 to turn it off until the next keystroke
3. Use Fn+F7 to turn it off until the next boot or next Fn+F7
4. Remove the lid assembly completely