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  • Paul_B
    Automated Home Legend
    • Jul 2006
    • 608

    #16
    I don't have any cameras so that drastically reduces my computer horse power needs. Keep meaning to plug in a*Watt Meter to see how much power is really being drawn. In the future I'll probably buy a Idratek UPS as I don't have one at the moment, plugging the Fitlet into the protected circuit. One problem*I have is even though the Fitlet stays up*during a power failure the return of power to IdraNet is not well handled and I still need to do a*network*stop and start.

    Comment

    • chris_j_hunter
      Automated Home Legend
      • Dec 2007
      • 1713

      #17
      we do use the Idatrek IPS - it works well ... after a while, we swapped to larger batteries, but didn't see the benefit, for reasons not discovered, yet !

      with our previous miniITX PC, our separate UPS gave around three hours cover but, since we swapped to the ZooStorm, this is now a lot lot less ...

      recently the UPS told us to replace its batteries, which we did, so that might have been part of the story ...

      must check the manual to see if adding more batteries is possible ...

      of the six batteries, that came out of the UPS, one had lower voltage than the rest, so it might be just that one has failed (we remembered hearing a pop a few days before, and the plug on that same battery was loose) ... so one option might be replace just that battery & add the old set to the new - but maybe that's a bad idea (?)

      the miniITX stopped working & is gathering dust - we did get a multimeter to it, but couldn't fathom a cause ... that was a while ago, now, but recent thoughts have suggested maybe the power supply had failed, so we might try getting a new one of those and, if it then works, redeploy it as a back-up PC (ISTR doing that will need an extra license) ...
      Our self-build - going further with HA...

      Comment

      • Gumby
        Moderator
        • May 2004
        • 437

        #18
        Well, struggling to pick TBH. Currently Cortex fits OK on a D510 Atom, but a bit more oomph for interactive use would be nice. Been looking at some of the small barebones boxes and the other option is mini-itx. I prefer fanless as one less thing to go wrong, but many run too hot to go in the roof. Adding a fan to a fanless is actually quite a good idea. The other blocker is needing RDC access, which adds the cost of a Win 10 Pro licence, annoying when often they seem to come with a licence. My actual plan is to bring the PC out of the roof, but I'll need a more up-to-date monitor in my office to plug it in to. Still, with backup Cortex on the VM on the Mac Mini I think I can limp on for a while. It's not too bad, just picked a bad time to go wrong when I was away for a week on business before Christmas :-(


        Originally posted by Paul_B View Post
        Hey Gumby,

        How is the new PC progressing?

        I've now switched over completely to my new PC running Windows 10 and so long as the caveats around UAC, admin rights, etc. are taken into account it seems to be running very well for me. I decided to go with an ultra lower power Fitlet PC, it is small, robust, fanless and consumes only 4.5W. I included a small UPS which will keep the PC running for around 3 hours. It is not*the cheapest of PC but having used a FitPC before they are well made and the system and drivers rock solid

        [ATTACH=CONFIG]903[/ATTACH]
        ----------------------
        www.gumbrell.com

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        • chris_j_hunter
          Automated Home Legend
          • Dec 2007
          • 1713

          #19
          our miniITX was far from cheap, by the time all the essential extras were included (case, power supply, disk, etc) - and it didn't last many years - suspect it was the power supply that failed (yet to confirm), and that having a fan would have extended its life ... our current ZooStorm has a fan & was not as expensive - it's much more powerful & runs at much lower %CPU, but uses more power ... it'll be a few years before the cost of that power matches the difference in purchase price ...
          Our self-build - going further with HA...

          Comment

          • Gumby
            Moderator
            • May 2004
            • 437

            #20
            Yup, that happened!

            I am not entirely sure how, but I ended up with registration details that did not work. At least one gotcha is that the user that Cortex is installed by is a factor, even if you install for all users. So if you want to run with a user other than OS default, get that all configured before installing Cortex.

            Originally posted by Paul_B View Post
            BTW Gumby,

            I'd be interested how you get on transferring your registration details, I always find this process a complete pain in the rear and always ends with my system out of action whilst I wait for a new key to be generated by Karam or Vivian.

            Paul
            ----------------------
            www.gumbrell.com

            Comment

            • Nad
              Automated Home Guru
              • Jul 2008
              • 145

              #21
              Finally got around to rehousing the Cortex installation on to the new Windows 7 machine

              All in all, it was relatively painless, the license transfer worked like a charm with no issues what so ever. I did make sure I had the licence output of the original installation as you have to make sure that the owner and company are exactly the same else you end up with "bad key" issues. Besides that it was the usual disabling of the UAC and the need to run as admin. Like Paul I did my best to keep UAC active but there was no practical way to get around the issue. It would be nice if Cortex ran as a service ... hint hint for version 28

              As for the hardware; I've been running the install off an old Acer Revo (Intel Atom 1.6GHz) and it's been coping OK, even with a camera on there (around 60% utilization) but the intention was to have multiple cameras so a machine with a bit more omph was needed. In the end I decided to go down the DIY build path using hardware that was as power efficient as I could get (within reason) and that are readily available in the event of a hardware failure.

              Final system comprises of a Intel Core i5 6600T with a Noctua NH-L12 cooler, Gigabyte GA-H110m-S2, Kingston SSD, 4GB DDR4, 300W 80+ Gold PSU and HTPC case. I also had to add a WD Purple 4TB drive for the video recording side of things. The power meter I have is showing the system running at 20-22W with Cortex and the video management system running (around 19W at idle) and a stress test showed that it will pull a maximum of 50W. I was curious to see how much power the WD drive was taking and it was around 5W when busy which is spot on to what the specs said. There are also multiple 120mm case fans to keep temperatures in the little cupboard under control. It's no where near the 4.5W of the FitPC but I already have a 3MP and a 4MP camera on there with plans for additional 4MP cameras in the not too distant future.

              I'm quite pleased with the outcome and it makes working on the system so much more bearable than on the Revo (it was running a SSD too, I don't think I could have worked with it if it didn't have a SSD).

              One thing I did notice after moving the databases over to the new machine was that the lighting scenes didn't go over. Everything else seems to have gone over but all the lighting scenes were blank.

              Thanks,
              Nad

              Comment

              • Viv
                Automated Home Ninja
                • Dec 2004
                • 284

                #22
                Originally posted by Nad View Post

                Like Paul I did my best to keep UAC active but there was no practical way to get around the issue. It would be nice if Cortex ran as a service ... hint hint for version 28
                Nad
                Cortex uses the registry and all its source files and the application data files are in C:\ProgramFiles... As such, after XP, windows protects applications writting to these directories so UAC has to be turned off.

                When the Windows 10 version of Cortex is released (Not a normal upgrade) it will not use the registry and application data will reside outside the program files area. This means UAC can be turned on. However when a user updates Cortex via the AutoUpdate process UAC will prompt to authorise the update (unless UAC is off).

                Viv.

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                • Paul_B
                  Automated Home Legend
                  • Jul 2006
                  • 608

                  #23
                  Viv,

                  Sounds good and appreciate the effort to refactor. Is Cortex still predominantly written in Delphi?

                  Paul

                  Comment

                  • Karam
                    Automated Home Legend
                    • Mar 2005
                    • 863

                    #24
                    Originally posted by Paul_B View Post
                    Viv,

                    Sounds good and appreciate the effort to refactor. Is Cortex still predominantly written in Delphi?

                    Paul
                    Yes it is Delphi

                    Comment

                    • Gumby
                      Moderator
                      • May 2004
                      • 437

                      #25
                      So with an increasing frequency of complete freezes on my current main PC, I finally pulled my finger out and got a little Jetway 323 from Mini-ITX. Based on the various reports here, I went with Windows 10 Pro. After WannaCry, and with Win 7 harder to get hold of, it seemed a reasonable option. All my existing licences are OEM and hence not transferable to new hardware. Cortex is up and running, although not connected to the network yet, and the PC is OK. I have not yet transferred the licence.

                      However, Microsoft's policy with updates would have given me pause for thought if I had known about them. By default, you have no control over updating, and at best are allowed to define a 12 hour busy window when rebooting will be avoided. Great but I really need this to happen during the 8 hour sleep window, if at all.

                      Some hacks to the pro edition are reported, but no longer work in the Anniversary edition. The Creators Edition is now downloading, which apparently gives you "control" via an enormous screen-sized unignorable pop-up. So that'll work on a headless machine :-(.
                      ----------------------
                      www.gumbrell.com

                      Comment

                      • Karam
                        Automated Home Legend
                        • Mar 2005
                        • 863

                        #26
                        For W10 Pro there was a way to change the settings via Windows | Run | gpedit.msc and Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update. Don't know if this is what you mean has been taken away in Anniversary edition as I don't have Pro to try it at present. Another way to stop updates entirely is by accessing the services (Windows | Run | services.msc) and go to the Windows Update entry, Stop the service and also change Startup in Properties to Disabled. You would then have to re-anable on occasion and manually do a search for updates from the Windows settings page in order to manually look for and install any updates.

                        Comment

                        • Gumby
                          Moderator
                          • May 2004
                          • 437

                          #27
                          Thanks Karam. I found the group policy stuff, but the option to allow local admin control did not seem to then enable any controls in the settings dialog. The webpage I was looking at had an update saying this no longer worked, but I haven't had the computer operational for long enough to assume updates should have occurred. However, the option to download and notify is there, so I am trying that. It seems that Microsoft have rowed back from their hardline "we own your computer in return for the privilege of using our OS" position somewhat in the Creator edition. Time will tell.
                          ----------------------
                          www.gumbrell.com

                          Comment

                          • Gumby
                            Moderator
                            • May 2004
                            • 437

                            #28
                            An update:

                            1.
                            My fears on updates have been unfounded, the creators update gives a greater degree of control, but I still have to schedule regular "maintenance" look-sees at the Cortex PC to see if updates are pending, etc. This has been the case anyway, since most consumer software is not written with unattended/headless machines in mind - so backup software, anti-virus etc has always created issues if not attended for months.

                            2.
                            Licence transfer: Since this PC has at least not crashed for 3 weeks (!) I have transferred the licence. I found that despite Cortex acknowledging the transfer, on restart the new key was not present and it had reverted to unlicensed/trial mode. In the end I found that I could paste the key into Computer\HKEY_USERS\blahblahblah\Software\Idratek\ Cortex\Application and it seemed to work. Cortex is set to run as admin, but also in Win 7 compatibility mode (I can't recall why) so perhaps this is why it apparently could not update the registry.

                            So far pretty happy with the little Jetway 323.
                            ----------------------
                            www.gumbrell.com

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