It's Not Rocket Surgery » Plug computing

My TonidoPlug Died :-(

craiglp — Wed, 04 May 2011 16:59:15 +0000

I have been using a TonidoPlug since February 2010. It has been running next to a PogoPlug v. 1.0. On the whole, I’ve used the TonidoPlug more. I find it more flexible, and it’s software suite has been very useful. I’ve used the blog application as a replacement for delicious.com and the bit torrent client has been very useful. Obviously, the file sharing has been the primary application. Although, this is one place where the Pogoplug shines brighter than the TonidoPlug. The Pogoplug file sharing is straight forward to use and easy to set up. It’s dead simple to share a file or directory with someone else without setting them up with an access account. The Tonido file sharing is not as intuitive, but it works. Tonido has been steadily improving the software over the last year, and now third party applications are starting to appear.

So, after not being able to connect to my plug I checked it and found the LEDs dark and the plug cold. No doubt a fried power supply. Unfortunately, I’m three months beyond the hardware warranty. I am going to see what else is out there before buying another TonidoPlug. But, in the end, I may very well buy another.

Do you have any experience with other plug computers? Newer Pogoplugs?

A GuruPlug Server Plus Review

craiglp — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:40:57 +0000

Willy Tarreau, a Linux 2.4 maintainer and developer of HAProxy wrote a review of a GuruPlug Server Plus. He wasn’t impressed. Good article.

A Few Plug Computing Links

craiglp — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:26:44 +0000

PlugIN to the Marvell Plug Computer Ecosystem and Meet Inventors of the Plug Computer

Amahi ‘Plug Edition’ Released – Brings Amahi Home Server to Plug Computers

The Future of the $99 Server and Birth of Reverse Virtualization

Plug Wiki

Plug Computer gets Amahi server and a developer camp all its own

Cheap Linux wall warts small on size, big on possibilities

Seagate DockStar Woot! Deal

craiglp — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:30:32 +0000

If you have a Seagate FreeAgent Go™ drive, you can turn it into a NAS by adding a Seagate DockStar dock. It has the PogoPlug software embedded, so you get the functionality of a PogoPlug combined with the USB dock. Woot.com has the DockStar for $20 + shipping today only. The current model is $79 direct from Seagate.

Tonido Vs. PogoPlug

craiglp — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:55:10 +0000

Early last fall I purchased a PogoPlug and later in the year I bought a TonidoPlug. After using the PogoPlug for a while, and running a bit torrent client and Firefly iTunes server, I decided to try the TonidoPlug. The Tonido software suite looked like it would handle most of what I was using the PogoPlug for, without having to hack it. So, after running both for 6+ months, I have decided to keep both. Why? The PogoPlug handles file sharing cleaner and easier than the TonidoPlug. I can quickly set up a share that I let other access without having to set up accounts for them. When I am done, it’s easy to turn off sharing. Plus, I can do it from my Android phone (or an iPhone if I were so inclined). I am not as enamored with it’s handling of media files. It can handle MP3 files, but the audio player is adequate, at best. It does better with video. It converts video files into a more bandwidth efficient format for streaming.

The TonidoPlug has a built in bit torrent client that works well. And an audio player that can handle iTunes files (non-DRM) as well as MP3. The file sharing works fine, but it is less intuitive than the PogoPlug. The ability to set up a quick share with a link I can email to someone else only works if the other person is set up as a user on your TonidoPlug. Files can be shared on PogoPlug without the user needing an account, or logging in.

The price of the PogoPlug’s ease of file sharing is that it relies on pogoplug.com providing a proxy service to direct users to your PogoPlug. Tonido provides a similiar service, without the benefits, but it is not necessary. I have used DynDNS to redirect traffic to my TonidoPlug. The Tonido software suite is a nice addition to the TonidoPlug, at a cost $20 less than the current PogoPlug device. The additional functionality take care of most personal cloud needs. I find that the PogoPlug’s file sharing ease of use is enough to keep it around.

http://blog.craiglpatterson.com/2009/11/16/playing-with-the-pogoplug/

http://blog.craiglpatterson.com/2009/11/25/plug-into-plug-computing/

http://blog.craiglpatterson.com/2010/02/08/a-tonidoplug-is-plugged-in/

http://blog.craiglpatterson.com/2010/02/08/plug-into-plug-computing-update/

Plug Into Plug Computing Update

craiglp — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:23:42 +0000

This is an update to an earlier post: Plug Into Plug Computing. There have been several new products and resources that have shown up since that post.

In the software arena, OpenPogo is moving to PlugApps. In response to the limited NAND memory available in the PogoPlug v2, the hackers in the OpenPogo project have created a new project and site, PlugApps. This is a Linux distribution that will boot from an attached USB drive, rather than replacing the supplied OS on the PogoPlug, TonidoPlug, or SheevaPlug. The site includes information to help decide if OpenPogo or PlugApps is the right direction for your plug hacking needs.

There are two wikis I didn’t know about when the earlier article was written:

PlugCompter.org and ComputingPlugs.com

And new products (or announcements, at least):

Marvell Plug Computer 3.0 has been announced. It has a 2Ghz ARM based processor, integrated wireless, and a hard drive. This is currently an OEM product, so there is no indication if or when it will show up as a consumer product.

Global Scale Technologies, reseller of the SheevaPlug dev kit, have added 3 new products for pre-order (March delivery):

GuruPlug Server

Linux Kernel 2.6.32
1.2Ghz CPU
512MB RAM
512MB NAND Flash
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
U-SNAP I/O
1 Gigabit Ethernet port
2 USB Ports

GuruPlug Server Plus

Same as the Server except the follow port configuration:

2 Gigabit Ethernet port
1 eSATA
2 USB Ports
1 MicroSD Slot

GuruPlug Display

Linux Kernel 2.6.28
1.2Ghz CPU
512MB RAM
2GB NAND Flash
4MB SPI Flash
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
Wi-Fi 802.11n
U-SNAP I/O
1 MicroSD Slot
1 HDMI Port
1 100Mbit Ethernet
3 USB 2.0
1 Mini USB 2.0 OTG

Pricing ranges from $99-$149. These are dev kits, with no application software, just the base OS.

And a mainstream media mention:

Popular Science

A TonidoPlug Is Plugged In

craiglp — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:31:52 +0000

I have added a companion plug computer to my 3 month old PogoPlug (Version 1), a TonidoPlug. For the same $99 + shipping I paid for the PogoPlug (the new version 2 PogoPlug is now $129), I got almost identical hardware and a lot more software. I’ve had the unit up and running for a couple of days, so this is not an in-depth review.

The TonidoPlug is built on the same Sheevaplug platform as the PogoPlug version 1 (and others), with the exception that the TonidoPlug has more RAM. Both units came nicely packaged, the consumer plug manufacturers have paid attention to Apple here. As with the PogoPlug, there isn’t much in the package: The plug computer, a power cable, an ethernet cable. Plug it into power, your router, add a USB drive, and you are up an running. Actually, you can set up the TonidoPlug without the USB drive attached, but some functionality will be necessarily absent.

The hardware is basically the same, so what makes the TonidoPlug special? Ubuntu for one. The plug is running Ubuntu 9.04. So it has a very recent Linux kernel, and messing around the plug via SSH is similar to any other Linux server. Apt-get is there, as well as other standard Linux tools. More on this later. The main difference between the PogoPlug and TonidoPlug is the Tonido software suite. This is a collection of apps running on the TonidoPlug, and administered as plug-ins in the Tonido admin app. This is in addition to the plug administration app to handle the low level setup of the plug (adding SMB shares, mounting drives, etc.). The apps include: Explorer (file explorer), Torrent (bittorrent client), WebSharePro (file/drive sharing), Workspace (PIM, group collaboration), OpenID (OpenID server), Photos (photo sharing), Jukebox (mp3 server), Money (personal finance), Thots (basic blog), Desktop Search, Backup. In addition for $19.99, you can add an SSL cert to run these apps over SSL.

PogoPlug is mostly focused on file/drive sharing. And it does it well. I have used mine to make my files available to me wherever I have internet access. And I have used it to make photos and other files available to other people via an obfuscated URL. This has worked well to transfer large numbers of large files to people with minimal computing skills. But, that is about it. And this functionality requires the intervention of the PogoPlug.com services to make the connection to your PogoPlug.

The TonidoPlug is much more autonomous. It does support a re-director service to connect you and others to your TonidoPlug via a sub-domain. But, you can use DynDNS.com or any other dynamic IP service. Or, if your plug has a static IP, you can point your self managed domain name to it. It’s your choice. I tried out the WebSharePro, OpenID, and Torrent apps so far. The Torrent app works well. It’s similar to using the Transmission web client. WebSharePro is taking a little getting used to. I haven’t figured out yet how to set a readonly share that I can send a link to someone to gain access. It appears to require setting up individual users, with usernames/passwords. I’ve only just started using it, so I won’t say it can’t do it. The OpenID server seems to work fine. I was able to log into serverfault.com using my TonidoPlug OpenID URL. I like that. That is all I have had time to explore so far.

As I said earlier, the TonidoPlug runs Ubuntu 9.04. So, if there is room, it should run most anything that will run on the ARM version of Ubuntu. I installed Webmin and Firefly using guides found in the TonidoPlug user forums. It took some tweaks to get them both running. Firefly picked up my iTunes library, but doesn’t appear as a shared library on the network. More tweaking needed. Webmin works fine. The TonidoPlug is probably a friendlier hacker plug than the PogoPlug, but with more out of the box functionality than a plain Sheevaplug.

Look for a slightly used version 1 PogoPlug on eBay soon.