Posted 4391 days ago by
Ascholten
Also try a full reboot of your system. I have one computer that for some reason (im almost certain it's a windows thing) the thing just locks up and I have to unplug shut down boinc and reconnect restart to get it working again.
Posted 4399 days ago by
Ascholten
thank you for the reply.
I kind of figured out somewhat what the green was. The other two, no clue.
Now I know
Aaron
Posted 4399 days ago by
Ascholten
Sometimes I see that a project will finish, and it will poll the server and be told, no more projects, this computer has reached it's limit on tasks. What is happening is the project has uploaded and is in the 'ready to report' status, or is waiting to upload or something and then it won't give you another task even though you are not currently running one.
Sometimes it can take a few minutes or a bit longer before the project repolls and finally reports the task and gets it's new one. Instead of the computer sitting there idle because of this oddity in protocol, how about allowing computers to have a max of two tasks each. This way while it's playing games getting the finished one reported, uploaded etc, it's busy on it's new one and you don't have any down time.
Aaron
Posted 4403 days ago by
Ascholten
Looking at the graphs of our readings. What are the green yellow and red lines? Ie what is the significance of them?
Aaron
Posted 4403 days ago by
Ascholten
Good News Hans!!
Hope to see you up in the leader board soon.
Aaron
Posted 4406 days ago by
Ascholten
You ideally should be able to see within a minute or two max if the thing is communicating or not. If there is no percent progress showing, it's not communicating. The detector may still work as long as it has power but not communicating with the computer, hence no percent increase in Boinc.
Another thing to keep in mind, especially with older computers. USB is only like 5 VDC. Ok maybe 12, my brain hurts today and I don't remember the exact specs of USB.... anyways.... as the computer gets older, the USB plugs get worn out, people pulling plugs in and out, wiggling them up and down back and forth, normal movement doing that, it over time can 'spread' the contacts out on the USB plug so they are barely making contact. Now let's add a bit of corrosion or tarnish and you can have a poor connection at best where the slightest movement can break the connection. With such low voltages, the smallest amount of crap on the connections or looseness can cause problems. Even just a fraction of a second of the connecting being broken, even if it is reconnected right after, may lock your detector out and not communicate.
I have this issue with one of my laptops and it's at the point that out of 4 USB ports, only one really works worth a darned anymore.
one other point of interest, if you are going to plug in a USB hub to get more ports, while a passive one might work, you will be much better off with an externally powered one .vs. a port powered one.
Aaron
Posted 4412 days ago by
Ascholten
Hello everyone.
I am seeing a lot of questions being asked 'How do I...' 'Where do I...'
In an attempt to help people, and give them pretty much all the info they need to get started (I hope) all in one spot. I am making this quick post with the most common questions / problems. These instructions are primarily for Windows, but may work / help you with other platforms as well. This is pretty much a very basic step by step how to, if you have already done some things, then skip that step.
1. Once you get your detector, first thing you obviously have to do is attach to the project via Boinc. (If you do not have Boinc, find it, download it and install it, there are several places to get it at)
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php
is the best place to get the download of Boinc from.
1a. From your boinc manager, depending on which version you are running, you will have to select the project and attach to it. The function to do this should be under Boinc's TOOLS section on the top selection row, click tools and then attach to project.
If your version of Boinc does not list this project directly you can enter this line to give it the directions to the project:
http://radioactiveathome.org/boinc
2. Boinc will do it's thing, then the project will initialize, once it has downloaded all the stuff it needs, you can then plug a USB cable into your detector and your computer and see if it works.
2a. Once you plug in your detector it should light up, go through a boot up sequence and start showing you
Radioactive@Home on the screen with a reading underneath of it's current sample reading.
an example would be
0.04 uSv/h
Once the detector is plugged in and booted, you should hear an occasional 'tick' sound coming from it, meaning it's working and counting.
Looking at the boinc screen, you should see a 'work unit' from the project
It will say something like Radioactivity Monitor 1.xx. There will be a progress bar on it. After the detector is running for a minute or two you should see that there is progress on the progress bar. (Meaning above 0.00 percent)
If you are seeing data / progress goto step 3.
If it is not showing any progress after running for about 5 minutes of run time, or the elapsed meter on boinc is not increasing, shut down boinc. Note:(Clicking the X just minimizes it, you have to actually right click and shut down via the tray icon). Unplug your detector from the computer. Now restart boinc, let it reconnect to the server do it's thing and start running again.
At this point plug your detector back in, and wait for it to boot and go back to step 2a.
3. If you are now getting data showing and progress showing, you are good to go. Proceed to step 4.
3a. If you still are not getting data, you need to check your computer settings, check your USB cable, check the port on the computer. Possibly might even have to reboot the computer. Depending on how strict your control over your computer is, you might also have an issue with firewall / virus programs etc not allowing data along that USB port until you tell it to. You should also try switching to a different USB port too.
If your detector is lit up, but no data coming thru to boinc, you most likely have a problem with a windows setting / the USB port or the cable. If your detector is NOT lit up, you might have a problem with the USB cable, possibly the USB port or the detector. Try another USB port.
If you still are not having any luck, please post in the forum and one of the professionals might be able to help you.
4. Let the program run until you have 100 percent progress, at this point it should upload the 'task' to the server and get a new one. You might need to click the update button under Boinc Projects tab to get it to fully 'report' the task as being done.
4a. Once a task has been completed and uploaded to the server and a new one is started, you can go and find your detector on the big map.
4b. First thing you need to do is click this link
http://radioactiveathome.org/boinc/hosts_user.php
It will show your computer ID, THIS is the number assigned to your MONITOR. THIS is the number you will need to track your readings.
THIS NUMBER IS NOT NECESSARILY YOUR ACCOUNT NUMBER WITH THE PROJECT!!
For example, I am user 1733 with the project but my monitor / computer ID is 1743
(some people have multiple monitors which take the extra numbers)
4c. Once you have this number click the word "Details" underneath this number.
This will bring up a map, and your dot (which should be a different color than the rest). Your dot should be right over the country of Poland. Move your mouse to your dot, and click and hold down the button to drag your dot to whatever location you are located at on the world map.
You can use the tools to zoom in on the map to get better detail when placing your dot. Once you get your dot where you want it at, under the map is a button Add Sensor! Click that button and you are good to go.
5. Once you clicked the add sensor button, it can take a little while for the server to update and show you stats correctly. Sometimes half an hour, sometimes almost a day when dealing with team stats etc etc. Don't worry you data is logged an you are now active in the project.
6. Your detector may dim it's screen after a minute or two by default. If you wish to have it constantly lit, or to turn that 'ticking' noise on or off, you can do that at this page.
http://radioactiveathome.org/boinc/prefs.php?subset=project
On the bottom click the edit preferences button and change them as necessary.
The light is Backlight, the 'tick' is buzzer.
Once you made your changes, save them.
Hopefully this little tutorial helps folks out and depending on it's usefulness I am willing to use google or some service to translate it to different languages as well if the Mods wish me to.
Any questions or further additions you see that I need to add to this, please let me know. Let's all work together to get this project going as quickly and easily as possible for everyone.
If you like this project, or feel it is a worthy cause, please consider a small donation to help support it.
Thank you
Aaron
Posted 4414 days ago by
Ascholten
You don't have many reactors Dagorath but other countries do, if one of ours were to have an incident, unfortunately a cloud could very easily reach you. Granted I don't think montana and the dakota's have many nukes but still...
If a nuclear weapon were to go off somewhere, that cloud of poison will go thousands and thousands of feet into the air, unlike the accident in Japan where the effect was a bit more limited. In the case of an N burst, yes that cloud will easily navigate the globe, dropping stuff all over.
You go play hockey, and drink beer too don't forget :D Hockey is always more fun when you got a buzz going.
Thanks for the reply.
Aaron
Posted 4415 days ago by
Ascholten
Well I see that the US of A is finally getting dotted in the project. Of course Dagorath is holding down the fort up in the great white north!! I thought we had more than one Canadian member here hmmm.
It will be nice when the US is finally well covered with members reporting as we see some of the other countries are.
As a side note. I know the server keeps data for a little while, is there any way some math can be done to give the user's (that'd be us) some counters, say accumulated radiation? Maybe one that is resettable by us, one for a grand total overall, etc. I think it'd be cool to see, over the last year you absorbed 2.6 Rem of background radiation etc etc.
If this would be too much load on the server, can someone possibly who is not a mental midget at programming like I am, do a little script or something that we can use our own computers to hit the server for the numbers and do these?
Just an idea.
Thanks
Aaron
Posted 4416 days ago by
Ascholten
Im not sure it loses that much energy when it hits a detector. I mean if it can go through several feet of concrete I hardly think a detector is really going to slow it down significantly. If they did then we would just have to make bomb shelters out of about 1/4 inch of detector material and we'd all be safe right?
Aaron