Radioactive@home + GQ GMC-300E Geiger Counter

[StefanR5R]

I looked at it today and I think I can write a new gmc300 app based on this.

One HUGE caveat: I am chronically lacking spare time.

I will order one or another GQ GMC and then try this. But don't expect any real progress before November.

Or should I have said not before December, to manage expectations better? I am making baby steps and haven't accomplished anything to show yet.

One thing which dawned on me is that I probably should concentrate on getting something up and running on Linux first, and not distract myself with questions of portability to Windows for the first stage. It looks like a port to Windows will either require quite some extra code, or moving the application from MinGW (which was used by the Radac developers so far, AFAICT) to Cygwin. Windows' lack of a POSIX programming interface to properly open COM ports might be the reason why the existing gmc300.exe doesn't work unless one first accessed the GMC via a different GQ GMC compatible program.

 

[StefanR5R]

My 300s has firmware v1.14

Due to the odd number of characters, this shifts all subsequent GETCPM responses by one byte, making them 256 times too high and coloring the map point red.

@mmonnin03, as long as we don't have a fix for this, you might want to enable the "I'm experimenting" option in the project preferences. But I don't know if this leaves your PPD intact.

 

[gsrcrxsi]

No rush on the app Stefan. I appreciate you working on it . Having a native app without broken behavior in the string length of the device name will be a godsend for everyone.

 

[mmonnin03]

@mmonnin03, as long as we don't have a fix for this, you might want to enable the "I'm experimenting" option in the project preferences. But I don't know if this leaves your PPD intact.

Tried it, no change in credit.

 

[Skillz]

I concur with @gsrcrxsi . No rush on it, although I think I can get more people to join the project if we can get a store bought device working reliable and accurately on the project.

 

[mmonnin03]

Site kinda needs to stay up 1st.

I responded in the U@H thread.

 

[Skillz]

Dang, I posted in the same thread also.

I'm relatively new to this project. Not sure if this is normal for it or if something is wrong. Seems the whole server is either down or they're blocking ICMP requests.

 

[StefanR5R]

I had a look at the last couple of pages of SETI.Germany's R@h forum thread:

12/2017 - 01/2018 DNS trouble
08/2019 DNS trouble
02/2020 out of disk space
06/2020 down for a few(?) days
09/2020 down for a few(?) days
10/2020 down for a week
11/2020 down for a while, admin is in the hospital (pandemic)
05/2023 - 06/2023 boinc services down for several days

The 11/2023 downtimes were not mentioned in that forum yet, which means that the above picture could be incomplete as well.

 

[mmonnin03]

No reply in the U@H thread but I have a new task running.
He must have restored a DB as the last task I received on the 27th is still in progress on the R@H website. From my log it showed the task as unusable, then the site as unavailable, then it uploaded, reported and got a new task. That sample name in the log doesn't match the In Progress task or any other of mine. The next sample name matches the 1st completed task today.
Radioactive@Home 11/29/2023 9:26:03 AM Result sample_15686530_0 is no longer usable

The 2nd (2hr) task I received today was marked as invalid for too many total results for some odd reason.

 

[StefanR5R]

Since 2.5 hours ago, uploads are failing with transient HTTP error. server_status.php shows upload/download server as disabled. Web site and scheduler can be reached. Scheduler responses are malformed though ("no start tag in scheduler reply").

 

[mmonnin03]

I got a new task several minutes ago and the site still shows the upload/download server as disabled. I don't see anything in the event log about communications since the site came back up earlier today.

 

[StefanR5R]

Indeed. I browsed a few hosts of other users via the stats pages, and they have uploaded/ reported/ validated results throughout last night, whereas my two hosts don't.

I reset my cable modem, had my two hosts retry the transfers, and they succeeded right away!

Maybe traffic from/to my dynamic IP address was mangled somewhere by some router.

 

[mmonnin03]

Did that also help FAH?

 

[StefanR5R]

I reset my cable modem, had my two hosts retry the transfers, and they succeeded right away! Maybe traffic from/to my dynamic IP address was mangled somewhere by some router.

Did that also help FAH?

No. No change there.

 

[Skillz]

The domain for me now is redirecting to a "domain for sale" page, but the domain isn't actually for sale.

I think this is related to their server being hacked. Previously I've noticed that clicking on the Project or Forums links at the very top of the home/main page (not the BOINC site) would redirect you to phishing type sites sometimes.

If anyone's DNS is resolving to the correct IP can you guys please post that IP so I can make a manual entry in one of my DNS servers to test it please.

edit
I went to the site using Firefox this time (Normally use Chome) and it went to the correct page. My hosts seem to be connecting to the project correctly though. Went back to Chome and the domain resolved to the correct location this time.

I pinged the domain and this is the IP that I received. 145.239.234.237

edit 2:


These links redirect me to fishy sites in a second tab, but the main tab will go to the correct site. This does not happen 100% of the time, but usually anytime I haven't visited the site in a while it will do it. Others have reported the same issue.

 

[gsrcrxsi]

neither the main site or the /boinc site will load for me. but the boinc instances are still communicating and uploading... somewhere.

 

[StefanR5R]

I just came home from work.
I can basically confirm what's said in #65 and #66.
While my BOINC clients still interact with the server (notably, send trickles), the project's web interface is not responding to my web browser (Seamonkey)... at first!

The DNS cache of my localhost has this:

$ nslookup radioactiveathome.org
Server:         127.0.0.1
Address:        127.0.0.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   radioactiveathome.org
Address: 195.224.99.190
Name:   radioactiveathome.org
Address: 145.239.234.237
** server can't find radioactiveathome.org: NOTIMP

The DNS of my ISP and a different public DNS server resolve it to 145.239.234.237 only. http://195.224.99.190/ goes to the UK site, http://145.239.234.237/ goes to Rad@h proper. http://145.239.234.237/boinc/ shows the BOINC project server's main page.

Now that I visited those latter addresses with the web browser, http://radioactiveathome.org/boinc/ works in that web browser instance again (responds promptly).

I can also partially confirm what @Skillz already reported earlier about the sketchy popups on http://radioactiveathome.org/en/. I have occasionally seen this earlier, but not right now, neither with adblocker nor without.

 

[mmonnin03]

I was also redirected to a domain for sale site on first click to my profile today (tab was still open). Went back and it went to the main boinc page and I haven't seen the for sale site again.

 

[Skillz]

Any more progress on this?

 

[StefanR5R]

I think I can write a new gmc300 app based on [the radathome source code].

One HUGE caveat: I am chronically lacking spare time.

This still stands.

 

[Skillz]

Thanks for the update. We were just discussing it the other day and was wondering if their was any status update. So I figured I'd ask about it.