Microscope Cameras (round #2)

Back in our Microscope Cameras round #1 testing we tested the ToupCam SCMOS S01300KPA, 1.3MP unit and apart from the low magnification though that the product was usable. This had us investigating the ToupCam product range further.

HARDWARE:
ODCM0310C Digital camera for C-Mount, 3MP CMOS AUD$320.00
ODCMZ-EAF-5 Eyepiece adapter for C-Mount camera fixed 0.05x AUD$25.00
via ProSciTech Pty Ltd (QLD)

SOFTWARE:
These cameras are built by ToupTek and use the ToupView software package.
Software is readily available via the ToupTek download page on their website. No login account or ordering is required.
ToupView, ToupSee and ToupCam all have current versions that are in 32 and 64 bit formats.

RESULTS:
Based on this week’s testing and discussion:
* The 3MP CMOS has been purchased. Only one presenters unit will be used rather than purchasing a full class set. To be reviewed at the end of 2013
* A BA80 microscope will be set up for use as a demonstration with the staff computer. This will involve some changes to the microscope stage / 4x object lens to allow movement through the objectives when displaying an imagine, due to focal point issues. Staff are happy to work around this issue.

Note that the slide is above the clips to get the correct focal distance

Why staff like this camera:
* Software easy to use and upgrade, especially with the migration to Windows 7
* Produces far superior images and allows for students to understand what they should be viewing, as opposed to digital microscopes and a flex cam over a microscope eye piece. This is especially good given there are biology and combined science workshops based on using a microscope effectively
* Captured images can be used in the production of documents

VERDICT: ★★★★

Recording audio in the computer labs

Our teaching labs had a combination of old 3.5mm jack microphones that plugged in via the sound cards. Having already installed a few web cameras into these spaces it was a logically conclusion to investigate using the web cam + microphone to replace the older technology. We need microphones for all the PCs without introducing extra management elements;

Logitech c210 Webcam + microphone
The Logitech c210 Webcam 640 X 480 pixels, built-in microphone, USB 2.0 connection (RRP AU$40, but can be purchased for much cheaper) is a cheap but effective way of providing a USB web camera and USB microphone into the teaching labs.

* Q.217 has 28 x c210 deployed, includes presenter
* Q.214 has 31 x c210 deployed, includes presenter

(Q.213/MultiMedia Lab has 11 x Logitech USB desktop microphones deployed)

The microphones appear as “Microphone (Webcam c210)” – in the Audacity preferences and tool bar in this case.

Microscope Cameras (round #1)

We are currently reviewing the hardware and software requirements for our new science labs as we move towards Windows 7. I was testing/reviewing the following USB microscope cameras within our teaching environment from a technical and support pespective;

• 1 x 35UMD Digital Microscope Eyepiece 640×480 USB PC & MAC
• 1 x 200UMD Digital Microscope Eyepiece 2MP USB
• 1 x 300UMD Digital Microscope Eyepiece 3MP USB

All test cameras were obtained through The Digital Microscope. Note: these cameras originate in China as OEM equipment.

Electronic Eyepiece: Model NO. 35UMD-PC(0.35 Mega Pixels)
Electronic Eyepiece: Model NO. 130UMD-PC(1.30 Mega Pixels)
Electronic Eyepiece: Model NO. 300UMD-PC(3.0 Mega Pixels)
Connector USB 1.1&2.0

INSTALL:

* The 35UMD loaded reasonably well and was soon available as a standard USB camera. The only issue with this camera would be availability of driver updates and the low resolution.

* The 200UMD was an awful installer, especially when used from a “run as” context as the installer does not follow standard Windows guidelines and calls windows that are hidden if not logged in as an Administrator. Both the installer and error messages appear to have been machine translated from Chinese to English to achieve the syntax observed in the applications.

* The 300UMD used a similar installer to the 200UMD. The supplied mini-CD with driver contained corrupted installers so this could not be totally verified. Using the drivers available on the 200UMD disc the driver was loaded but we were not able to get this camera to function during the testing process. As you will see from the discussion below as I was unable to access updated driver it is impossible to tell if this was a hardware or software issue.

SUPPORT:

I visited the web site advertised on the packaging to check for updated drivers (as is standard practice). The site requires you to login to access the drivers – I created an account and logged into the website. Rather than listing drivers, the website requires a $0.00 purchase via a shopping cart to access the browsers; unfortunately the shopping cart produces a 404 Not Found error on checkout so that the drivers are in fact unavailable for download. This appears to be a feature found with many vendors of this product.

I called the support number listed on the website to gain access to the drivers. Having not received any contact, I called again this afternoon and was informed that an email was sent on Thursday. I have checked both my email and spam filtering, no email was received to my address from contact@ciderhouse.com.au [After following up I was sent a link to the 35UMD driver which is a different version to that shipped with the camera].

VERDICT: ★★
All in all the experience from a technical perspective would be rated about 4 from 10 and given a competitive product for another vendor where the drivers are available for download it would be difficult to recommend the purchase of these items.

Classroom Dataloggers

Moving from Private to Public 2012-Feb-16 for Science lab discussions

Tainlab / Wintec

URL: www.tainlab.com
SOFTWARE: Wintec for Windows Version 5.03.09 (4 May 2011)
DOCS: Tainlab User Guide – 7th Edition, 2008 [PDF]

Tainlab is a range of hardware devices and software programs developed as a set of tools for science education.
The Tainlab system consists of three main parts:
* Sensors & Modules – for detecting real-world conditions like temperature, light, motion, sound, voltage and much more.
* Interfaces – for capturing data from sensors & modules, and storing them or transferring them to a computer (TecFour – USB)
* Computer software – for interpreting the data and presenting it for easy analysis and manipulation

WIN7/VISTA: The Tainlab Software Upgrade for Windows Vista is intended for existing licensed users of Tainlab software migrating to Windows Vista from Windows XP and older operating systems. $100 (+GST)

FIG: Tainlab TecFour serial interface with Tainlab USB adaptor

DataHarvest / Easysense

URL: www.dataharvest.co.uk
SOFTWARE: EasySense Iss 7 V3.0
DOCS: Easysense Manuals

Data Harvest is a world-leading UK-based manufacturer and supplier of specialist educational science and technology equipment ranging from data logging & control systems to stand-alone science products and construction sets for primary and secondary education.

WIN7/VISTA: Note: 64 Bit Vista / Windows 7 is now supported.

Intellecta / eLogger

URL: www.intellecta.net/elogger.html
SOFTWARE: n/a
DOCS: n/a

Science education has a great reliance on measurement techniques. The use of data loggers and data recorders means that the time consuming task has been given to special electronics.
Furthermore, data loggers can record fast data or long terms data to show trends and slow changes.
Intellecta has developed a range of special science focussed devices such as : …
Elogger – simple primary science product

WIN7/VISTA: You can run the elogger in XP mode under the settings option in WIN 7. No planned Win7 release, may be doing something for Win 8.

Pasco

URL: www.pasco.com
SOFTWARE:
* ScienceWorkshop v.2.3.3 – PASCO’s legacy data collection and analysis software. Latest release. NOT compatible with WindowsXP, WindowsNT, Windows 2000, or MacOS X.
* DataStudio v.1.9.8.10 PASCO’s powerful, yet easy-to-use, data collection and analysis software that works with ALL PASCO interfaces.
DOCS: Product Manuals

For over 45 years PASCO has been guided by just one mission: to provide educators worldwide with innovative solutions for teaching science. …
Our team of almost 200 former teachers, educational researchers, engineers and many more are equally dedicated to improving student success in science education, and are ready to support you. Together we can help you create a 21st century science learning experience where ever in the world you may be.

WIN7/VISTA: Support for Windows 7 and Vista 32-bit and 64-bit Windows: Please see TechNote 583 for compatibility notes and installation instructions.

GHOST boot disks for HP Mini 5102

GHOST boot disks for HP Mini 5102
The HP Mini 5102 has a Marvell Yukon 88E8059 (Gigabit Ethernet controller). Modifying the standard Ghost Boot Key to include the Marvell Yukon driver is covered in Build yourself a bootable Ghost USB key II

The latest driver is the DOS NDIS2 Driver for Yukon Devices v9.55.1.3

We need to work around some technical issues to get the boot tool to work, in summary;

1) Disable the onboard audio in the BIOS
2) Download and use the latest NDIS2 driver from Marvell.
If you experience a stack overflow you may have to adjust the FIX= value in the protocol.ini to 1 or 3
– GenEric [1]

1.) In the BIOS settings;

i.) System Configuration > Built in Device Options
Turn off Audio Device

ii.) System Configuration > Device Configuration
SATA Device Mode = IDE

2.) The FIX value is set in protocol.ini in the [nic] section;

[protman]
drivername=PROTMAN$

[pktdrv]
drivername=PKTDRV$
bindings=nic
intvec=0x60
chainvec=0x66

[nic]
DriverName = yuknd$
; FIX (see readme)
; For Netbook 5102 set as 1 or 3
FIX = 3
; (optional) Connection Type
; CONTYPE = AUTO
; (optional) Use First Link Found
; CHECKLINK = 0
; (optional) Adapter’s PCI Bus Number
; BUSNUM = 0
; (optional) Adapter’s PCI Device Number
; DEVNUM = 0
; (optional) Number of Receive Buffers
; MAXRECEIVES = 1
; (optional) Number of Transmit Buffers
; MAXTRANSMITS = 1
; (optional) Designated port
; HWPORT = L
;

I have also found that the OAKCDROM.SYS ATAPI driver causes problems. Comment this out in CONFIG.SYS.

This gives a working Ghost Boot Key for this model NetBook.

[1] Problem ghosting a HP Mini 5102 [Symantec Connect]
[2] PXE Booting HP Mini 5102 [Symantec Connect]

HP Mini 5102 compared with HP 6710b

The HP Mini 2140 has now been replaced by the HP Mini 5102 as our SOE NetBook;

Our SOE NetBook compared with an old SOE laptop for scale

HP Mini 5102 netbook
Processor: Intel Atom N450
Screen : 10.1" HD, 1366×768.
RAM: 2GB 800DDR2
Hard Drive: 320GB 7200RPM SATA 2.5
Network: 802.11 draft-n Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet
Webcam: Integrated 2MP Module

LINKS:
[1] HP Mini 5102- Models [HP]
[2] Mini 5102: Data Sheet (PDF)[HP]
[3] HP Mini 5102 Laptop reviews [CNET Reviews]

Outlook creating/deleting keys in HKLM\SOFTWARE\McAfee\AVEngine

Seems to be caused by the 5922 DAT update on VirusScan Enterprise v8.5 (not occurring with v8.7) generating alerts from machines where the users are local administrators.

Engine version = 5400.1158
AntiVirus DAT version = 5924.0000
Number of detection signatures in EXTRA.DAT = None
Names of detection signatures in EXTRA.DAT = None

FROM
\\%computer%\c$\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\McAfee\DesktopProtection\AccessProtectionLog.txt

19/03/2010	11:27:36 AM	Blocked by Access Protection rule 	DOMAIN\user	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE	\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\McAfee\AVEngine\EngineVersionMajor	Common Standard Protection:Prevent modification of McAfee Scan Engine files and settings	Action blocked : Create
19/03/2010	11:27:36 AM	Blocked by Access Protection rule 	DOMAIN\user	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE	\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\McAfee\AVEngine\EngineVersionMinor	Common Standard Protection:Prevent modification of McAfee Scan Engine files and settings	Action blocked : Create
19/03/2010	11:27:36 AM	Blocked by Access Protection rule 	DOMAIN\user	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE	\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\McAfee\AVEngine\AVDatVersion	Common Standard Protection:Prevent modification of McAfee Scan Engine files and settings	Action blocked : Create
19/03/2010	11:27:36 AM	Blocked by Access Protection rule 	DOMAIN\user	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE	\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\McAfee\AVEngine\AVDatDate	Common Standard Protection:Prevent modification of McAfee Scan Engine files and settings	Action blocked : Create
19/03/2010	11:27:37 AM	Blocked by Access Protection rule 	DOMAIN\user	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE	\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\McAfee\AVEngine\TrjDatVersion	Common Standard Protection:Prevent modification of McAfee Scan Engine files and settings	Action blocked : Delete
19/03/2010	11:27:37 AM	Blocked by Access Protection rule 	DOMAIN\user	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE	\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\McAfee\AVEngine\TrjDatDate	Common Standard Protection:Prevent modification of McAfee Scan Engine files and settings	Action blocked : Delete
19/03/2010	11:27:37 AM	Blocked by Access Protection rule 	DOMAIN\user	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE	\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\McAfee\AVEngine\PUPDatVersion	Common Standard Protection:Prevent modification of McAfee Scan Engine files and settings	Action blocked : Delete
19/03/2010	11:27:37 AM	Blocked by Access Protection rule 	DOMAIN\user	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE	\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\McAfee\AVEngine\PUPDatDate	Common Standard Protection:Prevent modification of McAfee Scan Engine files and settings	Action blocked : Delete

Is anyone else seeing this behavior in their VirusScan logs?

UPDATE:
As raj mentioned in the comments and andyross posted in the forums, the issue is related to the v.480 vscan.bof file, and is not limited to users with Administrative privileges.

It looks like the problem is being caused by the new BOP(Buffer Overflow Protection) DAT update that went out on March 16th. The new version 480 vscan.bof file (Buffer Overflow and Access Protection rules file) has a change in it that can results this kind of problem.
They are working on a fix but the work around is to exclude Outlook.exe from the protection rules. [1] (2010-Mar-22)

LINKS:
[1] Outlook causing access protection error? (2010-Mar-18) [McAfee Communities]
[2] Outlook creating/deleting keys in HKLM\SOFTWARE\McAfee\AVEngine (2010-Mar-18) [McAfee Communities]

VirusScan Enterprise 8.7.0i Patch 2

Now in testing: VirusScan Enterprise 8.7.0i Patch 2

Ghosting an HP 6930p

The HP EliteBook 6930p Notebook PC can cause a whole new world of pain for you with your existing Ghost toolset. Here’s a quick snapshot of how we put together a workable solution with our tool set.

1. Update the BIOS (version F.0F or later.)

The current BIOS does not have the option to turn off Bit shift for hard disk drive (HDD) translation mode. This prevents using a ghost image to image the notebook PCs. [4]

2. Set the BIOS to IDE instead of ACHI

In some of the new systmes (specially with AHCI), Ghost (and DOS) will not see the hard drive at all. [1]

3. Move ghost.exe from \ghost\ghost.exe to the root of the boot disk

We solved this simply by moving ghost.exe to root folder. Remember to edit your autoexec.bat. [1]

4. Do not use Ghost 11.5 (GSS2.5), drop back to Ghost 11.0 (GSS2.0)
{Ghost 11.5 (GSS2.5) cannot see the local Hard Disk!}

5. Update the driver “e1000.dos” for the Intel 82566GB NIC
Download Center
* Intel 82566 Gigabit v14.0 (1-APR-2009)
* Intel 82566 Gigabit v14.3 (23-JUL-2009)

LINKS:
[1] Cannot create a file preservation metadata file at path Error 40217 HP 2730P Version 11.5 [Symantec Connect]
[2] There is no valid source drive to choose (11032) [Symantec Connect]
[3] unable to boot into ghost 8.2 using HP Elitebook 6930p [Experts Exchange]
[4] HP Notebook PCs – Unable to Install Windows From a Ghost Image Document ID: c01711176 (2009-Apr-03) [HP]
[5] HP Notebook PCs – Additional SATA (Serial ATA) Devices Not Detected in DOS or Pre-Boot Environment Document ID: c01517092 (2008-Jul-30) [HP]
[6] HP EliteBook 6930p Notebook PC (Drivers) [HP]

Netbooks are not Notebooks

Earlier this year we added the HP Mini 2140 to our SOE line up, this model has been selected as it fits very well into our fleet. So well in fact that it can use our base laptop model with only minimal post image modification. (Our SOE laptop image is still XP-SP3 rather than Vista, and we’ll look at jumping to Win7 next year).

{The HP Mini 2140 has now been replaced by a new model, the HP Mini 5101.}

Image: The HP Mini 2140 Netbook compared for size against the HP 6710b Laptop

Do you need a Netbook?
The vast majority of our user base do not want or need a Netbook, the vast majority want a business Laptop (eg. HP 6710b, HP6930p), a smaller number need a light weight Laptop (eg. HP 2510p, HP 2350p) and very few need a Netbook (HP 2140, HP 5101).

The Netbook’s niche is not intended to be a primary PC/desktop replacement; they’re designed to be used on the move to access Web2.0 applications – a glorified PDA so to speak. But this is not how they are being taken up in the market;

Even though nearly 60% of all netbook owners say they purchased their netbook because of its portability, almost 60% say they use it solely in the home. [1]

Does this mean that price rather than purpose is being used as the primary motivation for the purchase of the Netbook? Is the hype of the Netbook format selling the product into the wrong market? Either way it is creating problems with the consumers;

The survey yielded some surprising results: Sixty percent of consumers thought that netbooks would function exactly like regular laptops. As a result, only 58% of consumers who purchased a netbook instead of a laptop were satisfied with their purchase (as a point of reference, about 70% of regular laptop buyers were satisfied with their purchases). [3]

If you are after a primary PC/desktop replacement the Netbook is not for you.

LINKS:
[1] Netbooks II: A Closer Look Report [NPD]
[2] NPD Finds Consumer Confusion about Netbooks Continues (2009-JUN-22) [NPD]
[3] NPD: Consumers Are Dissatisfied with Netbooks (2009-JUN-22) [BusinessWeek]