Month: July 2015

SBS 2008 / Exchange 2007 / Outlook 2007-2010-2013 Authentication Prompts Solution

Rob IT Leave a comment

With several of my clients running Windows SBS 2008 within their company, I’ve been noticing a lot of situations where users are repeatedly prompted for their username and password either when opening Outlook, or every time Outlook does a send/receive. This issue seems more common on systems that are not part of the domain but does occasionally happen on domain systems too.

The solution that worked best for me was the following:

1.      Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then press ENTER.
2.      Locate and then click the following registry subkey: 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\
3.      In the right pane, double-click lmcompatibilitylevel.
4.      In the Value data box, type a value of 2 or 3 that is appropriate for your environment, and then click OK.
5.      Quit Registry Editor.
6.      Restart your computer.

Setting the value to 3 worked for me.

I can’t remember the website I found this solution on but I’ve been meaning to post about it for a while now so if it’s your solution let me know and I’ll happily give credit 🙂

Visteon / Ford Mondeo MK3 / Renault Headrest LCD Monitor Pinout

Rob Electronics 2 Comments

I recently acquired a 7″ headrest LCD monitor which I believe to be from, or the same as, those fitted in some Ford Mondeo Mk3 models and some Renault vehicles. I will be converting this to fit my Peugeot 406.

This is usually connected via a control box under the centre console to a DVD player in the boot along with the stereo and possibly other devices in the vehicle.

The monitor I’ve got was cut out of the previous vehicle so there’s no connector on the end of it, only bare wires. After taking the unit apart it appears someone else has tried to figure out the wiring and failed which has burnt up some of the tracks on the circuit board. I have repaired this damage. Now, for many many hours on the internet I have identified the correct screen (all except the part number) and with some investigation with a multimeter, and from matching up with a control box from a Renault system which I believe is identical. I have found the pinout. When taking the unit apart, the connection is CN1 and with pins numbered from left to right as follows:

Pin # Colour Use
1 Blue XSDA I2C data bus
2 Green XSCL Sync Clock I2C
3 Grey Ground/Screen
4 White IR Out
5 Purple 5V IR Power In
6 Orange 12V LCD Power
7 Brown Video In (presumably CVBS)
8 Yellow Video Ground
9 Black Backlight Ground
10 Red 12V Backlight

The information was adapted from this service guide for a “Renault Multimedia Control Module4” which is believed to be the same unit used in the Ford system and is made by Visteon, although the pins I have worked out myself match up, I cannot guarantee that all the others are correct so cannot accept responsibility if you damage your screen with this information.

At present, I have not got the screen to turn on as apparently this is only possibly using the original remote control which I do not have. It is also believed that the ‘power on’ signal is received by the IR sensor on the screen, sent to the control module (which I do not have) and then back to the screens over the I2C bus telling it to turn on so it may not be easily possible to use this screen without it’s intended controller.

I hope this information will nevertheless be of use to anyone else trying to reuse one of these screens for something other than it’s intended use.

Also if it is of any use to anyone, the DVD player that would have originally been used with this system is believed to be a “Visteon MB-8000”

Octoprint

Rob 3D Printing Leave a comment

I’ve recently discovered some software called OctoPrint which allows network control of a 3D printer. This can be beneficial in several ways. Usually, with a RepRap style printer and many others you would need to have it connected to your computer for the entire duration of the print job which can take many hours for larger and more complex prints. That would mean leaving your computer on and hoping it doesn’t crash or have other issues during the print. Running high performance software like games or similar could also affect an ongoing print job if your computer can’t keep up. I just happened to stumble upon OctoPrint which runs on a Raspberry Pi. For those who haven’t heard of this (have you been living under a rock for the last few years?) it is a small but fully functional computer about the size of a credit card, it is very low power and is well suited for this job. OctoPrint is installed onto the Raspberry Pi and the printer is then connected to this along with a wireless or wired network connection. You then get a nice web interface from which to control your printer, and it even has a facility to connect a standard USB webcam or the Raspberry Pi camera so you can watch and monitor your printing even while away from home should you wish to. Although it should be noted that with the heat involved with 3D printing, the printer should never be left unattended in case anything goes awry and it catches fire, it’s unlikely but possible.

3D Printing

Rob 3D Printing 2 Comments

Being a recent owner of a 3D printer, I’ll likely be talking a lot about that. My printer is a Prusa i3 with 6mm aluminium frame and E3D 3mm hot end purchased from Semi-U in the UK. I decided to go down the self-build route partly due to the price but also for the possibilities that it allows compared to commercial pre-made products. With the RepRap style printers it’s easy to create your own upgrades to solve a specific problem, easy to add new features such as dual extruders at a fraction of the cost of commercial products. For me as a beginner to 3D printing it was an ambitious project but one I was confident I would get the hang of. The build went well and it was completed in around 4 hours. I’d go as far as to say this isn’t for everyone, there’s no instruction manual so you need to be able to look online when needed to work out what to do next. I did make a couple of mistakes which required ordering some replacement parts but overall it was a great experience and exciting to see the thing come to life at the end of it.

Introduction

Rob Uncategorised Leave a comment

I thought I’d start with an introduction. My name’s Rob, I’m a keen technology and computing enthusiast and work as an IT consultant. Most of this blog will be dedicated to the things that interest me, general computing topics and my thoughts on new technology etc. I tend to ramble on a lot so my updates will sometimes be lengthy ones just to warn you!