Foscam AC Adapter Teardown

I still own a couple of Foscam wireless IP cameras. 

I'm done with that brand in favor of Amcrest (sort of a spinoff of Foscam with far superior design and usability aside from the marginally unusable mobile app), but I believe firmly in using a product up to and beyond its predicted life span if it's able. Up until just weeks ago they were performing satisfactorily, then I stopped receiving motion detection alerts from first one, then the other. Could've been a power surge, though the UPS I have my desktop PC hooked into reported no recent events.

Both had curiously similar symptoms. The older camera, an FI8918W, presented with its ring of infra-red (IR) LEDs all blinking simultaneously, with a red indicator LED in the rear constantly flashing and a faint clicking in time with them. The newer one, an FI9821W, didn't have any IR LED activity, just the flashing indicator LED and clicking.

I happened to have a nonfunctional unit of the latter in my closet at home and decided, after some research on Foscam's forums, to simply try swapping the AC adapter. That worked; the camera came back to life and began happily firing off motion alerts.

It would appear that in addition to various other problems with Foscam cameras, the FI9821W in particular, we can add AC adapter failure to the list. Out of curiosity I took the seemingly defective one and tore it down for inspection.

Foscam FI9821W AC adapter with label indicating specifications.

The top of the circuit board showed no obvious signs of failure; no scorch marks, no bulging or burst electrolytic capacitors (see here for more details), no melted or burnt electronics.

Cover removed to reveal the top of the circuit board and components.

The bottom of the circuit board revealed some clues. Multiple areas show telltale signs of melted solder flux, which could indicate overheating. Given that the camera expects a fairly consistent, specific voltage and current, overheating of the AC adapter components over extended periods could've bumped its output outside the tolerances the camera requires to operate normally.

Bottom of the circuit board. Note areas of solder flux showing evidence of possible overheating.

On the brighter side, replacement Foscam AC adapters are inexpensive and available online. If your Foscam wireless IP camera happens to die suddenly and exhibit some of the signs indicated previously, try swapping out its AC adapter and you might have a quick and easy fix. If you're feeling adventurous, it might be worth it to carefully drill some holes in the AC adapter casing to allow for airflow; in operation the AC adapter is quite warm to the touch.

A better long-term fix might be to invest in an Amcrest camera, given its better web UI usability, night vision, and better HD resolution, at least in the one unit I've had set up for a couple of months now.

One wonders if someone more business-savvy among Foscam's leadership actually wanted to invest time and energy into creating a camera that would actually deliver on features, usability, and quality in the form of Amcrest. So far my experience with it has been far superior to my trials and tribulations with Foscam, but we shall see.

Samurai Sith

Lately I've been indulging myself in building a presence on Twitter. Part of this has involved creating an alter ego in the form of a Sith in the Star Wars universe with origins hearkening back to the samurai of some ancient time in a galaxy far, far away.

To this end, I wanted to set up a profile suited to such a character, an individual serving the Galactic Empire and the Dark side of the Force, yet at the same time having embraced the life of a samurai to some extent. I found my fictional muse in Yojimbo, a disenfranchised samurai (or ronin) played by the inimitable (though Nathaniel Lees of The Matrix: Revolutions fame comes close with his character aptly named Captain Mifune) Toshiro Mifune.

Movie poster for Yohimbo (1961).

I decided to create a representation of Jojimbo, the character, in a fictionalized alternative universe where, say, the political mastermind Emperor Palpatine managed to take hold of the formidable propaganda of the Empire and insinuate it into popular culture. To this end, I wanted to alter the original movie poster to give it a distinctive Imperial flavor, and hint that my Twitter persona aligned with this fictional manifestation of a great, individualistic, disenfranchised samurai.

There are certain physical attributes that make a Sith stand out from the inferior, frumpy Jedi. Being wracked by the powers of the Dark side, Sith experience increasingly drastic physical as well as mental changes. The irises of their eyes acquire an angry yellow glow; over time their flesh might wrinkle and fester thanks to their intimate embrace with the darkness.

Importantly, the weapon of Sith and Jedi alike, the lightsaber, acquires unique characteristics depending upon the user. TheStupendousWave provides a great explanation of the canon surrounding lightsabers and how the color those glowing weapons emit relates to their wielder. In the case of the Sith, they forego crystals found and refined from natural sources in favor of synthetic ones, which result in an angry red blade rather than the more tranquil-seeming blue or green typical of the Jedi.

To exemplify this in my version of the poster, I wanted to give my Yojimbo an angry red lightsaber blade, yet still have it retain the shape of the katana, the traditional weapon of the samurai. Further, I wanted to give his katana a hamon, a characteristic pattern along the leading edge of the blade. This site (natively in French) gives a number of examples of the different hamon in ancient Japan, some of which are depicted below.

 

Here (using Paint.NET, a great and free Photoshop alternative) all that needs to happen is to pick your hamon of choice (here I pick the Sukehiro hamon as it has a relatively tight and distinctive pattern), and crop it so just the blade remains:

Cropping the katana blade and copying it to the clipboard.

Then I paste it into the image as a new layer:

Pasting the katana as a new layer onto the poster, then rotating it to take the place of the original.

Finally, I paste another copy of the blade as another new layer into the image, and use levels to adjust the coloration of the layers along with glow effects and blend modes between layers to add a glow effect to this katana-slash-lightsaber. Of course, I use the superior, synthetic red glow of the Sith lightsaber here; use other, inferior colors at your peril!

The end result, with a few added elements (our glorious Emperor Palpatine, the Imperial logo, and the Sith's distinctive yellow irises) to make the poster a bit more relevant to the Star Wars universe, turned out nicely.

Nice addition to my Twitter profile, and perhaps speaks of an alternate reality where perhaps the Galactic Empire visited our world, insinuated itself into our culture, and happened to create a film about a Sith (with appropriate Imperial propaganda added to the mix, of course). 😈

 

Adventures in Customizing

A certain provider of custom stickers abruptly cancelled an order of mine commissioning a certain design (featuring the face paint of Ahsoka Tano, former Jedi) I'd found online. 

The abruptness of the cancellation was too swift to be by a humanoid hand. This indicated to me that, akin to YouTube identifying and acting upon what some computer algorithm determines to be proprietary video, the scrutinized the original image and flagged it as copyrighted material. 

Completely understandable, but mildly irritating.

I decided to test the algorithm's limitations. This was the result; an image meant for a round sticker, but rotated some 120 degrees counter-clockwise, and the background color changed just a few shades more toward the red.

"Falling Skull", slightly modified face paint for the Ahsoka Tano character in Star Wars: Rebels.

Then, just a matter of days later, what arrived in the mail, but this:

Arrived without incident, no copyright strike, no hassle.

Interesting how fortunes can turn to one's favor... 😉

To make their application as car decals easier and less permanent, I obtained some vinyl magnetic sheeting and applied each of the stickers to it. I then used some spray enamel clear coat (normally for helping keep the surface of plastic car headlight lenses clear) and evenly sprayed a few coats across the sheet and allowed it to dry overnight.

The following day I carefully cut out one sticker-slash-magnet with an extremely sharp X-Acto knife.

Oh, custom sticker manufacturer, I'm afraid your algorithm won't prevent me from fulfilling the true destiny of this design, as a #TanoTuesday-suitable magnetic car decal!

One might wonder, why is a Sith so intrigued by a former Jedi, that they would adorn their vehicle with her iconic imagery? Well, once, this particular Togruta knew full well the power of the Dark side. It may, yet, happen again, and with permanence... this time!

Imperial Spam

Seems legit...?!

Lando Lakes

 

Take Me To The River

Diabetes and Faith's Fallacy

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes on April 15, 1976, at the age of 3, ironically up until recently tax day in the U.S. I have now lived over 40 years with this chronic, yet treatable, disease.

Once again, I discover that foolish parents with misguided religious faith have opted for prayer to "help" their child rather than proven medical science.

I have gone to a hospital emergency room with perilously low blood glucose levels. In humans not afflicted by diabetes or other metabolic dysfunction, "normal" blood glucose level in humans ranges from around 70 to 100 mg/dL. Using a modern glucometer, I (or my wife, if my sugar were so very low) would measure ranges as "high" as 30 to as low as 17 (my personal all-time record on the low end of the blood sugar spectrum).


Why does low blood sugar happen in the first place? 

Sometimes in those with so-called labile or brittle diabetes, one's system is compromised such that blood glucose levels fluctuate wildly. For others with type 1 diabetes though, it can simply be the result of poor choices and lack of education and emotional factors like denial or depression about managing the condition. Bottom line, the body needs glucose in the bloodstream, and suffers when levels of glucose fall below normal levels.

Islets within the pancreas contain beta cells, which make insulin and release it into the blood.

How does LOW blood sugar feel?

Some people occasionally experience hypoglycemia, a kind of low blood sugar which isn't brought on by the same stuff behind type 1 diabetes. After exerting themselves or undergoing stress of one kind or another, they might feel light-headed, tired, weak. For these people, a sugary beverage or candy or just a healthful meal might bring them out of the blood sugar doldrums. While this occasional occurrence might signal future metabolic issues, it's not necessarily chronic.

Type 1 diabetes, however, is a different and potentially deadly animal. Type 1 diabetes means that a person's insulin-producing cells have been mostly or completely decimated by their own overzealous immune system. Without intervention, their body can gobble up all available blood glucose, and without the beta cells which are a vital key in the homeostasis that derives energy from glucose for the body's cells, it will start to shut down and die due to a lack glucose of in their system. 


How does HIGH blood sugar feel?

Short-term, a high blood sugar can lead to irritability, extreme thirst, and irritatingly dry skin. Sustained long-term high blood sugar can devastate the body. Blindness, deafness, neuropathy, renal failure, and subsequent amputation, all can result from someone neglecting to rein in their blood glucose levels. Worse, this can apply to those with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Poor diet and lack of exercise can exacerbate the deleterious progress of the disease by ensuring that dangerously high levels of blood glucose remain in the bloodstream, and that the body's tissues are in a grim way marinated in that abnormally high concentration of glucose. 


What is it like to DIE from uncontrolled diabetes?

Thankfully, I cannot say. I can, however, relate what it's like to almost die. 

Flashback...!

I'd just begun living in an apartment, away from my parents, on my own, for the most part. I also happened to have turned 21, and decided to have some beer to celebrate. Unwisely, I had a couple of beers shortly before bed, and didn't follow that up with a snack. 

The insulin regimen I was on consisted of a mix of a fast-acting insulin combined with a slow-acting insulin injected before breakfast which generally remained active throughout the day and into the evening. The fast-acting insulin would "kickstart" my system to ensure my body had insulin available to deal with meals throughout the day, and the slow-acting would keep my blood sugar in check throughout the night, in theory, at least. That theory, however, didn't take alcohol into account.

I vaguely recall my then girlfriend having called me at the apartment first thing the next morning. Apparently I didn't sound too good; my speech was slurred, I was making no sense, and eventually I managed to just hang up. Worried, she called 911, and a couple of friendly but determined EMTs arrived at my apartment, discovered my blood sugar was dangerously low, and set me up with an IV dextrose solution and loaded me up into an ambulance for transport to a nearby hospital. 

I only remember a few sketchy details. I recall being loaded onto a stretcher and being wheeled into the "business end" of the ambulance. I remember fluorescent lighting, a faint odor of bleach and plastic and other clinical smells, and the sensation of being jarred occasionally as the ambulance trekked across our city's poorly-maintained roads to the ER. 

Eventually, I woke up in a hospital bed with a terrible headache. As my system got back to normal (thanks to a trickle of IV fluids and the worst hockey puck hospital oatmeal I'd ever eaten in my life), I realized something didn't quite seem right with my head. For lack of a better description, I felt as if there were a void behind my eyes, or at least seemingly so. I had some marked difficulty speaking and with my memory, and it suddenly seemed harder to do math in my head. I realized later that my sugar managed to get low enough to deprive some of my brain cells of glucose enough to die.

That was well over 20 years ago. Since then, the wondrous neuroplasticity of the brain seems to have enabled me to largely work around whatever deficits took hold around that time. When I'm very tired, little spurts of aphasia come back to visit, but otherwise I'm mostly my old self, as far as I can tell. 


What is it like to suffer uncontrolled diabetes without medical intervention?

That is a disturbing concept. In spite of the wonders of today's medical science, the leaps and bounds by which doctors and scientists have over decades pieced together the intricacies of how the body metabolizes food to create energy readily taken up by the body, there are still foolish, naive parents who raise a child who happens to develop type 1 diabetes, and then disregard all the valuable knowledge garnered by science and instead rely on the fallacy of prayer to cure their supposedly beloved offspring.

If your child is beset with uncontrolled blood sugar levels and fervent prayer doesn't seem to snap them out of it, it should be clear that they need medical attention. Hubris might lead you to think "no, MY chosen God could never allow this to happen, I just need to try harder, pray better". Meanwhile, though, that child is suffering through what I have to only a limited extent, and survived, because my parents wisely heeded my doctor's advice and followed their recommendations which were based on proven medical technique. 


What if I am a person of faith and my child has been diagnosed with diabetes?

SEEK PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE! Good doctors who treat diabetics aren't just sitting on their hands thumbing through medical journals. They see patients every day and tweak their medications, make recommendations about diet and exercise, and otherwise use proven medical science to help ensure as normal a life for their patients as possible. For the most part I would heartily suggest, follow their advice! If you truly love your child, you don't want them to go what many children have died from, and what I have on several occasions nearly succumbed to.