FileSender UI overhaul to using Bootstrap

 I have recently made a branch available which updates the user interface for FileSender to use Bootstrap. In this post I will discuss some of the changes and also mention some of the features of FileSender which might be useful to people. FileSender allows you to send and receive large files with people. You can upload a file to FileSender and send somebody a link to be able to download it. You can invite a person to send you a file on a FileSender server that you use and have the option to restrict them to only send files to you. This can be very handy if you meet somebody at a conference who wants to offer you a data set and you would like to only let them send to you. 

FileSender also offers End-to-End encryption so you can be comfortable that your data is only used by those you intend to have access. FileSender is open source and browser based.

The following screen shots are taken from the above cited branch with the updated user interface. The upload screen is shown below. I have resisted adding animations to the main "Drag or choose file(s)" panel at this stage. I think the secondary button for select File or select Directory are the main interesting items as perhaps people are not so used to dropping files into the browser and a single "add" action does not explicitly inform a user that a whole directory (recursively) can be added if desired.

Once you have added a file you see the manifest and the clear all button has been moved to above the option to remove single files. This listing lets you see the files that will be transferred and also can show why a file might not be ok. For example, if a file is 0 bytes or can not be read, or is a type such as an executable which is not allowed by the system.

If you choose the File Encryption option then you can either set a passphrase or have one generated for you. When FileSender is using a generated password it knows how much entropy was used for the password. So to go back to a user nominated password you have to deselect "generated password" which allows the password field to be edited again. Using a generated password will be more secure than anything a human is likely to enter.

After clicking "Continue" you move to stage 2 of the new upload process. The main choice here is if you would like to get a link to the file or would like to email the link directly to the recipient. Many of the other options on this stage can be left at the default and you could just click send from here to start the upload process.

If you choose the "Or send via email" button the page alters to what is shown below. Again, once you click on Send then the transfer will begin.

The upload is happening in the below screen shot. I have paused the upload here to make it easier to capture the screenshot. FileSender can upload using multiple web workers which can work on one or more files at the same time depending on the server configuration. The grey bar below "Admin" is a developer option I have enabled which shows the progress of each of the web workers and how long they have been since the last progress message. It is grey as I have paused the upload. 

The resume button will continue the upload and if a stall is detected will automatically attempt to reconnect and resume the upload (not from the start). The "Reconnect and Continue" button will tell FileSender to close the connections and remake then before resuming the upload. This can be useful if you move a laptop to another network. Even if you IP address and network have changed you should be able to resume the upload with "Reconnect and Continue".

The automatic resumes and the like on this page are all setup to try to complete the upload if possible. When things stall multiple attempts are made to try to complete the transfer without needing any interaction from you. It is only if all that fails that an error is presented to that effect. Even at that stage you can setup the transfer again and resume without loosing all the data that has already been transferred.

The plan is that after a while you will see the below screen informing you of a successful upload. In this case I have chosen to get a link to the uploaded file. This is the link I can follow to download the file and I can share that link with anybody I wish to be able to download the file(s).

The My Transfers page shows all the files you have uploaded. The files which have not expired are listing in the main (default) tab. The actions icons all have hints on mouse over to let you know what they are for. As I am an admin user I have an extra option to extend the expire time for any transfer using the red clock. I have used a red overlay for admin privileged actions. In this case, as an admin I can extend the expire time as many times as I like.

When you expand a transfer with the + icon you see the details and can access the download link or see an audit log for the file. The ip address information might not be shown depending on how the FileSender instance is configured.

The my transfers page can still be used even on smaller displays which is very handy if people want to take a quick look at some data on a tablet or cast it from the tablet to a large screen at a meeting.

The guests section has the primary action allowing you to invite a guest to the FileSender server. I may update the "can only send to me" and "get a link" into a single drop down option as these two options are mutually exclusive which is currently only shown by the colour and a message when you try to select both at once. This is a hold over from the old UI code and I have been looking to update that code for a long time. Other options like seeing the current guests or which transfers a guest has sent (optional depending on server configuration and settings), are now shown as tabs at the top of the page. In the old UI these were below the invite form and might not even be known to exist at first.

The download page allows you to select individual files to download or a subset of the files to download into either a tar or zip file. When a file is encrypted you can only download the subset as a zip64 file. I have used zip64 even for small archives in order to not surprise users when they start downloading larger files and find that some downloads might not be supported natively by the tools that come with their operating system. There is a nice free tool which is recommended if you visit this page on macos.

The download process is a little tricky here as the files have each been encrypted in the browser. The server never sees the passphrase needed to decrypt the files. Once you start to download to a zip for some files they are sent in the encrypted form from the server and decrypted in the browser before being added to a virtual zip64 file which is then streamed to your disk. The result is a zip64 file containing the decrypted files you have selected.

For real world use the files will likely be more interesting than just random test files I am using here :)

If you are new to FileSender and this looks interesting you can setup your own server with using apache/nginx and php to serve, and mariadb/postgresql for database storage and a big disk of your choice ;)

https://docs.filesender.org/v2.0/install/

New home for the Astrolabe, pocket day calc, and coin of sentimental value

 I turned a slice of a tree trunk into a matching pair of holders for sentimental objects over the break. This has a few coats of polyurethane and deeper coating on the bark. Having some layers on the bark takes away the sharper edges for you. I need to measure the thickness of the poly on the front and inside the pockets as it is certainly measurable. What was a nice fit without finish becomes a rather tight fit with the poly.

 

Behind the two instruments is the key chain which is tucked away into a deeper pocket. The pockets at the side of each object are to allow fingers to free the object for inspection or frustrating use in the case of the astrolabe.

I was going to go down the well trodden path of making a small coffee table top from the timber but I like this idea as it frees these objects from their boxes and the darker red timber really compliments the objects embedded within it.

Small 1/4 inch socket set into a nicer walnut tray

 I was recently thinking about how I could make a selection of 1/4 inch drive bits easier to use. It seems I am not alone in the crowd of people who leave the bits in the case they came in. Some folks do that for many decades. Apart from being trapped into what "was in the set" this also creates an issue when you have some 1/4 inch parts in a case that includes many more 3/8 inch drive bits. I originally marked the smaller drive parts and though about leaving them in the blow molded case as is the common case.

The CNC fiend in me eventually got the better of me and the below is the result. I cut a prototype in pine first, knowing that the chances of getting it all as I wanted on the first try was not impossible, but not probable either. Version 1 is shown below.

 

 The advantage is that now I have the design in Fusion 360 I can cut this design in about an hour. So if I want to add a bunch of deep sockets to the set I can do that for the time cost mostly of gluing up a panel, fixturing it and a little sand a shellac. Not a trivial en devour but the result I think justifies the means.

Below is the board still fixtured in the cnc machine. I think I will make a jig with some sliding toggle clamps so I can fix panels to the jig and then bolt the jig into the cnc instead of directly using hold down clamps.

I have planned to use a bandsaw to but a profile around the tools and may end up with some handle(s) on the tray. That part is something I have to think more about. The thinking about how I want the tools to be stored and accessed is an interesting side project.

 

 

Terry2020 finally making the indoor beast more stable

Over time the old Terry robot had evolved from a basic "T" shape to have pan and tilt and a robot arm on board. The rear caster(s) were the weakest part of the robot enabling the whole thing to rock around more than it should. I now have Terry 2020 on the cards.

Part of this is an upgrade to a Kinect2 for navigation. The power requirements of that (12v/3a or so) have lead me to putting a better dc-dc bus on board and some relays to be able to pragmatically shut down and bring up features are needed and conserve power otherwise. The new base footprint is 300x400mm though the drive wheels stick out the side.

The wheels out the sides is partially due to the planetary gear motors (on the under side) being quite long. If it is an issue I can recut the lowest layer alloy and move them inward but I an not really needing to have the absolute minimal turning circle. If that were the case I would move the drive wheels to the middle of the chassis so it could turn on it's center.

There will be 4 layers at the moment and a mezzanine below the arm. So there will be expansion room included in the build :)

The rebuild will allow Terry to move at top speed when self driving. Terry will never move at the speed of an outdoor robot but can move closer to it's potential when it rolls again.

Bidirectional rc joystick

With a bit of tinkering one can use the https://github.com/bmellink/IBusBM library to send information back to the remote controller. The info is tagged as either temperature, rpm, or voltage and units set based on that. There is a limit of 9 user feedbacks so I have 3 of each exposed.

To do this I used one of the Mega 2650 boards that is in a small form factor configuration. This gave me 5 volts to run the actual rc receiver from and more than one UART to talk to the usb, input and output parts of the buses. I think you only need 2 UARTs but as I had a bunch I just used separate ones.

The 2560 also gives a lavish amount of ram so using ROS topics doesn't really matter. I have 9 subscribers and 1 publisher on the 2560. The 9 subscribers allows sending temp, voltage, rpm info back to the remote and flexibility in what is sent so that can be adjusted on the robot itself.

I used a servo extension cable to carry the base 5v, ground, and rx signals from the ibus out on the rc receiver unit. Handy as the servo plug ends can be taped together for the more bumpy environment that the hound likes to tackle. I wound up putting the diode floating between two extension wires on the (to tx) side of the bus.

The 1 publisher just sends an array with the raw RC values in it. With minimal delays I can get a reasonably steady 120hz publication of rc values. So now the houndbot can tell me when it is getting hungry for more fresh electrons from a great distance!

I had had some problems with the nano and the rc unit and locking up. I think perhaps this was due to crystals as the uno worked ok. The 2560 board has been bench tested for 30 minutes which was enough time to expose the issues on the nano.

X-Axis is now ready!

The thread plate is now mounted to the base with thread lock in select locations. The top can still come off easily so I can drill holes to mount the gantry to the alloy tongue that comes out the bottom middle (there is one on the other side too).

Without the 75mm by 50mm by 1/4 inch 6061 alloy angle brackets you could flex the steel in the middle. Now, well... it is not so easy for a human to apply enough force to do it. The thread plate is only supported by 4 colonnades at the left and right side. The middle is unsupported to allow the gantry to travel 950mm along. I think the next build will be more a vertical mill style than sliding gantry to avoid these rigidity challenges.

The X Axis is growing...

The new cnc X axis will be around a meter in length. This presents some issues with material selection as steel that is 1100mm long by 350mm wide and 5mm thick will flex when only supported by the black columns at each end. I have some brackets to sure that up so the fixture plate will not be pushed away or vibrate under cutting load.




The linear rails are longer than the ballscrew to allow the gantry to travel the full length of the ballscrew. In this case a 1 meter ballscrew allows about 950mm of tip to tip travel and thus 850mm of cutter travel. The gantry is 100mm wide, shown as just the mounting plate in the picture above.

The black columns to hold the fixture plate are 38mm square and 60mm high solid steel. They come in at about 500grams a pop. The steel plate is about 15kg. I was originally going to use 38mm solid square steel stock as the shims under the linear rails but they came in at over 8kg each and the build was starting to get heavy.

The columns are m6 tapped both ends to hold the fixture plate up above the assembly. I will likely laminate some 1.2mm alloy to the base of the fixture plate to mitigate chips falling through the screw fixture holes into the rails and ballscrew.

I have to work out the final order of the 1/4 inch 6061 brackets that sure up the 5mm thick fixture plate yet. Without edge brackets you can flex the steel when it is only supported at the ends. Yes, I can see why vertical mills are made.

I made the plate that will have the gantry attached on the cnc but had to refixture things as the cnc can not cut something that long in any of the current axis.



It is interesting how much harder 6061 is compared to some of the more economic alloys when machining things. You can see the cnc machine facing more resistance especially on 6mm and larger holes.  It will be interesting to see if the cnc can handle drilling steel at some stage.