We at ZERO GmbH have completed our first prototype to display our own content in vehicle on-board systems. The touch function of the display can also be used to write ZERO in the most beautiful font ✍️ 😅
So...why all this? With the help of our AMPS platform, our customer can easily show new designs or functions in a vehicle and bring them to life - without having to access the series components directly.
And "easily" really means "easily":
Connect computer viaHDMI => switch on via button or CAN => be happy 🥳
There's a saying that IT professionals tend to be lazier than others - any maybe there's some truth to it. But is it really a bad character trait? Not necessarily.
Lazy developers and admins automate. They don't repeat the same set of tasks over and over again, but instead come up with an idea to make their lifes easier and more convenient ;-)
As even ZERO GmbH is not safe from lazy developers, we have automated some processes in our IT - including the setup of various software components for our #AMPS nodes and the associated IT infrastructure, such as #VPN and #DNS setup.
This saves us a huge amount of time. A quarter of an hour of manual labour can become a few seconds of waiting time and we have time for more interesting tasks :-)
We mainly use the "Ansible" configuration tool, which we like because it works without an additional daemon on the target and via a simple SSH interface.
At ZERO GmbH, we're managing a lot of #AMPS Nodes (see: https://zero-iee.com/en/products/). Most of them are connected to our management VPN. Each of the nodes has a unique identifier (serial no.).
We've set up an internal DNS server that resolves their serial bumber-based FQDN and returns the corresponding VPN IP address. Thus it's easy to find the correct VPN and IP address to start maintenance or troubleshooting :-)
Our requirements on a DNS Server are quite low. We could have picked THE ONE, the only, the allmighty Bind DNS server - but instead we tried something different:
Yadifa. https://www.yadifa.eu
Yadifa is a less-known DNS server implementation by EURid - the nonprofit organization that powers the .eu top level domain!
We were surprised of the simplicity of Yadifa and had our DNS Server up and running in minutes! If you're looking for an easy to configure DNS server, check it out.
Hey Fediverse , have you heard of Wireguard VPN networks?
No worries - we're not trying to trick you into subscribing to another scammy VPN provider that you don't need 😉
Wireguard is an Open Source VPN protocol and implementation for lightweight VPN connections that "just work". We've been using this technology to connect our ZERO #AMPS nodes across the internet and to our office. It enables us to monitor and update AMPS devices remotely without any client interaction.
To make sure that sensitive customer data does not leak, we've come up with a security concept for our VPN server. We share a part of our implementation in our latest blog post:
Hey show technicians and DMX fans, we have something for you!
In our #showcar projects and demonstrators, we often need to control various types of lighting. Setting moods or attracting the attention of passers-by are just two examples of use-cases. The industry standard for this application is the DMX protocol, and there is a vast ecosystem of controllers, software applications, and lights that follow this standard. Our super-flexible LightNode does not natively "speak" DMX, but we have developed a DMX to CAN translator. The video briefly demonstrates how the moving faders of "Q Light Controller" control the color transitions of a light strip connected to our #AMPS LightNode. Of course, this can also be automated! If you want to learn more, just get in touch!
We have received the first A-samples of our new V2X ("Vehicle-to-X") Nodes!
V2X Nodes are part of our Advanced Modular Prototyping System #AMPS.
This is very exciting for us, since it's one of the most complex Nodes so far and packed with features.
This Node enables you to plug in a Raspberry Pi CM4 (or any other compatible alternative) as well as M.2 cards and Raspberry Pi HATs or even Adafruit FeatherWings. V2X radio is on-board.
V2X technology enables vehicle-to-(anything) communication, e.g. for traffic control, traffic warnings, etc.