l wp-image-129″ />The Next HOPE is over, and our OpenAMD deployment is packed up in it’s boxes and in storage. Some parts have already been shipped back to their home, and others are still waiting to go out.
If you were at TNH, you may have heard there were some technical issues with the badges that popped up on and off during the event. Yeah, it happens. Our issues came in 2 categories. We had some minor (and trivial to fix) power issues on some badges, and some connectivity confusion with the API and website. That is just part of the game when rolling out a system for 2K users in under 24 hours, on all volunteer effort, with approx. zero budget.
We had a lot of request for more details when we were at The Next HOPE, and below is some more information on what it took to make OpenAMD happen.
The System: The reader system consisted of ~30 readers hidden about the conference on 2 floors, an independent network for the readers, including 8-10 POE switches to power and send data, web servers, a data aggregation boxes, webserver box, API server box, Visualization displays. Oh and 2 tents. The tents are important, especially when someone is adding features until 3AM.
The Team:The core OpenAMD team for THN came from all corners of the USA. We had contributors from Germany, San Fransisco, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and NYC.
The Timeline: To start with, a neighborly hacker started working on badge design months before the convention. Then about 5 weeks before the convention we started testing with a mini-network and a single machine as aggregation and API service.
Then, the real crunch time comes when we finally get access to the convention floor. Starting Thursday at 1PM, the OpenAMD team has serious crunchtime. We then have about 24 hours to get the readers installed, run our network, and setup the computers we need. Since these kinds of systems are only deployed once or twice a year, and the software is improved each time, there is always new details to work out.
So, that is a rough overview of the OpenAMD project rollout and setup. Hopefully that answers some questions folks had during The Next HOPE.
(Photo cc by blinkenarea)
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Will there be any data online? I never accessed my badge data during the conference and when I tried accessing the website recently after the conference, I guess too many were trying to access it and I was not able to load anything…
The badges were great! Congrats to the whole team for designing them and getting them out there for us attendees to have fun w/.
I didn’t have a chance to hack mine at the conference, but am still looking forward to playing w/ it when I have some time to learn a new processor.
The build quality of the badges seems great, and I loved the aesthetic. I have a question about the silkscreen: were the graphics done in Eagle (or the same CAD program that the board was done in), or is there a way to import custom graphics into a CAD program like Eagle?
Cheers,
ao.