Autor: Martin Klinder

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I’m back in Germany. After the long journey yesterday, I’m in the hot Berlin. The busdriver thought he must crank up the heater, to let us feel like we’re in the Caribbean. Anyway, he turned on the air conditioner after a half hour and we arrived the Dublin airport early. But at the check-in the next surprise: My baggage has overweight and I hadn’t no option to pack something in the hand baggage because it was also very full. So I paid the 20 € for 1,4 kg. After this I have to drop the sunmilk because it was a to big liquid. Never mind, I landed in Germany punctual, where I was put into receiving.

After this 8 weeks in Belfast, I have to say thank you to all those responsible that have something to do with this internship abroad. It was really a good time and I’ve learned a much. On that note: Good bye!

Last Days at Belfast

Tomorrow it’s time to leave the island. The weather makes it very easy to leave Belfast: Since a few days it’s raining and we’ve a heavy wind too. But there was also sunny days, which I’ve enjoyed and payed dearly with a sunburn. At work I made the paperwork for the Europass. Unfortunately our IT-Supervisor is ill and can’t come. But he wrote us a nice mail, in which he said thank you for the work and all the best. Therefore we spoke to our boss and told him what we have done in the 8 weeks. He thanked us and wished us all the best too. Too bad, that the work here at NIBEC is over, but I’ve learned a much and had a lot of fun.
PS: The next post comes on Monday from Germany, because I want to write something about the homeward journey.

Last Days at Work

The last week at work started and I’ve only few days in Belfast. At work I’m still working on the project „Sensors and Connected Health“. As I told in my previous post, we installed the outdoor WLAN – Unfortunately not successful. But last week we got a new access point (AP). So I plunged into work and configured the AP and then I connected the big outdoor antenna (fluoroscent lamp) with the AP-plug. Yeah, it works. We boosted the transmit power and radiated the whole room with WLAN-signals. But this isn’t the purpose. So we went outside and tested the signal strength. Overall the signal was very good and much better as the internal or small antenna. There are only little problems with the vertical angle, which is very small and therefore dependent of the height, and little obstacles like a bush or humans.

Another point is the Aingeal device from Intelesens. This little device needs a internet connection to transmit the data up to the cloud. Either over WLAN or MiFi. To establish a connection between the Aingeal and the WLAN/WiFi is very simple. But there are a few problems: The connection to the server is lost after a few minutes, it can’t establish a connection to the MiFi, the MiFi has no internet connection, the configuration of the Aingeal device is wrong and it beeps the whole time… Yannik and myself are troubleshooting a long time, but we don’t know what is the problem. Maybe we’re never going to know. We’re still writing a documentation and protocols, made photos and videos.

We have also got some touch devices. At first we got a touchscreen display with 17 inch. Unfortunately we couldn’t try this with the PC from work, because Windows 7 Enterprise doesn’t support touch options. But my coworker Jannik had his laptop at work and we used it. For example we used Paint.net to test the touch surface with a image editing program. This works very good but Windows 7 isn’t very comfortable to work with a touch screen. So we tested it with Windows 8, which is optimized for touch screens. And it works, only with a few problems, very smooth. The second device was a 10 inch Tablet-PC with Windows 7. This tablet is very slow and has only a harddrive with 10 Mb! free space. But we found a way, how we can improve the speed: Android. This operating system is optimized for touch screen devices and is also used in smartphones. The operability was amazing and much better as Windows 7. Currently we used it for monitoring the vital signs from the Aingeal and troubleshooting for the WLAN and MiFi.

The Weekend

The last whole weekend here in Belfast run out. Next weekend we will fly home. So, I decided to do anything special, as far as practicable in Belfast. A bird twittered me something about the Lagan Valley LeisurePlex. This is the „largest leisure pool of its kind in Northern Ireland“ located in Lisburn – approximately 30 minutes away from our train station. At noon we went to the train and drove directly to Lisburn. After a few minutes walk we reached the leisure park, which was full of families with her children. We had a lot of fun there and it was something else, what I can do in Northern Ireland. After this event I was tired and hungry. So we searched somewhere to eat something and found a Chinese restaurant, where we could eat from a buffet for a fixed price – Therefore a all-you-can-eat. I tried a lot of the Chinese food that was very delicous. Maybe a little bit to much. Afterwards I had stomachache.

I went saturated  home and had a small nap. But not so long, because I want to see the European championchip. So the 3 FIANs Benny, Chris and Timo and myself went together with the German flag to a pub. Unfortunately the match was not so exiting, but we had won and this is the main point.

The Sunday began with a typical British breakfast at Maggie May´s. Maybe I hadn’t choose the big „Bumper Fry“ with 2 eggs, 2 bacon, sausage, potato bread, soda bread, hash brown, mushrooms, beans and chips. After this huge meal I had to sleep again.

Olympic Torch

This year the olympic games takes place in London. Before this event there is a torch relay around United Kingdom. Fortunately the torch is also in Belfast and we can see the event at first hand. Therefore I went, after the work, directly to the City Council, where should be a big show. This place was spacious separated and you need a wristband to come in. Unfortunately Benny and myself had no wristband, that we could get before the event for free. So we went to a point where we should see the torch and indeed we have seen the torch and the whole convoy. I was so facinated that I ran parallel to the torch. The mood along this way was amazing: the cars honked,  the crowd called and the torch runners were so happy. Destination was at the City Council where was a huge crowd to see the olympic flame.  At the end they stuck the flame into a small container. If you want to see the very close recordings, have a look at the following videos and pictures.

Olympic Torch Relay 2012 at Belfast – Number 1

Olympic Torch Relay 2012 at Belfast – Number 2

Olympic Torch Relay 2012 at Belfast – Number 3

Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

These days are the celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Granted, the main festivities are in London, but also a lot of cities of Great Britain had celebrations – Even in Belfast. At the City Council was a market with a lot of stalls called the „Continental Market“. People from all over the world sold theirs traditional things like something to eat, to wear or anything else. Even Germany was here and sold the „German Krakauer“ at the „Schwenkgrill“. And I thought this is a Polish speciality^^. The price for a saussage was typical Irish: 4,50 £. I tried the Spannish Paella which tasted very delicious. The British people sold they sweet cookies and muffins that I’ve never seen before. A huge choclate muffin with marshmallow on top. I think the sugar and calories are enough for a whole week.
After this culinary highlight, Benny and me went to a pub, where we’ve seen the big concert at Buckingham Palace for the Queen at the TV. I heard something about the „Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Beacons“ here in Belfast. 4000 beacons would be lit aorund the Commonwealth at almost the same time. The parade here in Belfast was certainly not the big deal.

Trip to Dublin

Yesterday Benny and myself decided to make a trip to Dublin. I’ve only seen the Dublin Airport at the arrival. So we had to visit Dublin for a longer time. We started the journey at 8 o’clock in the morning. Fortunately I could sleep in the bus. 2 and a half hour later we arrived at „Dublin Busaras“. At first we visited the GPO (General Post Office) and the „Spire of Dublin“ a 121 metre height pin-like monument. After this we went hungry to a little diner, where I ate Fish and Chips, that looks like the Alaska pollock filet. Invigorated we hiked to one of the largest park in Europe: The Phoenix Park. But my expectations weren’t fulfilled. I’ve only seen a pond full of rubbish and duckweed, a Zoo that we can’t visit because an expensive admission fee of 15 pounds and a field like a arable area. Only the „War Memorial Gardens“ were beautiful. But at this time it began to rain and there were only a few people in the park. So we decided to went to the „Kilmainham Gaol“ a very old prison where we took a guidance with a typical Irish speaking women. Otherwise I was disappointed: The viewing point at the Old Jameson Destillery was out of order and we had no access to the docks I wanted to visit. At the evening Benny and me went exhausted from the long walk to a pub.

The Hike

Last sunday I used the perfect weather to make a hiking tour. After the long tour from the day before to the Giant’s Causeway I was tired and the sunburn ached too. But I had to use the last sunny days. So I decided to went to the Mountain Divis, where I was already. In a group of four we took a taxi to the bottom of the mountain, because we needed the power for the climb 🙂
This time we reached the peak of the mountain at 450 metres. The view over Belfast is perfect and the sun burns not so hot, because there is a heavy wind. At this point there is a broadcasting station of BBC. And we’ve seen a group of horses. I don’t know, if they are wild and what they doing at the top of the mountain.
To climb down from the top was very exciting too. We had to climb over barb wire fence and slid down through thorny bushes. At the way back we’ve also seen two police officers which searched some bad people. I don’t know more but I wondered why a helicopter flew a long time over us.
After this exciting trip we bought a ice cream and went back with a taxi directly to the KFC, where we had a big dinner.

The horses
Barb wire fence

Outdoor WLAN #Update

As I told in my last post, Jannik, Damien and myself installed the outdoor WLAN. At the end of last week we get the right cable for the outdoor antenna. So we connected the access point with the fondly called fluoroscent lamp. But nothing happend. Even if we stood near to the antenna, the signal was very weak and if we went away from the antenna the signal was lost. Overall a depressing test, because the signal with the 1.5 metre antenna is lower as the ten times smaller indoor antenna. So Jannik and me began to troubleshoot the problem: cross tests, resets, configure, gathering solutions… Until now we’re not really sure what the problem is. I think the antenna and the access point are faulty. Maybe we would have spent more money to the devices. This are the cheapest devices that we had found, because Damien wanted it so. Now he will contact the distributor and maybe we get a new device. Let’s see what’s next.

Tourist Tour

This weekend was the most awesome that we had here in Belfast. The sun still shining the whole days without any clouds. So we (altogether 8 persons) decided to make a tourist trip to the Giant’s Causeway. This is declared a UNESCO World Heritage and is a very famous place of interest. The tour started in the morning at 9:15 a.m. in a very small and uncomfortable bus. But this bus drove us only to the right bus and started with a little delay. First short stop was at Carrickfergus a few miles northern of Belfast to visit the Carrickfergus Castle. Nothing very special. The female busdriver and tourist guide in one told us a lot about the sights at the tour. A very important tourist stop was at the north coast: Carrick-a-Rede. This rope bridge links the mainland to a tiny island.  The next big stop was the Old Bushmills Distillery. Here I bought something for someone. Then we arrived wet through with perspiration thanks to the bad air condition in the bus the final target: Giant’s Causeway. Here you can see a lot of hexagonal stones which are arranged like a puzzle. This is a very amazing place because the incurrence is unknown. At the evening we arrived sunburned and exhausted in Belfast. Overall a great and interesting tour.