Autor: Martin Klinder

Sunny Work

As the other AFIB guys already wrote the weather here in Belfast is very good. This is untypical because we have about 20 °C and it feels like over 25 °C. The sun burns so hot that I have a sunburn – no joke. I’m very often outside to install the outdoor WLAN. But now I bought a sunblocker and hope that the red skin will change into suntanned skin 🙂 I never thought that would be so nice here in the rainy Belfast.
At work Jannik and myself tested the Intelesens Aingeal device which can monitor the vital signs. So I’m not afraid to test the device by myself. At first the website to access the data from the monitoring device doesn’t worked and we must waited until Friday. But then we established a connection between the WLAN access point and the Aingeal device. This worked not realy fine because the connection was interrupted at many times. But we had monitored some of my vital signs. I’m not a doctor but you can see a difference between the idle ECG and the burden. At this point I’ve done some press-ups.

The normal heart rate

 

After 40 press-ups

Outdoor WLAN

Our IT-Supervisor Damien suggested that we can set up the outdoor WLAN Access Point. So Jannik, Damien and me set up the device, fixed on a mast, for a small approximately 2500 square metre big area in the near of the NIBEC building. At first we tested the strength of the signal with the internal antenna. Which was very sober, because it had a high signal loss after 50 metres. Then we plugged in the antenna from our ZyXEL Repeater and voila the signal was still after 50 metres very good. Even behind a building we have connection to the access point. So we decided to go as far as we have a signal. Result: After 215 metres behind a tree we lost the signal. This suprised not only our IT-Supervisor, Jannik and myself was suprised too how far this small antenna worked.

Maybe this or next week we get the right cable for the outdoor antenna, which is 1,5 metre long. Then we can establish a connection for whole Jordanstown and maybe up to Belfast 😉 Anyhow it’s enough to cover a football pitch. That is the only reason for the huge outdoor antenna.

Also the education coordinator from Germany Mr. Bavar together with Ms. Neumann from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Kevin Shine visited me. They want to know what we’re did at work and if we’re pleased with the work and coworker.

Titanic

I must admit that I’m a real tourist. So I don’t miss the highlight of Belfast: The Titanic museum. I’ve the luck that this exhibition opend this year. Because this is a very famous sight you must book the ticket. Although I’ve made the online reservation I had forget the booking number. So Benny and me went to the Titanic Belfast by cab and hoped that would be OK without any confirmation for the ticket. Actually only my credit card sufficed to get the tickets. Additional we took a audio guide in German to understand the whole exhibition.
The area around the the museum is, only a few exceptions, very dismal. Therefore the building is very impressive. The facility is a mixture from the old (wood and rusty steel) and the new (refined steel and glass). The exhibition by itself is guided and logical structed. They are a lot of interactive display and holographic similarly presentations. I’m pleased with the ride into the artifical and interesting shipyard, which I’ve never expected.
Overall a very watchable sightseeing that must be seen by anybody who is in the near of Belfast and have a little interesting in history or ships.

 

Sensors and Connected Health

As written in my last posts I mentioned the project „Sensors and Connected Health“. Now we have get new instructions from our IT-supervisor Damien. At the last days we gathered informations about touchscreen devices like All-in-One PCs and tablet-PCs. On this devices they want to show the informations from the connected person with the medical sensors. Also a big TV-screen is an opportunity. Yesterday arrived the ordered outdoor WLAN access point and Jannik and me tested the device. Unfortunately the extra antenna doesn’t arrived, but it has already an in-built antenna. Today Damien showed us the ALS Simulator and the BioRadio. The Advanced Life Support Simulator is a realistic interactive training manikin for simulating a wide range of advanced life saving skills. He has human attributes like pulse, breathing and he can also make some noise. The BioRadio 150 is a wireless acquisition system capable of recording, displaying and analyzing physiological signals from users in real time. But we don’t know how exactly we must connect this device to the manikin. We tried a little bit, have measured the pulse but it don’t works or we can’t interpret the data from the monitoring software. I don’t know but maybe Damien tell us tomorrow. So I become a specialist in medicine 😉

Accomodation

Yeah, I know it’s very late to talk about this. But in the past some much more interesting happened. However now I have time. Our apartment is located near the Queen’s University Belfast. We living in the 4th floor and have access to an elevator – very comfortable if we’re shopping and have a lot of heavy bags. The flat is for 6 persons big enough. The furniture is modern and comfortable. So we have e.g. an automatic dishwasher, a microwave and a medium-sized TV. We also have access to the internet over WLAN with good bandwith.

The kitchen

 

I share my bedroom with Benny with two single beds. This room isn’t big as the other rooms but it’s enough to sleep. The parlour is perfect to relax, watch TV or work with the laptop. The facility of the open kitchen is perfect for cooking. Besides you have a great view over the city up to the mountains.

Belfast@Night

The Hills and Party

Another weekend here in Belfast. This is the third and we decided to make a trip. But not so far away, only the proximity of Belfast. Northern Ireland is famous for his hills, which can be climed. Our selected hill is located in the west of Belfast and approximately 400 m high. But I hiked and climed only to 280 metres. The view from this point is phenomenal. You can see the whole city of Belfast and much more.

My roommate and me
In the evening I fade away in good club. But this club called Lush is located in Portrush at the north coast. I found a bus shuttle service they drove me directly to the club and return. For trance fans a famous DJ named Gareth Emery played there. Irish people know how to rock the house. The atmosphere was hilarious and the music was great. But at 2 am the party was over and I drove back home.

Queen’s University and Belfast Botanic Gardens

Nothing very special happend at work … But I can write something about the weekend two weeks ago. Kevin and Roxi had the idea that we can go to the university, where they work. Therefore we went to the Queen’s University and the Belfast Botanic Gardens and Palm House. The flowers there are, say it in British, lovely. There is also a huge palm tree inside the greenhouse. The garden of the University looks picture-perfect and the lawn is very green. I think they nourish and cherish the lawn like no other. But pictures say more than thousands words.

The Weather

Today, the 7 May, is a special day. It’s the Early May Bank Holiday. Northern Ireland has many Bank Holidays like the Spring Bank Holiday or the Summer Bank Holiday. At these days the banks, I think that is the reason for the name, and other businesses are closed. So today is day off and we have the opportunity to use this free day.
But there is a little problem: the weather. OK, Belfast and the whole isle of Ireland is famous for his rainy weather. But the last days we have been lucky because we had only light showers and the sun made sure that it felt not so cold. Here in Ireland you must be ready for changes in the weather. Sometimes it rained very hard and in the next minute the sun comes. And the next days get not be better. Finally we decided to stay at home, because not all businesses have open.

Friday

Yesterday was the last day at work. This day started not so good because I was tired from the last days. So I went to the busstation and was surprised how few people want to go to the university. At work Damian had the task for us to gather some information about outdoor Access Points. He want to establish a wireless connection for the medical devices at a field. He don’t know how big the field is, so it can be between a little court and a big soccer field. So we gave him the information and he left the work. Because Jannik and me had no other work to do we decided to go home. At the way back home we stopped for a little shopping tour. But it was a disaster. I found nothing to buy. But more on that later.
At the evening my roommates and myself went to the Botanic Inn, a popular pub for young people. After I entered the room a smell of piss crawled into my nose. But we decided to stay and hoped it would be better. It was actually better because the door at the smoker room opend very often and this „room“ was only a door outside. After two Budweiser for myself and one more or less for the other we went cheerfully back home.

An army of repeater

At the last days me and my coworker Jannik had been installing a lot of repeater. The configuration is not so easy, because the repeater can act as a bridge or an access point or both together and in combination with the repeater mode. So we tried a lot of modes for the repeater. All these repeater are connected with one WLAN-Modem. But the problem is that they can’t establish a wireless connection to the Modem – only if they are wired. But this makes no sense because you must have these two devices. Our mentor had the brilliant idea that we can remove the WLAN-Modem. And what happens? It works. So the configuration and testing of days was a waste of time.

But the only problem wasn’t the testing. The modem and the repeaters refuse the service at several times and we didn’t know why. Yeah, it’s technics.
But at the end we have configured an army of repeater.