Camera outage

[Jason Rose]

There are/were a couple of problems. The first has been resolved. The second won't be so easy. We may have had an equipment failure due to lightening strike.

For those that don't know, I live near Houston (1000 miles from Chama) and must rely on volunteers in Chama to be my hands and eyes. So, issues like this can sometimes take a while to resolve.

I'll keep you appraised.

[Sharon Evans]

Thanks for the update Jason. We look forward to your updates on the progress of the repairs.

[Rich Murray]

I now spend a lot of my time in my home and have devised different ways to pass that time. One of those is visiting areas I’ve known around the country through their web cams. Many of those cams are run by various state DOTs with paid crews on call and yet their cameras can be down for days or weeks, sometimes longer. When we consider the FOCATS cams, we should all remember that the cams, the cost of their operation and maintenance as well as is the labor and the travel expenses involved, are all donated and be content to display patience.
Jason my friend, we will watch the cameras again when they are repaired and be happy until then just knowing the best man for the job is calling the shots.

[Jason Rose]

Thanks, Rich. I appreciate that.

[Dick Cowles]

I just want to add my thanks to Jason and other members of the Friends like John Engs who have done so much to make the web-cams an extraordinary success. We had no idea when we first raised funds for the cameras just how important they would prove to be, but it's the ongoing dedication by Friends members like Jason that have made all the difference.

[Craig Kumler]

Very well said Dick! Thanks Jason for all you do!

[Jason Rose]

Thanks guys. The team members are:

John Engs
Joe Kanocz
Steve Forney
Me

With special assistance from John Cole and Corrine Williams.

This is most definitely a team effort.

[Mark Sigmon]

I also would like to express my appreciation to all those who make the web cams possible. Not sure how I'd get my fix without them!

[Sharon Evans]

Well Mark, you can look at past days this and last year at the archive threads where links to each day are shown for easy reference, this year is at viewtopic.php?f=79&t=5554 .

[Jason Rose]

Help is on the way. Joe will arrive some time in the next 12-24 hours.

If it's a simple fix, he'll get the cams up and running again. If it's a true hardware failure, it'll likely be a few more weeks.

More later...

[Tim Tennant]

Let me echo Rich's comments and thank you Rich for posting your thoughts. Jason and the team are very dedicated in their efforts and hard work. When there is an outage we hear about it here in Albuquerque because the calls come in. The usual question is; "Do you know the webcams are out?" We typically respond, yes we do and the problem is being worked on and go onto explain that it takes a team of volunteers to make this all happen. We also try a direct people to this specific Forum discussion topic to keep abreast of what is transpiring. Thank you Jason for always being on top of things. Eventually the problem is resolved so viewers need to be understanding and have patience. The world is not coming to an end because the webcams are down. Through tremendous efforts of the team that Jason referenced ultimately the issues are resolved and the cams come back online. Thank you.

[Jason Rose]

Thanks, boss.

[Jason Rose]

Joe is on-site this morning and about to begin some triage. With any luck, we'll be back in business in 30 minutes.

If things don't go well, it'll likely be a few more weeks.

More later...

[Jonathan Cordova]

10-4 jason

[Jason Rose]

Sorry folks. We're dead in the water for a while. Here's what I know:

-The lightening strike that caused this mess was visually observed hitting near the Scale Track and traveling up the rails past the Depot.
-The Depot office lost 2 printers, a clock, and the router provided by the ISP (which was replaced).
-The Friends lost our primary firewall. Fortunately our back-up was offline and is now in production and working fine.
-Joe tested both our primary and back-up cables between the firewall and the wireless node. Neither is working.
-The node is powered on, but we have no connection to it which leads me to believe it is toast.
-So, despite a couple of layers of surge protection on our power and data links, the surge was apparently strong enough to blow up the firewall and the wireless node.

Joe is returning next week and we have a work-around that may get us up and running then. The long-term fix of replacing the node is still being worked on by the FCTS staff. These nodes are about $2,000.

*A very big thank you to Joe Kanocz for traveling several hundred miles by plane and ground to check this out.
And, special thanks to FCTS Docent Pat Maufrais for offering to help.

More later...

[Sharon Evans]

Thanks for the onsite efforts to see how bad the damage was to the system. Lets us hope that the work around will indeed work when tried.

[Tim Tennant]

Thanks Jason for the update! I also want to thank Joe for his efforts to assist in troubleshooting the problem. We appreciate everyone's patience and want to also note and thank the individuals who this week called and donated a total of $500 towards the webcam fund. This will most definitely help with any repairs moving forward.

[Edward Morris]

Might be a good time to remind everyone who loves the WebCams about the TIP JAR.

[Jason Rose]

The Depot Cam has been restored.

Huge Thank You to Joe and Steve!!


More later...

[Jason Rose]

All 3 are back up and running.

Details later.

[Jonathan Cordova]

video and audio looks and sounds great

[Jason Rose]

Big thanks to Steve Forney, Joe Kanocz, and Ed Beaudette for the assistance.

Long story short: the work-around worked. A permanent fix, as well as enhanced protection from future lightening strikes, is being designed. The technology has evolved quite a bit since the existing system was built. We may be able to upgrade and expand for cheaper than replacing existing components.

For now, it works.

Enjoy.

[Sharon Evans]

Thanks to all that helped.

[Jeff Schrimmer]

Fantastic! Thank you from me to all who helped, too!

JS

[Bruce McDowell]

Thanks to everyone involved in the repairs! Hitting the tip jar after I get paid next!

[Tim Tennant]

Great job guys! A huge thank you for your efforts. Also, thanks to those who have mentioned to leave a donation in the Tip Jar. That is appreciated as it truly helps to defray expenses associated with the webcams.

[Edward Morris]

Great surprise this afternoon.
Haven't checked in since last Wednesday.
The Cam's are looking great again.
Prompted me to hit the Tip Jar again.

[Tim Tennant]

Edward.....thank you for making a donation. It is appreciated and helps the Friends efforts to keep the webcams going.

[Melinda Koster]

WooHoo -- FANTASTIC job on cameras - Thanks a bunch from all of us who are saving time off and $$ to get over there one of these days (and in the meantime, keeping up via web-cam with all the goings-on). Keep up the great work!

Melinda

[Tom Casper]

Jason,
Can we get a note about what happened and your temp fix?

Tom C.

[Rich Murray]

Jason,
Can we get a note about what happened and your temp fix?

Tom C.

Tom, what caused the problem is out lined above by Jason. Basically a lightening strike fried a key component in the system. The work around, again basically, was to swap in a 'borrowed' component that is used elsewhere in the Friends systems and could be spared temporarily.

[Jason Rose]

What Rich said.

Sorry to be vague, but I can't give out specifics about how all this works. There are still people (with moderate IT skills) that would do the organization harm if given the chance.

Thank you, Rich.

[Sharon Evans]

That is understandable Jason, yet sad in that there are those who want to do us harm.