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An Ode To My Power Supply Unit + Setup Shot
Fri, 2008-11-07 23:51 — udijw
The Setup
Good bye faithful Power supply unit. I will miss you
There comes a time at any man's life, where he enters their workroom oh-my-god-kids-what-is-going-on-room and something smelled funny.
Smells metallic. Burning. My socks on fire? No.... What is it? Smelling my way towards the source, I found it to be my computer. Or more precisely, my four years old power supply's fan has decided to die on me. A dying fan means that the computer is heating up, which means that blue screens of death will pop in any second now.
I quickly went to the nearest computer store and bought myself a new unit with two fans. I figured if one will die the other one will still be there. Total cost - 65 Dollars. Definitely worth it.
Just before I throw the little guy to the little recycle bin in the sky, I wanted to say good buy in an appropriate, nice way. After all it did give me power for four years.
Loosing my power supply got me thinking that I need better backup to my pictures than the external hard drive I am currently using. After all my pictures are stored on my personal computer. If you have an idea, please post it in the comments section. I also went to reread some of the great stuff Brian has to say about backing pictures up.
So aside from the ode, there is also a setup shot and some explanations after the jump.
The main model is my dead Power Supply Unit. IT had served me well as a power supply and well as a main product model.
The main challenge was lighting all the sides of the power supply well. So before I made this shot, I reread chapter 6 - Metal on the best lighting book ever.
The Setup
For setup I used my living room table topped with a black Bristol board and a piece of glass. This glass will provide a reflection to the power supply. I used this glass since it was here around the house, but I am now looking for more portable solutions. Keep tracking. I used some black muslin for backdrop and setup my lights. (Click on the image for setup notes, or read the full description here).
My main light was a Nikon SB 800 behind a shoot though umbrella. I set it at about 1/4 power. It was important to set it up so it would cover the entire Family Of Angles for the right side of the power supply. How do I do this? There are many ways to solve this problem, I used a Thought Experiment. I love thought experiments, as they help me build an intuition about how to approach a similar problem the next time it comes.
My Thought Experiment
So here is what went in my mind: Darn this power supplier - had to die on me just when I need it the most. Strike that. What if my power supply was made from mirror instead of metal? And what if my camera lens was emitting light in a flash-like way? The light would come from my camera cone shaped and hit the side of the mirror box (AKA power supply unit). It will then spread in a different cone in this direction. Now all I need to do to cover the family on angles is to place a light source big enough to cover the cone. Using this technique, I can guarantee that light placed in the imaginary place of the cone will fill the entire surface of the box as it is seen by the camera. I am done with the right side. What about the left side.
The experiment is just the same for the left side. Shoot a cone of light from the camera toward the box, reflect it, and find out where the light is going to be. To solve the light on the left hand side, I used a reflector, rather then a second flash. I balanced a piece of foam core on my wife's loved dining chair improvised light stand. Foam boards make great reflectors. To make sure I'll get good light, I pushed the umbrella a bit back so I will have less light fall of and more even lighting on both sides of the power box.
Last to worry about was the top. The experiment was the same experiment, but I did not have a way to position a light above the box. To solve this problem, I placed the camera on a tripod and set it to remote trigger activation. This action freed my hand to hold a second foamcore board to above the power box to cover the angles that reflect of the top of it.
For back light I use a similar "trick" to the one I did for the gridspot review. Only this time, I threw the light on black muslin. It was set on 1/2 power.
Good bye faithful Power supply unit. I will miss you
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Comments
Backing up your pictures
I am ultra scared of loosing all of my photos. An old computer (1GHz or so) can offer a great solution to acting as a file server. We keep an old PC running 2 Western Digital 1 Terabyte SATA drives (can be had for $99 each with 16mb cache) and a low end SATA Raid card. Total cost is about $250 to have 1,000 Gig of storage with the insurance of a mirrored drive. Well worth it, and if you set it up as a mapped network drive, all of your computers at home have access to it.
Now, if anyone knows how to create a 3rd drive that is backed up every Sunday night located remotely at a buddies house, I would love to know that! Some sort of remote mirror backed up weekly or so in case I have a house fire.
Ugh! A new low.
I usually enjoy your articles, however, this one was well below your usual quality and is seriously in need of an editor.
Fortunately I only wasted five minutes reading it and another 30 seconds writing this post.
Nice lightning setup. I'm
Nice lightning setup. I'm just starting to learn the ropes with my SB-600 and this was a good read.
As for the backups, I've started using Backblaze recently. It backs up your files in the background, as you create them. They get encrypted and sent to their data center for storage. It's 5 bucks per month and it's a great compliment to local backups.
re: stuff
@Anon - Thanks for the backup tip. If I had a spare computer I would definitely go for this. You raise a good point of making the files accessible from any computer in the house. Since I use a desktop and a laptop, I will be seeking my next solution to have a network access capability. I wonder if I want it to be wireless.
@Doug - I'm sorry that you feel this post is not up to usual standards. I'd appreciate if you shared what's on your mind, and help me make DIYP better.
@Tsvetomir - I just know you are going to have so much fun with the SB600. The mere fact that it can be taken off camera and be triggered remotely opens up a whole new world of possibilities. David was just discussing some CLS stuff over at strobist.
As for the internet back option, will is work with an 80' grade internet connection (750K DSL upstream?)
Carbonite is another
Carbonite is another web-based back up option. It's slightly cheaper than Backblaze ($50/yr) and recommended by many people in the Photography/Tech media. Of course, it's still no good if your upload speed can't take care of it.
I burn all of my pictures to DVDs as well as having them on an external hard drive, doing this and then mailing the DVDs to your parents/brother/sister/friend is an excellent way to keep them backed up off-site.
Sad
It's always sad to lose a trusted friend.
Help please
Hi,
I have been admiring your work for a while now and was really impressed. I was wondering if you could take the time to glance over my blog and tell me how I could improve my work?
Thank you and God Bless,
Ainsley
p.s. my blog is:
http://ainsleypthomas.blogspot.com/
remote backups
Anon: I would recommend rsync. It's mainly a Unix/Linux/Mac program, but Windows versions are available. It will try very hard not to copy across stuff that already exists on the remote end to save bandwidth.
This presumes, of course, that you've done the tougher work of actually getting a system/drive in a buddy's house with a static IP so that you can get to it.
My take on backups
I use a windows port of the Unix "rsync" command to mirror my photos on a server running in my basement. rsync will work nicely with an external hard drive, though, too. You can even set it up to build incremental backups, Apple "Time Machine" style. Although, you do have to be comfortable delving into the mysteries of the command line (although, since you're comfortable yanking your PSU...).
The port I use is called cwrsync, and can be found here.
Poor computer (and you)
I hate it when power supplies go! So depressing and angering. Glad you were able to replace it and not lose anything!! Thanks for sharing your ode!
backup tips
First -- great site. Keep on keeping on!
Second -- I sold backup software for 10 years. I've heard every sad story you can imagine, and I've heard a lot of "THANK YOU!" stories, too.
My 10 years distilled into 5 Keys to a Successful Backup:
1) automated, reliable software
2) multiple copies
3) at least one copy off-site
4) the right media
5) accurate restore
1) Use software to automate; otherwise, it won't happen. I use Retrospect because it's the best and I know how to use it. It may be too complicated for some, though.
2) Chances of 1 copy going bad are 99%. Chances of 3 copies all going bad are much, much less, especially if they're not all sitting next to each other.
3) Chances of house burning down aren't high, but the chances of losing valuable data are high if your house burns down (or some jerk steals all your stuff). I have a copy in my safe deposit box.
4) I use large disk drives, and lots of 'em. When a disk is bad, you know it -- and it usually goes bad during the backup, not the restore. I've had and heard about a lot of bad experiences with optical (CD/DVD) and tape.
5) Speaking of restore -- test your backups to make sure they actually work. I've heard many a sad tale about people losing data because their backup regime was inadvertently excluding some of their important files ("but I didn't know!!").
Thanks for the great site -- I hope this helps contribute in some small way.
Craig
Coincidences
Interesting how some things can happen at the same time in different parts of the world. Just recently my desktop would not boot, and I troubleshot it down to my internal HD (which IS my photo backup) was somehow shorting out or shutting down the power supply. Needless to say I was concerned because unplugging the drive was the only way I could get the computer to start which meant I was without a backup, or a place to back up new photos. Last night in a final effort, I swapped out the power supply (the third in this computer) with the previous one just in case. Yep, it was the PS that couldn't handle the hard drive and not the other way around. My backups are safe... for the moment. I now have a PS that I swapped out because I lost faith that it wasn't going to burn up when the fan finally died. I also don't have any CD/DVD drives because it only has enough power plugs for the hard drives and the new video card :(
Maybe it's fortunate then... I've been authorized to buy a new desktop (this one is 5 years old). I'm not however asking permission to get a dual monitor or 1TB worth of drive space along with it... those will be happy surprises (I hope!) ;)
Online backup
I have just recently started using a great program called CrashPlan. It is basically a peer to peer backup solution. You either team up with a friend swapping backup space or you pay the company a small fee to use their data center (or do both).
If you dont have the network speed or patience to wait for hundreds of gigs to transfer initially you can do the backup locally and move the files by car to the destination. Then start syncing the changes over the network. You can also do "Guest" restores at your friends place in case of emergency.
Try it out, I did and love it. Already installed it to most of my relatives computers since no one seems to have a good "CrashPlan" these days.
I really enjoy your site by the way, keep up the great work!
Some back up conclusion
Hi all,
Thank you so much for the support and Ideas. I will not reply individually, as many things that I would like to say apply to more then one comment.
First of all, I am starting to think about an "off site" back up. I would like to go with an automated system as Craig suggested, as I am not "planted" enough to do things routinely.
There were two main options there, internet and friends. I tend to go with internet, and I will have to boost my connection speed for this. Dear D300, you'll have to wait a bit more.
rsync is an option and Carbonite and Backblaze as well. I will check them out soon.
I will also continue to use my external drive as temporary back up.
One of my main concerns is the back up of my Lightroom file. it is a huge file and I do not want to sync it every time. If anybody has discovered a system for this, let me know.
udi
I've replaced MANY PSUs in
I've replaced MANY PSUs in the past. I live in Brazil, so 30°C (90°F) temperatures are quite common. My city is a 2 million+ inhabitant metropolis, so everything is busy, trafficky and therefore dusty. THis combo is warranty of jammed fans. My most recent PC was assembled ]by e, and I chose a really big case, well-vented, aluminum-made and that could hold many fans inside. I regularly disassemble everything and take care of the dust inside by sucking / blowing it all.
Now about the photo: great one, but the "double reflection" inherent to the use of a glass plate disturbs me a little. That was discussed in Strobist some time ago, and also by Zack Arias, I believe, that this kind of reflection is best created by a material with only one reflective side (glass and mirrors typically have two). That's why David recommended a dark tile for this effect. That said, lighting is spot-on, the gradient you created behind the unit is gorgeous.
Another backup system
Just wanted to leave some tips. If you haven't already seen it, Yanik Chauvin has some great tips about backing up pictures. And for my own backups, I often use Box.net, which is web based and free for a few gigabytes.
RE: I've replaced MANY PSUs in, Another backup system
@Thiago - thanks for the lighting comment. I found a reflective plastic sheet which is very thin. I'll try to use it soon and report on reflection quality. Man. I'd love to visit Brazil, even if it is hot and smoky.
@Pestbarn - the film by Yanik is great. thanks.
backup of images
in one easy word-DROBO-http://www.drobo.com/
Double reflection
Hi Everyone,
I was working on similar project. I like your result with one small exception. If you look carefully you will notice that there are 2 reflections. The first is from the top surface of the glass and the second is the bottom surface. I had the same problem and I have two ideas how to remove the bottom reflection, but I did not have chance to try it.
1. Use a glass that is sandblasted on one side and polished on the other. Place the sandblasted surface on the bottom. One concern I have that the ruff surface could reflect too much light that will mask the upper reflection.
2. Other solution that I was thinking is to use black non-glossy paint and paint the glass.
I was wandering have you ever try something like that?
Thank you
p.s. This article might be not high level as others, but it is very good for beginners like me.
External drives are not really backups
Sorry Sam, they ain't.
What you want to protect against :
1 accidental deletion.
2 technical failure.
3 fire or theft
Extra disks are good for preventing 2, but less for 1 since it might take some time to discover the screw up. As for 3, the more you have at the site, the more you loose.
What you should have is something which stores your stuff for a long time and is portable. Either DVD/Blueray or tape.
Make sure you have a fire resistant place to store your stuff. And make sure that there is no drop if the place burns. A fire resistant safe is useless if it falls three floors and is split open.
Make sure you have multiple copies because things happen. The more, the merrier. Make sure you have an off site storage possibility.
Make sure your backup is automated or you will be VERY sorry.
Do restore tests regularly. Make sure you have a place to restore to so you can do new backups when your current backup solution becomes obsolete.
BTW Backups are proofs of authorship.
Tape can be expensive, so can reshooting.
greetings,
Wait! You didn't light it correctly.
The "Light: Science and Magic" religious book preaches that to enhance the 3d look of a box you should increase the tonal range. In your photo the top and side of the unit have about the same brightness. This gives it a flat impression.
Backup
My backup system:
Primary Drive: 640GB Drive (two partitions: a 500GB Partition for files, the rest for windows)
I use a custom wrote .bat script to copy that to a 500GB external.
I modified that script to backup the critical stuff to an old 200GB HDD that I keep at my Girlfriend house and I get it every week or two.
Loosing data is not fun. If you want a copy of the .bat script that I use email and I will get it to you and give you instructions on how to modify it (It real easy even for someone with no programing experience).
---Alex
http://MooreALX.com
I use Jungledisk online
I use Jungledisk online backup. I have a lot of confidence in it. My photos are also stored on an external firewire drive, but not my PC itself.
Liked it so much I tried it myself
I like this set up of yours so much, I had to try it myself.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tedsali/3015746073/
Nice shot & some tips
First of all, its a really nice shot. And a nicely explained setup, thanks for that! Regarding the PSU - it has some really intresting cable endings, so you could've include them in the shot somehow so it would look like a PSU octopus, if you're getting my idea :)
Second, dont dump that poor bastard. You can easily replace its fan with any 8cm fan for PC towers, so it will work fine again if the capacitors and rest of its electronics are still fine.
Third, you can put it in another PC (e.g. make one for the kids) or you can use it as a transformator - it gives you 12 Volts DC.
And lastly for the backups, use an external HDD on eSATA (or firewire or USB2.0). Soemthing like MyBook from WD or like what have - a Black Box from Chieftec thats working perfectly. It has a swith so it dont has to be on all the time. You turn it on when backing up, and then turn it off and leave it in peace. Find a syncing software if you'd like the process automated.
And backing up on DVDs is implicit :)
Backing up and keeping PC happy...
Two parts to this response...first...the PC backup...
I actually have a little server that works as a firewall. It's an older machine, but it runs Linux so it doesn't have to be super fast. Windows is also a viable option. But as I said, for the most part, it works as my firewall. But I also have some extra hard drive space in there in the form of a RAID array (RAID 1 - mirrored drives). The server is set up to share these drives as network drives. My main PC (a laptop) is a Windows machine where I do my photography work. It connects to the network drives specifically for backup reasons - one of the drives is purely for backup purposes only. I use a program on my laptop called GoodSync (http://www.goodsync.com/) which evaluates the files on my laptop compared to the files on the backup drive (on the server) and it synchronizes any files that are new and/or change. So at any given time, the server and my laptop match.
The server itself is in a closet in my basement. My laptop, obviously, moves about the house. There are a number of levels of protection here. If my laptop fails, I have backups on the server. If one of the hard drives physically fails, the mirror drive has me covered because of the RAID array. If the server fails, it was backing up files from my laptop anyhow. Finally...and this is the part that may be harder for most people...I also have a web server that isn't in my house...my home server synchronizes to the web server weekly for backup purposes. But even without the sync to the web server, I still have a lot of protection.
As for part two...keeping your PC happy. I personally recommend getting a really good PC case with lots of fans in it. One of the problems I have with buying desktop PCs from companies like Dell, HP or whatever...you end up with a scenario like your own...not enough redundant cooling. My desktop machine has 6 case fans in it, plus the fan on the processor and one for the hard drives. Now I don't really need 6 case fans...but if one or two fail...at least my machine is still safe. Chances are, your case can support an additional 80mm fan...it's worth it to pop one in just for that extra level of protection.
Hard Drives
RAID5 all the way. But, I work in IT, and setup these things myself. This way, I can lose a drive, keep functioning and have time to replace it. It costs a little more, but you can get an external RAID array, and a card in the computer for less than $1000. I currently have 750GB total, which gives me 500GB usable.
Looking to expand, but it has been spotless for three years including failed drives with no downtime.
Chris
Windows Automated Backup
For those of you who are afraid to play with the command line there is a free Microsoft product called Synctoy that is basically rsync - Minus some features - that works pretty solidly.
One feature that it lacks is the ability to backup to an FTP server so the remote backup gets a little more complicated, basically in order to back something up over the internet you can setup a VPN server on one computer and a client on the other. Then have a script to automatically dial it up at 2 am or sometime when you won't notice it running and then do a differential backup. This means it will only copy the pictures that are new and changed or deleted which is a slow net connection friendly solution.
It all depends on what kind of router/net connection/operating system/firewall you have running or else I would write a tutorial and link it. If you can figure this out you didn't need me to tell you and kudos, or if you are interested email me - Bushio Ushtek.com
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