To setup a Meteohub system on iConnect, you need 3 ingrediants:
- Iomega iConnect
The iConnect is advertised on their Homepage here. The official name is "Iomega® iConnect Wireless Data Station", part number 34780. You can buy this unit in many stores around the world as Iomega has global reach. Prices may vary, while writing this, amazon.com has it for about $50 on sale, regular price may be around $80. Putting the Meteohub system onto that device is completely legal (you can do what you like with your device as long as you don't break patents, copyrights etc of the manufacturer, which you don't do ba installing alternatvie software on it), but it will void your warranty on the unit from Iomega. So if you have trouble after doing the patch, Iomega will not help you. Smertbedded, which is providing the update does also not give you any warranty on functionality of the iConnect after having done the patch. To say it in simple words, when you brick the iConnect by doing the Meteohub patch you are at your own, it is your risk. When you are not willing to take this, please buy a turn-key ready system from one of the Meteohub resellers.
When you decide to convert the patched iConnect into a regular iConnect again (because the patch did not work for any reason or because you don't want to use Meteohub any longer) you can easily do this by the help of an "imager stick" from Iomega. How to build the imager stick and how to apply it is described in detail here (including a link to download the needed image). - USB stick
You need a USB Stick for two purposes. First the stick is needed to patch the iConnect to become a Meteohub. Second the same stick is used after that to be the storage media where the Meteohub system resides on and where the weather data is stored. smartbedded managed to integrate both functions in one single USB stick. Once you have inserted the stick and startet the patch, the stick will stay connected to the iConnect forever, think of it as the drive C of your PC.
The USB stick needs a capacity of 4GB and it MUST one using SLC. SLC stands for "single level cells" and defines a flash storage technology. While being more expensive then MLC (multi level cells) it provides about ten times the durability in terms of read-erase-write cycles. Meteohub on good old NSLU2 was also running on a USB stick and after a coubple of quarters systems started failing because of flash cells in the USB stick wearing out. To avoid your flash storage to fail for sure after a few quarters, you definitely need SLC based flash. It is not an option, it is mandatory. Unfortunately SLC-based USB sticks are rare, but there are a few. As an alternative you can buay a 4GB SD card based on SLC flash (which are reasonable cheap) and put these into a suitable SD card reader with USB connection. Tested options to choose from are:
- Transcend JetFlash130 4GB (TS4GJF130)
- Transcend JetFlash185 4GB (TS4GJF185)
- Intergal Endurance 4GB SD card (INSDH4G10-ENDU)
