by Campbell Smythe | Apr 24, 2015 | BibleBox
Speed up your BibleBox preparation time with the Sandisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0.
If you have access to a computer with USB 3.0 and find yourself copying large amounts of data across to your BibleBox USB drive, BibleBoxer Allan has shared some good experience with using the Sandisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 drive when preparing his BibleBoxes.
Allan writes:
“If you are loading a large amount of content onto the flash drives you use with your BibleBox units, and also have a computer with a USB 3.0 port, I suggest that you seriously consider using the SanDisk Ultra Fit 3.0 flash drives. It takes me about 2 hours to load 31gb of content onto a 64GB Cruzer Fit 2.0 flash drive. My first order of Ultra Fit 3.0 flash drives just arrived and it only took me 20 minutes to load the same content! The price has come down since they hit the market. I only paid about a dollar more for them than the 64GB Cruzer Fit drives.”
With multimedia resources for evangelism and discipleship becoming more freely available file sizes and storage on your BibleBox becomes more critical. If you, like Allan, are preparing many BibleBoxes for distribution of resources the time saved with faster USB drives can be a big help.
The Sandisk Ultra Fit transfers at around 130MB/s, more than twice that of the Sandisk Cruzer Fit which I have used.
Thanks Allan for the feedback!
More Information – Sandisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0
Sandisk Ultra Fit 3.0 32GB on Amazon – http://amzn.to/1d7p96F (USD$14.79 24.04.2015) 16GB = USD$9.90 64GB = USD$27.99
Sandisk website for more info – http://www.sandisk.com.au/products/usb/drives/ultra-fit3/
by Campbell Smythe | Nov 29, 2014 | BibleBox
Thanks to some work by BibleBoxer Peter Brassington, the BibleBox is now available to run on jailbroken Android devices.
The BibleBox is based on open licensed software from Piratebox and Librarybox projects and Peter has based the Android version of BibleBox from Piratebox Android.
Now a user with a jailbroken Android device can install Android BibleBox and share files from their device in the same way they would share them from a portable wifi router. Their device acts as a hotspot sharing BibleBox files on the device or SD card.
Peter has set out easy to follow instructions on Box.com here: https://app.box.com/s/dcm7stkfsekfol48a9oo
Android BibleBox Logos
The following Android BibleBox logos below are ones I created which could be used to customise this BibleBox version but you can easily create your own to suit your ministry. Right-click to Save them to your computer then follow Peter’s instructions to place them in the correct folder.
right click – save as
PirateBox for Android by fun2code is Open Source. fun2code also developed PAW server which we used for mobile filesharing on Android phones before Estante came out from MAF-LT.
Source code is available at GitHub: https://github.com/joschi70/AndroidPirateBox
by Campbell Smythe | Apr 26, 2014 | BibleBox
I had a comment on using a BibleBox in a restricted access country. The person was pleased to see that the BibleBox label was simply a sticker so it could be removed if necessary.
It prompted me to write a short “How to” on what you can do to totally remove “Bible” from the device if you needed to.
External – simply remove the sticker
Internal – you’ll need to change the wifi SSID, Web HTML text, logo image and Hostname.
You’ll also need to modify the Chatbox text (how to do that is here…)
Remember the BibleBox will still make files available on wifi if it is in a small bag or pouch. Many times when I am out I have the BibleBox turned on and in a pocket of my laptop bag.
Another option is to go Ninja style and put your BibleBox in a small camera or hard drive case such as the one shown below.
Changing the BibleBox webpage Logo
To change the logo seen on the BibleBox webpages, create a new .PNG image 280 x 60 pixels in size called logo_biblebox-320×69.png. Once you’ve created it save it onto your BibleBox USB drive in the folder – Content>img replacing the original logo. If you want to keep a backup of the original BibleBox logo better do that before overwriting with your new one.
Changing the HTML BibleBox webpage text
To remove any BibleBox references in the webpages, simply open each page in a text or html editor and make the necessary changes.
Change the name of the BibleBox SSID
The default name for the BibleBox wifi network is “BibleBox files”. To change this to something else, on the USB open the Config folder and the file – ssid.txt. Modify the content of this file to your desired SSID name, insert the USB back in the BibleBox device and restart.
Changing the Hostname from BibleBox.lan to something else
To change the Hostname – the address seen in the URL or address bar on your wifi device – modify the content of the text file called hostname.txt and system_hostname.txt. If you open these files (found on the USB in the Config folder) you will see BibleBox.lan, simply change this and save the text files. Once you restart the BibleBox your changes will be actioned.
Changing the Chatbox text from BibleBox to something else
Using Terminal (Mac) or PuTTY (PC) app:
- connect your BibleBox to your computer
- make sure your computer has IP address 192.168.1.2
- use Terminal or PuTTY ssh into BibleBox ssh root@192.168.1.1 plus your BibleBox password
- change the directory to the location of the chatbox file you want to modify, type: cd /opt/piratebox/conf
- to modify the initial chat box content txt file type –
vi chat_init.txt
- press i to go into edit mode
- make your edit
- press Esc to go back to command mode
- type :w to save your edit, press enter/return key
- type :q, then press enter/return to quit editing
- Restart the BibleBox to apply the changes
by Campbell Smythe | Apr 9, 2014 | BibleBox
BibleBox is based on Piratebox and Librarybox software. If you already have a standard Librarybox setup you can easily convert it to a BibleBox by following these steps:
- Download the following BibleBox files –
- BibleBox files – alters functionality and rebranding BibleBox – zip file – 600KB
- Unzip the files and you will see 3 folders – Config, Content and Shared
- Insert the USB from your Librarybox into your computer
- Copy the Config and Content folders from BibleBox to your USB drive, replacing the contents on your Librarybox USB – this will overwrite the Librarybox webpages and config files with BibleBox UI and config (more…)
by Campbell Smythe | Apr 4, 2014 | BibleBox
The hardware side of the BibleBox project is now all sorted after the vinyl decals arrived today! I like the look of it all, it’s come together well.
Specifications of the TP-Link MR3040
- CPU: AR9331@400MHz
- RAM: 32 MiB
- 1 x 10/100 ethernet port
- 1 x USB 2.0 port
- 1 x Micro USB charging port
- Internal Antenna
- Internal 2000mAh rechargeable battery, 5VDC/1.0A external power adapter
- Wireless Standards: IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n
- Frequency: 2.4-2.4835GHz
- Signal Rate: Up to 150Mbps
- Weight – 94g (3.3oz)
- Dimensions – 3.9 x 2.4 x 0.6 in. (100 x 62 x 16 mm)
There’s still some more work to do on the web interface and some trialling to see how useable others find it. (more…)
