About
Hello, I’m Chris Wiggins, I’m a site reliability engineer (SRE)/devops engineer/platform engineer/infrastructure engineer/WhateverNewTermIsCool engineer.
I work in the tech industry to help improve the lives of developers, end-users, and whomever wants to improvement their technology.
Facts (and some opinions)
- Vim is my editor of choice, even as a full blown IDE.
- Open-source runs the world and is awesome, everyone’s life would be much worse without it.
- Linux > Windows (except maybe Active Directory).
Skills
- Kubernetes
- Public “clouds” (AWS, GCP, OCI, Azure)
- Linux (awk, grep, sed, tmux, bash, etc.)
- Programming Languages
- CI/CD Systems
- Jenkins
- Gitlab CI
- Github Actions
- Circleci
- Drone CI
- Many other things I forgot to list or have learned since I updated this page.
Hobbies
- Technology
- Bicycling
- Outdoors
- Philosophy
Dell Wyse 5070 emmc vs Raspberrypi 3 Micro SD
Posted on December 7, 2023
| Chris Wiggins
Recently I bought a Dell Wyse 5070 thin client on ebay to replace a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ that I was using as a qdevice for my proxmox 2 node cluster. While waiting for the m.2 sata drive I decided to mess around with the emmc module.
My plan for the thin client in the long run is to use as a third proxmox node instead of a qdevice. However I also have 2 more plans for it:
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Bitcoin Heater Financial Viability part 2 (DIY)
Posted on November 29, 2023
| Chris Wiggins
In my previous post about how financially viable is a Bitcoin ASIC miner as a space heater I talked about buying the s9 miner bundle from [Crypto Cloaks](https://www.cryptocloaks.com]. Their setup is good if you aren’t ready to diy but lets take a look at the financials behind diy.
Parts Bitmain/Antminer S9: I’ve seen these on ebay for around $120. 2 140mm Noctua fans: $60 1 60mm Noctua fan: $15 (optional) 3d print the Crypto Cloaks case at a local library or hackerspace.
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Bitcoin Heater Financial Viability
Posted on November 22, 2023
| Chris Wiggins
Recently I was moved to a place that has cooler temperatures and heard about using an old ASIC miner to heat. This post explains the financial viability of using an old ASIC miner as a space heater.
Bitmain/Antminer S9 ASIC Crypto Cloaks has a really good guide and bundle to get started with using an S9 as a space heater. Lets look at the financial viability if you were to buy their bundle compared to a space heater from a local store.
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OS Options For My Docker Setup on Raspberry PIs
Posted on July 22, 2020
| Chris Wiggins
As you know from previous posts, I setup hass.io on a new RPI 4 recently. Well that’s been working great for months, more than 6 months actually. However a few days ago the system stopped booting correctly, and I don’t have a micro HDMI cable to check the console, bummer.
This lead me down a path that I’ve had floating around in my mind for a while. I want to move my Hass.
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Restore Hass.io From Snapshot on a Raspberry Pi 4
Posted on December 15, 2019
| Chris Wiggins
I recently setup hass.io (home assistant OS) on a new RPI 4 that I bought. I originally set it up with a 16G SD card, but later upgraded to a 64G SD card for more space. Searching online I couldn’t find a very good guide on how to restore from a hass.io snapshot. Here is a brief way it can be done using the ssh plugin:
Install the ssh plugin.
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Using Raspberry Pi Zero W in Gadget Mode On a Linux Laptop
Posted on November 29, 2019
| Chris Wiggins
Raspberry Pi “Gadget” mode In my previous post I went over how to get tasmota on a BN Link BNC 60 smart outlet using a Raspberry Pi. When I started down that journey I tried to use Gadget mode on the RPI so I did not have to use a keyboard/monitor but I had issues. Turns out my issue was actually just that the USB cable I was using was a data only cable, so into the trash that cable went.
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Jenkins Docker Image with JCasC Part 2
Posted on October 29, 2019
| Chris Wiggins
Previously I wrote about a docker image that had Jenkins and the JCasC plugin.
This post is about an update to that code with a few enhancements, such as:
A job that runs daily that will apply the JCasC config, thus prevently drift. jenkins.yaml is split up into multiple yaml file and the entire dir is loaded. You can view the code on gitlab.
Dockerfile The changes we made to the Dockerfile are simple using the CASC_JENKINS_CONFIG environment variable to set a dir, and then copy all the yaml files in casc_configs to that directory.
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Install Tasmota OTA on BN-LINK BNC-60
Posted on October 11, 2019
| Chris Wiggins
Flash Tasmota So it seems there are a few ways to flash Tasmota onto devices. An over-the-air way is via a tool called tuya-convert which is what I used.
You can use any linux device that has a spare WIFI adapter to run the software. I have a few Raspberry Pi Zero W’s sitting around that work great. At first I tried to put the RPI into “gadget mode” using this guide.
[Read More]
Jenkins Docker Image with JCasC
Posted on August 15, 2019
| Chris Wiggins
So I’m at Jenkins/Devops World this week and had some free time to mess with a tool I’ve been meaning to look into for some time: JCasC.
This tool allows you to manage the Jenkins config via 1 or many yaml files.
I’m used to using Jenkins master in a docker container and wanted to setup a docker image that has Jenkins setup with a default JCasC yaml so you can get started with Jenkins all setup to manage via code.
[Read More]
Use docker multi-stage to install golang
Posted on July 24, 2019
| Chris Wiggins
Today I had a task to add a program written in golang to a Dockerfile that I wrote a few weeks ago. The Dockerfile did not currently have golang so I started looking at installing it. The obvious method was using yum to install golang, but I noticed when I do that it installed tons of other things that I didn’t really need. Then I looked at compiling it myself, but I’d need tools like make and it isn’t as nice as one yum command.
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