#garfield Logs

May 26 2023

09:47 PM rue_mohr: Tom_L, did you ever make up more of those vibrator tool plastic couplings?
09:58 PM Tom_L: http://tom-itx.no-ip.biz:81/~webpage/rue/coupler/Coupler_brass5.jpg
09:58 PM Tom_L: those?
09:58 PM rue_mohr: oh yea!
09:58 PM rue_mohr: what became of those?
10:07 PM rue_mohr: erp, didn't take out the bit did it?
10:08 PM Tom_L: didn't phase it. it was a 3/8 em
10:08 PM rue_mohr: ah, burn, last step
10:08 PM Tom_L: had to come up with a different way to separate the part from the material on the bottom
10:09 PM Tom_L: first attempt was a bust
10:09 PM Tom_L: since you gotta clamp the material and the part while doing it
10:09 PM rue_mohr: hmm
10:11 PM rue_mohr: you been busy latley?
10:11 PM Tom_L: nope
10:12 PM rue_mohr: mm, quiet for sure
10:12 PM Tom_L: took a week off recently
10:12 PM rue_mohr: I was getting worried I'd lost ya
10:13 PM Tom_L: not much to contribute lately
10:13 PM rue_mohr: warm bodies are welcome
10:15 PM Tom_L: kids got new trucks
10:15 PM rue_mohr: hah
10:15 PM rue_mohr: they enjoying them?
10:16 PM Tom_L: they better be
10:16 PM Tom_L: http://tom-itx.no-ip.biz:81/~webpage/temp/trucks/Trucks_2.jpg
10:16 PM rue_mohr: mhm
10:16 PM rue_mohr: I'm sure glad I have the S10
10:16 PM Tom_L: i wouldn't want a big truck but they did and they work hard
10:17 PM rue_mohr: lots of people up here get bigger ones and they never see a day of hard work in their lives
10:17 PM Tom_L: they had 2020 civic sports and basically drove them for 3 years for free
10:18 PM Tom_L: trade in was nearly what they paid
10:18 PM rue_mohr: huh
10:18 PM Tom_L: can't find decent vehicles for sale now
10:18 PM rue_mohr: industry is havin problems building things
10:19 PM rue_mohr: I think the electric car thing is throwing the system off too. They dont have the same life-cycle
10:19 PM Tom_L: i'll never own one until there's nothing else left
10:19 PM rue_mohr: huh, I can 3d print a cut-away of my 3d printed part...
10:19 PM rue_mohr: computerized everything
10:20 PM rue_mohr: in everything today too
10:20 PM rue_mohr: electric would be good for me here
10:21 PM rue_mohr: I do the same little loop every day, in and out
10:23 PM aandrew: Tom_L> they sat on my desk for a long time and i put them somewhere...
10:23 PM aandrew: this is the story for about 80% of the small things I set down
10:23 PM aandrew: I encounter them a hundred times, finally say "ok I'm putting these somewhere where i won't lose them" and promptly lose them
10:25 PM rue_mohr: :)
10:26 PM aandrew: if I get a truck it'll be to tow a 5th wheel which will be my home. keeping an eye on the electric ones (NOT Tesla) but I'm not going to wait 3y for one while battery tech is changing almost daily
10:26 PM rue_mohr: whats on the top of the pile, LiFe?
10:26 PM aandrew: hm?
10:26 PM rue_mohr: battery tech
10:27 PM rue_mohr: they were making a big deal, but I think its so they could get research money
10:27 PM aandrew: for EV? not sure. LiFePO4 is great for everythign else though, not so eager to blow up, but I keep thinking LiS or something more exotic might be good for EV
10:28 PM rue_mohr: AMAZING NEW BATTERY TECHNOLOGY XXX WILL QUADRUPLE BATTERY CAPACITY AND PERFORMANCE WHILE QUARTERING MANUFACTURING COSTS AND SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT THRU CLEANER PRODUCTION METHODS!!!!
10:28 PM rue_mohr: :/
10:28 PM aandrew: there was one I *just* read about recently which is IN production and is like 50% better density than LiFe
10:29 PM aandrew: 500Wh/kg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtZkohZRE_s
10:29 PM rue_mohr: I like how the P is for polymer, not phosfor
10:30 PM aandrew: LiFePO4 is lithium iron phosphate
10:30 PM rue_mohr: oh
10:30 PM aandrew: LiPoly is different
10:30 PM rue_mohr: hmm
10:30 PM rue_mohr: thats good
10:30 PM aandrew: LiFePO4 is my go-to these days. very good density, not quite as energetic as "standard" lithium tech, but unblowuppable
10:31 PM rue_mohr: know the cell voltage?
10:31 PM aandrew: 3.2V
10:31 PM rue_mohr: huh
10:34 PM aandrew: LiS is pretty awesome and should be cheaper, but I don't think they're allowed on aircraft yet
10:34 PM aandrew: I don't recall seeing UN 38.3 ratings on any
10:34 PM rue_mohr: The new job at the hospital is working out well so far
10:35 PM rue_mohr: little overrun, lots of stuff has fallen wayside over the years
10:35 PM rue_mohr: today I did a repair on the light fixture, they last 3 ballasts, they had cut the wires off the old ballast and spliced to the new one
10:35 PM aandrew: that's good news then
10:36 PM rue_mohr: instead of undoing the splices
10:36 PM aandrew: wow
10:36 PM aandrew: I installed a 50W solar panel on top of a shipping container today
10:36 PM rue_mohr: so there were like 3 6" sections of wire all spliced in a row
10:36 PM rue_mohr: and they'd used 1 lamp ballasts with 2 lamps in parallel
10:37 PM rue_mohr: nice
10:37 PM rue_mohr: what kinda charge controller?
10:37 PM aandrew: had to wait for other people to leave because a) I don't want them to know I'm doing anything on the roof, b) I'm pretty sure it's disallowed since I had to drill through the container vents and c) the less attention I draw, th ebetter
10:37 PM rue_mohr: :)
10:37 PM aandrew: right now I'm just using some off the shelf module, nothing fancy. I also installed an LTE and LoRA antenna up there
10:38 PM rue_mohr: yea, the cheap charge controllers are hit-and-miss
10:38 PM rue_mohr: I'v picked up a few that didn't do a descent job at all
10:38 PM aandrew: the solar panel was the trick though. I stuck two motorcycle/atv seat heaters on the back of it and then took one of those folding camping mats and put that on top of everything, then used caulking to seal the shit out of it all
10:38 PM rue_mohr: the shunt regulating one I did works great, its on a really small panel tho
10:38 PM aandrew: oh I have two LM39 temp sensors in there too
10:38 PM rue_mohr: heh
10:39 PM rue_mohr: I should make this part on the lathe....
10:39 PM rue_mohr: trying to 3d print it
10:40 PM aandrew: didn't take a pic of it on the roof but this is what the whole thing looks like: https://ibb.co/S0h5QMk
10:40 PM aandrew: (before the camping foam thing)
10:40 PM rue_mohr: mhm
10:41 PM aandrew: it's one layer of that foam but the one side extends waaay past so I can fold it back so when it's mounted, it's on an angle for water runoff
10:41 PM rue_mohr: hey, on twitter, did you catch that timer circuit everyone was giving me grief over?
10:41 PM aandrew: then I just use little M3 threaded chain links to four 100lb magnets, it should not move
10:41 PM aandrew: no?
10:42 PM rue_mohr: ah
10:43 PM aandrew: did you just tell them to STFU you've forgotten more about 555s than they'll ever learn?
10:45 PM rue_mohr: hah
10:45 PM Tom_L: ignorance is usually loud
10:45 PM rue_mohr: I didn't use a 555 :]
10:45 PM aandrew: hm this panel has a 3A short circuit current, I should go back there first thing in the morning and remove the short :-)
10:45 PM rue_mohr: 3A is workable
10:46 PM rue_mohr: I might call it border for a shunt regulator
10:46 PM rue_mohr: oh I should check tommorow and make sure its still all good
10:47 PM aandrew: yeah it's waaaaaay more panel than I need to keep two 8Ah batteries float charged so I can have light in the container and run a little banana pi with cell modem
10:47 PM rue_mohr: its been running the lights no problem
10:47 PM aandrew: figure keep two batteries charged, only one of them can supply the heater pads as needed but both can supply the lights/rpi
10:48 PM rue_mohr: mhm
10:48 PM aandrew: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B092PR8QFQ these go on sale every so often
10:49 PM rue_mohr: 59!?
10:49 PM rue_mohr: god
10:49 PM rue_mohr: I can buy those at auto parts for like $30, which is still too much
10:49 PM rue_mohr: oh wait
10:49 PM rue_mohr: not lead
10:49 PM rue_mohr: sorry
10:49 PM rue_mohr: knee-jerk
10:49 PM rue_mohr: form factor ya know
10:49 PM aandrew: yep :-)
10:50 PM aandrew: and if you only buy the sale you can usually get them under $50
10:50 PM rue_mohr: mmm
10:52 PM aandrew: it's WEIRD grabbing a battery that size and lifting with enough force to lift it because you know what a lead-acid one weighs, and you nearly yeet the damn thing across the room becuase it's lithium
10:52 PM rue_mohr: yea
10:52 PM aandrew: it's kind of like when you take a drink you "know" is water and it ends up being coke or beer or something
10:52 PM rue_mohr: 8ah in lithium for that means lots of air space
10:53 PM aandrew: indeed
10:53 PM rue_mohr: so, I have some leds I burried in the yard as night lights
10:53 PM rue_mohr: the loop is 12V
10:53 PM rue_mohr: run from lead-acid
10:54 PM rue_mohr: I have two circuits, one is a shunt charge controller for the solar, the other is a 'solar dipped under 1.4V, turn on the load"
10:54 PM rue_mohr: after I got the charge voltage properly tuned up, the batteries just last forever
10:55 PM rue_mohr: and I been using retired batteries from work
10:55 PM rue_mohr: I got 6x 12V 1.2Ah from work this week
10:55 PM rue_mohr: their SO CUTE
10:55 PM rue_mohr: not sure if their any good tho
10:55 PM rue_mohr: I got 6, 14 were completely shot
10:56 PM rue_mohr: like buldged
10:56 PM rue_mohr: so, if your not watching twitter, do you know of the VFD overhaul I'm doing for the CNC?
11:01 PM rue_mohr: its neat but I have to work out what to do about the inductive votlage boosting on the power rails
11:02 PM rue_mohr: if a 24V motor can boost the rail up to 85V, I'm a bit nervous of what a 170V motor can do to a rail that needs to cap at 400V
11:12 PM aandrew: rue_mohr: I catch the odd thing, but I've not been on it much
11:12 PM aandrew: and yeah, I could see LED strip lights being a great load for sulfated batteries
11:13 PM aandrew: but that one specifically you posted a pic of here
11:13 PM aandrew: with the DC motor between B- and M1 I think
11:16 PM rue_shop5: damnit there is a UPS battery starting to vent in here somewhere
11:20 PM rue_mohr: yea, its becoming a tripple dc motor driver
11:30 PM rue_mohr: Tom_L, when making a flat on a shaft for driving, do you know a guideline of how much of the shaft to take off?
11:53 PM rue_mohr: The injury from impaling my hand with a bicycle spoke has healed nicely