Status: We’re good for supplies and sheltering in place directed by Gwinnett County of Georgia.
Plans: Take a walk, mow the lawn and work on the homestead.
Narrative: Been a rough week as you can probably tell my Blog was a little sparse. I’ve signed up for 20 hours/Week at work and spent probably 40 hours last week. That stressed us both more than I was comfortable with. Next week we’ll have a better grip on my hours.
Took a walk with the Wife, it hadn’t got hot yet and the pollen didn’t seem to bother either of us. Slight breeze and overcast skies also helped.
One of the four power supplies that supplement the UPS battery charge died yesterday. (Two have died so far of six.) I replaced the power supply and adjusted it for the maximum 500VA generators can provide. I’m running the generator this morning to make sure it’s all ok.
Watched an old movie (Super 8) 2011 which was surprisingly good, I cried at the end. (The sign of a good movie.) We made dinner together sweet potato stir fry and we froze several bags of sweet potatoes and butternut squash for later. It surprised me that the bags warmed the freezer six degrees. (I didn’t try to freeze things in the portable freezer, I was thinking it would have less cooling capacity without fans to circulate the air.)
Status: Got an E-Mail from someone (that I have high regard for) who asked me to consider staying with the company until the unit can travel. Two days later I am back with the company temporarily.
Plans: Get organized to work from home, take a walk around the block.
Narrative: Started a cup of coffee and posting to my Blog this morning. I have enough components to start putting my security camera DVR together, but I haven’t decided where to put it.
I gotten login credentials for work and have been pretty busy this morning getting reacquainted.
Went to Kroger to get a prescription, went to the drive up window and wore cotton gloves.
Tried to get a nap in, but it was one of those days when the phone keeps sounding off.
It’s is a beautiful, bright, sunny day here today. Where was I, inside on my computer trying to get organized.
We ordered an Hawaiian Pizza from Papa Johns and had it delivered. We set out a table with the money on it. The pizza was set on the table and we carried into the house using a glove. We set the pizza on a washable surface and opened it with the glove. Washed our hands and ate the pizza without touching the box. Thew the box away and washed our hands. (Should have used the glove.) All these new habits we’ve got to learn…
I am working remote even though my bosses truly dislike the practice. (They invited me to work remotely to train their team that are in quarantine for a couple weeks.) I need to make sure that I am not investing more time than they are paying me for.
Tomorrow: Continue working and improving on our homestead.
Status: We’re grounded at the homestead until the virus risk drops considerably.
Plans: Go grocery shopping first thing this morning.
Narrative: Trying to get organized, which takes more effort with the virus threat affecting about everything. According to UPS we should get our portable refrigerator today, which is better than tomorrow because we’ll have groceries to put in it.
The wife is sleeping soundly, I put a fresh cup of coffee next to the bed and that didn’t rouse her either. LOL
Grocery shopping went well this morning. Kroger does open early for Seniors at 07:00 so we had exited the produce section before the store opened officially. We were out of the store by 08:20. I brought gloves to wear, but it is impossible to open those produce bags with them. Next time we go I’ll have Clorox wipes that are plenty sticky to open the bags with. The rest of the shopping I did with the cloth gloves on. My only remaining mistake was helping bag, I ended up within 3′ of the Kroger bagger. (But we’re 3 feet from the cashier too… Hmmm.)
Once home we put all the bags on the floor and washed our hands. Then trying not to handle the outside of the bag while filling the fridge. (It’s fully by the way!)
I think we’re stocked!
The portable fridge came today, it’s a beautiful piece of equipment! The compressor runs off of DC 12 or 24 Volts and there is a power supply inside that powers the unit from a standard outlet. It draws about 75 watts and I didn’t see a current spike when the compressor kicked in. It is currently plugged into my battery backed up outlet in the Livingroom. (Orange)
Seriously Cool Portable Fridge.
I put a bag of ice in the unit, plugged it in and set the temp to -6 degrees. Within an hour it was below zero and the ice never melted. The inside of the fridge is so cold I got freezer burn on my fingers when I felt them. TOO COOL!!!
Tomorrow: Wednesday, if the weather is right put a wireless access point on the chimney for the NodeMCU that will be providing data on the solar strength.
Narrative: It’s early, I made a pot of Coffee that we normally drink at 07:00. I put the remainder in a thermos. One decision point that the Home Assistant platform doesn’t have an input for is the brightness of the sun. The two solar panels generate about 170W of electricity in bright sunlight approximately 5 hours a day starting about 9AM. They make almost no power on a heavily cloudy day.
The software does have triggers, but they are not very accurate. It was bright sun yesterday morning when we went for a walk and the software had it as cloudy. The plan is to mount a small solar cell on a weatherproof box somewhere close to the two solar panels. The box will report to the Home Assistant if there is enough sun to release the relay powering the refrigerator UPS and let it run on battery. The two solar panels are connected to the batteries and can easily maintain them at 27 volts with a 10A bench power supply providing the remainder of battery power. About 16:00 the shadow of the tree next door will shade the panel and we’ll want to close the relay powering the fridge UPS.
Waiting on the box, should be here Thursday
We spent most of the evening working on our grocery list and deciding what we’re going to freeze for storage. We don’t know what the store will have which makes it difficult to get too picky. This will be our third week of managing our groceries on a strict weekly basis. Like most Americans we were used to being able to just run to the store for something anytime during the week.
Our backup refrigerator and freezer arrives on Wednesday, we’ll likely move some items from the freezer into that on Thursday. (After it’s chilled down.)
I had planned on working in the attic but decided to wait on the thermostat wire. I can work on the bi-phase inverter tomorrow and run up in the attic on Thursday.
Tomorrow: Go grocery shopping first thing in the morning.
Status: Staying Home, managing our resources. Building up a smart home with 10 NodeMCU’s and counting.
Home Assistant running on a Raspberry Pi
I have 8 high power relays, four 16 Bit A/D lines, five remote controlled outlets and two temperature/humidity sensors on one interface. (So Far)
Plans: Keep putting these things together and working out the bugs, it took 6 hours to figure out how to connect four relays last night! I also got a blood pressure cuff to check on the ole Heart during this stressful time.
Narrative: Didn’t sleep very well, spent most of the morning putting my relay module on my NodeMCU. I finally got it to work about 6AM this morning.
The DHT22 was equally difficult because I bought a Chinese fake on Amazon. The fake looked more like a DHT11 but I couldn’t get that to work either. The data line is pulled low by the NodeMCU and when it lets go, the DHT22 sends the digital data immediately afterwards.
I really like this little Digital Storage O Scope, it’s less than 3″ and is perfect for grabbing a short data burst.
The grass was getting a little long so I mowed the front yard today with my EGO Electric mower. The grass was a little wet, but otherwise easy to mow.
I’ve run DC wire to most of the rooms in the homestead using a red/black 12AWG wire terminated with a 45A Power Pole connector. The NEC incorporated DC wiring that declares the black wire as “Hot”, the common (close to ground) connection is White even for DC. My best option is to run “White” wires alongside the red/black ones. I might be able to split the voltage so that Red is +12 and Black is (-)12 volts. The following diagram shows the 1000′ of red/black wire already in the attic.
House DC wiring distribution.
I’ve bought 1000′ of 5 x 18AWG thermostat wire that I intend on using to replace the low current end points. (Class 1) I’ll pull back the 12AWG and use it for high power distribution. (Class 2 < 100W, Class 3) 18AWG should be fine for the IR illuminators on the cameras. (Which I am having an issue with EMI on the Ethernet cables.) The power wires are in the same conduit as the Ethernet cable. I may change that when I replace the cameras since they have caused me so much trouble.
The other “Idea” I had was to send split phase 117VAC (59V+59V) to end points so that commercial grade power supplies could be used. (They are quieter than the low voltage variety.) NEC only allows me to send split phase if the power is “Inherently limited”, or in my case from a DC to AC inverter. (There’s no way to start a fire because the low output current from the Inverter is a fail safe.)
Again there’s two ways to accomplish this. (I’ve purchased the hardware already.) One way is to use another transformer to split the phases if they can be unbalanced. The second way is to center the output transformer using two tiny transformers. (Unbalanced current will appear on those tiny transformers, so it needs to be kept very low.)
Tomorrow: Monday, get prepared to go to the grocery store at 08:00 on Tuesday.
Status: Hunkered down practicing Social Distancing.
Plans: Get organized.
Narrative: Walking through everything we do to mitigate the virus threat just wears me out. I’m ready for a nap after two hours of deciding how we’re going to bring in groceries and sanitize the stream of germs. We’ve even decided to stage our mail (Including Amazon) in the car for 24 hours so that any virus contamination can dissipate.
I went to Lowes this morning after trying to purchase some CAT-6 Network wire for the cameras for two days. It wasn’t very crowded and I exited the store from the garden center. I’m leaving the wire and the lawn fertilizer in the car until tomorrow. (Again staging it.)
My second tier of power in the homestead is for the TV.
Local information during a storm on a regular TV antenna is pretty valuable during the event. I had run a remote switch that powers the TV from a separate set of batteries only when needed. (So not to deplete them unnecessarily.) During the two years since I constructed this arrangement, lightning destroyed the Inverter’s ability to be remotely controlled. We often get struck by lightning, but I was surprised it took out both of them using a piece of wire with no connection. (Just a switch between the two wires.) I’ve left the Inverter remote control disconnected until I could build an isolated relay to protect the two inverters.
Tomorrow: No large Sunday service, service is recorded and we’ll take communion here at the homestead.
Status: Been on Leave and staying home for a week. I am officially not employed and my access to the company networks has been pulled.
Plans: Get organized and adjust our budget while we do our taxes.
Narrative: I got discouraged today, we saw a video of our next generation rebelling the norm and risking their lives at the beach during Spring Break. The news downplayed the seriousness of this global event for months and now it’s grabbing at our throat’s.
I’ve drawn up several power cascading plans where upon a power failure a organized shutdown of the house systems occurs depending on the length of the outage. Yesterday I got a novel idea, start with the devices that I don’t want to shut down and work my way towards the outage incident. (It prevents me from unnecessarily consuming battery needed for the highest priority circuit.) In my case our two 400WH CPAPs ended up to be the top of the list, the 100WH emergency lighting and the 2400WH refrigerator being a close third.
Most needed powered devices
Our battery powered Ice Chest arrives next week. The plan is to use is as an overflow or backup for the big fridge. It draws about 75W which is about half what the refrigerator does
We ended up ordering food from Chili’s today, it arrived 20 minutes early and was delicious. We may use this to extend our food storage by an additional week.
Our first meal delivered at the homestead other than Pizza.
I didn’t accomplish what I set out to do when I re-joined the team in January 2019. When I left the company in 2017 we were an experienced team with the knowledge and talent to go and do, that sadly is no longer true.
My life at home is a mess. I had planned on working on the homestead in 2018, but things happened. It was good to be able to buy a 2nd car in 2019 and to pay off some debt that I incurred. We’ve got money in the bank and our needs are met, so it’s time to make a fresh start once again.
The siding on the homestead needs work along with the eves that the carpenter bees have punched holes in. I don’t have enough siding or the boards for the eves to make an attempt without buying more. With the virus it’s difficult to go into these stores without taking a personal risk of getting the virus. (No way to know who has it.) But, this “Pandemic” hasn’t peaked yet and it may be prudent to purchase these items while the concentration in Gwinnett County is still low.
Lowes website just will not let me order a box of cable. I’ve tried for hours using all three browsers I have on this laptop. Aggravating!
Tomorrow: Island Time, sleep in and enjoy the coffee.
Coronavirus could be changing grocery shopping forever.
The outbreak of coronavirus is pushing Americans to buy their groceries online, a development that could have a lasting effect on the supermarket industry.
While shopping for books and electronics online and ordering dinner through delivery apps have become staples of American life, most customers still prefer to purchase their meat and vegetables at the store. Last year, just 4% of grocery sales in the United States came online, according to Nielsen.
However, with shoppers stuck in their homes in the wake of the virus, online grocery shopping is exploding. Downloads of Instacart, Walmart’s grocery app and Shipt increased 218%, 160%, and 124% respectively last Sunday compared with a year prior.
“We are seeing a larger percentage of customers over the age of 60 that are coming online,” said JJ Fleeman, chief e-commerce officer for Ahold Delhaize in the United States, which owns brands like Stop & Shop, Food Lion and the online delivery service Peapod. “We’re seeing a lot of new customers coming into the channel.”
A third of consumers said Sunday that they had purchased groceries for online pickup or delivery in the past seven days, according to a survey by analysts at Gordon Haskett Research Advisors. Around 41% said they were buying groceries online for the first time.
“Consumer behaviors always shift in times of disaster,” said Doug Baker, vice president of industry relations at FMI, a trade group for food retailers. “People are learning new skills and how to shop online as a result of what we’re experiencing today.”
Maria Alvarado in Phoenix usually shops in person for groceries at Walmart or Safeway, but she tried ordering online last week for the first time through Walmart’s in-store pickup option. She plans to keep using the service.
“Once things go back to normal, I will probably use online again,” she said. “It was really easy.”
Related video: Is it safe to go to the grocery store?Click to expand
Big grocers like Walmart, Albertsons, Stop & Shop, Meijer, Hy-Vee and others have been experimenting with new ways to fulfill online orders in recent years. They have increasingly looked to technology to reduce costs and keep aisles from jamming up with shoppers and workers picking customers’ orders.
Grocers have been building automated mini-warehouses inside their stores and opening up “dark stores” — locations that look like supermarkets but are closed to customers — to make deliveries and prepare pickup orders.
Yet the crush of demand in the wake of coronavirus has overwhelmed grocers’ delivery and pickup networks, causing long waits, cancellations and outages in some parts of the country.
“The surge in online grocery orders is causing operational difficulties,” said Bill Bishop, CEO of grocery consulting firm Brick Meets Click.
Grocers are scrambling to adjust and hiring workers to keep up.
Fleeman from Ahold Delhaize said the company was adding “web servers to help us process the increased demand” and offering more windows for customers to pickup their orders or get delivery.
This shift online during the crisis may reshape the supermarket industry by helping large grocers consolidate their grip, experts predict.
“We see this unfortunate period accelerating structural changes in consumer shopping,” possibly by five years, said Seth Sigman, analyst at Credit Suisse, wrote in a report. “This is driving significant growth in new customers” to Walmart.
Consumers adopting online grocery shopping may add to the pressure small and mid-sized grocers already face, analysts say. These smaller chains don’t have as much capital to invest in building out their delivery infrastructure. And delivery is less profitable for grocers than traditional purchases in stores.
Coronavirus “may hasten the adoption” of online delivery and pickup, touching off long-term challenges for smaller chains earlier than expected, Kelly Bania, analyst for BMO Capital Markets, said in a research report this week.
I attached four more NodeMCU (The name “NodeMCU” combines “Node” and “MCU” micro-controller unit) to my network this morning. These four are attached to a wireless access point near the garage and will control the shedding of loads and the solar charging to defend the refrigerator and our CPAPs with their last gasp.
For these small microcomputers to switch the loads I’ve bought some relay modules. They will either control the UPS using the Remote Off connection or larger relays to do the switching.
Four channel 250VAC @ 10A Relay module.
I attached five WiFi controlled outlets the Garage access point that I’ll use to switch UPS units on and off when solar is available. (Keeps me from opening the garage door to unplug them.) They can be programmed in advance with an assortment of triggers. I found five of the eight that I own, no idea where three of them are…
Had an awesome dinner and a good game of scrabble tonight. It’s looking like rain is approaching, but it was a beautiful day today.
Tomorrow: My last day with Triple Canopy and probably working altogether. (We’ll live on my AD retirement and SS)
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes Did I DMBT be happy? Yes Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes *Did My Best To Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:
