Category: Blog

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Keep an eye on the hurricane headed to Florida.

• 07:00 Up drinking coffee and making plans.
• 07:30 Time to walk around the block.
• 09:00 Blogging, checking the AC unit and reading the news.
• 10:00 The handle for the garage arrived, 30 minutes and it’s all fixed.
• 11:00 Located a relay module and troubleshooting why it doesn’t work NodeMCU.
• 12:00 Nap
• 13:00 Lunch
• 14:00 Started car #2 but forgot and left it running a couple hours, LOL.
• 15:00 Soldering a wire onto four NodeMCU boards so I can use them with relays.
• 16:00 Dinner
• 17:00 Tested relay modules and they work (Finally!)
• 18:00 Getting ready for church
• 20:00 cleaning up and getting ready for bed.

Narrative: Feeling a little better about our country surviving BLM. It’s a difficult time because we are finding it difficult talking to our friends of color without offending them.

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NodeMCU ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC

As you can see from the above picture the NodeMCU V2 fits pretty nicely on a common breadboard leaving one row of pins on each side to attach wires to.

The V3 takes up the entire width of the breadboard making it necessary to connect to the pins directly. Also, it turns out, that the V3 inserted two diodes between the USB 5V and the VIN pin to it’s internal 3V regulator. Those diodes prevent me from using the VIN pin as a 5V power out pin. (Which I had done on the V2)

The jumper wire I added still leaves the reverse voltage protection of the two diodes to the internal power supply. It adds the ability to use the VIN pin as a 5V power OUT pin like the V2 does.

Now that I have 5V available from the VIN pin I can drive 125VAC @ 15A relay modules directly from the NodeMCU and control them from the Home Assistant software.

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DC Power generating and Inverter

Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter and run them on the solar power. The system doesn’t make as much power on a partly cloudy day, much less in fact. Today I made 300WH more power than I consumed. (like 4 cents)

---

Articles about our current racial climate

“The current riots across the country are American terrorism — violence for strictly political ends, aimed at frightening a nation into obedience.” Seattle Radio Host Gives Narrative-Busting Account of What’s Happening in City: ‘Evil People’

“Federal officers protecting federal property are now the targets of demonstrators, not the instigators of violence. The real blame lies with progressive city leaders, who have all but promised violent protesters that they can act with impunity.” [WSJ]

Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions and cultures simply died off. Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences. Once elites became pampered and arrogant, they feel exempt from their ancestors’ respect for moral and spiritual laws like thrift, moderation and transcendence. Victor Davis Hanson: America Has Chance To Save Itself Thanks to 3 Woke Industries (NBA, MLB, NFL) That Just Suicided

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Feelings:

Tomorrow: Wednesday, mow the back yard and church service.

Retirement: 1st SS check in seven days!

Project Engineering: Need to test mom’s golf cart solar charger.

Purchases: Garage door handles.

Repairs: Replaced the headlamps on the Blue Ford Focus this morning. (Looks remarkably better.)

Religion: We were called to look in our dark corners and bring them into the light on Sunday.

Family News: Mom’s in the hospital, hopefully she got home yesterday.

Pi News:

Arts: No movies yet.

• Health: 220Lbs, too heavy.
• Slept pretty good last night until I forgot to turn on my CPAP.

Travel: Florida travel looks within reach.

Government: (Social Security)

Media: No Instagram posts today and we’re off Facebook.

Injuries: No injuries.

Pi News: Upgraded the Home Assistant software.

Accomplishments:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Keep an eye on the hurricane headed to Florida.

• 07:00 Up drinking coffee and making plans.
• 08:00 Three hard boiled eggs for breakfast.
• 09:00 Replaced car headlamps while it was still cool outside.
• 11:00 Cleaned up boxes from headlamps.
• 12:00 Nap
• 13:00 Research and filling out my ballet.
• 14:00 Making plans.
• 16:00 Mow back yard
• 17:00 Shower and blogging.

Narrative: Feeling a little better about our country surviving BLM. It’s a difficult time because we are finding it difficult talking to our friends of color without offending them.

---

Replaced weathered car headlamps

It went really well, I only needed a screwdriver and a 10MM socket. The left lamp housing was broken so I bought two new ones a LONG time ago.

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NodeMCU ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC

NodeMCU Status: They’ve been working perfectly since I dropped the number of NodeMCU’s on Home Assistant to TWO. I have had to change the sensors, I had a couple that the readings were not even close… I am glad they are stable now, it was very aggravating when they went offline! I want to up them to three, I know I cannot do four. *Raspberry Pi’s are rather cheap.

---

Raspberry Pi Single Board Computer

Pi News: I have three Raspi’s that are “PiHoles to protect DNS calls from our network. I have four Raspi’s that run the Home Automation. I have two Raspi’s that receive the ADSB transmissions from the airplanes near the homestead. One Raspi is being used to browse the web when I am digging for something using search engines, it protects the PC from “Drive By” malware infections.

The 3B draws considerably less power than the 4B which almost has to have some form of additional cooling or it will throttle the CPU.

---

DC Power generating and Inverter

Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter and run them on the solar power. The system doesn’t make as much power on a partly cloudy day, much less in fact. Today I made 300WH more power than I consumed. (like 4 cents)

---

Articles about our current racial climate

“The current riots across the country are American terrorism — violence for strictly political ends, aimed at frightening a nation into obedience.” Seattle Radio Host Gives Narrative-Busting Account of What’s Happening in City: ‘Evil People’

“Federal officers protecting federal property are now the targets of demonstrators, not the instigators of violence. The real blame lies with progressive city leaders, who have all but promised violent protesters that they can act with impunity.” [WSJ]

Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions and cultures simply died off. Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences. Once elites became pampered and arrogant, they feel exempt from their ancestors’ respect for moral and spiritual laws like thrift, moderation and transcendence. Victor Davis Hanson: America Has Chance To Save Itself Thanks to 3 Woke Industries (NBA, MLB, NFL) That Just Suicided

---

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Wednesday, mow the back yard and church service.

Retirement: 1st SS check in seven days!

Project Engineering: Need to test mom’s golf cart solar charger.

Purchases: Garage door handles.

Repairs: Replaced the headlamps on the Blue Ford Focus this morning. (Looks remarkably better.)

Religion: We were called to look in our dark corners and bring them into the light on Sunday.

Family News: Mom’s in the hospital, hopefully she got home yesterday.

Arts: No movies yet.

• Health: 220Lbs, too heavy.
• Slept pretty good last night until I forgot to turn on my CPAP.

Travel: Florida travel looks within reach.

Government: (Social Security)

Media: No Instagram posts today and we’re off Facebook.

Injuries: No injuries.

Pi News: Upgraded the Home Assistant software.

Accomplishments:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Keep an eye on the hurricane headed to Florida.

• 05:00 Up checking the Tropical Storm headed toward mom.
• 06:00 Coffee and morning meeting.
• 07:00 Fixing Tricare login
• 08:00 Generator run
• 11:00 Generator wrap-up, two are cool and working on the third.
• 12:00 Generator run complete, getting organized.
• 13:00 Nap
• 15:00 Storm passing over us, checking thermometer placed on Bench Diodes
• 16:00 Troubleshot and fixed bench diode thermometer
• 17:00 Dinner
• 18:00 Ordering a part for our screen door and Skimming movies
• 19:00 Remove old DC light fixtures on porch.
• 20:00 Order garage door parts with Instant Pot parts.

Narrative: Feeling a little better about our country surviving BLM. It’s a difficult time because we are finding it difficult talking to our friends of color without offending them.

---

Ran three of my five generators today. I warmed them for a minute or two then ran them at 1/2 power (250W) for about two hours. I then pushed them to 100% power for several minutes. Cool off is run them with the cover off and a fan blowing air into the cowling. *The alternator on the end and muffler seem to be the hottest parts of the engine. By far though, the alternator takes the longest to cool down.

---

NodeMCU Status: They’ve been working perfectly since I dropped the number of NodeMCU’s on Home Assistant to TWO. I have had to change the sensors, I had a couple that the readings were not even close… I am glad they are stable now, it was very aggravating when they went offline! I want to up them to three, I know I cannot do four. *Raspberry Pi’s are rather cheap.

---

Pi News: I have three Raspi’s that are “PiHoles to protect DNS calls from our network. I have four Raspi’s that run the Home Automation. I have two Raspi’s that receive the ADSB transmissions from the airplanes near the homestead. One Raspi is being used to browse the web when I am digging for something using search engines, it protects the PC from “Drive By” malware infections.

The 3B draws considerably less power than the 4B which almost has to have some form of additional cooling or it will throttle the CPU.

---

Solar Assist Status: I am back to one solar charge controller with the three banks of two panels tied in parallel. I am surprised how much intermittent clouds affect the power supplied by my panels.

---

Battery Bank Status: The two 35AH batteries on the primary UPS are getting too warm in the garage, I need to move them. The garage gets over 90 degrees and that’s too warm for active SLA batteries.

---

Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter and run them on the solar power. The system doesn’t make as much power on a partly cloudy day, much less in fact. Today I made 300WH more power than I consumed. (like 4 cents)

---

Homestead Air Conditioner: The air conditioner evaporator tubing is oil logged and preventing the four sections from cooling evenly. It doesn’t seem to be affecting the ability to cool our home in the middle of the summer months. The fix is to replace the coils at a cost of $1500 or the entire system for $8000. The current thought is to replace the entire system in September. I’ve adjusted the fan to run slightly faster to try and keep the ice off of the evaporator.

I put an Internet controllable outlet on the air handler, I can monitor how long it runs and cut it off/on remotely.

---

Homestead Refrigerator: The condenser fan squealed a month or so ago so I ordered a new motor which arrived about a week ago. I currently have a small fan pushing air onto the condenser coils of the fridge fan locks up.

---

“The current riots across the country are American terrorism — violence for strictly political ends, aimed at frightening a nation into obedience.” Seattle Radio Host Gives Narrative-Busting Account of What’s Happening in City: ‘Evil People’

“Federal officers protecting federal property are now the targets of demonstrators, not the instigators of violence. The real blame lies with progressive city leaders, who have all but promised violent protesters that they can act with impunity.” [WSJ]

Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions and cultures simply died off. Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences. Once elites became pampered and arrogant, they feel exempt from their ancestors’ respect for moral and spiritual laws like thrift, moderation and transcendence. Victor Davis Hanson: America Has Chance To Save Itself Thanks to 3 Woke Industries (NBA, MLB, NFL) That Just Suicided

---

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Saturday, mow the back yard.

Retirement: 1st SS check in two weeks!

Project Engineering: Need a PWM for 48V solar panels.

Purchases: I thought I needed lawnmower blades sharpened, turns out I had a new one in the garage. Worked like a champ!

Repairs: Check for leaks in the air conditioning ducts.

Religion: We were called to look in our dark corners and bring them into the light today.

Family News: Mom’s in the hospital, hopefully she got home yesterday.

Arts: Watched Rear Window with the wife.

• Health: 220Lbs, too heavy.
• Slept pretty good last night until I laid on my back, woke up startled.
• I am a bit sleepy this morning.

Travel: Florida travel looks within reach.

Government: (Social Security)

Media: No Instagram posts today and we’re off Facebook.

Injuries:

Pi News:

Accomplishments:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Keep an eye on the hurricane headed to Florida.

• 05:00 Up checking the Tropical Storm headed toward mom.
• 06:00 Nap
• 07:00 Breakfast with Coffee
• 08:00 Chatt’n with the wife
• 09:00 Called mom, hurricane is still to the south.
• 10:00 Good church service today.
• 11:00 Checking my solar controllers and inverters.
• 12:00 Blogging, then a nap.
• 13:00 Blogging
• 14:00 Helped make dinner
• 18:00 Thawing air conditioner and moving thermostat off the wall.
• 21:00 Bed Time

Narrative: Feeling a little better about our country surviving BLM. It’s a difficult time because we are finding it difficult talking to our friends of color without offending them.

---

NodeMCU Status: They’ve been working perfectly since I dropped the number of NodeMCU’s on Home Assistant to TWO. I have had to change the sensors, I had a couple that the readings were not even close… I am glad they are stable now, it was very aggravating when they went offline! I want to up them to three, I know I cannot do four. *Raspberry Pi’s are rather cheap.

---

Solar Assist Status: I am back to one solar charge controller with the three banks of two panels tied in parallel. I am surprised how much intermittent clouds affect the power supplied by my panels.

---

Battery Bank Status: The two 35AH batteries on the primary UPS are getting too warm in the garage, I need to move them. The garage gets over 90 degrees and that’s too warm for active SLA batteries.

---

Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter and run them on the solar power. The system doesn’t make as much power on a partly cloudy day, much less in fact. Today I made 300WH more power than I consumed. (like 4 cents)

---

Homestead Air Conditioner: The air conditioner evaporator tubing is oil logged and preventing the four sections from cooling evenly. It doesn’t seem to be affecting the ability to cool our home in the middle of the summer months. The fix is to replace the coils at a cost of $1500 or the entire system for $8000. The current thought is to replace the entire system in September. I’ve adjusted the fan to run slightly faster to try and keep the ice off of the evaporator.

I put an Internet controllable outlet on the air handler, I can monitor how long it runs and cut it off/on remotely.

---

Homestead Refrigerator: The condenser fan squealed a month or so ago so I ordered a new motor which arrived about a week ago. I currently have a small fan pushing air onto the condenser coils of the fridge fan locks up.

---

“The current riots across the country are American terrorism — violence for strictly political ends, aimed at frightening a nation into obedience.” Seattle Radio Host Gives Narrative-Busting Account of What’s Happening in City: ‘Evil People’

“Federal officers protecting federal property are now the targets of demonstrators, not the instigators of violence. The real blame lies with progressive city leaders, who have all but promised violent protesters that they can act with impunity.” [WSJ]

Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions and cultures simply died off. Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences. Once elites became pampered and arrogant, they feel exempt from their ancestors’ respect for moral and spiritual laws like thrift, moderation and transcendence. Victor Davis Hanson: America Has Chance To Save Itself Thanks to 3 Woke Industries (NBA, MLB, NFL) That Just Suicided

---

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Saturday, mow the back yard.

Retirement: 1st SS check in two weeks!

Project Engineering: Need a PWM for 48V solar panels.

Purchases: I thought I needed lawnmower blades sharpened, turns out I had a new one in the garage. Worked like a champ!

Repairs: Check for leaks in the air conditioning ducts.

Religion: We were called to look in our dark corners and bring them into the light today.

Family News: Mom’s in the hospital, hopefully she got home yesterday.

Arts: Watched Rear Window with the wife.

• Health: 220Lbs, too heavy.
• Slept pretty good last night until I laid on my back, woke up startled.
• I am a bit sleepy this morning.

Travel: Florida travel looks within reach.

Government: (Social Security)

Media: No Instagram posts today and we’re off Facebook.

Injuries:

Pi News:

Accomplishments:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Keep an eye on the hurricane headed to Florida.

• 08:00 up drinking coffee, cereal for breakfast today.
• 09:00 Charging 48V battery banks and researching using 36V to charge 48V.
• 10:00 Still charging and researching.
• 11:00 Nap
• 13:00 Upgrading my Home Assistant software on my Raspi’s
• 16:00 Still working on Home Assistant software, I have four instances running.
• 17:00 Helped get dinner ready.

Narrative: I’ve added sections that a significant amount of resources are invested in almost every day.

---

NodeMCU Status: Temperature sensors are dropping out and I don’t know why. They’ve been working perfectly since I dropped the number of NodeMCU’s on Home Assistant to three. I have had to change the sensors, I had a couple that the readings were not even close. I spent a great deal of time today upgrading the Home Assistant software that these NodeMCU’s report to.

---

Solar Assist Status: Two solar charge controllers are paralleled into the 300W inverter that runs the computers in my cave. (200W) One controller is a MPPT controller and the other is much smaller but doesn’t drop off completely when a cloud interrupts the sun.

---

Battery Bank Status: The two 35AH batteries on the primary UPS are getting too warm in the garage, I need to move them. The garage gets over 90 degrees and that’s too warm for active SLA batteries.

---

Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter and run them on the solar power. The system doesn’t make as much power on a partly cloudy day, much less in fact. Today I made 300WH more power than I consumed. (like 4 cents)

---

Homestead Air Conditioner: The air conditioner evaporator tubing is oil logged and preventing the four sections from cooling evenly. It doesn’t seem to be affecting the ability to cool our home in the middle of the summer months. The fix is to replace the coils at a cost of $1500 or the entire system for $8000. The current thought is to replace the entire system in September. I’ve adjusted the fan to run slightly faster to try and keep the ice off of the evaporator.

I put an Internet controllable outlet on the air handler, I can monitor how long it runs and cut it off/on remotely.

---

Homestead Refrigerator: The condenser fan squealed a month or so ago so I ordered a new motor which arrived about a week ago. I currently have a small fan pushing air onto the condenser coils of the fridge fan locks up.

---

“The current riots across the country are American terrorism — violence for strictly political ends, aimed at frightening a nation into obedience.” Seattle Radio Host Gives Narrative-Busting Account of What’s Happening in City: ‘Evil People’

“Federal officers protecting federal property are now the targets of demonstrators, not the instigators of violence. The real blame lies with progressive city leaders, who have all but promised violent protesters that they can act with impunity.” [WSJ]

Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions and cultures simply died off.

Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences. Once elites became pampered and arrogant, they feel exempt from their ancestors’ respect for moral and spiritual laws like thrift, moderation and transcendence. Victor Davis Hanson: America Has Chance To Save Itself Thanks to 3 Woke Industries (NBA, MLB, NFL) That Just Suicided

---

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Sunday services.

Retirement: 1st SS check in two weeks!

Project Engineering: Need a PWM for 48V solar panels.

Purchases: I thought I needed lawnmower blades sharpened, turns out I had a new one in the garage. Worked like a champ!

Repairs: Check for leaks in the air conditioning ducts.

Religion:

Family News: Mom’s in the hospital, hopefully she got home yesterday.

Arts: Watched the Andromeda Strain with the wife.

• Health: 220Lbs, too heavy.
• Did not sleep well last night, woke startled.
• Need dental cleaning, gums occasionally bleed a little.
• O2 level dropped below 85 last night for about 10 seconds.
• Feet puffy underneath, I can feel it when walking on hard surface
• Thick mucus cough occasionally during the day, esp. when exercise.
• Sleepiness today, took short naps, but need a good night’s sleep.
• BP really good today HR is normal.
• Still have trouble with minor yeast infection even when wearing shorts.
• Eyes can get very dry in the evenings and blurred vision.

Travel: Florida travel looks within reach.

Government:SS Check arrives in 10 days.

Media: No Instagram posts today and we’re off Facebook.

Injuries: Nope, didn’t get hurt today.

Pi News: I have three Raspi’s that are “PiHoles to protect DNS calls from our network. I have four Raspi’s that run the Home Assistant software. I have two Raspi’s that receive the ADSB transmissions from the airplanes near the homestead. One Raspi is being used to browse the web when I am digging for something using search engines, it protects the PC from “Drive By” malware infections.

Accomplishments: Nope, didn’t do much of that either.

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Keep an eye on the air conditioner and the NodeMCU’s

• 07:00 up drinking coffee.
  • Checked and refreshed mom’s bank account.
• 08:00 eggs for breakfast
• 09:00 Made cable for relays on Garage NodeMCU
• 10:00 Corrected wiring on relays garage NodeMCU.
• 11:00 changed 2nd solar charge controller to PWM
• 12:00 Nap
• 15:00 reading the news
• 16:00 Mow the front and side lawns.
• 17:00 Dinner
• 18:00 News TV
• 19:00 Watched a movie with the wife.

Narrative: I’ve added sections that a significant amount of resources are invested in almost every day.

---

NodeMCU Status: Temperature sensors are dropping out and I don’t know why. They’ve been working perfectly since I dropped the number of NodeMCU’s on Home Assistant to three.

---

Solar Assist Status: Two solar charge controllers are paralleled into the 300W inverter that runs the computers in my cave. (200W) One controller is a MPPT controller and the other is much smaller but doesn’t drop off completely when a cloud interrupts the sun.

---

Battery Bank Status: The two 35AH batteries on the primary UPS are getting too warm in the garage, I need to move them. The garage gets over 90 degrees and that’s too warm for active SLA batteries.

---

Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter and run them on the solar power. I am having trouble with the solar charge controllers dropping the load completely when a cloud blocks the sun.

---

Homestead Air Conditioner: The air conditioner evaporator tubing is oil logged and preventing the four sections from cooling evenly. It doesn’t seem to be affecting the ability to cool our home in the middle of the summer months. The fix is to replace the coils at a cost of $1500 or the entire system for $8000. The current thought is to replace the entire system in September.

I put an Internet controllable outlet on the air handler, I can monitor how long it runs and cut it off/on remotely.

---

Protests of Racial Inequality: Portland protests are described differently by all parties. The Video’s tell a story that’s not in the newspapers. The Portland police needs to engage the agitators and damage caused after 11PM or the protestors will win the contest.

“The current riots across the country are American terrorism — violence for strictly political ends, aimed at frightening a nation into obedience.” Seattle Radio Host Gives Narrative-Busting Account of What’s Happening in City: ‘Evil People’

“Federal officers protecting federal property are now the targets of demonstrators, not the instigators of violence. The real blame lies with progressive city leaders, who have all but promised violent protesters that they can act with impunity.” [WSJ]

Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions and cultures simply died off.

Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences. Once elites became pampered and arrogant, they feel exempt from their ancestors’ respect for moral and spiritual laws like thrift, moderation and transcendence. Victor Davis Hanson: America Has Chance To Save Itself Thanks to 3 Woke Industries (NBA, MLB, NFL) That Just Suicided

---

Feelings:

Tomorrow: Saturday, mow the back yard.

Retirement: 1st SS check in two weeks!

Project Engineering: Need a PWM for 48V solar panels.

Purchases: I thought I needed lawnmower blades sharpened, turns out I had a new one in the garage. Worked like a champ!

Repairs: Check for leaks in the air conditioning ducts.

Religion: Went over the “Discipleship” study to help with the Christian way to deal with the anger and frustration in the news.

Family News: Mom’s in the hospital, hopefully she got home yesterday.

Arts: Watched Rear Window with the wife.

Health: Need dental cleaning.

Travel: Florida travel looks within reach.

Government: (Social Security)

Media: No Instagram posts today and we’re off Facebook.

Injuries:

Pi News:

Accomplishments:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Keep an eye on the air conditioner and the NodeMCU’s

• 08:00 up eating breakfast, waiting on the coffee just a little.
• 09:00 Not feeling very good, putting away groceries from Instacart
• 10:00 Cleaning the dining room floor.
• 11:00 Nap time
• 12:00 Watched news for a little bit.
• 13:00 NAP
• 14:00 Drive to Doc
• 16:00 Mow da lawn
• 17:00 It’s raining… Boo.
• 18:00 Watching the Facebook story.
• 21:00 Blogging.

Narrative: I’ve added sections that a significant amount of resources are invested in almost every day.

---

NodeMCU Status: Temperature sensors are dropping out and I don’t know why. They’ve been working perfectly since I dropped the number of NodeMCU’s on Home Assistant to three.

---

Solar Assist Status: Two solar charge controllers are paralleled into the 300W inverter that runs the computers in my cave. (200W) One controller is a MPPT controller and the other is much smaller but doesn’t drop off completely when a cloud interrupts the sun.

---

Battery Bank Status: The two 35AH batteries on the primary UPS are getting too warm in the garage, I need to move them. The garage gets over 90 degrees and that’s too warm for active SLA batteries.

---

Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter and run them on the solar power. I am having trouble with the solar charge controllers dropping the load completely when a cloud blocks the sun.

---

Homestead Air Conditioner: The air conditioner evaporator tubing is oil logged and preventing the four sections from cooling evenly. It doesn’t seem to be affecting the ability to cool our home in the middle of the summer months. The fix is to replace the coils at a cost of $1500 or the entire system for $8000. The current thought is to replace the entire system in September.

---

Protests of Racial Inequality: Portland protests are described differently by all parties. The Video’s tell a story that’s not in the newspapers. The Portland police needs to engage the agitators and damage caused after 11PM or the protestors will win the contest.

“The current riots across the country are American terrorism — violence for strictly political ends, aimed at frightening a nation into obedience.” Seattle Radio Host Gives Narrative-Busting Account of What’s Happening in City: ‘Evil People’

“Federal officers protecting federal property are now the targets of demonstrators, not the instigators of violence. The real blame lies with progressive city leaders, who have all but promised violent protesters that they can act with impunity.” [WSJ]

Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions and cultures simply died off.

Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences. Once elites became pampered and arrogant, they feel exempt from their ancestors’ respect for moral and spiritual laws like thrift, moderation and transcendence. Victor Davis Hanson: America Has Chance To Save Itself Thanks to 3 Woke Industries (NBA, MLB, NFL) That Just Suicided

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Feelings:

Tomorrow: Thursday and Instacart!

Retirement: 1st SS check in three weeks!

Project Engineering: Need shunt regulatore for solar panels.

Purchases: Need to buy some 32GB micro memory cards.

Repairs: Check for leaks in the air conditioning ducts.

Religion: Went over the “Discipleship” study to help with the Christian way to deal with the anger and frustration in the news.

Family News: Mom’s in the hospital, hopefully she’ll be home today.

Arts: Watched the Facebook story with the wife.

Health: Need dental cleaning.

Travel: Florida looks within reach.

Pi News:

Accomplishments:

Government: (Social Security)

Injuries:

Media: No Instagram posts today and we’re off Facebook.

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Keep an eye on the air conditioner and the NodeMCU’s

• 07:00 up eating eggs and sipp’n coffee while getting a plan together with the wife.
• 08:00 Checking air conditioner that froze up last night.
• 09:00 Sent some battery data to our son in Florida.
• 10:00 reading the news about the protests in Oregon.
• 11:00 Nap
• 13:00 Lunch and reading scripture about our role with BLM.
• 16:00 Dinner
• 17:00 Blogging and listening to a church class.
• 17:30 Turned off compressor to check evaporator if frozen.
• 18:00 Writing prayers and listening to a class.
• 19:00 Getting ready for church.

Narrative: I’ve added sections that a significant amount of resources are invested in almost every day.

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NodeMCU Status: Temperature sensors are dropping out and I don’t know why. They’ve been working perfectly since I dropped the number of NodeMCU’s on Home Assistant to three.

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Solar Assist Status: Two solar charge controllers are paralleled into the 300W inverter that runs the computers in my cave. (200W) One controller is a MPPT controller and the other is much smaller but doesn’t drop off completely when a cloud interrupts the sun. Today was a cloudy day, so they were not enabled and no data was collected.

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Battery Bank Status: The two 35AH batteries on the primary UPS are getting too warm in the garage, I need to move them. The garage gets over 90 degrees and that’s too warm for active SLA batteries.

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Homestead DC Power: The bottom section of the above picture is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter. I am having trouble with the solar charge controllers dropping the load completely when a cloud blocks the sun.

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Homestead Air Conditioner: The air conditioner evaporator tubing is oil logged and preventing the four sections from cooling evenly. It doesn’t seem to be affecting the ability to cool our home in the middle of the summer months. The fix is to replace the coils at a cost of $1500 or the entire system for $8000. The current thought is to replace the entire system in September.

Last night: The evaporator froze up and had to be thawed by running the blower for about an hour. The air was cold enough to keep the house cool while the ice melted. The temperature rose pretty quickly once the ice had melted.

As you can see the NodeMCU’s are recording the temperature and the home assistant software is charting it for me. The thermostat may be sensitive to moisture since it over cooled the house this morning at 04:00. I raised the temperature one degree just before 05:00 because it was too cold, then I went back to bed. I had to change it back at 11:00 AM since it was getting a little warm in here. I left the fan on “Circulate” to help keep the evaporator from freezing. I checked the evaporator at 17:30 and it was not iced up, it quickly rose in temperature without the compressor running.

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Protests of Racial Inequality: Portland protests are described differently by all parties. The Video’s tell a story that’s not in the newspapers. The Portland police needs to engage the agitators and damage caused after 11PM or the protestors will win the contest.

“The current riots across the country are American terrorism — violence for strictly political ends, aimed at frightening a nation into obedience.” Seattle Radio Host Gives Narrative-Busting Account of What’s Happening in City: ‘Evil People’

“Federal officers protecting federal property are now the targets of demonstrators, not the instigators of violence. The real blame lies with progressive city leaders, who have all but promised violent protesters that they can act with impunity.” [WSJ]

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Feelings:

Tomorrow: Thursday and Instacart!

Retirement: 1st SS check in three weeks!

Project Engineering: Need shunt for solar panels.

Purchases: Buy some 32GB micro memory cards.

Repairs: Check for leaks in the air conditioning ducts.

Religion: Went over the “Discipleship” study to help with the Christian way to deal with the anger and frustration in the news.

Family News: Mom’s in the hospital, hopefully she’ll be home today.

Arts: Watched pandemic.

Health: Need dental cleaning.

Travel: Florida looks within reach.

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies.

Plans: Keep an eye on the air conditioner and the NodeMCU’s

• 07:00 up and sipp’n coffee.
• 08:00 Walking around the block.
• 09:00 Blogging
• 10:00 Showered and getting organized.
• 11:00 Nap
• 12:00 Paralleled solar charge controllers to see how that works.
• 13:00 Still watching air conditioning and solar provided power.
• 14:00 Assisting the refiling of our home records.
• 15:00 Watched Bar’s interview on CNN (Internet)

Narrative: I’ve added sections that a significant amount of resources are invested in almost every day.

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NodeMCU Status: Temperature sensors are dropping out and I don’t know why.

My cave temp is a little warm since I stopped circulating the air with the air handler.

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One temp sensor of the seven I installed yesterday dropped out. I don’t know if the sensor or the wires are bad. I’ve installed new sensor and wires as indicated below.

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Solar Assist Status: MPPT Tracking solar charge controller wastes a lot of energy on partly cloudy days. When a cloud blocks some of the sun the SCC drops the load for about 30 seconds each time until it can restart the startup sequence. On a normal cloudy day that may happen every five minutes! I tried to parallel a vanilla (not MPPT) controller to capture the wasted energy. The first problem was that the controller didn’t carry the negative lead so paralleling it pushed the 40V from the panel to the load. (Good thing I started using diodes on the power supplies.) I separated the six panel array into four and two. Connected the two panels I separated to the vanilla controller and then tied it in parallel with the MPPT controller. The power delivered by the panels is much more consistent with the vanilla controller assisting. What I was trying to address was the total drop of power while the MPPT controller reset, which it seems is working. When the MPPT drops the vanilla controller keeps the power consumed by the power supplies LESS than the output power of the inverter. (Which means I can leave the solar panels engaged on partly cloudy days because the power consumed is always less than the power delivered. Where I am going to find more of these controllers I don’t know. I bought it a LONG time ago.

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Battery Bank Status: The two 35AH batteries on the primary UPS are getting too warm in the garage, I need to move them. The garage gets over 90 degrees and that’s too warm for active SLA batteries.

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The bottom section is two 15A 24V power supplies that work alongside the solar panels and provide power for the 300W inverters on the right side. The idea is that during the day a relay connects my computers to the 300W inverter. The inverter gets its power from the solar panels with a redundant power backup if it gets cloudy. As long as the total power consumed by the power supplies is LESS than the total power provided by the inverter the system worked.

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Homestead Air Conditioner: The air conditioner evaporator tubing is oil logged and preventing the four sections from cooling evenly. It doesn’t seem to be affecting the ability to cool our home in the middle of the summer months. The fix is to replace the coils at a cost of $1500 or the entire system for $8000. The current thought is to replace the entire system in September.

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Protests of Racial Inequality: Portland protests are described differently by all parties. The Video’s tell a story that’s not in the newspapers. The Portland police needs to engage the agitators and damage caused after 11PM and why has a curfew not been set?

“The current riots across the country are American terrorism — violence for strictly political ends, aimed at frightening a nation into obedience.” Seattle Radio Host Gives Narrative-Busting Account of What’s Happening in City: ‘Evil People’

“Federal officers protecting federal property are now the targets of demonstrators, not the instigators of violence. The real blame lies with progressive city leaders, who have all but promised violent protesters that they can act with impunity.” [WSJ]

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Feelings:

Tomorrow:

Retirement:

Accomplishments:

Noteworthy:

Project Engineering:

Purchases:

Repairs:

Pi News:

Religion:

Family News:

Media: (Instagram)

Arts: (Movies watched)

Health:

Injuries:

Travel:

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To

Status: I’ve fallen terribly behind in my postings because I’ve been working on a house project that just got out of hand. I’ve also spent a great deal of time trying to figure out where I stand on the Portland Oregon protests. We are sheltering in place with plenty of food and supplies. I have not employed all the new bullets I have in this blog. (I thought I’d have more time… LOL)

Plans: Work on my Blog. I’ve not filled it in for several days and it would not be fruitful to just make something up.

• Progress
• 07:00 Cleaning up my Blog of days that I haven’t completed.
• 08:00 Checked on my Instacart order this morning.
  • Cleaned up the unfilled days in my blog and moved them into the future.
  • Completing the previous blog entry.
• 09:00 Checked out the news, Portland protests are being subdued, albeit slightly.
• 10:00 Updating this blog page.
• 11:00 Evaluating solar charge controller. (It doesn’t recover very well with clouds)
• 12:00 Time for a nap.
• 15:00 A couple NodeMCU’s have stopped sending data… Added 2nd DHT to them…
• 16:00 Talked with Instacart, they’ve given me $5 and reported it to their IT.
• 17:00 Did a bit of browsing the Internet and updating the Virus info on this page.
  • Could not find details if the Feds are going to rebuild the fence in Portland.
  • I like how they always refer these as “Mostly Peaceful” demonstrations… LOL
• 18:00 had two slices of bread, making some soup for dinner.
  • Added a smart plug on the air handler, it will record the power usage which should correlate to the Air Conditioner usage pretty well.
• 19:00 Decided to have ham and beans for dinner.
• 20:00 Played a game of scrabble with the wife.

Narrative: First thing i’ve started doing today was moving the days that I hadn’t blogged into the future since I won’t need them. The best I can hope for is to remember what I have done for the last four days and post it here.

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Our air conditioner has been acting up for several weeks. One time it stopped working in the evening for several hours before it jumped back into life again. I had taken the outdoor unit apart and was looking at the wiring when it came back to life.

We paid a repairman to come out and look at the unit on Monday 20 July. The assessment was that the evaporator in the air handler was oil logged and needed replacement for $1500. The replacement of the entire system was about $8000 so we’re planning undergo that in September.

Until September we have to stretch the performance of the air conditioning as much as we can. I put several NodeMCU’s to work recording the temperatures of the air to find out what’s actually happening. (I thought it was freezing up, there’s no data to support that assumption.) The only performance problem I have is that the supply sensor is saturated most of the time at 100% humidity with the moisture coming off of the coils.

As you can see below the most dramatic problem was that the thermostat was not holding the temperature.

I took the thermostat off the wall and found that the batteries installed in the unit had leaked corroding the area pretty badly.

I took the unit apart and used lemon juice to neutralize the alkaline battery acid. I then rinsed the circuit board with water to get rid of the lemon juice. Next I rinsed the board with alcohol to get rid of the water. Dried it off, remounted it and found it to actually work. (I thought I might have to buy a new one, they’re not cheap!) There are small artifacts in the screen, but it’s legible and it works!

Here’s the small temperature swings after fixing the thermostat!

I also used a hair dryer to cycle the expansion valve in the evaporator core to flush out the oil that had collected in the tubing. It helped a little, but the oil flows the other way when it’s heating the house? I also checked the power consumption hoping that the thermostat was the cause of the slightly higher electric bills. It’s a little lower, too soon to actually know the results though.

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I’ve been using NodeMCU’s and Home Assistant to log the temperatures I am using to assess the air conditioner. Occasionally they just stop sending data. When I’ve looked them with an O Scope the challenge from the NodeMCU is correct, but there is no response from the DHT22. There’s so many possibilities for interrupting the DHT I’ve doubled up the DHT22 sensors on each NodeMCU except the garage. (3 of them)

Feelings: Portland protest violence has to stop!

Retirement: I get my first Social Security check in three weeks.

Protests of Racial Inequality: Portland demonstrators tore down the fence around the courthouse last weekend. They were not challenged by local police for destroying public/government property. Now other cities are suffering because demonstrations for Portland have sprung up across the USA.

From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To