Month: March 2020

Status: We’re sheltering in place as ordered by the County and getting settled for the long term. The number of cases in Gwinnett Co. have tripled in the last five days to over 180.

Plans: Prescriptions are the task of the day for the wife. (Get enough for the next 90 days.) I’m digging around in my cave for a 10 year old router to see if I can get it on the Internet again.

Narrative: Slept ok, didn’t get to sleep until after midnight and woke up at 04:00 for an hour or so. Checked in with my coworkers and sipp’n a cup of coffee.

Finished work around 11:30 and started working on our “Virtual Doctor” visits. We get an invite on our Cell Phones in an E-Mail message. That starts a browser session to include a video chat. It’s incompatible with the Android browser so I had to change the default browser to Chrome for the session.

Both sessions we were unable to talk to the doctor over the service. We ended up calling on a second device and using the phone for a video feed only. (I could hear the doctor, he couldn’t hear me.) In the end we got our prescriptions without having to expose ourselves to the Doctor’s office!

Took a pretty long nap and did a quick check my company E-Mail before working on my NodeMCU’s for today.

I’ve ordered about eight of these boxes. They are water resistant (They call dust resistant) and are of a good size to house the NodeMCU and the I/O boards I need. This one node can measure five voltages, the temp and humidity inside the box and control four high power peripherals over a WiFi connection. I had previously researched metal boxes, but the NodeMCU is a WiFi device. (RF transparent box needed.)

We watched “Hidden Figures” together, we had to buy it since it wasn’t on Amazon Prime or Netflix. Good movie for an evening with the wife.

Tomorrow: Wednesday, work and shelter in place.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

Status: We went grocery shopping this morning and we have about 30 days of food on hand thanks to having the portable freezer I bought a couple weeks ago. We’ve run it continually with several loaves of bread and bags of ice cubes before we moved any real food into it yesterday. It is set to -8 F degrees, the thermostat will rise to about -2 before the compressor kicks in. (Still a safe frozen temp.) I don’t ever remember having this much food in the refrigerator/freezer, like ever. It is a little scary to have a new appliance responsible for two weeks worth of food. But, i have to admit that it has been solid since plugging it in. The only anomaly with this refrigerator is the power factor .65 is HORRIBLE. I probably can improve that by running a better power supply. I need to power it on DC and capture the surge current, then i’ll know. Testing this while I am dependent on it may not be a good plan though!

Plans: Work about 4 hours and do some long term planning. The virus is still getting worse and closer to us. According to the news the infections should peak about Easter (2 weeks).

Narrative: The trip to the store was made a day early since it is supposed to rain tomorrow. Everything went well, the produce section was stocked. The meat section was ok, but the frozen vegetables were very scarce. Dairy was in good shape, plenty of eggs and milk. We even got a nice package of toilet paper today! The bill was a little over $300.00, but we were buying two weeks worth. (Eat One/Freeze One)

We called the doctor’s office and cancelled our two appointments for tomorrow. (We’ve got enough medicine to last another 30 days, hopefully this will cool down a little and the office will not be as much of a risk.)

Stir Fry and a large salad for dinner. It used up a half a package of chicken and a frozen package of stir fry vegetables.

Amazon has delivered something to our door almost every day since I got back home. We are still shelving boxes and mail for one day to allow any contamination by the shipper to dissipate a little. The inside of the packages should be fairly safe and the inside of the product package is assumed safe.

Tomorrow: Tuesday, another working day, supposed to rain.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

Status: We’re “sheltering in place” as directed by the County. We have more than two weeks of food and supplies with us. *Even a few rolls of toilet paper.

Plans: Celebrate the Lord’s day with our family group and listen to our pastures message for today.

Narrative: I’ve been struggling all morning trying to figure out a balance of work and home since I am now working for a company as a “Consultant”. I ran across a picture yesterday that showed an Elle Fanning listening to what Francis Ford Coppola was telling her. I can’t imagine her asking him to show her what he wanted (She wasn’t qualified for her job.), or asking him twice because she allowed herself to be distracted and missed something he said.

The other notable thing in the Super 8 movie was a young boy that “in the moment” had to focus on saving the girl he loved from a large alien by standing up to it in the face of certain death. We all have had moments when there wasn’t enough time or resources to maintain several options like in a chess game. At some point a choice (Good or Bad) has to be made on just ONE PATH and be willing to accept the consequences as a man. When I was sliding towards a freight train on black ice in my car was one of those times when a single path had to be chosen. (There was no time and a certain risk of death was upon me.)

The above scene caused me to choke up and almost cry just posting it in my blog this morning. We all have been given a gift of life on Earth and as I get older I realize just how precious that gift really is.

Having workers that can watch videos, listen to news while at work and have nothing to show for an entire week’s (40 Hrs.) pay really bothers me. They will never get that time back to repay their employer or their coworkers.

My wife and I searched the Internet for toilet paper today. (We’re down to four rolls so if it has to be delivered that time has to be taken into account.) I found those huge rolls that businesses use for 27 dollars for a package of eight.

As soon as I clicked on it the rolls disappeared. Someone bought all eight cases, each with eight 1,000ft rolls at one time. Probably to resell them as individual rolls to make a profit. There are so many unemployed looking for an extra dollar, they are gobbling up all this scarce merchandise only to resell it at a higher price.) The problem of course it takes it away from those who need it the most in the regular stores.

I also started looking at Mountain House https://www.mountainhouse.com/m/category/buckets-and-kits.html who makes survival boxes of food. They are completely sold out!

Tomorrow: Monday, back to work and get groceries.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

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.)

Tomorrow: Sunday a day of rest and prayer.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

Status: Working Remote and taking care of my sweetie. We are good for supplies.

Plans: Connect the wire I ran to the roof yesterday to a box with a wireless hotspot and a NodeMCU to measure the solar irradiation.

Narrative: Got up a little after 06:00 and turned on the coffee pot. Checked in with the guys at work and write a little in my blog.

Tomorrow: Saturday no working at all.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

Status: At home, we’re good for supplies, I am working remotely at the request of my former employer.

Plans: Work and play, play while working, work while playing…

Narrative: Tiz a beautiful day today.

Tomorrow:

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

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.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

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!)

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)

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.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

Status: Staying put in our homestead unless we need to get groceries.

Plans: Prepare for grocery shopping tomorrow. Work on Home Assistant integration and programming NodeMCU’s.

https://www.home-assistant.io/

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.

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.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:

Status: Staying Home, managing our resources. Building up a smart home with 10 NodeMCU’s and counting.

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.

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.

Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News: