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: Groceries in the morning and church in the evening.
05:00 Wasting time on FB drinking Dominican Coffee.
06:00 These fake ads are “Whack-a-Mole” they build another page and repost.
07:00 Breakfast, 4 eggs
08:00 Instacart Shopper is picking out our stuff.
09:00 Packing Instacart away.
10:00 Called mom
11:00 Nap
12:00 Lunch and wasting time on FB.
13:00 Nap2
15:00 Blogging
16:00 Listening to Jacoby.
False Advertising: I have wasted several days on FB trying to pull some “Snake Oil” advertisers off their platform. Although FB does have an automated system that can be engaged, it’s very time consuming and the bad actors just seem to start another storefront every time we close one.
False Advertising, device is actually an incredibly cheap electrical noise filter.
Today I’ve come to the realization it’s THEIR problem and I have insufficient influence because they (FB and the storefront) BOTH make money from advertising these fake products. In the past UL trademark was excellent at verifying the function and safety of a device. Now with the Internet marketing there is rarely certifications offered and even some of those I have found to be fake. We got here because these “Sellers” can be in a country where false advertising is not illegal. It is also difficult to prosecute a business that cost $40 to stand up and the business (AKA storefront) is protected by having an anonymous owner. The owners hire people to monitor, give false testimony, argue and delete negative comments posted on the platform.
The next step is to take all the data and send a complaint to the FTC, especially if the advertising is across state lines.
There is electrical noise on my DC distribution from on or more of these cheap DC lights on the homestead. At night when all the lights are on I have trouble resetting the outside cameras that are near the lights. I have tried putting a small filter at the lights, but that didn’t seem to help as much as I had hoped. Amazon had a common mode choke for a reasonable price that would work well as a filter.
The wiring of this choke is two identical windings that can be connected in such a way to make it either “Differential” or “Common” inductive filter. I gave this some thought and decided to make one that is BOTH to help me find the noise source. I soldered two of them in series, put connectors on the ends of the wires and enclosed them since the wire on these coils has a very thin enamel insulation.
The only advantage of using dual coils like this is that the amount of inductance can be adjusted individually for common mode or differential mode by changing the number of turns on one of the two coils. (If I simply used two coils the differential/common inductance is the same for each lead.)
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 until June 12, we have plenty of food and supplies. I am two days from my wedding anniversary and seven days past being retired.
Plans: Try and get a battery connection installed on mom’s golf cart.
07:00 Up, sipp’n my coffee and writing in my blog.
08:00 Wasting time on FB.
09:00 Called Golf Cart place, all set.
10:00 Breaking down boxes and putting them in bags for recycling.
11:00 Lunch and FB scanning.
12:00 Looking for common mode chokes
13:00 Nap time
15:00 Organizing
16:00 Dinner
17:00 Making solar MC-4 connecting cables.
18:00 Watching all the president’s men with the wife
21:00 Calling it a day.
Narrative: Spent a good part of the day breaking down boxes and cleaning up the corner of our Livingroom.
This evening I made an adapter cable from a solar panel to a standard extension cord. This allows me to us a regular extension cord to connect solar panels in the lawn or on the roof.
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: Ugg, have to think on that.
06:00 Up and sipp’n coffee.
07:00 Updating our grocery list
08:00 Watching over the shopper while reading FB.
09:00 Putting away Groceries and going for a walk.
11:00 Eat lunch and FB
12:00 Updating my blog and checking on Vacuum cleaner.
13:00 Nap time.
15:00 Up and portable fridge has been drawing a little more power each day? (Linear)
16:00 Box consolidation and Dinner
18:00 Writing in my blog.
19:00 Box consolidation and organizing.
21:00 End of the day.
Narrative: Portable refrigerator/freezer has been drawing right at 1KWH/Day for almost two months. Now, for whatever reason, it has gradually increased to 1.1KWH per day. I put the Kill-O-Watt meter back on the unit to verify that the power measured by the electronic outlet is accurate. According to the manufacturer the freezer can draw more power if it is overfilled. The intake air Vent did have some fuzz on it that I cleaned off with some packing tape.
Feelings:
Tomorrow: Negotiate installing battery cable on Mom’s golf cart.
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: Get organized, participate in zoom church service
06:00 Sipp’n coffee and writing in my Blog.
07:00 Getting organized
08:00 Called mom to discuss the sandbox.
09:00 Get ready for church
11:00 Lunch
12:00 Playing with the solar panels
Nap time
14:00 Watched the end of battle of the bulge with the wife.
15:00 Rewired a solar charge controller for 48V
Worked on the sandbox design.
Narrative: My mom had a shelter that was originally a sandbox. It was just about perfect for what I am trying to do, except it was in the shade.
The craftsmanship was pretty bad, but this shelter withstood hurricanes and weather for over 30 years. I took several pictures of the structure in hopes of rebuilding it. After playing with the design for several hours I figured out how the size came to be. He started with the roof, it’s in 2′ increments with sheets of particle board.
As you can tell it is two sheets of plywood per side. One sheet is ripped down the middle with a 2’x2′ section cut out of one piece.
The original design had a 2′ rise over 6′ distance which is an awfully large amount of stress on the truss with no vertical support in the center. I want to add 200 Lbs of solar panels and I want the angle to be equal to the latitude of Ocala which is 29 deg.
Raising the center will greatly reduce the stresses and give us the proper angle for the 600Watts of solar panels.
Need an unshaded area near the house. Trouble is all the trees are huge! The golf cart has 80AH at 48V ~4KW which is a tremendous amount of stored power. 600W of solar panels producing 3KW/Day is also a lot of power. (Enough for a small refrigerator.) But certainly enough to charge their phones and watch some TV.
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: Work on the homestead and get ready for church tomorrow.
08:00 Up and Sipp’n coffee.
09:00 Connected a Solar Charge Controller on the East Panel.
50W from the East facing panel. (Pictured below.)
10:00 Making plans to drive to Monroe
11:00 Drive to Monroe
12:00 Home checking the SCC, 60W from a 100W panel.
Need to change connection to West Panel…
Nap Time.
14:00 Changed solar Charge Controller to West Panel
Both panels produced about the same amount of power 50-60W with noon sun.
15:00 Wrote draft of communion
16:00 Talking to mom
Narrative: Spent a great deal of time putting two 100W solar panels across the ridge of the homestead. I have about 10 panels that are being held in the garage to deploy onto the roof if things really hit the fan. What I hadn’t actually tried was to deploy those panels on the roof. My mom has a brand new roof, so I started with a temporary ridge install of two panels. I found some flashing materiel that I fabricated two straps to cross the ridge shingles. There are better materials, but I didn’t want to risk driving to Lowes. I secured the two panels with cement blocks sitting on a door mat.
I ran into two problems, the first was that the roof over my bedroom was two different pitches! The side towards the garage is so steep you cannot stand on it. (I’ve lived here for 30 years and never noticed they were different.) The second problem is that the blocks allow a large amount of vertical movement of the panel. Hopefully they don’t bounce on the roof before I can secure them a little better. The best idea at present is to lay the bock on a flat/stiff piece metal that is bolted to the panel. (The wind would have to lift the block from the surface to move the panel.)
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 organizing and cleaning.
07:00 Rise and Shine
08:00 Breakfast and news. (Tropical storm off Florida)
09:00 Cleaning, Organizing
10:00 Put away groceries
12:00 Talk to mom and check the lawns.
13:00 Shower and Nap Time
15:30 Reading and writing in my blog.
Mom’s Bug-Out needs:
6 Gallons of Water for herself (Not animals.)
Big bag for clothes and
Small bag for medicine and diapers.
Battery charger for phone
Solar charger for battery charger
Shelf stable food. (Anchovies?)
Narrative: Ever since I cleaned the condenser coils under the kitchen fridge the power has been a little less. A more dramatic difference seems to be that the power drawn now varies considerably with type of use (loading groceries and consuming ice.)
Tomorrow: Saturday, should be a nice day
Feelings:
Prayer List:
God
That we remember and share about the love of Christ as we go.
That we would love God’s word and apply it to our daily life.
That we would desire Christ to be in our lives above all else.
That God would show us the idols of our heart.
That we would be quick to repent.
We compare every thought about ourselves against the love Christ has for us.
That we would love others like Christ has loved us.
That we would number our days and be grateful for every one of them.
Personal traits/needs
Humility
Wisdom, Memory, Organization
Turning away from Sin
Health
Strength/Stamina
Talents
Family members
Family Group
Church members
Church leaders
Government leadership
Friends and neighbors
Pandemic
Those who have fallen ill.
Those who are vulnerable
The young and strong among us unwittingly spreading the disease.
Give the Government leadership wisdom and a pervasive voice.
Give the Scientists the wisdom and talents to produce a vaccine.
Comfort the Front line Health Care workers and keep them safe.
Social network providers to maintain control over their platforms.
Disinformation
Spreading of Hate and discourse
Rebelling against the Government
Promoting taking up arms to display anger/frustration.
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: Cleaning and organizing.
07:00 Get up and sip on some coffee.
08:00 Resolving yesterday’s issues.
09:00 Clearing paperwork piles.
10:00 Cleaning Livingroom piles.
12:30 Chili’s for lunch
13:00 Trying to find 3A PTC, they were terribly cheap!
14:00 Nap
16:00 Reading the news
18:00 Watched the invisible man.
Narrative: We have a lot of low power things that run 24/7 and I thought i’d use my two 100W solar panels on the roof to power something during the day. The routers on my desk draw roughly 300W so I thought I’d run the solar panels in parallel with a good 28V power supply to power them.
After I connected all the pieces together and ran it for a day I realized that the losses of the power supply and the Inverter wasted all of the solar energy I was trying to harness. I needed something < 175W that can be powered entirely by solar during the day with a power supply backup for clouds etc.. During the night, a relay would switch the over to the Utility company to eliminate the losses of the double conversion. Our 43″ TV is currently being powered by this setup.
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.
Refrigerator Power Consumed
Plans: Working a McGyver project on mom’s golf cart along with cleaning up loose ends in the homestead and church tonight.
08:00 Got up and sipp’n a cup of coffee while building a shopping list.
09:00 Help shopper and help putting away groceries
10:00 Planning…
11:00 Social planning
12:00 Cleaning,
13:00 Vacuuming
14:00 NAP
15:00 Chasing messages.
19:30 Church
Narrative: I was “Volunteered” to transport a friend to the hospital next week and it totally caught me off guard. We’ve been so careful to stay “sheltered” since we’re over 65 and now we throw that to the wind not only to transport but to expose ourselves to everyone he was in contact with in the hospital on the trip home.
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: Put away groceries and take a walk.
07:00 Get up, have coffee, read the paper.
Changed out portable battery connectors from Red/Blk to Pnk/Blu.
Change UPS connector from Pur/Blk to Pur/Blu.
Labeled all ten portable 20AH Deep cycle battery packs.
Installed Red/Blk connectors on new DC power meters.
Checked bathroom sink drain.
Dishcharge test on two portable batteries (2 Yrs Old)
10:00 Walked around the block
Attempted to run Inverter on Club Car charging port, OBC disconnected it.
Left a message with Golf Car service center to get an SB-50 pigtail installed.
Narrative: All that tests that I’ve done with the 48V Inverter have gone very well. Other than just being HUGE, it’s very efficient and continues to run without fault.
In the homestead I have three prominent voltages, maybe four. When I built the 56V battery bank and accidently connected it to the 28V bus destroying a 12V regulator, I knew that I needed to color code the voltage on the wires. The first is a regulated 12V (Red/Black), then I also have a battery voltage of 14.2 (Pink/Blue). There’s 24VDC Orange/Black also unregulated battery voltage 28V (Orange/Blue). For the 56V unregulated voltage for the UPS I’m using (Purple/Blue), I don’t have a regulated 48 volts anywhere (Purple/Black). Two solar panels in series is Yellow/Black. AC voltages are Grey/Grey.
If you were wondering how I came up with that color code it was a long road. When I decided to run a DC line to every room in 2012 I was thinking low power with solar backup. (CPAP and emergency lighting.) I bought two 500′ rolls of Red/Black wire and ran them across the attic to every room from the garage. At that time I only figured on using 12V, so the connectors on the homestead were red/black just like the wires. The NEC by the way says that Black is a “HOT’ wire above ground and that I should have used a “White” wire instead. The plan is to run a white wire in addition to the Red/Black ones to satisfy the requirement. (+12 Red, Return White, -12 Black ) which supports all the requirements of the homestead with those three colors. (I don’t foresee running 56V across the house.)
The CPAP didn’t like the voltage drop at 6A @ 12V so I needed to push 24V for that purpose which used the same Red/Black wires. Very little in the homestead cared whether it was 12V or 24V so it didn’t matter the wires stayed the same color. When I added the solar panels I really needed to separate the 42V from the DC distribution and the color code was started with Yellow/Black. I had to buy a significant amount of connectors to interconnect the batteries and power distribution. Pink/Blue arose out of having 14.2V portable battery banks that needed a separate charging circuit. The homestead had a pair of power supplies that used the 14.2V (Pink/Blue) and regulated it down to 12V (Red/Black) It also has a pair of power supplies that regulate the 28.2V (Orange/Blue) down to 24V (Orange/Black) When I bought the 1500VA 56V UPS units I needed a third color which became purple/blue. (Blue being battery at this point and black being a regulated return.)
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
circumradius = 3
