During the week of 12 Jan 2019

Blog Change: I’ve applied for and acknowledged my acceptance of a job so I am combining all the entries into a weekly post to save time. (Mostly because I haven’t made a post all week.)

Status: Performing run tests on the refrigerator UPS with new batteries. (New batteries have to be cycled a few times and these batteries have not been strapped together before.) It’s less than 21 degrees outside, PiAware is at 78 degrees so the cold should not affect the discrimination clocks in the dongle.

Plans: Need to get organized, it has been tough with the long waiting times in the onboarding process. (I know there is a lot that has to be done.) Need to start my passport application. I need to get a picture for my replacement passport, I think CVS does them.

Narrative: I make a pot of coffee for the wife every morning sometimes she gets the second cup, sometimes I get the third cup. Dominican coffee is always delicious.

I’ve checked the wall insulation while it’s bitter cold this week, the back wall by the sliding glass door is not performing as well as I would have liked. But that outside wall needs to be replaced anyway.

I’ve been adding batteries to the refrigerator UPS all week because every run test to 25% battery has only lasted about 2-3 hours all week. Which is amazing when there are now SIX pairs of 18AH batteries that only have to provide 1.8A of current each. (They should run for almost 24 hours, but absolutely be no less than 8 hours even if they are a little old.) Long range plan is to replace the twelve $75 18AH batteries with six $100 35AH batteries. The six blue batteries in this picture don’t have any life left in them so I went and got two 35AH batteries earlier than I wanted to. I need to let them acclimate before running a long load test again.

Twelve 18AH batteries in a series/parallel configuration for 24V@105AH

I also put a “Smart Plug” on the refrigerator so that I could better monitor the power consumption over time. The fridge draws about 170-200W when running and consumed 1.4KWH in 16 hours. (87.5W Avg)

Cell phone app screen

The airbag light came on in the Ford Focus on Monday, but hasn’t returned all week. Google Foo has a number of suggestions, but the most likely is a faulty switch in the seat belt buckle. Also, it was unseasonably cold Monday morning at 20 degrees may have something temporary to do with it. I should be able to read the code with my code reader. (Light went out next time she drove it.)

Repairs: I accidently miss wired the solar charge controller that I got from Canada years ago and it melted the side of the case and stopped working. (It was a great performer too, Boo.) I put the spare onto the house system and this one is a little more aggressive with the temperature compensation. I ordered a new China branded charge controller that the specifications looks pretty good. I’ll have to wire it since there are terminals on the controller. One good thing about the charge controller is I can eliminate the timer on the external lights. The charge controller is designed to turn a light on and off using the solar panel as a reference.

Next Week: This paragraph used to be “Tomorrow”, but with my time cut back I’m making it Next Week… Monday is my first day back at work and that will require an EARLY wake-up call at 5:30. I have to be at work by 07:00 so my plan is to lay out my accessories and take a shower on Sunday night. Then Monday morning it’s grab and go, especially considering it’s my first day. I don’t know how my hair will look having slept on the curls. (I’ll have to work that one on Monday.) I have a Urine test that has to be done on Monday, I’ve been practicing peeing for two days now. (I have a real hard time peeing on demand, especially now that my On/Off valve trickles about half the time I go pee.)

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