The Manic Mechanic

For someone who has problems getting around and has to work on anything that involves standing or exertion on a 15 minute on/15 minute off work cycle, I seem to have quite a few irons in the fire. The door project spawned several concurrent sub-projects, which was actually planned for the most part. What wasn't necessarily planned was how many sub-projects ended up being spawned from this main one. The good news is I am finally putting to use a lot of the supplies I had gotten in the past. The only thing I could say that is bad about it is slows down the individual pieces of the puzzle as a whole. I don't mind this in the least, because the concurrent bits are taking less time by far than if they were done piecemeal. I brainstorm along the way, and discover ways to make things work better and build-in paths for future upgrades and easier maintenance. For example, I've had an alarm system for the house I bought all the way back around 1995. I'm finally installing it. I hid the sensor for the door in the frame, and ran the cabling for it since I had the wall apart. Yesterday I hid a conduit in the closet so I had an easy way to run wiring from the basement (where all the brains are) into the attic. So today I was able to connect the little dome camera above the door into the switches in the basement in record time. I should've done this years ago. I gave it a test run tonight, and I am beyond pleased. I have full-HD, 3-megapixel, bulbous video:



The camera does not have "night vision" using infrared LEDs as an invisible floodlight. But the automation system will turn on the light above the door as someone approaches, and if things are set to do so, a pic can be taken and sent to wherever I am, and this also starts a video recording. If it's someone I know, and they need to get into the house, I can unlock the door from across the country (or planet, for that matter, wherever I can get interwebs) and lock it when they leave. It has been a lot of fun messing with this stuff. I do the noisy work during the day, and when Jeff hits the sack early in order to get up a 0dark30, I can quietly fiddle with the electronic end of it. While everything does tie together in one way or another, if the automation were to go on the fritz, everything can work manually, and life is the same as it usually is. Having had unfortunate delays for years that kept me from doing these things earlier meant that technology has improved immensely, and not only is this sort of stuff mure capable and reliable, it's much easier to install and integrate.

Things weren't all peaches and cream, though. I hopped into the MINI to run a couple errands and I noticed the passenger's seat was wet. I then noticed the window was slightly open. Okay, no biggie, it's been raining like crazy lately, close the window. All it did was squeak and move a a fraction of an inch. I tried to lower it, and it went maybe an inch at best. Then it wouldn't go back up. Even wrestling with the glass didn't help much. So, now I have an unexpected little project. Strange that it's the passenger's side, which doesn't get used nearly as much. This also makes i the first real problem I've had with that car in over 11 years. I did have some minor problems when I first got the car that were taken care of under warranty, and last year I replaced the speakers because the ones in front failed. So today I have been drying out the car and will look into it during the weekend. Most likely it's the window lift mechanism. I would have simply parked the car on the carport where it normally sits off season to keep the rain out until I can fix it later, but the trailer is parked in the way. I'd rather fix it and be done with it.

The one thing that really took the wind out of my sails happened the other day. Since I needed to get into the entryway closet to not only install the conduit, but also do some serious cleaning and prep for the new floor. Inside the closet was a few of Mom's coats, most of which ones that I had yet to find a good home for. One of them was one I was keeping, it was a mink-trimmed coat she had gotten around 1970. She was very proud of this coat, since we were not well-to-do in my earlier years, she had scrimped and saved to buy this one thing to make her feel a bit more elegant. When I pulled the coat out, I noticed a hole. My first thought was that moths had gotten in and chewed on it. Upon further inspection I found the right sleeve has been totally destroyed by a mouse, who nested in it and chewed away the better part of the sleeve and even some of the fur trim. I completely lost it. I wanted to just throw everything away at that point. After a while I regained a bit of composure, but my will was shot and my enthusiasm for the projects was dashed. There is absolutely no hope for the old coat now, so I will cut off the remaining fur trimmings and toss the rest. I've had a fair share of "physical memories" like this ruined over the years, mostly from outside forces. And it reopens old wounds, puts me mentally is a dark, cold place, and my willingness to be outgoing and to do things becomes impossible. I eventually recover, but momentum is slow to build once again.

I am hoping that progress and my limited mobility keep improving, or at least maintain their current state. We have a lot of plans and trips for the very near future, and Jeff needs a huge break too. My work is giving me pleasure for the most part, and we could use some downtime fun.

In the spirit of my 2.8mm wiiide-angle view, it seems ol' Homestarrunner and gang are back for the first time since 2008 with a new cartoon.

Happy weekend, everyone!

I'm currently sitting in the bowels of Ice Station Mayhem watching the temperature outside drop with every glance at the thermometer. It's currently 4 degrees F, and still steadily dropping. The house is toasty warm, with the woodstove working at near blast furnace levels thanks to the howling winds outside causing the flue to draw like crazy and fanning the fire. I have the electric heater on in the basement workshop where I was prior, and here in the infrastructure bunker the computers alone have the otherwise unheated room at a balmy 84. I don't envy Jeff having to head out in the crackling cold at 5am, the temperature being predicted into the negatives possibly by then, and a high of a steamy 17 for our Tuesday. Brrr! My Russian heritage normally has me tolerating even rather extreme cold, but ever since my first back surgery, it's taken a while for me to regain that tolerance while recovering. Add in creeping old age, and I prefer warmth more than ever. I have another round of PT tomorrow afternoon, so I can shake my cane at Old Man Winter if necessary.

( Warning, extreme geekery ahead! Danger! Introspection! )

Hullo, I'm, uh, Phil, and I, um, I'm addicted to flashlights (Hiii Phiiiiil!).



Well, not so much addicted, more like a mini-hobby as I keep finding better and better ones over the years, and as my eyesight enters its second half century, I need more light to see the increasingly smaller pieces that make up my major hobbies these days. LED lights keep getting better, brighter and (sometimes) cheaper. I keep at least one flashlight in each of our vehicles, there is most likely a flashlight or two in every room of the house, and the workshop, lab and garage have plenty to choose from. This pic shows most of the "better" lights I have. I decided to gather them together, check and replace the batteries (I've lost a few good ones from prematurely leaking alkaline cells), lube the seals and threads, and gave them a good cleaning. All the lights in the pic are equipped with lithium primary or rechargeable cells, or NiMH rechargeables. No more alkalines.

The brightest of the bunch is the Kobalt 500 lumen LED light to the far right. The second brightest is, amazingly enough, the tiny Nitecore EC1 in the middle, almost tied with the big rechargeable Maglite "cop light" on the upper left. The big Maglite was just treated to a new battery pack and some repair work on the charger/holder. It normally resides in my old Dodge pickup. The little Nitecore is my everyday carry light, it has five brightness levels, a tiny red locator LED that also doubles as a low-level illumination that will last for days if not weeks on a fresh charge. The tiny light has so many features crammed into its tiny shell it ends up being a fun toy to play with.

Jeff rolls his eyes at my little addiction of flashlights, but he sure does expect one to be handy everywhere in the house. His eyes are aging along with mine. ;-)

Sometime during the last of all the camping trips last year I had lost or misplaced the battery charger for my little Pentax Optio W30 point-n-shoot. Since my trusty Canon S230 bit the dust a few years ago, this was my only pocketable camera, save for my cell phone. I figure the only way the charger would ever show up is if I were to buy another one. I managed to find a cheap aftermarket charger and an extra battery online as the little Pentax was back in business. I was going to take it with me during the great machinery bargain hunt this past weekend. While gathering up stuff to take with me, I managed to drop the camera on the floor from about waist high. Since it's not the first time it's been dropped, I thought nothing of it. However, once at the machinery dealer, attempts to power up the camera were greeted with a brief blurry view of the viewfinder/preview, and it would shut right back off. Since the camera would play back pictures already taken, it was not a battery issue. Holding the camera to my ear while powering up, I heard the various zoom/focus/diaphragm motors rattling and straining, where there used to me a quiet buzz on powerup. Great. Apparently the fall jammed up or dislocated some moving element, and the camera was not having any of it when turning it on.

Needless to say, I was a tad miffed on just getting the charger and extra battery and looking forward to using the camera on vacation (it's also waterproof). Being the technician that I am, and having had success in dismantling broken digicams and repairing the lens elements, I figure I had nothing to lose at doing some work on the thing. But, experience being the teacher it has been all these years, I have various processes and procedures I follow. While sitting in the bathroom at the machinery warehouse, I pulled the non-functioning camera out of my pocket and began some troubleshooting. I remember which end struck the floor when dropped. I listened to the powerup sequence of motor buzzing to get my timing right. Once I figured it out, I hit the power button and performed my repair procedure.

I smacked hard the end opposite from that which the camera was dropped against the bathroom stall wall. It cheerfully powered up without a hitch from then on.

There is no piece of equipment that is above being fixed with some well-placed smacking, hammering or other jolt. I've applied the process from the most mundane gear to RF network analyzers costing a half million dollars or more. And it's always the most sheer form of delight when it does the trick.

I overslept today.

The ongoing heavy rains and winds currently gripping Casa Greatbear and The Garage of Mayhem knocked out the power sometime this morning around the time Jeff left earlier. As a result, the alarm did not go off. However, when the power came back on, it was accompanied by strange sounds and bizarre behavior of light controls, appliances and whatnot. A strange smell emanated from the basement I found to be a blown power supply that operates a car radio I have down there as an 'entertainment center' in the workshop. Checking in the Lab of Doom on the other side I find my server off, the UPS running and things generally haphazard in an electrical sense. Turning on the UPS that runs an old PC I used down there I was greeted by a loud bang and more odd smells despite everything functioning normally. I shut all that down and will track down the culprit later. Most likely a blown surge strip or noise filter.

With all the potential (no pun intended) electrical hell and the mental exhaustion from the past couple days, I took the day off for obvious reasons. Outside resembles a rain forest, with some climbing plants under the deck pulled away and slumped over, while everything else is drooping and soaked from the most rain we had in ages. It feels more like early March than the middle of May. The rain is much needed, though. I would tell you how much has fallen, but the rain gauge I got a couple days prior got knocked off it's perch by winds and is no longer sending to the base station.

The grass will undoubtedly be knee high before it dries up enough to cut. The veggie garden is a mud bog. I have been trying to take care of indoor tasks in the meantime. It seems to never end, but such is life here. I'd have it no other way.

A quick post from the resurrected studio/'main' computer while in the midst of repairs and upgrades. I tore it down and replaced several blown capacitors on the (now obsolete) motherboard. A blast with the air compressor and a quick reassembly to see if it fixed the BSODs and flaky operation, or killed it for good. So far, so good. So, the next steps are a replacement of the coolant (it's watercooled), a replacement hard drive for the failed D: drive, and a swap of the video card. In the meantime I will let it cook overnight to sweat out the repairs and see if they hold (and to finish some Bittorrent, ahem, 'goodies'). It's good to have my beast back. Just dont let on to it that a replacement monster is currently in my lab being born.

I have a huge pile of CDs to burn, others to rip into the library array and need to update my iPod as well.

Beware, as there will be more upcoming geekery posts as conditions here warrant.