EIA report, DOE, EIA, just how many Adminstrations are there?

Posted on December 6, 2011 by George B.

A U.S. Government report worth of your attention, I think so.

First off, if you hang around the lowest rungs of greenie website ladders, you may have heard that green energy no matter how expensive is still free! Even your Government knows better, and here’s proof.

How can we attempt to debate such a thing with folks that don’t know the difference between a BTU and an IOU, and what does it say about us if we even attempt to try?

Do note, that off grid solar very favorably compeates with other solutions, and we all know that the payoff for DIYers on or off grid is far different from investments made by those who depend on others to do every aspect of their installs. We also note that folks who do their own wind power have every chance of success in harvesting a realistic return on investment IF they accuratley acess wether they have enough potential to invest in.

Here’s the report: http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/electricity_generation.cfm

As with any report, we best assume bias when it was constructed. One possible example is the construction of the massive wind farms we see in Washington State and Beyond. What is the real life expectancy of those turbine blades, what’s the cost of replacement, just how accurate were these forecasts regarding the maintenance of these machines?

Government has managed to place every cost over run and default on the public’s back, since they seem to be a totally apathetic group, why wouldn’t they?

But let’s give the people who put this report together a ‘hat’s off’ applause, it’s nice to see someone knows there’s a cost to free energy.  We know the wacko greenies will only say that the government is now controlled by big oil and wall street, and we all need to buy a free energy magnet motor from ebay..

GB..  

 

 

 

Posted in Alternative Energy Sources, Earth & Energy, Fighting Propaganda, Generator Realities, The New Green Movement, Your Wasted Tax Dollars | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Wanted, An inexpensive current sensor with logic level output.

Posted on December 4, 2011 by George B.

A Quest for KISS

Current Sensor on my GE Water Heater
Current Sensor on my GE Water Heater

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will never forget the lesson Don Colvin, a Designer and Manufacturer of Electronic Devices  taught me. It was his collection of products designed to restrict unauthorized toll calls, which was a note worthy problem of the day.

Some of the devices Don had purchased for study looked like full blown micro computers of the day with specialized tone decoder boards hanging off the bus using phase lock loops ICs and other neat and expensive stuff. A power supply and steady state fan, blinking lights, and a terminal and keyboard to program it..

At the end of looking at more than a half dozen solutions, Don produced his own product, it was a circuit board just a little bigger than a 20 pin PIC processor with a few external components, and it was telephone line powered!  Furthermore, you could program it right from the phone, and hide it neatly inside a phone jack, or near anywhere you wanted to put it.

How could I ever forget!  It was a lesson as memorable as getting into the high voltage section of an old TV set! Don had spent his time researching how to build a KISS product. He expanded the market to folks who wanted to protect a single phone in their apartment!

Certainly you understand if you can make a product with the same functionality for one dollar that your competitor makes for $100, your competitor will soon realize he has a large marketing  problem.

So today, I’m spending time researching a way to detect whether I have about 4-20 amps of current, (more or less is good). 120-240 VAC 50-60hz  flowing on typical insulated 10-12 gauge wire with a motor or pure resistance load at the far end.

All I need is a yes or no.. and I don’t even need a quick yes or no. certainly it would be nice if we could attach our inexpensive current sensor without lifting a wire from a terminal block, but we can’t have everything.. or can we?

So of course, I Google (logic level current sensor) and similar, I finally arrive at this page:

http://search.digikey.com/us/en/products/CR2550-R/582-1003-ND/1045159

I look at the unit price even at 1000 units, and I ask… are you kidding?

And here’s that neat little led on my water heater, one for the top element, one for the bottom element and powered directly from that mini transformer!

 

 

 

 

Yes, that’s an LED, and if we can light this led directly from that little coil, there’s little doubt we can use an opto isolator and give ourselves a clean logic level change into the input pin of a PIC, or maybe an 8 pin Atmel?

You might ask why we bother?  My answer is we are unwittingly doing all we can to raise the price of energy, and we’ll need smarter products. WE need to know when they are mal functioning early as possible.

Consider this water heater, what if we took the design one step further and warned when one of the elements was burned out?

There are other things far more difficult to detect than a water heater we normally have good access to.., we could  use a tiny micro to monitor patterns of use and alarm when anomalies pattern.

If you have an idea or source, please let me know, no way GE paid more than a dollar or two for these, and it sur would be fun to find some at surplus prices..

Added Note: Thanks for reading, scroll down for comments, in wordpress, you may see a truncated version of this story, and you may need to select the story from the menu bar on the right to see the comments. attached to this article are some great contributions under comments:

 

 

   

Posted in Earth & Energy, Projects, Questions & Answers | Tagged | 10 Comments

How’s that Wind Energy Working for you?

Posted on December 3, 2011 by George B.

03-07-2012 Here’s a update: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/07/wind-power-companies-paid-to-not-produce/?test=latestnews

Ask yourself, where can you get a sweetheart deal like this? Who were the Dumb Asses that put us on the hook to pay for power we don’t use?  
The fact is, the average person doesn’t have a clue, and won’t care till it bites him in the Ass.

Talk to your average Greenie, and the electrical grid is all too simple, just poor in electricity over here, and pull it out over there.  For those that know better, the wind machines you see scattered across the land scape need at least carry their own weight, and that means other more reliable power producers should NOT have to pay to subsidize windpower operating costs.

Here’s a snippet from an article a few years back, do you have a clue what’s going on today?

Bonneville Power’s role in wind
energy

Actions by the Bonneville Power Authority
(BPA) undoubtedly will be important in determining the nature of “wind farm”
development in the Pacific Northwest in terms of (a) the commitments to purchase
electricity from additional “wind farms,” (b) the impacts of intermittent
electricity from “wind farms” on electric grids, and (c) the true costs of
electricity from wind energy.

1.     Potential BPA Purchases from
additional “wind farms.”    BPA has been active in promoting wind energy for
several years, including purchases of electricity from “wind farms” in Oregon
and Wyoming.  BPA mounted a very aggressive effort in February 2001 to sign up
1,000 MW of new wind power.  In March 2001, BPA issued a formal request for
proposals along with draft “Predevelopment” and “Power Purchase” agreements.  In
May 2001, BPA announced that it was working with Washington Winds Inc. to
develop a 150 MW “wind farm” in Benton and Yakima Counties.

On June 28, 2001, the Secretary of Energy
announced that BPA has selected seven “wind farm” proposals for negotiation of
“Predevelopment” agreements, including five additional “wind farms” in
Washington and two in Oregon. In December 2001, DOE Secretary Abraham announced
that it would purchase 34% of the output of FPL Energy’s Stateline “wind farm”
located on both sides of the Oregon-Washington border near Walla Walla, an
amount roughly equal to BPA’s earlier purchases from Oregon and Wyoming “wind
farms.”

BPA’s aggressive actions to signup “wind
farms” appeared to be driven by the 2000-2001 drought conditions in the
northwest (sharply reduced hydropower production), high electricity prices and,
perhaps, pressure from DOE headquarters in Washington to promote wind energy.

As excitement in the wind industry about
potential BPA purchases grew, BPA apparently began to worry about the aggressive
actions of “wind farm” developers.  On September 20, 2001, BPA issued a press
release warning that “Throughout eastern Oregon and Washington, wind power
developers, lawyers and speculators are pressing landowners to sign leases for
rights to wind generation.  Landowners need to learn quickly how to evaluate and
secure the value of their wind resource.”

Meanwhile, the electricity situation in the
Pacific Northwest changed dramatically as drought conditions lessened,
significant new gas-fired generating capacity was brought on line, and wholesale
electricity prices dropped sharply.  A BPA spokesman recently stated that “Wind
power hasn’t been economical for the past six months, since power prices in the
region have fallen after the incredible spikes of 2000-2001.”  He also stated
that “Of the wind power that the agency has bought, reliability has been
‘spotty,’ with an availability of wind power in the range of 20-25percent, far
below the 30-35 percent availability the industry has touted.  What’s more, wind
farms generally need generating support from other – often fossil – sources, and
are not useful in supplying peaking power.”

Earlier this year, BPA began facing severe
financial problems and seeking a way to reduce costs.  On July 2, 2002, the BPA
Administrator announced plans to share information about financial problems and
seek input from citizens and officials throughout the areas BPA
serves.

As a part of its campaign, BPA released
information on costs of its “renewables” program for a “Financial Choices
Workshop” planned for September 17, 2002.  The document outlines two
alternatives but makes clear that neither alternative would produces enough
revenue to cover the multi-million dollar program BPA renewables program
(including the cost of purchases of electricity from “wind farms”).  In fact,
four “wind farms” totaling 430 MW on the BPA “short list” announced by the DOE
Secretary are omitted in both plans.  The 150 MW Maiden Wind Project is included
in the “Current Level” alternative but dropped in the “Reduced Level”
alternative.

Both program alternatives result in
significant losses (expected revenues do not cover costs), but losses are
somewhat less in the “Reduced Level” program.

Recent news stories indicate that some
utilities in the Northwest, as well as BPA itself, are concerned about the high
cost of BPA’s renewables program.  Furthermore, as it prepares to develop its
Fifth Power Plan to be published in early 2003, the Northwest Power Planning
Council has identified a number of issues for comment.  One issue concerns the
role of BPA in future “resource development” (i.e., procurement of electricity
for BPA’s wholesale customers.

2.
Integration of
Electricity from Wind Energy in Electric Grid and Associated
Costs.  As indicated
earlier, part of the true costs of wind energy are costs (a) associated with
providing backup generation because the electricity output from wind energy and
(b) imposed on transmission systems and grid management – with both types of
costs due to the intermittent and volatile nature of the electrical output from
“wind farms.”

Until July 2002, BPA has imposed an extra
charge of $100 per MWh (or $0.10 per kWh) on operators of electric generators
–including wind generators– that failed to deliver electricity at the time it
was scheduled.  Under strong pressure from the wind industry and DOE, BPA has
eliminated that charge for wind generators.  However, wind generators will still
be required to pay the cost of the power provided by BPA to make up the
difference between the schedule and actual generation.

It is important to recognize that none of
the extra costs associated with wind energy, including the cost of backup
generation, transmission and grid management “go away.”  Any of those costs not
borne by “wind farm” owners are shifted to electric consumers.

To its credit, BPA is devoting resources to
efforts to address the problems, burdens and costs associated with integrating
volatile and intermittent “wind farm” electricity into the electric grid.
Specifically, BPA is providing a significant share ($227,000) of the funds to
support a Utility Wind Interest Group (UWIG) effort to determine the impacts of
electricity from “wind farms” on electric grids.  This study, a related study by
Electrotek for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and a BPA
funded wind integration study by Eric Hirst should be helpful in both
understanding the impacts and the additional costs due to electricity produced
by wind energy.

 

  

 

 

Posted in Buyer Beware, Earth & Energy, The New Green Movement | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

COP17 News, and CFACT, an Organization worthy of your support. 12/2/2011

Posted on December 2, 2011 by George B.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t like my Intro? scroll down and read word from Monckton, it’s very heart warming..

Would Monckton share my sentiment?  He’s far more civilized, and a whole lot more schooled than myself and a dozen friends put together.. But just how much schooling does one need to recognize when another man has thrust their hand deep into the pocket of your trousers? Perhaps it’d be more tolerable if the hand belonged to a pretty girl? Have you seen Al Gore lately? His face all puffed up from eating junk food, and perhaps all the jigawatts of power he radiates himself with while living in that power hungry mansion on the hill…. has it aged him even more so? Is that what causes him to lose his temper and swear when he has nothing to contribute within the confines of science or fact? No doubt his entire house built on carbon credits is at risk.

Was it every Alarmist on the planet who asked Al Gore to stay away? Is there a single politician in all of America who’d dare get their picture taken with Al Gore? Have you seen him in a group photo lately? Maybe with some small Town Mayor? Not a chance, they run out the back door, as there are cameras everywhere today.

Perhaps we turn to a man worthy of our respect, a man who actually cares about something other than his own purse. Here’s a report from Monckton who has made the effort to attend the COP17.  There are no pleas for money found on Utterpower pages, but I’ll mention that CFACT is worthy of your support, please visit them, join their mail list for free, and contribute if you can. Thank you Lord Monckton for your report that follows.  

IT ISN”T HAPPENING

By Lord Christopher Monckton of Brenchley

Mainstream science, politics, bureaucracy, academe, banking, business, media – all were of one mind. The West, so the playbook ran, must be shut down at once to Save The Planet from “global warming”, er, “climate change”, um, “climate disruption”, no, “extreme-weather events”, ah, that is, “energy-security challenges”. Shale gas? That would solve everything. Hundreds of years’ global supply. No more peak oil. Low carbon footprint. Ban it quick.

I find myself with CFACT in Durban among the creatures of “consensus” for the annual UN climate gabfest. Yet the party line was wrong. At a recent dinner for the inconvenient economist Bjorn Lomborg in London, I first uttered the three fateful words that now fill the hearts of the world’s governing climate racketeers with dread.

“It. Isn’t. Happening.”

When I plopped these three plump pebbles into the conversation, there was a ripple of aghast silence. It was as though I’d perpetrated what the Professor of Greek at Cambridge used to call a “gaseous halation” in front of the Queen.

Most of the diners were climate skeptics. But they were making a bundle out of it. The skeptics had almost as much of a direct, cash vested interest in flogging the long-dead horse of climatic apocalypse as the prophets and profiteers of climate doom.

It just wasn’t the done thing to poop on the party by pointing out that every dire prediction that the usual suspects had made with such sneering arrogance has failed.

Just look. Professor “Phil” Jones of the “University” of East Anglia had to admit, when the BBC’s chief environmental campaigner – er, “correspondent” – put to him a question I’d drafted – that there had been no statistically-significant “global warming” for 15 years. Oops! The UN’s models had not predicted that.

Arctic sea ice was supposed to be gone by 2013. Then it rebounded. Then it was going to reach a new low on 15 September this year, when Al Gore launched his Titanic “Climate Unreality” project. The ice did not oblige. Gore hit a berg that somehow hadn’t melted. His project sank. Even his fellow fortune-hunters in the Green[back] movement now disown his bleating attribution of every recent natural disaster to “global warming”.

Antarctic sea ice has been on the up throughout the satellite era. Global sea ice shows little trend in 30 years.

Polar bears were supposed to be headed for extinction. The fossils on the Supreme Court said so (but they’ve been extinct for years). Today there are five times as many polar bears as 70 years ago.

Kilimanjaro has been losing ice since 1880. Most of the summit glacier had gone by 1936, when Hemingway wrote The Snows. “Global warming” could not have caused the recent ice loss: NASA says the region has been cooling for 30 years. The summit temperature, monitored by satellites, has not changed. Now the glacier is growing again.

Sea level is the big one. James Hansen of NASA, who made more than $1 million out of the climate scare last year alone, had predicted it would rise imminently by 246 feet. Was he right? No. The increase over the past eight years, according to the Envisat satellite, was at a rate equivalent to 2 inches per century. Not meters, not even feet. Inches. Two of them. Per century. Gee wow golly gosh! Take to the boats!

Malaria was going to spread because of “global warming.” Yet the terrible leap in mortality from 50,000 to 1 million child deaths a year occurred a generation ago, when the Environmental Defense Fund – which, with Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund, spent $1 billion of taxpayers’ and donors’ cash on anti-Western pseudo-enviro propaganda last year alone – successfully campaigned for a worldwide ban on DDT, the only effective agent against the mosquitoes that carry malaria.

When the Board of the EDF met to plan the DDT ban, its then legal advisor, Victor John Yannacone Jr., begged it to ban only outdoor use: DDT sprayed inside houses would harm only the mosquitoes and spare the children.

The then chairman, furious, fired Yannacone on the spot. As he left the room, someone said: “That’s the last time we employ anyone who knows any science.” That ban has killed 40 million children.

Extreme-weather deaths are down sharply. Global tropical-cyclone and hurricane activity is almost at its least in 30 years. Severe tornadoes have declined. Patterns of drought and flood remain as unpredictable and as devastating as ever. Bangladesh and nearly all of the Pacific atolls are gaining land mass, not losing it.

Net primary productivity of trees and plants worldwide is up. If you want a greener planet, add as much CO2 to the air as you can. Your emissions are also helping to stave off the next Ice Age. It’s already 6000 years overdue.

Yet the dreary, wasteful, pointless congresses of the greedy feeble-minded continue. The Bali Road-Map to Nowhere. The Copenhagen World-Government Treaty that collapsed as soon as it saw the light of day. The Cancun Concordats to establish 1000 – yes, 1000 – new bureaucracies: the structure of the unelected world government that every ex-politician from Gore and Chirac to Attali is demanding.

Everyone says nothing will happen at Durban. That worries me. It suggests the process of building a totalitarian global junta by what one UN official at Cancun called “transparent impenetrability” – publishing documents of such prolix length and complex obscurantism that no one can understand a word and yet no one can later deny the information was available – will invisibly gather pace.

Lord Reith, the BBC’s first chairman, laying the foundation-stone of what is now the abomination of desolation called Harlow New Town, was heard to mutter, “You’re not going to like it, but you’re going to have it!”

So it will be with the Marxists’ wet dream that is global totalitarian dictatorship. You’re not going to like it. But the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and I are in Durban to stop them. So perhaps you’re not going to have it after all.

——————————————

As I wrap up this page, I only openly share.. “Yes my Lord!” you are in deed the type of Leader we need more of… a thoughtful Statesmen, and even though you are over there, I note your many efforts to look after the public’s purse here. Perhaps we can arrange a trade? If it were in my power, I’d gladly trade a certain accident prone past Vice President, and his entire entourage for one Monckton.

George B.

 


 

 

Posted in Fighting Propaganda, In The News, Inspirational People, The New Green Movement, Your Wasted Tax Dollars | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Smart Charger? SC1000A Swanson Calls, You’re getting a little carried away…

Posted on November 28, 2011 by George B.

Perhaps a picture is in order? Added Note: 11/29/2011, I’ve decided to put further testing of this product here. Scrolldown, and look at the comments and dates.

No so smart Charger?

No so smart Charger?

Yes.. I got a call from one of Techs I worked with starting when we were kids.. We worked on a system called #5XBAR, it was the most advanced pin ball machine Man ever created.  Some installations covered many floors in a building, bays of many kinds of relays  11 feet high, and tubes, lots of tubes 🙂

Jim calls to say.. “I’ve been reading your Utterpower posts, and perhaps you’re getting a little carried away over this battery charger deal? Jim being a polite guy didn’t go further, he wanted to say I was obsessive compulsive , maybe I needed to see a Doctor?  But we are old friends and know each other fairly well, so he knew I’d fill in the rest of what he wanted to say.., and ask all those questions of myself.

The above picture is less clear that I had hoped.  The selected battery type is AGM (right LED), next is  (2 amps) setting, the lone red LED is (connected) indicator, meaning it sees the connected battery, and the last and left most light says the battery is fully charged, and implies to me that the Charger is now in the float mode.

The charger was put on this AGM battery about 4PM yesterday.. it was perfect a few months back, but the parasitic load then attached, (a microcontroller and other periphery) has taken this small car sized AGM battery into the depths of a DEEP discharge.

Regardless of the Battery State, whether it’s now junk or not, we should ask.  Is it ACCEPTABLE than a smart charger tell us we’re fully charged at 11.71 volts? Yes, this Fluke Volt Meter Came from Boeing surplus, they bought hundreds if not thousands for their techs, and I have a long history with this one and know it’s accurate.

Yes.. I’m back to thinking about Erica’s review of this product, how I first read her review of the lowly 600 model charger, and how her wonderfully powerful compact 12 volt 6 amp battery charger could charge a big truck battery in no time. She can’t be expected to know her battery charger likely lied to her..

http://milk11.com/schumacher-speedcharge-high-frequency-battery-charger-review-series/

I sit here thinking about reality, I’ve learned not to trust anything a politician tells me, but I really didn’t understand that they were designing battery chargers now..

What’s Jim Going to say when he learns I just got started on this topic..

Parts are orderd to try and hack this thing into telling the truth..

This  battery charger managing your battery is like having Barney Frank manage your S&L.

Added Notes: 11/28/2011: After checking the status light again, and movign my volt meter to another AGM battery on the bench and seeing an unfloated 12.3 volts, I decided to push the next higher charge button, and see what the charger would do. The attached VOM quickly moved off the 11.71 volts and started to rise! I suspect that the 2 amp charge rate selected had something to do with this unexpected behavior as I did clean terminals,  checked connections and restarted the charger on the smae 2 amp setting with the same result. The higher charge setting IS providing a more desirable response, BUT some of these AGMs do not handle more than about 4 amps of charge (according to the manufactuers warnings on the battery).  This suggests that a six amp setting could damage the battery IF you can’t get the charger to perform at 2 amps.  As a technician, I always wonder what I over looked, and I even wonder if I got the only battery charger that lighted the fully charged LED when my more trusted FLUKE says different?

As I  sit here I wonder what a battery charger of the future looks like? I just now picked up my smart phone, and started the Walgreen app to fill a prescription, I scanned the bar code on the old bottle, the app confirmed the scan, displayed the default store near me, and said I could pick up my prescription this afternoon. From experience, I know I’ll get an email when the prescription drops into the ready for pickup bin.

I see the processor module in the charger having a blue tooth communications port, we fire up the battery charger app, scan a bar code on the battery, and all the factory parameters for charging and floating are down loaded. the internal micro also has an accurate voltmeter, and can display present voltage and current right on your smart phone, no need to put a panel and more buttons on the charger to break, just use the closest smart device for a display, and even email the results of your charge and the finished float voltage off to a file for future comparison. perhaps the smartest of processes will look for past charge info and make the comparison for you?

And of course, there’s the sales part of the smart app.. “I’m sorry you bought the bargain battery at Joey’s discount store, our database shows that all of these batteries failed in the first three months, here’s our reccomendation of the top three batteries for your application that are available near the GPS location of your smart phone, just check one, and we’ll have it delivered, if you have Triple A, let us know and we’ll send them out to install it..

I have an HD Contour Camera I love, the company has invested a lot in online services, a company who decides to make a smart charger would need a very small archives in comparison to store battery charging data, and perhaps manufacturers would voluntarily provide the charging profiles for their batteries, and this would facilitate an auto lookup of the required data. Of course we will all think about the data we could generate and deliver back to the battery charger builder, and what we might be able to do with the data we collect on batteries.

About now, I’m thinking about Erica’s battery charger and the instructions on the front of the charger.. ‘push this button if you were happy with the results of this charge session.”

Sure.. it’s all a matter of time, if we don’t blow ourselves up, or kill our own economy by killing energy supplies we need, a future battery charger WILL be smart enough to try and sell you stuff when you need it.. It might also keep track of the number of times you hook the charge cables on backwards.

GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Test Bench, Things I Hate!, Utterpower's Friends | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

HF Power Conversion Battery Charger, a look inside for free. SC1000A

Posted on November 24, 2011 by George B.

How many things have you taken apart just to look inside?

SC1000-Front

SC1000-Front

 

I’ve been doing that all my life, and maybe just like you… when I was a kid… I got a spanking for taking a few things apart that didn’t go back together right.

The Schumacher model SC1000A might make a good product to hack, but first, let’s figure out how to open it without breaking something, and we’ll look around.

If you look inside the handle, you’ll see two screws you can remove.  Looking further, I didn’t see any warnings about voiding a warranty.  I looked for the trick of opening the   case without prying and breaking off tabs, etc.

As I ran my finger tip across the front panel, I found those tell tale holes that screws often hide in. I discovered the front panel cover (art work) is near magic. It is easily removed and stays sticky! Once removed, make sure you set this up where you don’t put something on top of it, I accidently put a piece of paper on it, and it stuck fast. I then put it under the kitchen faucet and let hot water help remove the paper, a little rubbing with a finger tip and it was all gone. I then flung as much water off as possible, and dried it under my desk lamp, and it was sticky and clean as new!

SC1000A-behind-Panel-Art

SC1000A-behind-Panel-Art

 

In those four  holes, you’ll find  small Philips head screws, easily removed. We’ll discuss those pieces of plastic later.. (no worries).

Just pull the light-colored plastic apart, and you’ll see how the end caps are sandwiched between.

SC1000_Charger_main

SC1000_Charger_main

Above you see the main board, There’s a few wires that connect this board to the front panel.  As I look around, I give the mechanical guys an ‘A’ for this case design, it’s light, compact, rugged enough, and that handle is strong and flexes, it’ll likely hold up to my abuse.

About now, some might ask, why is it important that we get in here at all?  My replay is, cords get old, they get cut, slammed in doors, chewed on by pets, and more.  With this easy to access case, we can replace our cords if we need to.

SC1000_Fan

SC1000_Fan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above is the most important reason to get into this case, and that is to replace this fan, and here is another reason for the ‘A’ grade, the fan is plugged into the main board with what looks like a standard pin plug found on a PC.  The two screws holding the fan in place are again small Philips, and easy to get to.  Many of these designs just quit charging all together if that fan quits, or they default to a very low charge, beware, if the fan isn’t running the unit is likely smart enough to shut down.

Sc1000_Micro

Sc1000_Micro

Here’s  The very accessible front panel, the micro appears to be the EM784 20pin 8 bit micro using a masked ROM. When you plug this unit in, you can hear a high freq osc noise, unplug the front panel from the main board, and then plug the unit in and there’s no noise, so it’s likely the micro is the osc source. Unit draws  approx 7 watts plugged in, no battery attached.  The LEDS and the two switches used to pick battery type and charge rate. If you remember my mention above about those two pieces of plastic, if you remove this board, the ‘buttons’ you press, can fall out.. watch for them and make sure you put them back in before you put the front panel board back in place.

If you read my previous post about this product or a model quite similar, yes, this unit does need a battery with some juice in it to get started, but I found that to be no problem.

I reached into my desk drawer and pulled out a tiny 12 volt commonly found in a key chain transmitter, when I put it across the battery clips, the unit took off! I laid the battery down, and quickly tapped the battery clips together, sparks flew! It stays hot, it’s likely you can now put the leads across a dead battery and charge it.. Seems the designers use that little bit of voltage from the battery to prove polarity is correct.

So that story told by a reviewer that he sent he charger back because you can’t charge a dead battery?? well…. that wouldn’t have stopped a DIYer, and we know it’s going to be very rare when we find a battery so dead, and there’s an easy work around if we ever need to try and revive a totally dead one.

We have an easy work around already..  but there’s more,  next, I put a single AA battery across the terminals; again with the correct polarity and again the unit came alive and I could feel the battery getting warm, as I pulled the battery clip away, the unit takes off fully with the fan running and the clips still hot and ready to be put across a battery.

Certainly, we have fooled the charger into starting and it is now our responsibility to get the polarity right, there may be other protection, but let’s not rely on that.

With this said, it’s my recommendation that you use some electrical tape to mount an AA battery to the handle with the ends exposed. If you ever have a reason to use the charger for a source of DC, or need to attempt to revive a dead as a door nail battery, just put the clips to the ends in the correct polarity, and this unit will take off.

The  only thing I found this unit needs is your small effort to solder the connections between wires and clips, my HF power conversion Vector Brand unit got hot here when brand new, and the added voltage drop fooled the processor into giving up on the charging of a battery, it’s such an easy thing for you to do, and Murphy say it will be a problem if you don’t.

Compact, Light weight, rust proof, easy to get into, cords easily replaced, fan easily replaced.. I like it! This one is easy to take to your cabin.  One more note, if you have a small generator NOT equipped with 12 volt charging, this is a potential solution.

one negative review found:

First, let me say that this charger performs flawlessly and deserves five stars
when it is in charging mode. I have used it for three years and hundreds of
successful charging cycles on a dozen different batteries of various sizes and
types.

However, on two different occasions and with two different
batteries (both brand new when hooked to the charger) I left them in “trickle
charge” mode. The batteries were part of an emergency communications station
that must to be ready at any time with full batteries. This charger burned up
both batteries after three months of trickle charging. This mode is supposed to
allow a battery to be hooked up indefinitely and maintain it at peak
performance. Not destroy it. Other folks in the emergency communications service
use other chargers and leave them in trickle mode for years. DO NOT use this
charger for that kind of operation.

Suggested experiment, if you have a battery floating off an old style charger, plug in the KILL-A_WATT and study the power factor and total wattage draw.., it likely sucks, and you’ll find it is costing you far more than you knew to float that battery. If you have an inverter with a built in charger that uses AC to maintain the float, look at the power consumption, you may be amazed by the inefficiency of the charger WHEN in float mode. A custom DIY power supply based on this product may pay dividend in a shorter periodthan you expected.   

With this stated, it would be fun to use an AVR or other programable micro to run this thing, perhaps, a programable float voltage where we simply disconnect charge  until battery voltage drops below our threshold, and then we hook it up again? No need to put in panels or buttons, just a usb port in the side, and use your smart phone as a dumb terminal to set the parameters for floating the battery connected.

Perhaps, the better float plant will use a latchable relay on the AC power side, the micro in sleep mode most of the time, but wakes and checks battery voltage and then starts charger till float voltage is again at the cut off point.. the avr runs off the battery plant of course.

I see fun here, and there’s smaller and cheaper chargers from this company, I think I saw one for $31.00, you can’t buy surplus parts to play with for that price.

Another side note, this well known battery charger company has a warning sticker right on the back of this unit. “Replace worn cords immediately.” sounds like an invitation to open the case to me.. 

GB

 

 

Posted in Things I like | Tagged , | 5 Comments

How Smart are Smart Products? A story told on Thanks Giving.

Posted on November 24, 2011 by George B.

 

Randy's Arc

Randy's Arc

Yesterday’s Story is still fresh in my mind, and I’m still processing how typical Product Development is conducted and how I might  do it.

Here’s my story for Thanks Giving, perhaps your Kitchen is starting to smell heavenly same as ours is, and perhaps you have a moment to read and learn from others versus make the same mistake.

This short article is not for those who know it all.. but if you were one of those people, you wouldn’t be here right? I want to add an experience, or at least share it a second time, and add to it.

Randy A.  buys a new TIG welder for  $3000 or more. I asked him if he wanted help hooking it up…He says… No, I won’t bother you.. it’s got instructions with it.

Several days later I asked.. How’s that machine working? (of course you
know I want to play with it :-)) He Answers:  “Well it’s a multi  mode welder, I did a little arc welding, that was OK.. But the TIG isn’t right, stuff sticking to the tungsten, and the weld looks like crap. (neither of us have a clue how to T.I.G weld bye the way.

I walked over to the machine, started to fondle  the control panel, yes it is possibly a
violation of one of the 10 commandments, not to covet another man’s new equipment.

As I was moving  my hand across the chrome handle, (it’s on wheels) I felt the tingle! Machinists learn to wear better shoes on concrete, and perhaps Randy would never have felt the same thing in his shop.  I was wearing a broken down pair of street shoes, and perhaps they were a little damp?

Wanting to give RA the business, I closed my eyes, and said “Randy
this machine is wired wrong!” His reply? “Bullshit!” “OK, so you want to bet money???”

Just to be a complete Ass, I noticed the jumper cables right behind
Randy on the wall, Randy’s lathe was sitting 2 feet from the TIG, and It had
been installed by an electrician…

I hooked one cable clamp to that chrome handle on the TIG welder, and handed the other to Randy.. I said go ahead and touch it to the lathe…

Randy being somewhat cocksure did, and it drew an arc that scared
the hell out of him, followed by a circuit breaker popping open, we heard it.

It was like religious experience..   

………………………………………..

Of course this was followed by removing the piece of sheet metal on the
back of the welder to see how Randy had chosen to wire it.

But I need tell you this is a big name welder and advertised as smart.
It even has diagnostics and runs them every time you start the machine.  It’s also advertised as a 240 VAC single phase machine.

As I looked at the power cable, I saw red, Black, white, and Green

There it was, the red over there on a power input screw… but the black
on the ground screw! Isn’t this just what you might expect an automotive mechanic
to do?

Randy hung his head in shame.. I waited for him to say something.. it
was a long pause………… Finally Randy said “hey, I’ve got some Brewskies in the fridge want one?

Here’s the interesting part…Randy works on parts that can take three days to machine, he normally checks everything three times before going to the next step.. what happened?

That build in diagnostic gave Randy false confidence.. it told him everything was
AOK after he turned  it on.

The first stage of this welder is an inverter, apparently it will use  what ever power it can find to pump up the DC bus, AND then attempt to do the  job with it..

I assume the folks that developed and engineered this equipment knew all
about installing the power cable, and perhaps that’s why they didn’t see a problem… but it appears  there wasn’t the money or the thought to use the on board diagnostics to monitor for major screw ups made by people who had  no clue how to wire it.. But not to monitor for 240 VAC when it’s a 240 VAC machine? wouldn’t you love to know what the diagnostics did monitor?

I may have mentioned the smart battery charger I’m playing with that
will not charge a battery under conditions most consumers expect a charger to work under.  If you put a new battery in a car and leave the lights on over night, the charger will NOT charge the battery…

These two so called  ‘smart devices’ seem to have a similar heritage. It seems there’s plenty of Engineers out there that think they know more about developing products for the consumer than they actually do.

If you were in a position to hire an Engineer.. would you be looking for
the guy that says.. “I’ve finally figured I don’t know enough, and that’s
why I’d pull a group of people together and ask them what they
think?”  I would imagine the people who hire are normally  looking for
Engineers who can work independently, and get the job done, and perhaps they
even reward them for that kind of behavior.

In the software business, there are software engineers that are
typically paid six figure incomes to test every possible combination of input
with every possible set of configurations. AND to produce a report that it was
done and when.  A lot of times the bean counters tell engineering how much of an effort the company can afford, and a line is drawn some where. when the product is  turned over to the public (the real debugging begins!) seems no matter how good the effort, the users find a combination not tested, and then the fun begins.

I think I could offer a most valuable service to those that have
products in development.. I could very quickly put a team of people together
that could find troubles before the products fell into the hands of consumers.  The method to  accomplish this is rather obvious, all one needs to do is consult those who will be using your product, and it’s best you let them play with it before you send it to production.

But as I close.. I’m not sure I’ve got any of this right.. and every day I question what’s going  on around me. On this Thanksgiving day, I am most thankful for my Wife, my Family, good Friends and for the understanding of just how little I really know..

Enjoy your Holiday, COP17 is coming soon.. a group of the cocksure who have all the answers.. I’d love to see this group design a toaster for kitchen use.. I’d expect their result  to cost about  $12,000USD, and to run off compressed air. the user would be expected to get one of those 5hp compressors to run it.

George B.

Have a great Turkey Day..

 

Posted in DIYer Skills, How Tos, Important Safety Information, Strange Stuff, Test Bench, Things I Hate!, Things I like, UtterPower Articles | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Battery Charger Design, It rained hard today, and I spent much of the day thinking about batteries and chargers.

Posted on November 22, 2011 by George B.
Autozone Charger Display

Autozone Charger Display

This may be one of the better examples of why we need build products for those we expect to market to.  We best understand their needs and expectations BEFORE we put it on the shelf for sale.   

I may have woke up thinking about it, this is the time of year the temperature drops, but it’s also the time we have more electrical loads running, they arrive in the same time frame to challenge the chemistry inside the box under your hood.  The windshield wipers are on, the defrosters, perhaps the day is so dark and wet that you are running the head lights too. Some of us understand there are other things going on in the car, the fact that you have selected the defroster (defogger) option means that your Air Conditioning compressor is cycling, and you hear it click in and out, that electric clutch adds a little more..

It was last night.. my wife told me, “my car is cranking kind of slow and when I’m idling at a stop light in the drizzle and cold, the voltage meter ticks with a much wider swing.”

I’m lucky… my wife is the type to share these things, and it’s in contrast with the blonde down the street who drove all the way to Portland with the oil light on.

Yes, it’s that time of year when we throw heavy demand on a marginal battery, and some find themselves alongside a dark road waiting for a tow truck.

If the Alternator is old, it might be compromised itself, it’s possible that the brushes that provide power to the field are just not up to providing the full current necessary to sustain the large demand for more power with a bad or weak battery .  In some alternators there is built-in thermal protection and if the load becomes too great, the alternator will literally shut down until it cools off. If this happens with a compromised battery, it’s not likely you’ll restart the vehicle, and very likely that you will lose the ignition system before you figure the alternator is no longer doing anything to help you. The trouble can spill over.

So.. today I did buy a new battery for my Wife’s car.. and what a difference!

But.. I was still thinking about battery chargers and that different  “hands on’ review  of a small Battery charger using a High frequency Conversion Unit.  After buying the battery, I stopped by several Auto Parts discount stores and noticed that Autozone had a pretty good stock of battery chargers, I bought the one you see to the right, it delivers 10 amps, and yes, I did pay more to play today, this is very similar to the design reviewed I share.

The Author “Erica” is excited about this product, and I was first critical of her write up. She mentioned bringing a large battery to full charge in no time, and how powerful this little 6 amp battery charger is. We might guess that it’s about <=96 watts powerful, and we’d expect it to take a LONG Time x2 to charge a semi truck battery.

But Erica is likely deriving her information and satisfaction from the charger and the fact that the battery starts the car, garden tractor, or what have you when she’s done with the charger. AND the product has status lights on the front of it,  so when Erica says the battery is at full charge, it’s more than likely the light on front of the charger say it’s so.

She’s a very happy Customer, User, and Owner of a HF (smart) battery charger.

It took me a good long while to arrive at a place where I have nothing but respect for her effort to share her happiness with the product. At first I was expecting her to at least open the damned case and look around, or maybe slap a scope on it and look at the power conversion stage, or put a friggen volt meter across the battery and tell us what she saw.  Fact is, I’ve been exposed to Jeri Ellsworth, and some how I’m holding onto this unrealistic idea that every woman should know to bake her own Semi Conductors, and bend and weld metal too 🙂  If I criticise Erica’s effort .. I need  criticise my own, because I don’t always lay out the data during my rants or praise for a product.

Maybe I better share that my interest at this point is in the Product Design, as I said, the technology is good, and in fact, we won’t see the old stuff again due to the high price of commodities and the fact that efficiency in the older chargers was normally poor. A great big old inductor like that found in an old, heavy, reliable Xantrax inverter is NOT an efficient way to float a battery bank off AC… The power factor at float is something terrible. the HF Conversion design is likely the correct tool for efficient battery float.

So…here’s where we guess about this product and the design team who built it…

Maybe we ask who designed the product? Sometimes it’s the vendors of chips and other components, they sell this stuff with good circuits notes, and even examples of viable products 🙂 What it often turns out to be is a product designed by Engineers for Engineers.

I was curious about Erica is she typical of other users and owners of this battery charger?  I decided to look at Amazon for reviews of this product and others made by the same manufacturer. the result of my little study was a bit of a surprise.. it seems that nearly half the reviews there are from less than satisfied people, and some are down right pissed off about their experience.  This may be the time to mention this product has a five year warranty, that’s pretty impressive I think, especially if they really back it up.

There are no doubts in my mind that high frequency conversion is here to stay in battery charger design, and it has a lot of advantages, so how did this product miss the mark with half those who purchased it and made the effort to review it?

Here’s one reviewer that is not thrilled..  I found others that didn’t like this sc600 model, and it may have some design problems, or perhaps it’s features the reviewers had no appreciation for ?

Warning, don’t expect this charger to work when you need it most!

I purchased this for the very rare occasion when my wife or I accidently leave
something on in one of our garaged vehicles and come back later to find a
battery completely dead.

Such was the case this week when we left the key in the minivan with the accessory power running the fan and video player. Two days later we discovered the batter was completely dead. I opened the recently purchased charger for the first time, hooked it up just to discover it would not maintain a continuous charge. I called the manufacturer support line and they walked me through several tests and confirmed the charger was not acting properly, however, they refused to admit the charger was defective, and
rather, repeatedly asserted that my van battery was defective and needed
replaced! Of course, I found this a bit implausible since the premium high CCA
van battery was only 1 month old. I quickly dispelled the manufacturer’s
assertion and proved my new van battery was fine, when I borrowed my neighbor’s
charger which worked perfectly, and within a short period, the van started up
with no hesitation. I did some more testing and found this charger will work if
your battery is not dead and already has a charge, but of course, that is not
what I need a battery charger for! Fortunately, the product was still
within the return period. I plan to purchase a different charger.

Ok, let’s analyze his requirement:

He has a dead 12 volt battery (approximately 99.9 percent plus of all car battereis are 12 volt right? so this should make him part of the PRIME target audiance? I think so.

Let’s jump back to the design, this battery charger model works with 6 volt and 12 volt batteries, it does that because it can! but maybe it’s even better than that, the Engineers designed it smart enough to figure six volt or twelve volt mode all on its own! under processor control, is that right?

So how does this thing work? you plug it into power, attach the battery, the charger processor reads the battery and determines if it’s a 12 volt or a six volt, and proceeds to test and then charge it..

sooo… how does the processor know it’s six volt or 12 volt >IF< the battery is dead ?? I think the answer is it can’t, and if it sees let’sd say 5 volts, it must assume it’s a six volt battery. Of course if it came out of a guys Mini van who left soem load on for days, it might well read 5 volts or less!

We could ask ourselves if this is a Kiss design, but hey, we already know it’s not.. but maybe worse that that, it wasn’t designed to charge a dead battery either, and it appears that’s a pretty common expectation among people who shop for battery chargers.

If only we were sitting in on the design team meetings, what a great article that would make… all those drawings on the board, the excitement of designing that High frequency section and assurign you didn’t make a transmitter that totally knocked out all the communications between planes and ground at the local air port. Whether to put a fan in there or to spend the money on a big chunk of aluminum sheet and come up with a design that might cool when left running under some winter coat tossed on top of it.

Sure.. you know the public can be a pain in the ass, but wouldn’t it have been a great idea to collect some information from potential users of battery chargers and designed what they wanted to buy?

If you have spent time in junk stores, or stopped by garage sales to look at guy stuff, you might remember the battery chargers there for sale. Top four things that put them in the discard pile are:

  • Faulty Switches
  • Bad diodes
  • Frayed or damaged cords, plugs, or battery clips
  • Broken Amp Meter

We know all experienced engineers will look at these areas and design well enough to clear the warranty period..

Maybe the design team considered a way of selecting six or 12 volts with a button or switch, and possibly an led or two to showthe selected state?  But perhaps they just locked onto the fact they could have that figured via the micro processor, so why bother giving the user more control?

We’ll likely never know, as the book or article would never been as exciting as the stories told about Duntov, Delorean, and others during the golden days of designing stuff that people wanted to buy! We all watched as years went by and all the lessons learned seemed to have been forgotten, you need build stuff people want.

Here’s some additional information about HF conversion in battery charger designs.. it’s likely here to stay.

In this article about HF Conversion, if you know me at all, you can imagine the smile that came over my face when I saw this formula

Efficiency =  Output Watts/Input Watts

Since the authors of this paper also mention EVs, I think it’s worth mentioning again what kind of day it was here. Wet is not the word for it.. sop and wet might be a start, but we do have a lot of days like this, and watching the loads on your automobile’s electrics is quite telling. The wipers dragging over so much glass, and doing so in backed up traffic for long periods. The fan motor whirling, and sometimes a need to start that thermal resistance rear window defogger, to assure you can see to the rear and not cut somebody off while passing.

We note these things, and then think of the BTUs necessary to heat the cabin air, and keep all this cabin glass clear. If it were an ev we were driving, we’d be sucking the life out of the battery at a dead stop, we’s inch along in the heavy traffic going no where with very significant loads.

In the mind of an EV owner is the idea that EVs use near no energy at all crawling along.. rational people know that it’s either too hot, or too cold much of the time, and it’s just not so.

All the best,

George

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Things I Hate!, Things I like, UtterPower Articles | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Utterpower’s 186PMG Prototype Generator

Posted on November 20, 2011 by George B.

Note: The following information was retrieved from UtterPower’s archived pages. All information is republished for educational purposes. Any mention of items for sale or prices are outdated and no longer applicable.

186PMG prototype Generator120/240 60HZ AC PMG can carry loads at 4225 watts, with excellent starting of induction motors. but we rate it at 3KW Continuous and this includes high ambient temperatures.

As you can see, this is a fairly compact design, under the belt cover are two trouble free and efficient Allmand Serpentine Drive Pulleys, in this case, the engine is fitted with a 5.0 inch pulley, and the PMG fitted with the 4.2, this allows the engine to run at lower RPM which greatly extends it’s life over a 1:1 drive ratio. I think this engine is quite happy at 3000RPM, but 3600 is pushing the engine too hard to get the longevity out of it. Backing off even 300 RPMs in some of these higher speed designs can more than double the life of the engine.

This is only one example of a PMG gen set, but I’m sure you can see just how easy it is to build your own generator with the PMG and Allmand drive pulleys.

Allmand Serpentine Drive PulleysIf Mad Max was designing one, he’d be using the PMG and the Allmand drive pulleys, you can change the drive ratio in two minutes, and replace an engine in a few more minutes, the PMG has one moving part, if it isn’t part of the design, it can’t break!

This Engine has electric start, and it is not necessary to use the decompressor with the electric start. Cogging is not a big problem, and manual starting was easy for me..

Thanks to the EPA, these small diesels are much harder to find, I have found a few for sale, and you can email me for a lead if I have one at the moment.

All the Best,
George B

Posted in DIYer Generator, Z UtterPower Archives | Tagged , | 4 Comments

UtterPower Collective Of Like Minded People

Posted on November 19, 2011 by George B.

Note: The following information was retrieved from UtterPower’s archived pages. All information is republished for educational purposes. Any mention of items for sale or prices are outdated and no longer applicable.

Utterpower is a collective of like minded people from around the world, we cut across race, religion, and other bounds. Most of us believe in self reliance, and we believe that if things are to to happen in our favor, it is our individual responsibility to make it happen.

We live in India, China, England, New Zealand, Australia, Africa, Canada, the USA, France, Spain, Mexico, South America, Iceland, Germany, and other places too numerous to list. The English language unites us, and some of use speak as many as seven languages, English is often a second or third language. and the WWW is our conduit. “I” seldom use the word “I”, because eye know where good ideas and knowledge comes from. It is relationships around the world and input from many engineers and users of slow speed and off grid power that help refine ideas and products. Utterpower has a relationship with a small company who is using serpentine drives for some very specialized applications. We are privileged to have access to their test data. As mentioned before, there is more than one helicopter using serpentine belts in the final drive to the overhead rotor! and there are other critical applications where serpentines were selected over other drive methods.

If we consider the Lister Types, it is probable that the first use of a serpentine belt on a CS Lister Type happened when some Canadian, Englishman, Australian, New Zealander, Icelander, etc. laid eyes on the Automotive type serpentine driven alternator. There’s a chance he pulled it from his vehicle along with the drive belt and temporarily set it up to charge the batteries at his off grid location using the more efficient, and less annoying slow speed engine.

I have received a good many emails from people off grid running multiple automotive type alternators to charge batteries, and sometimes the belt is slipped off the alternator and moved over to drive a modified automotive water pump (serpentine pulley equipped) to fill a cistern, or irrigate a small garden plot. It’s all about using common parts often found in the junkyard, or even bought new for a reasonable price.

Columbia University Lister TeamOf course when I visited the Columbia University website, I smiled when we saw the simple, obvious, time tested method of driving a small alternator. These young people today, they know a good idea when they see it 🙂

As for calculating the power these belts can transfer, it is quite impressive, some claim they were the first, some mention power figures per groove with less than the full calculation. There are others who attempt to discuss the flywheel effect and the advantages of high mass in pulleys, and it is obvious that they have not come to realize the full impact as it relates to the serpentine drive versus other types of belts. We do not attempt to dispute their claims, or correct them.

As for the use of the ST heads, and the Lister Types, we give credit to the Utterpower Community and Randy Allmand for making the idea popular. He was willing to make the pulleys as those in our community suggested, and people in remote off grid locations fitted them and ran them for many hours a day providing feed back (sometimes via satellite connection) on their performance.

Certainly, there were folks who bought Utterpower Allmand drives, fitted them, and were amazed at the efficiency, low price and availability of belts. A few individuals have decided to make and market their own, and we are flattered that they are doing so.

But let’s give credit where credit is due.. there are few things new under the sun, and most of the stuff we DIYers come up with were done long ago by the old engine folks. Go to some of these old farm shows and you will see technology you never realized was in use so long ago! I have examples of CVT drives so complex , they make my head hurt, and they are from 1920!

Last week at the gas pump, I was filling a 5 gallon can; across the pumps was an old duffer filling four Jerry cans with gas. I took a chance, and exclaimed “looks like you’re out to have some fun!” Sure enough, he was taking some of his rare and collectable American made tractors to a show. I told him about my 1937 design Allis Chalmers engine, and the advancements found.  He replied, “Yelp, a darned sight more advanced that that Ford. Then he told me of his 1919 tractor fitted stock with 4 valves per cylinder!

Next time you think you came up with something new, you better do some research, I thought the 4 valve heads were pretty much a WWII aircraft development… wrong again!

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to our current design, it may be a while before users discover some of the reasons why ours are built the way they are, and we’ll leave it to those who deploy them to discover what and why our community did it this way.

All the best,
George B.

PS: Stay tuned, for more posts from the archives.

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