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how to prevent fire with every item in your house on one circuit or power outlet - here is how I did it

23 April, 2008 21:14

Here is a list of items on one circuit:

  1. 26" CRT Television
  2. 575 watt stereo receiver
  3. 75 watt stereo sub-woofer
  4. computer 1: AMD 64 3.0GHz 2 core, one SATA HD, 2GB DDR2
    1. 19" widescreen LCD monitor
    2. two additionial PCI cards
    3. USB mouse RF receiver
  5. computer 2: Intel 2.6GHz Celeron, one SATA HD, one two IDE HD's 1GB DDR400
    1. 15 USB ports on 11 controllers (built in & PCI cards)
    2. USB powered audio in/out to RJ-11 with carrier signals
    3. 17" CRT
    4. 19" CRT
  6. computer 3: cobalt RAQ (low power consumption), 40GB IDE HD
  7. network equipment:
    1. 250MHz router
    2. 5 port 1000mbit switch
    3. dsl modem
    4. NAS with a 200GB IDE HD
  8. ML-1740 laser printer
  9. document scanner
  10. microwave oven
  11. toaster oven

All other items, lights, etc, are on a separate circuit.  This are are the power devices in which allows me to still be living:

1625 watt 500 50-70Hz volt transient power protector:

"A transient voltage suppressor or TVS is a general classification of an array of devices that are designed to react to sudden or momentary overvoltage conditions. One such common device used for this purpose is known as the transient voltage suppression diode that is simply a zener diode designed to protect electronics against overvoltages. Another design alternative applies a family of products that are known as metal-oxide varistor (MOV) that protect electronic circuits and electrical equipment.

The characteristic of a TVS requires that it respond to overvoltages faster than other common overvoltage protection components such as varistors or gas discharge tubes. This makes TVS devices or components useful for protection against very fast and often damaging voltage spikes. These fast overvoltage spikes are present on all distribution networks and can be caused by either internal or external events, such as lightning or motor arcing.

Applications of transient voltage suppression diodes are used for unidirectional or bidirectional electrostatic discharge protection of transmission or data lines in electronic circuits. MOV based TVS's are utilized to protect home electronics, distribution systems and may accommodate industrial level power distribution disturbances saving downtime and damage to equipment. The level of energy in a transient overvoltage can be equated to energy measured in joules or related to amperage when devices are rated for various applications. These bursts of overvoltage can be measured with specialized electronic meters that are capable of showing power disturbances of a high amplitude, thousands of volts, that last for very short time periods, even nanoseconds." - en.wikipedia.org

My power regulator that can handle - 20% voltage step-up which connects to the transient voltable regulator.  Connected to the transient voltage device are items [1-4].  The transient device has industrial source power cord (biggest power cable I have seen, about double the size of a computer power cable), extended with another industrial rated power cord (also larger than a normal computer power cable).  Obviously I don't know my AWG specs.

The extension hooks into my power regulator: (110V, 115V, 120V or 220V, 230V,240V) +/-20% Input Voltage.  The voltage regulator powers devices [5-9] in which an outlet extends to the transient voltage regulator that powers items [1-4].

Another extension of the power regulator is a universal power supply:Input Voltage 100/110/120V or 220/230/240V.

Connected to the UPS are items: 7.[1-4] on the battery backup outlets.  Their is a cordless phone receiver also connected that transforms back to the power regulator.

The primary source for all items listed above is one power outlet.

The microwave oven, small, 800 watts and the toaster oven are connected to separate outlets.

When either the microwave or toaster is in use, the house starts beeping as the power regulator goes into up-step conversion, connected to the transient power regulator, and UPS thus allowing my life to continue while living in a small appartment.

A year ago I was writing:

a horse is a horse of course of course unless of course the horse is Patches

[Technology]
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OPTI-UPS Value Series VS375C - provided software for this device breaks Ubuntu Server's run-levels and modifies the inittab

19 April, 2008 21:58

 [click here for a larger view]

OPTI-UPS Value Series VS375C 375VA 225W 6 Outlets UPS - Retail Right off the bat, this post is indeed not to technically in depth - In relation to [this post] and the UPS battery backup device I purchased, I experienced some troubling and at first nerve-racking boot errors when needing to reboot the computer after installing the provided linux applications on CD with the UPS. 

I will tell you right away, I ended up getting it to administrate the UPS, but not after it copied my inittab file to inittab.dn* (forget the exact file name), and replaced inittab itself with run-level configuration that I would think would not work on Debian based system of any kind.

The new inittab does contain the path to the binaries to be run at boot, but why in inittab, I do not understand.

I needed to edit the new run-level file and remove the dnpowerd related variables, and copy it back over to inittab.  I did this while running in recovery mode, remounting the drive rw.

I then placed the applications referenced in the run level file, and placed them in /etc/rc.local.  I then starts a web server on port 9982 with a default login of admin and a password of 1234.

All important information is piped through /dev/console along with the http web interface.

You are able to change event variables, however you need a current windows controller application to change specifications like output watts, and other, more technical information.

The linux service is able to send out network broadcasts of power status, and SNMP connectivity to remote hosts.  It can also alert you by e-mail, or page you through a modem.

[Technology] [Software]
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laser guided squirrel trap with the event taken by a camera

17 April, 2008 10:04

laser guided squirrel trap"Got a bit of a pest problem? [Chad] built a better squirrel/rabbit/thing trap using a soekris box, a laser pointer, serial controlled relay and a small motor. When the laser beam is broken, the Soekris activates the relay, pulling the door pins. Then it take a picture with a webcam and send him a page." -- Will O'Brien, Hack a Day

A year ago I was writing:

enable mp3 support for the Samsung SCH-a930 from Verizon

Samsung SCH-a930 as a serial modem over bluetooth HOWTO

[Squirrel Thursday]
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Bruce Sterling's HACKER CRACKDOWN - Voiced By Cory Doctorow

15 April, 2008 11:51

I have taken each part and re-encoded the audio in mp3 format at 16kHz, 16kbits mono - about 1/8th the size of the below source audio, and just as enjoyable I want to add.

If you are unfamiliar with this book, here is part 1 with the preface:   

The book is in 28 parts available here

"Since last June, I've been podcasting a weekly reading from Bruce Sterling's 1992 classic journalistic history of the founding of the online civil liberties movement, The Hacker Crackdown, which chronicles the events that led to the founding of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, my former employer. Hacker Crackdown was the first book I ever read electronically, the first piece of "literary freeware" I ever met. It's a fantastic book and it was a fantastic read.

Yes, I'm done. It took 28 installments, and included some of the strangest stuff I ever read aloud (for example, a mind-bogglingly bureaucratic phone company document around which a great deal of controversy once swirled). Now that I've finished it, I've put together an XML feed for all 28 parts, as well as direct MP3 and Ogg download links -- it's all under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. I hope someone'll download all the parts, normalize 'em, trim out the intros, and piece them together into a single file.

I need to thank Bruce Sterling here for his gracious permission in allowing me to read this aloud. Reading Hacker Crackdown back in 1992 -- actually, 1991, since I got hold of an advance copy through Bakka, the bookstore I worked at in Toronto -- absolutely and permanently transformed my life. Reading it again has made me revisit more than a decade's worth of striving, writing, imaginging, working and agitating. This book's an education and a half.

Thanks, Bruce.

 

MP3s: Part 01, Part 02, Part 03, Part 04, Part 05, Part 06, Part 07, Part 08, Part 09, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23, Part 24, Part 25, Part 26, Part 27, Part 28,

Ogg: Part 01, Part 02, Part 03, Part 04, Part 05, Part 06, Part 07, Part 08, Part 09, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23, Part 24, Part 25, Part 26 Part 27 Part 28

Podcast feed of the whole book

My podcast feed" -- Cory Doctorow

[Technology] [Software]
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affordable power regulator on the cheap at newegg.com - (110V, 115V, 120V or 220V, 230V,240V) +/-20% Input Voltage + UPS

15 April, 2008 01:45

powercom TCA-2000N 6 Outlets Voltage Regulator (110V, 115V, 120V or 220V, 230V,240V) +/-20% Input VoltageMy apartment was absolutely nerve racking to live in with all my power drinking electronics.

It got so bad, my metal shelf had hot spots in various places along the height of the metal poles.

I needed a voltage regulator that I had been putting off for several months, along with some well gaged power cords.

(110V, 115V, 120V or 220V, 230V,240V) +/-20% -  (110V, 115V, 120V or 220V, 230V, 240V)+/-7%

Along with the voltage regulator, I picked up a UPS for my networking device and NAS in case my nighttime backups were to be disturbed by night time lightning.  The specs suck, but it will not be powering a computer nor a monitor, just a router, switch, and DSL modem along with the NAS drive in which the HD is usually sleeping at any given time.  I could probably get 15 to 30 minutes out of the 3 minute specification.  I don't feel like doing the math, so I will leave it with that estimate. 

Full load runtime 1.5 Minutes (375VA), Half load runtime 7.2 Minutes (200VA), <4 Hours to 90% charge

The UPS comes with a serial cable and is Linux compatible, so I am thinking about picking one up for hamper, my trusty dirty server of mine.  A lot of data goes through the hard drive bus consistently, and a clean shut-down would be nice. 

The power regulator has kicked in 3 times for step-up inversion when heating up my toaster oven continuing the flow of clean and consistent power.  I hope the step-down and breaker works as well as the up-step does.

Total cost after shipping: $79.58  Shipping kills good things in this world... 

[Day to Day] [Technology] [Projects]
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Linden Lab Man earns the suffix "Man" - streaming second life through a null modem cable to an Apple IIC computer

15 April, 2008 00:39

Joshua Linden was able to create a custom bootstrap application for streaming a windows computer desktop to an Apple IIC computer.

With no optimization, he was able to achieve just over 1 frame per second through the serial port with the output of Second Life, of course.  The Apple IIC uses 1 bit encoding making colors, shades, and textures a little shaggy. 

I remember playing with the Apple II-C with vertical shaped objects to interact with when playing games or using applications.  This is quite exciting and I didn't realize this machine was capable of any higher level communication than what I used it for at the time. 


For more information and technical conversations about the methods used, head over to Usenet: comp.sys.apple2.programmer 

A year ago I was writing:

myspew is now hosted on a dedicated server

[Technology] [Software]
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You live once more! Welcome back Demonoid!

14 April, 2008 19:48

demonoid.comWe all know about archive.org, various torrent sites for live music, direct download sources - however, Demonoid has never let me down when I am trying to explore new music.  Such a database of legal music available, incredible - that other archive sites do not have available.

They were taken down for a while, and their come-back was uncertain.  However, certain to come back it now is!  Welcome back Demonoid.com!

http://www.demonoid.com/ 

[Day to Day]
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Mature Content

14 April, 2008 16:43

It happens that Franciscan Skemp, a large hospital System here where I live considers my content (myspew.com) an adult only website.

To prove a point I browsed to several porn sites, and then called their IT department.

They did appologize, told me to fill out a form, but my intention was only to find out what filtering systems they utilize.  I can only wonder where else the spew may fail. 

[Bullshit]
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Land where drunk cows swim and home to my daily hand