Electronicalness

Intersection of Barnes & Miller Roads

Driving into Portland this afternoon, I stopped at this light and noticed all the electronical stuff in view at this point. We have the traffic lights with their spy cameras, we have a powerline intersecton, a whole raft of communications cables, and in the background we have four radio transmission antennas. We won't talk about all the electronic stuff in the cars.

Modern Life

A Quantum Mythology by Gavin Smith

I'm reading A Quantum Mythology by Gavin Smith, a book I picked up when we went to Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago. We spent a day wandering around outside the hotel / casino. We stopped in a couple shops along the way but ended up at Fashion Show Las Vegas, a massive shopping complex about a mile south of the hotel. Sweetie went off to go shopping at Nordstrom's or some such while I looked around for a bookstore and, lo and behold, I found one - R. D. Talley. A small storefront, one woman at a desk, some freestanding bookshelves and some against the wall. I don't think there were more than a thousand books on display, or maybe two thousand. This was a little suspect, could this be one of those religious bookstores? Or worse yet, a front for a cult? No, it was none of that. Somebody had put together quite a selection of books. In ten minutes I had seen half a dozen books that might interest me. I go to Powell's now and again, but I can spend hours in there and come out with one book that might be worth reading. Anyway, the person who selected the books was the woman at the desk, and no, she is not R. D. Talley.

almost monday - can't slow down (official video)
almost monday

Anyway, I'm sitting outside in the sun, trying to make headway in the book and listening to an album by Almost Monday (seems they are going to be at the Crystal Ballroom this December, but the only seats available are 'obscured'. Or standing on the floor.) and I have to engage my Bluetooth speaker. 

I have the speaker sitting next to my computer display and facing the window, looking out into the backyard. When I am inside, the speaker gets the audio signal from the computer via an old fashioned stereo cable. When I want to listen to music outside, I switch the speaker to Bluetooth, open up the window and dial up YouTube Music on my Samsung (Android) smartphone.

Normally it works very well, but today for some reason, probably because I was already irritated with the toaster, I ham handed it and it got confused which necessitated cycling the power, which means I had to remember where the switch was and that one needs to hold the button down for like three seconds in order to turn it off. And now we are heading off down the 'how much worse everything is now' and 'why can't they put real switches on things anymore?' and goddamn commies.

Since we remodeled the house two years ago, half the light switches are now fancy. I've experimented with dimmers before, but I never found a situation where I was using one on a regular basis. Either the light is on or off. If it's too much, or too little, get a different light. Now it's a crap shoot what's going to happen when I hit a switch.

So now I'm thinking about electronic switches versus old time mechanical switches with real metal contacts. I went looking for a video mechanical contacts. I didn't find anything great, but I found these three short videos.

The Hidden Flaws of Relays | Contact Bounce & Arcing Explained
Engineeringness

Relay Contact Bounce — You Won’t Believe the Rattle! 😲📈
Uncle Duncan's Electronics Shack

Circuit breaker arcing in slow-mo! - shorts - slowmotion
Kishlay Patel

Like I said: So now I'm thinking about electronic switches versus old time mechanical switches with real metal contacts. When you open a mechanical switch, there is liable to be some arcing between the contacts, and amount of arcing depends on the voltage. Household voltages don't need much air to insulate them, only a fraction of a millimeter if it's clean air. When you close the switch, the contacts are liable to bounce. It may not be much, maybe a ten-thousandth of an inch, but they will separate and there will be some arcing. This is were you get the electromagnetic noise that interferes with the radio - you turn off a light or switch on the A/C compressor and you are going to hear it, like a pop on you AM radio, no matter what station you are tuned to. What I want to see is a high speed video of contacts bouncing and the corresponding noise in the electromagnetic spectrum, all in one video.

The Brave Little Toaster (1987) - VHS
Brian Emerick

The Brave Little Toaster

Evil screws and my solution

Meanwhile, the toaster. I bought it a three years ago from Amazon for $25 and it's been a great little toaster until the latch quit working. It's an electromagnetic latch, not a mechanical one, so no mechanical components to wear out. I rattled it around in case there were some crumbs blocking the magnet, but no luck. I found that I could keep it down by wedging a sharpening steel between the lever and the microwave shelf just above it. Set the microwave timer for two minutes thirty seconds and I have toast. Not the most elegant solution, so I put it on the workbench with intention of opening it up and seeing if I could remedy the problem. I look at the bottom and I see ten little screws apparently holding the plastic base to the sheet metal shell. Cool, it's put together with screws, they didn't weld it shut or use some invisbile snap fasteners. Screws I can deal with, until I look at the heads and realize I need a screwdriver with triangular bit to turn them. 

34pcs Security Bit Set

I ain't got one of those, but wait! Iowa Man gave me a pack-of-bits for dealing with security screws, surely there is a triangular bit in there. Unfortunately, that pack-of-bits is with my new Makita Drill and the drill is at older son's place. So I had to wait a week until he and I could get together and I could get the drill. That happened Saturday. Today got the notion to look at the toaster and what do you know? No triangular bit in the pack of security screw bits. Bah, double bah and humbug. What else have we got? I ended up using a small plastic screwdriver that likely came with some household do-dad and a small jeweler's screwdriver. The two together would just fit in the slot and I could turn the screw. I had to use a pair of pliers to turn them, some were very tight. Righteous pain in the tush. Got it open, didn't find anything that might be causing the problem, put it back together using Phillips head screws I found in my bin of sheet metal / wood screws. At first I found a nice set of black Torx screws that looked to be perfect for the job, they would not tighten up. I had to go up at least one full size, maybe two to get screws that would tighten up. And now it seems to be working.

P. S. When I started writing this I thought I bought the toaster a year ago for $7. Me memory is getting sloppy.

P. P. S. The book has at least three plot lines, some out of this world science fiction, some extreme magic and il y a beaucoup de violence. Probably going to take me a while.

American Battery

Good story about batteries on Oil Price: Trump's Grid Battery Ban Leaves Developers Guessing

I'm not quite sure what to think about China. They have made great strides since Nixon changed the rules. Now they are competing with us much the way the Rooskies were doing back in the sixties.

Data Centers

DRAM Spot Price

Looks like the price for computer memory chips has gone up by a factor of ten in the last year. Some people are betting heavily that the Artificial Intelligence / Data Center boom is somehow going to pay off big time.

Evergreen Substation and Constable BESS

For a long time I've been wondering about the confluence of high voltage power lines near Highway 26 and Cornelius Pass Road in Hillsboro. I kind of assumed it was because of Intel's Ronler Acres mega-fab near there. Finally asked Google for map and it turned me on to Open Infrastructure Map, and man-oh-man, it is glorious. Everything I ever wanted in a map. Well, except for railroads, but we have the OpenRailway Map for that.

Anyway, looking at the Open Infrastructure Map I see there is substation devoted to Ronler Acres, but it is kind of small, so that's not what all these power lines are for. But then a short distance away I find the Evergreen Substation (shown on the above map), and it is right in the middle of all the big box warehouse like buildings being built just north of Evergreen Road. I suspect some, if not all, are data centers.

Right next door to the Evergreen Substation is Constable BESS. And what the heck is Constable BESS? It's a 75 megawatt battery. Somebody really wanted dependable power in this area. Decision to construct the battery was made back in 2021, so somebody was planning for this explosion of data centers several years before it got started. I'm pretty sure that three years ago all that land north of Evergreen was empty farmland. 2023 was the year Constable BESS came online. Huh.

Fluorescent Lights

TCP LT814B2CCT LED Light

Fluorescent lights in the basement are burning out. Go to Home Depot, all they have is LED replacements. Apparently you can't buy actual fluorescent bulbs in Oregon anymore. They had one there that claimed to be a Direct Replacement, so I picked up a pair for about $15. They plugged into the old fixture, no problem, and turned on, but you may as well have not bothered as they were nowhere near as bright (1800 Lumens) as the old ones (there are still some fluorescents that aren't burned out). So I go to Platt Electric Supply (which is actually closer to my house) but they don't have any fluorescents either. However, they ordered me a pair brighter LED lights (2600 Lumens) for $25. Only problem is you have to rewire the fixture to bypass the ballast.

WAGO Triple Connector

While I am waiting, I notice they have WAGO connectors on the shelf. I've heard good things about them, so I pick up a couple of small boxes, about the size of a deck of cards, thinking there will be a dozen connectors in the box and it will be five or six bucks. Then I check out and each box is like $25. That's when I notice there are like 100 connectors in each box. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. I have an old yogurt tub full of wire-nuts that I could use, but you know what? Those wire-nuts, bless their little plastic hearts, are just a real pain. Something about wires, they just don't like to line up against other wires, and if they do then the ends are not aligned. If you can get them to behave, you can twist on the wire-nut and have secure connection. Usually. If the wire-nut gods are smiling on you. These little WAGO connectors cost somewhere around forty cents each but they are infinitely quicker and easier to use. I recommend getting a variety pack that has connectors for 2, 3, 4 & 5 wires. I only got 2 & 3 wire connectors, so I had to cascade them to get all the wires in the fixture connected. 

The wiring is dirt simple. You can supply power to both ends, or just to the two pins on one end. Schematic printed right on end cap.

Got the fixture wired and the lights installed, Now I get to select what color I want. Switch on the end cap has five settings:

• 3000K
• 3500K
• 4000K
• 5000K
• 6500K

I think I set mine to 5000K.

When it rains, it pours

I originally wrote this a couple of months ago. I suppose I intended to add to it, but I never did. Anyway, I'm cleaning out my drafts folder and this one is good enough so up it goes.

Devastation of the Palisades Fire at sunset in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Jan. 14. Ethan Swope/AP Photo

For the last week (at least), Los Angeles has been on fire. Is it still on fire? Maybe, I haven't heard anyone saying the fire is out. No matter. Obviously, California did this to itself. Whether it was politicians or the government or the courts, it doesn't matter. Somebody should have been paying attention and raised a stink, and I'm sure that some people were doing just that. But not enough people listened, and the political clout never developed far enough to do anything about the risk of fire, and so it rained fire.

You know another thing that California is know for? Green energy. Green energy often means batteries, and those batteries are often lithium-ion, and when a lithium-ion battery catches fire it can be the very devil to put out. So if it was raining fire, now it's pouring.

While car batteries are the biggest, they are used in most every electronic do-dad we have:

Lithium-ion batteries are used in cellphones, tablets, laptops, wireless headphones, electric cars, and solar panel storage. - Jill McLaughlin at The Epoch Times

Integrating Electrical Power

Electrical Power Grid

Everybody wants more power, but new electrical power plants don't just happen, it takes a lot or work to just figure out how to graft it onto the existing system. Construction Physics explains in this article:

Inside the Interconnection Queue by Brian Potter

Here is one excerpt:

Electric power in the US is provided by the electrical grid, a huge network of power plants, transmission lines, and transformers that moves electric power from where it's generated to where it's consumed. Before connecting a new power plant (or a very large consumer of electric power, like a semiconductor fab) to the grid, operators must evaluate whether the existing system has enough capacity to handle the change and determine what upgrades might help handle the increased load — new transmission lines, transformers, switchgears, etc.

 Here's another:

As of this writing, there are over 11,000 projects in the interconnection queue, with a combined generation and storage capacity of around 1,900 gigawatts. This is close to twice as much generation capacity as currently exists in the US (which was 1,189 gigawatts at the end of 2023).

 

Fun with Capacitors

4,000-Joule Exploding Wire Machine
Hyperspace Pirate

Great stuff. I'm watching the opening bangs and I'm thinking those wire must be substantial, but they're not. They're like 36 gauge, which is about the thickness of a human hair. So much bang from such a small bit of metal. There is an ad from 11:50 to 13:20.

Description:

In this video I'll demonstrate the incredible power of electricity when it's stored at high voltage in a large capacitor bank. 

This device uses five 10,000 uF 400-volt capacitors in series, forming a bank with 2,000 uF and a maximum voltage of 2,000 volts. At full charge, it stores 4kJ of energy, which is approximately equivalent to the chemical energy in one gram of TNT. 

When the switch is closed, the capacitors dump more than 10,000 amps of current through an extremely thin wire, causing it to heat so rapidly that it explodes with tremendous pressure, causing a bright flash, a shockwave, and tremendous noise. This type of electrical explosion can be used in lieu of a chemical blasting cap, and in fact, was used to detonate the compression charges in plutonium-based nuclear weapons. Unlike a chemical blasting cap, an exploding wire can have its timing controlled down to the nanosecond-level, making it suitable for nuclear devices. 

Exploding wires are also used for plasma research, since the circuit can be configured to create a "Z-pinch" or "X-pinch" effect that generates large X-ray bursts and other interesting high-energy phenomena.

For a given energy, an exploding wire circuit should have the largest voltage practical with the lowest capacitance possible to minimize RC time constant and discharge time, and maximize current rise time and peak current. This means, ideally, the capacitor bank should use high voltage film or oil capacitors. In reality, cost and logistics made electrolytic capacitors the most practical for this project. These have the best energy density, but suffer from relatively large series resistance and inductance.

The circuit shown in this video is initially triggered using an Thyristor (SCR), but the extremely high peak current and short rise time caused the device to be destroyed, so I revered to a mechanical switch, which actually worked pretty well. 

I tried exploding Copper, Aluminum, Nichrome, and Magnesium. Aluminum and Magnesium had the most dramatic effect, because both ignited when superheated by the electric current, causing them to add their chemical energy to the blast. I've tried up to 500 milligrams of aluminum foil, and in every test, the aluminum is totally vaporized from ignition. 

I'm not really sure if there's a practical application that I can use this device for, but it's extremely fun to use, and if you don't have any fireworks for special occasions, it certainly provides a good substitute. 

Texas Tesla Tower

Texas Tesla Tower

Somebody is taking Tesla's idea of wireless power transmission seriously. This YouTube Short got me started. Hackaday has a page about it, but it doesn't tell us much. tvecourse has a YouTube video, but it only pokes around the outside. The company that built the tower has a website, but the only page that works is the contact page. 

Tesla was great. Just based on his reputation there might be something to this wireless power transmission business. On the other hand, maybe J. P. Morgan was right and the whole scheme is doomed to failure because how could you make any money off of something you were giving away for free?

Power Outage

I had to go and open my big fat mouth. Four days ago I put up a post about Emergency Generators and this morning I woke up to no power. It only lasted a few hours and it's back on now. I may not need an emergency generator, but I definitely need more flashlights, you hear me, Amazon? Very annoying not having any power, totally disrupted my morning routine - no coffee, no microwave, no internet. Fortunately the sun was high enough that if I picked my spot, there was enough light to read my book (Last Argument of Kings). Got through a couple of chapters.

Some places you might need electrical power to heat your house. You would need it if you have electric heat. Some places in Oregon still use electric heat. Even if you heat your house with ever reliable gas or oil, you still need electric power to run the pumps and fans. We can get by without electric power as we have two gas fireplaces. If it gets really cold we might have to huddle up in front of the fireplace, but that's okay because there's a TV there and that's where we spend a couple of hours a day anyway.

More Links

Who’s afraid of Sahra Wagenknecht? Germany's 'left-conservative' has redefined populism by Thomas Fazi. This story is about an old time, east German politician who has founded a new political party in Germany. I like her.

Data Centers In 'Spy Country' Northern Virginia Face Seven-Year Hookup Wait by Tyler Durden. I'm impressed with all the data centers being built in my neighborhood, but I imagine they are small potatoes compared to what's being built in Northern Virginia.

Soviet Era Technology

MYSTERIOUS 50 Year Old Soviet Power Tool: Teardown and Review!
The Doubtful Technician

Just a couple of items I encountered today. Above we have an old Soviet power tool, below we have a Soviet micro computer, circa 1990.

UKNC

Talking to Osmany this morning and he's telling me that back around 1990 in Cuba, when he was ten years old, he was studying computer programming using these big, fat keyboards with a memory module that plugged into the upper right corner. This photo of the UKNC fits the bill. It was a PDP-11 clone. When I was in school ten years earlier, in Texas, we had a PDP-11 computer for certain classes. It was a mini-computer, which meant it was rack mounted.  The CPU was the size of a microwave oven.

There is a UKNC emulator available on GitHub.

Electricity

VEVOR Hot Water Dispenser

A month or three ago we started decompressing the basement and expanding back into the main floor of the house. We had a remodeling project going on last year and while that was going on we were living in the basement. Usually I have place to myself, but we were both living in there for the duration of the remodeling project. Plus we had all the furniture. It was a little congested. My workbench suffered the most. Anyway, things are getting back to normal and I thought I would move the coffee maker and the hot pot onto a table in the big room. That worked okay until somebody tried to print something using the laser printer that was plugged into the same outlet and a breaker tripped. Laser printers draw 15 amps! Who knew? Certainly not me. Actually it was a bad arrangement overall. The coffee maker and the hot pot each draw about 15 amps. The coffee maker and the laser printer probably only draw that much for a few seconds, so you could probably get away with running both of them on the same circuit as the odds would be low that they would both want big power at the same time. You might even get away with it until you have completely forgotten about this whole power arbitrage thing. So, to keep the peace among my minions I moved the coffee maker back into the work room and the hot pot into the kitchen. The coffee maker displaced the battery chargers, so they got sent out to the big room.

There are still some problems with the current arrangement. The laser printer is still on the same circuit as the air fryer oven, but we seldom use it. I guess there was a time when we were using it regularly, but it's been months since it's been turned on. The hot pot died and has been replaced by an always hot pot. I suspect it is on the same circuit as the microwave but no problems. So far.

Then the new hot pot died. No, wait, it's working. No it's not, it quit again. What gives? The outlet is bogus. Maybe the prongs on the new plug are thinner, or something with fat prongs was in here before. In any case it's not a solid connection. So I replaced the outlet, 77 cents from Home Depot, and all is well. Except, while I was trying to sort out how many circuits I had, I discovered that the outlet under the sink is busted - no power at all. So now, since I'm getting all electricicated, I am going investigate. 

Did ROMEX Cable Change Again? (NM-B Update)
Backyard Maine

I found the problem in the switch box. Presumably the outlet under the sink is for the disposal that was never installed because we only use the basement for drinking beer, nothing serious like actual food. The switch is for the never-installed disposal. What I found in the switch box was three Romex cables. One would be power and one would go to the outlet box. The third? Well, hell, every electrical box in the world seems to have two or three extra Romex cables that often have nothing to do with whatever the box is for. But the wires in this one aren't connected to anything, they are just taped over.

Check the hot lead and it's got 15 volts. Check taped leads, and whoa! This one is hot! Talked to Jack at lunch today and he suspects that the 15 volts was induced by running next to a live wire. 15 volts, but no oomph behind it. So I decided to just tape it off and leave it. 

Electricians earn their money. Stuffing those wires back into the box takes some oomph, and trying to contort myself so I could reinstall the outlet under the sink was a struggle.

More No Shovel

How we change out an electric utility pole
Coastal Electric Cooperative

Uniberp reports from central Michigan:

They had to replace the power pole at this end of my private drive. It was loose and ready to fall.
The power company showed up with 2 huge trucks and 6-7 guys.
They augured a hole about 10 feet away from the old pole after marking the gas line, nowhere near it.
I talked to the guy for a minute about the unused cable tv line but didn't think to mention the underground phone/DSL line.
They didn't check.
Again, 6-7 guys.
Dropped in the pole, moved all the service, left.
No internet.
ATT came out and discovered Comed had cut the old line, ran a 300 foot temporary line on the surface with orange markers every 15 feet.
It stayed that way for about 2 weeks.
A guy shows up with a ditchwitch with a cable plow, did that in about 1 hour.
3-4 days later ATT shows up again and does the connect.
That must have cost Com-ed $1000. 

Ditch Witch RT115 Plowing Fiber Optic Cable
DitchWitchCarolinas

Houston Storm

Electricity transmission towers were damaged in Cypress, Texas, by a strong storm on Thursday, May 21, 2024 - Janett Avalos / Houston Public Media

I don't think I've ever heard of power transmission towers being taken down by a windstorm. Cypress is a suburb of Houston.

Via Bayou Renaissance Man

Bitcoin Heater

This bathhouse makes $$ heating its pools with Bitcoin mining
Morning Brew

Crypto currency is stupid. After transportation, it is one of the biggest energy consumers on the planet. Maybe. Bitcoin miners and their like suck up a ton of electricity and turn it into heat. It's stupid, but it makes money.

Heatbit Mini

However, if you have electric heat, a Bitcoin heater can make some money that can be used to offset your electric bill, which would be nice.

PGE (Portland General Electric not Pacific Gas & Electric, which operates in California) just raised their rates. My last electric bill was for $150. Last time I checked it was like a buck and a half, so I ain't happy.

Thermoelectric Generators

Candle-Powered LED Lantern: an Exercise in Conversion Efficiency
Our Own Devices

I was surprised to see the long list of thermoelectric devices (4:54 mark).

The Candle-Powered LED Lantern is available from Amazon:

Candle-Powered LED Lantern

Amazon also has a much cheaper, but similar, device.

I made a Russian type kerosene radio
Syam Nath

qrp.gr has a long page all about the history of thermoelectric generators.

You want electric power in the Arctic? No problem for the Soviets:

The Soviet Union's Deadly Abandoned Nuclear Generators
Andy Mcloone

Update a couple hours later fixed first video.

Pera Palace

Midnight at Pera Palace ❖ Netflix ❖ Hazal Kaya ❖ ENGLISH 2022
North America TEN - Closed Captions
We started watching this mini-series the other night. I'm not too sure about the show, it's got all the right elements, but it's a little goofy. It hasn't gone completely stupid yet, so it might be okay. We shall see.

But! The setting is beyond cool. The Pera Palace is a real hotel in Istanbul, it's been there over a hundred years and needless to say there's a little history there. Agatha Christie wrote Murder On The Orient Express while she was there. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, soldier, revolutionary and founder of the modern Turkish state shows up in the dining room.

From Wikipedia:

Pera Palace Electric Elevator

Establishment work began in 1892 and the grand opening ball was held in 1895.

. . . 

The hotel was the first building in the Ottoman Empire to be powered by electricity, other than the imperial palaces. It was also the only address in the city to provide hot running water for its guests and was home to the first electric elevator in Constantinople. It was also the second electric elevator in Europe.

 

Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes

poppyfields cafe electric bill

The person (or bot) that posted this picture of their electric bill has a Ukraine flag in their logo to show support for Ukraine against the Russian invaders.

From Western leaders are madder than I thought by Mary Harrington. Makes me wonder what the Queen has to say about all this. I suspect candles and firewood are going to be in big demand in the UK.

Links

Hard to believe, I know, but stupid government energy policies are getting even stupider:

• Power Company Seizes Control of Thermostats in Colorado During Heatwave
• Filling Gasoline Cars Could Become Cheaper Than Charging EVs In The UK
• G7 unveils plan to enforce Russian oil price cap
• Nord Stream gas supply to EU stopped indefinitely – Russia's Gazprom

Meanwhile, Washington continues its descent into madness:

• Biden's hateful rhetoric against Americans presents the GOP with a sterling opportunity
• Washington refuses to grant visa to Russia’s interior minister to attend a UN summit

On the plus side, Greenpeace continues to tilt at windmills:

• Greenpeace drops boulders in UK sea against ‘destructive’ fishing