Big Blue's Transformation

[Gary Lewis]

L.A. has more people that the entire nation of Canada.....

Haha, I don't know about L.A. Jim, but the entire state of California does.

As for the weather here in Okiehoma, we've been having a very mild winter with most storms going either north or, oddly enough, south of us. But this one isn't missing us. And its brother is coming in on Tuesday evening to bring more snow. Apparently it won't warm up until maybe the weekend.

Gary,

I've been really amazed seeing people posting about how far south the cold weather and snow is this year. It's really something to see (scenes have been popping up on all the truck and dog pages I follow lol).

The good news is that the bad weather makes for good garage days;). Ask me how I know;).

Yes, the cold has gone WAAAAY south. We used to live in Houston, Katy really, and today they are down to 16F.

When we lived there we had a cold snap and a high percentage of people had pipes freeze. Turns out they bring the entry pipe up outside the stem wall before going into the house. I think that's downright silly since it takes no more pipe to bring it up inside the stem wall. And, sure enough, on TV just now they showed people trying to thaw out their pipe where it enters the house.

But they've also just come on TV and asked everyone here to lower their thermostats. Apparently many of the natural gas wells are freezing up and the production has been cut by 1/3. And on top of that they are having trouble generating enough electricity for all of us. So, we've cut the temp back and will be huddling under some of Janey's quilts.

Y'all be careful!

[ArdWrknTrk]

Yes, the cold has gone WAAAAY south. We used to live in Houston, Katy really, and today they are down to 16F.

When we lived there we had a cold snap and a high percentage of people had pipes freeze. Turns out they bring the entry pipe up outside the stem wall before going into the house. I think that's downright silly since it takes no more pipe to bring it up inside the stem wall. And, sure enough, on TV just now they showed people trying to thaw out their pipe where it enters the house.

But they've also just come on TV and asked everyone here to lower their thermostats. Apparently many of the natural gas wells are freezing up and the production has been cut by 1/3. And on top of that they are having trouble generating enough electricity for all of us. So, we've cut the temp back and will be huddling under some of Janey's quilts.

Y'all be careful!

I've been watching the rolling blackouts across Texas as they try to stabilize their grid voltage.

I'm sure a lot of homes on (or near) the coast aren't well equipped to handle the cold.

Meanwhile, here north of NYC it's been raining hard for the past few hours.

Hopefully it will melt all the snow away before it freezes solid again.

[Machspeed]

I've been watching the rolling blackouts across Texas as they try to stabilize their grid voltage.

I'm sure a lot of homes on (or near) the coast aren't well equipped to handle the cold.

Meanwhile, here north of NYC it's been raining hard for the past few hours.

Hopefully it will melt all the snow away before it freezes solid again.

Yeah, my little town experienced the rolling blackout yesterday. It was out for about an hour. I was standing in line at our Walmart when it went out. Seems the generators were out as well because all they had were the battery operated lights. Poor lady in front of me in the self check out lane had all her stuff done and just needed to pay.

Bummer in this is that my house is totally electric. Seemed like a smart move at the time of the build but with the frequent power outages in my town and the new weather, not so sure now. Been thinking about adding a generator. Anyone here do that?

[Gary Lewis]

Yeah, my little town experienced the rolling blackout yesterday. It was out for about an hour. I was standing in line at our Walmart when it went out. Seems the generators were out as well because all they had were the battery operated lights. Poor lady in front of me in the self check out lane had all her stuff done and just needed to pay.

Bummer in this is that my house is totally electric. Seemed like a smart move at the time of the build but with the frequent power outages in my town and the new weather, not so sure now. Been thinking about adding a generator. Anyone here do that?

We haven't added a generator, but my brother did after that ice storm about 10 years ago. They've loved it and have had to use it a few times. But, it runs on natural gas and that's in short supply right now. So I'm not sure how good of a solution it would be given the current situation.

One of these days solar is going to be better. However, we hadn't seen the sun for several days until yesterday afternoon, and then it was pretty weak for a while. Today it is coming up in a beautiful blue sky so batteries would charge - until this afternoon when the next storm rolls in.

[85lebaront2]

Yeah, my little town experienced the rolling blackout yesterday. It was out for about an hour. I was standing in line at our Walmart when it went out. Seems the generators were out as well because all they had were the battery operated lights. Poor lady in front of me in the self check out lane had all her stuff done and just needed to pay.

Bummer in this is that my house is totally electric. Seemed like a smart move at the time of the build but with the frequent power outages in my town and the new weather, not so sure now. Been thinking about adding a generator. Anyone here do that?

So far we've been fortunate here on Virginia's appendix. The last storm went mostly Northeast of us. Across Chesapeake Bay they weren't as lucky. Williamsburg got hit with an ice storm along with Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. Main part of VA has the two Dominion Energy Nuclear plants, Surry and North Anna and Dominion's agreement with the adjacent Northeast grid allows them to shed it to prevent outages in their service area. This has happened twice that I know of, one was the great NE blackout, at that time they were still VEPCO.

Here, our electricity comes down from MD and we have a cooperative, Accomack/Northampton Electric Cooperative who buy it and resell it. They own the distribution lines South of the VA/MD line. This is a somewhat scary situation, a few years ago, fortunately in mild weather, the main transformer on the MD side blew and it was 4 or 5 hours before power was restored.

We have no natural gas service here, only Propane and my heat is a high efficiency heat pump, with the propane furnace for alternate/emergency heat.

[Gary Lewis]

So far we've been fortunate here on Virginia's appendix. The last storm went mostly Northeast of us. Across Chesapeake Bay they weren't as lucky. Williamsburg got hit with an ice storm along with Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. Main part of VA has the two Dominion Energy Nuclear plants, Surry and North Anna and Dominion's agreement with the adjacent Northeast grid allows them to shed it to prevent outages in their service area. This has happened twice that I know of, one was the great NE blackout, at that time they were still VEPCO.

Here, our electricity comes down from MD and we have a cooperative, Accomack/Northampton Electric Cooperative who buy it and resell it. They own the distribution lines South of the VA/MD line. This is a somewhat scary situation, a few years ago, fortunately in mild weather, the main transformer on the MD side blew and it was 4 or 5 hours before power was restored.

We have no natural gas service here, only Propane and my heat is a high efficiency heat pump, with the propane furnace for alternate/emergency heat.

Well, so far we've had power. But Skiatook had a two hour blackout. And you wonder how we didn't? Our back fence is the city limits, and the people on the other side are served by the city, which buys its power from the power company. We are served by a cooperative which also buys from the power company. Apparently they have different agreements with the supplier?

Anyway, that let me work on Mission Control. In fact, I got more done than I expected to do as I got the four wires from the clock circuit wired up:

• Black/Ground: 11 connections

• Brown/Marker Lights: 7 connections

• LG/Y which is always hot: 5 connections

• WH/P switched power: 1 connection

And so far it tests out ok. Perhaps tomorrow I'll get connectors on the wires that are already in the dash, and then I need to pull a couple more in as well as intercept the power going to the aux power relay so I can switch it.

However, I have found a minor problem. Here's a shot of the top LEDs on, which are the ones behind the graphics and, as you can see, the graphics aren't visible due to the brightness of the LEDs. And there is a wide range in the brightness of the LEDs. In fact, the blue one hurts my eyes!

I played with the voltage using my bench power supply and the blue one is just about right at 2v. So I think I'm going to have to use a pot to test each switch and then put a resistor in the drop from the brown wire for it.

Anyone have a better idea?

[ArdWrknTrk]

Well, so far we've had power. But Skiatook had a two hour blackout. And you wonder how we didn't? Our back fence is the city limits, and the people on the other side are served by the city, which buys its power from the power company. We are served by a cooperative which also buys from the power company. Apparently they have different agreements with the supplier?

Anyway, that let me work on Mission Control. In fact, I got more done than I expected to do as I got the four wires from the clock circuit wired up:

• Black/Ground: 11 connections

• Brown/Marker Lights: 7 connections

• LG/Y which is always hot: 5 connections

• WH/P switched power: 1 connection

And so far it tests out ok. Perhaps tomorrow I'll get connectors on the wires that are already in the dash, and then I need to pull a couple more in as well as intercept the power going to the aux power relay so I can switch it.

However, I have found a minor problem. Here's a shot of the top LEDs on, which are the ones behind the graphics and, as you can see, the graphics aren't visible due to the brightness of the LEDs. And there is a wide range in the brightness of the LEDs. In fact, the blue one hurts my eyes!

I played with the voltage using my bench power supply and the blue one is just about right at 2v. So I think I'm going to have to use a pot to test each switch and then put a resistor in the drop from the brown wire for it.

Anyone have a better idea?

Not after what I said about using milky white instead of clear before you ordered them.

John,

Lots of us with generators up here in the Northeast.

But not many homes are all electric, given the kwh costs.

Most permanently installed generators are propane, though some are diesel.

Both sometimes have trouble starting in bitter cold.

Often the generator transfer switch will only cover essential circuits.

Though I have had a part in single family residential installs over 85kw

[Gary Lewis]

Not after what I said about using milky white instead of clear before you ordered them.John,Lots of us with generators up here in the Northeast.But not many homes are all electric, given the kwh costs.Most permanently installed generators are propane, though some are diesel.Both sometimes have trouble starting in bitter cold.Often the generator transfer switch will only cover essential circuits.Though I have had a part in single family residential installs over 85kw

I'm confused. I don't have any clear lenses. And even the one milky lens I have still washes out.

 

[ArdWrknTrk]

I'm confused. I don't have any clear lenses. And even the one milky lens I have still washes out.

 

Ok, translucent rather than frosted....If you want less light just change the color of the LED to one that gets filtered by the lens.LED's are very narrow spectrum.Dimming something you chose specifically because it was bright doesn't make any sense to me.

[Gary Lewis]

Ok, translucent rather than frosted....

If you want less light just change the color of the LED to one that gets filtered by the lens.

LED's are very narrow spectrum.

Dimming something you chose specifically because it was bright doesn't make any sense to me.

I can't change the LEDs. They are inside the switch and the switch is sealed. And I didn't buy these switches because they are bright. In fact, I didn't have a clue how bright they are. Plus, the brightness varies by switch/color, which surprises me.

So I have $100 worth of sealed switches with LEDs and I'm going to make them work. The first way I thought of to do that is to drop the voltage to the LED, but since I can get to the tip of the LED I'm wondering about placing a piece of tape over it to drop the intensity. However, that doesn't seem nearly as flexible as changing the voltage, and I would like to have them all about the same intensity.