Eric Hanson

Steward and Man of Many Mushrooms
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since May 03, 2017
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Recent posts by Eric Hanson

Fair points about Chinese manufacturing.
20 hours ago
Mike,

If you can find a piece of Autumn Olive that is of proper diameter, length, and is basically straight, once it dries out, it might make an acceptable walking cane.  

But a word of warning—the end that makes contact with the ground should be capped and protected by something—preferably a shielding of metal.  Autumn Olive simply won’t stand up to repeated stabbing and grinding into the earth.

I have never actually tried using Autumn Olive for a walking stick, but the next time I find a stick of suitable dimension, I will see what I can do.


Eric
1 day ago
Allen,

You mentioned cheap MPPT controllers, and I will go one further.  I found out the hard way that there are cheapo, Chinese-made Amazon sold charge controllers that are *Brand Named* “MPPT!”  The actual controller, as you can probably guess by now is actually a PWM controller, but priced about 50% to double the price of its non-MPPT-labeled counterpart.

This really is a case of you get what you pay for!


Eric
2 days ago
Jay, I finally got the chance to watch the video—nice job by the way—it was pretty much right on target.

I will give my own historical summary and try to steer clear of politics:

Basically everything he said was spot on with one exception—early in the video he suggested that the porcupine strategy was a 21st century adaptation.  It is ancient.  But I will give a somewhat mid-tier age example.  Switzerland has to be the porcupiniest country on earth.  Its strategy is to make itself absolutely impossible to invade, which is helped by being extremely mountainous (which is terrible for invasion) and holds no real strategic value.  Even Hitler decided against invading Switzerland in WWII after briefly considering it.  Switzerland doubles down on this by having universal male conscription (with a few exceptions), that is, after high school, every male citizen goes to boot camp and is trained in basic infantry.  When finished, each new infantry graduate is issued an assault rifle and is expected to keep it, maintain it and be proficient in its use.  In the extremely unlikely chance of an invasion, every male citizen is instantly an armed member of the Swiss Army.  In the United States there is a right to bear arms, but in Switzerland there is a *responsibility* bear arms!

So really, there is no point in invading Switzerland!!  The ultimate porcupine!!

I also liked that he touched on navies, but I can address that later.




Eric




3 days ago
John,

History! Psychology! Great combination.  There is a profundity in history and something mystical about psychology.  

That’s how people first perceive it.  But I really need to deconstruct it—especially the psychology part.  Soooooo often people (and students are so vulnerable to this) see psychology as a tool of mind control and manipulation—and put into the hands of a teacher is a formula for automatic mass brainwashing and certain submission of willpower to authority.

If that sounds dramatic that’s because it is.

I don’t brainwash, I don’t force students to do things against their will—that’s not what psychology is.

But they are under my mind control!  I do subvert coups and plots every day.  I am just one person and I have to find a way to mollify twenty rebellious students at a time.

This has nothing to do with the class or subject of psychology and has everything to do with being a teacher.  And if I can use “Psychology Teacher” as a subversive tool to cow a rebellion, you bet I do!  And in short while, the ringleaders are isolated, their would-be supporters afraid to act.  Others actually like my style—he just put down a rebellion by giving someone “the look.”

My favorite technique is the “pregnant pause.”  I am up teaching and some kid off task.  I could stop him immediately, but I usually prefer to give him enough rope to hang himself (this is all metaphor).  So while I am teaching, I just stop mid sentence.  It’s quiet.  Too quiet.  The whole class knows exactly what is happening except for this helpless kid who suddenly finds himself the center of attention of the whole class and a teacher who is making direct, slightly disturbing, unblinking eye contact all while smiling with the biggest grin!


WORKS. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME!




Eric
4 days ago
I found out who TP’d my room—one of my AP Psychology students.  She has her name on my wall and has a special, unique identifier by her name—5.  5 indicates that I had her for a total of five semesters, the most I can have a student.  That represents 1 semester of regular psychology? 2 semesters of U.S. History, and 2 semesters of AP Psychology.

How fun!!!




Eric
5 days ago
Absolutely I will change the wiring.  

Probably this will only be for this one circuit though.  The wiring for the BMS is already robust, overkill for 30 or 50 amps.  If/when I do a 50 amp circuit, it will probably be to an Anderson connector rated to something over 50 amps.  Off the top of my head, I don't know the standardized size for Anderson connectors past 45 (the typical small standard).  I guess one way around this might---*might* be to use not one but two Anderson connectors.  10 gauge wiring running to a pair of Anderson connectors which then connect to my 50 amp load?  Maybe?  A dedicated path would be better, but I would nave the cutouts already in place.



Eric
6 days ago
I am rambling a bit, but I have a lot of things in my head built up over time that I can get out now!

For my actual 100AH system, the whole system is circuit-breaker protected at 30 amps--well under the C rating for those 100 AH cells.  30 amps could get me about 360 watts (theoretically) from a little inverter.  Not really a whole lot, but I could run some small devices.

I might at some point modify it so that the primary circuit--the master breaker--is set to 50 amps and leave all the other lines protected at 30 amps or less (there are a lot of fuses in there so everything is protected.  

50 amps is a little bit more interesting.  It is still under the C rating of the cells, but I could play around with 600 watts instead of 360.  Still not huge by any means but it does open the doors for a few more types of devices that I could potentially operate.

But that is for the future.



Eric
6 days ago
I should have clarified something from my previous post about a 24v system.  With eight cells and running 24 volts, the system looks like this:

24v
100 AH
2400 Watt-Hours

But I would run a 2000 watt inverter to run the 1500 watt microwave.  The idea would be to not run that inverter to its limits--overdesign a bit.

So

24v
100AH
2400 Watt-Hours

AC--2000 Watts.




Maybe those specs are a bit more clear.  And yes, the good part about a microwave is that it does not run long.




Eric
6 days ago
John, Allen?

Thanks for the detailed breakdown.  If I were doing this from scratch I would use larger cells—200 AH or larger,  but 100 is what I have,  And you are exactly correct that the microwave would only be in use for a short time.  That said, when I was testing out my dedicated lines to my house that connect from a generator (and do so through a proper switching system), I was astounded by how the kitchen barely moved the needle until I turned the microwave on and then the generator surged!

Eric
6 days ago