Refrigerator monitor ideas?

Sure. Whatcha got that isn't storm damaged?! (-:

Unfortunately I don't know enough about Elk programming to determine how easy it would be implement. As you may recall, C-Max and I are not best friends and I am loathe to make any changes to it because it's made me pay dearly for the most minute of code changes. The power and peril of ladder logic.

Interesting. Why? Not needed? Not enough time? More important projects?

I've been monitoring the freezer temp at dead center of a full freezer and it swings quite a bit. It "damps out" fairly quickly, but I'm worried that a door left open for a minute will trip it. Around here, a door can easily be accidentally open for that long, because these rescued pups are smart and know *precisely* when to make their "max mischief" move. Just today I made the mistake of taking a phone call during morning roundup and the one I call "Hot Spot" (but my wife calls Matilda) scooted off into the closet to make a deposit. I wasn't watching her for all of ten seconds and she knew it and ran. I'd pay $150 for a collar that could give me 30 seconds of warning that the dog's bomb bay doors or ballast tanks are about to open.

I was thinking of drilling through the back of the freezer compartment to eliminate wires inside the box. My wife uses the Westie to store dog food and meds and she's already made it clear how she feels about wires in the bathroom, near the sink or in the refrigerator!

Very nice features. Now that you've described how nice it is, I'll bet I'll be bidding against some fellow CHA'ers when the next one comes up on Ebay. (-: In the meantime, I think I can hack into a cheapo remote sensor LCD alarm thermometer I have and provide contact closure when the internal buzzer sounds. Wall mounted near the fridge, it will provide very similar functionality (I hope). It's probably a project worth documenting since everyone's had a fridge foul up on them at one time or another.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green
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The test is underway as I write this. I've noticed both higher and lower wattage readings at different times, 62 and 275 to be exact. It will be interesting to keep track of the door opening and closings and correlate it with energy use. I just love those Hawkeyes to easily automate that task! Just stick one in the fridge with lithium or NiMH batteries and it sends two sets of commands (motion + dawn/dusk) that should enable me to determine the precise state of the door). Maybe dad was right when he complained that were going to send him to the poorhouse when we left the door open for too long!

I suspect the initial readings will be very high because I've opened the door about a week's worth in a single day but they certainly won't be hypothetical or statistical summaries of someone else's power consumption. (-:

I just checked the dogs and the Kill-o-Watt and got to watch the power consumption slowly creep down second by second as the compressor warmed up. It's a shame that neither the Kill-o-Watt nor the Ratshack RS-232 Multimeter can handle logging the refrigerator's power consumption from moment to moment. I might be able to rig up a loop around a single conductor of the reefer's powercord to get some sort of graphic record of the relative power consumption. The RS232 meter is rated for 20A, but it cautions that rating is only good for 30 secs at a time. Do you think it would be safe to hook the meter up directly or should I make a jury-rigged an induction probe?

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

"B Fuhrmann" wrote

That was really remarkable and bolstered my belief that automated solutions are usually better than checklists. He was their *superstar* most senior pilot with the best safety record of all their flyers! Like any other disaster, a lot of things went wrong at once. A terrorist threat, layover rules, impatient captains, meek copilots, tower personal listening to a soccer match, too much fuel and a very unusual fog all came together like a Steven King plot.

Oh, I forgot there was one more important cause. The plane they hit had missed third turnout in the fog because it was marked poorly and was much tighter than the other turnouts. I'll bet that junior copilots still kowtow to super senior guys - especially those in their rating chain of command. (-:

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

Piece of cake. You can download a demo version of the ELK-M1G configuration software from ELK's website.

If all you want the system to do is warn you what difference does it make if it "falses" when you have the door open? You could easily add a door open sensor and set up a delay on it. The ELK-M1G can be set to ignore temperature swings for a few minutes when the door is open. It can also be told to warn you if the door stays open too long.

Why not just install a doggy door so she can leave her stuff outside where it belongs?

The TS300 retails for $64.50.

Reply to
Robert L Bass

The information I posted came from the NTSB report and other online docs. There have been modifications to the 737 in the time since the accident. The information I posted was correct.

I didn't identify you as the person who told the story but since you've decided to come out of the closet, yes you most certainly did.

I wonder if you plan to post a few hundred more "did not", "did so" messages or just let this thread die without further eroding your credibility -- not to mention the QOL of this newsgroup.

Reply to
Robert L Bass

right for it.

First, he used reverse thrusters to try to push back

tried using the hot exhaust of the airliner ahead

the water to refreeze on the trailing edges of his

that would not have mattered anyway. The pilot

handled by airplanes equipment. Airports in areas

removing materials. The problem is then the time

True. However, he should have noticed several problems. The facts indicate he ignored repeated warnings from the FO during the take-off roll. He also violated company (not FAA) policy by using reverse thrusters at the gate.

also built new deicing pads at the taxiway ends by

a backed up taxiway and shortly before they get in

Coincidentally, the last time I was at the Twin Cities we had to wait all night due to ice and snow. I was enroute to Hartford from Las Vegas after attending the CES show. At the time I was a student pilot and I happened to meet the copilot of the airplane I was to fly while waiting out the storm. This was pre-9/11 and guess who got a jump seat ride. For a new student pilot that was a major thrill. :^)

that effect) but he refused to listen.

another while taking off because the pilot (who happened

airport had been shut down due to weather...

"Get-there-itis" it's called. It's an often fatal ailment unfortunately.

copilots complaints about the flagrant rule violation)

that the removed the "chain of command" attitude

power for the pilot instead of just a back up flunky.

The problem can still crop up, especially if the FO is young and the pilot is authoritative (a character trait that is sometimes consider a good thing in pilots).

Reply to
Robert L Bass

For every "did" from Frank there is a corresponding "did not" from you, and vice versa. In order for it to stop, it only takes one of you to stop responding.

Doug

Reply to
Doug

| What I don't know is how much of that energy is not purely waste but is | contributing to warming the house.

To the best approximation you'll ever need, 100% of the energy is contributing to warming the house.

Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com

Reply to
Dan Lanciani

Measuring the current is not useful with an inductive load. Current can be quite high but is not directly proportional to power as it's out-of-phase with voltage. The Kill A Watt digitally samples both current and voltage instantaneously thousands of times per second and computes the true power. If you switch between the VA reading and the Watts reading you'll see the VA is higher. Of course, you need to wait until you've completed the kWh test.

IOW, don't risk damage to your RS232 meter for a reading that is not meaningful.

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snipped-for-privacy@yahoogroups.com

Reply to
Dave Houston

You flame all the time. Since you say I'm lying, I'll lay out the basics here.

You claimed to have been one of a team from Lloyd's that borrowed a 737 from Boeing before they delivered it to an airplane customer of theirs. You originally said you wanted to deploy reverse thrusters in the air. Only after I informed you that there's an interlock which prevents deployment unless there is weight on the mains did you change your story.

At that point you claimed that your pal took the airplane to 5000 AGL and banged full rudder, resulting in an inversion so fast that a passenger literally soiled his pants. What you didn't know is that:

  1. Boeing would never loan a 737 to an insurance company.
  2. There's a problem with the 737's rudder control that has on several occasions caused them to crash when a pilot mistakenly used too much rudder too fast.
  3. The 737 is not rated for aerobatics.
  4. Lots more stuff.

I happen to do business with the Boeing Aircraft company. I also happen to know a number of experienced airline pilots, several who fly 737's on a regular basis. For fun I've shown several of them copies of your story. Every one of them said you are FOS. One Boeing engineer who happened to be involved in the design of the 757 said you were "talking out of your [well, you know].

Feel free to keep right on insisting that you made this fabled flight, Olson. You can fool the installers over in ASA but there are a number of experienced pilots in CHA, not to mention a significantly higher average IQ. Your story just won't fly here, kind of like the fact that you never flew anything.

Reply to
Robert L Bass

I have it at -2 & 36. I do note that it is higher after a prolonged power failure, leading me to believe that it is actually telling me the truth.

| About two years the display amazed me by also telling me to vacuum the | coil! Which I did. And the notice on the panel went off. No reset button. It | jist knew (or faked it very well).

Mine did this as well. Naturally I believed that there was something else wrong and the clever controller was just displaying the only message it had, but indeed when I vacuumed the coils it was happy. Now I vacuum slightly more often (but still only every year or so). It's a nice machine, thought for $5k+ it should be.

Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com

Reply to
Dan Lanciani

called a "stall warning." Of course, by the time that

The comment was facetious.

Having never experienced wing ice (a bit of frost on one night flight was the worst) I'll take your word for it. I don't really want to find that one out for myself though. :^)

I'm sure you also know the only place where

737 pilots are even allowed to fly inverted is in the simulator. There's a good reason for this. The few times a 737 went inverted (other than a barrel roll, which is a very different maneuver that could never be confused with a snap-roll) the airplane hit the earth with total loss of life.

Also, due to the probability of hidden stress damage, there's no way on earth Boeing would let anyone do what Olson claimed and then hand the airplane over to a customer for use. They're just not that stupid.

Face it, his entire tale was a lie.

Reply to
Robert L Bass

There's no point in arguing with you, Bass. You've deliberately confused several issues regarding my original post and are basing your argument on your own misleading comments and not what I said. This is soooo typical of you. If anyone's interested in the Google links to it (the original post that started it all), they can email me. In the mean time, I'll leave you to spew your vitriole into the Group.

"Tchau."

Reply to
Frank Olson

Its a Straw Man argument, a technique RLB uses frequently.

Doug

Reply to
Doug

Followed by a useless "me too" from you. Come to think of it, when was the last time you posted anything helpful to anyone on this newsgroup?

Reply to
Robert L Bass

called a "stall warning." Of course, by the time that

another way of saying you are full of it. you got nailed again for trolling for a fight, yet it's always someone else, eh. and within the sancitiy of the cha. tsk tsk

Reply to
EyeBee

Actually it was followed by

"In order for it to stop, it only takes one of you to stop responding"

But don't let the facts get in the way now, you never have in the past.

Doug

Reply to
Doug

While I've been skipping much of this thread (too much bickering), one thing occurred to me...

The problem seems to occur when the coils "freeze up" and defrosting doesn't occur or the drain tube is clogged. When defrosting occurs normally, it's clear that the moisture will travel down a tube, into either a pan or a drain every day or so.

What if you used a moisture sensor where the tube drains? I'm thinking in particular, the type used as a rain sensor for an irrigation system.

It's got a spdt or spst microswitch, and disks that expand when wet. The "trigger level" is adjustable (a set screw).

(the one I use I got from homecontrols.com, IIRC. Here's one like the one I use with my irrigation system:

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Adjust the trigger so that it only changes state if dry for more than a day (or what ever seems correct for your situation).

Simple, with no controller involved, with delays based on how fast the sensor dries out, and adjustable... And no worry about how often the door is opened...

Robert Green wrote:

Reply to
AZ Woody

You skipped too much of the thread. That's already been suggested.

Those work. There are also units used indoors to warn of moisture on the floor.

Reply to
Robert L Bass

Sorry, but the noise level got high pretty quick.

Boys will be boys.....

Reply to
AZ Woody

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