Comments by "ke6gwf - Ben Blackburn" (@ke6gwf) on "Technology Connections"
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@Cancer McAids wow, you just made my brain hurt, in a good way!
It took me a few minutes to process what you said, but you are so true, we think if 10 to be this perfect round number, because that's what we are used to, but if you think about it, 10 could equal Twelve, if you had 2 additional named digits in there, and the math would be just the same.
(Zero, One, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, Nine, Gorp, Epsiloff, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 1§, 1€, 20...)
Like I said, I it made my brain hurt! Lol
So I guess that the 10 base system is very childish, as in its based on the number of fingers that we have.
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@takix2007 you are falling into the old metric argument of making up measurements to show how stupid they are lol
We don't use 1/5th of an inch!
If I was cutting a 2x4 to fit a space that was say, 80 1/5", chances are I would only need 1/4 inch tolerances, and so would go to 1/4 inch.
If I was cutting trim, I might go to 3/16, but 1/16 is about as accurate as you can get cutting wood normally.
If I was doing something like super fancy cabinet work I could go to 7/32, but that's getting into fine sandpaper to get that close.
If I was making something small, a cripple under a bathroom window header or something, where I wanted it a tight fit and it was a short piece, I personally would probably measure it to 7/32, just to get it close, and also be extra careful actually doing the cut.
That's one of the great things for carpentry about USC, is that you can choose how small you want your units to be on the fly, depending on the precision you need.
And if you are good, you measure once and cut once.
Measuring twice is only if you are unsure of your skill, or need to take multiple measurements in different places to check for things being out of alignment.
And in metric countries, the plans are generally in MM. Thousands of MM.
For instance, a sheet of plywood is sold as 1220x2440mm, etc.
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@takix2007 plans usually are in inches and fractions.
Though for long distances they may choose to call it out in feet and inches, but then inches are your smallest unit, and you aren't dealing with fractions.
And no, if your tolerance is half an inch, you call out the nearest half inch or higher line. (it could be a full inch)
If your tolerance is 1/16 of an inch, you call out the nearest 1/16 or higher line (which could be 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, or a whole inch.)
If you were looking at a USC tape it would make sense, because each smaller fraction uses a smaller line, and so it's basically about how far you drill down when you are reading the tape.
So if I am throwing studs in, I don't look down at anything smaller than 1/4 inch, unless it needs more accuracy, and then I can look at smaller lines, but I can easily switch how close I get.
With a metric tape, you have cm, and then mm, so you have to count mm, or estimate the count, and I just find that harder to do.
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@takix2007 I agree that once you are used to a system, you don't really want to, or need to, change, anymore than changing the language that you speak. And I often use language as an analogy when comparing USC and metric.
However, just like some languages are easier to express some things in, so to, some things are easier done with USC (which was specifically put together with the trades in mind, and how they naturally used units), and some things are easier to do in Metric, which was specifically designed for scientific and theoretical uses.
And in each case, it was created by the users for their purposes.
USC was done by groups made up of the different manufacturers and such, and USC by scientists.
How much carpentry have you done personally?
You may think in theory that it's the same, but I have done it both ways, and USC is easier.
And I do use metric when it makes sense, and while my first language is USC, I do appreciate where metric is better.
Just like I know some Hebrew and Greek and Latin for use in theology and botany.
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@takix2007 if I lived in a metric country, obviously I would need to use their system lol
And if I use a system for a while, it would become natural for me, and I would find ways to make it easier, and I totally don't expect you to understand the work flow when you are in a different environment where it's not really an option for you anyway.
When I am working off of blueprints, I need to use the system they use, but when I have been doing personal projects, I have tried doing it in metric to see the benefits (since the math is easier basically), and while there are some benefits, I missed the shortcuts and better sized units that inches and fractions come with.
If there were a unit somewhere between CM and Metre, it would make things a little easier, but that's why everyone just uses mm generally.
One thing that I really appreciate about USC (United States Customary, which shares some units, but is different from Imperial in several ways) is that we have options about what units to use for the work we are doing.
For instance, carpentry is normally in feet and inches, but grading and earthworks usually use feet and tenths of a foot.
Since when you are setting grades you are having to do lots of math, and you don't need accuracy less than an inch, tenths just make it fit the needs.
And if I am doing metal working, I will probably be using either decimal inches or thousandths, depending on what the tolerances are.
Wood by nature is imprecise, so using a more flexible fractions system matches the job.
And yes, it is more complicated to learn multiple units and systems, but when a system is tailored to a specific task, if you are doing that task frequently, it saves you time in the long run.
And metric is just less flexible in that regard.
You have to apply the same set of units to everything.
It's kind of like the difference between English, and a native language.
In English, we take words from whatever language has a useful word, and add it to English, sometimes modifying it to work best for us.
In other languages, sometimes things are a lot more clumsy to express, because you are confined to that language.
USC was specifically designed using the logical units, as needed by various users, refined from the old units, and modified as needed.
Metric was designed by white lab coats, and then everyone has to figure out how to fit their needs to the old system, because it's perfect, therefore you can't change anything to make it more versatile lol
But, since you are in a metric country, you really don't have any choice, so it's just theory to you, although, since lumber generally is still based on US standard sizes, I suppose that you could do carpentry the same way I do, once you got it home from the lumber yard lol
And I know that in some metric countries, the carpenters use a mix of USC and metric, depending on what works easiest for a particular situation.
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@TechnologyConnections the key is the difference in Curie temperature between the magnet and magnetic alloy.
So, the Curie Point is 215 Degrees F or whatever for the alloy in the button, but just a random Google search showed me a site saying that their cheap ferrite magnets could be used safely up to 480 degrees F, and in some cases even higher.
So, it sounds like the magnetic alloy button has an especially low Curie temperature, and so even if the magnet itself got to the same temperature, it would not even be close to its Curie temperature.
In addition, there would be a tendency for the magnet to stay cooler due to poor heat transfer dynamics, and when the button reaches the temperature, the magnet pulls away and starts cooling down, so probably never reaches higher than 212, if that.
But the magnet being much higher Curie is the key factor.
Oh, and you could probably do great doing infomercials, you sounded just like it at the beginning of the video! Lol
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@ArniVidar I said that most outlets in the US (in newer houses anyway) are on 20 amp CIRCUITS.
In other words on a 20 amp breaker with minimum 12 gauge wire to the outlet.
The wall outlets themselves are generally 15 amp style outlets, but you can upgrade the outlet itself to a 15/20 amp combo outlet and still be legal, since the circuit is a 20 amp circuit.
We can't even use 14 gauge romex over here anymore, 12 is the minimum.
It is true that 1500 watts is the most common maximum current for small household appliances, but it's easy to find 1800 watt heaters (which you can use on a 15 amp outlet if that's the only load).
They usually go with 1500 watts, because that's generally plenty of power, and because it's common for outlets to have other loads on them, and if you pushed right to the maximum, you would have more tripped breakers and issues.
Also, a lot of our older houses still have 14 gauge wire and 15 amp circuits, and you don't want to load them with the maximum on older installations.
But generally on a newer house you can get 20 amps from the wall outlet LEGALLY, by only swapping the outlet itself out and not putting anything else on that circuit.
New single family residential homes in the US, at least in many states, are required to have a Minimum of a 200 amp service and main breaker.
Older homes generally have at least a 100 amp service and breaker, with the oldest tiny houses with the original actual fuse box still installed might be 60 amp, or really old ones down to 40 amp fuses.
A standard electric dryer or stove for us runs on a 30 amp circuit and outlet, while a big electric stove and oven may have a 50 amp outlet. 50 amp outlets are also often used to plug in a "caravan" or rv.
So most laundry rooms or garages in the US will have a large 30 amp 110/220 volt outlet to run a dryer as standard equipment, unless it's designed to only use a gas dryer.
I suspect that the difference is that we label things at 110, and you label them at 220, so they would be 15 amp and 25 amp circuits to you at 220 volts.
I believe that you only have a single wire that goes through your main breaker for instance, so a 50 amp main breaker for you is the same amount of watts as a 100 amp 2 pole breaker for us, since we use split phase with each leg of 110 getting its own breaker, though the handles are tied together so they trip together.
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Major error at 6:55.
You state that the center wire is Ground, which is simply wrong lol
Ground will be bare or green marked. Neutral is white marked.
Technically in official language it would be a GroundED Conductor, whereas the green or bare wire would be the GroundING Conductor.
And while both are connected to the earth ground rod, neither have any function requiring it under normal circumstances.
Earth ground is exclusively there to drain off static charge and lightning, and has nothing to do otherwise with the operation of the electrical system (thus why you can operate off a generator or inverter with no ground rod)
So that center wire is a bonded neutral, meaning that it's bonded to the Grounding Conductor, and having nothing to do with the ground rod, because you wire rvs, boats, planes, ships etc the same way, no ground rod needed.
Also, other than the mentioned static buildup or lightning, no current will ever flow to the ground rod.
As a matter of fact, the resistance of the ground rod is so high, that you could take a hot wire from a 15 or 20 amp breaker and attach it to the ground rod, and not enough current will flow to trip the breaker!
And while none of this may seem important, I think that you would agree that using the correct name for things is important, especially when trying to do an instructional video.
It's also important since many people think that current flows to the ground rod lol
Oh, and the purpose of bonding the neutral and ground wire is simply to give a path back to the power plant via the neutral for any current on the ground wire from a shirt circuit, allowing the breaker to trip.
If the ground wire was only connected to the ground rod, the breaker would never trip because almost no current would flow.
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One thing that you missed is that some thermostats, including some of the older programmable thermostats use a form of PID Tuning to reduce temperature overshoot.
Basically when heat is commanded by the time the air gets to the set point at the thermostat and the heat is commanded off, the heater is still producing heat, and that heat will still get pushed out into the room, causing overshoot as the temperature rises well above the set point.
This is especially true with electric baseboard heaters and such, where the heat gradient across the room to the thermostat can be steep.
So the PID thermostats monitor how far the temperature exceeds the set point, and on the next cycle they command the heater off at a slightly lower temperature, and see how close it is, and continue reducing the set point until the final temperature is the desired temperature.
This keeps a more even temperature, and saves energy by avoiding the spike.
It also can effect how fast a room heats, and like with a two stage system, actually makes it where turning the thermostat up higher than desired will heat the room up faster, because you keep pumping heat in, rather than just letting it settle gradually.
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To clarify a key point, all current flowing from the outlet will end up returning to the neutral wire at the power pole, whether through the proper path, or through your stupid butter knife poking self! If it flows through you, it will end up going to a water pipe, a safety ground circuit, wet concrete etc, but will end up back at the ground rod or pipe bonding wire, etc, and flow back to the main panel where the Neutral wire is Bonded to the Grounding system, and thus return to the neutral wire on the pole.
Remember that all current requires a complete circuit in order to flow, so in order to have a ground fault, the electrons still need a path to return to the Source, be it the power plant, generator, solar panel, battery, etc.
The soil doesn't magically soak electricity up, and it's a horribly high resistance if you try to use it as one side of the circuit to source.
In fact, you can drive a long ground rod, and connect it directly to a 15 amp circuit breaker, and the breaker won't trip, because the resistance is so high very little current will flow, but what DOES flow is simply going to the nearest bonded ground rod to get back to the Source.
The key purpose for ground rods is to bleed off static and lightning, and to reference the Neutral wire to be the same potential as the soil, water pipes etc.
Think of standing barefoot on a metal plate, with a car battery sitting on the plate. If you touch either terminal of the battery, no current will flow, because there is no connection between the battery and the metal plate.
If you now connect a wire from one terminal of the battery to the plate, that plate now carries the potential of that terminal, and is Bonded to it.
Now if you touch the bonded terminal, nothing happens, because you are already at the same potential.
And it doesn't matter if it's the positive or negative terminal bonded.
That becomes the reference voltage.
If you are getting power from a generator, you can bond either the hot or the neutral to the ground rod if you want, and that becomes the Earth Reference.
So if you bonded the Hot to Earth, you can touch the hot wire while standing in the pool, and get no shock because they are the same potential.
Sadly, if you touch the frame of the generator, you will die painfully, so don't ever do this! Lol
This becomes important when dealing with transformers, because you have to pick which leg is bonded, what you want to reference to Earth.
I was working in an industrial facility once, and in the evenings, the neutral wire would become 110v to ground, and the hot wire would be zero volts to ground.
Then in the daytime it would be normal again.
I started looking at the Big Picture™ (© 2018 HVACR Videos) and discovered that that mechanical room was being fed by a single 3 phase circuit to the main 3 phase panel on in it, and then there was a buck boost transformer feeding the 110/220v panel which ran all the lights and outlets etc.
After some testing, I discovered there was an outside light with a photocell, that had a shorted out ballast, and that the electrician who installed the system had not bonded the center tap on the transformer to Earth ground, and so it was a floating system.
So when the photocell turned on, it bonded one of the 110 v transformer legs to earth ground, driving the center tap neutral to 110v away from ground, and since the shorted out light was the only place the transformer was connected to ground, there was no fault current to trip a breaker....
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face-palm
Good thing you are so enjoyable to listen to, because you suck at drawing accurate schematics! Lol
If you want to post/email a good picture of the schematics etc, I would be happy to trace out the mystery circuit release. Figuring out relay logic (not always with a schematic lol) was what got me started in industrial automation. I might still remember a little bit...
Some of the early computers that my dad ran were programmed by setting switches and installing jumper wires, or before that were entirely mechanical, so in the same way this IS digital computing, with the input being 3 bits (power, B, and 4)and then displaying the answer audibly lol
But I agree that your title was still accurate.
Also, the rotary contact arms are called Wiper arms or Wipers, not feeler arms.
Other than those things, another excellent video and enjoyable presentation!
Now, find some hope in this current situation, and keep breathing, because humans and this society are very resilient, and there is still Hope to be found. So follow the hope!
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Truck driver here.
I notice that the lane divider markers are much less visible, and tend to only reflect for a short window of distance in a truck.
When you think about the angles involved with them being so low, compared to a roadside sign etc, it makes sense.
But also, different styles and companies reflect differently, so some roads I can see the Morse code for miles, and others just a few feet in front of the truck where my eyes and headlight align with the reflector, but before it cuts off at the edge of the corner cube.
You may think that we may have a harder time seeing signs because our eyes are higher, but you have to remember that our headlights are higher also, and I don't think the angle is really much greater between the outgoing and reflected light for a roadside sign, as compared to a car, where both lights and driver are lower.
And we are higher into the sweat spot for overhead signs.
It's just surface reflectors that suck lol
I have noticed the red reverse side to freeway reflectors, sometimes on new road work you will see where one got out on backwards!
One time I was driving down this road, and they ALL were on backwards! It was quite odd...
All the other drivers seemed to be confused by it too, all driving the wrong way... (/joke)
It's always cool when I am driving away from the setting sun under just the right conditions, and all the red side reflectors on the opposite side of the road are on fire from the sunlight.
Speaking of corner cubes, in your surveyor stock footage, not a single corner cube appeared lol
They were using GPS units... APOLOGIZE!!
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It's funny how most of the problems you mentioned with the integrated fixtures are mostly YOU problems, since you are OCD picky over lights lol
Most people won't be bothered if there are different color temperature lights in the same room, just like in the incandescent days most people had both a fluorescent ceiling fixture in the kitchen, along with gasp! incandescent bulbs in other lamps and devices, and very few people had a stroke!
Yes, it can be a pain when the exact fixture is no longer available, but that's no different than what happens if a socket gets burned or the glass for a classic orange boob light gets broken, and you have to put in something that doesn't quite match.
So either you find something close, or you replace the whole set, or you shift the good ones around and put the non matching replacement in the closet or around the corner, or in the guest room, where it won't clash directly.
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@TheRip72 wrong on several counts. Lol
0 is an easily reproduced mixture of equal amounts of water, ice, and a salt.
32 is easily reproduced as equal amounts of water and ice.
And he originally considered body temperature to by 96 degrees.
I haven't seen anything that 100 was supposed to reference specifically, but it wasn't body temperature, since that was 96.
After his death, it got recalibrated a little bit, and that's how body temperature shifted to 98.6~
He started this because he was figuring out how to use the new and more accurate mercury thermometer, instead of the older alcohol style.
I suspect that he made the scale based on the range of the thermometer that he was using, so basically divided the actual glass tube into degrees, and then measured different things and looked at where they fell on the tube.
Ice, water and salt was probably the coldest thing he could easily make, so setting it as zero made sense, and then likely it was based on a tube of a certain diameter and markings a certain distance apart.
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A. I had no issues figuring out how to use the smooth edge style, just fiddled with it lol
B. I have run into a lot of incompatible can seams that it would not work on, because the metal was thicker or the seam was a different shape, so I have basically gone back to the regular style, though I only am happy with the good heavy duty style, and would toss any of the wimpy ones in your video out the window! Lol
I also don't like how many cranks the smooth edge style takes, and while being able to fit the lid back on is handy, in about 5 percent of the cans I open, it's not a killer feature most of the time.
And yes, if I am going to be reaching into a can, not having the sharp edge is nice, and sometimes the pull top can lip is annoying, but really, how often do we stick our whole hand into a can, compared to dumping it out or, you know, using a utensil?
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