I’ve debunked a theory, and admit that I was taken in by it myself. Remember the piece of tape over the ink cartridge that was to fool the Brother into using all the ink? Mine quit after a few days so I dismantled the printer and took a look. There are no sensors there at all. Here’s a photo of me inspecting the assembly in detail.
The theory is that there was a little light that shone on the ink and said empty when it did not get a reflection. But these days, I know precisely what a light, or a laser, or an LED would look like and they are not there. That means the dozens of others who reported the tape had worked were also wrong, although it did produce temporary results. The culprit has to be the print heads, and Brother has stopped including a command to clean them.Another day of working on my old computer. I believe I’ve extended its life another three years, an amazing track record for a 2004 unit. I cloned all the drives up to the point I ran out of money. Everybody is in the same position near end of the month once the tourists leave. That tells you how fragile the Florida economy is. I had to put 19 miles on the scooter going out for spare parts, which makes me wonder how others think they can afford to operate a van.
News from the old digs. There is a “For Rent” sign in the window. I have no idea what those crazy people are thinking, but let them waste their wampum. Tenants will always agree to pay the rent—as long as they have a job. I know the Latinos across the way can’t begin to afford whatever rent Wallace is talking about. He convinced himself he’ll get $1200 a month by reading brochures about the seafront condos during peak season. Tourists don’t come to Florida to rent a trailer a mile from the beach.
If it’s for rent, that means Wallace went ahead and finished the repairs that I started. Of course, he’ll call all my hard work to be damage and bad design, but in reality, he’ll just be painting over and otherwise finishing the 90% I completed. That work came to a standstill when he went cranky under the influence of his insane and slightly retarded daughter.
The place is too big for one person to live in without taking a half day off a week just to clean and maintain. The minute Wallace put a stop to the routine upkeep, of course the place went for a dump and it will never be the same. People have taken to calling it “Wally’s Folly”, how he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Why isn’t his daughter paying him for her “ensuite”, or was that all Ontario oysters, too.
The sad news depending on how you look at it is Pudding-Tat. She was comfortably living with the neighbors when I made the decision to leave her behind. But ever since I moved, they say she will not go inside the house. They set a sleeping box up for her on the porch. I may have to reconsider what is best. They report she spends hours of each day looking for me at the old place.
By mid-morning, it was a broiling 94 degrees inside the building, but I have a big 20” fan in every room and the work shed. Soon, they will turn on automatically when I walk in and shut off when I leave, a 7/8ths dollar savings over running the A/C. I have chores to do that allow me in the shade all day and still be productive. Other than when I run the scooter, I can avoid the summer heat. As I told everyone, once I got back into a steady situation, we’ll begin to see incredible things. Too bad the wrong people didn’t listen, eh?
I mentioned automating the fans. Except for building a robot, I’ve already passed the goals set for my electronics hobby, though I have no intention of stopping. I didn’t say, but I’ve been practicing soldering and reading up on sensors. I’ve noticed that sensors tend to be used in a certain fixed manner, which I’d like to deliberate on. When a sensor, say an infrared, is used, it is rigged up as a single unit.
And the range of these off-the-shelf components is disappointing. When I can afford it (things are moving in that direction), I’d like to see if these can be coupled up. The performance is dismal, but what if many sensors could work together? Like those radio telescopes that are really a bunch of smaller telescopes. I speculate the sensors have to cover too wide a range of values or something to that effect, and that limits their usefulness.
Can I hook up two sensors and thereby tweak something to extend the range? I mean, if I can multiplex, I should be able to focus a sensor and coordinate its performance in a wider scope. Could a series of cheap sensors emulate one big expensive unit? These are the type of things you can ponder if you are wise enough to plan how to keep out of the hot sun all day long.
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