One year ago today: February 24, 2022, 7% = 900%, Biden-math for eggs.
Five years ago today: February 24, 2018, academically limited sound?
Nine years ago today: February 24, 2014, hope you had fun.
Random years ago today: February 24, 2004, some almost forgotten people.
I was finally able to contact the Reb, who reports the battery has gone bad in the Civic. She says consumer reports say the KIA and Civic are virtually identical vehicles from a consumer and performance standpoint. I had the van in the shop first thing this morning despite the worst fog I’ve seen in Florida. Right off the Gulf, visibility around a quarter-block, so no hyperbole, it was thick. The problem with the cruise control was (as I suspected) the “master’s touch”. When the mechanic operated it, no problems. So I was out of there before noon. This is my old 4.8V screwdriver with non-replaceable dead batteries. I’ll explain later.
All morning, I drank coffee and sketched out a plan for a demo circuit. The item is the NAND gate much batted around here these days. The sources on-line that describe the operation of the gate are terrible and some of the textbooks are worse. In typical engineering fashion, they assume you know either too much or too little. I have yet to find an “expert” who explains that the electricity that operates the gates is not the same current as that which flow through the output. Yet, the lead where this electricity comes from is most often left right off the diagrams.
To make it rougher on the beginner, you can draw in that lead plus its associated ground on the diagram, but it does not physically exist on the chip. If that does not make sense, now you know what I’m talking about. I would have to physically build a NAND gate out of discrete components, but I’ve done this before. I peeled the ends of some old wired mouses, intending to salvage the pushbuttons, when I noticed if I disconnect the roller wheel, the mouse makes an excellent switch without taking it apart. Let me experiment.
Why the recent interest in a NAND gate? It’s a popular gate and is often used with “powered off” circuits. That’s what a call a circuit you have to apply power to turn a switch off. It uses that concept of two equal voltages in opposite directions to turn a light between them off. We once talked about this. I found a reason that is done—it lowers the drain on batteries. I’m still unclear on that but in a way it is logical. And I have two old radios that I would connect in the work area if I could figure a way to make them turn back on by themselves after a power outage. Those of you who were around in the Quizno’s days remember this item.
Instead of an off-on switch, I wire an old mouse to my project and you left click that to turn it on. Original? I don’t know, all I know is I came up with it on my own. If it works with one click, I can get it to work with as many as I want. On the return trip, I stopped at the ReStore and found a 5.1 Amp wall wart, which may just be what I need to power up my old cordless screwdriver, which would be a big help.
Dublin pawn shop.
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This has nothing to do with NAND gates, but it is robot club activity. This clip shows the actual reading of a wall wart rated at 5.1 volts. It maxes out around 5.45 volts, which is .65 of a volt higher than the screwdriver is rated. A near perfect match because the motors always have a slightly higher rating than what is stamped on the tool. 4.8 volts rating is probably 5-dot-something. And watch the video again.
That’s as far as I got today. The van passed the test drive in excellent form. The staff sincerely told me they don’t mind me hanging around there as I have been for two weeks now. I’m no company reading books but it tells the the other people must be even less. I signed off on the work and they replaced or adjusted 37 different parts and gave it an excellent exterior wash. One thing of note was a paint job in their parking lot. I cut through the trade-ins to Dunkin and saw a dark blue SUV. Argh, I’d forgotten the camera in the van. I liked the color, but it made the vehicle stand out in a crowd and that is not for me. In a vehicle I mean, not playing bass, which is fair game.
JZ finally called back and he is happy enough but distraught over the whole Miami scene and its constant botherations. It’s the third-worlders, you have to keep a constant eye on everything when they are around. And they’ve let so many in that you never get away in Miami. I explained the investment plan I made up for him but I have sincere doubts he can follow it. Way back in my twenties I noticed the disjoint between weekly paydays and monthly investment plans. By their very nature, that mismatch throws off so many plans. The majority of people don’t have the necessary discipline.
Still, I’ll give it a shot. He has changed a few habits, though it is not my place to say. Hold on, yes, there is one thing I can mention. What’s killing him slowly is he does not allow for the expense of that girlfriend, the one I truly dislike. I’ve not seen her in at least ten years as I will not visit when she is around. It sounds cruel, but I’m only taking the side of my pal. I allow for my situation, like just today I replaced the $58.14 for an unexpected expense earlier this week. To the penny, but JZ could nto say withing $40 or $50 how much she’s cost him this week. My guess in the long-long-long run is an average of $7,500 per year. All of which is should be available for investment.
That’s the element that provides hope, if you ask me. He gets to see the internal books on Caltier. The ones that compare actual to budget to the third decimal point. Maybe that could spur him to invest there, he seems greatly impressed by the accuracy because he knows I’ll spot anything that goes wrong. That’s a big factor for many newbies.
ADDENDUM
Not much to report. Boost Mobile’s system is down, although that is the billing network, not the cellular network. But, you see, without that billing, they can’t cut people off for non-payment and no way Boost is going to give anybody free service. Even if the problem is caused by Boost. Of course, they do this late on a Friday, so no Internet service until at least Monday. Time to switch, maybe when I’m in Miami at Easter. I have two services, the phone and the Internet. So far they only screw up the phone every second month.
That is, nobody ever really uses the SW1 and SW2 bands that, in theory, would become vital during any real emergencies. Using only the built-in antennas, I was able to pick up only three stations. One Morse with two clashing signals almost the same frequency arou 12.6MHz, a English news station around 13.6MHz and Spanish music at 14.8MHz. The only possible station ID was “Aruba Rapida” or “Ariba Rapida”. Lively music, for sure. The entire remaining space is full of static, not a blank space on the dial.
These emergency radios are only good for picking nearby FM. The only station around here is 98.3FM unless you want to listen to the news broadcasts with all those medical ads which list nauseating side-effects. The music is flat mono, there is a gross talk show that gives decent movie reviews. It’s around 104MHz. I’ll wire in a permanent power supply and put it in the shed for security. This photo shows the radio with the power supply in the background. You can see the cables running to the radio, but not how they are clipped into the back panel.
