June 15, 2026

Yesteryear
One year ago today: June 15, 2025, 25% staff.
Five years ago today: June 15, 2021, Jason Derek Brown Day.
Nine years ago today: June 15, 2017, the high & mighty.
Random years ago today: June 15, 2016, I had no idea.

           A nothing Monday, what should we do today? Watching TV is out and I don’t feel like vegetating, but I repeat myself. Tell you what, how about we have a crack at that air conditioner. It is an LG1415SHR and I quickly determined the circuit board was burnt out. This is a common occurrence in Florida due to lighting. First thing, let me peel off the plastic housing and begin keeping a log of what goes wrong. If you have a better plan for today, now is the time to speak.

           Here is the circuit board test. This is the control panel, there will be a secondary circuit inside to distribute the signals. Both are useless one the main circuit fries—I found nothing wrong with it except it would not turn on. I have stalled at this stage before, simply because there was no help in systematically troubleshooting this arrangement. But I know the major internal components work on 120VAC an my intention is to bypass the controls with simple switches.

           If not, this appliance is full of salvageable parts, like the stepper motor in the video and that big fan motor. I removed panels until I found a wiring diagram and also found the Vivitar camera has no capability of taking a clear picture closer than two feet back. I’m determined to give this the old college try, it all looks brand new inside. I’ve discovered the compressor motor is the brown & blue wires, the pump motor is the white & brown at the other end.
           Having recently read a history of air conditioners (interesting, it changed the world) I watched several repair videos to determine what parts of the A/C are 120V. I conclude it is the compressor, a pump, two fans, and some form of temperature control. I shall search for the master switch which controls all of this. Be patient as hell, because this bit of work took me all morning and wore me down to full stop just past noon. Here's video of wiping dust off boxes because I have nothing else today.

           Worst was the ordinary motion of bending down or over to reach the housing screws. I know some people get this all the time, for me it was a shocking disappointment. You kneel or bend enough to untwirl the screw and within ten seconds get so winded you feel like passing out. About now the neighbor was over, he’s got some trash and the city gets antsy if you put out too much. Since I never exceed my quota, we divide up the pile—which was extra great today because he asked about the KIA.
           I explained the difficult refill was stalled because of the hefty $125 per hour dealership fee. He recalled the mechanic on main street in Bartow once worked for KIA and might be far more reasonable. That could work out, as I’m hesitant about taking the Hundy on too many road trips.

           Here’s one for you. I am not claiming to be first, but years ago I posted my first ad for bass-playing and wanted it to stand out. I did a careful research of what was out there and what was not. I came up with a catchphrase and spend months checking to make sure nobody was using it and that there was no Internet history. Using all then-available search engines pretty much ensured that I was, at least on-line, first to post the phrase. I described myself as a “life-long” bassist. Today, that has become a stock phrase in this part of the world.
           And here are a couple of things you might find interesting about celestial navigation. It works best when you assume the Earth is the center of the universe. And it works even better if you think the world is flat.

Picture of the day.
Early Australian house, Queensland.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Hours later, no progress. I’ve studied the diagram and it is a little too schematic for me. I thing what has happened is the company left out all the ground wiring, presuming a tech would the ropes. I’m going to try a couple jumper wires on the main components, if that fails, I’ll pull the secondary (distribution) board. I ripped it right out and found more evidence of a lightning strike. It must have been a good wallop, as the board contained a 275V varistor protector, but I’m not sure, The part that melted was on some big component wire I don’t know.

           The LG circuit boards seem very well-manufactured, it must be a robot. There are 8 salvageable relays and some heat sinks. Let me ID the ICs, operating at 8Mhz. It’s a pair of ULN2003APG, ordinary Darlington pairs, probably cirrent boosters for the relays. There is a bigger chip, 32 pin, no datasheet but the designation KHET means it is likely some specialized A/C component. Since the relays are all 12V switching 110V I dropped (desoldered) them off the board.
           It’s fun but now past 4:00PM. I can say I’ve now spent a day in my life with air conditioner circuits. I found another mystery component, labeled CMPP X2 40/106/56/B. Here we go, it is a condesator. What’s that and hy have I never seen one in tens years of reading? The answer is because it is the Spanish word for capacitor. Y’know, with that, I’m tired and want a nap. I have no 110V test box, maybe it’s time to build a new one. A switched power supply, Dangerous, but better than plugging things in to see if they work. Or spark.

           Evening took the bite out of the sun, I managed a couple hours in the shed. I wonder if that is my final refuge? It’s been over twenty years I’ve wanted to spend more time at home, fully realizing there would be nobody around unless Taylor came to her senses. Sure, I’d just as soon be partying, but the options are expensive after you hit 40. Another misleading factor is you also get the impression you are aging at a constant but slightly accelerating rate. Two years ago I was walking dogs, repairing roofs, and enjoying 8-hour days. This is a view of the DIY hdrometer out the south window.

           I cut some lumber and drilled some screws. Then built a small Fake box utilizing the still-experimental technique of using the dimensions of the lumber itself to produce a box out of just about any piece of wood that is long enough. The box height is determined by the lumber width. Then inside the house to practice with more poly finish. It was disappointing, as going at slowly and carefully as possible, the finish is uneven. Thin or goopy I could use, but uneven is just bad. I put only a single coat on six junk boxes. Three of them on bare lumber, that is, no stain.

           While this is happening, I found a documentary brass sextants which led to a look at Watt’s first steam engine. I knew he was not first and that he had been handed a working model of a Newcomen. This caused me to ask why that happened, It has been put about that Watt was a lowly wage-earner and my personal experience is such things never happen by themselves. Turns out by age 21, he was an expert brass repairman, so he was not a student at the university, but an employee. So don’t be handing me any hard luck stories.
           It says Watt was forced to support himself for 11 years while developing the engine. Fine, but every job was semi-skilled. Building canals, surveying railroads. You don’t learn those trades down in the coal mines. I’m a bit jealous, but more miffed. I just don’t like people claiming to be self-made when in fact their lives are dripping with opportunities the rest of us could only dream of. I never said it was wrong, I said I don’t like it.

ADDENDUM

           So I’m not the greatest for following the Scientific Method. Mind you, I have also seen it written in as many as 12 steps, which is double the orthodox number I learned in the 8th grade. Think of me more as focused on hypothesis than the other tiers. And this is a fail, or is it?
           The DIY hydrometer was recorded this morning for three hours, that’s this grainy video shown below. We know the wood bends because we have seen it from flat to crazy shape over 24 hours. But this time it did not move from 8:00AM to 11:00AM, usually the most rapid parameter change of the day around here.
           I’ll see about placing better gear and longer time spans. You can see the sunlight advacing There's a nearby picture showing the present setup, you can see the curvature of the plank, more than enough to see from the south window. There is also a small but heavy (wind-proof) peg (not shown) that tips over to prove it moves. Yet the video show nothing. My conclusions for now are:

A) not long enough time to record movement
B) humidity has not changed
C) humidity is the wrong variable
D) more than one variable at work

Last Laugh