Monthly Archives: August 2019
Never Give Up. Never Surrender . . .
Our RV Adventures – Eating Our Way Across The USA!
When I tried to post this blog Saturday night, the website was down. So here it is now finally.
Jan and I spent most of the late morning/early afternoon streaming the last two Season 1 episodes of CBS’ Instinct. Somehow our DVR did not record those two episodes. That may have happened due to a conflict with other shows higher in the queue.
Later this weekend we’ll start watching the first episode of Season 2 from our DVR. Though it does seem kind of useless since it’s already been announced that it’s been canceled.
Seems that happens with a lot of shows we like.
One thing was strange was that Prime was not sending any audio to our soundbar, but when I switched back to the TV speakers the audio was fine. And the soundbar worked fine on the DVR channels.
Just something else to work on.
I ordered a new battery for our MiFi yesterday that should be here on Monday. The original one has lasted since we got it in April 2017. But recently it’s not holding much of a charge, or really not any, I don’t think. If the power goes off, the MiFi shuts off and won’t reboot when the power comes back on.
Of course the reason for this is that I leave it plugged in all the time. According to Verizon you’re supposed to let it charge up and then unplug it. And then try to remember to plug it back 24 hours later when the battery has run down. Of course you don’t remember and can’t communicate with any other your devices at home.
I don’t know why they can design these things better so that they cycle the charging on and off. It’s not that hard. But they didn’t ask me.
But since they didn’t ask me about it, I’m going to put the MiFi charger on one of my WiFi Smart Plugs,
which will let an Alexa timer turn it off for about 20 hours a day, and then back on for 4 hours. We’ll see how that works.
Never Give Up, Never Surrender.
Like the crew of the NTE-3120, NSEA-Protector, I take this to heart. Especially in my projects. Like my recent attempt to hook my new Mr. Coffee to the Internet.
Earlier this year I had tried to use a Smart Push Button like this
to control my coffee pot. But I couldn’t make it work, because there was not enough room to mount the switch over the On/Off button. So I put it aside.
Bur remembering this attempt, I dug it out and gave it a try.
Peeling the cover off the included double-stick tape, I stuck it over the switch and gave it a try.
And it worked.
After all my other tries, this one took me about 30 seconds. Then I set the timer to start it up every Mon, Wed, & Fri at 7:40am, and I was done.
I’ll again try to do my rear brakes tomorrow if the weather holds. But I’m not holding my breath.
Thought for the Day:
Sometimes after you fix the problem, you have to fix the solution.
On To The Next Project . . .
Well, I’ve pretty much given up on my Mr. Coffee upgrade/mod. As I mentioned I found the new one much easier to take apart and get into. In fact I was able to unplug the ribbon cable and remove the circuit board completely.
And that’s when I discovered the problem. Unlike the previous board, which uses simple on/off button switches, the switches on the new board are actually interfaced directly to the IC chip and buffered for the input.
Which means that I can’t just parallel a relay across the contacts and have it work.
Bummer!
I ran into this same problem several years ago when I tried to remote control the power windows in our truck. The up/down buttons are on the internal computer bus and can’t paralleled with other switches or relays.
Bummer!
As usual, everyone waited until the last minute to decide that they want to have a September Sale, and this includes the company whose products are going on sale. So now I’m rushing to get an Ad Card produced, and also cleaning up the mailing list for these particular products. Hopefully I’ll get it in the mail before the middle of September.
I’m still hoping to do my rear brakes, maybe on Sunday. But the rain chances are at 60-80% for both days, so it’ll be hit or miss it looks like.
And of course this pushes back the timing for changing out the oil filter gasket on the rig. But we’ll see how it goes with Mother Nature. If this keeps up, a lot of stuff is going to get pushed back into next year.
Next up on my plate at work is to come up with a color scheme/design for these machines.
We’re having them customized to our specs from the manufacturer in Poland, and that includes the colors and our own logo. So now I’m trying to come with something that looks good and won’t cost us too much extra.
As Jan says, it keeps me off the streets and out of trouble. But I tell her to just be satisfied with one out of two.
Thought for the Day:
Sacred cows often make the best hamburger.
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