Entropy continued

[Brian Roth]

John....with "time on your hands"....does the "official" method linked in post 255 make any sense?

Bri

 

[JohnRoberts]

John....with "time on your hands"....does the "official" method linked in post 255 make any sense?

Bri

No? What makes you think I have time on my hands? I have stuff I should be doing right now instead of this.

I do not care about absolute precision, but it seems these days that almost everything I look into reveals inaccuracies.

My immediate concern is the 1" discrepancy between two otherwise operational rain gauges. Sadly I trust the cheap one more because it is simpler, but how does one check calibration? Rhetorical, I don't really care. I will just use two rain gauges until the plastic one freezes with water in it and cracks.

===
I have two outdoor thermometers on opposite sides of my house so am accustomed to +/- outdoor results. There are similarly complicated treatments for measuring outdoor temperatures that I do not use.

JR

 

[Brian Roth]

Hi John...I have no idea why I suggested you had "time on your hands". Me Bad!

I'm still curious about accurately calibrating rain gauges. My Mom and Stepdad (both RIP) had an odd-ball gauge in their backyard. IIRC, it was several feet tall and maybe an inch or two in diameter, and had some sort of float inside. They would look out the window to "pronounce" how much rain they had received.

Thinking about this a bit...imagine there was a 2 foot diameter "collector bowl" that fed into a collector tube. I guess *I* have too much time on my hands and have been looking at the design of the "official' specs the Weather Service uses! lol

Bri

PS, dunno why I'm obsessing about rain gauges this time of year! Locally, 6" of snow here locally a few days ago, now snowing again. Weekend HIGH air temps single digits, overnights like -10F. Wind Chill with increasing winds, -20 or lower. YIKES! I wish I had moved to Florida 10 years ago when I had an opportunity.....

 

[JohnRoberts]

Inexplicably last night's rain was only 1/4" and both gauges agree...

I suspect part of the reason I accused my fancy, freeze resistant rain gauge of under reporting small rains, is because the markings on the rain gauge float only begin at 1/4"... Anything less than 1/4" looks like zero. More graduations all the way down to zero, would make it clearer to read.

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

Sadly I can not blame today's fun and games on entropy... this was human error or more specifically a case of "old man dropsies". I suspect other senior forum member may recognize the affliction.

For most of my adult life as a non-smoker I routinely dumped spare pocket change into my car ashtray. In some parts of the world this can be useful for paying tolls.

I use the cigarette lighter jack in my car to trickle charge my car battery that declines from sitting a week or more between shopping trips. Today I unplugged the charger and went to place the cigarette lighter back loosely in place to fill the hole. Somehow I managed to pick up a dime at the same time and this dime was an almost perfect fit inside the barrel of the lighter jack . It did not short and blow the fuse until I tried to extract it.

We are all really lucky to have access to the WWW at our fingertips, ready to tell us how many amps my "cigar" lighter fuse was (30A) and where it was located. My car has two fuse boxes and the lighter fuse was in the engine compartment fuse box.

I happened to have some 20A automotive fuses sitting around so that was close enough to get back operational and charging. As far as I can tell 12v automobile cigarette lighters draw 8-10A and my battery charger will more likely be 1/10th of that or less.

JR

 

[MicMaven]

this was human error or more specifically a case of "old man dropsies". I suspect other senior forum member may recognize the affliction.

Ouch! Self-inflicted wounds hurt the most, even when, as here, it is something of a freak accident.

So, TAKE YOUR DAILY MULLIGAN and all will be forgiven and forgotten as if it never happened. (At our house, the wife an I each get a Daily Mulligan, allowing a free drop (do over) with no comment or piling on by the other!)

So, take your Mulligan and enjoy another cup of java with no worries. James /K8JHR​

 

[JohnRoberts]

I have just ordered two new GFCI outlets. I only have three installed in my entire house, but the one in my laundry room has lately picked up the bad habit of false(?) trips.

Both recent trips in as many weeks were while I was running my dishwasher overnight... That suggests perhaps a common fault vector inside the dishwasher?

I just ordered two new GFCI outlets and paid up to not buy the cheapest ones being sold JIC that makes a difference. FWIW the Leviton that I ordered is also made in China as are most such things these days.

This one GFCI outlet location has been a little dodgy for years, not always coming up after mains power failures without a manual reset. This is the worst one, and next after that location, I have experienced a handful of false trips in my kitchen GFCI outlet over several years. The bathroom GFCI outlet has been my most reliable (zero false trips IIRC).

If I still see GFCI trips after replacing this outlet, I will continue my investigation. I also have a clothes washing machine, and pipe heater tape wrap plugged in there. The pipe heater is to prevent frozen cold water pipes. A few years ago my outdoor garden hose tap froze up solid, due to my unheated laundry room.

None of the appliances are very old and all use 3 wire line cords. That outlet is ground bonded to my fuse box with a separate redneck DIY safety ground wire. I have read internet advice that high humidity could be a source of spurious leakage causing GFCI false trips. My clothes dryer is vented to the outdoors so humidity should not be a big problem. I roast coffee in that room but that should not release significant humidity.

JR

 

[MicMaven]

I have just ordered two new GFCI outlets.

Those CAN be fussy. I have one in my garage that is linked to another one in a bathroom in another part of the house - crazy, eh? I suspect it is because it is close to a water sprigot. Either that, or the electrician figured that is whare one might put a table saw or operate other power tools. Who knows? Still, I agree they CAN be a tad touchy.

Intermittents ARE a supreme aggravation in any case.

FWIW the Leviton that I ordered is also made in China as are most such things these days.

I believe manufacturing location is much less important than design location. Lots of stuff made in China is designed elsewhere, perhaps with higher safety and performance standards, so probably no worries with your selection. This made for the US and EU are usually higher quality, and cost more, than products to be sold elsewhere, and that makes sense I guess.

I think your selection will be OK. Parenthetically, Leviton dimmers are fairly RFI and EMI quiet compared to several other brands (which is matters in my amateur radio station.) They seem to be designed well.

That outlet is ground bonded to my fuse box with a separate redneck DIY safety ground wire.

Serving Suggestion No. 38763 --

Gee ... Ahem ... ah ... I am not so sure I would do that. Something about the NEC and domestic safety grounds springs to mind. Um ... I read books by Motorola, the Lightning Protection Institute, the ARRL, and the NEC for proper grounding of my radio station, which makes me somewhat skeptical about your red neck ground scheme. While I am NOT an engineer, I sorta, kinda suspect that is contraindicated, and maybe, not sure, contributing to the occasionally faults you experience. Perhaps a topic for review some rainy afternoon?

I roast coffee in that room but that should not release significant humidity.

I agree. The roasting process is a fairly dry operation. I forget if you have a "proper" coffee roaster machine, or employ another process ? While I usually use a dedicated roasting machine (appliance) - I sometimes use a countertop convection oven (toaster oven) at its highest heat. The only down side to this latter method is the aggravating amouint of "chaff" that burns off and flies about the roasting room afterward. I carefully take the beans outside to cool and use a photo hand blower to recycle them in the outer environment.

GOOD LUCK sorting out your circuit breaker conundrum. I hope it is as easy as replacing the outlets. / James

 

[Youngwhisk]

I have one in my garage that is linked to another one in a bathroom in another part of the house - crazy, eh? I suspect it is because it is close to a water sprigot. Either that, or the electrician figured that is whare one might put a table saw or operate other power tools. Who knows? Still, I agree they CAN be a tad touchy.

In my area of Canada, about 25 years ago it was acceptable by code to put a GFCI receptacle in a bathroom with one linked outlet outside, which I still have. I have not looked at the code recently but I think that is no longer the case.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Those CAN be fussy. I have one in my garage that is linked to another one in a bathroom in another part of the house - crazy, eh? I suspect it is because it is close to a water sprigot. Either that, or the electrician figured that is whare one might put a table saw or operate other power tools. Who knows? Still, I agree they CAN be a tad touchy.

Stringing GFCI outlets together makes it more difficult to troubleshoot which outlet caused the trip.

Intermittents ARE a supreme aggravation in any case.



I believe manufacturing location is much less important than design location. Lots of stuff made in China is designed elsewhere, perhaps with higher safety and performance standards, so probably no worries with your selection. This made for the US and EU are usually higher quality, and cost more, than products to be sold elsewhere, and that makes sense I guess.

I suspect there is a bias toward false trips and never missing fault currents.

I think your selection will be OK. Parenthetically, Leviton dimmers are fairly RFI and EMI quiet compared to several other brands (which is matters in my amateur radio station.) They seem to be designed well.

I paid a little more with that hope.

Serving Suggestion No. 38763 --

Gee ... Ahem ... ah ... I am not so sure I would do that. Something about the NEC and domestic safety grounds springs to mind. Um ... I read books by Motorola, the Lightning Protection Institute, the ARRL, and the NEC for proper grounding of my radio station, which makes me somewhat skeptical about your red neck ground scheme. While I am NOT an engineer, I sorta, kinda suspect that is contraindicated, and maybe, not sure, contributing to the occasionally faults you experience. Perhaps a topic for review some rainy afternoon?

I had an ARRL handbook when I was a kid (my dad RIP was a ham).

My house was built cheaply with 2 conductor mains wiring throughout. I cannot imagine any possible safety problem from adding an additional ground wire. If this in any way contributes to the GFCI trips... good. That means a fault was being concealed by the lack of a safety ground. Right now I am more suspicious of the GFCI outlet.

I agree. The roasting process is a fairly dry operation. I forget if you have a "proper" coffee roaster machine, or employ another process ? While I usually use a dedicated roasting machine (appliance) - I sometimes use a countertop convection oven (toaster oven) at its highest heat. The only down side to this latter method is the aggravating amouint of "chaff" that burns off and flies about the roasting room afterward. I carefully take the beans outside to cool and use a photo hand blower to recycle them in the outer environment.

I have been using a Hottop Drum roaster for a couple decades now. Roasting effectively cooks moisture out of the green beans. The Hottop captures the chaff and uses forced air to cool the beans in the cooling tray, to quench the roasting quickly when you have finished. Roasting 1/2 pound of coffee slightly warms up the unheated laundry room but does not appear to result in noticeable humidity. Plenty of smoke, which is why I do it in that room.

I started out years ago roasting coffee with a hot air popcorn popper..... that caused a real chaff mess.

GOOD LUCK sorting out your circuit breaker conundrum. I hope it is as easy as replacing the outlets. / James

My experience with cheap GFCI outlets has always involved random false trips, but they are generally few and far between. The recent interruptions to my overnight dishwashing may reveal a new trip pattern. If it isn't the GFCI outlet then the next likely suspect would be my dishwasher that isn't very old. I have also had issues with this one GFCI outlet not coming up energized after power outages so my bet is that it is the guilty party.

JR

 

[MicMaven]

Roger all points concerning your tripping outlet.

Nice coffee roaster, with a good reputation. My roaster is not as big or as fancy, but it does a nice job and captures chaf in a filter/cup that is easy to clean. In contrast, roasting on a flat pan in the convection toaster oven requires more care to avoid a mess. Still, not a big deal if I am careful and blow it off outside.

Parenthetically, my wife is a really good barista and can accurately assess roasted bean quality by sight and sense of smell. She makes super foamy frothed steamed milk, and LOVES the smell of roasted beans and freshly brewed coffee and espresso - BUT SHE WILL NOT DRINK A SINGLE DROP of any type of coffee drink. Go figure.

She convinced me to buy a new espresso machine to replace my 14-15 year old machine that was acting up (you know ... entropy) and she participates in the morning brewing ritual, so I suppose she's a keeper. James

 

[MicMaven]

My latest quasi-entropic crisis involved my beloved Baratza coffee grinder. A chard of broken plastic in a bag of commercially roasted beans clogged the burrs, causing it to seize and grind to a sudden halt, blowing an internal fuse to boot. It required some effort (OK, time and patience) to dismantle the beast and remove the debris and replace the internal fuse. The offending source was a bag of "Sputnik Coffee" from Chicago, acquired on the cheap at a local closeout outlet. Not such a good bargain, after all. I contacted the company which was very responsive and treated the incident in an apporiately serious manner, accepting my suggestion it might examine its roasting and packing process and machinery for broken bits that could contaminate the coffee and cause serious liability from foreign matter in their product. Fortunately, the grinder operates as new, after a thorough cleaning and reassembly. Proof I should stick to my own beans.

Parenthetically, the company offered me a replacement bag of beans ... which I declined. James

 

[JohnRoberts]

My latest quasi-entropic crisis involved my beloved Baratza coffee grinder.

burr grinders do make a difference...(subtle but real).

my first baratza seized up when the grinder tried to eat itself (metal on metal). while i was looking into purchasing replacement burrs I noticed a remanufactured unit offered for sale at a very fair price so i bought that instead. it has been grinding flawlessly for at least 15 years. I still need to repair that fallen soldier. I have a hand grinder in my kitchen but lack the patience to hand grind my daily brew. Reportedly the hand grinder does not heat the grounds the way machine grinders do (I am very pleased with the baratza output).

[edit- I just checked the Baratza website and there is no mention of my old model Maestro plus. They sell some replacement burrs but it is unclear which series parts I would need to order /edit]

A chard of broken plastic in a bag of commercially roasted beans clogged the burrs, causing it to seize and grind to a sudden halt, blowing an internal fuse to boot. It required some effort (OK, time and patience) to dismantle the beast and remove the debris and replace the internal fuse. The offending source was a bag of "Sputnik Coffee" from Chicago, acquired on the cheap at a local closeout outlet. Not such a good bargain, after all. I contacted the company which was very responsive and treated the incident in an apporiately serious manner, accepting my suggestion it might examine its roasting and packing process and machinery for broken bits that could contaminate the coffee and cause serious liability from foreign matter in their product. Fortunately, the grinder operates as new, after a thorough cleaning and reassembly. Proof I should stick to my own beans.

i buy my green coffee from Sweet Marias outside of SF (Oakland) the original hub for imported coffee from around the world. I have ocassionally been tempted by cheap greens from other vendors but they never live up to the quality Sweet Marias consistently delivers.

Parenthetically, the company offered me a replacement bag of beans ... which I declined. James

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

Now my dueling rain gauges are disagreeing in different directions. Now my fancy freeze proof rain gauge is measuring 3 1/2" and the low tech plastic rain gauge only 2 1/2". I have a new theory for that, the plastic rain gauge was tilted back at an angle to make it easier to read. In theory that would reduce the cross sectional area of the rain gauge opening accepting in less rain. My gut is not comfortable with that explanation, but it's all I gut.

For now I will believe the rain gauge with the highest reading.

JR

 

[MicMaven]

The Maestro is a good grinder. You should be able to determine and acquire the proper part with a little research. Baratza services its goods directly, so it should be able to specify and sell the proper bit. My model is called the Sette. I have had good communications with its service department.

While I understand grinders can heat beans, I believe it only counts if you grind a lot of beans at once. Similarly for generating static electricity while grinding. I believe you grind more or less daily as you go along, so I doubt you suffer any such adverse effects. I have experienced nothing of that nature in my process.

In case I was not clear, the offending Sputnik beans were roasted in Chicago. I should have sued for causing mental distress ... anxiety and fear of consumning plastic bits in future cups of java ... um ... er ... but it would be more hassle than it is worth.

I buy green beans locally from a Mediterranean grocery and a commercial roasting house that carries a good variety of beans from multiple sources. The proprietor of the roasting house is quite serious about his product, and has a individual and corporate following, including stores and restaurants, with good turnover. He is very encouraging and does not mind that I roast at home, selling beans to me at a good price. The guys who own the Mediteranean market are fascinating characters and have approached me about giving in-store roasting demos and promotions ... a work in progress. I don't ask where they source their beans . . .

Happy trails to you. James

 

[jasonallenh]

I have to ask the signifigance of the blue stripe on the flag ,
hadnt seen it before ,

It's just the color code for this flag. This particular flag is 226 million ohms

 

[Youngwhisk]

Now my dueling rain gauges are disagreeing in different directions. Now my fancy freeze proof rain gauge is measuring 3 1/2" and the low tech plastic rain gauge only 2 1/2". I have a new theory for that, the plastic rain gauge was tilted back at an angle to make it easier to read. In theory that would reduce the cross sectional area of the rain gauge opening accepting in less rain. My gut is not comfortable with that explanation, but it's all I gut.

For now I will believe the rain gauge with the highest reading.

JR

Should there be any expectation of consistency with the gauges? Rain should be reasonably random in hitting the 2 gauges. The fact that they measure in opposite directions is actually somewhat of an indication of randomness isn't it? Maybe averaging the 2 may be a more accurate indication of the actual rainfall.

 

[DarkSky]

The 1" discrepancy is difficult to explain for two gauges located inches apart in my yard.

It must be the the fancy freeze resistant rain gauge that is off. The other one, being cheap, can't afford to be wrong! ; )

 

[JohnRoberts]

It must be the the fancy freeze resistant rain gauge that is off. The other one, being cheap, can't afford to be wrong! ; )

After the last major rain they pretty much agreed.

Today oddly the freeze proof gauge reported more rain than the simple cheap plastic rain gauge. I stood the simple one up straighter than it was and since it is still raining I will compare them again tomorrow morning.

JR

 

[cyrano]

Wind can vary quite a bit from one spot to another and affect measurements, me thinks...

But then, rain level also can be different from one spot to another. Ever seen that YT vid with a 5 meter diameter rain field in an otherwise sunny environment?

I spose your devices are next to one another?