Posts

Showing posts from October, 2007

Carbon Monoxide!?

Image
Weird The smoke alarm went off, not incredibly odd when I am using the fireplace, but it wasn't the smoke detector. It was the CO alarm. I was totally surprised. It had never gone off as long as I have had one, over many many years. Yep, after resetting it a few times. It was getting a reading over 200 ppm CO. When I took it downstairs I got a reading near 300 ppm. I started getting light headed at this point. After thinking maybe the furnace heat exchanger failed and puzzling around a bit I figured oout what happened. As part of the huge winter storm that recently covered almost half of the US, we lost our electricity. So, being well prepared I rolled out the generator and started doing what I normally do. The generator (although it was completely outside) was creating CO to get in the house. Using the fireplace (and possibly other leaks) the whole house created a vacuum around the seal of the basement garage door. After the CO got into the house the forced air heating eff...
Image
Man o' man getting on the internet has really been working againist me lately. I got the new tv (great). I got the dish for "Cable" tv, and I had my new internet dish installed (Wild Blue). The Wild blue worked for exactly 2 days and quit. I am trying to get it fixed. Hopefully today the guy will be out. I am currently using a WIFI connection down in Binghamton. We can receive 7 hi def stations locally, about 12 analog signals and then we have the dish and the internet connected to the TV via VGA. I am working out the details of how to hook all this stuff up including the subwoofer I installed in the coffee table. I have been taking a lot of photos lately, stopping the truck on the way to work or whatever. It is worth it. Of course ;-) at this sitting I have almost none of my new pics with me. I am working on getting my electric car drive train working. I built a test stand and a programming interface for the controller. I bid on a geo tracker with a bad engine on eba...
This week started off a little rough with Bob's memorial service. I should have new satelite internet service next week. I also bought a new HDTV. The 37 inch model I picked out is small for those things. I am also getting dish TV for the first time ever. So we will be veging out in front of the tv this winter it appears. My friend Pete drew me into the idea of making an electric car. So I now have a very nice 3-Phase Fork lift motor and AC controller. I am looking for a small car with a bad engine. Bernhardi, Robert (Bob) Robert (Bob) Bernhardi, of Center Lisle, passed on unexpectedly at age 55. Bob was predeceased by his mother, Marie; and his brother, Paul. He is survived by his wife, Debra Jean (DJ) McCullough; daughters, Michelle and Amanda; grandchildren, Angela, Dakota and Ian; father, Robert G. Bernhardi; siblings, Bill, Tom, Mary, Eileen and John; also many nieces and nephews. Bob grew up in the Port Byron, N.Y. area, graduated from Penfield, N.Y. High Sch...
Image
On my last flying lesson we were about 300 feet off the ground on climb-out and the engine demonstrated a definite change in power. After about 3 seconds the power came back on ok. Not great, but ok. It turned out we had a weak cylinder, low compression. So the plane is getting a new piston and the cylinder bored.
Image
I still don't have proper Internet access at home. Everyone is deplying to Antarctica now for "Mainbody". It will be interesting to hear the stories. I sent the following hero shot to friend who is deploying. It shows me dangerously working on telecommunications systems in the forbidding harshness of the business world.