making connections

warning: most of the people reading this blog absolutely will not care about this post.

i've been searching for a good way to distribute power/signal/ground in various electronics projects and pretty much all of the options i've found just weren't quite right.

Wire Tap

first there is your standard wire-taps, wire nuts (i hate wire nuts), or just solder and electrical tape (i hate electrical tape).  these are okay if you only need to one split your wire once.

Terminal Strip

there is your standard terminal strip, but these only allow you to connect wires 1-to-1 at a time unless you jumper two positions next to each other.  or unless i connect the signal wire to each position individually.  they also have no insulation.

Bus Bar

then you've got your busbars.  not a bad choice, but again, no insulation.

Ganged Fuse Block

then there are these fuse holders which look like they would be pretty convenient, only i don't need fused circuits.  and the other problems is, in this application, i need to distribute one 12v-constant power, one 12v-switched power and a common return so i'd need two of these and i'd need to tie the grounds together.

Blue Sea System Dual Bus Bar p/n 2722

this dual bus bar from blue sea systems looked promising but they were a bit on the pricey side and i'd need two of them, and it's really just more of a plastic cover than the metal parts could still short.  you'd think a company making marine electronics parts would seal their stuff up better.

VTE Tabbed Bus Bar

but after many hours of searching the internet, i finally found almost exactly what i was looking for.  it's these tab-style bus bars from vte world.  they use quick disconnects for the various circuits, are insulated, come in different colors and are relatively cheap.  i ordered two 10-position ones in black plastic (one for 12v-constant and one for 12v-switched), and one 20-position for ground, with red, yellow and black insulation respectively.  you can order them in small quantities from vtewarehouse.com

Posi-Lock Tap Connector

and my coworker just showed me these, which also look pretty promising and will allow you to make up to four new connections with one existing wire. http://www.posi-lock.com/posiplug.html

brown thumb

well it seems to be another year of unsuccessful gardening.  i think if add up all the costs for this year and last year and all the delicious fresh fruits and vegetables i've managed to grow, i've spent roughly $315 on about three tomatoes, one green pepper, that apparently the fucking squirrel that  stole it didn't think was very good, and a lemon the size of a golf ball.


here's the squash plants i tried to grow



and here's the one just randomly growing in my compost bin. that son of a bitch is like 15 feet long and some of those leaves are about two feet across.


on the plus side, the persimmon tree that i got last fall that was basically some roots with a twig attached to the top is doing alright, and the fruit salad tree and 4-in-1 apple tree are also doing pretty well. and the citrus plants seem to be enjoying the heat. the kiwi vines didn't make it.

chicken or beef?

got ready to make some tasty kabobs for dinner tonight.  marinated my steak since yesterday.  skewered some vegetables... red onion, green peppers, mushrooms and squash.

stepped outside to light the grill and get it nice and hot before i put my steak on there.

noticed an awful lot of smoke and opened the grill to find this.

fortunately, i shut the grill off before i set the little guys nest on fire.  they were lucky they weren't baby geese cause i woulda flame broiled those bastards.  i think everyone is okay, but i think i'm gonna have to postpone that bbq i was planning on having.

i ended up cooking my kabobs under the broiler in the oven.  came out pretty good.

my car on google street view

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my first eviction

saturday was a beautiful day.  i spent a couple hours outside doing yardwork.  i left my garage open.  here's a picture of my garage.

in the top right of the above photo you can see where i hang my helmet.  below is a closeup.

after i finished the stuff in the yard i was working on, i was screwing around in the garage and a saw a bird fly into my helmet.

apparently he decided it was a good place to build a nest.  i sat around for about 15 minutes with the camera hoping to catch him in the act, but i got bored.

crazy conspiracy theory of the day

bin laden has been dead for years. we've been using him as an excuse to maintain public support for our activities in afghanistan and pakistan. now we've "killed" him. the photo circulating is a confirmed fake and the body has already been "buried at sea". the only thing i don't get is the timing. obama should have kept this one in his back pocket until election season.

tell me i'm crazy.

community supported agriculture

a.k.a. farm shares.  i like the idea a lot.  basically you pony up in advance for a share of the harvest of a farm and get a pile of food once a week.  the idea being the farmers have more reliable income, not subject to changes in market prices and not at the mercy of weather, and you get local, fresh food for roughly the same price you would pay at the grocery store since there's no middle man.  seems like a winning proposition for everyone involved (you, the farmer, the animals, and the environment), right?

i've toyed with the idea of joining one on and off for the last year and a half or so.  there was one CSA that actually had a pick-up location on my way home from work which would have been fantastic.  unfortunately, they don't seem to be operating this year.  most of the other's are way out of the way for my wife and i, or have pickups at weird hours that we'd never be able to get to like tuesday mornings from 10am to 10:30am, in belize.  there is *one* however that delivers directly to your home which had me pretty excited until i looked at the prices.

basic two person share for 10 weeks of produce - $410.  that's $41 of produce per week.  even if i went to the most expensive grocery store and bought all organic stuff i'd still have a hard time buying $40 worth of produce.  the weekly boxes from this CSA typically include one or two vegetables you could actually make a meal out of and the rest are things like onions, radishes, leafy greens, etc.  not the most cost effective.

half dozen eggs each week for 10 weeks, $75, or in terns more easily compared to grocery store prices, $15 per dozen.  now laura and i have spent countless hours in the egg section of harris teeter staring at the egg section trying to decide which eggs to buy.  there's cage free eggs, organic eggs, free range eggs, brown eggs, white eggs, natural nest eggs and every permutation of the aforementioned attributes.  being unable to decide eggs were the most politically / environmentally correct eggs, we just assumed that it was the most expensive ones they had at about $4 per dozen and bought those.

two 1/2 gallon bottles of organic milk every week for 10 weeks... $250.  yes, that is $25/gallon of milk.  that one pretty much speaks for itself.  if you sign up for only 5 weeks of milk, the price goes to $30/gallon.

i hate to dissuade anyone from joining one of these though because i think it's such a great idea.  most other CSAs cost about half as much as this one, not all have eggs or milk.  so if you don't live in the boonies like me and laura, look into it.  most of them cost about half of what this particular farm charges.  here's where you can get started.  http://www.localharvest.org/csa/