Yellow EnergyGuide stickers, how accurate should they be?

I ran my pool pump with X10 for a decade. Worked fine. The problem with X10 is that it either works or doesn't (in similar proportions). When it works, there is nothing wrong with it.

I've tried to do this sort of math for the salesdroid, but usually it just results in a puzzled look on their part -- clearly few of them have actually tried to figure out for themselves how to even guesstimate the cost-effectiveness of an extended warranty.

My boss specifically took out an extended warranty on a big-screen TV something like 2 or 3 years ago now, since he's entirely convinced it's going to fail due to the RoHS changeover to unleaded solder...

---Joel

That wouldn't make as much money as a government monopoly (he already has one on the safety mechanism because of the patent).

They get to kill people. Do you?

Unisaw X5s don't have one (the new model does, but is as expensive as the above SawStop). I've been thinking of buying an add-on, but they're expensive and I've not actually seen one. I have ("adjustable") splitters that are connected to the insert that work fairly well. The factory splitter and guard sit on the shelf unless I'm going to do a *lot* of ripping. It's a real pain to use and I'm not convinced it's all that safe. It really obstructs the view of the blade.

This was someone who called, constantly, from the RCA (GE, at the time, I believe) regional service center.

It probably will, but not in two or three years. ;-) My plasma TV died after two years, but Panasonic covered it under (the one-year) warranty anyway. Evidently they knew they had a power supply problem. I'll likely buy Panasonic again. ;-)

There are some things I don't like about it, so I'm also looking at the Silicon Labs part and there is another our Arrow rep sent around to look at.

I'll have to take a closer look at that.

I've used digipots until now but would look into DACs next time. Digipots drive the firmware types nuts. ;-) I had to use resistors and switches in that base unit you looked at. Needed too much power and I needed variable caps, too. Accuracy wasn't a concern (but it seems monoticity, or the lack thereof, was too much for the firmware types to handle).

I've never used that particular SiLab part, although I have used various other SiLab parts and they've always performed reasonably well.

My recollection is that SiLab was rather slower than FTDI in getting around to releasing 64-bit Windows drivers, if that sort of thing matters to you. (I wouldn't be surprised if they contracted out the driver design whereas FTDI is doing it in-house.)

It's slick... you can send it a stream of bytes and it'll sit there and act like a clocked register, outputting each byte at the "baud rate." ...or you can ask it to read its input pins at that same rate and return a stream of bytes to you representing their status over time. They also have some special SPI and I2C-like modes, although I haven't used them.

OK, thanks! (The first digipot I used was some 256-step Maxim thing umpteen years ago in a computer-controller high-voltage power supply -- you could throw a switch to set whether a multi-turn pot of the PC controlled the thing... this was seen as Very Neat back in the early '90s... :-) )

---Joel

[...]

Oops, thanks. Notice to self: Find out when propane prices are low.

Front loaders often have heaters as an option. Ours also has a fancy computer in there, didn't like that but what can ya do? So it should be able to be designed for that. Anyhow, I wouldn't even mind having to push a button that lets recirc run for 15mins or so and start the washer

2mins later. The really smart thing would be to make sure the boiler is next to the laundry room.

Please run for president :-)

Yeah, probably. This one makes funny little gurgling noises and the power intake wobbles a percent or two. But cools well.

--
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No, I don't, but now we have one because the missus really wanted a front load machine. Well, so did I because of all the scuffed shirt collars. Thing is, they only come in fancy-fancy, big LED display and all. I wouldn't be surprised to find a USB jack on it some day. It is really funny to listen to the VF drive with an AM radio when it goes into this speed-variable spin. Hats off to the EMC guy though, you have to hold the radio within 3ft to hear that.

I could probably build that around a CD4060 and a triac. Trigger, run

15mins, stop.

I meant fridges and freezers. They buy lots of those.

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[...]

Until it quits working. I had numerous wall switch modules croak, nearly a dozen appliance modules that gave up, remotes drifting out of bandpass, central controller hangups both with new and old ones (convincing me that they'll never figure out how to properly use a watchdog), and so on. Failure modes were all over the map. Eventually I chucked most of it.

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[...]

On my tile saw I took it off. Made life much easier with larger tiles (12").

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water

I had the gas guy out to give me an estimate for running the gas line around the house for a new stove (the annual sale runs out this weekend). One alternative was to put an additional tank at that end of the house. He added the cost of the gas into the cost of the job (I can subtract it out easily enough). It was something like $2.75/gallon, which is a lot lower than I had expected. I'll probably have them do the job right, though.

I've never seen that. Interesting, though our water heater isn't far from it (one floor up).

In our first house, the furnace (with a domestic HW coil) was on the other side of the wall from both bathrooms (one upstairs), kitchen (upstairs), and laundry. The water was *HOT* (180F, in less than a minute).

I thought you were voting for Jim? ;-)

Power intake?

A riving knife on a tile saw? Whatever for? I can't even see a splitter being of any use.

Yes, that sort of thing does matter, since we don't do the software. Good thing to think about. The issue I have with the FT232R is that you can't use the internal oscillator at 3.3V and you have to program it at >4V before you can use the external oscillator. That makes a real mess of either my design or the manufacturing process.

Over USB? I hadn't gotten that far. Cool! I've been wondering how to field configure the FPGA in a design coming up.

I don't know what their problem is with the digipots. It was likely a hangover from the TI DSP problems they were having and they never went back to fix the problems. I2C can be a real PITA.

Maxim??!!! Ever tried to go to maxim.com? I think it rings bells in our IT department. ;-)

I know. We've been down this road a few times. ;-) The only switches I've had fail (I don't use any anymore) were the first generation. They had a fusible link that would protect the switch from a light bulb failing. :-( Other than that, I had zero failures. I know some couldn't get the system working in their house and then there were transformer bridging issues. I had none of those problems. The 220V 20A appliance module I ran the pool pump with was bullet proof.

Yep. I'd rather have LED than LCD, though.

USB??? Why not a LAN port?

Only you...

BTW, that reminds me... What do you use for an EMI "scanner"? I put the info somewhere but lost the somewhere. Since I'm the one doing all the compliance stuff (I do all the new designs, so I guess it's fair ;-) I'd like the boss to fork over for some tools. It'll be fall before there's any money, but I want to be ready. ;-)

You probably could. Now how are you going to tie it into the washer so it's hot when it demands it?

Residential models?

water

$2.75 would be ok. Have to check that, thanks.

more

heaters,

They asked us for the Maytag we bought but we declined. If you need it instantly hot all you have to do is let some water out at the sink, the line almost passes the washer's hose bib. AFAIR on the machine from LG it would have been standard but I tossed all the comparison info after we bought ours.

Sorry, power consumption. My latest consulting job is pure EE stuff again, should get me back to the right terminology ;-)

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That's what I though. After taking it off I had no more breakage of tiles.

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water

gas

more

heaters,

Doesn't work in our house. It's PEX. All water lines are home-runs to the central manifold. The sink and toilet in each bathroom are even on different runs. There is no hope of getting hot water to the dishwasher. :-(

that.

[...]

It lets off interesting tunes :-)

I am using an Icom R-1500 (the PCR-1500 for $100 less withot the consolue would do as well). It goes almost down to DC but for lower frequency hunts I prefer a NRS-515 from Japan Radio Corp but you can't buy those anymore.

But I am not doing pre-compliance, if that's your goal you might get a low cost spectrum analyzer off Ebay or maybe one of the Chinese brands. Instek, Atten, etc. I get called in when stuff has hit the fan and they can't find where siome noise is coming from. Or the really faints whistlers that pollute signal paths, spectrum analyzers often aren't sensitive enough for that.

For hunts you'll also need a near field kit. Can be handmade but I just bought the EMCO kit, nowadays when on sale under $1k. Hardly ever need the LNA so you might save that expense, they have a version without that.

It has a start button. I'd place another delay in there, start the recirc pump and let the washer come on 2mins afterwards. Interestingly ours even has a power on/off button.

Seen many in there. Also, I don't think that all models have that distinction. Restaurant grade is way out of budget for most places these days.

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