Q: Why did the transformer hum?

A: Because it didn't know the words.

Haha... Yeah, I know... Lame.

I went to Flatiron yesterday and today to observe a core test. Basically, here's the deal... You remember how a simple motor works? You have a doughnut-shaped magnet and an electromagnet on a shaft goes in the doughnut hole? Yeah...

Anyway, if you look at the picture above, they pulled the generator apart because they were going to replace the "stator" in the diagram above. (So, the turbine, generator shaft, and rotor are missing in this generator right now.)

Here's a close-up of a stator:

Right now, there "Stator Coils" are removed so all that's left is the "Stator Core." Before they put the new stator coils in, they test the stator core to ensure the iron is "good," and that the stator core was assembled correctly. Here's a picture I found on the Internet from when they did a core test at Parker Dam:
Anyway, to test these things, they wrap some wire around it and run tons of juice through it, creating a HUGE electromagnet. The test we did today was powered by a semi-trailer-mounted generator... (The oil filters were about 1ft tall :-) During the test, we used our $30,000 camera to look at the stator to make sure it was ok.

It's really weird to stand in the middle of a coil like that... You're exposed to almost all the energy from a large diesel generator and yet it doesn't affect you. If you were to be exposed to it electrically, you'd be fried before you could say, "Agh!" Magnetic fields... weird. I heard you can't bring a mechanical watch in because it ruins them.

We ate lunch at the only local restaurant... I'm sick of eating lunch in old, beat-up bars. They're always run down, dirty-looking, dark, and weird, but they usually have good hamburgers... Whatever! I did pass up my chance to eat Rocky Mountain Oysters... The people I was with tried to get me to order them, but fortunately, someone else from our group told me what they were, so I didn't. I probably would have thrown up when I heard what they were :-)

Some of my Relatives

Music Mayhem

In case any of you are interested in what's going on right now... uh... I pretty much go to work, come home, and go to church.

Let's see here...
My computer is basically dead and probably will be for another six weeks. So if any of you wrote me email in the last few weeks, don't be offended if I didn't respond because I haven't had my computer much...

Uh, I had to do a safety lecture at work a couple weeks ago. Safety meetings are usually pretty dull, so I tried to add some humor. In one of my examples, I stated that a coffin was not a confined space because it is designed for continuous occupancy. (I know, sick. :-)

I found out that Abb played for the World Forum.

Last week, I decided work wasn't for me so I quit my job and am now living off of government subsidies... or that was how I felt after I was informed early Monday morning that I am flying out Reno to help give a presentation at a multi-agency convention on a topic I know very little about.

It was 68 degrees at our house last night on the 4th of July.

OH! My dreams have gotten very, very interesting in the past month or so. Guess my brain is trying to cope and has come up with some rather colour... oops. The circuit board making software at work is British... colorful dreams. For a few weeks, I was apparently chewing people out in my sleep. After that, I started chewing equipment out... Loud enough that I woke people up. One night, I had stuff messed up all over my room... Things from my desk were scattered on the floor, my sheets were all over the place, and all my lights were on :-) Things have settled down, though, and I'm just dreaming "normal" things like having to write a requisition at work to buy a flamingo because it wouldn't fit on my credit card limit, finding it's very easy to buy penguins, having computer games come alive, etc. I've basically been dreaming things every night, and they're rather amusing. I can't remember what I dreamed last night, but judging from the fact I was in a rather foul mood when I woke up, I'm guessing I was chewing something out :-) This is kinda cool, but I'm starting to get tired of my mood being a toy of my imagination, so I guess I'll go get it fixed... Plus, it would be nice to sleep soundly again :-)

Oh... I sorta cleaned out some of my drawers, but I guess I already said that...

We had a big family get-together yesterday. I'll have to post a picture of us all... MWAAAA, HAAAA, HAAA!

Electronics Humor

Dimension Engineering AnyVolt 3 Disclamer

What?
It's easy to tell what you're thinking. "I came to this page expecting to find a series of conditions about what the AnyVolt 3 can't or shouldn't do." Well, it's a fair expectation, but we found it to be too negative. You don't need to be told that AnyVolt3 can't stop a speeding train, leap buildings in a single bound or travel in time by quickly running backwards across the globe - you know that already!

So what is this?
Well, this page is dedicated to something the AnyVolt 3 can do, which is fend off the nefarious clam menace.

Clams?
Yes, clams! Everyone worries about zombies or robots or nuclear missiles or what-have-you causing the apocalypse, all the while disregarding the silent, subtle, unassuming menace that is clam society at large. I know, I know; "clams aren't very mobile," "they're not very smart," "they're tasty," etc etc. This is exactly what they want you to think! When the clams rise up and overthrow us, it will be so unexpected that no one will be able to organize a proper defense! Except you.

This is ridiculous. I'm leaving.
Wait! You don't want to hear about how the secret weakness of the rebellious clams is an electric current at a very specific voltage that depends on the type of clam, and that when their uprising happens the best portable defense will be a car battery and an AnyVolt3?

No, not even a little.
Well, you might want to know that during that clamtastrophe, a properly calibrated AnyVolt3 would be good for running your cell phone, your lights or your electric chainsaw from that same battery. As long as you have a way to set the voltage, enough juice in the battery and the reasonable confidence that you aren't exceeding the unit's current ratings, you can survive!

For more information on the applications of AnyVolt3, especially as pertaining to post-apocalyptic wastelands, please visit our product page for it!

Seems weird...

...but these are the types of games we all used to spend time playing:

Now to play well, you have to take lessons and practice, practice, practice... My friend's friend made a killing teaching people how to play Halo. (If there's any offending language, I apologize... I didn't take the time to watch the whole thing because I figured none of you would... but now that I said that, you all will, right? MEH!)

SEE?

H2+O and/or O3 is between the LEL and the UEL!

Guess what?

The LEL of H2 is 4%.
The UEL of H2 is 75%.

May Day is coming.

Funday Munday

Monday Funday

After Mom made a comment, "If the King James Version was good enough for the apostle Paul, it's good enough for me!", a picture started floating around:
Accidentally leaving her ‘King Jimmy’ at home as a consequence of a bizarre and unexpected confluence of circumstances, a young Susan Travers finds herself visiting a prototype mega church and succumbs to the money-changing temptations of a Contemporary-English Bible dispensing machine in the lobby.

And, of course this one's been around for a while, but it still cracks me up:


And... well...

How you know you're shopping in Texas

Thanks to Obama, this is pretty much true anywhere now :-) He's got to be the best gun/ammo salesman ever!

New Approach!

I've come up with a new method for organizing my socks.

Ok, ok... It's not quite that boring...

I have these three drawers under my desk that contain a myriad of pencils, pens, paper, junk, stuffed animals, etc. (The stuffed animals aren't my fault.)

I finally realized what I need to do is go through them and remove everything but what I actually use... meaning that my top drawer will have two pens, one mechanical pencil, a couple permanent markers, a stapler, scissors, and a paper cutter.

Wow! What a novel idea. Put everything I don't actually need or use in a box... I'll deal with the box later. I figure if I clean one small item out a month, I'll... er... run out of things to do in a few years.

I sound pretty bored? Well... er... I rarley get any email at home, there's very little blog activity, I have to go downstairs to check my email since my computer fried, etc. I never realized how much time I wasted with the ol' computer. Now I can waste time wandering around the house and bugging people instead!

Oh, I brought my brothers 4-wheeling, Monday. The soundtrack was rather funny.

WASH YOUR HANDS WITH SOAP!

I had to work Friday this week. *gasp*

I learned that hepatitis C is at an all time high because people aren't washing their hands after using public restrooms. Oh, I also learned not to hold a nitroglycerin pill in your hand or you'll get a horrid headache.

You see, I have to get CPR training every year and the training rolled around on Friday. I'm now CPR/AED/First Aid certified by the American Red Cross... for another year :-)

Ho, ho... What's funny is they haven't changed the test. I STILL didn't get 100%. You'd think after three times of missing "Heat related Emergency" because I read it as "Heart related Emergency," I'd remember? Nah!

Anyway, I decided to take Monday off instead. I've gotten kind of burnt out these last two weeks of work, so I'm going to take a break. I've been researching equipment, writing requisitions, writing a report, and making circuit boards, so work has been kind of tedious. I do get to head down to Elephant Butte sometime in the next few weeks, so that ought to be nice besides the fact that I'll be in charge... My first field trip where I'm the guy in charge... means I get to write the travel report :-) Hopefully I don't mess anything up.

Creepy Crawly Things

Google had a bug, so my pictures are gone... You can view them here, though:

Roozer's World

Trip

Here's the pictures from the trip I went on today. We visited a comm site on top of a mountain near Green Mountain Reservoir. (Take I-70 to Highway 9 (Dillon area), drive to a dirt country road, drive up that for 45 minutes and arrive at destination at top of mountain.)

They're using a fuel cell for backup power, so we had to go test it to make sure it worked.

Here's the site:
Here's the view:
That white cabinet is the fuel cell enclosure. It contains 6 welding bottles of hydrogen and the fuel cell:
Here's the actual fuel cell unit: