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Topic: Hall thermostat gone blank and ticking like a timebomb  (Read 6012 times)

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Re: Hall thermostat gone blank and ticking like a timebomb
« Reply #30 on: September 26, 2017, 04:30:21 PM »
Thanks but I’m feeling a bit of a failure about it.  My kid was totally stoked about building it but it’s worked out to be too difficult.  I’m not giving up, actually talking about it has reminded me I need to get back to it.

Nan, what’s your plan for the ISS tracker?  I’m assuming you will get the NASA feed over http and parse that, but what then?


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Re: Hall thermostat gone blank and ticking like a timebomb
« Reply #31 on: September 26, 2017, 04:54:14 PM »
That was in a remote village in the Cascade Mountains in Washington state. It was awesome.
Huh? Where? Now you got my attention......I'm a WA native.
Fred


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Re: Hall thermostat gone blank and ticking like a timebomb
« Reply #32 on: September 26, 2017, 05:12:04 PM »
I built a cheaper sterling engine once that had wooden parts and ran off a candle.  It was fun but wonky.  The one pictured runs off a cup of tea and looks way cool.

Yeah, it does look really cool! You could like have that in the living room as legitimate decoration!

I'm thinking maybe of trying to build one that sits on our kitchen radiator. And maybe runs a very small pump that might circulate water in my proposed hydroponic kitchen garden...


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Re: Hall thermostat gone blank and ticking like a timebomb
« Reply #33 on: September 26, 2017, 05:16:02 PM »
Thanks but I’m feeling a bit of a failure about it.  My kid was totally stoked about building it but it’s worked out to be too difficult.  I’m not giving up, actually talking about it has reminded me I need to get back to it.

Nan, what’s your plan for the ISS tracker?  I’m assuming you will get the NASA feed over http and parse that, but what then?

Have to remember. I had gotten all geared up to do this about 3 or 4 years ago, and then it got shelved. I've seen plans for physical bit - the light part (in like a toy spaceship or something appropriate). And there was the programming part that, yes, you have to have access to the internet for. Beyond that, I can't remember a darned thing! (It's so annoying, my memory!) But I will find it again, and when I do, I'll letcha know!

Then again, this looks pretty cool, too!  https://blog.adafruit.com/2017/04/19/how-to-make-a-unique-iss-notification-pin-wearablewednesday/
« Last Edit: September 26, 2017, 05:18:55 PM by Nan D. »


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Re: Hall thermostat gone blank and ticking like a timebomb
« Reply #34 on: September 26, 2017, 06:42:17 PM »
Huh? Where? Now you got my attention......I'm a WA native.

Holden Village on Lake Chelan. Technically it's on the wilderness boundary, so besides shipments of food by the ferry, we were self-sufficient. No phone except one emergency line, no internet (although I think they get cell signal now) and no TV.

I lived there for a year as a boarding student, which is a terrible term for what it was. It was not a fancy boarding school. Trust me.

Holden used to be a mining village and is now run by the ELCA (but open to anyone). Summers are busy with 300-400 people (staff and visitors). Winters are quieter with about 60-100 staff plus a few visitors and short term staff.

Everyone applies to be part of the community and had a job in the village. Since the village attracts families, they have a 'remote but necessary' school.

My year, there were 5 elementary school kids, two 7th graders, two 8th graders and I was one of 4 juniors. All four juniors were boarding students, so we lived there without our families, but with a sponsor who acted as our parent for the year. There were just two teachers in the school, one for elementary and one for 7-12 grade, plus a teacher's assistant.

The elementary kids had more of a schedule, but most of our schooling was self-taught with textbooks or with the help of someone from the community. My teacher and I worked through calculus together (he stayed a week ahead of me) and I did a music improve 'class' with a musician in the village.

Once a week, we'd decide as a group (everything was by consensus) what we'd want to do for PE and that would be our Friday afternoon. We could bike down to the lake, go on a hike, play frisbee golf, cross country ski or sled in the winter or do whatever else we all agreed on.

I could go on, but it was pretty freakin' awesome.
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Re: Hall thermostat gone blank and ticking like a timebomb
« Reply #35 on: September 26, 2017, 07:01:35 PM »
Holden Village on Lake Chelan. Technically it's on the wilderness boundary, so besides shipments of food by the ferry, we were self-sufficient. No phone except one emergency line, no internet (although I think they get cell signal now) and no TV.

The first place that came to mind was the Stehekin area. I went to college in Eburg (I'm from a small town on the West side) and a good buddy of mine in college (sold him my Sub Forester when we moved back here) grew up in Chelan (although his early days were N Dakota) so I spent some time there with his family. I thought about moving to that area when we retired in 2011. Right now I'm missing that nice dry weather :\\\'(
Fred


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Re: Hall thermostat gone blank and ticking like a timebomb
« Reply #36 on: September 27, 2017, 11:00:41 AM »
The first place that came to mind was the Stehekin area. I went to college in Eburg (I'm from a small town on the West side) and a good buddy of mine in college (sold him my Sub Forester when we moved back here) grew up in Chelan (although his early days were N Dakota) so I spent some time there with his family. I thought about moving to that area when we retired in 2011. Right now I'm missing that nice dry weather :\\\'(

Stehekin is Holden's nearest neighbour, but it's a multi-day hike or a long bus to the lake and daily ferry to the tip of Chelan and Stehekin. If you've been, Stehekin had a totally different vibe from Holden. I've only been to Stehekin a few times but it seemed more campground-y and like a small town where everyone knows everyone but everyone has their own life. Holden is an intentional community (all meals are eaten together,  single people and visitors live in lodges and couples and families live in chalets, often with other groups of people, when there's a fire, every adult responds). Yeah, it's a bit hippy-ish, but I loved it.

That dry weather can be dangerous. Every few years there are wildfires. Often, the village is just affected by smoke but a few years recently, it's been threatened directly by the fires. It's come close, but the village has remained standing. It's a great outpost for the Hot Shot crews who are working on the fire when the village is evacuated.

I love visiting Holden, but I prefer living on the wet side of the mountains. ;) I'm a B'hamster through and through.
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Re: Hall thermostat gone blank and ticking like a timebomb
« Reply #37 on: September 27, 2017, 11:07:58 AM »
All that sounds really cool.  Travelling Frog, did your parents arrange that?  Are they hippies?


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Re: Hall thermostat gone blank and ticking like a timebomb
« Reply #38 on: September 27, 2017, 11:24:17 AM »
Kind of like getting some new sparks for the angle grinder. 

I also share your love for engines and have spent many hours tinkering, fixing and breaking engine powered stuff. 

I’m weighing the idea of buying a non working leaf blower so me and my boy (I’d invite the girl as well but she’d say no) can fix it and rev it up for a while.  I’d be sad if my kid couldn’t fix a two stroke carburettor. 

In fact, my father in law was never to impressed with me until we were up in a mountain cabin with no electricity and the two of us fixed the generator. I earned it that night.

I hope your daughter does join in!  In the last week before I came to the UK for my first visit (2012), I pulled my old 49cc scooter out of my parents' garden shed with the intention of selling it on eBay for a little extra spending money.  After cleaning all the cobwebs off and replacing the battery (I did not know you had to pour the acid into those batteries yourself and then wait, like, a day!), it still failed to start.  It took a lot of manual-referencing, head-scratching, Skype calls with my now-husband, and a spark plug, but I managed to bring it back from the dead.  Then I sold it for the amount I had paid for it several years earlier.  So I got years of potential use (actually, mostly just stored it, because I can't do two wheels anymore, and I should've known that because I already knew I couldn't ride a bicycle anymore) for the cost of a battery and a spark plug.
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Re: Hall thermostat gone blank and ticking like a timebomb
« Reply #39 on: September 27, 2017, 11:33:24 AM »
Oh, that sounds fun!

I have decided that I want to build a space station tracker. (Not quite small engine, but it's still fun.)  If I was in the States I'd go to Radio Shack for the parts. Not sure where to go here. Plus, I have to teach myself a bit of Python. Or con the Daughter, who is good with that side of things, to program it for me.  I've seen them done by other people - you set it so that a light turns on when the SS is about to be overhead....

If I had some room here (and we weren't three floors up) I'd build a little wind turbine and charge batteries to have for emergencies. Did one of those when I was a kid, with a big veggie tin. Have to remember what I did, but it wasn't complicated.

I really need either an attic or a basement, or a little shed out back, to do "stuff" in. But, alas, I have none. Gots a kitchen table, tho.... 8) ;D

For learning Python (if you're a complete novice), I highly recommend this free course from Coursera:  https://www.coursera.org/learn/python  Dr. Chuck is awesome, if a bit dorky/nerdy, and totally approachable (he even travels the world and does meetups where any of his current or former students can just show up and mingle)!  The lessons are totally manageable.  I found that learning basic Python helped me with other coding, too.
9/1/2013 - "fiancée" (marriage) visa issued
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14/12/2018 - I became a British citizen.  :)


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Re: Hall thermostat gone blank and ticking like a timebomb
« Reply #40 on: September 27, 2017, 11:45:36 AM »
Back "in the day" I had to learn COBOL, Fortran IV, and something else that has now long faded from my memory. It all made very good sense, although I hated doing those manual keypunch cards.  The Daughter gets into this stuff, so when she has free time, after I have found the darned plans I'd downloaded a few years ago, I think I'm going to be lazy and let her do it for me.  8)


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Re: Hall thermostat gone blank and ticking like a timebomb
« Reply #41 on: September 27, 2017, 12:01:15 PM »
TravelingFrog, man this place sounds so cool. Yeah, I too am curious how you ended up there for a year?
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Re: Hall thermostat gone blank and ticking like a timebomb
« Reply #42 on: September 27, 2017, 05:29:47 PM »
All that sounds really cool.  Travelling Frog, did your parents arrange that?  Are they hippies?

TravelingFrog, man this place sounds so cool. Yeah, I too am curious how you ended up there for a year?

My parents are not really hippies, but I never felt pressured to do anything or be anyone, so I guess they were laid back. When I decided I wanted to do music (like my dad) they were thrilled and set up lessons, enrolled me in a local youth symphony and eventually I could play most of the woodwind section (not all very well, but I did go to All State Band as a freshman on oboe and as a sophomore on flute). It was all my choice.... Or at least that's how I remember it. ;)

Likewise, a year at Holden was my choice. We'd gone there a few times in the summer when I was younger (my dad would volunteer as the village musician) and I applied and was accepted to be a boarding student.

My parents later told me they'd thought of taking our whole family there for a year, but decided it would be too big of a change to pull my brother and I out of school (obviously there was a school there, but as a kid, it's not your school with your friends).

It was perfect for me and I've always been pretty adventurous and independent (I travelled through Europe for two years and wound up in London with DH). I'm not sure how my brother would have been, but I'm sure he would have adjusted. But it was pretty cool being there without my parents.

My folks came to visit a few times and I went back home for some holidays, but this was pre-Skype and there were no phones or internet. I think it may have been easier for me than for my parents. I was busy being independent and they were in their usual routine, minus me.

The village was pretty liberal. Out of the whole community, about half were vegetarian and a third of those were vegan, so there was a vegan and vegetarian alternative to every meal. Since it was so easy, I became vegan while I was there and for a few years after. My parents were cool about it, but shopping trips were longer for my mom and she had to pack her glasses to read labels.  ;)
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Re: Hall thermostat gone blank and ticking like a timebomb
« Reply #43 on: October 01, 2017, 01:32:12 PM »
Talk about strange coincidence.....this article on Holden was just in the Spokesman Review (Spokane newspaper).
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/oct/01/remote-rustic-holden-village-a-summer-camp-for-the/#/0
Fred


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