Category: tech musings

Standing water on your roof? Build a gravity siphon.

Last night I got a call that we had a roof leak at the studio. It’s been an ongoing problem because the roof to the building is essentially a bowl (long story).

Roof flood

Before siphon

 

Rather than continue to sweep the water up (I know… up) into the gutters, I decided to rock some technical know-how and build a simple gravity siphon.

Ingredients:

  • Hose
  • Zip ties

Take the hose and stick one end on the roof in the deepest part of the water. Zip tie the hose to something fixed to keep it in place. Notice I used the end with the plastic connector because it raises the end just slightly to allow water to flow in:

Flood end of siphon

Then throw the hose over the side of the building. Our studio is one story, so the length of the hose was more than enough. The biggest thing to make sure is that the hose end is below the level of the water.

Then, suck on that hose. I know – can’t we come up with a siphon pump? Sure… if you’re into that kind of thing. I used my lungs. Annnnnd…. boom:

I calculated there was about 15 tons of water on the roof. This took it off.

All hail gravity. All hail science. All hail the surface tension and other related properties of water.

Generating green energy by bike

If you were one of the people following my limited edition miniseries blog Climate Ridin, you know I’ve been obsessed with the concept of generating electricity as I bike to charge up my gear. I tried doing it on the cheap for the 2011 California Climate Ride with a bottle dynamo hooked up (poorly) to a headlight with a battery backup and USB port. You would think a bunch of fellow tree-hugging greenies on bikes would embrace my attempt at alternative energy production, but the ones that commented mostly complained it was too noisy. This was fine because the ferocious resistance the bottle dynamo had on my tire meant I couldn’t keep pace with them to annoy them through the redwoods. The wire leads were also incredibly wonky… For the most part, the only thing reliable about them was the metaphysical certainty that they would pull out of the dynamo connectors every mile or two. Additionally, the current was incredibly inconsistent, which iPhones don’t like (to anthropomorphize an Apple product, which has never been done before). Experiment was over after Day 1, and the dynamo became the problem of the thief who stole my bike a month later.*

sanyo dynohub

So, for 2012 I chose storage over generation: an enormous 12000 mAH battery was enough to charge an iPhone 4 from 0-100% close to three times. It was plenty for the OR/CA trip with MJ (which reminds me… MJ update below), but still required awkward campsite bathroom outlet recharges or extended coffee shop pitstops. When you are sitting on something that can generate power as you pedal, and you’re a tech tool like me… Well, I had to revisit bike-based electrical generation again.

I give you… the dynohub. Forget the old fashioned bottle dynamos… Dynohubs are integrated into your wheel so there’s no more fiddling with tensioners or worrying about friction melting your tires or your generator. Electrons flow with every revolution of the wheel.

That, however is just step 1. You see, most devices are finicky about their electricity. They need those little electrons to come in a particular way or they won’t fire up (or they’ll fry, but that’s another story). Also, because the current coming from a dynohub is necessarily inconsistent (stop, start, go, fast, slow… This all changes the flow), just having a dynohub is not enough to be useful for the gadget charging wannabe. Many lights can hook directly into them, and until recently that was about it.

LightChargerA few crafty manufacturers tapped into the dynohub-as-a-power generator-for-devices idea, most notably Busch and Muller‘s eWerk (love the Germans) and Tout Terrain‘s The Plug and The Plug II: Electric Boogaloo (not really on the electric boogaloo part, but let’s face it: that was a TOTAL missed opportunity). Both devices act as power converters; the eWerk is super sophisticated while The Plug is super elegant. Both were available in Europe only for a while, then found their way stateside last year. I nearly bit on the purchase of The Plug in France, but backed off… Pretty pricey and I wasn’t totally sure I wanted an integrated solution.

As the interest seems to be climbing amongst touring and commuting cyclists, cheaper dynohubs are coming on the market and a few US companies are taking a crack at converters. I found CA-based Bike2Power‘s LightCharge recently and was amazed at how much less expensive it was compared to the European alternatives. Paired with the well-reviewed, but substantially cheaper Sanyo dynohub on a new wheel (thanks eBay seller guy!), what was once a $400+ venture with a SON dynohub and an eWerk dropped to about $150. That was worth the flier…

A few thoughts so far after a yet ride:

it works

– dude, it totally works.

– the connections are standard Shimano connections, so no need to buy anything else. You’ll want to be a little handy with wiring, but by no means do you need to have an engineering degree.

– the LightCharge has a dual switch system that allows for charging either a USB device OR wired lights. I still like my current light system enough as is, so I didn’t hook anything up to that wiring system. Nice to have that option if I change my mind.

– iPhones are finicky beasts. If you slow down to a point where the voltage threshold drops below what the phone needs to charge, it will throw up the dreaded “this device isn’t made to charge me” alert and seems to refuse to charge. I say seems because I believe a speed up will resume the charge, but the charging indicator doesn’t come back – so it’s hard to know for sure. I found switching the LightCharge from USB to lights and back again at speed reset things, as evidenced by the ever pleasant “hey I’m charging!” bleep coming from the iPhone.

– I plan on acquiring a USB chargeable battery to act as a power sink rather than directly charge the phone. This way I know every rotation of the wheel will be converted into energy I can use later. It also gives some charging flexibility for other devices that can hook into the battery, plus if there’s an issue I’d rather fry a battery than a phone.

iPhone charging from dynamo

– Security is a bit of an issue. Dynohubs are obvious to a thief that knows what he’s looking for. I’m considering a Pitlock combined with a cable lock for the wheels. The LightCharge is the thing I may need to leave exposed. It’s possible to remove every time, but it would be a pain. I may consider splicing the line up by the main device and putting in plug connections so I can unplug and leave just the wiring, but that might be more trouble than it’s worth. I’m open to thoughts on that.

– I went with a cheaper option, so it’s entirely possible the hub or the LightCharge could die on me sooner than a higher priced component. We’ll see. The Sanyo gets consistently great reviews (see here, for example) and although the LightCharge doesn’t have the same volume of reviews, I haven’t found one that says it sucks. So there’s that.

– unlimited juice means I can run battery sucking GPS apps and stream audio like a fool. If I have a signal, I can do a whole hell of a lot more on tours now.

Basically, it rocks. Looking forward to testing it for real this winter.

Quick MJ update… MJ’s off to greener pastures in San Francisco come January. The good news is I’m sure we’ll ride together again on tour… The bad is our rides will be far less frequent. We both started bike touring about the same time, and if I’ve learned one thing it’s that you may separate from the people you cross paths with on tour, but you oddly tend to find them again down the road. I think the same will be true with the mysterious one. Also, I think he’ll probably let me crash at his place, and I love me some San Francisco.

Happy holidays… I’m taking a week off between Christmas and New Years so maybe I’ll write another stupid long post that week too.

——-

*This along with the busted saddle. I hope that hurt, jackass.

I repair iPads*

*but Jony Ive would cry if he saw what the finished product looks like.

I stepped on my iPad in France and crushed the glass digitizer this summer. Luckily, thanks to the brilliance of Corning, NY’s own Corning glass, that stuff is strong. Other than the ugly break pattern, the iPad continued to work…

20121023-193240.jpg

…until I dropped it again. Then it started acting like I was constantly pressing on a seemingly random spot on the shattered screen. It was time to act.

I found an amazing local business that would come to you, replace your screen while you wait and send you off with a perfect iPad or a mere $199. But I decided I wanted to do it myself for 40 bucks and a few hours of my time.

I won’t bore you with details, BUT… I’m clearly an electronic genius. A few YouTube videos to light the way, a glass kit from Amazon via some place in Jersey and I’m tapping out this post on a totally functioning iPad with its new screen.

But I’m too chicken to glue the screen down. There’s literally no way I trust that this can work long term without some itty bitty circuit coming undone in there, so instead of making he final seal in the perfect fit and finish of an Apple product, the screen’s locked down with easily removable electrical tape. Black bezel and black tape camouflages it ok:

20121023-193334.jpg

See it? Jony Ive would. But only when he wiped away his tears…

So, I humbly declare that I fix iPad screens!

I hate to say it, but iOS 6 Maps sucks (right now)

The ATL in iOS MapsI’m not a hater by nature… I really rebel against the trite negativity, particularly put out by vast stretches of the tech and political press (which I happen to read a lot, despite my professed rebellion). That said…

iOS 6’s Maps app just doesn’t work right now. It kinda sucks here in October 2012.

I didn’t have too many problems in DC or WV (the places I split my time) but on a quick weekend trip to Atlanta, the Maps app showed how being a little off can be really bad. Essentially every single trip I had… Airport to hotel, hotel to wedding reception location, back to hotel, then hotel to breakfast spot the next morning… all of them were off by a little bit. A turn here or there, an address off by a block. It all added up to a big mess when you’re in a place you’re not familiar and you’re banking on the data behind the app to work.

So, let me be a little more refined than shake my fist at the sky and declare suckage… the app is slick. Siri… well, she can direct you. But the underlying data is smelly, stinky, sucky. Google Maps was far from perfect, and was clearly missing turn by turn directions in iOS, but I don’t remember the consistency of misses like I just experienced in the new Maps app.

But… it’ll get better. I can use Waze or any number of other options until the underlying data mess gets fixed.

And by the way… Atlanta? You keep staying weird. We like that:

Eat More People

Update… edited to correct the fact I apparently can’t differentiate between “iPhone5” and “iOS6.”