Saturday, September 05, 2009

Solar volts

While the typhoon was passing through I had the panel tied up under the blue roof with the plywood panel protecting it from flying objects, I must carry that down out of the way soon.
I rather stretched my morning work session today and barely had sufficient energy to see the thing through to the point where I could stick a tester on the electrodes. 16.5 volts at 2.5 amps or so with no load. I guess the diodes I have inserted into the circuit are costing me a couple of volts. Nevertheless, once I have the actuator controller figured out it should be able to get a little more current as it follows the sun. Down in the shop I have been using an old battery to test out the motion, so I guess I will have to shift that up on deck to power the actuators and put the thing into a proper southerly attitude for now. I can also get it at a better elevation while I am at it.

Friday, September 04, 2009

Decked ladder

I painted the brackets under the eaves and the surrounding wall while the scaffold plank was still in place, then got that taken down so that I could use the press on the stainless steel tank project. The preservative paint had a slight silicone content and the rain that fell shortly after beaded up nicely on the surface of the deck. Unfortunately the minimal amounts of preservative that found their way onto the gangplank up onto the roof made it slightly more of a slip hazard than I would like, so I placed the aluminium ladder on top to give some stoppers for the hooves prancing up and down it.
The wooden steps once made allowed me to plank the remainder of the deck and the boxy end cap is actually half of the previous gang plank. The item pictured is a rather more mangy item with just enough strength for the purpose.
The panel is on the mount here, but the side view doesn't show much. I used an old snow toy of the kids' for the cover. A plastic thing like a round sled. It should be fine to keep the rain off the actuator underneath. I just had to cut off one side on the bandsaw and bend an old chimney brace into a V strut like shape to support the thing from underneath.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Minimal Scaffold

Here you can see my minimal scaffolding in place, a beam tied across the top of the press wheel, then a plank at the back left to right under the far side of the roof. There is also a diagonal support that stretches into the field, which must have worked as the plank and beem gave a satisfying drop when I sat on them to unscrew the brace when the work was over. The ladder still not done, so I have left the near side decking undone to facilitate the leg up onto the roof.

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Catch up

I am working on several cylinders at present, and the effort involved has rather slipped through the net of the blog trawler.
This week we have a catch up on the solar doo. I started to feel that the underpinnings of the roof might need some help, so I devised a plan to use the press as a support for scaffolding on the far side of the roof so that I could fix some brackets in under the eaves.
This will be a bit of a spot the difference session, more decking in place here than in the last shot on the 14th.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Drums in the deep

On Thursday last week I went along to the school to see some African drummers who were putting on a little show. I don't really know why, but there was some connection between them and a boy who was at the school for a brief stay. I think the connection was his mother who did one session of dancing during the performance. It was fun and we all had a bit of a dance about when one of the drummers gave us a little instruction on what to do. I had to rush off to the station to pick someone up, so I didn't get a chance to talk to anyone after the performance.
Now today one of the organizers has told me the boy's mother died a couple of days later having suffered a heart attack while doing another performance on Mount Fuji. Sometimes it is hard to keep a grip. Things can just flip into catastrophe without a moments hesitation. Perhaps in the days to come I will hear more about what happened and how, but there is never going to be a satisfactory answer "Why".
I will do my best to use this new first of the month to gain some traction here.