A Week In The Life...

Some weeks, problems accumulate...

1.  Naturally, I had to order more cat food just as the snowstorm struck.  2 boxes of 8 trays total, scheduled to arrive Wed and Thurs.  Well, I had the driveway and sidewalk cleared of snow Sunday, but I didn't shovel the front steps.  Figured I would most of it melt and shovel the remainder Tuesday afternoon.  The first box arrived Tuesday morning.  UPS left it at the garage door.  So I pushed the box inside the garage.

I forgot about the box when I decided to drive out for some errands Wed.  Well, you would be surprised at how many cans of cat food an SUV can crush beyond use...  ARGHHH!

2.  The outside unit of the heat pump stopped working.  I'm getting normal heat via electrical induction from the inside unit (like an oven), and I suspect it isn't costing MUCH more than the usual heating (some normal furnaces routinely operate that way).  I have been trying a few things hoping the outside unit will just "start" again.  I shovelled the snow from around the unit where air comes in, scooped out accumulated snow inside the unit, poured hot water over the insides hoping some ice was preventing operation, pulled and re-inserted circuit breakers, etc.  No luck.

But when the block of ice inside the outside unit finally melts and it doesn't start working normally again in a couple of days, I will have to call for repairs.  I didn't call immediately, because I AM getting heat, and I know they take complete failures as emergencies first.  Besides, they always want to just replace the whole unit. 

3.  My automatic garage door openers stopped working.  The overhead door light just blied rapidly.  That probably means something, but I couldn't find the manual.  But it isn't THAT hard to just raise and lower the door manually.

So I checked the power supply, circuit breakers, spring attachments, possible blockages, etc.  No luck.  Finally, I followed the wiring down to the bottom of the garage door track.  Well lookee there!  There is a set of safety lights at each side.  If the light beam between them is blocked, the system shuts off.  One of them had gotten pushed off.  Well, I guess when I ran over the box of cat food, I also pushed it into the light beam device.  Took just a minute to get it clipped back on and aimed properly. 

At least SOMETHING got working again.

4.  I mentioned previously that I had set up a regular birdfeeder on a pole on the deck to feed the non-finch birds sunflower seeds during the snowstorm.  They emptied it today.  The stepladder is still buried under the deck snowdrift, so I figured I would just untie it and set it down flat to refill it, and them put it upright again and retie it.  Brilliant but dumb idea!

The instant I untied the last know holding the pole tight, a strong gust of wind hit.  So there I was holding the bottom of the pole while the heavy top started to fall over.  I couldn't hold it up.  The feeder can crashing down on the deck.  The wooden feeder broke into 4 pieces!  I said a few BAD WORDS.  But what is done is done, and you go on from there.

I took the pieces down to the work bench and set about regluing the pieces (with exterior waterproof wood glue).  It took 12 bar clamps (you can never have too many bar clamps).  The feeder is back together, but it has to set until tomorrow morning.  I started to put out a tray of seeds, but even with a brick in the tray, the wind was slowly pushing it around.  And even if I clamped the tray to the deck rails, the wind would probably just blow the seeds out.  Sadly, the birds will have to wait til I get up in the morning...

5.  The trash company didn't show up for regular pickup today.  I'm leaving it out by the street.  I recycle and compost so much that about the only thing that goes in the trash is used cat litter, styrofoam,  and chicken skin.  And I out the chicken skin IN the litter bags.  So I feel pretty confident that NO scavenger is going to bother MY garbage can!  LOL!

BTW, I drove out today and saw a neighbor's TRASH can knocked over and the contents spilled out.  It was ALL cans and bottles.  All recyclable.  Aw c'mon...  We get free street-side recycle pickup and you don't even have to sort it.  Are they ACTIVELY against recyclying?

6.  This one is a bit long...  My waterbed sprung a leak.  That happens.  I have a repair kit.  I've probably patched it a dozen times (the waterbed mattress is at least 35 years old).  I only noticed when I pulled the sheets up for washing and the edges in one corner were wet.  I pulled up that corner of the waterbed. I thought it was wet cat food at first (because there was some there), and thereby hangs a short tale.

Ayla eats only in the bedroom, and sometimes she decides on some odd places.  That morning she had decided she would eat on the bookcase headboard of the waterbed.  I sure don't argue about it.   It's not like she gets to make a WHOLE lot of decisions in her life, so I give her the ones I can. 

That afternoon, when I pulled the wet sheets up I found her bowl tucked into that corner.  WOW!  I sure didn't think there was THAT much water in canned cat food (and it didn't smell like anycat had peed there).  But the cause and effect seemed clear.  So I cleaned up the spilled cat food, wiped it clean, and stuffed an old towel down to absorb the water.

Well, THAT wasn't the problem.  There was TOO much water the next morning and the towel was soaked.  So I pulled the corner of the waterbed up (which is not easy - water is heavy).  And I found a strange little piece of sharp metal.  I can't identify it, but I assume it took a while for it to slowly wear through the waterbed mattress. 

I can't get a patch to hold in the corner unless I drain the mattress and remove in entirely.  And even that might not work.  So, after all these years, I think I will replace it.  It's OK, they aren't expensive.  $50 to $200 depending on whether you want baffles and lumbar supports etc.  But I'm used to the cheap kind with nothing fancy so I will stick with that.

There COULD have been a better time for this.  All my hoses are outside and too cold to uncoil without maybe causing a break.  But at least the forecast calls for 50F temperatures Sunday, so I can probably get one into the basement undamaged and let it warm up inside.   One of the problems with a waterbed is draining them.  That can take a couple hours.  And then you have to fill the new one.  Filling a waterbed takes about 30 minutes from the outside spigot, and it takes all day for the heater to warm the water. 

Fortunately, my basement laundry tub faucet has a garden hose screw fitting.  But my water heater doesn't hold enough hot water to fill the king size waterbed mattress.  So it will be a balancing act to get the heated and cold tub water mixed right so I can sleep on the new mattress the same night as I empty it.

I'm probably not saying this clearly.  I have to get up in the morning, drain the old mattress, remove it, pull up the old liner (old and worn out) dry the wood frame, set the new liner in place, set in the new mattress, fill it, get the water warm enough, and put the mattress pads and sheets back on.  My recollection from the last time (30 years ago) was that took all day.  So I will be in for a very boring (watching a waterbed mattress fill up is like watching paint dry), but dedicated day...

7.  I had a mouse invasion.  Marley caught 5 mice!  I initially blamed the snow for making mice seek shelter, but it might have actually been my fault.  Last Friday, when the snow began to fall, I brought a few tubs of planting soil into the basement to thaw out so I could plant leftover Spring bulbs in them for forcing by Spring.  There MAY have been mice nesting in them in the leaf litter covering the soil. 

I HOPE he caught them all regardless of how they got inside.  Probably.  There were 4 caught one day, I found a 5th in a bucket the 2nd, and none for 4 days.

Quite a week!

Headphones

I like to watch TV while I am am working in the kitchen.  But I also make a lot of noise in there (running water, etc) which overwhelms the TV sound.  And that's even with running the TV through the stereo speakers.

So I researched wireless headphones.  Most got poor ratings, but mostly for not trnsmitting through rooms walls.  Well, that wasn't my concern (I'm still in direct line-of-sight to the TV).  So I bought a well-rated wireless headphone.

I couldn't get it to work.  There were 2 ways to connect them.  One was  direct from the headphone plug to the back of the wireless headphone station.  The other was from the back of the headphone station to the A/V controller unit (whatever you call the device that lets you select the various other devices like TV/Stereo, DVD player, etc). 

The cable to plug into the device controller headphone unit was too small though the audio in/out fit perfectly.  No arrangement of plugs allowed the audio-out connection to work.  So I needed either an adapter plug to fit betwee the small plug and the headphone plug.  I hope that makes sense.  I assumed there was an adapter plug to fit from th small headphone plug to the larger one.  

So I went to Radio Shack, of course.  They opened and tried several adaptor plugs which didn't work.  I suggested maybe there was a cable that matched all the plugs.  The salesperson at Radio Shack didn't think so. 

I found it on the shelves myself.  Am I the only one how thinks Radio Shack personnel aren't as experienced as they used to be?  I had to find a rather obvious cable MYSELF!  At Radio Shack!

So back at home, I plugged it in.  It worked perfectly.  The wireless headphones work great.  But nothing is perfect.  Plugging the headset in cuts off the stereo speakers.  Worse, my radio won't play whether the headphone plug is in or out.  I'll have to explore that.

But I have to say that while the dishwasher is running and I an running sink water to clean dishes or get hot water, I CAN hear what is on the TV.

Small victory...

Humidifier Wiring

Frustrated with the poor/confusing installation instructions that came with my new humidifier, I emailed the company.  First, I have to admit that one of my questions had an error.  I asked about the wires coming out of the transformer when I meant the drum motor.

But the rest of the reply I received was of little help  and one part I think is factually inaccurate.  But, ONE thing that was mentioned (and not an answer to any of my questions) solved my whole problem!

The wires coming out of the heat pump blower unit were (I assumed) 120v and I was distressed to see 120v going through such thin wires.  The included transformer is supposed to reduce the regular household current from 120v to 24v.  The technician mentioned looking for a connection on the blower labelled "HUM" (which I assume stands for "humidifier"). I didn't find "HUM", but I did find a spot where regular household wired went IN and the thin wires came OUT.

EUREKA!  The current was ALREADY reduced to 24v; no need for the included transformer.  And staring at the instructions one last time, I realized that while the existing wiring through the humidifier control LOOKED different from the diagram, it was functionally the same. 

I used some doorbell wire I had (which is standard for 24v circuits) and attached the drum motor wires to the existing wires.

It works!

Darn good thing, too, because I called an electrician and was told it would be $90 for a service visit and $120 per hour after that (minimum 1 hour fee).  I sure hope the new humidifier works well, because the humidity in the house today is only 19% and I am very tired of all the static electricity!

Wiring and Cabling, Part 2

Last time I mentioned the (eventually) successful connection of the new HDTV and video components to the old stereo system (with the fancy new tuner).  It's working great, even though it means I have 4 remote controls to deal with (5, if you count the "grampa remote" with the big buttons and few features).

The other wiring issue is only electric wiring, and not successful, and I am VERY frustrated.  Some background...  When I retired 8 years ago, I got tired of static electricity in Winter (I could half-turn-on fluorescent lamps just by touching them and stroking the cats caused sparks.  Taking clothes out of the dryer was actually painful) and bought a whole house humidifier.  The brand was Skuttle, and it had a cabinet attached to an opening cut in the main heater output duct.  In the cabinet was a tray of water and a sponge cylinder rotated through the tray of water whenever the heater blower was on.

I bought it locally and had it installed.  It worked great!  No static.  But a problem with the cylinder/drum humidifiers is that they get "gunky" (mold or something).  So when the sponge on the drum couldn't be cleaned anymore (yes I was too stupid/cheap/witless to just buy a new sponge drum), I did some research and found a different kind of humidifier. 

The new one had a honeycomb where water dribbled over the top and air blew through it to add humidity.  It had good ratings.  I installed it myself, but I needed an electrician to come by for a wiring problem I couldn't figure out (an outside humidity detector that adjusted the inside settings to the outside humidity - turned out it was a feature my model didn't have), but he did finish the basic wiring for me since I had paid for a visit).  But it has NEVER worked well in 3 Winters.  I couldn't get the inside humidity above 23%.  The drum type got it up to 35%.  At least there wasn't any static shock...

I should mention that I have a heat pump.  There are good and bad things about heat pumps, but one bad thing is that they dehumidify the inside air as part of the way they work.  Great in Summer, but not so great in Winter.  In Winter, I am fighting the design of the heat pump to dehumidify with a humidifier to improve that.  The condensation-collection container that pumps the collected water into the laundry tub works overtime in Winter.

So I decided to go back to the drum type.  I couldn't find a local retailer/installer, but I found a decent Skuttle brand of the same drum type on Amazon at a great price.

It arrived.  The required duct cutout was smaller than the current Honeywell honeycomb humidifier cutout, so I had to buy some sheet metal, cut a new smaller opening, and attach the sheet metal to cover the older larger hole.  Awkward tin-snip work and getting sheet metal screws holes drilled (never really easy work), but it only took 45 minutes (professional: 10 minutes; me, 45), and I covered all the edges with duct tapes.

I got the water tray and drum installed, attached the water supply, and adjusted the float that controls the water level in the tray (much like a toilet float that keeps the upper reservoir from overflowing).

The last thing was to attach the wiring that makes the drum turn when the heater is on. 

BUSTED!  I can't make any sense of the (undetailed and simple) diagrams in the installation manual.  I've stared at the unit and the instructions 4 separate times over the past 3 days.  As far as I can tell (and admittedly, electricity is NOT my favorite stuff to deal with), the diagram instructions are not only incomplete, but also completely wrong.

For example, electric wires are usually color-coded.  Red for positive, black for neutral.  Not these, they are both black!  Sometimes, electrical wires that are joined (like on a lamp cord) have one side that is smooth and the other ribbed for identification.  Not these.  The system uses a transformer that reduces standard 120 volt A/C current to 24 volt current to power the tiny motor that turn the sponge drum in the water tray. 

And they refer to "enclosing the transformer in the metal box" (for safety I assume).  No metal box, or any place to attach the transformer on the humidifier cabinet.  But there IS a 1" threaded pipe with a nut on it for attaching to SOMETHING. 

It is all quite maddening.  The Skuttle website provides absolutely NO information about installations.  There is a email address for "customer service".  I'll try that in a few minutes, but I don't expect it will be useful.  I'll probably have to hire an electrician to come by and try to figure it out.  Which probably means I could have just bought some other brand (of the same drum type) locally and had it installed at the same total price without any work on my part.

I am so completely annoyed I can't figure this out.  It possible the wiring choices don't really matter.  Immean, if I hook it up one way, the drum rotates clockwise and the other way it rotates counterclockwise and makes no difference.  But it could mean I burn out the whole motor unit.  I don't know enough to tell. 

If anyone who reads this has any guidance about the wiring, PLEASE leave a comment.  I hate to say it, but in my 60s, I'm starting to lose my willingness/ability to "just try it and see what happens"...

Wiring And Cabling

Darn I hate wiring and cable connections.  Give me a shovel and a pile of dirt to move anytime!  There's nothing complicated about shovelling dirt.

But I've had 2 run-ins with wiring stuff lately.  Both annoying, but at least one finally solved.  I'll mention the successful one today.

I've struggled to connect my TV to the stereo system a few times the past decade.  It has never worked. Mostly, the audio and video haven't matched up.  Watching people talk and having the sound even a half second off is disturbing.

Even with the new HDTV, I couldn't get it to work.  The wiring diagrams in the manuals showed wires from the cable box to the stereo.  I pulled the TV stand and the stereo cabinet out many times to look at all the possible connections.  And I don't mean to say that I understand what all those color-coded plugs mean.  But they ARE all labeled better than 20 years ago.  Or 10 years ago.

My Pioneer VSX-42 tuner is a wonder.  It allows more possibilities than I can even comprehend.  I don't even know what "pandora" IS, but I could access it if I wanted to.  Maybe I will soon.  But the problem was that "audio out" from the cable box did not match the timing on the TV picture.

So, I sat back there and stared at the back of the HDTV and stereo system for a while.  There JUST wasn't an "audio out" from the TV that I recognized.  Not even an modern HDMI  audio outlet   I stared, I fumed, I yelled.

But eventually, I saw a weird looking plug on the HDTV labeled "Digital Optical Audio Out".  No idea what that meant.  But I searched the back of the stereo tuner.  The print was so small even my reading glasses weren't enough, I had to crawl out to get a magnifying glass! 

Whoever thinks that it is easy to read orange print on white, or blue on green should be summarily executed.

But I did eventually find a similar plug on the tuner.  It was labelled "Digital Optical Audio In".  I immediately searched the manuals for the HDTV and the tuner.  66 pages of the Pioneer tuner and 35 pages of the Samsung HDTV (estimates) didn't explain WHAT "digital optical" was. 

But I figured, if there is a delay in the audio from the cable box through the stereo (and I wasn' getting any sound from the DVD player), if I could get sound direct from the HDTV to the stereo speakers, that would work for all components AND stop the audio delay.

Keep in mind that I had already spent $40 on various cables I THOUGHT would connect the HDTV to the stereo properly...

So I drove to Best Buy.  Explained the problem.  Asked about "digital optical audio"  He said "you need this" and showed me a cable.  I said "that doesn't look like the plug, and I even pushed the gateway open with a toothpick".  He said that if it has that gateway, this cable WAS the right one cuz that's the only one with a gate.  I bought it and went home.

The TV and the stereo cabinet were still pulled out for access.  I unplugged the red/white "component cables".  I attached the new digital optical cable and turned on the HDTV and the stereo.

And got NOTHING!  But the Pioneer tuner has many choices.  I rotated the knob (and remembering that the first time I got ANY sound from it took 15 seconds ).  When I turned the tuner knob to "TV", I GOT SOUND!  From the TV.  In perfect synch!

But only one speaker was giving sound.  GLOOOOM!

I dragged out the soundless speaker, and it immediately gave sound.  Oh man, just a loose wire connection!  I fixed that right off.

You want to know something odd about modern tuners?  They don't seem to have a speaker balance dial.  Matbe it exists and I haven't found it yet, but I've read and re-read all the "speaker" parts of the manuals.  OK, I pushed the chair, TV, and speakers around a bit, and NOW it is balanced.  It's almost funny, I adjusted myself an the TV to balance the speakers.

Oh and I mentioned previously that I couldn't find the remote control for the Pioneer tuner?  I found it.  Sitting right on top of the old tuner that died. Buried under other stuff in the computer room. 

But now, I am watching great TV AND listening to audio that matches the picture.  And since it comes directly off the TV, it works with all components I have.