What first world problem did you have today?

[John Connor]

And here's how bloody stupid and utterly pathetic Comcast is. The cable box updates once a day. In fact, the damn thing is updating right now. It's this X1 platform crap and I think it sucks. Then sometimes the channel will freeze. It's that damn digital streaming crap. Just what the hell are they updating in a friggin' cable box?

I'd ditch the lot, but I want ma news and I have a HD flat screen so no way I want a basic box.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I've been trying to find a source for telecom rectifiers/inverters but that stuff is freaking hard to find. All the manufacturers don't seem to sell directly and there's no easy way to find where to actually buy them from. I guess it's not exactly something most people buy, but still, why do they make it hard for me to give them money in exchange for goods? Do they hate consumerism?

 

[John Connor]

I've been trying to find a source for telecom rectifiers/inverters but that stuff is freaking hard to find. All the manufacturers don't seem to sell directly and there's no easy way to find where to actually buy them from. I guess it's not exactly something most people buy, but still, why do they make it hard for me to give them money in exchange for goods? Do they hate consumerism?

You would think in this day and age with the Internet you could practically buy what ever electronic part your heart desires. In fact, I've seen manufactures that will make you a custom motherboard to your specifications.

But I guess I feel your pain in that respect. I was looking for a certain two-way radio that transmitted on a certain band (don't ask why) and I just couldn't figure out how to buy the damn thing. I checked all of the Chinese websites like Alibaba and Banggood, but I couldn't get that radio in that specific band. Even eBay turned up empty. But alas, finally a seller on eBay in China had it and I bought it. Then when I wanted to buy another for a matching pair he disappeared. And now I'm stuck with an almost worthless radio.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah found some stuff on ebay (used) and ali express, so worse case scenario I may go with that. Found a 4 rectifier shelf with 2 broken rectifiers for rather cheap, I might just order it and play around with it and see if I can get the other two going. Could be bad caps or something for all I know.

Inverters are more complex so I'd probably put most of my money on that. I want two 2kw ones, so I can power both PDUs from two separate inverters. Essentially I want full redundancy throughout my system. 2 battery strings, 2+ rectifiers, 2+ inverters.

Another thing is I may just concentrate more effort at learning electronics and design my own. The rectifiers would be fairly easy, the inverters are a bit more complicated, but really it's probably not all that bad as instead of having an error comparison with a fixed voltage I just have a sine wave generator and it compares to it in real time. Then a H bridge to switch neg/pos for each cycle. When I get really good I could play with IGBTs. They are surprisingly cheap for the amount of power they can handle.

 

[John Connor]

If I'm not mistaken, don't rectifiers produce a lot of heat? Like I said, be careful not to set your hair, I mean you house on fire. HAHAHA

This seems appropriate.

Novel was actually written by a woman during the "cold years" or what ever it was called. It was a time where scientists experimented with applying electricity to frog legs and human limbs thinking they can reanimate the dead. During their presentations woman would faint.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Nah the newer ones are like over 90% efficient. Some of the high ends state like 97%. They are basically just AC-DC PSUs, in telecom world they are called rectifiers but they're not any different than like a computer PSU except they are designed for 1 voltage and typically have current limiting while a computer psu will either shut down or overheat if you try to draw too much. Of course there is SOME inefficiency loss by converting to DC then back to AC again vs just standby and always running direct off hydro.

The ones downstairs at work do produce a decent amount of heat though, but there's like 40+ of em producing 1,600 amps! So 1600x54v = 86,400 watts. So say they are 95% efficient that's still 4,320w of heat, if my calculations are right. In my case though I'd be looking at like 400w or so of load. I'd also eventually tie solar into the system. Maybe set rectifiers to run at like 52 volts and solar to run at 54 volts.

But yeah, big bucks to set this up, but then I have to ask myself if it's worth it vs the grief of dealing with unexpected server issues. It probably is.

 

[John Connor]

The one thing that makes me step back from solar is that they are huge and expensive and for not very many watts. Well, given your project it probably would work quite well.


I wouldn't mind having a natural gas/diesel driven backup generator for the whole house. Of course there's no UPS involved so it would be a few seconds before the generator kicked on. This past summer I've had a few blackouts, and it damaged my netbook wall wart. I use the netbook as a kitchen kiosk for the FTP who's storage is on a SD card, and it runs a team speak server and PhoneTray. So it was a real bummer that the power adapter went out. But I ordered a replacement right away. I was afraid that my precious gaming desktop would be damaged despite using an Isobar Tripp Lite surge protector which has other built-in protection mechanisms. Thankfully my computer was fine. But then when I thought the power company finally got everything fixed and as I was playing Flight Simulator right in the middle of a flight, the damn power goes out. Talk about not cool! I was sure as shit my PSU would be damaged at the least if not the $200+ motherboard. But nope, all was good. I swear. It seems like during the summer we have an electricity grid that compares to that of Mumbai India! I really do need to invest in an UPS.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah the issue with solar is similar to the one I'm having with rectifiers, it's hard to find a good source to buy them but did find a few, and given they are big and bulky they are super expensive to ship. I would probably need to find a reliable source for just the cells then build my own panels. I can get a local company here to cut me the right size tempered glass panels. I also only have room for about 3kw so not quite enough for the whole house, which would really be my ultimate goal, but think I'll just do the servers and misc circuits throughout the house. Furnace, fridge, freezer etc. Could have a separate inverter for those.

I've thought of a generator too (not that it would have solved this issue I got) but really it's rare we get outages that last longer than a few hours. But I have considered going off grid then have generator for night. Probably cheaper given the current hydro prices.

 

[John Connor]

My first world problem:

I had to watch a six foot messed up cat with a hat as there was absolutely nothing on all 150 expensive little channels.

 

[Red Squirrel]

My company does not know how to leave stuff alone, for the 3rd time in like a year they did some kind of change in Outlook/Exchange where they do something to our accounts. Ever since they did it this time, now Outlook won't stop prompting for a password. Freaking annoying. At random it will also lose authentication to the server and require a restart. God forbid if you try to open a calendar, it just locks right up.

 

[clamum]

I've been having issues with my Internet for a little while; it seemed to be really slow and sometimes it would die and I'd have to restart the modem which would usually fix it. And not necessary as a fact Strangely it seemed to most often happen between the 11:00 pm - 11:30 PM EST time frame (I started keeping a log). Anyway Spectrum is finally coming out Wednesday. I watched about 25 minutes of the new Stranger Things (via my TV's Netflix app) this weekend before I had to leave. Ever since then, I cannot watch any Netflix (or Amazon Video) app on my TV cause I get "Cannot access this title as this time" or "Insufficient bandwidth" errors from them. YouTube app works fine with HD video. Multiple bandwidth tests show, usually, 60/6 Mbps. Netflix website works to watch it. So I had to get out my laptop and watch Stranger Things on there yesterday (was remoted into work on my desktop) instead of my TV. FML

 

[tynopik]

I also only have room for about 3kw so not quite enough for the whole house, which would really be my ultimate goal

i haven't been following what you're up to, but have you seen these hybrid inverters? They automatically combine power from multiple sources (line, solar, battery, etc), seamlessly switch over as needed and has an auto-generator start option.

neat little video of one in action on a bus rv conversion:
https://youtu.be/rYywG9YhIZI?t=427

 

[rh71]

It's 2017 and laptops are still terrible about waking up from sleep mode. Might as well just reboot at this point.

Tablets wake up instantly. Why do you need a laptop? Gaming?

 

[Red Squirrel]

i haven't been following what you're up to, but have you seen these hybrid inverters? They automatically combine power from multiple sources (line, solar, battery, etc), seamlessly switch over as needed and has an auto-generator start option.

neat little video of one in action on a bus rv conversion:
https://youtu.be/rYywG9YhIZI?t=427

That does look like a neat setup and perfect for an RV or other self contained setup. Downside though is that it's probably not very expandable. So I prefer to buy separate parts (rectifiers, inverters etc) so I can just grow as I need to.

 

[Chaotic42]

Tablets wake up instantly. Why do you need a laptop? Gaming?

Work, school, and hobby projects.

 

[tynopik]

Downside though is that it's probably not very expandable. So I prefer to buy separate parts (rectifiers, inverters etc) so I can just grow as I need to.

that's exactly what that setup was, everything was separate, it's just that the inverter was smart enough to talk to everything, and if you need more power, you can daisy-chain those units

someone with a dual setup

another brand:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeS-wGtlpLc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOy2oZMA_gw

 

[Fenixgoon]

the (used) super sedan I just bought needs some TLC. go figure

but V10

 

[Red Squirrel]

My work did some weird stuff with the exchange server, now my email is super flaky. I just realized that I'm not receiving any email in one of our inboxes, and I can't receive any email from outside the network.

It's like the 3rd time they do stuff like this too, this "upgrade" or w/e they are doing in the back end is one of the worse so far though, the other ones were not as flaky. The most annoying part is how it keeps prompting for a password, it will just do this completely randomly, like 5-10 times then finally take it. It's weird.

 

[John Connor]

I'm not sure if change is a third world problem or a catalyst to make something a first world problem. Be it websites or technology. It's especially true in the work place. Bunch of damn fancy morons changing shit all the time. "Here, lets do this and it will be better. " NO IT WON'T!

It's like the government.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah my company is horrible for that, they're always playing with not only the technology side of thing but the corporate structure side of things. Always moving departments and managers around and changing the way we do things etc. Then a few years later they change to something else. They can't seem to stay put and leave things alone.

I'm the complete opposite, I believe in "don't fix it if it ain't broken" approach.

 

[pete6032]

he gets right in my armpit racecourse

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yeah my company is horrible for that, they're always playing with not only the technology side of thing but the corporate structure side of things. Always moving departments and managers around and changing the way we do things etc. Then a few years later they change to something else. They can't seem to stay put and leave things alone.

I'm the complete opposite, I believe in "don't fix it if it ain't broken" approach.

Makework. Keeps them busy and helps justify their existence to management.

If an IT person does their job right, they shouldn't ever be busy. This is antithetical to execs, who believe that workers should either be working, or be fired.

 

[QueBert]

They opened a Raising Cane's today, 1st in my area and I've never been so I went. Spent like like 45 fucking minutes in the drive thru just waiting to order

Then when I got home the first bite of chicken was still so hot it semi burned my mouth.

2 major 1st world problems back to back in the same day.

Now I'm super full, but I still want to eat more Cane's.

Make that 3 problems back to back to back.

 

[Svnla]

It is getting cold suddenly and my hands are beginning to crack a bit and I will have to put some hand lotion on them.

 

[Red Squirrel]

My hands get so dry too as it gets colder out, I often have to pot lotion then it helps.

Actually I need to find myself some good work gloves that are insulated, regular gloves are too thick to work with and I still need to finish my shed next time I have time off. I'm hoping it stays cold enough so that the rain stops. It seems every day that it's above zero lately it just rains non stop. So if I can get a stretch of -5 and colder at least it will snow instead of rain, and stuff won't get wet while I work.