What Did You Do Today???

RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
I was referring more to your old motherboard and you having other things you felt needed to be addressed before getting something newer. My old MB that used to be at home, isn't getting any updates either... that is just how it is with older equipment.
 

callsign4223

Staff member
I wish. Trying to migrate a camera server and we have an old Dell Precision Workstation with a Xeon we were gonna use as the new server. Had some 10TB hdd laying around I was gonna use as the data drives. Long story short, a workstation from 2012 does not support drives with sector size that was standardized in 2014
 

Tony

Staff member
Wait, is this a server for your house? If you don't want to post that publicly, just post it in the admin section or not at all, but my curiosity is getting the best of me here lol. What server? What raid card (please say it's a dell server with the perc6i lol)?
 

callsign4223

Staff member
Nope, it's a camera server for our wastewater plant. And it's going to use software RAID, nothing fancy.

You needing help with the perc card?

I think we might be surplusing some R710 servers with Percs soon
 

Tony

Staff member
I might be interested in some servers lol. Not raid cards though, especially not the 6i's.

I was going to say that you can update the firmware on one of the H700's and put those 10TB drives in raid 0 by themselves and it would work. It does with my 8TB anyway and should with the 10's as well. It sucks having to use the card though when you are not doing any kind of raid though, no temp readings or anything within software like ESXi or unraid.
 

Rob Lancaster

Active Member
Today I almost got some video of another rescue from the summit of Haiku valley.. It was a fast, one hiker rescue. They always fly by the back of the house here and I can see everything but the landing in the park on the other side of the tree line jungle. The very one that made me put the ole locator beeper on the aircraft.

I wanted to go over to the park and video the action but I had to go to physical therapy again so maybe next time.. It shouldn't take long. This kind of thing happens quite frequently... :chuckles:

Ok quiz time: what kind of aircraft is used around here to save a lot of people from there bad ideas? Answer, on the island of Oahu where I am, we have two MD520N's for the fire dept. And I believe only one MD500E for the cops... The other islands fly a lot of 500D's and E's... All of these birds fly almost everyday or more. If one of these babee's isn't lifting someone off a 3000 ft. mountain, It may be fishing someone (or a body) from the ocean. Heck it might even be carrying a ton of water to be dropped on a fire that someone started. How's this,, every time the local news says "hey everybody this is fire season so lets be careful out there because it won't take much for a fire to start"... Guess what happens next! Within days the fires start!! Kids and meth attics start them for kicks... :chairshot:
One year they had a bird up they saw a road flare fly out of a car right into the dry brush. Yeah she was busted but they let HER ( a meth junky) go and the fires continued.. Anyway, that's why we need them 500's folks! They are truly li'll work horses that we all can count on... Oh; and their American made too, babee!!!! :arms:……………
Well maybe not the turbine engine, but that's ok with me because I know the turbines for those 500's are from England. Like Alison and Rolls Royce and such. I think....

Ok,, bla, bla,, bla,,, I'll try to get some cool video of some of the action as soon as I can folks... :banana:
 

Rob Lancaster

Active Member
Hey Tony, after those kick ass storms I hope your still among the living...

Anyway I finally finished that UV exposure box for my brother.. It came out really great! I hope it will help produce high quality printed circuit boards for decades to come...
The box was made from solid 3/4 inch poplar. It was stapled, glued and screwed together.. Then came a massive amount of sanding..

Now for the hard part...
Trying to apply polyurethane in this humidity is a slow process. If I apply the polyurethane on a 90 degree angle, such as the side of a box, it will sag big time every time; DOH!! So I had to do one side at a time. The side that was facing up and flat.. At least after all that, the finish came out the way I wanted it to. No stain...… The interior is pained gloss white for good UV reflectivity.

The hardware like the hinges we found locally. The latches and buckles were special ordered from London. That's because we NEED quality stainless steel here or else.. The electrical is always my favorite part.. Piece "A" cake!..
The cord is stored inside the unit when not in use..
 

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Rob Lancaster

Active Member
Thanks a lot guys, I like to do the odd things...
Now I need to finish the tubing bender..
You know what they say; idle hands>>>……
 

Rob Lancaster

Active Member
Ok; the tubing bender has been completed and tested and it did a great job! First time out!!
Photo 1762 just shows the handle, rollers and compression lid in the storage position...
Photo 1763 shows the handle in the bender mode.. Take a close look, you'll see.... At first this kind of thing twisted my mind. But Photo 1763 shows the way you want to do the actual set up for a great bend..

The aluminum stock is 3/8 OD thick wall extruded tubing. Very ridged stuff.. No pinching or pulling that causes cracks.. Super nice!!! Hopefully we can get that mm precision we're after...
 

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Brick

Member
I was going to rebuild my Fusion 270 today. The kids wanted to go to the Renaissance Festival. Not gonna lie, I had a BLAST at the Festival ! If you have never been to one...DO IT !
 

Rob Lancaster

Active Member
Did I miss something? What are we building?

Tony! After those bad tornados and thunder storms I was hoping they didn't find your body in the next county... :dizzy:

Now that I finished the UVXB, we needed a tubing bender for our next project. It's a beam antenna that will operate in the VHS 162.400 to 162.550 MHz range.. It will have 11.7 dBd gain. It will sport a boom 13.2 feet long and use 10 elements. 8 directors, 1 reflector and 1 driven.. It's the driven element that needs to be bent on both sides. Hence the name, folded dipole. For the technically curious, have a look at the PDF.. That's what the math guy (bro Tom) came up with. He does the math and I take the specs from there and build and install it. That is, after we both go over the parts list carefully.. We're almost ready to start ordering all the parts to build and mount it.

This antenna will require a 4:1 balun as well; which we'll make. Over the years a bit of Tom rubs off and I've learned that you don't just hook up a coaxial cable to antenna any kine way.. If the transmission line is not impedance matched to the antenna all bets are off. The antenna won't radiate and damage in the final stages of the RF amps will occur if you try to transmit... And that's just for starters....

The idea is to take an unbalanced 50 Ohm coaxial cable and match it with a balanced 200 Ohm folded dipole driven element.. That's where the balun comes in. Balun stands for balance unbalance.. A 4:1 balun will reduce the 200 Ohm antenna to 50 Ohms. A perfect match to the transmission line... Not only that the balun terminates the transmission line. In other words, the balun makes the transmission line know where to end and lets the antenna knows where to start on an electrical phasing level... If it's not terminated properly the first thing you'll notice is the transmission line radiating while testing. If it radiates all you have is a random length of wire for a antenna and that ain't cool!!

Best thing I like about Tom,, he has the best in antenna tuning equipment! I'm talk'n Bird and MFJ. The antenna analyzers tell us everything we need to know to precisely tune these freaky things to the exact frequency/frequencies for maximum and safe performance... :twothumbsup:

Are we having fun yet>>>>>>>>>>>
Answer; yes! On so many levels!! :applouse:
If anyone needs more; I know who to go to for more; so ask...……
 

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Tony

Staff member
Working on getting rid of some ads on the site. I tried to be cautious about the ads on the site, and one little program that I was running was putting ads where ads shouldn't go. So I turned that little 'feature' off. No more. I also removed that MASSIVE ad in the footer. I had it there for a while thinking it might grow on me, but NOPE!!! Can't do it.

Let me know if there are other changes that you think I should make to make the site better. I can't completely get rid of the ads unless I win the lottery (which is never going to happen) so some ads have to be on the site to help pay for the server and such.
 

Rob Lancaster

Active Member
Heck, every time I see an add I think to myself, this is what makes this site happen. Nothing worth while is free. (Except the great info on this site!) So do what you got to do to make it keep happening..
 
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