Search Results for: electronics

Proceeding Slowly on Electronics Projects

⚡People ask why I’m proceeding so slowly on my various electronics projects.⚡

For one, I am learning.🏫 It takes time to figure out how to design something, to experiment and learn what works and what does not. No reason to order components or tools that I might never ended.

Second, it saves money by buying less.🤑 Sure a $5 or $10 box of random components may not break the bank, but my budget is pretty tight, and things add up in cost. It’s better to enjoy what I have already before moving on to a next step.

Third, I like dreaming of what I can build.🤖 Sometimes it’s more fun to dream about what can be built and draw things on paper, then see the final product. Some projects exceed expectations while other don’t. Once a project is done, there is nothing to envision going forward

Fourth, electronics are one of many interests.⛺ There are many things to take up my time, from hiking to camping to fishing and hunting. I also have the blog to work on updating, maps to make up, things to read about, events to go to.

Too Much Packaging for Electronics

As an electronics hobbyist, Amazon and eBay are a great source of low-cost electronics components.⚡ While they aren’t instantly delivered to your mailbox or door, especially not having AmazonPrime, there is a lot of selection and they are low-cost.📬

But what does bother me about these services is how much non-recyclable packaging ♻they contain. Electronic components are particularly bad, they often come packed a tyveck envelope, wrapped in bubble wrap, then in an anti-static bag – all of which is pretty much garbage.🗑I get the need to protect sensitive components in the mail, but sometimes the amount of packaging you get is unbelievable.📦

About three weeks ago, I ordered some LED aluminum channel from Amazon. It was a good price, but it came in an enormous box, which inside was another box, and then the product packed in shrink wrap and foam paper.🎁 I understand the need for the foam paper, and maybe inner box, but the big outer box seemed like such a waste. At least that can be recycled.🚮

Both major online retailers rarely package things in Styrofoam peanuts these days, preferring to use air-filled plastic bags instead. They are easy to pop and reduce down to little waste. But there are still too much that comes in tyveck envelopes, too much that comes in bubble wrap.😡 I don’t have trash pickup, so I have haul all that crap to transfer station and pay to get rid of it, and know it will sit in a landfill forever. It’s annoying.💩

Happy Earth Day! 🌎

Going to be a beautiful day for riding to work. Carrot pancakes, need to stop at Hannaford to get bananas on the way in as a snack as I’ve not been shopping this week. Felt good to toss that empty plastic milk bottle in the trash on Earth Day knowing soon enough I’ll get it burnt, lol. Makes an excellent fire starter. Gotta celebrate Vladmir Lennin’s birthday with a little black smoke, as you turn the dirt with your plow or spreading manure on this Earth Day.

Good morning! Mostly sunny and 39 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a northwest breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 3 am. ☃️

Didn’t get a real early start 🛏 as when I first awoke I had a bit of nausea like I had been spinning. 🤯But once I finally got out of bed, got some coffee and carrot 🥕 pancakes 🥞 in me I was feeling better. I think I just have a bad case of the Monday’s. I am looking forward to the ride to work today, going to be a nice day. The weekend was cloudy, colder and wetter then expected but I had a lot of fun in the woods and a nice fire 🔥, rode some trail 🚵 and went for a nice five mile hike at Huyck Preserve.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 55 degrees at 5pm. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 7th. Northwest wind around 10 mph. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 68 degrees. The record high of 86 was set in 1985. 1.0 inches of snow fell back in 1928.❄

Going to stop on the way to work and get some bananas and apples at Hannaford 🍎 🍌 Got to fuel up for the busy week ahead, and I like having lots of fresh fruits and veggies to snack on when I’m in the office.  🤤 On the bike ride home I will stop and get more onions 🧅 and frozen fruit and veggies, and try to use up what I have around the apartment rather then doing a full grocery shop 🛒 until at least Wednesday, as I want to get down to the park after work to walk and read.  🚶📚️ I figure why fire up Red and spend a bunch of money on groceries 🛻 when I have a fair amount bar the fruit and vegetables, 🐄 which I can pick up riding to and from work. Also need to get more milk at Stewart’s. I know more plastic! 

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:54 pm with sun having an altitude of 59.8° from the due south horizon (-11.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.5 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:07 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (282°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (288°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:46 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 2 seconds with dusk around 8:15 pm, which is one minute and 8 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east-southeast (119°) at an altitude of 16° from the horizon, 250,219 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:52 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 51 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 7 mph. Today will have 13 hours and 46 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 40 seconds over yesterday.

I think it’s interesting how the greenies this year are focusing on single use plastics 💚 on Earth Day. Gets a little bit silly but I think they needed a new issue as they got their climate legislation through on the state level 🌎 but only time will tell what the effect is beyond using a lot of farm land and forest for massive solar farms. I’d be more concerned about the really toxic things in garbage today like all the electronics commonly discarded. ☠️ Or all the wasted building materials not the silly little plastic water bottles that are a tiny part of waste production made out of the least toxic forms of plastic – polyethylene. ♻ I really should get milk 🥛 delivery set up with Meadow Brook but it’s a pain having to call as they don’t have a website, and at least in the winter months I do recycle most of the discarded Stewart’s milk bottles. I wish they still had milk in glass for less trash like Byrne Dairy does. 🐮 I don’t drink as much milk as I once did since getting into healthy eating, preferring to drink more water from the tap, 🚰 but I still think those milk bottles take up much too much room in the trash or the recycle  ♻️ when so inclined.

Tonight will be clear 🌃, with a low of 31 degrees at 4am. Nine degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 1st. Northwest wind around 6 mph becoming south after midnight. In 2023, we had thunderstorm in the evening, which became light rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 43 degrees. The record low of 26 occurred back in 1975.

First half of the weekend looks decent Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 62. Maximum dew point of 41 at 4pm. ☀ Not too bad but certainly can change. Sunday, a chance of showers. 🌦️ Mostly cloudy, with a high near 68. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Maximum dew point of 53 at 3pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 65 degrees. It is what it is, good I got out last weekend.

I am not opposed to doing a three-day weekend and heading up to the Adirondacks  🏕️  but only f the weather looks good. It would be nice to spend some time in the wilderness, have a good fire  🔥 and ride trail or explore the back country  🚵 before black flies are out in mass, 🦟 but only if the weather ain’t shit. 💩 I kind of want to wait until things green up  🌱 before heading out to Schoharie County to camp, and eat fresh ramps I found in the woods, and ride the Catskill Scenic Trail from Stamford to Bloomville 🚵‍♂️ and back again, enjoying the colors of spring and the smell of all that freshly turned dirt.🚜 Maybe that will be Mother’s Day Weekend.

Looking ahead, there are 9 weeks until Latest Sunset 🌆 when the sun will be setting at 8:38 pm with dusk at 9:12 pm. On that day in 2023, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 86 and 61 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 82 degrees. We hit a record high of 96 back in 1943.

Red, White, and Blue

So you can’t burn your garbage out in the country anymore in New York … 🛢️ 🔥

I concede maybe that’s a good thing, in he sense that too many people back in the day had burn barrels, tossed all their burnable trash in it, lit it with a match and walked away, allowing plastics and other chemicals in their trash to smolder away for half the day ruining many a nice country night for people who lived downwind.

There’s a reason why they call the smoke from smoldering burn barrels hillbilly incense, as you drive those back roads in Pennsylvania with those windows rolled down – or a million other back roads in Red States. It can be kind of nasty – as they say burning toxic trash is a national past time out in the country. Probably is, people like fire and not hauling all their burnable garbage to the transfer station and spending a bunch of money to get rid of it. It’s fun to watch things burn.

It Burns

I always told myself for years when I moved back to the country, built my off-grid homestead I’d move to a free state where there wasn’t all those restrictions on open burning. But alas it seems like I’m settling in New York State with my good paying professional career. I’ll have land where I can have campfires and bonfires, and I’m thinking about becoming a volunteer firefighter.

The truth is I don’t want to burn toxic waste. I want to burn things that I can use the ash on my garden and to enhance my land and restore soil fertility. It’s not like I generate that much trash, especially now that I’m into healthy eating. A lot more of my trash now is compost, it belongs in a compost pile with manure, leaves and waste paper. I also am more concerned about fire risk, soon to be the owner of a homestead that I designed, built and put much of my hard earned money into. I don’t want my neighbors smoldering trash fire to become my wildfire.

It’s not to say I won’t burn things or have lots of fires. But it won’t be in a burning barrel or involve burning excessive amounts of toxic plastics, especially things like PVC lead coated wire or ABS plastics used in electronics and structural plastics. Somethings, unfortunately if you can’t reuse them are best for the landfill. And a lot of things don’t burn well at any rate, despite us rednecks of the world trying to burn everything we can.

Smolders

I do think I’ll save most paper and cardboard to burn, along with film plastics, wrappers and feed bags. They’re excellent starters for campfires and bonfires and if you’re regularly having fires your unlikely to accumulate much. Burn it hot with minimal smell or smoke. Sit back and enjoy a cold beer while enjoying the fire. I figure if I’m building on raw land, going to have a lot of brush and leftover wood scrap to burn, providing many a nice summer night out in the country. Plus some junk mail is good for starting woodstove fires.

A combination of composting, eating healthy, producing my own food, burning non-toxic trash and compressing recyclables such a hard plastics and cans for taking to the transfer station, my hope is to get it down to the point where I can visit the transfer station maybe twice a year – to participate in urban recycling, get rid of broken appliances that can’t be repaired and other toxic trash. I don’t plan to produce a lot of trash nor do I plan to burn much – just papers and wrappers for starting fires.