u/also_your_mom

My apology if this is not what this sub is intended for. I am sharing what I think might be useful information on borrowing good thermal imaging cameras, as many people (such as I) can't justify purchasing one but have a temporary need for one.

My local utility company (PG&E) lends out thermal imaging cameras. Free.

They have a FLIR E76 (the one I have borrowed) and a T560 (far higher end than I could possibly need).

I am using it to determine where air from my attic may be entering my living space when I run my whole house fan (which pulls air from living space and exhausts via roof venting in attic). I've been placing remote thermometers around, but that takes too long and I have to guess where a leak might be. A thermal camera will show me all leaks in as much time as it takes me to walk around the inside of my house and look (the goal).

Update/edit: It is a Ultra 2 version.

If a person doesn't actually review the results of each job, before the next job, that person isn't going to notice some of the things I point out.

If a person doesn't actually follow their robot around during each job but, instead (like most people) pay little to no attention to how it is actually performing the task then they are not going to observe some of the things I point out.

If a person doesn't actually test some of the things I point out, they may very well not notice the issues.

Not noticing is not the same thing as "never happened". If we were a working couple, letting the robot do its thing during the day while we are gone, the majority of these things would go unnoticed. In then end, there is no obvious thing to look at when one comes home and it has completed the job. If it skips sections of the house on one daily vacuum job, nobody is going to notice. If it avoided an object that wasn't really there, one day, nobody is going to notice unless they actually observed it OR reviewed the job map afterwards to then see an object was indicated which wasn't actually there.

I am still pleased with the unit. Granted, I am comparing it to a model 966 Roomba.

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Here are my notes on issues/concerns/observations of our QX Revo Ultra robot vacuum. This will obviously come across as a Roborock bash but I am quite confident every robot vacuum out there is performing much the same. Perhaps when one gets into the $2K+ range these issues don't come up. But I honestly doubt it. Hence, I will also cross post to the generic robotvacuum sub.

Bugs

·         Signals empty clean tank when there is at least 2-3” remaining (plenty for at least 1 more jobs). Doesn’t mop.

·         Something in the mopping solution that leaves a slightly sticky coating on floors. I’ve had to cut back to 1/3 the recommended strength and it is still just a tad sticky until it fully dries. As though it is leaving an actual coating down rather than being nothing more than a cleaner. Like the old-school “Map & Glo”.

·         Although you can look back at the past cleaning “events”, when you ‘open’ them to view that event you actually see the current on-going event rather than the event that already transpired. The point being that it appears as though all “past events” are in fact copies of the current event.

·         Failed the “shoelace on the carpet” test. It properly detected a shoelace in its path and avoided it, when vacuuming a linoleum floor. But that same shoelace was not recognized/seen when placed on a multi colored carpet (the carpet had no white in it and the shoelace was white).

·         Doesn’t remember items you tell it to ignore. Constantly recognizing our front door stop rabbit statue as a “pet”, even though we constantly tell it to ignore it. Or, if it ignores it from one angle when it comes back at it from the other side where it isn’t illuminated it then reports it as a “plastic bag”.

·         Rugs with fringe cause problems when the fringe isn’t totally flat on the floor. It reports it as “plastic bag”, etc., and goes around.

·         Get’s all wonky when trying to go along reflective surfaces like a SS oven range drawer.

·         Can’t handle variability in colors/patterns on floors, commonly mistaking them for “dirt or stains” and spending an inordinate amount of time going over and over and over and over and over….definitely disable that “beta” feature.

·         Not reliable as to when it extends the brush when vacuuming and/or the mop when mopping. Sometimes extends it at inappropriate times, when NEAR a corner but then retracts when it actually moves into the corner.

·         Legs of chairs and tables totally confuses it such that it will go around and around and around and around them, then, even, going back to them just to check…? It is as though the chair/table just appeared rather than it being a feature that has been in that position since the beginning.

·         Frequently avoids corners of cabinets that it did not previously have an issue with (previous job), as though the corner of the wall just suddenly was built in its path. Identifying them “ground obstacles” or “paper bags”, etc.. I suspect this is coming from the headlight when it shines on a surface and gets a light reflection back. So it is an evening/nighttime affliction, mostly.

·         Lidar lowering to get under obstacles cuts things too close such that it will get under something but cannot get back out.

·         Intermittently signals “cliff”, clears the map, and begins a new map and gets lost. Have to return it to the dock, load the original map, and send it “to dock”.

·         Apparently doesn’t actually have a “wakeup” word. Is simply always listening. Result is that if you happen to be quite near it (like stepping over it and saying “whoa!”) it stops, pauses for 5-10 seconds, and then says “sorry, I cannot understand this command” and goes on about its business.

·         Intermittently gets fixated on a particular area, as though it is in “super scrub” mode (but isn’t) and will go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth until eventually stopping in the middle of the floor with an error code indicating “too many obstructions, trapped”. Then the map gets dumped and you have to recover a previous map. I guess the problem is that it has decided it needs to drive through a wall and cannot make it. Tries and tries and tries to drive through a wall (that has always been there and never caused a problem before) before finally giving up and stopping, waiting for the human to come and move the wall out of the way.

·         Intermittently “thinks” there was some sort of obstacle when in fact there  was no obstacle (and it doesn’t take any picture nor mark the map) then, later, goes back to that location to vacuum/mop. It will do this in the middle of a room routine. Looks like it simply forgot what it was doing and so started wandering around. I suspect it is from a feature that supposedly recognizes moving objects (like a pet or a human) and avoids the object but then goes back a bit later, “thinking” the object will now have moved out of the way.

 

We have a Red Bud tree. Maybe eight year old (not sure when we planted it). Initially it was quite leafy, but over the past several years it has become very thin on leaves. All the small little branches, which had leaves, that come of the larger branches, are drying up and snapping off. Hence, far fewer leaves.

What might be causing this? Lack of water? Too much water? When we planted it we ran three 3/4" PVC pieces with it. One going down below the root ball. One going into center of root ball. One stopping short of the root ball. We have 10gph emitters (on 1/4" lines) in each of them (I think....now I need to go check to see if they are still there). So, essentially (if the three emitters are still in place) the tree is getting a lot of water. Daily....probably at least 5 gallons...at the root ball level. Nothing at the surface level.

Update: checked water. Only a single 10gph emitter. But, still, maybe that's too much? Every day giving it 3 gallons of water at its root ball.

I tipped my N. Lowii X Ventrica "red" over and the liquid in the pitcher (there is only one) spilled out along with the remains of a few flies.

Can I and/or should I put a bit of distilled water in there?

Will it remake it's "digestive juice?

Or have I essentially removed it's stomach?

EDIT: I am finding conflicting information here as well as at /sa...arden. Many say "absolutely not" others say "certainly" others add a disclaimer that no new digestive enzymes will be produced so the water will do nothing other than help keep a dyeing pitcher moistened but otherwise no point in adding water. But out in the wild it would seem that all the pitchers would be getting filled to the brim with rain water, and more, essentially watering it down to nothing....so then the digestion of bugs would appear to be irrelevant.

When I first got an Instapot I would get get perfect hard boiled eggs in 8 minutes.

After a few years it become 10 minutes.

Now 10 minutes results in close to a soft-cooked egg.

Trying out 11 minutes now.

What is wearing out? Not sure I understand this. If it takes longer to get to pressure (I think it does) then that should result in over cooked eggs, not undercooked (since they would be in the pot longer at temperature not quite high enough but still high). It doesn't start timing until it is at pressure, so the actual time under pressure isn't changing. So then is it that the "at pressure" device (just a valve, basically, right?) is indicating "at pressure" when in fact it is not?

Edit/update: my 11 minute test resulted in eggs that were very close to perfect yet still just barely jelly in the center of the yolk.

I took the pieces out of the lid and examined them. Nothing looks awry.

Edit/update: Ran a few 2 minute tests to see how long it took to get to pressure and then listened closely at the steam release to hear if any steam was escaping. Took 2 minutes to come to pressure (seems reasonable). Found that a tiny bit of steam/pressure was leaking out. Barely audible. If I gently touched the pressure release I could get it to stop or get worse. Found that once I got it to be totally silent I could then bump the countertop and it would start leaking a tiny bit again.

Conclusion (for lack of a better one): Need to cook some more hard boiled eggs at the original 8 minute but this time take care to stand there and assure no pressure is releasing during the 8 minutes of cooking. Hypothesis is that the unit is not at full pressure during the cooking, hence the temperature is lower, hence it takes longer to fully cook. Unsure what the solution is. The pressure release seems to be such a simply device I can't figure out how it could "go bad".

Updated hypothesis: Assuming the thermistor itself is correctly sensing the actual temperature of the water (actually it would be the base of the pot) -- IF there is a tiny leak (or leaks) that are not clearly visible/audible such that the little stopper pin does rise to the top (normally indicating full pressure) but the steam isn't as hot as it would otherwise be, because it rises up and out. So the eggs are now cooking at a slightly lower temperature as compared to originally and therefore take longer to fully cook.

LONG way around to get to what people are recommending I try: Get a new gasket and perhaps new pressure relief valve.

I have a friend (seriously) who has advised that I get Umbrella insurance on my auto policy.

He was involved in an auto accident which was the fault of the other driver. That driver's policy maxed out on damages and medical far before all the medical could be covered. This left my friend with big medical bills that he is certain (dealing with lawyers) will be or should be covered by his own auto insurance policy (umbrella portion?).

I guess sort of like if the other party had no insurance at all then his auto insurance would pay for damage to his own vehicle even though it was not his fault?

Comment/Clarifications?

Logic tells me that one should be able to calculate (approximate) the "ideal" stroke length based on physical measurements of arm length, leg lengths (thigh length and femur length), and torso length (hips to shoulders). Those, combined with the angles defined by what apparently is the ideal torso angle at the catch and the finish. I do understand that it isn't simply adding them all together, because they movements do overlap, but someone sufficiently advanced in geometry and trigonometry likely has created that equation (?).

Why care? Logic also leads me to suspect that "ideal stroke length" could be a decent way to self-analyze one's basic technique. One aspect of it, that is.

Totally understand that a person could still by pulling and/or leaning too early, before legs are straight while still having the same final stroke length. But it would/could at least inform a person that they are perhaps leaning too far forward on the catch or too far back on the finish or bending the knees too much at the catch, or not straightening the legs fully on the finish, etc...

Stick with me here:

I could do legs only and expect to see my stroke length be very close to the length of the 3rd side of a right triangle formed by the thigh and femur lengths (3rd side being the rail). Is that incorrect? I could do torso only and expect to see a stroke length very close to whatever the angular measurement would be based on my torso length and the "ideal" 11'oclock to 1'oclock. I could do arms only and expect to see stroke length close to my arm length.

Granted, there is a lot of room for variation in there. Is see it as I write this. But it would be a reasonable ballpark....or would it? Possibly I'm simply trying too hard to boil this down to math.

Just wondering if this is something any of you all have any experience/knowledge of.

Local gym (24hr fitness) has a couple C2. The only ones I have available. 24Hr fitness "maintenance" crews are.....

So I'm dreaming that if I could at least offer them a specific "the chain needs oil" or "I believe a tooth is broken", etc., maybe they would try?

Observations:

1. one machine makes a loud clunk with a bit of 'give' at the end of a hard pull. Like the chain is snapping down onto a tooth.

2. another machine's drag doesn't change regardless of damper position

3. another machine doesn't take up the chain slack when moving into to catch. Its good for the REALLY slow crowd who's SPM is in single digits.

First timer here. I am still paranoid as to whether or not I am giving my plant the best environment I can. Like one of my children, lol?

I am assured that I would have to try to kill one of these rather than accidentally doing it. Yet...I worry.

Here are two photos of it, two weeks apart. The one where the upper leaves are spotless green is two weeks ago. The later one shows the lower leaves getting larger brownish areas and the upper leaves sort of developing same (the little shoot/leaf at top has grown several inches), as well the lower portion of what I call the "stem" is a dark red/mahogany color rather than light green is was two weeks ago (actually kinda pretty that way).

Analysis?

Too much sun?

Not enough sun?

It is under a shade cloth so only gets DIRECT sun for perhaps 20 minutes in the late afternoon, when the sun peaks through a gap between the sun shade and the roof of my house. Thinking more about it....this is at the west side of my house so it would be totally shaded until noon-ish....then trees and such to the west of it would be shading it for the last few hours of the day (aside from the brief point of sun peeking through the sun shade gap)....so it is only in this screened sun for perhaps five to six hours of the day.

Too much water? I check each day and as long as it feels slightly dampish down about an inch or so into the potting medium I leave it alone, otherwise I give it a small bit of distilled water (a few tablespoon?).

Food: it gets a fly or two each week, as I swat them and they don't get all squished. Seems to be digesting them, slowly, as I see a fly skeleton in there with the latest one still looking like a fly and all the others having been enveloped into the gray slime muck stuff at the bottom.

Humidity: SF Bay area of California. The daytime temp (since I have had it) has been in 70's with a few heat waves into the high 80's (F). Night time the temp goes down into the high 50's or low 60's. Humidity during daylight is around 50-65% with night time humidity going into high 80's.

https://preview.redd.it/ejk726m7c2eh1.jpg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b0b5fbab9b4f9a4a621e6c9b7b4fe1a629b5f88

https://preview.redd.it/if53r7m7c2eh1.jpg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cfbbec0b42f6557ea379cbe5bbc0eb05ea2026ce

We live near numerous wine regions (Napa, Sonoma, Amadore, Lodi, Livermore, etc.) and so always have 200-300 bottles of wine on hand. We drink the 4-5 year old wines as we replace them with 'new' ones from the wineries we are frequently visiting.

We keep them in the crawlspace of our house. Dirt floor with the living space floor about 3 feet off the ground. Always figured it was an OK place to keep the wine, but never did look at the temperature.

Problem: I got a bunch of remote temperature sensors and so put them here and there, out of curiosity, and our wine storage location was one such place. Now that we have an good idea of the temperature down there we are getting paranoid.

Summertime here. A fairly temperate environment, for those who don't know the SF bay region of California. The average temperature for the past month in the crawlspace is about 68 degrees (F), which strikes me as "OK" (not the ideal 55 F). The fluctuation is 67-69 F. That seems OK also. Right????

The occasional heat wave, though, results in the space going up to 72 degrees (peak day temp, so a range of 71-73) and we'll get a few of those that last 3-4 days.

Guessing that during the colder months of the year the space will be colder, perhaps into the lower 60's with less fluctuation.

Does this sound like a really bad thing or does it sound reasonable? We aren't collecting wine. We are drinking wine. So we aren't cellaring $200 Napa Cab's for 20 years. Majority of the wines are always going to be 5 year old max (so in the "cellar" for four)*

*We have saved a few "special" bottles (like a $200 Napa Cab) for long periods simply because they were "special" so we would always "save that for something special" which never came. We finally convinced ourselves that any day was special and opened one up. It wasn't exactly "bad"....but it wasn't great. So we do accept that our "cellar" is NOT adequate for long term storage.

Comment? Encouragment?

As crazy as this sounds: We keep a lot of wine (200-300 bottles) in our crawlspace on the belief that the temperature in our crawlspace doesn't get hot. It's a theory. So far it seems to work out OK. No obvious spoiled wines (we typically drink it before it's been down there more than five years).

However, I recently acquired a living space thermostat with numerous satellite temperature sensors. So I put one down with our wine to really see what goes on.

We've had some heat waves with outdoor temperature getting into the high 80's low 90's and we see our "wine cellar" going up to 72 degrees, even 73, in the heat of the afternoon. Pretty certain it is because: Radiant heat from our living space, where the floor temperature can get to 74 degrees, and radiant heat via the cripple walls in crawlspace.

It is a vented crawlspace.

Not interested in spending $$$$ to encapsulate the crawlspace.

I figure that if I insulate the ceiling of the crawlspace, between the joist, with rigid board insulation and the cripple walls with the same.....I should see less affect of high outside and living space temperatures.

I don't know what the temperature in crawlspace is in the winter months.....probably gets down near outdoor temperatures though so likely gets into the high 50's or low 60's? Granted, not ideal for wine storage even if I could limit the high end. Temperature swings being worse than warm temperatures.

Comment?

I am waffling a LOT on this because a sheet of rigid foam insulation is ~$28 and it would take a LOT of them.

Update: for those who will insist that a vented crawlspace is going to have wide swings in temperature due to outside air, see the attached jpg. Crude, but it suffices to show that my crawlspace temperature is actually good, overall, with an average around 68 (F) with daily swings of perhaps 2 degrees peak to peak. VERY good condition for wine storage. However, when outside temperatures get into the 80-90 range the crawlspace can go to 72-73. Outside temperature is changing 20+ degrees while crawlspace swings 2 degrees. I'm just looking at how to reduce the "extremes" a few degrees.

https://preview.redd.it/v70ocbo0opdh1.jpg?width=1514&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3f3ef5741a3185f49a569ab8027d0fa793b5c7d9

Example: Somebody accidentally (or on purpose) trips on a crack in the sidewalk in front of my home. They get a doctor to honestly (or dishonestly) swear that the accident results in their client losing their ability to work, etc., and they sue me for $5million. I don't have $5million. All my assets, including my home, do not add up to $5million.

Is that a scenario where an "Umbrella Policy" could come into play?

A LOT of recommendations to use rainwater. As though one goes to the store and buys it (/s).

Where do you folks get rainwater?

Sure, I could save a barrel or two or ten WHEN it rains (rare). But then wouldn't it get rather stagnant over the next 10 months I'm using it?

There's a blob of gray gunky stuff in bottom of pitcher. I assume it is all the leftovers from various critters and whatnot.

Does one just let it collect there until the pitcher dies (from age)?

First timer here.