Archives for October 2009

The Energy Detective (TED) 1001

2009/10/24 By staze

<Disclaimer>I will admit, first and foremost, that this review is a bit later than I would have liked. Since the time I started wanting to review the TED 1001, the 5000 has been released that offers a few major advantages. Mainly, bang for your buck. The TED 5000 allows you to upload power data to Google Powermeter, which gives real time power graphing, much like I had to hack together on my own on my website here. With all that said, let’s get on with it.</Disclaimer>

The TED 1001 is probably the first widely available whole house energy monitor device that allows someone to see how much power their home is using instantly (1 second time resolution). The display unit is accurate to 10W. Very few items in the house draw less than 10W when they’re on, so this will generally give you a pretty good idea what kind of power your home uses.

Installation of the TED is fairly simple, if not hair raising. The CTs have to be installed around the primary power feed for the breaker panel. Which, unless you have a master shutoff between the meter and the panel, or you pull the meter itself, means you’re potentially interacting with a 200AMP, 240V feed. But, you don’t actually have to touch those, and if you’re concerned, an electrician could do the job in about, 10 minutes, max. Once the CTs are installed, you hook those up to the MTU, and the MTU to a new breaker. The most difficult part of that is figuring out what phase to install the new breaker on, since it has to be the same phase as what the display is going to hook to. Which brings up basic home power…

Your home power is generally supplied by two 120V phases (why there’s the two big power feeds coming into your breaker panel). Combined, this gives us a 240V 2-phase system. If you look at a breaker panel, it kinda looks like two ladders on top of each other. One of these ladders is one 120V phase, the other is the other 120V phase. Normal breakers attach of just one of these ladders, and therefore supply 120V. Breakers for stuff like water heaters, stoves, HVAC, dryers, etc all connect to a “double pole” breaker, which connects to both ladders. So, you get 240V. So, those two phases that come into your house come from a transformer somewhere that breaks them out into single phase lines (power coming down the poles is much higher voltage, and usually 3-phase).

So, with that in mind, from breaker to breaker in your panel (going top to bottom on one side), you get alternating phases. So, when you go to plug in your MTU to a new breaker, you have to figure out what phase the outlet you plan to plug your display into is on. Otherwise, the MTU talks to the opposite phase, which goes out to the street transformer and then crosses to the other phase and comes back to the Display. Potentially hundreds of feet. This is bad. You can get a phase coupler that goes into your panel, or plugs into a dryer outlet, but it’s just easier to hook it to the right phase.

Once that’s all done, you can turn on that new breaker, and plug in the display. You should start seeing good data once you configure the TED display. It’s pretty cool all and all.

All things considered, if the 1001 was the only option from TED (assuming the 5000 was not yet released), I’d say BUY ONE! They’re a wonderful tool to figure out where and when you’re using power. If you want more specific power usage, pick up a Kill-a-Watt. You plug individual 120V items into them, and they’ll tell you how much power they’re using.

My biggest complaint about the TED 1001 is the cost of unlocking the USB port on them, $45. Thats even if you don’t use their software (which I don’t, I just use a Python script written by someone else).

[xrr rating=4.5/5]That .5 deduction is simply the cost of the unlock, mixed with how poor the software is (windows only, doesn’t help).

Here are some links of interest:

-TED 1001 Purchase : http://www.theenergydetective.com/store/teds/ted-1001.html
-Google Power Meter: http://www.google.org/powermeter/
-Energy Circle (great website about energy usage): http://www.energycircle.com/
-Youtube video showing install of TED 1001: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgcvvJPX46M
-Python Script to poll TED: http://www.staze.org/static/code/scripts/ted5.py (local mirror: http://www.staze.org/static/code/scripts/ted5.py)

HP LJ 9050 and the annoying 49.ff08 error

2009/10/19 By staze

This is a random note.

For months/years now, our primary student printer here at work has gotten random 49.ff08 errors that require removing the job from the print server, and cycling the power on the printer. We haven’t been able to find a cause, and firmware updates of both the JetDirect and Printer have resulted in no change.

So, last week, I got a 512MB stick of ram for the printer, installed it (replacing the 128MB OEM stick that was in there), and the issue has gone away. We haven’t had the problem in a about a week, which is a record.

Now, I’m not sure if this was due to the OEM stick being faulty, or 128MB not being enough memory for the jobs the printer was receiving, but all and all, I’m happy. After upgrading, I did find a place in the manual that says if you’re printing a lot of duplex jobs, or jobs on 11×17, then more than the stock 128MB is suggested. Wow, go figure, all we print are duplex jobs, and a lot of 11×17.

So, for anyone else that is having this problem, go buy more memory for your 9050 and give that a try.

Here’s the memory we used (from Provantage) : Kingston LJ9050/512

CobaltFlux Controller Box

2009/10/19 By staze

In February of 2004, as a birthday present for my then Girlfriend (now wife), I organized a joint gift from all her friends so that we all donated money to a large gift. In this case, it was a CobaltFlux DDR pad. They were, and are, the best home dance pads for DDR/Stepmania you can get. They take a few weeks to build, and are all built to order, so a few weeks later, I got the pad.

The pad is pretty cool, and still works great after over 5 and a half years. However, I have never been overly happy with the control box (the thing that takes the input from the DDR pad, and translates it into something a PSx can understand.

Version 1 (15pin) CobaltFlux controller Box

The problem, is it just seems kinda janky. Mainly the short pigtail that connects to the pad’s pigtail. It always seemed very out of place with how well constructed the pad is. The box just ends up kinda laying on the ground, asking to be stepped on, and the buttons for Start/Select are too small to be “foot buttons” so it’s placement just seems wrong. On the end of the cable out the other side is just a male PSx connector. Which leads us to our other adapter…

Then there’s the whole getting the PSx output to something you can use in Stepmania. Luckily, I was able to purchase the best converter box ever produced before the company went out of business (I think that’s what happened), the PS Joy, made by Boom (picture on the right).

PSX-to-USB Converter (Boom PS Joy)

It is just a little converter box that has a female USB-B connector on one side, and a female PSx connector on the other. The games don’t need any tweaking, it just works. Or at least it did, until about 3 weeks ago.

So, 3 weeks ago, my wife goes to play DDR, and the pad doesn’t work. Neither do the buttons on the control box. I fiddle around, grab a PS2 controller (which ends up working), and determine that the control box has died. So, I go online, and order the new V5 control box (after confirming that my pad does in fact have a 15pin connector). About a week goes by, and the new box shows up at my door.

Version 5 CobaltFlux controller Box

I have three words for what I think: “Night and Day”. This new box is more like it. Not only is it well built, but as you can see in the picture (on the left), it has a PSx output, Gamecube/Wii output, AND USB!!!! The USB is intended for PS3 compatibility (and with an adapter, “should” work on an Xbox), but it works flawlessly on a computer. Not only that, but CobaltFlux seems to have figured out that the buttons on the control box are really for hands, so lets put the box where someone can reach it without bending over. So, between the box and the pad, they include a removable 8′ 15pin male to male (basically VGA) cable. So you can put the control box up on the surface that holds the TV, and actually reach it.

The new box is, from what I can tell, perfect. It’s what the box should have always been. We’ll see what time does, but all and all, I’m extremely happy, and would recommend anyone with a version 1 15-pin control box to pick up one of these, or add them to a wish list somewhere. My only complaint, and it’s not much of one, would be: It would be cool/nice if there was one or two LEDs on the controller box to signify power being received from the host device, and maybe one to indicate a button being pressed on the pad itself. This would make it a lot easier to troubleshoot issues should they arise. But, other than that, definitely a 4.9 out of 5 stars.

Links:

CobaltFlux
Control Box v5