Today's High winds + snow + ice +..….


Duck said:
That would only be a selling point though.

For the application, plastic gears will work just fine because they're not going to be spinning at high RPM carrying loads. They'll never wear out.

The actual gear reduction box wouldn't be the engineering challenge.

The problem is when you are trying to fine tune the aiming of a super strong telephoto lens to center it on a distant object, every time you touch the tripod it'll move a little bit.

If I was taking telephoto long shots or trying to get my laser to hit an object the size of a dinner plate from half a mile away, I would want it to be hands-free.

I'd want a joystick controller for two bidirectional DC motors geared way down, and of course, a remote control for the camera shutter.

And I'd want to add weights to the tripod too.

I could make something like that.

But I'll wait for @Electric Chicken to tell us what a factory made system like this would actually cost. If it's something that can be had for under $200 it wouldn't make much sense to build one from scratch.
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It's about 1200 bucks for the ones I've been looking at. You answered your own question about why they're worth it without realizing it.

You can build whatever you want, I don't care.
 
I'll probably end up getting a video head first since they're only about 200 bucks and I'd get more use out of that. The $1200 geared head would really only be for precision aiming and I don't do much of that. I don't even have a lens that justifies it yet.
 
Electric Chicken said:
I'll probably end up getting a video head first since they're only about 200 bucks and I'd get more use out of that. The $1200 geared head would really only be for precision aiming and I don't do much of that. I don't even have a lens that justifies it yet.
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I think this bullshit weather is my fault, because I bought a zoom lens for my phone.

Visibility is currently about 50 feet here.

Murphys law.
 
So, @Duck is to blame. I knew that someone had to be. Yesterday, we had the A/C on. It was like 78F with 120% humidity. It was horrible. It rained about 2pm and you could watch the thermometer drop. The result was 50F with 38% humidity. So I open the bedroom window. I wake up at 03:30 and I'm freezing. This weather is weird.
 
389 Hood said:
So, @Duck is to blame. I knew that someone had to be. Yesterday, we had the A/C on. It was like 78F with 120% humidity. It was horrible. It rained about 2pm and you could watch the thermometer drop. The result was 50F with 38% humidity. So I open the bedroom window. I wake up at 03:30 and I'm freezing. This weather is weird.
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Duck and his lasers. Aiming for Pennsylvania and hit Florida because he used his janky toy gears instead of a precision head.
 
It's so cold I had to go around the house and bleed the air from all the radiators.

Then toss a blanket over the radiator in the unused bedroom to save some hot water for the rest of the house.

And it's still only 63°F inside the house. Most of the house.

It's a comfortable 70 or so in the upstairs TV room because the sun is shining on the window.
 
Duck said:
It's so cold I had to go around the house and bleed the air from all the radiators.
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You realize I'm not totally privy on this subject.
Duck said:
Then toss a blanket over the radiator in the unused bedroom to save some hot water for the rest of the house.
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This no doubt stops some form of heat dissipation. Is the entire heating system a continuous loop? Gas/Boiler? Electric? Surely not solar.
Duck said:
And it's still only 63°F inside the house. Most of the house.
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The heat pump system is set at 67F during the day and 69F at night.
Duck said:
It's a comfortable 70 or so in the upstairs TV room because the sun is shining on the window.
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But I'd love to see the sun again. The Weather Channel tells me from now till the end of the month, rainy, cold and dreary. How f'ing wonderful. o_O I feel like I'm in an English summertime. 🥶
 
389 Hood said:
You realize I'm not totally privy on this subject.
Click to expand...
Boiler heats water in the basement and circulates it through the system. It's one continuous loop through all of the radiators. Depending on how much heat is called for, the water can go up to 195°F but my boiler repairman and weed dealer says it's best to keep the limiter set at 180.


Periodically, air bubbles might appear in the water and air ends up trapped in the tops of the radiators because the pipes in & out of the radiators are at the bottom.

A radiator that's got air trapped in it will feel hotter at the bottom than at the top, and it won't heat the room as well.

So every radiator has a bleeder on it.
You hold a little cup under it and take a flathead screwdriver and crack them open & let the air out. When water starts coming out, you close the valve and go to the next radiator.

The air that comes out is always stinky.

20240114_150945.jpg

@Electric Chicken probably knows this because he's got the same kind of system.

But @GAnthony's system uses steam instead of hot water. His probably don't have bleeders on them.
 
Duck said:
Boiler heats water in the basement and circulates it through the system. It's one continuous loop through all of the radiators. Depending on how much heat is called for, the water can go up to 195°F but my boiler repairman and weed dealer says it's best to keep the limiter set at 180.


Periodically, air bubbles might appear in the water and air ends up trapped in the tops of the radiators because the pipes in & out of the radiators are at the bottom.

A radiator that's got air trapped in it will feel hotter at the bottom than at the top, and it won't heat the room as well.

So every radiator has a bleeder on it.
You hold a little cup under it and take a flathead screwdriver and crack them open & let the air out. When water starts coming out, you close the valve and go to the next radiator.

The air that comes out is always stinky.

View attachment 89238

@Electric Chicken probably knows this because he's got the same kind of system.

But @GAnthony's system uses steam instead of hot water. His probably don't have bleeders on them.
Click to expand...
no, mine do not have bleeder valves, but rather pressure valves to allow steam to escape....

look something like this

1705269839012.png

and i can adjust the amount of steam to escape...i still have to check the water level thru a sight glass on the boilers, and i do have automatic water fill.

i can get "clanking" and pounding in the pipes as well if there is an air lock in the system, it is rare, but it does happen.
 
I did some reading on home heating radiators yesterday during my in home entrapment. (Thank you weather) That 'air' that you bleed off is actually hydrogen gas, hence the sticky rotten egg smell. If allowed to accumulate in large quantities, it can be explosive, but very unlikely, because the compression can't be built up that high within the system. And the thumping or clanking is the physical liquid flowing through the system that is compressing the hydrogen gas. It can be compressed, whereas the liquid cannot.

Most likely, depending on plumbing codes, here anyway, there is a vertical section of pipe that is capped, usually about a foot long at the termination of a pipe run. It is filled with air so when you get some person that has no idea about water flow, slams a valve or stop closed, that little section of pipe absorbs the shock of the stop of the water. This house has all PVC piping in it. Damned cheap ass contractors. Getting away from copper was the worst thing they did to a house. It's easier to do kiddie work gluing things together than it is to actually have a trade that sweats the pipes together and requires a talent.
 

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