My second oil change today went a lot better than the first one, 9 months ago. Still a bit of drama, but not too bad. I already had everything I needed, and a plan, and the entire process took almost exactly 45 minutes from beginning to end.
Only bummer is that once again I overfilled the crankcase. Not too much, just a little. I'd partially-filled it, ran the engine a while, then checked the level before topping up, but the oil was so clean and clear that I couldn't really see how full it was. I noticed a lack of power, probably from the crankshaft sloshing around in oil instead of powering the vehicle. So after driving on it a while, I pulled the drain plug and drained out maybe a quart or two extra. Out of 4 gallons, not too bad.
The secret next time will be to run the engine for a LONGER time after partially-filling it, and before checking the dipstick-- long enough that the oil gets dirty and black and I can clearly see the level.
I found Rotella CJ-4 oil at Kragen this time too, really easy, and relatively cheap-- no special out-of-the-way trips to locate the stuff.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Seeing/hearing ghosts
Lately I've been avoiding the urban areas I used to park in, and feeling a lot safer, healthier, and more secure in the suburbs. I don't feel safe downtown anymore, among people living on the street and lots of fellow vandwelleers. I feel bad about it, but I much prefer the suburban areas of San Francisco, or the suburbs of San Mateo County surrounding it... or of course the beaches or out in the woods when I can there!
The other night I parked in a very safe suburban shopping mall parking lot. It was a windy night. At almost exactly 4:00AM (what is it with 4AM?) I was awakened by loud rap music booming, my van being shaken, and the sound of my van door being opened! I made my most intimidating-sounding angry shout. I heard nothing.
I looked out my peep-holes. I saw-- or thought I saw-- a vehicle parked sideways, aiming directly towards my vehicle. WTF? And nobody else around. I felt very, very scared and alone. I was in a panic for about a half hour, trying to decide what was going on and what to do. A car thief would have left as soon as I shouted. Who was parked there? Why were they parked that strange way? What did they want? What if they were armed? What if they tried to break in again?
After a while, I decided I'd climb out and start my vehicle, and drive somewhere else. As I got out of the box and into the cab, I noticed that everything I thought was wrong. There was no vehicle pointing at mine; there was a limo parked right next to mine, and the streetlights shining on it made it look like headlights aiming at me. I was not alone; there were dozens of cars parked all around. There were also people coming to work at one of the stores already, and a security guard on duty!
So what happened? I was perfectly safe. I got back the van and went back to sleep.
There were several problems. First, the peepholes make everything look really far away. It's a fisheye lens. There were cars parked all over me, and people a very short distance away. Secondly, my van was shaking because it was windy, or because someone parked too close to me and banged their door into me. Third, the sounds I heard was probably whomever owned that limo, parking it after getting off a night of work (it's prom season, after all). Fourthly, I'm a little skittish from being in the city for a while, or a little soft from being in the suburbs and out in the country.
I was seeing ghosts. No break-in attempt. No gang-bangers. No danger. Just the echoes of it, a delayed reaction.
The other night I parked in a very safe suburban shopping mall parking lot. It was a windy night. At almost exactly 4:00AM (what is it with 4AM?) I was awakened by loud rap music booming, my van being shaken, and the sound of my van door being opened! I made my most intimidating-sounding angry shout. I heard nothing.
I looked out my peep-holes. I saw-- or thought I saw-- a vehicle parked sideways, aiming directly towards my vehicle. WTF? And nobody else around. I felt very, very scared and alone. I was in a panic for about a half hour, trying to decide what was going on and what to do. A car thief would have left as soon as I shouted. Who was parked there? Why were they parked that strange way? What did they want? What if they were armed? What if they tried to break in again?
After a while, I decided I'd climb out and start my vehicle, and drive somewhere else. As I got out of the box and into the cab, I noticed that everything I thought was wrong. There was no vehicle pointing at mine; there was a limo parked right next to mine, and the streetlights shining on it made it look like headlights aiming at me. I was not alone; there were dozens of cars parked all around. There were also people coming to work at one of the stores already, and a security guard on duty!
So what happened? I was perfectly safe. I got back the van and went back to sleep.
There were several problems. First, the peepholes make everything look really far away. It's a fisheye lens. There were cars parked all over me, and people a very short distance away. Secondly, my van was shaking because it was windy, or because someone parked too close to me and banged their door into me. Third, the sounds I heard was probably whomever owned that limo, parking it after getting off a night of work (it's prom season, after all). Fourthly, I'm a little skittish from being in the city for a while, or a little soft from being in the suburbs and out in the country.
I was seeing ghosts. No break-in attempt. No gang-bangers. No danger. Just the echoes of it, a delayed reaction.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
The Long Sleep
After running on an average 4-7 hours a night of sleep for the last week or so, even though I had a cold for the past few days, finally I somehow slept for almost 12 hours straight, and feel "caught up" at last.
Got back home to the truck at around 1AM last night after working, ate a very late dinner, then fell into bed. Woke up around 8AM (as has been my habit for the past week or so), was awake for maybe 20 minutes, then went back to sleep again and just woke up at.... 1:30PM.
It feels great actually to be rested at last. It's been an incredibly productive and insightful couple weeks.
Got back home to the truck at around 1AM last night after working, ate a very late dinner, then fell into bed. Woke up around 8AM (as has been my habit for the past week or so), was awake for maybe 20 minutes, then went back to sleep again and just woke up at.... 1:30PM.
It feels great actually to be rested at last. It's been an incredibly productive and insightful couple weeks.
Monday, May 4, 2009
I'm a Vandweller, and I Vote!
I've been wondering for a while how the homeless can avoid getting disenfranchised by the political system, considering that you have to have a physical address in order to vote. I managed to get around this in the last election by paying a mailboxes place to give me a physical address. I thought I'd solved that problem. But, alas, the modern computer age has made that more difficult; the elections office recently invalidated my registration because it was a "commercial" address, and knew it was a maildrop. Crap. FedEx and UPS have no problem with this address, neither does the DMV, but the County Elections Board does.
The solution is easy though: apparently the homeless are protected by law from being disenfranchised in San Francisco, which is excellent news. It is possible to register to vote with only a streetcorner as an address! So that's what I did. I still needed a valid mailing address for correspondence, voter information packets, etc., but a PO box is fine for that, and so is my mailbox place.
This may be the case in other cities as well. If you're living in a van, on the move, then at least here it's possible to pick a streetcorner and make that your address, and thus maintain your right to vote.
The solution is easy though: apparently the homeless are protected by law from being disenfranchised in San Francisco, which is excellent news. It is possible to register to vote with only a streetcorner as an address! So that's what I did. I still needed a valid mailing address for correspondence, voter information packets, etc., but a PO box is fine for that, and so is my mailbox place.
This may be the case in other cities as well. If you're living in a van, on the move, then at least here it's possible to pick a streetcorner and make that your address, and thus maintain your right to vote.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Mirror mirror
I finally got my front ball joints replaced... expensive but it needed to happen. And the mechanics also fixed my window-- something I'd been meaning to do but never got around to-- and also my driver's side lock. I had to go back and re-do some of their work on the lock since they didn't put it back in properly, but it was nice of them to start it for me.
But the mechanics did something else for me that was amazing and tremendously useful: they adjusted my mirrors properly!
For a year now, I've been driving around with my passenger side mirror adjusted totally wrong! No wonder I couldn't see where I was going, having nail-biting lane-changes, was scraping the curb all the time when parking, and crunching people's vehicles when maneuvering around tight spots.
The secret is: I have to be able to actually SEE the passenger side panel of the big box in the mirror. Even if it takes up some of the viewable area of the mirror, too bad, I have to be able to see it.
Why? Because then I can actually see how close I am to things. I can also almost see behind me too, or at least some distance behind me. And, I can see the wheels, so when I park I can tell exactly how close I am to the curb! Finally, parking is now a joy not a nightmare: I can see exactly how much space I have, and who and what (if anything) is behind me.
Simple things that make life easy: having my mirrors adjusted properly.
But the mechanics did something else for me that was amazing and tremendously useful: they adjusted my mirrors properly!
For a year now, I've been driving around with my passenger side mirror adjusted totally wrong! No wonder I couldn't see where I was going, having nail-biting lane-changes, was scraping the curb all the time when parking, and crunching people's vehicles when maneuvering around tight spots.
The secret is: I have to be able to actually SEE the passenger side panel of the big box in the mirror. Even if it takes up some of the viewable area of the mirror, too bad, I have to be able to see it.
Why? Because then I can actually see how close I am to things. I can also almost see behind me too, or at least some distance behind me. And, I can see the wheels, so when I park I can tell exactly how close I am to the curb! Finally, parking is now a joy not a nightmare: I can see exactly how much space I have, and who and what (if anything) is behind me.
Simple things that make life easy: having my mirrors adjusted properly.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
MPPT Solar Controller Double Plus Good Good!
This MPPT solar controller is totally amazing. I love this thing. Between this controller, and my new low-power EEE netbook, I just don't worry about electricity anymore.
Tonight I parked underneath a couple streetlamps. And as I sat down to do some computer work, I saw my MPPT controller's charge light blinking. WTF? It's 11PM. No... no way... it can't be... it is! The thing is actually trickle-charging my batteries overnight, using the energy of a City of San Francisco halogen streetlamp!
Probably not a huge amount of electricity there, but it's non-zero. I still have to hack up a USB-to-MODBUS interface to plug my computer into the thing and get more detailed data from it. But, no matter what, the old PWM controller wasn't capable of boosting the tiny voltages from a streetlamp up to a level where it could actually charge the battery. MPPT controllers can.
I'm putting the MPPT controller on the (very short) list of things I'm very, very glad to have bought.
Tonight I parked underneath a couple streetlamps. And as I sat down to do some computer work, I saw my MPPT controller's charge light blinking. WTF? It's 11PM. No... no way... it can't be... it is! The thing is actually trickle-charging my batteries overnight, using the energy of a City of San Francisco halogen streetlamp!
Probably not a huge amount of electricity there, but it's non-zero. I still have to hack up a USB-to-MODBUS interface to plug my computer into the thing and get more detailed data from it. But, no matter what, the old PWM controller wasn't capable of boosting the tiny voltages from a streetlamp up to a level where it could actually charge the battery. MPPT controllers can.
I'm putting the MPPT controller on the (very short) list of things I'm very, very glad to have bought.
Friday, March 20, 2009
MPPT controller in!
After 3 months of procrastinating, I finally installed the new MPPT solar controller. It is fantastic! I had very little sunlight this afternoon (more rain coming this weekend!), but I had to charge up my electric bike. Batteries were down in the critical zone, 12.4V. As soon as I hooked up the new controller, within a few minutes it rescued my batteries back up to 12.6V! I can't wait to see how it does tomorrow.
The long delay was due to my trying to find the "right" way to terminate the huge #8 wire I'm using. The problem was that the new MPPT controller has screw posts, like a terminal block, not holes with screw-downs. And nobody seems to make screw lugs that'll fit #8 wire! The closest I can find are Kragen ones for #10 wire. I decided to blow off the right way and just do whatever worked, which meant prying open the #10 lugs, shoving the #8 wire in, and then clamping it down. Not the ideal solution, but it works.
I tried to solder the lugs on, for more security, but neither my battery-powered soldering iron nor my 110V iron could get the huge wire hot enough to melt solder. I guess that's why I chose that wire in the first place-- it won't get hot!
But I'm happy the thing is working now. Next step is to build the RS485 ModBus to USB interface I've been pulling together a schematic for, so I can get all the huge reams of data off of this controller and really study how my solar electrical system is working out.
The long delay was due to my trying to find the "right" way to terminate the huge #8 wire I'm using. The problem was that the new MPPT controller has screw posts, like a terminal block, not holes with screw-downs. And nobody seems to make screw lugs that'll fit #8 wire! The closest I can find are Kragen ones for #10 wire. I decided to blow off the right way and just do whatever worked, which meant prying open the #10 lugs, shoving the #8 wire in, and then clamping it down. Not the ideal solution, but it works.
I tried to solder the lugs on, for more security, but neither my battery-powered soldering iron nor my 110V iron could get the huge wire hot enough to melt solder. I guess that's why I chose that wire in the first place-- it won't get hot!
But I'm happy the thing is working now. Next step is to build the RS485 ModBus to USB interface I've been pulling together a schematic for, so I can get all the huge reams of data off of this controller and really study how my solar electrical system is working out.
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