engines are cool
Got an idea for a pedal generator. Not sure if there's one on the market, that'll be the start of my research. If not, I've got a clear plan for a design. I just don't know all the engineering to build it myself, unfortunately. I never do. I wish I had access to specialists like other people.
edit: nevermind, I just did some googling and there's already models on the market quite nice and compact. Search "pedal generator for desk." I'm quite pleased I don't have to try and build one.
Well we'll see, maybe I can figure it out. I'm just importing the sketches and notes from my boogie board rip. Damn Ilike that thing. I want the new one too but it's pricey so it hasn't happened. I do think it would interface like a dream with the Surface and Dan would want one too. We can't afford the Surface yet either, LOL! I'm glad it's a possibility at all. It was a long time in my life that "no" was the immediate understanding on all things not essential to mere survival. In fact it was a message my mother wouldn't quit throwing at me in those awful phone calls.
"but is it necessary?" She only felt it was acceptable to own anything beyond mere survival if you were completely debt free. She moralized at me about it. She and my father both would question me about my finances, whether I owed money and how much and to whom, long after I'd ceased using them as a bank. Their method of "you can't have anything" just doesn't work for a life time plan these days. In the first place, credit hits you when you're truly impoverished and you begin your indentureship on the price of groceries and shoes. Not fancy shoes, just new ones you can wear to the interview. Necessary stuff. it doesn't begin on luxury items. I lingers and languishes long after you might have paid it off because when you finally aren't too poor, you're sick and tired of living like that. Not only are you fed up, but you've gotten quite used to your debt and it's payments and it doesn't seem like a nasty predator in your garden at all. If you keep that wolf fed, it's just a touchy dog.
Anyway, I have no illusions that the amount we owe can be paid in monthly installments. We just aren't rich enough to have enough monthly installments if we knuckle down and live tight like I keep trying to do. Even knuckling tight only pads it up just enough for the next lean time emergency. this ttime it was tires that should have been replaced last summer, only we were holding off to pay off the debt. which isn't the least bit paid off still.
Hence why I want to build a house that fits on a trailer and sell this place, so we can dump that overgrown wolf pack out of our garden. Just take the money from the sale and hand it out to the wolves. Walk away with good credit if we want to borrow for a good truck or some land in BC at some point (I hope not but it may be likely). I mean, we need inputs of chunks of large cash to get a reliable truck too, and we need to replace fluffy. I adore her, so does Dan, and she does her best, but she can't do the mountains like that towing a giant trailer with heavy cargo. it won't be a 5th wheel, but it'll need a 1 ton diesel. that'll be a more suitable fuel for Dan's needs too, although he might be slow to agree since he doesn't know enough about servicing diesel. I should start him on learning more. The smart car's diesel has him less intimidated by it but it's still a totally different system.
A diesel unit just makes more sense with the kind of work he does and where he will be doing it. a truckload of flooring going up the mountain works better with diesel's low end torque. that's the sheer pull.
An engine has two kinds of power to attract, the top end, and the bottom end. The top end is where it just can't spin fast enough to get the wheels going any faster, and that's your freeway speed. How well, at the top speeds, can you pass a truck on the highway? If you crawl along worrying about the space ahead, it's a low top speed. If you dart on by like he's walking, that's a high top speed. Gas engines do this much better than diesel, so the average driver wants that kind of power.
Diesel shines in the bottom end. it has what's called "torque." That's like when a man has morning wood and when he tries to pee, his feet fly out from underneath him. (joke from way back)
But you can think of it as a big lever. It can chug hard without slipping or choking when it has to pull something from a dead stop or force through something, so it's best for hard working machines. it can have trouble at the top end, althought he modern turbo boost technology is really fixing that nicely. Interestingly enough, the amount of fuel used per turn of engine increases with turbo boost. time and again, going faster requires more input per unit of output.
So today's new engines are getting better at balancing those needs using computers to change the gears better, more gears, alternate attachments that come on and off to change how it works, etc. It's all pretty nifty to keep track of but takes a lot of "pre-requisite" knowlege to understand. I'm still catching up but the engineering part of my brain has strong gear-fu, I can sense it. I took twice as long to learn to drive, but I knew I'd be this good at it and I think I could have been a rally driver, given the right environment.
edit: nevermind, I just did some googling and there's already models on the market quite nice and compact. Search "pedal generator for desk." I'm quite pleased I don't have to try and build one.
Well we'll see, maybe I can figure it out. I'm just importing the sketches and notes from my boogie board rip. Damn Ilike that thing. I want the new one too but it's pricey so it hasn't happened. I do think it would interface like a dream with the Surface and Dan would want one too. We can't afford the Surface yet either, LOL! I'm glad it's a possibility at all. It was a long time in my life that "no" was the immediate understanding on all things not essential to mere survival. In fact it was a message my mother wouldn't quit throwing at me in those awful phone calls.
"but is it necessary?" She only felt it was acceptable to own anything beyond mere survival if you were completely debt free. She moralized at me about it. She and my father both would question me about my finances, whether I owed money and how much and to whom, long after I'd ceased using them as a bank. Their method of "you can't have anything" just doesn't work for a life time plan these days. In the first place, credit hits you when you're truly impoverished and you begin your indentureship on the price of groceries and shoes. Not fancy shoes, just new ones you can wear to the interview. Necessary stuff. it doesn't begin on luxury items. I lingers and languishes long after you might have paid it off because when you finally aren't too poor, you're sick and tired of living like that. Not only are you fed up, but you've gotten quite used to your debt and it's payments and it doesn't seem like a nasty predator in your garden at all. If you keep that wolf fed, it's just a touchy dog.
Anyway, I have no illusions that the amount we owe can be paid in monthly installments. We just aren't rich enough to have enough monthly installments if we knuckle down and live tight like I keep trying to do. Even knuckling tight only pads it up just enough for the next lean time emergency. this ttime it was tires that should have been replaced last summer, only we were holding off to pay off the debt. which isn't the least bit paid off still.
Hence why I want to build a house that fits on a trailer and sell this place, so we can dump that overgrown wolf pack out of our garden. Just take the money from the sale and hand it out to the wolves. Walk away with good credit if we want to borrow for a good truck or some land in BC at some point (I hope not but it may be likely). I mean, we need inputs of chunks of large cash to get a reliable truck too, and we need to replace fluffy. I adore her, so does Dan, and she does her best, but she can't do the mountains like that towing a giant trailer with heavy cargo. it won't be a 5th wheel, but it'll need a 1 ton diesel. that'll be a more suitable fuel for Dan's needs too, although he might be slow to agree since he doesn't know enough about servicing diesel. I should start him on learning more. The smart car's diesel has him less intimidated by it but it's still a totally different system.
A diesel unit just makes more sense with the kind of work he does and where he will be doing it. a truckload of flooring going up the mountain works better with diesel's low end torque. that's the sheer pull.
An engine has two kinds of power to attract, the top end, and the bottom end. The top end is where it just can't spin fast enough to get the wheels going any faster, and that's your freeway speed. How well, at the top speeds, can you pass a truck on the highway? If you crawl along worrying about the space ahead, it's a low top speed. If you dart on by like he's walking, that's a high top speed. Gas engines do this much better than diesel, so the average driver wants that kind of power.
Diesel shines in the bottom end. it has what's called "torque." That's like when a man has morning wood and when he tries to pee, his feet fly out from underneath him. (joke from way back)
But you can think of it as a big lever. It can chug hard without slipping or choking when it has to pull something from a dead stop or force through something, so it's best for hard working machines. it can have trouble at the top end, althought he modern turbo boost technology is really fixing that nicely. Interestingly enough, the amount of fuel used per turn of engine increases with turbo boost. time and again, going faster requires more input per unit of output.
So today's new engines are getting better at balancing those needs using computers to change the gears better, more gears, alternate attachments that come on and off to change how it works, etc. It's all pretty nifty to keep track of but takes a lot of "pre-requisite" knowlege to understand. I'm still catching up but the engineering part of my brain has strong gear-fu, I can sense it. I took twice as long to learn to drive, but I knew I'd be this good at it and I think I could have been a rally driver, given the right environment.