tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5497738707694604432024-03-17T20:03:56.519-07:00David Trebacz BlogTrebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.comBlogger67125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-34482139480713711862017-06-05T13:17:00.001-07:002017-06-15T12:19:25.206-07:00UTV navigation and safety GPS trackingMy friend Bill and I were looking for a good companion to our UTV trips in the Arizona desert. Arizona has an awesome amount of UTV trails into the backcountry (several hundred miles of trails). That said it is quite easy to get on a trail more difficult than we expected. Cell service get's sketchy quickly when heading into the mountains, so I started looking for a better companion than the trail maps in the parking areas.<br />
<br />
this is my first attempt at looking what was out there. I'll update as we get more information and try out a few solutions.<br />
<h2>
<b>Android App</b></h2>
<h3>
<b>Try</b> (Pro version and one map ~$25)</h3>
<br />
<h4>
BackCountry Navigator TOPO GPS - <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.crittermap.backcountrynavigator.license&hl=en">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.crittermap.backcountrynavigator.license&hl=en</a></h4>
Positives:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>ATV maps extra purchase (http://backcountrynavigator.com/android-gps-atv-maps/) - Needs pro version</li>
<li>Real time navigation for ATV trails? - Needs pro version</li>
<li>4.5 rating on android store</li>
<li>Preview maps - http://www.mobiletopomaps.com/</li>
<li>Ability to purchase US ATV trail maps for $15.99 or MVUM for US Forest Service fro $15.99 or AccuTerra Map Source - $19.99 per year</li>
<li>Article on choosing the proper map source - http://support.crittermap.com/hc/en-us/articles/215563583-Choosing-a-Topo-Map-in-the-US</li>
</ol>
<ul>
<li>Forest Service Maps - has trail numbers</li>
<li>AccuTerra Topo Map</li>
<li>More Map Sources - Hybrid maps - Hybrid: USTopo with AccuTerra</li>
</ul>
<br />
Negatives:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Pro version is $11.99</li>
</ol>
<br />
<h3>
<b>Maybe</b></h3>
<h4>
GPS Waypoints Navigator - <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.discipleskies.android.gpswaypointsnavigator&hl=en">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.discipleskies.android.gpswaypointsnavigator&hl=en</a></h4>
Positives:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>4.4 Google Play rating</li>
<li>Mentions offroad navigation as second usage behind hiking</li>
<li>$9.99</li>
</ul>
<br />
<h4>
Locus Pro - <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=menion.android.locus.pro&hl=en">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=menion.android.locus.pro&hl=en</a></h4>
Positives:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Recommended on Jeep Wrangler site (along with Back Country Navigator)</li>
<li>4.8 rating on Android store</li>
</ul>
<br />
Negatives:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>european developer</li>
<li>seems better suited to hiking</li>
</ul>
<br />
<h4>
Polaris GPS Navigation - <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.discipleskies.android.polarisnavigation">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.discipleskies.android.polarisnavigation</a></h4>
Positives:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Developed in New Mexico (close to Arizona)</li>
<li>4.3 Google Play rating</li>
</ul>
<br />
Negative:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Free version with GPS Waypoints being it's $10 big brother</li>
</ul>
<br />
<h3>
<b>No</b></h3>
<h4>
Polaris Ride Command - <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?</a>id=net.weathernation.mobile.orvtrails&hl=en</h4>
Negatives:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>3.5 stars - Pretty bad ratings</li>
<li>Reliability issues</li>
</ul>
<br />
<h4>
ORV Trail Maps - <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.JEB.trailmaps&hl=en">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.JEB.trailmaps&hl=en</a></h4>
Negatives:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Michigan only</li>
</ul>
<h2>
Satellite information</h2>
Probably most reliable service is something satellite based. No reliance on cellular network, but satellite communication is slower and expensive.<br />
<br />
Spot 3<br />
The SPOT 3 seems to be a good compromise between reliable communication and cost. Probably overkill for UTV travel. Seems to be targeted at backcountry hikers and word travels on boats. Cost is ~$100 a year plus ~$100 dedicated satellite hardware.<br />
<br />
Hardware: <a href="http://www.cabelas.com/product/SPOT-LLC-SPOT-GEN-ORANGE/1661065.uts">http://www.cabelas.com/product/SPOT-LLC-SPOT-GEN-ORANGE/1661065.uts</a> ($149 with $75 rebate)<br />
<br />
Amazon: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/SPOT-Satellite-GPS-Messenger-Orange/dp/B00C8S8S4W/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=fe601e03a77195f4d6239ce1a2f5966d">SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger</a><br />
<br />
Service plan: <a href="https://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=103">https://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=103</a> ~$175 a year<br />
<br />
<b>Personal </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Our friend who is a pilot carries one of the and they are available for a one time price of ~250. You just need to register them every 2 years and there are no service fees (not sure how much a rescue costs). The devices are only for when you need to be rescued.<br />
<br />
Acrartex website - <a href="https://www.acrartex.com/ResQLink">https://www.acrartex.com/ResQLink</a><br />
<br />
Amazon - <a href="https://www.amazon.com/ACR-ResQlink-Personal-Locator-Beacon/dp/B005E1OU1A/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1496876738&sr=8-2&keywords=ResQlink&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=2b654c7df4e590552a251b6851069865">ResQlink Personal location beacon</a><br />
<br />
<b>2 way satellite communication and emergency beacon</b><br />
<br />
This device from Delorme (now Garmin) allows two way text communication, but it may not be as reliable for a personal beacon. This allows you to create text messages in reall time, if the emergency was a minor one.<br />
<br />
Amazon - <a href="https://www.amazon.com/DeLorme-inReach-SE-Satellite-Tracker/dp/B00BX7TJ2O/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=3add8211f8237d1e1cee3b8409561ad7">https://www.amazon.com/DeLorme-inReach-SE-Satellite-Tracker/</a> ~$290<br />
Subscription plans - <a href="https://www.orbitalsatcom.com/delorme-inreach-subscription-plans">https://www.orbitalsatcom.com/delorme-inreach-subscription-plans</a> ~$250 annually<br />
<br />
Good backcountry writeups comparing:<br />
2 way messenger write up - <a href="http://www.backcountrychronicles.com/delorme-satellite-gps-messenger/">http://www.backcountrychronicles.com/delorme-satellite-gps-messenger/</a><br />
Comparison of all 4 - <a href="http://www.backcountrychronicles.com/satellite-messengers/">http://www.backcountrychronicles.com/satellite-messengers/</a>Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com0Fountain Hills, AZ 85268, USA33.6042079 -111.725693633.4984074 -111.8870551 33.7100084 -111.5643321tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-26499521363363181382016-11-06T14:18:00.002-07:002016-11-06T14:26:56.902-07:00Dreamhost secure CDN for Woocommerce Wordpress site<a href="https://letsencrypt.org/images/le-logo-wide.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="94" src="https://letsencrypt.org/images/le-logo-wide.png" width="320" /></a>I was very pleased when Dreamhost built in free security certificates from the Let's Encrypt service. Here's a the <a href="https://www.dreamhost.com/blog/2015/12/03/lets-encrypt-and-dreamhost/">Dreamhost and Let's Encrypt integration announcement</a>.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, utilizing this meant you couldn't use the cloudflare service without upgrading. I decided to roll my own CDN to speed up my brother's <a href="https://www.glasshousestore.com/">stain glass shop's website</a>. The page load speed dropped by almost 200% and site site feels speedy when browsing now.<br />
<br />
After researching many solutions and option I settled on this solution. I didn't want using a CDN to exclude or confuse anyone (or any search engines) looking for our content. The CDN I created is all under our primary domain with canonicals pointing back to the original content to avoid any accidental duplicate content penalties by search engines.<br />
<ol>
<li>I created 3 secure CDN sub-domains and choose the free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate in Dreamhost hosting console to serve up our images, fonts, css and js.</li>
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
https://cdn.glasshousestore.com<br />
https://cdn2.glasshousestore.com<br />
https://cdn3.glasshousestore.com</blockquote>
<br />
<li>Create soft links to all the Wordpress assets /wp-content and /wp-includes from an SSH session. (ex. ln -s ~/glasshousestore.com/wp-content/ ~/cdn.glasshousestore.com/)</li>
<li>Create a unique htaccess for the CDN's to handle font headers, canonical headers and redirects to the primary domain.</li>
<script class="brush: bash" type="syntaxhighlighter">
# BEGIN Custom Home Page Rewrites
# Redirect 301 / https://www.glasshousestore.com/
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^$ https://www.glasshousestore.com/ [R=301,L]
</IfModule>
# END Custom Home Page Rewrites
# BEGIN Secure redirect
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
</IfModule>
# END Secure redirect
# Canonical header for all files from CDN
<FilesMatch ".(pdf|gif|jpg|jpeg|png|ico|swf|js|css)">
# The s afer request URI only returns secure requests
Header set Link '<https://www.glasshousestore.com%{REQUEST_URI}s>; rel="canonical"'
</FilesMatch>
# End Canonical header
# CORS rules for fonts
<FilesMatch ".(eot|ttf|otf|woff|woff2)">
Header set Access-Control-Allow-Origin "*"
</FilesMatch>
</script>
<br />
<li>Utilize WP Super Cache to rotate serving the various static content through the subdomains.</li>
Hope this helps someone to speed up their hard work on the internet.<br />
<ol>
</ol>
</ol>
Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-48756575490693680072016-08-22T17:38:00.002-07:002021-08-29T13:21:15.860-07:00DIY Arizona Scorpion Pest ControlI moved to Phoenix/Scottsdale Arizona area a couple years ago from the midwest and found a whole new group of creatures. The one that bothered my wife the most was scorpions. The day we moved into our house we found one lonely scorpion limping alone the baseboard in our living room. She freaked out a bit and I went to the internet to find a Do It Yourself (DIY) way to kill scorpions. Online I also found out that Arizona is home to the pretty nasty bark scorpions.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik6139rkW7Mr6dN6dkfVfIjPLVq96DCv2ha33QziWlW4MgbBUN_hOhl08hdMdsDEFimD1yoAHEW5Vj5xWr-xshYiNHOXrYlwC70cMbG-zOrVirerF1DZTsptCtouEkxSZT2-IVZUUzzkI/s1600/UV-LED-Flashlight-For-Scorpion-Hunting.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik6139rkW7Mr6dN6dkfVfIjPLVq96DCv2ha33QziWlW4MgbBUN_hOhl08hdMdsDEFimD1yoAHEW5Vj5xWr-xshYiNHOXrYlwC70cMbG-zOrVirerF1DZTsptCtouEkxSZT2-IVZUUzzkI/s200/UV-LED-Flashlight-For-Scorpion-Hunting.jpg" width="112" /></a>First we bought a LED UV flashlight so we could easily see them. We used it to find scorpions at night and figure out where they may hide or nest nearby. It also was a fun "hunting" exercise for our nephews. Thankfully we only found a few scorpions on our property and weren't infested.<br />
<br />
<b>LED UV Flashlight</b> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Escolite-Flashlight-Ultraviolet-Blacklight-Detector/dp/B008133KB4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1497569009&sr=8-2-fkmr1&keywords=dreamsky+UV&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=1dea8ca406be238addf149487dabaa84" target="_blank">Ultraviolet Black Light Flashlight</a> - Inexpensive aluminum LED UV flashlight from Amazon. Just remember to by the 3AAA batteries for it.<br />
<br />
<b>Backpack Sprayer</b> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Chapin-61800-4-Gallon-ProSeries-Backpack/dp/B000UEMJ3W/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1471905124&sr=8-2&keywords=backpack+sprayer&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=543b8b22c0bbe4b0568f183667ce36ef" target="_blank">Chapin 61800 4-Gallon ProSeries Backpack Sprayer</a> - Great backpack sprayer that makes mixing and applying these chemicals easy. I use it for all my spraying chores around the yard. Any pump up sprayer would work also.<br />
<br />
I did a lot of reading on the internet about how to what chemicals are recommended to kill scorpions. There seemed to be two types of chemicals that were effective. I decided to use both and alternate one every other month. To get around our 2700 sq ft house and 3 car garage, I need about 1.5 to 2 gallons of insecticide.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcq4xMwuRLbY9TwnyQ8tNfMb1KMPMHiU9vf-Iy1ypOSuh4qzuLqzh_mr2-19edIPKtw2EPsywZpeA6rxuvb2OL3ZL4P2-ZZLCriXDtxxT7ndi1ekbg9LVHFzquTSkfUizt190x9g5bzD4/s1600/Demand-CS-Scorpion-Control.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Demand CS for SCorpion Pest Control" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcq4xMwuRLbY9TwnyQ8tNfMb1KMPMHiU9vf-Iy1ypOSuh4qzuLqzh_mr2-19edIPKtw2EPsywZpeA6rxuvb2OL3ZL4P2-ZZLCriXDtxxT7ndi1ekbg9LVHFzquTSkfUizt190x9g5bzD4/s200/Demand-CS-Scorpion-Control.jpg" title="" width="133" /></a><br />
<b>CS Spray #1</b> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0047IKI2Q/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&psc=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=38150ebe35de5ddf6dc97ba059439d61" target="_blank">Demand CS Scorpion Insecticide</a> -8 oz (odd months of the year) ~$30<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Mixed 1.5 gallons to 36 ml of Demand CS in the backpack sprayer</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>This spray dries invisible and works well on scorpions (and other bugs) for a period of time. I spray it in a 2 ft band around the foundation, around the walls of the garage, around windows and doors, also inside under appliances and under sinks and in some large stone landscaping where we saw a couple with the UV flashlight.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTgOQYhoan6kiHISgM4kMA0jvVdYF-U4KlVq2UnSbYojmb-t3hWRuP75esNnwMY4uPRw2mwR5b2WXjUlEjw4mZpp1SxRSop1v_6PcfQhYW_rec0VOGdZLcQctZI7Sw_7ZGKNbq8eZCRPM/s1600/Cyper-WP-Scorpion-Control.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Cyper Wettable Powder for Scorpion Pest Control" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTgOQYhoan6kiHISgM4kMA0jvVdYF-U4KlVq2UnSbYojmb-t3hWRuP75esNnwMY4uPRw2mwR5b2WXjUlEjw4mZpp1SxRSop1v_6PcfQhYW_rec0VOGdZLcQctZI7Sw_7ZGKNbq8eZCRPM/s200/Cyper-WP-Scorpion-Control.jpg" title="" width="133" /></a><b>WP Spray #2</b> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003C2ETI2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=b16a569ae5d0b4b134788613507067b1&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target="_blank">Cyper WP (Wettable Powder) Scorpion Insecticide</a> -1 lb (even months of the year) ~$64<br />
<div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Mix up 2 gallons - 4 scoops of WP in the backpack sprayer</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>I use this residual insecticide mainly outside and it will leave a white residue on dark surfaces. Sometime this is nice to see how long it lasts and where it is sprayed. I spray it in a 2 ft band around the foundation, around the walls of the garage, around windows and doors and in some large stone landscaping where we saw a couple with the UV flashlight.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
Since we have been doing this for almost 2 years we have not seen any more scorpions in the house. The couple that we saw outside have also gone to zero. Another nice plus is we don't see any other bugs around our pool and patio worth mentioning.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Summary:</b></div>
<div>
It takes about 30 minutes once a month, and about $75 in chemicals a year to get DIY scorpion pest control at our house. I need to buy the 8 oz CS product once a year and a 1 lb container of the WP should last 2 years.The price really went up on Cyper WP, so next time I may use <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Effective-long-term-including-scorpions-silverfish/dp/B012B1B338/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1471908660&sr=8-20&keywords=Cyper+WP&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=eb7df92650d570c06cab223c83b1b5ee" target="_blank">Cyper WSP</a> (understanding is they are the same chemical makeup).</div>
<div>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Chapin-61800-4-Gallon-ProSeries-Backpack/dp/B000UEMJ3W/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1471905124&sr=8-2&keywords=backpack+sprayer&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=543b8b22c0bbe4b0568f183667ce36ef" target="_blank"><br /></a></div>
<div>
<div>
References:<br />
<a href="https://www.desertusa.com/insects/scorpion.html" target="_blank">https://www.desertusa.com/insects/scorpion.html</a> - General scopion information article<br />
<a href="https://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/scorpions.htm" target="_blank">https://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/scorpions.htm</a> - Good article on overview of pest control<br />
<a href="https://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/cyper-wp-p-228.html" target="_blank">https://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/cyper-wp-p-228.html</a> - Good information on Wetable Powders and how they work<br />
<a href="https://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/demand-cs-p-46.html" target="_blank">https://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/demand-cs-p-46.html</a> - Good information on Demand CS and how it works<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com0Phoenix, AZ, USA33.4483771 -112.0740372999999932.6020036 -113.36493079999998 34.2947506 -110.78314379999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-40721779518957917002016-08-18T16:41:00.000-07:002016-09-02T10:28:27.223-07:00Utility Schedule Options - Honeywell RTH9580WF ThermostatIt seems Honeywell added some new features with a recent update to the RTH9580WF WiFi thermostat firmware. One new feature is called Utility Schedule Options. I looked on their website and found no information on it, so I decided to put together this blog post and a <a href="https://youtu.be/SMrLdz5teJ4">Utility Schedule tutorial video</a>.<br />
<br />
The feature allows people to take advantage of special time of day pricing programs offered by Electric utility companies. I did this in the past by setting up my schedule, but essentially lost 2 programs steps setting it up. The new menu item is under "preferences" under main "menu" (Menu>Preferences>Utility Schedule Options>On).<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/SMrLdz5teJ4" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Main menu for Honeywell RTH9580WF new utility schedule feature" border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgzDin225jtGaHc98meE7fsTNXOqVlhM9DAGGRW3Bngk-iWtZ-HHBq0SesltgkCXsQ6ttS2dMlhkpOxKBww3wNjY_h5NDWLFPUDisGGODvnNBp9bxZyD43uz3eSgI1p1QyQpbzqXPeHpQ/s400/Honeywell+RTH9580WF+-Utility+Schedule+Options+Setup.png" title="Honeywell Utility Schedule Main Menu" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Video tutorial of Utility Schedule option setup</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span id="goog_876802959"></span><span id="goog_876802960"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
The video <a href="https://youtu.be/SMrLdz5teJ4" target="_blank">walk though of RTH9580WF Utility Schedule options setup</a>, I shot walks through the setup. It also gives an idea of the different options you can set (up to 4 different breaks and active on different days). The thermostats then uses the temperature limits you set on top of the regular programming steps. After setup the thermostat displays "Peak pricing" or "Non peak pricing" on the main display.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg36i_3fbyG65WLiYvRRR7atCnplNqSM7fFDxGK-ZZphSJAW8zBu28Bvtz7kHWpE67fz-kwcEJU2eonJ26BrZFuXWAGCckuYQufS6nvadPWSbTH0Xsyx5wYvL7k3nQ28-AKK_jUfAoul3I/s1600/Utility-Schedule-Options-Setup-Honeywell-RTH9580WF-Main-Screen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Peak pricing shows on main display" border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg36i_3fbyG65WLiYvRRR7atCnplNqSM7fFDxGK-ZZphSJAW8zBu28Bvtz7kHWpE67fz-kwcEJU2eonJ26BrZFuXWAGCckuYQufS6nvadPWSbTH0Xsyx5wYvL7k3nQ28-AKK_jUfAoul3I/s400/Utility-Schedule-Options-Setup-Honeywell-RTH9580WF-Main-Screen.jpg" title="Peak Utility Pricing on Main Menu Honeywell RTH9580WF" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Peak pricing or Non Peak Pricing added to main display</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Here in Arizona this was the perfect thermostat for SRP's <a href="http://www.srpnet.com/prices/home/ez3.aspx?cmpid=va-srp-EZ3-dm" target="_blank">EZ-3 Price Plan</a>. This plan says that you will reduce electric consumption during a 3 hour window Monday through Friday. I believe a lot of other utility companies have similar "time of use" savings plans to encourage homeowners to reduce power usage during times of peak demand. In exchange you get lower electric rates. My savings are about $300 a year - and using this new feature of the Honeywell RTH9580WF was easy to setup.<br />
<br />
The only disadvantage that I saw is this setup isn't vising in the mobile app or web interface right now. You need to set this up on the thermostat itself and can't modify it remotely. This may change with future updates.<br />
<br />
If you ever have the pricing notifications showing up on the screen, just go and turn off the "Utility Schedule Options". Press Menu>Preferences>Utility Schedule Options>Off to get rid of the extra prompt, if you're not using it -or haven't set it up yet.<br />
<br />
You can buy the thermostat at the link below from Amazon like I did. I do get a small affiliate fee if you use this link:<br />
<blockquote>
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=trebacz-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B00FLZEQH2&asins=B00FLZEQH2&linkId=c1154a08fbb769be920e0b37d9b72363&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe></blockquote>
Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-31009212096234923042015-12-13T16:07:00.000-07:002016-09-30T07:27:06.535-07:00Honeywell RTH9580WF Thermostat - Waiting for Update Deep Dive<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmMxHkfrTrP7zFIk7-t4y5HU2A0xYZZC7cNUVFciZzcgPRzBa_TBGo9mUI_kuZxXbIx8nGyoIbSZgGxGNROtxaTnDnGViLIYwsyRbkv8YgAYZSoxHm4Kc15De9Uqri3nJjWQge1RvXzeM/s1600/RTH9580WF+Thermostat+Waiting+for+Update+Error.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmMxHkfrTrP7zFIk7-t4y5HU2A0xYZZC7cNUVFciZzcgPRzBa_TBGo9mUI_kuZxXbIx8nGyoIbSZgGxGNROtxaTnDnGViLIYwsyRbkv8YgAYZSoxHm4Kc15De9Uqri3nJjWQge1RvXzeM/s320/RTH9580WF+Thermostat+Waiting+for+Update+Error.jpg" width="320" /></a>I'm still having issues with the Honeywell wifi thermostat (RTH9580WF) displaying "waiting for update" on when the wifi is routed through my proxy server, so I decided to do a deep dive into what the thermostat is doing when it's getting the weather updates.<br />
<br />
I also wanted to better understand how to trace traffic on my network.<br />
<br />
Here's what I learned about the thermostats weather updates system by tracing the communication between the thermostat and servers. Currently:<br />
<ul>
<li>Thermostat requests the current weather and 12 hour forecast from a server: <a href="http://104.209.185.251/">http://104.209.185.251</a>. This server appears to run code managed by Honeywell in Microsoft's Azure cloud.</li>
<li>Every 15 minutes it makes two port 80 GET requests to the IP address:</li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://104.209.185.251/WeatherAPIProd/api/weather/current?appKey=b9db7a3d469892e8&language=en-us&locationKey=36691_PC">http://104.209.185.251/WeatherAPIProd/api/weather/current?appKey=b9db7a3d469892e8&language=en-us&locationKey=36691_PC</a> (return current weather for location)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://104.209.185.251//WeatherAPIProd/api/weather/forecasts/hourly/12hour?appKey=b9db7a3d469892e8&language=en-us&locationKey=36691_PC">http://104.209.185.251//WeatherAPIProd/api/weather/forecasts/hourly/12hour?appKey=b9db7a3d469892e8&language=en-us&locationKey=36691_PC</a> (returns </span></li>
</ul>
<li>The Honeywell API is somewhat documented here: <a href="http://lyric.alarmnet.com/Help">http://lyric.alarmnet.com/Help</a> or <a href="http://104.209.185.251/Help">http://104.209.185.251/Help</a></li>
<li>The appKey (b9db7a3d469892e8) is the same for both thermostats I have and I assume is always the same for this termostat</li>
<li>The locationKey (36691_PC) is my physical location encoded by the thermostat software based on my address</li>
<li>The thermostat gets the current weather and 12 hour forecast, but only seems to use the current weather on the thermostat display</li>
<li>Current weather is returned in Celsius and then converted by the thermostat software</li>
</ul>
<div>
I got this information by tracing the packets to and from the thermostat using the command:<br />
<pre style="background-color: silver; border-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 5px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">tcpdump -i eth2 -n src 192.168.20.191 and port 80 or dst 192.168.20.191 -w Honeywell.pcap</pre>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I then inspected the file using tcpdump</div>
<div>
<pre style="background-color: silver; border-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 5px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">tcpdump -qns 0 -A -r Honeywell.pcap</pre>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Below is the relevant request and the responses from the Honeywell server pulled for the tcpdump log when the squid cache wasn't enabled:<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<b style="font-size: small;">GET /WeatherAPIProd/api/weather/current?appKey=b9db7a3d469892e8&language=en-us&locationKey=36691_PC HTTP/1.0 </b></div>
<div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">10:56:12.019826 IP 104.209.185.251.80 > 192.168.20.191.30934: tcp 458</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">HTTP/1.1 200 OK</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Cache-Control: no-cache</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Pragma: no-cache</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Content-Length: 180</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Expires: -1</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Server: Microsoft-IIS/8.5</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">X-AspNet-Version: 4.0.30319</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">X-Powered-By: ASP.NET</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 17:56:11 GMT</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Connection: close</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">{</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "currentWeather": {</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "dateTime": "2015-12-13T10:20:00-07:00",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "weatherIcon": 1,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "iconText": "Sunny",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "temperature": 8.1,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "relativeHumidity": 68</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> }</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">}</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>GET /WeatherAPIProd/api/weather/forecasts/hourly/12hour?appKey=b9db7a3d469892e8&language=en-us&locationKey=36691_PC HTTP/1.0 </b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">10:56:12.254178 IP 104.209.185.251.80 >192.168.20.191.30935: tcp 1460</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">HTTP/1.1 200 OK</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Cache-Control: no-cache</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Pragma: no-cache</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Content-Length: 2228</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Expires: -1</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Server: Microsoft-IIS/8.5</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">X-AspNet-Version: 4.0.30319</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">X-Powered-By: ASP.NET</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 17:56:11 GMT</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Connection: close</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">{</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "forecastWeather": [</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> {</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "dateTime": "2015-12-13T11:00:00-07:00",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "weatherIcon": 2,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "iconPhrase": "Mostly sunny",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "temperature": 9.9,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "relativeHumidity": 49</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> },</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> {</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "dateTime": "2015-12-13T12:00:00-07:00",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "weatherIcon": 2,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "iconPhrase": "Mostly sunny",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "temperature": 11.6,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "relativeHumidity": 43</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> },</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> {</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "dateTime": "2015-12-13T13:00:00-07:00",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "weatherIcon": 2,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "iconPhrase": "Mostly sunny",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "temperature": 12.5,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "relativeHumidity": 37</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> },</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> {</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "dateTime": "2015-12-13T14:00:00-07:00",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "weatherIcon": 2,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "iconPhrase": "Mostly sunny",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "temperature": 13.3,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "relativeHumidity": 33</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> },</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> {</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "dateTime": "2015-12-13T15:00:00-07:00",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "weatherIcon": 2,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "iconPhrase": "Mostly sunny",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "temperature": 13.7,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "relativeHumidity": 31</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> },</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> {</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "dateTime": "2015-12-13T16:00:00-07:00",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "weatherIcon": 2,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "iconPhrase": "Mostly sunny",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "temperature": 13.2,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "relativeHumidity": 32</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> },</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> {</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "dateTime": "2015-12-13T17:00:00-07:00",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "weatherIcon": 2,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "iconPhrase": "Mostly sunny",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "temperature": 12.2,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "relativeHumidity": 35</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> },</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> {</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "dateTime": "2015-12-13T18:00:00-07:00",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "weatherIcon": 34,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "iconPhrase": "Mostly clear",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "temperature": 10.7,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "relativeHumidity": 42</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> },</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> {</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "dateTime": "2015-12-13T19:00:00-07:00",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "weatherIcon": 34,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "iconPhrase": "Mostly clear",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "temperature": 9.1,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "relativeHumidity": 51</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> },</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> {</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "dateTime": "2015-12-13T20:00:00-07:00",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "weatherIcon": 34,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "iconPhrase": "Mostly clear",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "temperature": 7.5,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "relativeHumidity": 59</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> },</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> {</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "dateTime": "2015-12-13T21:00:00-07:00",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "weatherIcon": 34,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "iconPhrase": "Mostly clear",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "temperature": 6.2,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "relativeHumidity": 67</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> },</span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">
</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> {</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "dateTime": "2015-12-13T22:00:00-07:00",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "weatherIcon": 34,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "iconPhrase": "Mostly clear",</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "temperature": 5.7,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> "relativeHumidity": 75</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> }</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> ]</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">}</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
When the traffic is routed through the squid cache here is what the request and response looks like:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>GET /WeatherAPIProd/api/weather/current?appKey=b9db7a3d469892e8&language=en-us&locationKey=36691_PC HTTP/1.0 </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">11:26:11.876659 IP 104.209.185.251.80 > 192.168.20.191.30938: tcp 770</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Server: squid/3.5.11</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Mime-Version: 1.0</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 18:26:11 GMT</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Content-Type: text/html;charset=utf-8</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Content-Length: 2356</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">X-Squid-Error: ERR_INVALID_REQ 0</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Vary: Accept-Language</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Content-Language: en</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">X-Cache: MISS from trebacz-smoothwall</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Via: 1.1 trebacz-smoothwall (squid/3.5.11)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Connection: close</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">ERROR</span><br />
<h1>
<span style="font-size: x-small; font-weight: normal;">The requested URL could not be retrieved</span></h1>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">
</span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Invalid Request error was encountered while trying to process the request:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">GET /WeatherAPIProd/api/weather/current?appKey=b9db7a3d469892e8&language=en-us&locationKey=36691_PC HTTP/1.0 </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">
</span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Some possible problems are:</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<li id="missing-method"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Missing or unknown request method.</span></li>
<li id="missing-url"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Missing URL.</span></li>
<li id="missing-protocol"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Missing HTTP Identifier (HTTP/1.0).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;">Request is too large.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;">Content-Length missing for POST or PUT requests.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;">Illegal character in hostname; underscores are not allowed.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;">HTTP/1.1 <q>Expect:</q> feature is being asked from an HTTP/1.0 software.</span></li>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Still not exactly sure what is causing squid to puke on the request, but I understand a lot better what is going on behind the scenes and learned a lot about tcpdump on Linux.<br />
<br />
Resources:<br />
<a href="http://blog.trebacz.com/2014/12/outdoor-temperature-waiting-for-update-honeywell-wifi-hermostat-RTH9580WF.html">http://blog.trebacz.com/2014/12/outdoor-temperature-waiting-for-update-honeywell-wifi-hermostat-RTH9580WF.html</a> - Original Problem PostTrebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-25483877124297268662015-12-07T12:31:00.002-07:002015-12-07T13:38:10.116-07:00Update Arpwatch ethercodes.dat file from IEEE sourceI was noticing that many of the Arpwatch notification messages coming back were marked "unknown" for the manufacturer name in the MAC address lookup. I looked at the date of the file in my Ubuntu file system and it was last updated in 2012. Arpwatch uses this file to determine the manufacturer name for a given MAC address prefix.<br />
<br />
I found a script at <a href="http://jhjessup.blogspot.com/2010/04/update-mac-address-manufacturer-tables.html" target="_blank">this blog post</a> which looked quite promising. A few simple transformations of the file downloaded direct from IEEE, updates from the comments on the blogpost and it was ready to go. I added in the lines to copy the files to the correct locations in Ubuntu's implementation of Arpwatch.<br />
<br />
Here is the updated script:<br />
<br />
<script class="brush: bash" type="syntaxhighlighter">
#!/bin/bash
# update_mac_addresses.sh
# This script downloads the currect mac address data from the IEEE and parses it for nmap and arpwatch.
# nmap-mac-prefixes is for nmap.
# ethercodes.dat is arpwatch.
# Updated from 2010 blog post here http://jhjessup.blogspot.com/2010/04/update-mac-address-manufacturer-tables.html
# Download the current data
wget http://standards-oui.ieee.org/oui.txt
# Sort IEEE file by ascending MAC address
sort ./oui.txt | grep '(base 16)' > ./soui.txt
# Divide the data into Manufacturer and Address files
cat soui.txt | cut -f3 > mac.manufacturer
cat soui.txt | cut -f1 -d' ' > mac.address
# Paste them back together for nmap data
paste mac.address mac.manufacturer > nmap-mac-prefixes
# Parse the address data for arpwatch
cat mac.address | perl -pe 's/^(([^0].)|0(.))(([^0].)|0(.))(([^0].)|0(.))/\2\3:\5\6:\8\9/' > tmp.address
cat tmp.address | tr [A-Z] [a-z] > mac.address
# Paste the parsed data into the arpwatch file
paste mac.address mac.manufacturer > ethercodes.dat
# Clean up intermediary files
rm tmp.address
rm mac.address
rm mac.manufacturer
rm oui.txt
rm soui.txt
# Move the files for my Ubuntu instalation
mv /usr/share/arpwatch/ethercodes.dat /usr/share/arpwatch/ethercodes.dat.old
mv ethercodes.dat /usr/share/arpwatch/ethercodes.dat
</script>
Here are the basic steps and commands to do it on a terminal session.<br />
<br />
1.Create the script using nano (copy and paste the script above) into a file called update_mac_addresses and then run it.<br />
<pre style="background-color: silver; border-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 5px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">nano ~/update_mac_addresses.sh</pre>
<br />
2. Make it executable
<br />
<pre style="background-color: silver; border-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 5px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">chmod +x ~/update_mac_addresses.sh</pre>
<br />
3. Execute the script. Sudo is only needed to on the last step to copy to updated files to the right place in the files system.
<br />
<pre style="background-color: silver; border-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 5px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">sudo ./update_mac_addresses.sh</pre>
<br />
<br />
Resources:<br />
<a href="http://jhjessup.blogspot.com/2010/04/update-mac-address-manufacturer-tables.html">http://jhjessup.blogspot.com/2010/04/update-mac-address-manufacturer-tables.html</a>Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-60005419029367445322015-11-25T16:15:00.000-07:002017-04-11T14:25:33.582-07:00Quick and Easy Linux Internal Network SpeedtestI found a quick and easy way to setup a way to test network speed on my internal network using the linux command line tool netcat (or nc), I used this for node to node testing of my wireless network under a variety of conditions. It required no extra tools or software to be installed on my Ubuntu linux machines. It gives me transmit speeds I can understand and easily allows me to size the payload to the type of network I'm testing.<br />
<br />
Put the <b>first machine</b> in listening mode (this example machine 192.168.0.188):<br />
<pre style="background-color: silver; border-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 5px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">nc -lk 2112 >/dev/null</pre>
<br />
Put the <b>second machine</b> in transmit mode to send packets to <b>first machine</b> 192.168.0.188:<br />
<pre style="background-color: silver; border-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 5px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">dd if=/dev/zero bs=16000 count=6250 | nc -v 192.168.0.188 2112</pre>
<br />
The first part of the command tells the machine to copy 100 MB of data from /dev/zero in 16 KB blocks. The part after the pipe tells it to send that to the first machine (192.168.0.188) over port 2112.<br />
<br />
The output for this test on the second machine returns:<br />
<br />
<pre style="background-color: silver; border-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 5px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Connection to 192.168.0.188 2112 port [tcp/*] succeeded!
6250+0 records in
6250+0 records out
100000000 bytes (100 MB) copied, 8.38876 s, 11.9 MB/s</pre>
<br />
Essentially we sent 100MB of data from one machine to the other at a speed of 11.9 MB/second.<br />
<br />
When done with the tests, end the listening mode on the <b>first machine</b> by pressing CTRL-C.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>UPDATE 04-17-2017:</b><br />
I moved from a wireless AC connection (with ~78%signal) to a wired gigabit connection this week. My speeds improved about 10 times. Here is the latest output (1 GB of data) speed test between those two machines. Proves tou just can't beat copper for pure speed (not to mention reliability).<br />
<br />
<pre style="background-color: silver; border-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 5px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Connection to 192.168.0.188 2112 port [tcp/*] succeeded!
6250+0 records in
6250+0 records out
1000000000 bytes (1.0 GB, 954 MiB) copied, 8.58417 s, 116 MB/s</pre>
<span style="font-family: monospace;"><br /></span>
Hope this helps you out I thought it was really cool and adapted what I found at this link:<br />
<a href="http://tuxtweaks.com/2014/11/linux-network-speed-test/">http://tuxtweaks.com/2014/11/linux-network-speed-test/</a>Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-75776220725359536022015-08-15T15:12:00.001-07:002015-09-20T08:21:34.824-07:00Dell Optiplex 755 Upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 - Won't sleepI decided to take the plunge and upgrade my Dell Optiplex 755 USFF music PC from Windows 7 to Windows 10. The idea of a free upgrade with smaller disk footprint and better security was just too good too pass up. The upgrade went pretty smoothly until about two weeks later.<br />
<br />
At first everything seemed to work wonderfully. Then I started to be unable to wake the Dell Optiplex without a reboot. There were also some weird chimes coming from the speakers when the computer was unable to be wakened. The hard drive was working, so it appeared the computer never actually made it to sleep mode. Especially annoying, since this PC provided our streaming music on our patio.<br />
<br />
I even went through a <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/07/how-to-do-a-clean-install-of-windows-10-from-windows-7-and-8/" target="_blank">complete Windows 10 OS reinstall</a>, to see if that would help. No avail. I tried turning hybrid sleep mode on or off. I applied a BIOS upgrade from Dell. I looked though the event logging and found nothing out of the ordinary.<br />
<br />
Currently, I have disable sleep altogether and resorted to mapping my sleep button to the ancient hibernate mode until Microsoft or Dell sorts this out.<br />
<br />
UPDATE: Turns out the final solution was to change the settings on USB. Start|Settings|Power & sleep|Additional power settings|Change when the computer sleeps|Change advanced power settings|USB settings|USB selective suspend settings set the setting to "Disabled". After this change sleep seems to work as it should on Windows 10 on the Dell Optiplex 745...Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-55258039506531447372015-06-28T08:47:00.001-07:002015-06-28T08:59:36.933-07:00Swimming Pool Chemistry - First Time Pool OwnerWe bought a new house in Fountain Hills, AZ. With the hot weather in the summer it just seemed to make sense. Being the science guy I really wanted to understand why all this pool chemistry stuff seemed so complicated. I'm a DIY guy and a scientist, so how hard can this stuff really be.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp96GNjjzFZmwek35kKLI8lCL4Ca0ZTW-gU_MHe8DDjrXbntE52wtml3MXRr6krX5-Bf4wjXkrzndsPLSJ0UjtYcpfkajkxSgplDR-20XJFTFPPTWCkzSV0yrYVDVyQVjiOef1XSMkxyI/s1600/20150628_083500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp96GNjjzFZmwek35kKLI8lCL4Ca0ZTW-gU_MHe8DDjrXbntE52wtml3MXRr6krX5-Bf4wjXkrzndsPLSJ0UjtYcpfkajkxSgplDR-20XJFTFPPTWCkzSV0yrYVDVyQVjiOef1XSMkxyI/s640/20150628_083500.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The 4 main DIY tools to maintain my swimming pool chemistry and water clarity are:<br />
<h3>
<b><br /></b></h3>
<h3>
<b>My friend Bill</b></h3>
<div>
He's had pools in Arizona for many year, but not sure how to franchise his knowledge, so most of you can skip this one.</div>
<h3>
<b><br /></b></h3>
<h3>
<b>Trouble Free Pools website</b></h3>
<a href="http://www.troublefreepool.com/">http://www.troublefreepool.com</a> - great website with real information on pool chemistry and how simple it really is. I now effectively maintain my pool myself with <a href="http://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Bleach-121-fl-oz/31955545" target="_blank">Walmart bleach</a> (sidum hypochlorite and water), Muratic acid.<br />
<br />
When filling the pool I added <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanuric_acid" target="_blank">Cyanuric acid</a> as a Chlorine stabilizer and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borax" target="_blank">Borax</a> as a buffer/mild anti algaecide.<br />
<br />
Now "knowing" my pool, It's a couple cups of bleach every morning and some acid on the weekends. Water temperature has the biggest effect on Chlorine usage here in Arizona.<br />
<br />
Read the <a href="http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/123-abc-of-pool-water-chemistry">123-abc-of-pool-water-chemistry</a> article at Trouble Free Pools and you'll get to the same place.<br />
<h3>
<b><br /></b></h3>
<h3>
<b>Good wet chemistry test kit</b></h3>
<a href="http://tftestkits.net/">http://tftestkits.net</a> - Cost effective test kit for pool water, let's me understand the makeup of my pool. I do a quick free temperature, chlorine and pH test 2-3 times a week and a deep test once a month.<br />
<h3>
<b><br /></b></h3>
<h3>
<b>Pool Pal android app</b></h3>
<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plb.pool&hl=en">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plb.pool&hl=en</a> All the tests and maintenance are kept track of in this app.<br />
<br />
1. Download the app to your smartphone (iOS or Android)<br />
2. Put in your pool size once<br />
3. Put in the concentration of chemicals you use (% acid and % sodium hypochlorite)<br />
4. Regular test results and the app will tell you how much chemical to add<br />
<br />
I also use the app to keep track of my regular maintenance actives (chemicals, filter maintenance, etc) on the pool. You can easily export the data anytime to get a view of your pool maintenance activities over time.<br />
<br />
If your a new pool owner, I hope these tools help you understand how simple pool chemistry can be. If you want to maintain your own pool it's not a big deal, if you get the the right information the first time. Here is my profile information at Trouble Free Pools, so you can see I'm a regular guy - <a href="http://www.troublefreepool.com/members/79914-Trebacz">http://www.troublefreepool.com/members/79914-Trebacz</a>.<br />
<br />Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com0Fountain Hills, AZ, USA33.6 -111.7200000000000333.4941995 -111.88136150000003 33.7058005 -111.55863850000003tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-83293056774731430832014-12-26T10:31:00.002-07:002016-09-30T07:26:26.411-07:00Outdoor Temperature - Waiting for Update Honeywell WiFI Thermostat (RTH9580WF) Just bought my wife a new thermostat for our house. We missed the HAI home automation thermostats in our previous house and their ability to display outdoor temperature. The NEST removed too much of our ability to control our thermostat and didn't show outdoor weather conditions. We choose the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FLZEQH2/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00FLZEQH2&linkCode=as2&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=PPBKIYPHLD6WVCUS" target="_blank">Honeywell RTH9580WF</a> (from Amazon) for a few reasons:<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgvvWcLkzGhbZtK7llBBoljMZm_XG7RHLR3xy3IV8IG7LYE_fhwsdnePB2f-lrQ9r-JZUfHBWxAyWvuTE1Z3c-6AibzS6NTGQMzuMUgLi1J7uGO5wKR8In0PjAYzd-zwS7eA4yZk33sWA/s1600/RTH9580WF+Thermostat+Waiting+for+Update+Error.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgvvWcLkzGhbZtK7llBBoljMZm_XG7RHLR3xy3IV8IG7LYE_fhwsdnePB2f-lrQ9r-JZUfHBWxAyWvuTE1Z3c-6AibzS6NTGQMzuMUgLi1J7uGO5wKR8In0PjAYzd-zwS7eA4yZk33sWA/s1600/RTH9580WF+Thermostat+Waiting+for+Update+Error.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">RTH9580WF Outdoor Temperature - shows waiting for update</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Pros:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Ability to control from a remotely</li>
<li>Easy WiFi connectivity</li>
<li>Reliable thermostat company</li>
<li>Good 4 star plus reviews from Amazon</li>
<li>Ability to show outdoor temperature and humidity</li>
<li>Easy to use touchscreen and nice design</li>
</ul>
Cons:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>C wire required</li>
<li>No external temperature sensor</li>
</ul>
Replacing our existing heat pump thermostat was uneventful. I just carefully followed the instructions from Honeywell on how to install it. Our system was new enough to have a C-wire run but not connected to the existing thermostat. Honeywell's online tools and video helped me through this quite well.<br />
<br />
Hooked everything up as directed. The thermostat connected up to our WI-FI network easily. It began showing the outdoor temperature immediately. About 3 hours later, the unit is showing "Waiting for Update....", where it was displaying the outdoor temperature and humidity.<br />
<br />
I checked wifi connectivity to the unit and it was communicating with the internet just fine. In fact when I logged into <a href="https://mytotalconnectcomfort.com/" target="_blank">mytotalconnectcomfort.com</a> website the thermostat current readings showed along with the current area weather forecast.<br />
<br />
Checking out a few forum posts on the web there seems to be an automatic firmware update that breaks updates from Accuweather. Currently it's been more than 24 hours. If it continues, I'll probably give customer service at Honeywell (855-733-5465) a call.<br />
<br />
External References:<br />
Waiting for update forum post - <a href="http://www.thermostatforums.com/showthread.php?767-RTH9580WF-Information-about-quot-Waiting-for-update-quot-for-outside-temperature" target="_blank">http://www.thermostatforums.com/showthread.php?767-RTH9580WF-Information-about-quot-Waiting-for-update-quot-for-outside-temperature</a><br />
Great review of the products and walk through of features - <a href="http://theultimatesmarthome.com/honeywell-wifi-smart-thermostat-review/">http://theultimatesmarthome.com/honeywell-wifi-smart-thermostat-review/</a><br />
Amazon product reviews - <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-TH9320WF5003-Wi-Fi-Smart-Thermostat/product-reviews/B00FLZEQH2/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&linkCode=ur2&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=FRVNBJXKB3H6UUP6" target="_blank">Amazon RTH9580WF Reviews</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=trebacz-20&l=ur2&o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE 12/31/2014:</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Still having issues so I contacted Honeywell technical support. Here is their response.<br />
<br />
Thank you for contacting Honeywell.
“Waiting for Update” is a notification message that appears on the thermostat’s readout when the thermostat is trying to fetch the information pertaining to ‘Outdoor temperature and humidity’.
RTH9580WF has the feature of showing you the ‘Outdoor temperature &and humidity’ on the screen of the thermostat.<br />
<br />
This feature is sponsored by a third-party website (www.accuweather.com) according to the Zip/Postal code registered by you on your Total Connect Comfort account. However, it takes about 24-48 hours to synchronize with the third-party server if it is a fresh installation.
We suggest you first make sure that zip code/postal code entered in your registered account is correct or not.
Please follow the steps below in order to check the same:<br />
<ul>
<li>Login to your Total Connect Comfort account on your computer.</li>
<li>Click on 'Control Center' then 'My Location'.</li>
<li>You would see the 'Settings' option beside 'View your thermostat'. Please click on 'Settings'.</li>
<li>Scroll down the page and reconfirm your Zip/Postal code.</li>
</ul>
We would also recommend you to first disconnect the thermostat from the Wi-Fi and then reconnect it:<br />
<ul>
<li>Press 'Menu' tab and then scroll down to select 'Wi-Fi Setup '.</li>
<li>Disconnect from existing Wi-Fi network</li>
<li>After disconnecting from the network take the thermostat off the wall for 1 min.</li>
<li>After that put the thermostat back on the wall and connect to the Wi-Fi network again by going to Wi-Fi Setup. </li>
</ul>
Additionally, please provide us with the following information:
<br />
<ul>
<li>Please provide us with the MAC and CRC Id of the thermostat.</li>
<li>Is the thermostat connected with the Wi-Fi? If yes, please provide the date since it was connected to the Wi-Fi (approx)?</li>
<li>Please provide us with the email address with which you are registered with us?</li>
<li>Please provide us with the Zip/Postal Code for the location of the thermostat?</li>
</ul>
If the issue still persists, then feel free to contact us back either via email or our Technical Support helpline number: 1-855-733-5465. Their operational hours are 8.00 AM to 7:00 PM CST, Monday through Friday and 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM CST on Saturday and Sunday.
<br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE 01/11/2015 (SOLVED):</b><br />
<b><br /></b>Still had issues after doing all the above, so I called Honeywell technical support. They walked me through a reset of my wireless network. I reset the thermostat with their technical on the line. Still didn't work.<br />
<br />
Then, I changed to the wireless to another wireless network in my house. Moved it from my primary network (which runs through a smoothwall firewall) to my cable modems direct wireless network.<br />
<br />
Viola - it worked. Did the same with the second thermostat and it also worked. It been almost a week since the reset and both thermostats have been working great. Not sure why the thermostat doesn't like my primary wireless SSID, but I can live with moving it to the second.<br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE 03/01/2015 (SOLVED):</b><br />
After having more time to troubleshoot. The issue is caused by a transparent SQUID proxy setting on my Smoothwall 3.0 firewall. When I turn off the transparent setting on the web proxy the thermostats communicate fine. When I turn it on they fail.<br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE 12/12/2015 (SOLVED):</b><br />
After having even more time to troubleshoot. I upgraded my firewall to Smoothwall 3.1. This update also bumped the Squid proxy version to v3.5.7. I thought perhaps there would be a fix to the issue. The proxy would fail with the Smoothwall web proxy showing the error "<a href="error:invalid-request">error:invalid-request</a>". Pulling the actual log entry it looked like this "TAG_NONE/400 2568 NONE error:invalid-request - HIER_NONE/- text/html"<br />
<br />
I worked around the issue by installing Smoothwall mod <a href="http://community.smoothwall.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=118">Enhanced Web Proxy</a>. Then I added in the IP addresses of my two thermostats to the "Bypass proxy SRC IP addresses list" in Enhanced Web Proxy. Now I can turn on the proxy for the rest of my network, but my thermostats can still display the current weather on them. I also noted that the thermostats request a weather update every 15 minutes. Here is my deep dive into <a href="http://blog.trebacz.com/2015/12/honeywell-rth9580wf-thermostat-waiting-for-update.html" target="_blank">how the Honeywell thermostat gets it weather information</a>.<br />
<br />
Link to purchase thermostat on Amazon with current pricing:<br />
<iframe style="width:120px;height:240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=trebacz-20&marketplace=amazon®ion=US&placement=B00FLZEQH2&asins=B00FLZEQH2&linkId=ee7b26007ab25de4f905e6ecbe12f9c5&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true"></iframe>
Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-37303793733578134272014-11-12T20:02:00.002-07:002014-11-12T20:02:48.936-07:00Cancelling Comcast Account Nightmare - Moving to ArizonaAfter many years as a loyal #Comcast customer I needed to cancel my account. Last 10 years have been fine.<br />
<br />
Took three calls to cancel. I was on the line with Brianna for 39 minutes.<br />
<br />
Brianna told me they could only cancel service 7 days out and that I could call back later in the week if I wanted. No way I was going through this again, so I had them cancel it on the November 17th. What kinda crap is that. I was placed on silent hold. She came back and thought I was a new caller. I gave her all my information a second time. This time she actually took all my disconnect information and gave me a credit value based on my connection date.<br />
<br />
I was also told that I was paying full rate and they could have given me a discount. I'm amazed at the horrible customer service that the cable monopolies can give and still stay in business.<br />
<br />
I did give Comcast my new address, so it will be interesting if the actually send my over $100 credit to my new address. Perhaps I should just stop the next automatic payment now.<br />
<br />
Sadly, I have little choice in my new home in Arizona. Cox cable is the only quality internet game in Fountain Hills, AZ. So I'll be moving from one poor service monopoly to another. Look forward to some quality Cox blog posts in the future.<br />
<br />
Bye Comcast - it certainly was Comcastic all the way to the end.<br />
<br />
<br />Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-1579188602941141002014-08-09T08:42:00.003-07:002014-08-09T08:43:58.569-07:00Upgrading Jelly Bean to Kit Kat on Droid Razr Maxx XT912I decided to upgrade my XT912 to Kit Kat. My earlier <a href="http://blog.trebacz.com/2014/05/eliminate-lockups-and-freezes-Motorola-XT912.html" target="_blank">rooting and upgrade to CM10.2</a> provided a much better experience on the aging hardware (<a href="http://blog.trebacz.com/2014/05/eliminate-lockups-and-freezes-Motorola-XT912.html">http://blog.trebacz.com/2014/05/eliminate-lockups-and-freezes-Motorola-XT912.html</a>). This was my first time upgrading major versions of Cyanaogenmod (10.2 to 11) on my phone, so I was prepared for some unplanned issues. The upgrade went flawlessly and I lost noting in the process.<br />
<br />
The procedure I followed was:<br />
<br />
1. Download current cyanogenmod snapshot from here:<br />
<a href="http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=spyder&type=snapshot">http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=spyder&type=snapshot</a><br />
<br />
2. Download Gapps for CM11<br />
<a href="http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Google_Apps">http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Google_Apps</a><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
I used the upgrade steps from Jack Stromberg's post here:<br />
<a href="http://jackstromberg.com/2013/12/tutorial-rooting-and-installing-cyanogenmod-11-android-4-4-kitkat-w-google-apps-on-the-droid-razr-maxx/">http://jackstromberg.com/2013/12/tutorial-rooting-and-installing-cyanogenmod-11-android-4-4-kitkat-w-google-apps-on-the-droid-razr-maxx/</a><br />
<br />
I found I needed to modify the steps slightly for doing and upgrade from 10.2 using safestrap. It was all in the instructions, but you do have to read between the lines a little bit. Here are the actual instructions I used for my successful upgrade from 10.2 to 11.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
3. Do step 15 and 16 (copy files over to your XT912 using windows). Then go to step 23.<br />
<div>
4. Do step 23-26. On step 23 I just disconnected the phone a rebooted.<br />
5. Do step 28-35 to overwrite CM10.2 with CM11. During reboot had to wait while CM11 updated all apps. Then CM11 started.<br />
6. Do step 36-44 to install the updated gapps for CM11.<br />
<br />
After the final reboot I was pleased that all my apps were installed just as before. I didn't have to reenter any Google or app credentials or wifi passwords. Everything just worked. I was very pleased with the ease of upgrade from one version of Cyanogenmod to another.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>References:</b><br />
Check nightly log for anything weird since last snapshot - <a href="http://www.cmxlog.com/11/spyder/">http://www.cmxlog.com/11/spyder/</a><br />
CM11 instructions from Jack Stromberg blog - <a href="http://jackstromberg.com/2013/12/tutorial-rooting-and-installing-cyanogenmod-11-android-4-4-kitkat-w-google-apps-on-the-droid-razr-maxx/">http://jackstromberg.com/2013/12/tutorial-rooting-and-installing-cyanogenmod-11-android-4-4-kitkat-w-google-apps-on-the-droid-razr-maxx/</a>Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-77862749365494481922014-05-26T13:11:00.001-07:002016-10-05T08:11:33.438-07:00DIY Clean a Clothes Dryer Vent with Linteater Kit<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHuOAuzp6OOlfGE0PJY7j9LrvqFHjE0W-8FKCviUhyvZViGhREMvAHwmww4Skueg03oqV27bQ6OnFQ5t4bi-EtVcjLJoilCnHSbOl1OnCimDkQdC2DRrjFbnvASeor3Ll5l_l9p2cnza0/s1600/DIY+Dryer+Vent+Cleaning+Using+Lint+Eater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHuOAuzp6OOlfGE0PJY7j9LrvqFHjE0W-8FKCviUhyvZViGhREMvAHwmww4Skueg03oqV27bQ6OnFQ5t4bi-EtVcjLJoilCnHSbOl1OnCimDkQdC2DRrjFbnvASeor3Ll5l_l9p2cnza0/s320/DIY+Dryer+Vent+Cleaning+Using+Lint+Eater.jpg" width="320" /></a>I try and clean my dryer vent at the house once a year in the springtime. Our gas dryer vent is over 24 feet long and has several elbows in it. I have always been concerned about it's long length potentially creating a fire hazard, if the metal duct ever became clogged with lint from our gas clothes dryer. A few years ago I invested in a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0014CN8Y8/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0014CN8Y8&linkCode=as2&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=ZIARMDXLNIUVZBOH">Linteater from Amazon</a> and a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Gardus-12Ft-Extension-Kit-Linteater/dp/B00R1X7J9O/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&refRID=1AGAKQMXH82H3WKN0154&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=bf4ddc17c3757103c9be8faacfdfa004" target="_blank">12 foot extension</a> to clean out the dryer vent. It works well.<br />
<br />
This year I shot a video of the cleaning process. It only took about fifteen minutes to clean the whole run of aluminum rigid duct. Just make sure you always keep the drill spinning in the same direction, so you don't unscrew the brush in the middle of the run.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ecl5ejXvqm8" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
I hope the video helps you understand how you can easily clean your dryer duct with a shop-vac, cordless drill, and the Linteater kit.<br />
<br />
UPDATE 2016-04-09:<br />
Several people have asked about the Shop Vac that I used. It was a 5 HP 16 gallon model by craftsman. Here is a link to a similar <a href="http://amzn.to/1qeBufK" target="_blank">Wet/Dry Vac</a> model from Amazon, but any vacuum with similar suction should work.<br />
<br />
It also appears that Amazon has a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00U1LXSE8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=2295791822&pf_rd_r=00AASJB37VAM90K7XRQ6&pf_rd_s=vas-pdp-widget&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0014CN8Y8&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=51eb9ee259d4e938d14ca24fef3940f0" target="_blank">dryer vent cleaning service</a> that in my area is $73. I'm assuming pricing and availability varies across the United States, but it's option if you don't want to do it yourself.<br />
<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=trebacz-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B0014CN8Y8&asins=B0014CN8Y8&linkId=1ebc06036b7c8f3ed7416d8a57522af1&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=trebacz-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B00R1X7J9O&asins=B00R1X7J9O&linkId=50bbbb0b67b48be70d45618a9f1ac59b&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-26635556441748520452014-05-18T11:15:00.000-07:002014-06-07T06:51:38.793-07:00Eliminate Lockups and Freezes for Motorola Droid Razr XT912 on Verizon<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSai-kxQkpBCbqp2KV6dKAfn7A2X5aJxOF_Z-vOIDLqM_YiNJZ2o_pH-sdezuW7EZH1u887Oq4OC0J1RTBCu_VRoSLWBXIgztTaH1BXsKr5UBYpF_sGQfxEN-w40FcYYNcGdsaxjCzeQQ/s1600/Motorola+XT912+Cyanogen+10.2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSai-kxQkpBCbqp2KV6dKAfn7A2X5aJxOF_Z-vOIDLqM_YiNJZ2o_pH-sdezuW7EZH1u887Oq4OC0J1RTBCu_VRoSLWBXIgztTaH1BXsKr5UBYpF_sGQfxEN-w40FcYYNcGdsaxjCzeQQ/s1600/Motorola+XT912+Cyanogen+10.2.jpg" height="400" width="220" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Motorola XT912 after <br />
Cyanogen 10.2 Upgrade</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I loved my Motorola Droid Razr Maxx XT912. I bought it almost two years ago. The phone featured good performance, ability to use as a internet hotspot, and was part of my unlimited wireless plan with Verizon. I really wanted to keep those features, but performance and reliability started to suffer.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b>Performance Was Horrible</b></h3>
After a few recent updates in the fall the phone started to become unreliable and would freeze up when doing the most mundane tasks. It would sometimes take my favorite navigation app Waze (http://blog.trebacz.com/2012/08/android-apps-for-your-road-trip.html) 15 minutes to acquire a GPS lock. Foursquare checkins would also take 5 minutes.The battery would drain in a couple hours when traveling -or just out of the blue on some days at work.<br />
<br />
I tried rooting the phone. Eliminating Verizon bloat apps that I really didn't use and shutting off some location services. All of this would work for a week, but come back in the form of freezes, lockups and bad performance after a couple days.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Permanently Improving XT912 Stability and Battery Performance</h3>
<div>
At this point I decided I was going for broke with the phone I liked or buy a new Samsung Galaxy 5S. I didn't need Kit Kat functionality and preferred stability and performance in my Android OS. Closer to stock android - was probably better for me. I looked into alternate ROMS and decided to install latest stable Cyanogen 10.2.1 and Google Apps. It met my criteria and seemed to have good support and stability.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Here are the instructions that outline the upgrade process best:</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Download 10.2 stable version to my PC - <a href="http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=spyder&type=stable">http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=spyder&type=stable</a></li>
<li>Download Google Apps (GApps) for version 10.2 to my PC - <a href="http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Google_Apps">http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Google_Apps</a></li>
<li>Installation instructions using my PC and a USB cable - <a href="http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_spyder">http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_spyder</a></li>
</ol>
</div>
Definitely follow the installation instructions on Cyanogen's site. Everything went smoothly, but there are quite a few steps. I found that I couldn't get network access without installing GApps - so do it right away. For me the step 10 "Optional: Install any additional packages you wish using the same method" was not optional.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It's been 2 weeks since the change and here are my observations:</div>
<div>
<br />
<h3>
The Good</h3>
<div>
This upgraded the OS to Android 4.3. I found that Cyanogen 10.2 was amazingly fast on my phone and battery life was more than 48 hours with my normal usage. I did have to reinstall many applications and found Google Play kept track of previous apps. That made the process pretty easy.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I thought I'd miss a few of the custom Motorola apps (SmartActions, parking spot finder, car mode, corporate email, etc). I suspected that some of these apps were not playing well with Android updates and Motorola had abandoned development on them. I found Cyanogen had profiles (simple SmartActions), great Microsoft Outlook integration, and there were lots of choices in the play store for other things.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
I did install LauncherPro to get a home screen that works in landscape mode in my car dock. Other than that I found that 10.2 gave a great user experience right out of the box.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
The Bad</h3>
<div>
I did have one day where my GPS stopped working. I ended up doing a cache wipe using SafeStrap and all my GPS functionality has been fine since. I even used SafeStrap to load the original configuration to verify it wasn't a hardware issue. Nice to know if something went really bad there was a path back to the original ROM.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
My Conclusion</h3>
<div>
I'm real happy with the change and should have done it six months ago. I can continue to use my older hardware and docking stations with great performance. I may get adventurous and install Kit Kat on the phone, but for right now I have a blazingly fast stable phone, great battery life, and a bloat free experience that I'm in control of.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
Update 06-07-2014</h3>
Once again the GPS on my Motorola XT912 stopped responding to any application. I use the GPS daily (Waze and FourSquare), so this is a big deal for me. This time I used saved Safestrap to wipe only the dalvik cache. You just reboot into Safestrap, go to the advanced menu, and select dalvik cache wipe. Then reboot. It takes a few minutes to reinitialize all the applications, but my GPS worked immediately again. I'll keep monitoring for the same problem.<br />
<h3>
References:</h3>
<div>
Applications safe to remove from Jelly Bean tried this before changing ROM's - <a href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2018889&page=2">http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2018889&page=2</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
More detailed 10.2 tutorial - <a href="http://jackstromberg.com/2013/09/tutorial-rooting-and-installing-cyanogenmod-10-2-w-google-apps-on-the-droid-razr-maxx/">http://jackstromberg.com/2013/09/tutorial-rooting-and-installing-cyanogenmod-10-2-w-google-apps-on-the-droid-razr-maxx/</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Forum post with others experience on Cyanogen 10.2 on the Motorola XT912 - <a href="http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/87467-1021-reviews/">http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/87467-1021-reviews/</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
10.2 to 11 Kit Kat XT912 upgrade tutorial when I'm ready - <a href="http://jackstromberg.com/2013/12/tutorial-rooting-and-installing-cyanogenmod-11-android-4-4-kitkat-w-google-apps-on-the-droid-razr-maxx/">http://jackstromberg.com/2013/12/tutorial-rooting-and-installing-cyanogenmod-11-android-4-4-kitkat-w-google-apps-on-the-droid-razr-maxx/</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-29723522966314888392014-02-02T14:35:00.001-07:002014-02-08T08:06:06.645-07:00Moen 1225 Kitchen Faucet Cartridge Repair or ReplacementIs your your Moen single handle kitchen faucet hard to use or leaking around the handle? If it is you can easily lubricate or replace the 1225 cartridge in the faucet.<br />
<br />
If you're the original owner owner of the faucet Moen warrants them to be leak-free for lifetime. I called the 800 number at 1-800-289-6636 and requested a replacement cartridge kit for the faucet (think ours is model 7730). They sent it out no charge in about 10 days.<br />
<br />
If your in a hurry you can also buy it from Amazon (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006290R6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0006290R6&linkCode=as2&tag=trefamweb-20">Moen 1225 One-Handle Replacement Cartridge</a>).<br />
<br />
<img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=trefamweb-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0006290R6" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGHkKuI-YpRxPX2XSDuu653WHd5D4wmILfRufjmuCEVWo2yUDqHBtUkW7Hl58CBjQgpQrqIQQGc23_9kL0IDHYVFvEsXb7M0zgPUwlR7_JOVeeIKUAFUP6g4kakwLtpe4rzzWh5LIzuVw/s1600/Moen+Kitchen+Sink.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGHkKuI-YpRxPX2XSDuu653WHd5D4wmILfRufjmuCEVWo2yUDqHBtUkW7Hl58CBjQgpQrqIQQGc23_9kL0IDHYVFvEsXb7M0zgPUwlR7_JOVeeIKUAFUP6g4kakwLtpe4rzzWh5LIzuVw/s1600/Moen+Kitchen+Sink.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our Moen 7730 Single Handle Kitchen Faucet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I shot a video of the dis-assembly and re-assembly of the kitchen faucet:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/huxSQljCrIc?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
The kit contained everything you need to replace the cartridge and get the faucet working like new again<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiat1jWc5fL0oFP11BOH_ZE1_D3pCbtxHZb4FK2fqdPwXDbF1oChoKMD8wlG3fw7WQs01kLgbS64MnALPjmkEEqAh4OuquUDBszg3koAqpItuSdS8TIOwHBxPmb5ILDkJ6FUqCXrXmHNo/s1600/Moen+1225+Cartridge+Replacement+Kit.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiat1jWc5fL0oFP11BOH_ZE1_D3pCbtxHZb4FK2fqdPwXDbF1oChoKMD8wlG3fw7WQs01kLgbS64MnALPjmkEEqAh4OuquUDBszg3koAqpItuSdS8TIOwHBxPmb5ILDkJ6FUqCXrXmHNo/s1600/Moen+1225+Cartridge+Replacement+Kit.JPG" height="320" width="136" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1225 Cartridge Repair Kit</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIYP7I06oJYvzBI4CfYq83J8306uV4tq6CQ7dyczyW7bFJTLaNu5_7TcJ87ZFgc71zyTTXYb_lv1UskrlWsosfiCh6JkpTrUJv4qHi5vuysHtENZtgTzf0N3th_p5swhpg0oSTK4IQZho/s1600/Moen+1225+Faucent+Cartridge+Replacement+Contents.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIYP7I06oJYvzBI4CfYq83J8306uV4tq6CQ7dyczyW7bFJTLaNu5_7TcJ87ZFgc71zyTTXYb_lv1UskrlWsosfiCh6JkpTrUJv4qHi5vuysHtENZtgTzf0N3th_p5swhpg0oSTK4IQZho/s1600/Moen+1225+Faucent+Cartridge+Replacement+Contents.JPG" height="320" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1225 Cartridge Kit Contents</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Here is a link to a pdf with the <a href="http://www.trebacz.com/Instruction%20Manuals/Moen%20Kitchen%20Faucet%201225%20Cartridge%20Installation%20Instructions.pdf">Moen 1225 cartridge installation instructions</a> that came in the kit:<br />
<br />
Here are the components in the kit:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA6VnI40QTkZfSPKh273k0KQl0txfyrMFEABodSbAFM1g_kxyEqSAf8YeToNKsBm0a0njyj5djJOHuMeV_BhgElE0c2PCI5biOLqyyG-46NkhGqN4gpjYPyXxrpxLB4qHjlRgkurN7hVo/s1600/Moen+Relaplacement+Cartridge+Close+Up.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA6VnI40QTkZfSPKh273k0KQl0txfyrMFEABodSbAFM1g_kxyEqSAf8YeToNKsBm0a0njyj5djJOHuMeV_BhgElE0c2PCI5biOLqyyG-46NkhGqN4gpjYPyXxrpxLB4qHjlRgkurN7hVo/s1600/Moen+Relaplacement+Cartridge+Close+Up.JPG" height="200" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moen 1225 Cartridge</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibFum1QIPD4gt0mCKaEMurRzvfdZH40KkDedLXyCgCO7smhBJXlS6jSGLotvXqSWNKnntsbJgbican2gb-GVPC9Ws8znV8x9b-yIJVh3hr9ztYI_QlgH8G3Xu6obyZ2y5Gg1y9tT8-wJ0/s1600/1225+Kit+Moen+Cartridge+Replacement+Tool.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibFum1QIPD4gt0mCKaEMurRzvfdZH40KkDedLXyCgCO7smhBJXlS6jSGLotvXqSWNKnntsbJgbican2gb-GVPC9Ws8znV8x9b-yIJVh3hr9ztYI_QlgH8G3Xu6obyZ2y5Gg1y9tT8-wJ0/s1600/1225+Kit+Moen+Cartridge+Replacement+Tool.JPG" height="200" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moen 1225 Cartridge Removal Tool</td></tr>
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Another blog post about repairing the main spout o-rings on the same Moen 7730 faucet:<br />
<a href="http://blog.trebacz.com/2012/12/how-to-fix-leaking-moen-kitchen-faucet.html">http://blog.trebacz.com/2012/12/how-to-fix-leaking-moen-kitchen-faucet.html</a><br />
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Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-81396318868181909512013-09-22T12:50:00.001-07:002013-10-20T08:31:17.404-07:00Comcast Xfinity HD uDTA Pace DC60Xu Unboxing and Setup Instructions<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
Today I picked up two Comcast Xfinity uDTA (HD Digital Transport Adapters). These are the latest DTA's from Comcast that allow you to view HDTV using a tiny cable box as opposed to the huge boxes. They also have the advantage of being much less expensive to rent than the settop boxes. In my area they are easily exchanged for the for the original Thompson DTA's (<a href="http://blog.trebacz.com/2010/03/comcast-dta-digital-transport-adapter.html">http://blog.trebacz.com/2010/03/comcast-dta-digital-transport-adapter.html</a>) from a couple years ago.</div>
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Advantages of Comcast Xfinity HD DTA:</div>
<br />
<ul>
<li style="text-align: left;">Small compact size</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">HDMI output or standard cable TV</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">RF remote option (no line of site needed)</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Same monthly rental as standard definition DTA's</li>
</ul>
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Disadvantages of Xfinity HD uDTA:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: left;">No menu system (or extremely limited)</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">No on-demand programming</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">No channel favorites</li>
</ul>
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Below is the unboxing process and what it took to hook it all up.</div>
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If you'd rather see a video of the process, I did that also. You can see the video on my YouTube channel at:</div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6tvUbli94U">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6tvUbli94U</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicAtBCCgWakcuUtdKeWCOZ-pqNZmtx1qdYw5NHGfmBQPxoF7pZxEZSdQWs2Cu-1PS3_yVPnRUgkXt4qzjjOTeOF5MRb4JSHdUCU40RZyMaovuSpbWgSew8fErm_5Ax7r6rggm378QMuu4/s1600/IMG_3168.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicAtBCCgWakcuUtdKeWCOZ-pqNZmtx1qdYw5NHGfmBQPxoF7pZxEZSdQWs2Cu-1PS3_yVPnRUgkXt4qzjjOTeOF5MRb4JSHdUCU40RZyMaovuSpbWgSew8fErm_5Ax7r6rggm378QMuu4/s400/IMG_3168.JPG" /></a><br />
Plain brown box containing Pace DC60Xu DTA.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIRBLJyY1URfBHdCAFxi8LCCD_Gb4N4m6ZozMDZJllRjCqPx5ACEWE9KCic7QBn76Du825F8Kc6hAfdNozr-NndjNQdLJRNltf3TUIs0TjhB5unPrhsiNuTbYaAFxVuata0FQW035kU0o/s1600/IMG_3170.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIRBLJyY1URfBHdCAFxi8LCCD_Gb4N4m6ZozMDZJllRjCqPx5ACEWE9KCic7QBn76Du825F8Kc6hAfdNozr-NndjNQdLJRNltf3TUIs0TjhB5unPrhsiNuTbYaAFxVuata0FQW035kU0o/s400/IMG_3170.JPG" /></a><br />
Package contained all the instructions and quick start guide. Everything you need to set it up is on the inside of the top cover of the box.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm57BhKSt0K7L0G7wHpMTjKjgcAmZwVHRPq0rfyXntAoD4hri2zkE2TXKTMHN11gtE7FtM0CrmB-bQlJve7hcbsXqCmFk82kcx0ufPArkKdkRuXACH4tAolnIaYwSpFGRIKrzAiNY8c_M/s1600/IMG_3172.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm57BhKSt0K7L0G7wHpMTjKjgcAmZwVHRPq0rfyXntAoD4hri2zkE2TXKTMHN11gtE7FtM0CrmB-bQlJve7hcbsXqCmFk82kcx0ufPArkKdkRuXACH4tAolnIaYwSpFGRIKrzAiNY8c_M/s400/IMG_3172.JPG" /></a><br />
Every component in the package is clearly labeled with what it is.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfAa3D-6U1Ku0fIef0d7tSqxT9cyggaN8Neq4dFLPt2IAos_GPpk_SoOn7TjizC-WFyLWoURzzRHozoAmWE6Y0W2PCcbIHNpftga6CMg_E2AeDGZ62-SivkVKzJ24q8bJ5kwl7RPSVe7Y/s1600/IMG_3174.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfAa3D-6U1Ku0fIef0d7tSqxT9cyggaN8Neq4dFLPt2IAos_GPpk_SoOn7TjizC-WFyLWoURzzRHozoAmWE6Y0W2PCcbIHNpftga6CMg_E2AeDGZ62-SivkVKzJ24q8bJ5kwl7RPSVe7Y/s400/IMG_3174.JPG" /></a><br />
Package contained two coaxial cables and a nice heavy duty HDMI cable. Each cable had labeled velcro cable ties to keep the cables nicely organized behind your HDTV or composite tv. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIX7ztiksPmJSNmY_PwF77GtIH99OoDRATWwRZb3g7tz6Pxp120RfB_1yL-q7Sdofz7GdeTSNQWyKVzOCr7dZkOiaa-fCO-sFcakOHe0-_BHhWFaeBAMpa4GC8b8i_KEAMPsadlg3Llyw/s1600/IMG_3175.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIX7ztiksPmJSNmY_PwF77GtIH99OoDRATWwRZb3g7tz6Pxp120RfB_1yL-q7Sdofz7GdeTSNQWyKVzOCr7dZkOiaa-fCO-sFcakOHe0-_BHhWFaeBAMpa4GC8b8i_KEAMPsadlg3Llyw/s400/IMG_3175.JPG" /></a><br />
RF capable remote came with 2 AA batteries.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUz7v1idNK-O134rAdSELwpL2_qc3WmARB6EG_hg0I6W47kg3h4VnRtOK7-ZX08xDQyFjuxUKsL1hNKPVZuTU45TeJnrPAmkRwdQmRoRdXYYRiYSHPMnleh1nCwM9q5ABgQOCoAz38Qb8/s1600/IMG_3177.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUz7v1idNK-O134rAdSELwpL2_qc3WmARB6EG_hg0I6W47kg3h4VnRtOK7-ZX08xDQyFjuxUKsL1hNKPVZuTU45TeJnrPAmkRwdQmRoRdXYYRiYSHPMnleh1nCwM9q5ABgQOCoAz38Qb8/s400/IMG_3177.JPG" /></a><br />
Universal Digital Transport Adapter (uDTA) in it original package. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzSQXTFxZrQGyZ7qlbvA_gJkTsk_PtstDt5m6t4mH_ErigKhOMDHD8eZwdI8EogyGtUOUKSm7glGY6ibfvkYT-ZOdAikXxIehlz0PutKrbpmt8UyqRCeBfyTIKiEuVnHWlFgdCjdr7Nzo/s1600/IMG_3178.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzSQXTFxZrQGyZ7qlbvA_gJkTsk_PtstDt5m6t4mH_ErigKhOMDHD8eZwdI8EogyGtUOUKSm7glGY6ibfvkYT-ZOdAikXxIehlz0PutKrbpmt8UyqRCeBfyTIKiEuVnHWlFgdCjdr7Nzo/s400/IMG_3178.JPG" /></a><br />
110 Volt AC adapter.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Ssp1rHsQiJLjX6CeLW79rVI_wzMGb3eYE1aziHdRxYSLQi2jtzWXLUj3dfXHglH0IDK_NBHnMUGsiF6_bxGgM0bcyzMt9eQnIzWOXg8RCsvIfGin3BqWvcCZb6LI8Zj6Dkrt6Ii_ASE/s1600/IMG_3179.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Ssp1rHsQiJLjX6CeLW79rVI_wzMGb3eYE1aziHdRxYSLQi2jtzWXLUj3dfXHglH0IDK_NBHnMUGsiF6_bxGgM0bcyzMt9eQnIzWOXg8RCsvIfGin3BqWvcCZb6LI8Zj6Dkrt6Ii_ASE/s400/IMG_3179.JPG" /></a><br />
User guide (never needed to open it).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFMltazvA_P8RH3vt6quLY2sRVb4NCSflAHeRG-Pu0TWM2lHYrPxCzkdo5I9PCiHciXGrLSMz6n_UgkkBEe3CwbtK-bM5bCPPbyuhF_1o26njZzJ03mvWsa8yaeQffmPPCDpCllAQib9A/s1600/IMG_3181.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFMltazvA_P8RH3vt6quLY2sRVb4NCSflAHeRG-Pu0TWM2lHYrPxCzkdo5I9PCiHciXGrLSMz6n_UgkkBEe3CwbtK-bM5bCPPbyuhF_1o26njZzJ03mvWsa8yaeQffmPPCDpCllAQib9A/s400/IMG_3181.JPG" /></a><br />
User Guide and legal stuff.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4l1ODIFd7Bxwu_72lYPrIhC87tQNIK1zRRIf-ZU6kWm-lgHNe4oFvyA7nnFWvPKQUZD6sxUIVsenBOcxiloCgFbCOzgfoE9seDnOR4MWlDdT6wJVl2kKNKdFyPjtat8CEebqTWFA0bqg/s1600/IMG_3187.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4l1ODIFd7Bxwu_72lYPrIhC87tQNIK1zRRIf-ZU6kWm-lgHNe4oFvyA7nnFWvPKQUZD6sxUIVsenBOcxiloCgFbCOzgfoE9seDnOR4MWlDdT6wJVl2kKNKdFyPjtat8CEebqTWFA0bqg/s400/IMG_3187.JPG" /></a><br />
Remote came with labels to put on it after your RF pair it with the uDTA in your house. The RF ability allows you to hide the Comcast HD uDTA completely out of site. The labels allows you to tell your remotes apart if you have more than one in your house.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTQjaDLwSsiNiAXzfHEcLsDxMmJY2vas2oK7tNAl2yJNVG8K3u7yn4Tlb0ipnH_s3HPyqksXJhKZHx8pzPd0ANrfNDVNyfVImk9xfOePRh1siUZzoZaqag0XYOeT0SIyLmqYeJwkltTMw/s1600/IMG_3189.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTQjaDLwSsiNiAXzfHEcLsDxMmJY2vas2oK7tNAl2yJNVG8K3u7yn4Tlb0ipnH_s3HPyqksXJhKZHx8pzPd0ANrfNDVNyfVImk9xfOePRh1siUZzoZaqag0XYOeT0SIyLmqYeJwkltTMw/s400/IMG_3189.JPG" /></a><br />
Rear of DTA shows the cable output (for 4:3 standard TV's) and the switch to select composite transmission the cable signal on channel 3 or 4. The new thing is the full size HDMI port to connect to your HDTV to get full HD quality broadcast you pay for.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg228ojI8xs36YfhN5zqaPF6KU1cRgP3D2jxX3GMcKvy6bR1AX6Lvtdv4vrcpckNbV6p_FZGvDpBxTpHgTJzcw1AmMxJ4YRXmvUrH2MvNJX9FMvtR-ol1ZRF-WU2dEZpR63aKrGGow-80s/s1600/IMG_3192.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg228ojI8xs36YfhN5zqaPF6KU1cRgP3D2jxX3GMcKvy6bR1AX6Lvtdv4vrcpckNbV6p_FZGvDpBxTpHgTJzcw1AmMxJ4YRXmvUrH2MvNJX9FMvtR-ol1ZRF-WU2dEZpR63aKrGGow-80s/s400/IMG_3192.JPG" /></a><br />
HDMI cable with velcro cable tie and gold plated connectors. The HDMI cable felt very high quality. It's about 6 foot long.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA8Mtlt4MMw4D2ghvzi6t_jklnxSWeKkv-NI6ej0BWvd7TqqwZVMYzBQP3aCh-jkH_6TCNK_Fw4KIi7gSwcmFPVo-MLFGsd0PGnDXskLSnUiTosphu1Z06O0E2qhzkbCPyGWokHMyIs-c/s1600/IMG_3195.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA8Mtlt4MMw4D2ghvzi6t_jklnxSWeKkv-NI6ej0BWvd7TqqwZVMYzBQP3aCh-jkH_6TCNK_Fw4KIi7gSwcmFPVo-MLFGsd0PGnDXskLSnUiTosphu1Z06O0E2qhzkbCPyGWokHMyIs-c/s400/IMG_3195.JPG" /></a><br />
AC adapter showing a pretty large wall adapter. Also includes a velcro cable tie that is nicely labeled "power". Cord is also about 6 foot long.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgINojx2DI4ovYUQWidlShMV4v5Je5w1pAfcyDUZJnIUJJv8_b9ngh8k7ulp8plflZ0_zs7Be3T2u3C8bof524Oh02qvTxeA1PItTylDwLxufNk8VEoqai50IOXROY-G0JGQVLDuJld9rc/s1600/IMG_3199.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgINojx2DI4ovYUQWidlShMV4v5Je5w1pAfcyDUZJnIUJJv8_b9ngh8k7ulp8plflZ0_zs7Be3T2u3C8bof524Oh02qvTxeA1PItTylDwLxufNk8VEoqai50IOXROY-G0JGQVLDuJld9rc/s400/IMG_3199.JPG" /></a><br />
Bottom of Pace DC60Xu uDTA. I attached the two velcro pads to the bottom of the DTA. I used these velcro pads to mount it to the bottom of a cabinet in our kitchen. This pulled all the wires nicely out of the way and kept the counter uncluttered.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR2a7JEgfdlmcsfkBeJKZaJalRu9QJXKdJFB3kvAvw-rZCWoRZpE3aNJwALzAaHlPX66mryIxg_ARtAo_TEksY1l2p6FxBloI1qIxhezSJZru0mfI0QmWem9AmIcZo_8iuYST62-rp-cQ/s1600/IMG_3200.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR2a7JEgfdlmcsfkBeJKZaJalRu9QJXKdJFB3kvAvw-rZCWoRZpE3aNJwALzAaHlPX66mryIxg_ARtAo_TEksY1l2p6FxBloI1qIxhezSJZru0mfI0QmWem9AmIcZo_8iuYST62-rp-cQ/s400/IMG_3200.JPG" /></a><br />
Pace HD DTA (DC60Xu) shown with all cables connected for an HDMI setup. The Xfinity labeled velcro cable bundles are a very nice touch from Comcast.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiea5v4kryvELWaPBwiFaLu6KroYS3C_I3pADM0d5YqGrmBVj4QgA74Gz8OEMgwq3I1vbSpSXI3Vm_ZmsYFuUln79A5WI01Q3dr2zenjJrRE7PIRzeqiKfUtsb7fVmHawEG5DP6xvIdQ64/s1600/IMG_3203.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiea5v4kryvELWaPBwiFaLu6KroYS3C_I3pADM0d5YqGrmBVj4QgA74Gz8OEMgwq3I1vbSpSXI3Vm_ZmsYFuUln79A5WI01Q3dr2zenjJrRE7PIRzeqiKfUtsb7fVmHawEG5DP6xvIdQ64/s400/IMG_3203.JPG" /></a><br />
Here is the very same adapter with all the cables in place for a standard definition tv without and HDMI input.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMiyvZ5Gw0eF7e2T0Y6r5TnXZOmSqkKoyB3B8aw5KFfOiyyurjJKdmj45XEUkj99HQtX2yDBShZs00v8Cg3BuiLahZnRssMXYs5cvbF9AewTttHGPyliCdoUVthIQiqSq5SbJNirV75M8/s1600/IMG_3207.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMiyvZ5Gw0eF7e2T0Y6r5TnXZOmSqkKoyB3B8aw5KFfOiyyurjJKdmj45XEUkj99HQtX2yDBShZs00v8Cg3BuiLahZnRssMXYs5cvbF9AewTttHGPyliCdoUVthIQiqSq5SbJNirV75M8/s400/IMG_3207.JPG" /></a><br />
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After I plugged the adapter in it downloaded a software update that took about 5 minutes. I tried online activation at Comcast's website, but it didn't work on two adapters. I called the 888 number on the screen and the voice response automated system did a nice job getting me activate without having to be put on hold (this activation sequence is at the end of the video - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6tvUbli94U" style="text-align: center;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6tvUbli94U</a>).</div>
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After plugging both units in I'm very happy with them. The uDTA's are very compact. The HD signal looks great on our 23" widescreen kitchen HDTV. The other one is plugged into a standard definition TV now, but that will probably get replaced soon. The micro DTA's are a great way to get HD signal almost anywhere in your house. In our market it's just $2/month rental for the HD uDTA.</div>
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The only disadvantages that I felt was the lack of a digital programming guide and favorite channels. We now have hundreds of channels. To combat that I just printed out a list of the HD channel numbers in our area.<br />
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10/20/2013 Update:<br />
<a href="http://www.trebacz.com/Instruction%20Manuals/DC60XU_HDDTA_SETUP_GUIDE.pdf">DC60XU_HDDTA_SETUP_GUIDE.pdf</a> - Generic setup guide from Pace - Couldn't find Comcast Xfinity guide<br />
<a href="http://www.trebacz.com/instruction%20manuals/XR2_RemoteControl_rev_122911.pdf">XR2_RemoteControl_rev_122911.pdf</a> - Remote control user guide and instruction manual (with IR codes)<br />
<a href="http://www.trebacz.com/Instruction%20Manuals/DC60XU.pdf">DC60XU.pdf</a> - Pace specification sheet<br />
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Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-33399826501858116852013-08-11T12:03:00.003-07:002013-12-14T10:39:06.331-07:00Bubbled Chrome Front Grill Replacement - 2007 Dodge Durango <div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
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I decided to replace the failing chrome grill on my 2007 Dodge Durango. For whatever reason the chrome bubbled on the grill. You can see how wrinkled the chrome is in a couple of the pictures. It go so bad my wife noticed people looking at the car when it was parked -think the front end had gotten hit. The are many rumors on the internet why the chrome lifts off the plastic on the grille (cold temperature, rock pinholes, etc). My estimation is that the chrome expands and the plastic shrinks over time. Either way I decided to replace it and document it in this blog post.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH13SeMuCQzLuXDsYaFDS93Mi2VkFmbaNgHKX7kmYUxC9JfeBXlH7_P-7HJfaJcMQcR9LH7UJ26_fd-D_S3sU_JuoB0bDPHssvCRAOqlb4ZZXdx8b4RIyo9bDu4OsfdZCTCKe1KyNq4f4/s1600/IMG_1812.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH13SeMuCQzLuXDsYaFDS93Mi2VkFmbaNgHKX7kmYUxC9JfeBXlH7_P-7HJfaJcMQcR9LH7UJ26_fd-D_S3sU_JuoB0bDPHssvCRAOqlb4ZZXdx8b4RIyo9bDu4OsfdZCTCKe1KyNq4f4/s400/IMG_1812.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2007 Dodge Durango Grill Chrome Bubbled Up</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVKv9euFxt7-zMPGYXI4UXbQtYdRezjpBoVAuw1rI3vjiE4PnzAKYAKcs-XJr9QBKUKEKk_wfqhcOYvFgwdFVMcZarvcFUpBAM4bKX4OXSD8EVskNiZgy6MqGcABMv_Jj3ZPQct_CVQCA/s1600/IMG_1807.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVKv9euFxt7-zMPGYXI4UXbQtYdRezjpBoVAuw1rI3vjiE4PnzAKYAKcs-XJr9QBKUKEKk_wfqhcOYvFgwdFVMcZarvcFUpBAM4bKX4OXSD8EVskNiZgy6MqGcABMv_Jj3ZPQct_CVQCA/s400/IMG_1807.JPG" /></a><br />
Right Side Showing Grill Chrome Wrinkling</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRn8D9yxiMBRWbVDNTmwHykEEkGTL_ralQtcpthLVBOf_VVedFzwHkHYDDdME10PFln0914__1BLUMLOJp258XlHWZ25xLSKpC8JB63uWZ9B-kUTiiwmn8X3mw6twz0sjN-adIX1RyVeQ/s1600/IMG_1810.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRn8D9yxiMBRWbVDNTmwHykEEkGTL_ralQtcpthLVBOf_VVedFzwHkHYDDdME10PFln0914__1BLUMLOJp258XlHWZ25xLSKpC8JB63uWZ9B-kUTiiwmn8X3mw6twz0sjN-adIX1RyVeQ/s400/IMG_1810.JPG" /></a><br />
Left Side of Grill Showing Durango Chrome Bubbles</div>
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I didn't expect the process of replacing the Durango grill to be tough, but there are a few covers covering up the bolts to replace the grill. First I pried up the black plastic cover in the picture below. There were 4 plastic plugs holding the front of it down.</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3YEkJNiCz0wrJDLOhNLNd0LgJOKFKfr6SHwQQ3cS2j4AEErYJJwHB6v4z-BNkvIqF6j55WdVIng_5XFVv477TCCexSV74liNcynkmOpXCEaLjHjThHEHkNBn_X2Bvi80nYgDivXw6vlM/s1600/IMG_1813.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3YEkJNiCz0wrJDLOhNLNd0LgJOKFKfr6SHwQQ3cS2j4AEErYJJwHB6v4z-BNkvIqF6j55WdVIng_5XFVv477TCCexSV74liNcynkmOpXCEaLjHjThHEHkNBn_X2Bvi80nYgDivXw6vlM/s400/IMG_1813.JPG" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
After prying up the plugs with a screw driver I could lift up the cover and get to the 4 13mm bolts that held in the top of the grill.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjwpXNhzDMA_kbTM_tKI3lbPXD41xLx2_QsyjdIxMoWCDTTHkZbNZTyBlgIcLmY45ZeA0cBSmnSr_r_JicN1g4itXVS866xcWSA4f0czisA8-FBXE9DDsQXvglBybvNJXRMEXNMxSddQc/s1600/IMG_1815.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjwpXNhzDMA_kbTM_tKI3lbPXD41xLx2_QsyjdIxMoWCDTTHkZbNZTyBlgIcLmY45ZeA0cBSmnSr_r_JicN1g4itXVS866xcWSA4f0czisA8-FBXE9DDsQXvglBybvNJXRMEXNMxSddQc/s400/IMG_1815.JPG" /></a><br />
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After removing the 4 top bolts I unclipped the grill from the bottom black plastic bracket. I easily reached down from the top and squeezed the 4 plastic clips (picture below) to release the bottom of grill. The other option is to unbolt and replace the bottom bracket.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ0ts0n_w04cezQKmTOsFnNLFIQr43C5cBG19haeLfbQo-zhi6LOht8yOImj51BEj3_WvlPHp1T-o9j9YvRKDMLN0nP936CUfp4aLmqWTaL4jc3e6AYa1M3iN9Q2RyOTiSQZfRc6YY5Mw/s1600/IMG_1818.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ0ts0n_w04cezQKmTOsFnNLFIQr43C5cBG19haeLfbQo-zhi6LOht8yOImj51BEj3_WvlPHp1T-o9j9YvRKDMLN0nP936CUfp4aLmqWTaL4jc3e6AYa1M3iN9Q2RyOTiSQZfRc6YY5Mw/s400/IMG_1818.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture Showing 1 of 4 Plastic Clips Holding the Bottom of the Grill</td></tr>
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The replacement grill did not have the little plastic bracket to hold the hood support rod.I actually broke the bracket out of the old grill. Then I figured out the two pieces of plastic can just be separated with a screwdriver. Hopefully the pics help you figure out how to remove it without breaking it like I did. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUZ_G9PiO_gIbMNORi9GQFIMy5FTn7RzZ9lKFKOEhESHZmbdRM8O7ciuAZlcMcDJ_RT1DZYCtq7r0mRCByAcEjQEQeD3-yb4bXTPcduuEIp3pP7-h1HB9LvMI0GIWKxD_Uyhwz_ObeO5A/s1600/IMG_1819.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUZ_G9PiO_gIbMNORi9GQFIMy5FTn7RzZ9lKFKOEhESHZmbdRM8O7ciuAZlcMcDJ_RT1DZYCtq7r0mRCByAcEjQEQeD3-yb4bXTPcduuEIp3pP7-h1HB9LvMI0GIWKxD_Uyhwz_ObeO5A/s400/IMG_1819.JPG" /></a> </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5mHoLZeVaT9lCwkGI5mtdb1kCWge3q-FUAMYX-tK6XJW8uXdO3W0N_XDiGs3K14UP4ZAyS0yzoEypZ7wVMOuWVt2cFokG1iUM8UpqbHovxh7yyQm3fLkcjPfkwMWXaKuvwPhnkWfzvdw/s1600/IMG_1823.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5mHoLZeVaT9lCwkGI5mtdb1kCWge3q-FUAMYX-tK6XJW8uXdO3W0N_XDiGs3K14UP4ZAyS0yzoEypZ7wVMOuWVt2cFokG1iUM8UpqbHovxh7yyQm3fLkcjPfkwMWXaKuvwPhnkWfzvdw/s400/IMG_1823.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Split Hood Support Bracket with a Screwdriver While Holding the Back Tabs Apart</td></tr>
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</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXcOgPVjFvPynTtKh__9Zgad7aiPdS9z0kfhc03BUT9HJtmNoCqw3tSb2UVNx-BRxyF1DU-SCAaCRlXkHoG3WycEU0yr2UbWo_BMkfMQhTdWbGvYZ1DAV2yo_Yika7dh3d5OX45zJArhE/s1600/IMG_1825.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXcOgPVjFvPynTtKh__9Zgad7aiPdS9z0kfhc03BUT9HJtmNoCqw3tSb2UVNx-BRxyF1DU-SCAaCRlXkHoG3WycEU0yr2UbWo_BMkfMQhTdWbGvYZ1DAV2yo_Yika7dh3d5OX45zJArhE/s400/IMG_1825.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Separated Dodge Durango Hood Rod Support Clip</td></tr>
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</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSxJc-dTHrsa4WR4juHZJLkwSE-xvNx-PkWCKaZjlkNU8KD3uIKLPPV_9LUvyPBI4C_pgPyo-ECN-5M3kWT_kd4qD_4C-Enp4BtSXK6315tw9QUTastMuOe7DV2rVla4JylBkrNDD4sQw/s1600/IMG_1822.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSxJc-dTHrsa4WR4juHZJLkwSE-xvNx-PkWCKaZjlkNU8KD3uIKLPPV_9LUvyPBI4C_pgPyo-ECN-5M3kWT_kd4qD_4C-Enp4BtSXK6315tw9QUTastMuOe7DV2rVla4JylBkrNDD4sQw/s400/IMG_1822.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Front to Back<br />
Old Grille<br />
New Grille<br />
Black Bottom Bracket</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
I bought my new grill from Amazon on prime with free shipping. I looked at eBay and decided to stick with the Dodge OEM grill Assembly- 55078015AD. The link on Amazon is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005VWAEZS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005VWAEZS&linkCode=as2&tag=trebacz-20" style="text-align: center;">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005VWAEZS</a>.</div>
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<br style="text-align: center;" />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQS_WVV_xNN72Cs-TZ_Gcurp_s07TUWJ57fABoSn9Ye_Kt2uFzzlSV6amz_E8gCN1Xh6gTXI8nf4P9E21hGtxtoMp1_nYzeGrExczxqdhvm3mNYvrJwp-FmDCiMnJB6alU7mXHK0JxcuI/s1600/IMG_1829.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQS_WVV_xNN72Cs-TZ_Gcurp_s07TUWJ57fABoSn9Ye_Kt2uFzzlSV6amz_E8gCN1Xh6gTXI8nf4P9E21hGtxtoMp1_nYzeGrExczxqdhvm3mNYvrJwp-FmDCiMnJB6alU7mXHK0JxcuI/s400/IMG_1829.JPG" /></a></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Old Bubbled 2007 Dodge Chrome Grill. Next to it is the Black Bottom Bracket that I Didn't Use</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
After transferring the Durango hood support clip. Installation of the new grill was easy.</div>
<br />
<ol>
<li style="text-align: left;">Put the new grill in the space.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Push in the 4 bottom clips into the still mounted black bottom bracket.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Reinstall the top of the grill with the 4 - 13mm bolts.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Reinstall the top plastic cover. Just push the 4 plastic plugs back into the top of the frame making sure the plastic piece is in the right position</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Close the hood.</li>
</ol>
</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjffuFs8ODiNlhWc499nhpE6YliiWyMqJ9fgEBeKDI23RsgJhwa6JnO003167ResCNqULfZl82PhWJHTvZG3rvX5tZy88JMczvc9WuiDEqKBX8qPCL5x14h0ofkZX4d-F37II4Ad-Q0oK8/s1600/IMG_1827.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjffuFs8ODiNlhWc499nhpE6YliiWyMqJ9fgEBeKDI23RsgJhwa6JnO003167ResCNqULfZl82PhWJHTvZG3rvX5tZy88JMczvc9WuiDEqKBX8qPCL5x14h0ofkZX4d-F37II4Ad-Q0oK8/s400/IMG_1827.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our 2007 Durango Looks Like New Again</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
Article references:</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
New Grill from Amazon - <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005VWAEZS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005VWAEZS&linkCode=as2&tag=trebacz-20">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005VWAEZS/</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Forum post from another 2007 Durango Owner with some other purchase options - <a href="http://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen-durango/276162-chrome-grill-bubbling.html" style="text-align: center;">http://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen-durango/276162-chrome-grill-bubbling.html</a></div>
</div>
Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-47200588698566627842013-07-28T10:41:00.002-07:002016-08-31T12:07:40.403-07:00Timed Dehumidifier for Energy SavingsI'm always looking for way to save money and decided to focus on a big energy abuser in our household - for this blog post - our dehumidifier during the summer time. My problem is an old inefficient dehumidifier combined with summertime energy price spikes from the real time pricing program (RRTP) with ComEd.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Background:</span></b><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitsLrZwAWAtEntN10prpzQP8P-iT_ZPLA6Dy9B2_zDGqHmIWjf3dwPDkfB9RkXhv-tBH0mdKXNMs4w_gLqpVwgFxI7mUQbESYpzKHL3x5zqAl-SBvEAaMJ5Ub7B4KI58oHc9-w9WYK3ec/s1600/IMG_0603.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitsLrZwAWAtEntN10prpzQP8P-iT_ZPLA6Dy9B2_zDGqHmIWjf3dwPDkfB9RkXhv-tBH0mdKXNMs4w_gLqpVwgFxI7mUQbESYpzKHL3x5zqAl-SBvEAaMJ5Ub7B4KI58oHc9-w9WYK3ec/s200/IMG_0603.JPG" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">20 Year Old Dehumidifier</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We had a dehumidifier that was almost 20 years old. It still "worked", but was really bad at reliably removing moisture from our basement. It had gotten to the point where it would run 24/7 constantly, freeze up from time to time, and remove moisture at a slow rate. I had to empty the bucket about every 4 days. My target moisture level in our dry basement was 45%, but that unit would only keep it about 55%.<br />
<br />
We recently joined ComEd's real time electricity pricing program and have saved a lot of money (<a href="http://blog.trebacz.com/2013/03/comed-electrical-rrtp-savings-program-6.html">http://blog.trebacz.com/2013/03/comed-electrical-rrtp-savings-program-6.html</a>). I knew that a 24/7 dehumidifier (essentially small air conditioner) was probably costing me more money than a replacement model would cost to buy and run.<br />
<br />
About a year ago -I removed the cover and cleaned all the dust out of it with an air compressor. Lubricated the fan bearings. All in an effort to make it more efficient at move air through to eliminate the icing. Bottom line was it was time for a new dehumidifier -and one that I'm sure would be more more efficent than this old one. Compressor technology and efficiency (think refrigerator) has come a long way in 20 years.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Choosing a new energy efficient dehumidifier model:</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9jq0XGFLoqg9NTfwh4bsJfJTesRLSOcxYoq_dT4CYCuy6Ag30ILDSW2BI58qeDnJrwsYcjtAaeb4ofLPSsfRh_v1heQTxP5iGAvxuoB6JZidLNvNOsZCTDdvXuzWYmZlPCNdtgH3xc4E/s1600/IMG_0606.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9jq0XGFLoqg9NTfwh4bsJfJTesRLSOcxYoq_dT4CYCuy6Ag30ILDSW2BI58qeDnJrwsYcjtAaeb4ofLPSsfRh_v1heQTxP5iGAvxuoB6JZidLNvNOsZCTDdvXuzWYmZlPCNdtgH3xc4E/s200/IMG_0606.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKMYDOtO_Qi8mqHPOjq7C04FUvvTSFQ-dPz5izevLCQyRge_ZuPioiinj-3hDQMWB3eo_5sQxmSKTU2jBZxcrGmup3F4YjCRo5nnnt27LJ_tQ48BP2veJfCyjZZdFjlAnvCmbbHDyqBr8/s1600/IMG_0605.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKMYDOtO_Qi8mqHPOjq7C04FUvvTSFQ-dPz5izevLCQyRge_ZuPioiinj-3hDQMWB3eo_5sQxmSKTU2jBZxcrGmup3F4YjCRo5nnnt27LJ_tQ48BP2veJfCyjZZdFjlAnvCmbbHDyqBr8/s200/IMG_0605.JPG" width="132" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY0TqTuqwD7qchRnYPaTpdl_6TPFewz0odMvBTjIRc7nRpXUgY6ECd4ktmFS9hU8yFw0_cVifzTR3qNvxBe36wMljjUBuwNvnTpT_Ucvc3A6vIEFnKsoDvoNWjUhRNYym4swBc9-9nnq0/s1600/IMG_0620.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY0TqTuqwD7qchRnYPaTpdl_6TPFewz0odMvBTjIRc7nRpXUgY6ECd4ktmFS9hU8yFw0_cVifzTR3qNvxBe36wMljjUBuwNvnTpT_Ucvc3A6vIEFnKsoDvoNWjUhRNYym4swBc9-9nnq0/s200/IMG_0620.JPG" width="133" /></a><br />
<br />
I looked at many places for advice on my next dehumidifier.<br />
1. EPS energy start ratings (<a href="http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=find_a_product.showProductGroup&pgw_code=DE">http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=find_a_product.showProductGroup&pgw_code=DE</a>)<br />
2. Amazon product reviews (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/b/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&linkCode=ur2&node=267557011&tag=trebacz-20">http://www.amazon.com/b/?node=267557011</a>)<br />
<br />
My criteria was to find a new dehumidifier that was:<br />
<ul>
<li style="text-align: left;">energy efficient</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">properly sized for our 3,500 square foot basement</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">ability to control on and off time for our real time electricity pricing</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">good reliability</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">bucket or constant drain option</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">ability to work in lower temperatures without freezing</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<div>
My choice was the <a href="http://www.danby.com/en/US/our_products/dehumidifiers/ddr70a2gp">Danby DDR70A2GP</a>.<br />
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I choose it because:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHfSBl44DyyJU0hvAvJ6QmY1K1A8Ldl1AA3PRlfoaw7ZarYbu9fkgZJenBRrCLRWWFofeZ2GbNCDs1s2qRxn4EWLmfEbvHINyOd1W7RS6yrrAvNSlTadoE8d3JBc9qF-gH1T_f3ysS2oo/s1600/IMG_0610.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHfSBl44DyyJU0hvAvJ6QmY1K1A8Ldl1AA3PRlfoaw7ZarYbu9fkgZJenBRrCLRWWFofeZ2GbNCDs1s2qRxn4EWLmfEbvHINyOd1W7RS6yrrAvNSlTadoE8d3JBc9qF-gH1T_f3ysS2oo/s200/IMG_0610.JPG" width="200" /></a>
<li>met the most current Energy Star ratings</li>
<li>70 pint capacity seems to be a good balance between price and dehumidification performance</li>
<li>can be plugged into a wall timer (electronics don't reset)</li>
<li>good of reliability record as any dehumidifier on Amazon (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007JW507A/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B007JW507A&linkCode=as2&tag=trebacz-20">http://www.amazon.com/Danby-Premiere-DDR70A1GP-pint-dehumidifier/dp/B007JW507A</a>)</li>
<li>features, bucket, drain hose, and good low temperature performance</li>
</ul>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Based on the reviews I decided to purchase an extended warranty (as a rule I never do this). It seemed to make sense, since dehumidifiers in this price range ~$225 -seem to have a bad reputation. Perhaps the details on the new energy efficient compressors are still being worked out. I bought mine at our local Farm and Fleet (<a href="http://www.farmandfleet.com/products/772503-danby-dehumidifier.html#.UfVMaRdDt58">http://www.farmandfleet.com/products/772503-danby-dehumidifier.html#.UfVMaRdDt58</a>). They had it in stock, on sale for $199, and offered an extended warranty.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8XTriHtWtypoZIwDBDwHcFUGiAiKOowH8v62Gb6BT4xiX34K8o1OL5HtxPF22lDLsqj-2ReDE3P8_AiqeSX2Q1-ut9QEEn0uA8mgsFyrhc3RCZ4El-dOMmx96E-uv21-NftYPkbqORMM/s1600/IMG_0609.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8XTriHtWtypoZIwDBDwHcFUGiAiKOowH8v62Gb6BT4xiX34K8o1OL5HtxPF22lDLsqj-2ReDE3P8_AiqeSX2Q1-ut9QEEn0uA8mgsFyrhc3RCZ4El-dOMmx96E-uv21-NftYPkbqORMM/s320/IMG_0609.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
<br />
I bought <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005MMSTNG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=99d98873f02b16d6a0af1b1efc3e9ca1" target="_blank">15 amp Intermatic TN311 manual timer</a> to control the period of time when it can run. I looked at a bunch of "cooler" options, but the simple high amperage clock timer seemed to be the best (and inexpensive) option. I really wanted something "smart" that would kill the power when rates were over a threshold (like the ComEd switches on my air conditioners), but it doesn't appear things have progressed that far yet.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">My experience:</span></b></div>
<div>
Very happy with my choices. I have set the dehumidifier to:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>run between 7:30 pm and 6:30 am each day (via the Intermatic timer)</li>
<li>humidistat set at 45%</li>
<li>fan on high (new model fan runs constantly when powered)</li>
</ul>
After using it for about 1 month -my basement "feels" dryer than it ever has in the middle of summer.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Monitoring the humidity show it's staying much lower than before. That little bit of mustiness is gone. You can see the <a href="http://www.trebacz.com/trebacz_house_temperature.htm">live trebacz basement temperature and humidity here</a>. That's courtesy of my <a href="http://blog.trebacz.com/2012/12/davis-vantage-pro-2-envoy-vantage-vue_26.html">Davis weather station logger</a>.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglzSiWqYrI9CSLxPYhV0rDe4WnSiaWHpMshlIJJleyxr9nuEid1IRK4RTrsa3-IhYWn-Qbyr3r6Y-pRwy8Y04KBCrgVMGR90CctGH4voKmSua6MpdjUUs6d9tHSYOhvwHEUrukPfZUpIs/s1600/intempmonthcomp.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglzSiWqYrI9CSLxPYhV0rDe4WnSiaWHpMshlIJJleyxr9nuEid1IRK4RTrsa3-IhYWn-Qbyr3r6Y-pRwy8Y04KBCrgVMGR90CctGH4voKmSua6MpdjUUs6d9tHSYOhvwHEUrukPfZUpIs/s1600/intempmonthcomp.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Monthly Basement Temperature and Humidity</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The bucket currently fills up once a day. I use the dehumidifier water as a cheap distilled water source for our outdoor water fountain. If I ever don't need the water, I plan to just let it go straight to the drain.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdsXUc84RKcGldFV3-s7OQX3CYqXXcJZLNWOvoB8wApvh-4m4IK4V-noB_X73YDXrkmUtKJkypbHHWxfY99PQvzCRQ7Scysn_xGOJW2NYAPCAcZTIUBRz4Em8bxcCJaQzG7NqhyphenhyphenxwNTEQ/s1600/IMG_0612.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdsXUc84RKcGldFV3-s7OQX3CYqXXcJZLNWOvoB8wApvh-4m4IK4V-noB_X73YDXrkmUtKJkypbHHWxfY99PQvzCRQ7Scysn_xGOJW2NYAPCAcZTIUBRz4Em8bxcCJaQzG7NqhyphenhyphenxwNTEQ/s320/IMG_0612.JPG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drain Valve in Rear of Dehumidifier</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil4v3-KsmMKIc0g0AWzpPxN3YFdXpP1-YjgCnQ3bEMtP2eJg2a2b0vUWARwGHXbKD7I0PgonxOGkSOLzF6rtAnhZnmAlFj6bRnwadDIMRDfX4UoW0GgpNAOevQw8mXyd5c8jevmpXqhn8/s1600/IMG_0613.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil4v3-KsmMKIc0g0AWzpPxN3YFdXpP1-YjgCnQ3bEMtP2eJg2a2b0vUWARwGHXbKD7I0PgonxOGkSOLzF6rtAnhZnmAlFj6bRnwadDIMRDfX4UoW0GgpNAOevQw8mXyd5c8jevmpXqhn8/s320/IMG_0613.JPG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dehumidifier with Bucket Removed</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQhVzVnSar3fGL5fuP1LFs9VIDSaKOMrmoSRHC0Jz-Ah_UWAdtwenZwjG0FX1CHI8dPt6knigTwOTG_uZ5_cFfSA4DFBwHfdkqEcwOTJjWjEzSeedbmxTRZRrslVxVXXgm4177j9iZ2Y/s1600/IMG_0616.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQhVzVnSar3fGL5fuP1LFs9VIDSaKOMrmoSRHC0Jz-Ah_UWAdtwenZwjG0FX1CHI8dPt6knigTwOTG_uZ5_cFfSA4DFBwHfdkqEcwOTJjWjEzSeedbmxTRZRrslVxVXXgm4177j9iZ2Y/s640/IMG_0616.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dehumidifier Bucket</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div>
I'm pleased to have it running at the off times of the night when my power is much less expensive. On some days 5 times less expensive. It seems to pull out enough during that 12 hour period to weather the 12 hours when it can't run (due to the timer).</div>
<div>
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<div>
I have seen the unit kick into it's low temperature mode -and seems to be working since it's pulling a lot of water out of the air each night -every night.</div>
<div>
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<div>
I hope this post helps you decide to replace your old dehumidifier and think about adding a timer to take advantage of lower electricity rates, if your own a real time pricing program. The extended warranty should keep the system covered for quite awhile.<br />
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Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-6658737645503311862013-05-12T12:00:00.006-07:002013-12-14T10:40:01.576-07:00Using ddrescue to Replace Failing Hard Drive with External Drive in Kubuntu<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had the main system drive on my 5 year old Kubuntu machine start having read errors in the syslog reported by logcheck. I had the system up and running straight for those 5 years and it was likely nearing the drives lifetime. I didn't want to have to rebuild the system from scratch, since it had served me well -just wanted to get a little more reliable disk drive in place (with a minimal amount of hassle).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The drive I was replacing was a 250GB 7200 rpm SATA drive. I had an extra 500GB 7200 rpm Western Digital Black drive that had been a warranty repair. It had been gently used in a machine that needed more space. It was a perfect donor for the Kubuntu machine. It was currently mounted in a Rosewill USB external hard drive enclosure (</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005KGNXTE/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005KGNXTE&linkCode=as2&tag=trebacz-20">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005KGNXTE/</a>)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's an example of the errors in the syslog:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ata5: EH in SWNCQ mode,QC:qc_active 0x1000 sactive 0x1000</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ata5: SWNCQ:qc_active 0x1000 defer_bits 0x0 last_issue_tag 0xc</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ata5: ATA_REG 0x41 ERR_REG 0x84</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ata5: tag : dhfis dmafis sdbfis sactive</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ata5: tag 0xc: 1 1 0 1 </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ata5.00: exception Emask 0x1 SAct 0x1000 SErr 0x300000 action 0x6 frozen</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ata5.00: Ata error. fis:0x21</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ata5: SError: { Dispar BadCRC }</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ata5.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ata5.00: cmd 60/00:60:27:ea:bc/01:00:12:00:00/40 tag 12 ncq 131072 in</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ata5.00: status: { DRDY ERR }</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ata5.00: error: { ICRC ABRT }</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ata5: hard resetting link</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ata5: nv: skipping hardreset on occupied port</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ata5: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ata5.00: configured for UDMA/133</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ata5: EH complete</span></span></blockquote>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<b>dmesg|awk '/ATA-|ATAPI/'</b> show me that ata5 was my 250GB drive.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<b>ls -l /dev/disk/by-id</b> showed me that my 250GB drive was mounted as sdb.</div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 May 6 20:09 ata-ST3250310AS_6RY1EWXJ -> ../../sdb</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 May 6 20:09 ata-ST3250310AS_6RY1EWXJ-part1 -> ../../sdb1</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 May 6 20:09 ata-ST3250310AS_6RY1EWXJ-part2 -> ../../sdb2</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 May 6 20:09 ata-ST3250310AS_6RY1EWXJ-part5 -> ../../sdb5</span></span></blockquote>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<b>sudo smartctl --test=short /dev/sdb</b> started a smart tools self test on the drive.</div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<b>sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdb</b> showed there were lots of read errors.</div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Error 4248 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 46974 hours (1957 days + 6 hours)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> After command completion occurred, registers were:</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ER ST SC SN CL CH DH</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> -- -- -- -- -- -- --</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 84 51 00 c1 16 68 ed Error: ABRT at LBA = 0x0d6816c1 = 224925377</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> c4 00 c0 af 1d 29 e3 00 01:15:30.448 READ MULTIPLE</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 29 00 40 a8 48 6d e0 00 01:15:30.412 READ MULTIPLE EXT</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> c4 00 08 47 64 0c e3 00 01:15:30.401 READ MULTIPLE</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 29 00 40 28 48 6d e0 00 01:15:30.389 READ MULTIPLE EXT</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 29 00 40 28 47 6d e0 00 01:15:30.378 READ MULTIPLE EXT</span></span></blockquote>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
It was time to replace the drive and hopefully do this with minimal fuss and data loss.</div>
</div>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First I booted up the machine using the live CD and run Kubuntu from the live CD.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>sudo apt-get install gddrescue</b> - To install ddrescue onto the live CD instance of Kubuntu your running (I never knew you could do this on a virtual system) </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Plug in USB to SATA external drive</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>ls -l /dev/disk/by-id</b> to list out the disk drives to make sure you clone the right one </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>sudo ddrescue -v --force /dev/sdb /dev/sdc</b> to clone the old smaller disk to the new similar or larger disk. This step takes awhile depending on your disk size.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>fsck.ext3 -f /dev/sdc</b> to check the new file system to make sure you haven't copied any failing file system errors in the duplication process.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>sudo apt-get install gparted</b> to upsize using partition using KDE Partition Manager</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shutdown the machine and physically swap out the drive. Exchange the internal drive for the drive in the external exclosure.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Remove the Live CD and restart the system.</span></li>
</ol>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For me that's all it took and was much less painful than I expected. Hopefully this will help you if you run into the same situation.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">References:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_863538663">http://radu.cotescu.com/migrating-your-ubuntu-machine-to-a-ssd-drive/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/8225-clone-your-ubuntu-installation-onto-a-new-hard-disk">http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/8225-clone-your-ubuntu-installation-onto-a-new-hard-disk</a></span>Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-59129222699151881152013-03-24T09:25:00.000-07:002013-03-24T09:26:35.845-07:00ComEd Electrical RRTP Savings Program - 6 Month ReviewI've been on the Chicago area Commonwealth Edison RRTP (Residential Real Time Pricing Program) for about 6 months. I've been extremely happy with the savings that we have seen on the program. I blogged about the setup and equipment a couple months ago in this blog post (<a href="http://blog.trebacz.com/2012/10/comed-residentipricing-rrtp-program.html">http://blog.trebacz.com/2012/10/comed-residentipricing-rrtp-program.html</a>). That blog post show what the equipment, installation time, and billing cycle look like.<br />
<br />
Now I wanted to share what the savings look like to my house in just 6 months with the program. Conveniently ComEd has a referral program. They sent me an email with my savings and encouraging me to tell my friends (in turn I get a $20 credit for each person who mentions my name when they sign up). So here it is (in ComEd's words).<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: arial;">Hi, </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: arial;">I’ve been taking control of my electricity bills with an innovative program called ComEd Residential Real-Time Pricing (<a href="http://www.comed.com/RRTP">ComEd.com/RRTP</a>).
This program is special because rather than paying a fixed price, you
pay the hourly, wholesale price for electricity. That means you can take
advantage of lower prices during off-peak times. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><b>I’ve saved 54.05% on supply for a total of $353.37 since I enrolled 5 months ago.</b> You might be able to save, too. Call (888) 202-RRTP (7787) or check out the website <a href="http://www.comed.com/RRTP">ComEd.com/RRTP</a> to see if ComEd RRTP is a good fit for you. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: arial;">If
you do enroll, put my name down on the enrollment form under “how you
heard about the program” so I can earn a referral bonus. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: arial;">Thanks! </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: arial;">P.S. If you have any questions, you can call (888) 202-RRTP (7787) to speak to an RRTP program specialist.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: arial;">I'm sure this type of savings isn't what everyone can expect, but we are very pleased to have saved 50% over our previous electric billing. The site that I use to look up the savings did change partway through the program to <a href="http://www.energybilldata.biz/Secure/home.aspx">www.energybilldata.biz</a>. The screenshots below are from my account on that monitoring website. The site has a lot of information, but I think the two images blow illustrate what I've found valuable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial;">For my account the RRTP rate savings looks like the image below (agrees with the email energy savings summary):</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUqhBP0I7yf8RkSYF_3qY1pdG71FJrujcye6VthQF5xn7BZSNUq9AXNiU3Nec2HW__sDLxAGxRtqLwHjgq8O2gqnOpIxxp_MPsU2iQDORqEaO_0KIDcEeV4YCgJ6hfM3eJFSITWMWfMAM/s1600/ComEd+RRTP+Monthly+Savings+Chart.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUqhBP0I7yf8RkSYF_3qY1pdG71FJrujcye6VthQF5xn7BZSNUq9AXNiU3Nec2HW__sDLxAGxRtqLwHjgq8O2gqnOpIxxp_MPsU2iQDORqEaO_0KIDcEeV4YCgJ6hfM3eJFSITWMWfMAM/s640/ComEd+RRTP+Monthly+Savings+Chart.png" width="640" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: arial;">I usually check this once a month to give myself a feel good that I made the right decision.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial;">The website also has usage graphs that allow you to see usage, electrical rate, and your total energy cost down to that hour. The chart are viewable at the monthly, day, and hour levels for any time that you have been on the program.<br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieOlPmNtZIyJKN-H-U-p6wsc8D3Mo-HfbL_klPqCZF0NWvMpoYlJiPvIxyBaacx95KXZNuwzfzjPFG_GMel2h9zdnFIIT1M2CrJlF8zQ2X3Q1jJYB9PpLFS80P2f_Hb83zg50B-XuAX2o/s1600/ComEd+RRTP+Daily+Usage+Chart.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="585" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieOlPmNtZIyJKN-H-U-p6wsc8D3Mo-HfbL_klPqCZF0NWvMpoYlJiPvIxyBaacx95KXZNuwzfzjPFG_GMel2h9zdnFIIT1M2CrJlF8zQ2X3Q1jJYB9PpLFS80P2f_Hb83zg50B-XuAX2o/s640/ComEd+RRTP+Daily+Usage+Chart.png" width="640" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: arial;">
I use this chart to get an idea how effective we have been at moving our energy usage to non-peak rate times. This was difficult to do in the winter (Christmas lights probably should have been LED's...), but I think this will be more telling as we move into the summer months. We have signed up for the air conditioner cutout program also.<br />
<br />
I couldn't be happier with the program. We have truly saved over $350 real dollars while on the program, our electrical service remains exactly the same, and we got some information to curb our energy usage during peaks times to further reduce our energy costs.<br />
<br />
If you do sign up and this blog helped you make that decision -consider paying me back by:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">If your friends decide to enroll, ask
them to put your name on the enrollment form in response to the question
about how they heard about the program. (For online enrollment, they
should check the box labeled “referral” and type your name in the field
that appears.)</span></blockquote>
Thanks for reading -and I'd highly suggest considering a electrical utility savings program like this if it's available in your area. </span>Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-78711832386443332432013-01-02T14:16:00.000-07:002016-09-15T10:13:48.282-07:00Adding local logcheck rules to wview to reduce chattiness on server instalation<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.trebacz.com/weather/index.html"><img alt="Wview daily weather view live example" border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgesbbJst_Q9Styp1NIYwuJ7CtEksSm_n_FOoXcTX7X-AXkw34s6h4PylUj5ER6oSSSdQAjBLp4JVu8j1o9AKuTd1RZd-oD1hevuAgeff5xJiTwH53WZ_ZbrTv9Bc_idjGX5U5BQKcld8Y/s320/Wview+Weather+Software+Daily+Pgae+Fountain+Hills.png" title="Wview running on Vantage Pro2 in Fountain Hills, Arizona" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.trebacz.com/weather/index.html">Wview running on my station in Fountain Hills, AZ</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I recently installed wview (version 5.20.2) to monitor my Davis Vantage VUE weather station (<a href="http://blog.trebacz.com/2012/12/davis-vantage-pro-2-envoy-vantage-vue.html">weather station unboxing and hardware review</a>). This station runs on a 24/7 headless 10.04 Ubuntu LTS server in my basement.<br />
<br />
I've finished getting it set up and running. I really like the software. The only thing I haven't seen addressed is the verbosity of the logging. Wview has great capabilities to enable a disable logging from the GUI (see online manual <a href="http://www.wviewweather.com/release-notes/wview-User-Manual.html#Configuration-wviewmgmt-services">http://www.wviewweather.com/release-notes/wview-User-Manual.html#Configuration-wviewmgmt-services</a>). I found this invaluable when originally setting up my Ubuntu system, but have turned all the configurable logging off.<br />
<br />
I'm currently getting a few to many logcheck alerts each day from the server. I run logcheck at the "server" level (sudo nano /etc/logcheck/logcheck.conf configuration line set to REPORTLEVEL="server") to keep track of anything out of the ordinary on the server.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
I'm currently getting emails from logcheck with entries like this throughout the day:<br />
<blockquote>
<pre><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;">Jan 2 06:32:30 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357129950809> : station time synchronized to: 01-02-2013 06:32:30
Jan 2 06:32:30 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357129950809> : station GMT offset synchronized to: -6 hours, 0 minutes
Jan 2 02:33:00 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357115580414> : station time synchronized to: 01-02-2013 02:33:00
Jan 2 02:33:00 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357115580414> : station GMT offset synchronized to: -6 hours, 0 minutes
Jan 2 00:00:34 MyServer htmlgend[11135]: <1357106434571> : NOAA DB: syncing 20130101 => 20130101
Jan 2 00:00:34 MyServer htmlgend[11135]: <1357106434670> : NOAA DB: done: 24 HILOW records => 1 NOAA records
Jan 2 00:00:34 MyServer htmlgend[11135]: <1357106434671> : NOAA Generate: updating monthly NOAA report for 201301
Jan 2 00:00:34 MyServer htmlgend[11135]: <1357106434682> : NOAA: 8 days, 2 months
Jan 2 00:00:34 MyServer htmlgend[11135]: <1357106434682> : NOAA Generate: updating yearly NOAA report for 2013
Jan 2 00:00:34 MyServer htmlgend[11135]: <1357106434685> : NOAA: 2 months, 2 years
Jan 1 00:00:35 MyServer htmlgend[11135]: <1357020035541> : NOAA DB: syncing 20121231 => 20121231
Jan 1 00:00:35 MyServer htmlgend[11135]: <1357020035624> : NOAA DB: done: 24 HILOW records => 1 NOAA records
Jan 1 00:00:35 MyServer htmlgend[11135]: <1357020035625> : NOAA Generate: updating monthly NOAA report for 201212
Jan 1 00:00:35 MyServer htmlgend[11135]: <1357020035627> : NOAA: 7 days, 1 months
Jan 1 00:00:35 MyServer htmlgend[11135]: <1357020035627> : NOAA Generate: updating yearly NOAA report for 2012
Jan 1 00:00:35 MyServer htmlgend[11135]: <1357020035629> : NOAA: 1 months, 1 years
Dec 31 00:15:04 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1356934504405> : computeDataWeek: 20121225
Dec 31 00:15:04 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1356934504414> : computeDataWeek: 20121226
Dec 31 00:15:04 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1356934504423> : computeDataWeek: 20121227
Dec 31 00:15:04 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1356934504433> : computeDataWeek: 20121228
Dec 31 00:15:04 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1356934504442> : computeDataWeek: 20121229
Dec 31 00:15:04 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1356934504451> : computeDataWeek: 20121230
Jan 2 00:15:04 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357107304444> : computeDataWeek: 20121226
Jan 2 00:15:04 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357107304454> : computeDataWeek: 20121227
Jan 2 00:15:04 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357107304463> : computeDataWeek: 20121228
Jan 2 00:15:04 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357107304473> : computeDataWeek: 20121229
Jan 2 00:15:04 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357107304482> : computeDataWeek: 20121230
Jan 2 00:15:04 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357107304491> : computeDataWeek: 20121231
Jan 2 00:15:04 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357107304500> : computeDataWeek: 20130101
Jan 1 00:15:05 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357020905422> : computeDataWeek: 20121225
Jan 1 00:15:05 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357020905431> : computeDataWeek: 20121226
Jan 1 00:15:05 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357020905441> : computeDataWeek: 20121227
Jan 1 00:15:05 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357020905451> : computeDataWeek: 20121228
Jan 1 00:15:05 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357020905460> : computeDataWeek: 20121229
Jan 1 00:15:05 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357020905470> : computeDataWeek: 20121230
Jan 1 00:15:05 MyServer wviewd[11129]: <1357020905480> : computeDataWeek: 20121231
</span></pre>
</blockquote>
Though they are helpful in /var/log/syslog (or /var/log/wview.log entries via rsyslog), they are nothing that I want to see on a consistent basis.I can always pull them from either the /var/log/syslog or /var/log/wview.log when I need them.<br />
<br />
I created a local-rules file for logcheck on the server and named it so it would be read when running the server configuration and by starting with local, wouldn't be overwritten in the future by another rule. The following commands create the empty file as root, change file permissions, and open the empty file up in the nano editor.<br />
<pre class="brush: bash; gutter: false;">sudo touch /etc/logcheck/ignore.d.server/local-rules
sudo chmod 640 /etc/logcheck/ignore.d.server/local-rules
sudo nano /etc/logcheck/ignore.d.server/local-rules
</pre>
and added in these rules to eliminate the the types of messages from being picked up by logcheck:<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;">
</span>
<pre class="brush: text; gutter: false;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;"># Ignoring wview time, NOAA, and compute update messages
^\w{3} [ :0-9]{11} [._[:alnum:]-]+ wviewd\[[0-9]+\]: <[0-9]+> : station time|GMT offset synchronized to: [- :0-9hoursminutes]+
^\w{3} [ :0-9]{11} [._[:alnum:]-]+ htmlgend\[[0-9]+\]: <[0-9]+> : NOAA Generate: updating monthly|yearly NOAA report for [0-9]+
^\w{3} [ :0-9]{11} [._[:alnum:]-]+ htmlgend\[[0-9]+\]: <[0-9]+> : NOAA DB: syncing|done: [0-9]+ HILOW records =>|=> [0-9]+$| NOAA records
^\w{3} [ :0-9]{11} [._[:alnum:]-]+ htmlgend\[[0-9]+\]: <[0-9]+> : NOAA: [0-9]+ days,|months, [0-9]+ months|years
^\w{3} [ :0-9]{11} [._[:alnum:]-]+ wviewd\[[0-9]+\]: <[0-9]+> : computeDataWeek: [0-9]+
</span></pre>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;">
</span>
<br />
<div>
I tried to be very specific in the rules so that a message that I did want to see wasn't accidently eliminated.You can easily verify that the messages are being excluded from the logcheck runs by running one or both the commands in the terminal on the server:</div>
<pre class="brush: bash; gutter: false;">sudo egrep -f /etc/logcheck/ignore.d.server/local-rules /var/log/syslog
sudo egrep -f /etc/logcheck/ignore.d.server/local-rules /var/log/wview.log
</pre>
The lines that would be returned are the lines that you new local-rules would now eliminate.<br />
<div>
Articles used: <a href="http://zeldor.biz/2010/08/configure-logcheck/">http://zeldor.biz/2010/08/configure-logcheck/</a></div>
Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-10423513537607948832012-12-26T18:14:00.000-07:002016-09-15T10:05:30.492-07:00Davis Vantage Pro 2 Envoy, Vantage VUE, and USB Weatherlink Unboxing - Part 2<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><br />This is the second part of the article about selecting, unboxing, and reviewing a Davis USB data logger (6510USB) and Vantage Pro2 Weather Envoy (6316) (<a href="http://blog.trebacz.com/2012/12/davis-vantage-pro-2-envoy-vantage-vue.html" target="_blank">Part one of the review is here</a>).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<ol><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/INSTRUMENTS-6357-Davis-Wireless-Integrated/dp/B00481TX32/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1473958303&sr=8-1&keywords=davis+6357&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=19c8e994732c361855965e006eb0cb2a">Vantage Vue Wireless ISS (Integrated Sensor Suite)</a> - 6357</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Davis-Instruments-6316-Wireless-Weather/dp/B00NA52WK8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1473958259&sr=8-1&keywords=davis+6316&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=632a279478c63b7bee2a2159386a84f8">Vantage Pro2 Weather Envoy</a> - 6316 </li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Davis-Instruments-WeatherLink-USB-Software/dp/B001AMKC14/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1473958806&sr=8-1&keywords=davis+6510&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=585aec8bca85b0f1c908d972466246ad">USB data logger with WeatherLink software</a> - 6510USB</li>
</span></ol>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In this part of the review we look at items 2 and 3 of the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">system</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Both of these units can work with other sensors, but the ISS </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">wireless</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> sensors met my needs. It also allows me to move the sensor </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">assembly</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> around as I find the perfect location for it.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<ol>
</ol>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvrPPng3S5g1PRfWA7jljH_qhLXRvp7hRVR02SgVfuohk9jxAVWYiFVplKeWHE9I55EdHldfpWTw7fjuIAA3b1zOZW1cD9XrMt3uNZCG3jGg4j466pAphgpS9zah0PlcvX_iIGR1-A5Qk/s1600/IMG_3341.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvrPPng3S5g1PRfWA7jljH_qhLXRvp7hRVR02SgVfuohk9jxAVWYiFVplKeWHE9I55EdHldfpWTw7fjuIAA3b1zOZW1cD9XrMt3uNZCG3jGg4j466pAphgpS9zah0PlcvX_iIGR1-A5Qk/s400/IMG_3341.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">USB 2.0 datalogger and WeatherLink software box - front</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinXGfWNqJ2b-NmlqdibPVf8W14AO3Im2m66PkvQZkj-TOud3SDrjSW9P6kIbv9ghYqUtoOu4BuPVQs9umJ89IXasWZ3s91fXZZxbja0JWoMIjkpunuKABl8xWjKmKuKXfj75h_uDzb18I/s400/IMG_3342.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">USB 2.0 datalogger and WeatherLink software box - back</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8WQh-WKw1GWxeel8wSeYAr4QNWtXEg5QFOYddrijNYULmdNnWaR4mMYYVbujOfv29NJdK00sPlFnhllhEYQxSCkHs_Q-zGK37cVUEKbItjrZqWlHX9TAqQLTugvd-ezxeAP5DixJu9Vw/s1600/IMG_3343.JPG"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8WQh-WKw1GWxeel8wSeYAr4QNWtXEg5QFOYddrijNYULmdNnWaR4mMYYVbujOfv29NJdK00sPlFnhllhEYQxSCkHs_Q-zGK37cVUEKbItjrZqWlHX9TAqQLTugvd-ezxeAP5DixJu9Vw/s400/IMG_3343.JPG" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ0P948zareIdCDi6RwMG98g5xG_EcrqtRqo4MzsGb1ajAYIJOCaIZujGvEByHTmt5eUdQ8orx424MLJ0g2Q-MJMhFV1g50F_2iBCI2lI-1tPJABbKOvbAH9_HvDwWumLuBmO0KsObNm8/s1600/IMG_3344.JPG"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ0P948zareIdCDi6RwMG98g5xG_EcrqtRqo4MzsGb1ajAYIJOCaIZujGvEByHTmt5eUdQ8orx424MLJ0g2Q-MJMhFV1g50F_2iBCI2lI-1tPJABbKOvbAH9_HvDwWumLuBmO0KsObNm8/s400/IMG_3344.JPG" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisjZLfjMgqscX2naCd_FvHj2H9OVrrRBolIdjD3RCvJhL09fDrxRMLVXJHIqXsjr_4CL5C3UC3kgqxtuljom1Jx7N7tSJ0D5BvjCfRyjSuk4n52SJdn97IdfGE1L0XdmAiFA_oy8Ak4cI/s400/IMG_3345.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Software manual, DVD, USB data logger, and 8 foot USB extension cable</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Very happy with the design of the USB logger and the USB extension cable quality. Truth be told I wish I could have bought just the USB datalogger. I really only needed the logger.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The software did get loaded up on Windows 7 (supports back to Windows 2000) for some quick diagnostics. I will say the software was easy to configure and I was getting weather measurements as quick as I could install it (about 15 minutes).</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the end the windows software seemed pretty limited and the interface was a bit clunky.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was much happier installing <a href="http://www.wviewweather.com/" target="_blank">Linux wview</a> open source weather package. I considered the IP version, but just couldn't justify the added expense. The serial version just seemed way to old fashioned and the USB unit was the same price.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiggmAtr49sOx1Zr5E-k0k0fG_M7YQhFZHeVgeN41XyUfIMMdcEM7IreXmv83fAfQB5aO6RG-QCJAViZoZzx3P3YhZX-0x4lcFodicKnEIz-ixpYn0qvT2WwwQT-qq243KztsQcbK26Of0/s400/IMG_3338.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Davis Vantage Pro 2 Weather Envoy Wireless - 6316</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj6WkRfgNRy74exYQB5w80oBUuyhoTMnYeGpQaNG3ILxO8zf4gptopjERGUeI90EbRnBS7ZaJcoWNdom0-xivV6RWe4tz9lXr_F3JeGbIk4QefXFGktMlocnLmMToV0iYaIteMtUZflY8/s400/IMG_3352.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Davis Vantage Pro 2 Weather Envoy Wireless - 6316 - Manual</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_raf2SHXGc__-U4vEKSerTAgtvIhdSBNpAeoYgVHOd4KUIsXcLy6wgq1pOz-Itw_Aro6t4gbrBjn-zx03VDyNCK0OKgCapaNHX-4a33uGrO7KaAIcNSo_JfRrLd9skIiUEbsT7nIfqHw/s1600/IMG_3354.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_raf2SHXGc__-U4vEKSerTAgtvIhdSBNpAeoYgVHOd4KUIsXcLy6wgq1pOz-Itw_Aro6t4gbrBjn-zx03VDyNCK0OKgCapaNHX-4a33uGrO7KaAIcNSo_JfRrLd9skIiUEbsT7nIfqHw/s400/IMG_3354.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Davis Vantage Pro 2 Weather Envoy Wireless - 6316 - Box Contents</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj6WkRfgNRy74exYQB5w80oBUuyhoTMnYeGpQaNG3ILxO8zf4gptopjERGUeI90EbRnBS7ZaJcoWNdom0-xivV6RWe4tz9lXr_F3JeGbIk4QefXFGktMlocnLmMToV0iYaIteMtUZflY8/s1600/IMG_3352.JPG"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHMjsGyiA6dS3XM9kJflmfv8xLGUi1HPdA5Z3x8XNBDZFcyo0W1EgNKQ44ZiZLsIY-nl5OYE3Z9ghW9Vw2CbOqKjzPDOy2VTTG-Ewm_icknlqqhRnxKRwBVhW_SjMOlEG4Fnbrq0Gm94k/s400/IMG_3355.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Davis Vantage Pro 2 Weather Envoy Wireless - 6316 - AC adapter</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC7YT5YjQSBzb612RyBv3PkQjVauXn0-O2iMvDdTenxbSxf6H7I0HnrAJif034uLC7Q2gw5k9DgxluQBO6Zeq0FChvt3wywpiw3I7CHFduJ5ZG7l2O8cHecMvocIPiMhmtYia4NeOOs_E/s400/IMG_3410.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Davis Vantage Pro 2 Weather Envoy Wireless - 6316 - Front with antenna</span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The envoy is a very compact unit that replaces the traditional LCD console. As with most things the dedicated consoles are nice for setup, but once things are connected to the internet, I usually never look at them again. I preferred this headless design, since the computer I wanted to hook it up to runs 24/7 in our basement. The unit is 6.5" x 3.75" x 1.5" thick and only weighs about 1/2 pound.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2z2vsQZhxLzXG5zD5zEpSunQ4OamYWKq9go59ujZMgPTgb0rycrxTA1nxmTjolPK2XL08hQNVwg4dL-arFX3Cy4ckQdjEFi7hicElIAX0E_llsUe6JV4yKDNH-oSSJ8fgC9YnklXoGyk/s400/IMG_3412.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Davis Vantage Pro 2 Weather Envoy Wireless - 6316 - Back with mounting screws</span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The back of the unit allows for wall mounting (screws included). The unit also has internal temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure sensors - so think about where you mount it. You can easily get another measurement, if you mount it somewhere where temperature and humidity are not influenced by it's surroundings (like not next to a computer server exhaust fan).</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH2TBDdmNmhwOZtr_UV5RsvrM2a1S1Cjg0yOflDmELZGrHjCQfXe8lnFPutoMMCqQlMma6qqXQqWlj7uXP0DP9gilySNJtAmbmbXN4duh1U8EppEjTG2wvzFNT-unxqsdpR9gpnA6LxNM/s400/IMG_3414.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">USB data logger plug side</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTJZYLDhdPdA7ZKIv80Rgt8kwK70LWuQDeaR9S52R4R8bMLTrraRIjNiNP9-n4Z7TgsG4F2o7yQ-UQ07vkiWU1mmcr5MhvyrRGdBPIc_fGgvATDajR73mk3vh10uc5C737RFFScgCdy-Q/s400/IMG_3415.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">USB data logger installed front side - chrome clip is to remove it after installation</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhClUKfgOjjaDu8fsP0dJv_JA97OLgU5pRfejm9iOvroZEVaGjQJRun3o8a7jGQFTnyqpMdBoJ270wA5eaeAjui5EzzJiLiDvrM0_7S-gX3QMZKeQTtYnQfF1ZhBw6_CyhMzGwAHNye2u4/s400/IMG_3418.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Davis Vantage Pro 2 Weather Envoy Wireless - 6316<br />Installed USB data logger (bottom)</span></td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhaH6tLN4otFlHxsmwz-eWbSCPhfYnrVVCqwmrS1c_jseBzAUHMsMFV-7dCQx_ayLvMoCHY-4CnNvygPBADRXteW5OwqJoZELZ2RvRR-ENa3kmnMYpTvZ_opp8h80mDjC4y7V2GBYpa4c/s400/IMG_3419.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Davis Vantage Pro 2 Weather Envoy Wireless - 6316<br />Installed 3 AA batteries (not included)</span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The USB data logger just pushes onto the circuit board of the Envoy. You have to remove the three screws on the back of the case and just push it down securely. The batteries are there to hold settings on the unit in the event of a power failure. The batteries provide 4 months of power for wireless units (only 1 month for cabled systems).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The unit beeps twice to let you know that everything powered up correctly.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjERajUwGxlnoV__j0qqJqZYnecMRT3z-zFhuQxJwTuOvgrICvrjHfneUboNA3A7mAcihlaisqlkgKSAkYVmNOxFv2HKQg7lpwR3NwfUVNBgtPekZd_kSTecTw0XfV2QLAo0jTBYxHCsVs/s400/IMG_3420.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Davis Vantage Pro 2 Weather Envoy Wireless - 6316 with USB datalogger and AC adapter installed</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI-VJ_sa5NyQNq6K3hZYKkc3jLZ3yV75mm42RWVsFXA1pJsVzaBYTj-XvjKIuUoUOJoswkQSycZuLWkBdd3ayn4TfHET-l-QX17E4SqsLrD-sNzaBEI5A3GwaaHQnYwdHP8bkEhI8zxcc/s400/IMG_3513.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Davis 6357 Vantage ISS mounted on pole in our backyard</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgp4KFyOYv4j-4z7M9aTfFc1exIuqfUEdRHZoanvlGQWvsURlCyn-tjvzoHOnZPTOS9ZwNB4ns8wo-5BQL8UMho5eUa27MKBMhlH4GoQ4Qup3wFEGVcV4VazUh0AAtK_B7IunFuEiIVqU/s400/IMG_3512.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Davis 6357 Vantage ISS - closeup of the sensor assembly</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Full Davis 6357 ISS sensor assembly (from the<a href="http://blog.trebacz.com/2012/12/davis-vantage-pro-2-envoy-vantage-vue.html" target="_blank"> first part of this blog post</a>) mounted on my back deck with the solar cell facing south.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitiU0t_tXOCtFNhPVgxrFLXbPrveGFPkKzZUkqiCi8-2wqYlEiduS87YOGb0CriEroRCJnifDQtAqc90T98cR3d_ZwGWv08j4fFVl2iNEwcuY_4OHNPhlrnZdDvGo0I7mXanin_xwRH-o/s400/IMG_3517.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fully assembled and mounted Davis Vantage Pro 2 Weather Envoy Wireless USB receiver</span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is a bit of a bonus that the Envoy also has an internal temperature and humidity sensor in it. This give me the ability to measure long term fluctuations of the temperature wherever you have it mounted. In my case I have long term monitoring of my basement temperature and humidity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Overall my review of the unboxing an assembly process went well. Davis had quick start guides that really gave me the essentials I needed to quickly put the system together. The pairing of the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/INSTRUMENTS-6357-Davis-Wireless-Integrated/dp/B00481TX32/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1473958303&sr=8-1&keywords=davis+6357&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=cfb989bcfeab49940b062abdf8609fbb" target="_blank">Davis 6357 wireless sensor assembly</a> and the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Davis-Instruments-6316-Wireless-Weather/dp/B00NA52WK8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1473958259&sr=8-1&keywords=davis+6316&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=b6d2a6cf5ef1e6022435d68250140721" target="_blank">headless 6316 Envoy</a> unit was simple and "just worked". I enjoyed that the computer weather station system is modular. I can add and subtract the elements I want to make a system that meets my needs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Later on if I want to add or upgrade a sensor, I think it will be just as easy. If I need a repair part I think that Davis will also always be there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You can see the data reported by this station at:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.trebacz.com/weather/index.html">https://www.trebacz.com/weather/index.html</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />
Please note that the software I'm running is an <a href="http://www.wviewweather.com/" target="_blank">wview open source weather software</a> and not the Windows WeatherLink software. I prefer more flexible software that will integrate with my websites easier and run my 24/7 Linux servers.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KAZFOUNT19"><img alt="Weather Underground PWS KAZFOUNT19" border="0" src="http://banners.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/banner/ban/wxBanner?bannertype=pws250&weatherstationcount=KAZFOUNT19" height="150" width="250" /></a></div>
Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-62457145325316379852012-12-26T18:13:00.002-07:002016-09-15T09:56:36.763-07:00Davis Vantage Pro 2 Envoy, Vantage VUE, and USB Weatherlink Unboxing<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I decided to take the plunge and buy a Davis Vantage VUE weather station for my house. I wanted a quality unit that I wouldn't have to mess around with that reported reliable results. I also didn't want to pay a fortune for what is really a hobby. I planned this to be the perfect compliment to the <a href="https://www.trebacz.com/mchenry_weather.htm" target="_blank">McHenry Illinois radar weather</a> that shows on my family website.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKXxUZ6tDpAqz1I4v0hac9kHqVHtGoK8PkdG9yP2brNaYM0EXLm1KxzcdrFfCc9vEQnVgKSJ1wpJwFldfTA5W7Me6vOHFD_rq9Z-BpCeAc4AyUeUmXF7PJl_SOlkFN11LgUHeaB54CkTg/s1600/IMG_3337.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKXxUZ6tDpAqz1I4v0hac9kHqVHtGoK8PkdG9yP2brNaYM0EXLm1KxzcdrFfCc9vEQnVgKSJ1wpJwFldfTA5W7Me6vOHFD_rq9Z-BpCeAc4AyUeUmXF7PJl_SOlkFN11LgUHeaB54CkTg/s400/IMG_3337.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ISS Sensors (big brown box - back), Weather Envoy (white box - left), and USB datalogger and software</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After talking with application specialist at <a href="http://www.davis.com/" target="_blank">Davis Instruments</a> I came to the conclusion that to meet my needs I needed:</span></div>
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<ol>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/INSTRUMENTS-6357-Davis-Wireless-Integrated/dp/B00481TX32/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1473958303&sr=8-1&keywords=davis+6357&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=19c8e994732c361855965e006eb0cb2a" target="_blank">Vantage Vue Wireless ISS (Integrated Sensor Suite)</a> -6357</span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Davis-Instruments-6316-Wireless-Weather/dp/B00NA52WK8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1473958259&sr=8-1&keywords=davis+6316&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=b9f6da0328786f47a6306934a4832a24" target="_blank">Vantage Pro2 Weather Envoy</a> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> - 6316 </span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Davis-Instruments-WeatherLink-USB-Software/dp/B001AMKC14/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1473955527&sr=8-1&keywords=davis+6510&linkCode=ll1&tag=trebacz-20&linkId=74c28bbe1a917f44e3a5ee5a28c26f08" target="_blank">USB data logger with WeatherLink software</a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> - 6510USB</span></li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For me this made sense, since I wanted:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To measure a variety of </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">outside</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> parameters</span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Publish frequent measurements to the web (always available anywhere from my smartphone) and measure long term weather trends</span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Convenience of wireless transmission from the sensors to my computer</span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Clean installation. I didn't want or need the traditional LCD console (plenty of </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">computers, phones and tablets in my </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">house)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ability to easily publish weather station data to 3rd party websites to help the community</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What follows is a review of the products and the assembly of the system.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<ul>
</ul>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhf9fxWkzkdBwrRZZG6KSzM2h1XtVV7vxHwP_wYPW6ku4FixFcZZgtLHyA1_uVBagvIXybsE9sVkx7G7yaTlxR2irk8C-mLjDuniXV-yAGjL5AZ4xyQAqXIFaS8pkHMtfBZ9JLUpbL-Ro/s1600/IMG_3339.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhf9fxWkzkdBwrRZZG6KSzM2h1XtVV7vxHwP_wYPW6ku4FixFcZZgtLHyA1_uVBagvIXybsE9sVkx7G7yaTlxR2irk8C-mLjDuniXV-yAGjL5AZ4xyQAqXIFaS8pkHMtfBZ9JLUpbL-Ro/s400/IMG_3339.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Davis 6357 Vantage ISS</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR4IJ80yjH9BeJOCWpkK9DoDMF_FELEgH8eKzj-PXaiDqfcJjqECyAAcYi5dTdr7QniPNc2YzQLsHCtcaGSEDORUVsNL__Ek0eEop8hHTlkjZ9t487EJoqV4WBf2koKHiiX1GCVC8dS94/s1600/IMG_3357.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR4IJ80yjH9BeJOCWpkK9DoDMF_FELEgH8eKzj-PXaiDqfcJjqECyAAcYi5dTdr7QniPNc2YzQLsHCtcaGSEDORUVsNL__Ek0eEop8hHTlkjZ9t487EJoqV4WBf2koKHiiX1GCVC8dS94/s400/IMG_3357.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Davis 6357 Vantage ISS Instructions, Wind Direction, and Wind Speed Sensor</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJervQkjtkn_uedrbdY8H2ZfejmQPxwLpDZ-9D5so28bj7iYkIlSLrFa7F2B1Huoxne23S19HR5UgiXYvjXX5UzajlP7a8cMtws_9NDKeqdfbr0OqCBTiop-lqssNzwL6tOUny1rD5odk/s1600/IMG_3359.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJervQkjtkn_uedrbdY8H2ZfejmQPxwLpDZ-9D5so28bj7iYkIlSLrFa7F2B1Huoxne23S19HR5UgiXYvjXX5UzajlP7a8cMtws_9NDKeqdfbr0OqCBTiop-lqssNzwL6tOUny1rD5odk/s400/IMG_3359.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Davis 6357 Vantage ISS sensor array, rain sensor, and mounting hardware</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6VH0CFP1VsrjfgSnurxWA8MWaZPbM63sDzlkM2JlgEqf7XTdYI1N5nW5rgKVoJnx0hLWgPIMqO53dnQKHV1e374KjcNUH3V0cRhsVcjmHcySSI6QqomVDY7Fa985qWZoMLUM0Zu_NNQE/s1600/IMG_3362.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6VH0CFP1VsrjfgSnurxWA8MWaZPbM63sDzlkM2JlgEqf7XTdYI1N5nW5rgKVoJnx0hLWgPIMqO53dnQKHV1e374KjcNUH3V0cRhsVcjmHcySSI6QqomVDY7Fa985qWZoMLUM0Zu_NNQE/s400/IMG_3362.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Davis 6357 Vantage ISS - all parts from the box</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfAv21rLgfbIQmln28jCuP46xWrLO1Baf-DlxJKtaTwgkpio1Q82n6tr5ndLAe0he_AbLOXOvLORa0NuMWBaZOMlnX0iH5k5eNQAbYhboKnORBGChyphenhyphen4Gn-wZWVY1-kAVdq4anTwAMmf_M/s1600/IMG_3363.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfAv21rLgfbIQmln28jCuP46xWrLO1Baf-DlxJKtaTwgkpio1Q82n6tr5ndLAe0he_AbLOXOvLORa0NuMWBaZOMlnX0iH5k5eNQAbYhboKnORBGChyphenhyphen4Gn-wZWVY1-kAVdq4anTwAMmf_M/s400/IMG_3363.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wind Speed cups up close</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSZ906mjptq7kQ60CPjxJg_OPXAjtLmv4ep25iCVOfxx58ygVZIAU8vcQUzD9m0I_mIiv1YY74EQqe0xrJXVxS84CrvmUCrgB0cIl-LnB7vx3mXNOIs2kPB6L4uJamVapS03UMrYTpQ_U/s1600/IMG_3364.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSZ906mjptq7kQ60CPjxJg_OPXAjtLmv4ep25iCVOfxx58ygVZIAU8vcQUzD9m0I_mIiv1YY74EQqe0xrJXVxS84CrvmUCrgB0cIl-LnB7vx3mXNOIs2kPB6L4uJamVapS03UMrYTpQ_U/s400/IMG_3364.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Solar panel - minimizes battery use by the sensors<br />Level bubble (top) helps assure level sensor mounting</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The solar panel is a pretty neat design. With it facing southern sunlight you are supposed to be able to get greater than 2 years from the CR-123 lithium battery. Eventually I want to mount ours on our roof and getting up there to change a battery to frequently would be a real pain. The battery is rated at 8 months with no sunlight.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMwP5CBBY_6Wcd6VD4egXKKqEXJ5sFoUVIVbcr_SYx9CkTgOY6wKpVEvrMTtYsTu70rpHvRdklOIulZKvXM-D5AWIPNZPuKmHEfgCxfnjvfJIR8fJsob02fQ4XzTK9qxrbUSWqk3V4SZQ/s1600/IMG_3366.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMwP5CBBY_6Wcd6VD4egXKKqEXJ5sFoUVIVbcr_SYx9CkTgOY6wKpVEvrMTtYsTu70rpHvRdklOIulZKvXM-D5AWIPNZPuKmHEfgCxfnjvfJIR8fJsob02fQ4XzTK9qxrbUSWqk3V4SZQ/s400/IMG_3366.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bottom of Davis 6357 Vantage ISS with nothing installed</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjl8fCMXGKqmFmlxlP5aaGMbfRa-EMV5FJmThd-7cRDX1ERvQnm1e3ccG4_ii_FWWJgGPLKA6uAdYXmpFarRBm-M5g7erTNtzWquo6dOynwWiCvr9Q5dPgDmJ_bVUqyDiTmHCGCs2GqM0/s1600/IMG_3387.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjl8fCMXGKqmFmlxlP5aaGMbfRa-EMV5FJmThd-7cRDX1ERvQnm1e3ccG4_ii_FWWJgGPLKA6uAdYXmpFarRBm-M5g7erTNtzWquo6dOynwWiCvr9Q5dPgDmJ_bVUqyDiTmHCGCs2GqM0/s400/IMG_3387.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Top of Davis 6357 Vantage ISS with nothing installed</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4k2ZvQsaef9qF9F4mkvLv5ogbJHVAHtraYY6mfWyvTlvzPtkY1G20yy0mRtZW9hHzuQreS4YdwVXhAMYNxD523PGd_GI0ArrjUp_p5m2QoU51Q5ZjH9wsxnukfxW1rW30FYqEYC0kGkA/s1600/IMG_3371.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4k2ZvQsaef9qF9F4mkvLv5ogbJHVAHtraYY6mfWyvTlvzPtkY1G20yy0mRtZW9hHzuQreS4YdwVXhAMYNxD523PGd_GI0ArrjUp_p5m2QoU51Q5ZjH9wsxnukfxW1rW30FYqEYC0kGkA/s400/IMG_3371.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Small parts and hardware for ISS</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The sensor assembly had good quality components and everything I needed included.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhONkenmE5VFPY8R22JPYv9HOw_wfOvz1GqH6K-_zWFvliZjF0pr0UlEea_-PZVrBwe_YNLsNU7lorZKRXkIaYUWgEEr4kniUkpEFwxO61LnKAwVsurEzOnD4OSvDm-CcnViFj4NiuX4ps/s1600/IMG_3385.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhONkenmE5VFPY8R22JPYv9HOw_wfOvz1GqH6K-_zWFvliZjF0pr0UlEea_-PZVrBwe_YNLsNU7lorZKRXkIaYUWgEEr4kniUkpEFwxO61LnKAwVsurEzOnD4OSvDm-CcnViFj4NiuX4ps/s400/IMG_3385.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First step - securing the wind speed cups onto the sensor array with the supplied hex wrench</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgilbgRIAOMNR36sTGbUt1pOc_Abfb7fmTmUiI8c3pYzGt8OLeQmKByn12xK3ApxuSDoxxtY7A3dw8Riqt0pMsoB2HvlnEZdxfKeRfobN-Bo9axndB1Bp13ZS_-LsWlt7fbcauoR5oPRhc/s1600/IMG_3375.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgilbgRIAOMNR36sTGbUt1pOc_Abfb7fmTmUiI8c3pYzGt8OLeQmKByn12xK3ApxuSDoxxtY7A3dw8Riqt0pMsoB2HvlnEZdxfKeRfobN-Bo9axndB1Bp13ZS_-LsWlt7fbcauoR5oPRhc/s400/IMG_3375.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Slotted shaft where the wind direction vane mounts on the bottom of the ISS</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1qrsv9DEXaKWIjPhN7Oc11_ksAfw331Z62cpVlyVmyF6bdFYf1NNYkduxMxaNB9hi6U_QleKvqrby_syf29YwODzoellj_d9kTfIC4pBB5JBjO9bu85jgrRzt2dgqQRcOWjCL9Jj0MOs/s1600/IMG_3379.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1qrsv9DEXaKWIjPhN7Oc11_ksAfw331Z62cpVlyVmyF6bdFYf1NNYkduxMxaNB9hi6U_QleKvqrby_syf29YwODzoellj_d9kTfIC4pBB5JBjO9bu85jgrRzt2dgqQRcOWjCL9Jj0MOs/s400/IMG_3379.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tightening the wind direction sensor with the included allen wrench</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuVa7-BcOmo6xhx71Gt4dHlLyVEBQ9HRVOb_Z8zjyoiyeIRdnSwew7Kg6VHghSzzE0R_PUL2Pt6V5noOq79dgtLhs3ZbxX9pVd5sjb1WIiXrK67j5-ia8cQeb0KbuHUEimmQ_pDBYAl1E/s1600/IMG_3391.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuVa7-BcOmo6xhx71Gt4dHlLyVEBQ9HRVOb_Z8zjyoiyeIRdnSwew7Kg6VHghSzzE0R_PUL2Pt6V5noOq79dgtLhs3ZbxX9pVd5sjb1WIiXrK67j5-ia8cQeb0KbuHUEimmQ_pDBYAl1E/s400/IMG_3391.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tipping Bucket Rain Gauge (7345.280) assembly - before installation</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The rain collector assembly is real easy to fit into the housing. It also seems like it would be easy to replace if it were ever to have a problem. It's a tipping spoon type with 0.01" resolution.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCmsdNgFKz4SmGmnQuODXCwst6B8SRHPbSjGclLHi6348HXqcO_oy8UB464-0h46KJqn6htM0MYOLKlTRPUzLrngJwx0xsxY8fVTSPgBN4qVekI4JEgw29vKrIVYRa-U9l41QPpMsULs/s1600/IMG_3393.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCmsdNgFKz4SmGmnQuODXCwst6B8SRHPbSjGclLHi6348HXqcO_oy8UB464-0h46KJqn6htM0MYOLKlTRPUzLrngJwx0xsxY8fVTSPgBN4qVekI4JEgw29vKrIVYRa-U9l41QPpMsULs/s400/IMG_3393.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bottom of Davis 6357 Vantage ISS showing where the Rain Gauge is installed</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixg0Xkjq3Cw0HF6btI7n-ed5-IxJRfKhHh36hXxwmiTrddZD_3grneakFxMZte7mdE4Ez0VQy52ZLvNvRwCqORX6_JE8auq8Gv_613T1YuMSXDvbvBVyNiOh6FHEJve5Jz1cEU5m__Cw0/s1600/IMG_3394.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixg0Xkjq3Cw0HF6btI7n-ed5-IxJRfKhHh36hXxwmiTrddZD_3grneakFxMZte7mdE4Ez0VQy52ZLvNvRwCqORX6_JE8auq8Gv_613T1YuMSXDvbvBVyNiOh6FHEJve5Jz1cEU5m__Cw0/s400/IMG_3394.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Davis 6357 Vantage ISS Rain Gauge installs with a thumb screw</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp1bTqcgmZl4Km9Z3aBcpdVq5z78qIX7PAEdYpLqWU9FMt_UEvMzsFVxwfXUka2y0LTg0w0qbLX9DvgC-20xdg6AdyGmF6QGXgQi-0h5-cXMjlBX5pA5iMV0DqS0q_6IsqqzuacwnQP_E/s1600/IMG_3396.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp1bTqcgmZl4Km9Z3aBcpdVq5z78qIX7PAEdYpLqWU9FMt_UEvMzsFVxwfXUka2y0LTg0w0qbLX9DvgC-20xdg6AdyGmF6QGXgQi-0h5-cXMjlBX5pA5iMV0DqS0q_6IsqqzuacwnQP_E/s400/IMG_3396.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Installing the little black plastic debris shield for the rain gauge collector</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil9fFikAgmHPV9Pcu161KDPgT5rGOX83E6O2zZ9lwf5qEjztZJUbAFzbFH3qKw_hwqld2rU1BqfiNOQ9cratGmn7BqWGev58K3-sFKQz65etmuEwr1m9w3_i7B4AeHnKVfNIUiXwoIc4s/s1600/IMG_3407.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil9fFikAgmHPV9Pcu161KDPgT5rGOX83E6O2zZ9lwf5qEjztZJUbAFzbFH3qKw_hwqld2rU1BqfiNOQ9cratGmn7BqWGev58K3-sFKQz65etmuEwr1m9w3_i7B4AeHnKVfNIUiXwoIc4s/s400/IMG_3407.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Inserted the battery and the sensor array LED began blinking green</span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Once the unit is powered up it needs at least 10 minutes to connect up with the Envoy (or the console). The two units need to be at least 10 feet away from each other while their locating each other. Since I only had one sensor and Envoy, the defaults were great and found each other with no hassles.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNBqEYKfmmE0X26agQV1Svhs7Q9pyHW2hcDnVwv8zfNULnAfkrQbMUg_w_Qsjc8derePU9oz3gwBNzhcayqeMLYqLzGzSIv-Zy6RkXyI303U0iBMa1pBua6EN_h-Zh1lEQsypGKL3E5Zc/s1600/IMG_3409.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNBqEYKfmmE0X26agQV1Svhs7Q9pyHW2hcDnVwv8zfNULnAfkrQbMUg_w_Qsjc8derePU9oz3gwBNzhcayqeMLYqLzGzSIv-Zy6RkXyI303U0iBMa1pBua6EN_h-Zh1lEQsypGKL3E5Zc/s400/IMG_3409.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Installed the stainless steel mounting hardware (1 u-bolt, 2 washers, 2 nuts, and a bar)</span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Next part of the unboxing is the <a href="http://blog.trebacz.com/2012/12/davis-vantage-pro-2-envoy-vantage-vue_26.html" target="_blank">Vantage Pro2 Weather Envoy 6316 and the USB datalogger and WeatherLink software</a>. I also have some pictures of the final sensor assembly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />
You can see the data reported by this station at:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.trebacz.com/weather/index.html">https://www.trebacz.com/weather/index.html</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />
Please note that the software I'm running is an <a href="http://www.wviewweather.com/" target="_blank">wview open source weather software</a> and not the Windows WeatherLink software. I prefer more flexible software that will integrate with my websites easier and run my 24/7 Linux servers.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;">
<img alt="Weather Underground PWS KAZFOUNT19" border="0" src="http://banners.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/banner/ban/wxBanner?bannertype=wxstnsticker&weatherstationcount=KAZFOUNT19" height="160" width="160" /><a href="http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KAZFOUNT19"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></a></div>
Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-63745677886490626282012-12-21T15:13:00.000-07:002014-02-08T08:04:40.150-07:00How to Fix Leaking Moen High Arc Kitchen Faucet -DIY<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our Moen high arc kitchen faucet started to leak around the base of the high spout. We had the Moen Monticello 7700 series single handle faucet for 8 years and it still looked great, it just developed a leak around the base of the spout. Looking at the <a href="http://www.trebacz.com/Instruction%20Manuals/Moen%20Single%20Handle%20Kitchen%20Faucet%207700%20Series%20Instructions.pdf" target="_blank">Moen Monticello 7700 series faucet instruction manual</a> this kitchen faucet has a lifetime guarantee for homeowners and there is an o-ring (#25 in the parts diagram) that is likely the source of the leak. Use the exploded diagram on page 2 of the manual to get the part numbers in the rest of the article.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZkCvF_pzlgU4jJ6ZzSvXfsa7NU48bO1lFVU2UGqraklvi-SIBov8qYos8hTbGQAp0PQjuNauk2En_fyrsy_FF-fKeuAqzDidRrJ4_VwUok7Madu6P4C-X0g0Htc1U5kddkAIB2hHvldI/s1600/2012-12-21_10-53-05_562.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZkCvF_pzlgU4jJ6ZzSvXfsa7NU48bO1lFVU2UGqraklvi-SIBov8qYos8hTbGQAp0PQjuNauk2En_fyrsy_FF-fKeuAqzDidRrJ4_VwUok7Madu6P4C-X0g0Htc1U5kddkAIB2hHvldI/s400/2012-12-21_10-53-05_562.jpg" height="311" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moen 700 Series Single Handle High Arc Kitchen Faucet</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The high arc faucet would leak around the base for several hours after being shut off. It came from the water that was in the spout assembly after shutting the faucet off.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQV6w7gnUUnZgau9TiEF5Yqm3VLBINSrJb_1ltLL7gWV7SqMLADq4ruMz143d5rR93GGyXwgHdhlDIh9jstecqoSxSSfwtEi7zoITTeAy5pHbrgW4H6T6TRtbxp8oOKfQQr3DYt7qyE6M/s1600/IMG_20121221_092853.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQV6w7gnUUnZgau9TiEF5Yqm3VLBINSrJb_1ltLL7gWV7SqMLADq4ruMz143d5rR93GGyXwgHdhlDIh9jstecqoSxSSfwtEi7zoITTeAy5pHbrgW4H6T6TRtbxp8oOKfQQr3DYt7qyE6M/s400/IMG_20121221_092853.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Water Leaked Out of the Spout Nut at the Base of the Cathedral Spout Assembly</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I called the 800 number at 1-800-289-6636 and requested an o-ring kit for the faucet (think ours is model 7730). They sent it out no charge in about 10 days. It included the o-ring that was leaking, the plastic bushing that keeps the faucet steady, and a packet of silicone grease to lubricate it when putting it back together.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy4-lLrYJZhWdkW6HS7zzYqAh6_wb5SJSer36k8Mrza_4Gn56L-jLjiReRsPqpadbNDzLDrd_n9ojDrwnqemJYjVZS2wOIgGxya18hUcN3cDd23HMmC4p1hyphenhyphenow8pQDgUcf-weBpgCHnqI/s1600/IMG_20121221_094356.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy4-lLrYJZhWdkW6HS7zzYqAh6_wb5SJSer36k8Mrza_4Gn56L-jLjiReRsPqpadbNDzLDrd_n9ojDrwnqemJYjVZS2wOIgGxya18hUcN3cDd23HMmC4p1hyphenhyphenow8pQDgUcf-weBpgCHnqI/s400/IMG_20121221_094356.jpg" height="400" width="337" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Free Warranty Replacement O-ring Kit</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To keep from marring or scratching the faucet when I took it apart I used a <a href="http://www.menards.com/main/tools-hardware/hand-tools/wrenches/2-piece-strap-wrench-set/p-1730157-c-9157.htm" target="_blank">pair of strap wrenches</a> that I bought at Menards ($3 for the pair). They worked great since the calcium build up had made the faucet threads very tight. Using the strap wrenches, I could get a grip on the chrome, without scratching the chrome surface. When I first removed the nut, I needed to use both the small and large wrench to loosen the spout nut (#26) without spinning the spout deck ring (#30).</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgETj6I4KXkscpqUoQgkwn6VNGEuHDEa-QNf_MwLg_Rhny39LRZI6M6lwU4rZJDXEqIPVHzB0-VIEdqtwtka0DCxuOIh-ShgeurJb1OxfCTsIpON9zo_jjH5zZSVOFYSQK8VsuFrkVScZY/s1600/IMG_20121221_094421.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgETj6I4KXkscpqUoQgkwn6VNGEuHDEa-QNf_MwLg_Rhny39LRZI6M6lwU4rZJDXEqIPVHzB0-VIEdqtwtka0DCxuOIh-ShgeurJb1OxfCTsIpON9zo_jjH5zZSVOFYSQK8VsuFrkVScZY/s400/IMG_20121221_094421.jpg" height="233" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Adjustable Strap Wrench</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI-JW-quqGhslsguh1tAGtTwNhOZXmLjcnZvi3yCN4G1jlnS_HI_6iymX0L9bKhR8E6I83xdd2FgONs6KgPKb01kSojMRGlHwhj4rjn64WzEtWQo1RsZgf4dvBXV5qKqyUC4L1awTe9EE/s1600/IMG_20121221_094431.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI-JW-quqGhslsguh1tAGtTwNhOZXmLjcnZvi3yCN4G1jlnS_HI_6iymX0L9bKhR8E6I83xdd2FgONs6KgPKb01kSojMRGlHwhj4rjn64WzEtWQo1RsZgf4dvBXV5qKqyUC4L1awTe9EE/s400/IMG_20121221_094431.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Teeth Grip the Rubber when Tightening (or Loosening)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The rest of the faucet repair process is shot on video (below). It literally took me about 5 minutes once I had the free replacement parts from Moen to fix the leaky faucet.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/FXrx9l4NCwk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope it helps you fix you leaky high arc kitchen faucet, with a minimal amount of effort and cost. After replacing the o-ring and plastic ring the faucet felt pretty much like brand new.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">UPDATE 2-9-2014:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On this same Moen faucet I needed to replace the cartridge. It had started to drip a little and it was getting hard to move the sigle handle. If you have a similar problem check out my <a href="http://blog.trebacz.com/2014/02/moen-1225-kitchen-faucet-cartridge.html">blog and video on replacing the Moen 1225 cartridge</a> that's in the main handle of this faucet. It also pretty simple to do yourself.</span>Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549773870769460443.post-61561611025314510722012-11-25T12:20:00.000-07:002012-11-25T12:21:09.590-07:00Using BackUpPC and Rsync to Backup Macbook Pro Mountain Lion OS<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My daughter got a MacBook Pro for college. She studying journalism and photography at Drake University and a Apple computer was heavily suggested for the magazine curriculum. So we dutifully went out and got a cool MacBook Pro. A big change for us since all of our machines are currently run Microsoft Windows and Ubuntu Linux.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When she came home over Thanksgiving break, I decided to set up backuppc to also back up her local files when she was at home. Using backuppc it's nicely transparent to everyone involved. For me it's one central server that backs up all of our PC's and just one place I need to manage storage (I just added a <a href="http://blog.trebacz.com/2012/10/upgrading-my-1tb-linux-mirror-raid-to.html">3TB drive to the mirror array</a>). Should be pretty simple, since it's all linux underneath.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Essentially the process was:</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Exchange public SSH keys between the two machines (MacBookPro and backuppc server) and enabled SSH on the MacBook. Took me almost as much time to figure how to fire up a terminal session. <a href="http://gerwick.ucsd.edu/backuppc_manual/backuppc_mac_home.html">http://gerwick.ucsd.edu/backuppc_manual/backuppc_mac_home.html</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Secure SSH to not allow password logins and changed port that SSH runs under for some obscurity.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Change the network name on the Macbook Pro from "Allisons-MacBook-Pro.local" to be properly passed to my network (less than 15 characters) "Allisons-Mac.local". Apparently there are some issues on OS X passing on long names to DNS servers. <a href="http://techtips.salon.com/change-apple-mac-computer-name-537.html">http://techtips.salon.com/change-apple-mac-computer-name-537.html</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Used ping to test connectivity from the backuppc server to her MacBook:</span></li>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ping Allisons-Mac.local</span></blockquote>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SSH into the Macintosh from the backuppc server as the backuppc user, just to test the connection (accept the fingerprint) and make sure no password is required to login.</span></li>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ssh allisontrebacz@Allisons-Mac.local -p 8080</span></blockquote>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Setup the new host (Allisons-Mac.local) on the backuppc server:</span></li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie3tbKHALsLv59hGSglL-e_FrhHViWOOH5nZiEh41o66V05IZbczSpFkPceofPTyZCT9q6ehRQyXB3un4Sw5kZmtgTkWrTc6pbsSk-ZCEi9_J-qtPxAzWuBwcwhA2i5JPOgd5qKohWHwI/s1600/Allisons-Mac-Backuppc.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie3tbKHALsLv59hGSglL-e_FrhHViWOOH5nZiEh41o66V05IZbczSpFkPceofPTyZCT9q6ehRQyXB3un4Sw5kZmtgTkWrTc6pbsSk-ZCEi9_J-qtPxAzWuBwcwhA2i5JPOgd5qKohWHwI/s320/Allisons-Mac-Backuppc.png" width="307" /></span></a></div>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Made the host backup method rsync.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Changed the default script to backup only the /Users directory.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Modified the script backuppc uses to use the new SSH port and the user name that it runs under (not sure if this is needed).</span></li>
</ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Started the full backup and things seem to be working fine.</span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next time she comes home from break she will get a full backup when she connects to the network.</span>Trebaczhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03627466539061350933noreply@blogger.com0