Entropy

Relax in southern comfort on the east bank of the Mississippi. You're just around the corner from Beale Street and Sun Records. Watch the ducks, throw back a few and tell us what's on your mind.
User avatar
JR.
Posts: 3697
Joined: Sat May 24, 2008 7:21 pm
Contact:

Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

DSCF0086 copy 2.JPG
It is a little hard to see but this is one of 3 different silt filter experiments I have running. Water is moving slowly from left to right and I perceive a reduction in silt deposited to the immediate right of the filter in that picture... there is a leaf blocking part of the view but I did not remove it because that would stir up the silt. The lighter color is where the cleaner filtered water output is flowing.
-------
The water flow is slowing but still coming, lots of dry leaves blowing into the open trench blocking flow.
-------
I don't see an obvious winner among the different silt filters yet but I can start fine and go coarse later. All seem to be doing something.

JR
Cancel the "cancel culture", do not support mob hatred.
User avatar
JR.
Posts: 3697
Joined: Sat May 24, 2008 7:21 pm
Contact:

Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

In no surprise to anybody Frank III turned on 15 minutes later than the stock one solar cell lamp but in a slight surprise to me, despite dropping the inductor in half (two in series) vs Frank II's two in parallel, there is no perceptible drop in brightness... I suspect this is by design as they bang the LED with a narrow current pulse and expect persistence of the human eye to stretch out that light impression... (or not).

This is a pleasant result so far...

next test is to see how long it stays just as bright... If more than 15 minutes longer than stock I have a solid win... :lol:

JR
[edit- it looks like we have a winner... almost midnight and Frank III is still at full brightness... The stock unit is already down to about half brightness and fading fast. We'll see how long it stays lit. /edit]

[edit2- at 1:30AM Frank III was still full brightness, and stock unit was dark... by 3:30AM both were dark. This is initially counter-intuitive but apparently inductor size affects lamp current draw more than battery charging, and higher efficiency of modern white LEDs are happy with less current. /edit]
Cancel the "cancel culture", do not support mob hatred.
User avatar
JR.
Posts: 3697
Joined: Sat May 24, 2008 7:21 pm
Contact:

Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

My last critical component (12" drain box) arrived this AM. Only purchase still short is 25' of pipe, but I have cleared 2x 25' of old pipe I can reuse.

Weather report calls for 1/2" rain tomorrow so it looks like today is time to fish or cut bait.

I can see the high spots in the trench and bottom is hard clay... The trench is deep enough it is hard to get my foot on the shovel to dig out the hard clay, but today is the time to finish leveling the high spots.

JR
[edit-- ran out of daylight so we'll see... weather report says rain beginning at 7AM ,,, I hope they are wrong /edit]

[edit2 cold and light rain... so working inside today... First course of pipe is down in the trench but not locked down. I need to dig bigger hole for 12" drain box. So far rain is light, but increased water flow in ditches. [/edit]
Cancel the "cancel culture", do not support mob hatred.
User avatar
JR.
Posts: 3697
Joined: Sat May 24, 2008 7:21 pm
Contact:

Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

Still wet... duh...
---
Frank III is still spanking stock solar lamp but on dark/cloudy days like today we are lucky to get 3 hours after dark,,, stock solar lamp <2 hours.
----
Ran out of daylight but got first course of pipe into the trench friday night before the rain.

Saturday the rain said nope not good enough... So I pulled it out again to reset.

Today I gave it another try... My plan for two courses of pipe was over/under, but managed to lay down two pipes side-by-side for top 50' of trench. The rest was mostly over-under with low pipe always lower. The solid pipes should support a siphon effect once full of water, but upper pipe won't start flowing by itself at current modest back ditch level, lower pipe flowing slowly now.

In a deja vu repeat of 12 years ago, the pipes were trying to float in water still in the trench. I managed to pin them down and dump enough dirt on top to hold them down.

Water is slowly coming out of downhill end of the lower pipe, high pipe is still dry. It appears I may have too much silt filtering in place (two filters in series on each drain box), but I will try not to mess with it until after things are drier.
DSCF0092.JPG
Picture of both drain boxes at top of drain pipes.

Just like last time I have run out of patience... I am optimistic this will be much better than first time.

JR
Cancel the "cancel culture", do not support mob hatred.
User avatar
JR.
Posts: 3697
Joined: Sat May 24, 2008 7:21 pm
Contact:

Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

Very clear water, slowly trickling out bottom end of lower pipe, but still standing water in back ditch higher than the drain pickup levels...

I am having a hard time not ripping out the silt filters. The fact that outdoor temperature is in 40s is helping me resist for now. :lol:

[edit

Temperature rose all the way to 49' :D

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy and my silt filters were a fine plan, that worked to keep silt out of the pipe, alas too well. There was clean water coming out the bottom of the drain pipe but only a trickle.

I just removed both silt filters from the low pipe and the back rain ditch is now draining. 8-) Water is now moving from back to mid, and mid to front as it should. Not a massive flow, but significant and I can already see back ditch water levels dropping.

I just opened a celebratory (half gallon) bottle of beer...
just1beer.pdf
(478.04 KiB) Downloaded 290 times
[/edit]

JR
Cancel the "cancel culture", do not support mob hatred.
User avatar
JR.
Posts: 3697
Joined: Sat May 24, 2008 7:21 pm
Contact:

Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

Just knocked off another repair.... My touch tone phone at my computer desk has been squirrelly making odd noises instead of tone for years. I was recently tangled up when the credit card company robo called me to approve a questionable purchase by pressing the #1 button and I couldn't. :oops:

I just tore into it, and was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to fix... the 3x4 keypad has one switch closure per row, and one switch closure per column... these open contact switches are on the outside edges of the keypad for relatively easy access.

I purchased my phone set in 1985 but it was probably in use by me for at least a decade before that and perhaps not even new when I first got it. Back then phones used to be phone company property and not for sale.

I used some 400 grit sandpaper on one of the difficult contacts but they look like a pretty robust design

Phone is now working perfectly, but I spent about an hour scrubbing decades of grime off it. :lol:

Chalk up another win.

JR

PS: I just bought another book of forever stamps, price is going up later this month. :lol:
Cancel the "cancel culture", do not support mob hatred.
User avatar
JR.
Posts: 3697
Joined: Sat May 24, 2008 7:21 pm
Contact:

Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

The never ending rain ditch project is slowly reaching a denouement, mission creep and plan flip flops have not completely stopped but as I button this puppy up there are less opportunities for changes.
DSCF0099.JPG
This is the mid side ditch drain boxes after water has already receded a couple inches from today's 1" rain storm. You can see the white cloth silt filter on the top grill of the 9" drain but it is already loading up with dirt. I removed the last filters from 12" box yesterday. That white pail is my experimental silt trap... I need to dig my silt pool deeper so pail can sit upright in the center, but not until ditch dries up some more, so I don't just create more loose silt to clog my pipes.
DSCF0100.JPG
Looking down from the top of the trench you can see top 50' already closed. Still open between 50' and 75' and open below 100'. I widened the trench and laid it down side by side all the way out to 100'. In the upper right of the picture is the old pipe full of sand. Too heavy to easily lift... I should cut it up into a few sections to drag it to the street for pickup next month, but may just muscle it out there. Not that far to go. :lol:
DSCF0101.JPG
Not easy to see in this still picture but this is looking at 100' from drain box. There is water flowing in the open trench. While not apparent the high pipe is on the right, the low pipe on the left. The last 25' of both are slitted pipe and since the high pipe goes over the low pipe just below here, water is just leaking out of the high pipe into the open trench. If I was more of a perfectionist I would widen the trench the last 25' to lay them down side by side... still to be determined. I probably won't. :lol:

The good news is I have several months for the grass to recover.

JR
Cancel the "cancel culture", do not support mob hatred.
User avatar
mediatechnology
Posts: 5437
Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2007 2:34 pm
Location: Oak Cliff, Texas
Contact:

Re: Entropy

Post by mediatechnology »

Does it ever stop raining?
User avatar
JR.
Posts: 3697
Joined: Sat May 24, 2008 7:21 pm
Contact:

Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

mediatechnology wrote: Sat Jan 19, 2019 6:57 pm Does it ever stop raining?
Looks like no rain again until..... Tuesday. :lol:

JR
[edit I hate to admit it, but I am seriously considering widening the last 25'. It would be easier if I pull both pipes out of the trench, instead of widening trench with one pipe still in. If I go this way, I need to finish this before tuesday (next forecast rain).

Of course water still draining from back ditches. It hasn't stopped flowing since I laid down the low pipe last week.
[/edit]
[edit2 just checked and high pipe is floating in open section between 50'-75' so I need to pin that down,, already some sand under it, that will have to stay there. Too cold to work out there right now but maybe in a few hours.

drains have pulled water down another inch lower and water flowing from far back toward mid side drain and out front culvert because far back has nowhere lower for water to go. So drain is fully functional again, but I see silt accumulation already. :x /edit2]
Cancel the "cancel culture", do not support mob hatred.
Gold
Posts: 676
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 5:20 pm

Re: Entropy

Post by Gold »

Tons of snow in the Adirondacks. I wish I was there. Here are a couple shots from Thanksgiving.

10586BDA-DF4E-464A-89CB-F5DEAB10225A.jpeg
7688C5DE-DB8F-4802-887D-716DE8A64C3E.jpeg
Post Reply