The Age of Miracles and Wonders

I've been in audio geek mode the past week or so.

The Guinea Pigs sound system lost a monitor amplifier at our last gig - one of two ancient amps that Dan trucks around, and I volunteered to pick up a solid-state replacement that could feed both mains and monitors. I'm slowly building up my own PA system (having previously purchased a mixer, snake, monitor speakers, and accessories), so added a 500W / Channel solid state amplifier at low cost, and a wooden rack to mount it in. I feel very professional.

That got me thinking about Om Street: Yoga on LaSalle Road - I'm the audio engineer in charge, and have been running a "two amplifier" system there for a few years (with digital delay to control echoes for the satellite system, 200' down the road). So while I was prepping and messing with the new amp, I picked up some way too inexpensive (seemingly) speaker cables: 2 x 30' Speakon-to-1/2" ($12.50 per) and 2 x 15' 1/4"-to-1/4" ($12 per) and some 1/4" couplers - which will give me some additional flexibility when setting things up this July. The cables came in today and I spent some time unwrapping them, marking them (I use blue tape on the ends of my cables, and blue velcro ties), and stowing them in the gack bags and bins. 

And while I was at it, I picked up an old audio engineers bible, The Sound Reinforcement Handbook by Gary Davis. (which apparently you can download for free online at PDF Shack - not sure if that's legit or not, but with a 1988 printing date, I am sure they've made their money by now. I'd just as soon have it in print, old school like.

A lot of what's in the handbook will be, I am sure old hat to me, but there are a few things I'd like to learn more about - compression, tone control for various instruments (drums, guitars, voice), speaker placement, etc. I've picked up some stuff over the years; as a musician with electric guitars and basses, as a utility and computer geek at various corporate productions. But always more to learn.

As I lay on the couch reading this afternoon, I thought about how many fun toys I have at my fingertips, in my arsenal these days. I've got a portable o-scope that interfaces with a laptop. I've got a signal generator, both a hardware version and an app on my phone. I've got a kicking audio signal analyzer for my iPad. I can set up a sound system throw some pink noise in, and tweak the tone for the room. I have amazing tech for very little money that would have cost 10's of thousands back in the late 70's / early 80's.

I thought back to my 8th grade self, who wanted very much to mess around with this stuff. How I would love to jump back in time with all my toys and help that little kid with a science fair project. I thought about my college self, getting a EE degree in analog design, running around Worcester county recording marimbas to characterize the frequency content and envelope the better to synthesize the instrument. I was minoring in music, mucking around with an ARP 2600 and a four-track recorder when I could get my hands on it. Having fun.

I never did much with music out of school - the Carter / Reagan recession was in full swing, the cool companies like Bose were not hiring, and I was happy to get my first job that led me down the power quality road. And it was not too many years later that digital sound came along and blew analog synthesizers out of the water. 

But here I am, 30+ years down the road, and whatever fire was there is still burning. I'll probably never be much more than an audio hobbyist, but it gives me great joy to have the right tools, the right knowledge, the experience to put a decent system together. Back to the couch, to geek out. Watch out world!

Lighting the Stairs

A somewhat random home improvement post in betwixt and between NERFA updates and life updates.

The previous owner of my condo put up some basement walls that effectively blocked any light source from the stairway (a code violation, to be sure). I ignored the issue for a while, relying on a top of the stairs hallway lamp. Later on, I installed a small halogen "under counter" lamp on the wall, plugged into the switched basement lamp fixture, to light the stairs. But I never really loved that solution - the light was somewhat harsh, unidirectional, and blinding. When the light stopped working yesterday (fuse? bulb? not 100% sure...) I decided to replace rather than repair.

I took advantage of the seasonal holiday lights available at Lowe's  to buy a couple of strings of white rope lighting, which I fixed (using white plastic coax staples along the stair reads and along the ceiling / walls. The result is enough light to travel the stairs, without being too bright.

On the downside - the light along the stair tread really shows the collected dog hair; I will have to vacuum more regularly. And the whole thing is a little trailer park. But I'm good with that....

Efergy E2 Classic Energy Monitor

I recently picked up a small energy monitor for my home / condo, made by Efergy Technologies Limited. As I confessed via social media:

Just ordered a small energy monitor for the main condo panel. Call it 40% professional interest, 30% desire to be more energy efficient / save money, and 30% number and graph nerd.

In the professional interest department, I'm always looking at new / low cost ways to monitor, measure, quantify electricity and power. The price point here was minimal ($100). The functions and feature set (monitoring demand, wireless display that can be moved throughout the home, USB interface to access data and produce reports, software to facilitate all that) all looked great.

From an energy conservation / cost savings perspective, although I'm a single person in a small condo, I'm a bit of a nightmare in terms of electrical usage. My condo is all-electric (heat, stove & oven, water heater). Although cooling season is over, I have two small window A/C units (bedroom and basement office), a basement dehumidifier, and a basement space heater. Besides normal living usage, I work out of my house (so I'm in the basement office a lot) and I practice / teach yoga - my second bedroom is a dedicated practice room and when I practice, I generally crank the heat a bit.

Now, I've taken a lot of first steps to reduce my electrical usage - replaced almost all of my incandescent bulbs with CFL or LED, and replaced all of my baseboard thermostats with either digital units, or digital units with a timer. Digital thermostats = more consistent control (I'm not turning heat up or down based on "feel") as well as more even heating (they have triac controls that can turn heat up incrementally not simply ON / OFF like mechanical units). I keep my heat pretty low, 58F at night, 65F during the day, it's scheduled based on my life, and the thermostats make sure I never leave the heat cranked for more than a few hours. I'm pretty good at reprogramming the thermostats as needed. 

But enough about me - back to the Efergy energy monitor. It's arrived, been connected, and is doing it's job. Here's a quick review.

Technical Capabilities

Strictly speaking, the device is a CURRENT monitor. There are two clamp on current probes, but no voltage connection point - it calculates demand based on a fixed voltage, and presumably a unity power factor. Have not determined it it measures average current or true RMS at this point. It samples data on a 10 / 15 / 20 second rate. It's not super accurate, as a result, but it's "close enough" and certainly can provide a good comparative measure of energy usage over time.

It also has a third current probe "port" so can presumably monitor three phase power as well. It appears to be designed for a world market: 50/60 Hz, multiple nominal voltage settings, and multiple rate / tariff units.

Installation

The monitor was easy to install. Two clamp-on current probes (A) were connected to the mains coming in. I have a 100A panel, the probes appear to be sized for 200A maximum. The probes are not spring loaded, but use a nice little plastic latch / clip for secure connection, and since there is no voltage monitored, the vector / direction of the probe does not matter. I'm comfortable sticking my fingers in a live panel, but to be safe, kill the power before installation.

These are connected via a fixed cable to a transmitter (B) which is powered via 3 x AA batteries, or an optional DC supply. The company claims battery life of 8-10 months is typical for both transmitter and monitor.

The wireless display / monitoring unit (C) can be located anywhere convenient; I placed it atop the panel for the photo. It's powered via 3 x AAA batteries. The transmitter / monitor are linked via a simple push-button procedure. I had no problems getting them to talk. The expected range is 100 - 200 ft. although I found signal was sketchy up on the second floor. 

The past week I've had the wireless display sitting on my desk as I've worked, and have enjoyed (yeah, I'm an engineer, what do you want) watching the kW measurement track up and down as I work throughout the day. 

Monitor / Display Unit

The display for this device has some rudimentary information. There are three values available:

• Energy Now (KW) 
• Cost (per day) based on present energy ($)
• CO2 (per day) based on present energy (KgCO2) 

In addition, the device displays all of these parameters as an Average (over the life of monitoring, with energy in KWHr) and History (scroll through a daily, weekly, or monthly tally of demand, cost, and CO2)

The device allows you to set up variable rate (single or multiple) in cost / kWHr, and a CO2 usage factor.

The display is pretty rudimentary; and if I were relying on that I'd probably check out the Efergy Elite True Power Meter (more sophisticated measurement, more advanced display, temp & humidity) but that  device does not have "in the box" communications capability to a PC, and I am all about the data.

Software

The free to download software, elink, is pretty spiffy.  The basic HISTORY function displays demand on an hourly basis (per day), a daily basic (per month), or a monthly basis (per year)

 

Under the MANAGE function, the user can look at individual days, do a weekly comparison (for instance compare individual weekdays or weekday vs. weekend), as well as a month by month comparison.

Finally, there are some advanced options of tracking actual usage vs. planned usage, setting up complex utility tariff schedules (for those working with peak / off-peak billing) and adding multiple utilities (so one could presumably compare different rate schedules with actual historical demand data)

Reports

Last but not least, the software gives the option of generating a Daily or Monthly report - selecting a specific time period, and creating a PDF report. The "Add Stickie"feature is not all that intuitive or well documented, but from the main HISTORY page you can create comments on notable usage or patterns which would be great if one were creating a report for users, management, clients, etc.

The exported spreadsheet is pretty rudimentary: Date / Time / KWHr / Daily Max / Cost / Stickie Note(s). Including the Stickies is a nice touch. But really, the PDF report is pretty much all I might need.  

Using the Efergy Demand Meter

I can think of a lot of ways to use this device.

Professionally, it would make a great tool to do short and simple residential / small business demand audits. Hook it up, perhaps do some walking around turning things on and off and recording the demand, then leave it connected for a week and generate a report, with recommendations for savings.

As an end-user, I'd probably first characterize the household energy consumers. I'll be able to (over time) generate the cost (in electricity) for things like a load of laundry, a shower, a hot bath, and factor those in a bit. Might even consider replacing older / less efficient appliances. Same with cranking the heat for a yoga practice or fine-tuning the heat schedule and zoning. And although I've gone through the condo pretty well in terms of replacing incandescent bulbs and other energy hogs, perhaps I'll find something I've missed - most consumers who have been less fanatic than I will probably find a lot of room for improvement.

I can also watch the electrical demand on a real time basis, and if I've left something on (stove burner, iron, etc.) I should be able to spot that quickly.

Bottom line, really nice piece of technology - really well designed (hardware and software) and useful.

Falcon Ridge Folk Festival - 2014 Emergeing Artists

The 2014 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Emerging Artists have been announced. ime for me to get to work - digging up websites, pulling out merch lists and contact information, cleaning up the 2013 master merchandise spreadsheet and starting to populate it with 2014 content.

In roughly alphabetic order: 

1 - Allie Farris - Nashville TN - eMusic
2 - Ashley Sofia - Ticonderoga NY
3 - Avi Wisnia - Philadelphia PA - eMusic
4 - Brianne Chasanoff - New Fairfield CT - eMusic
5 - Caitlin Canty - NYC - eMusic
6 - Chris LaVancher - N Reading MA - eMusic
7 - Hayley Reardon - Marblehead MA - eMusic
8 - Jean Rohe - Brooklyn NY
9 - Jesse Terry - Stonington CT - eMusic
10 - Laney Jones & the Lively Spirits - Boston MA - eMusic
11 - Laura Zucker - San Francisco - eMusic
12 - Libby Koch - Houston TX - eMusic
13 - Liz Frame and the Kickers - Newburyport MA - eMusic
14 - Matt Nakoa - Brooklyn NY
15 - Melanie Dewey - Manlius NY
16 - Roy Schneider - Fort Myers FL - eMusic
17 - Russell Kaback - Greenfield MA - eMusic
18 - Suzie Brown - Nashville TN - eMusic
19 - The Levins - Congers NY - eMusic
20 - The Lords of Liechtenstein - NYC - eMusic
21- Tumbling Bones - Portland ME - eMusic
22 - Wendy Cahill - Bethel CT - eMusic
23 - Zak Smith - Montclair NJ - eMusic
24 - Zameer - Hollywood CA - eMusic

Some quick observations:

• I have seen / heard NONE of the emerging artists. Not surprising (I do not get out as much as I'd like) 
• Three locals - Brianne Chasanoff, Jesse Terry, and Wendy Cahill - although Russell Kaback gets half credit as a Western MA denizen
• 22 of the 24 artists have professional websites, easily found. The others I liked to Reverbnation pages. 

It has been my recent habit to buy a bunch of emusic credits, and download the most recent album from each of these pre-fest. It's nice to be able to connect with their music before meeting them at the fest, and I put the emerging artists on shuffle in the merch trailer - it occasionally leads to the delightful serendipity of an artist checking in merch and having their music come out of the trailer. 

Self-reminder: You Are Handy

I had a dream a few nights back - I was back in my house in Watebury, which had fallen on hard times - windows warped and not closing, floors damaged. As I woke, part of my "rooted in the present" mind reminded me of the storm windows I had installed at that house. I could not really afford replacement windows (many window, very large), but I removed and discarded the removable storms / screens, stripped and repainted the sills, and installed new triple track storm windows throughout the house. I count 10 large windows downstairs, and 4 smaller windows upstairs. It was a pretty big project - done by hand (with the aid of a heat gun to strip the old paint)

That reminded me of all the home repair / infrastructure upgrade projects I have completed over the years at that place:

•  Upgraded electrical panel from an old screw-fuse panel (I think there were 6 total fuses, including two for the dryer) to a 200 Amp breaker panel. The electrical inspector was impressed by my workmanship (and could tell I did it, because I put service loops in all the wires as they entered the breakers)
•  Ran a hot water line over to the washing machine
• Installed 240 VAC electric heater baseboards on the second floor
• Replaced the gas hot water heater
• Built a bulkhead door (admittedly, this was kind of a horror)
• Replaced front storm door
• Installed three motion lights (after we got broken into early in my time there)

So yeah. I'm handy.

I was reminded of this yesterday - my iPhone (an older 4S model that is in good condition, meets my needs, and is perfectly serviceable) went from 30% charge to OFF in about 15 seconds. I've had it a while; time for a new battery. And my first thought was to go to the local indie geek store to get it done. But then I thought "you're a geek, you can do this" and indeed, for about $20 one can get a new battery and a toolkit to make the replacement, with plenty of online help via youtube and other places.

 Replacement battery and toolkit are en route, probably show up tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes....

Waiting for Memory

Note to self. Slinging around 500-600 MB data files on an XP machine with 512M of RAM is not really all that much fun. I have some memory ordered (and will probably order more once I confirm it works and all)

A long neglected puter upgrade is in the works; I think the native is fine (for now) but it definitely needs some mojo....