07 November, 2017

Picking up with the bathroom remodel. Prepping the pine bead board wainscotting.

The World Series is over, and after a half century old dry spell, the Houston Astros brought home a World Series to those of us in Metro Houston.

So it's time to get back to work.

I am pretty sure some of you read that and wondered if I have flipped my lid or not. I mean wainscotting? In 2017?

Yep. It's not my first idea, but it is the compromise I made with my wife (This kept the doilies out of the living room okay?)

Last time I had to deal with bead board, it was a thin gauge sheet plywood type product, but nowadays it comes in bundles of long sections, about oh what was it 5" wide or so maybe?

So I had to set up a production stop, run through pre processing the stock, marking and ripping to width so that I can have my stock ready for installation.

CHeck out the video...




02 October, 2017

Hurricane Harvey. A month after the flooding...

First of all, thank God that we didn't flood, however lots of our family and friends weren't quite so blessed.

I am seeing things with this hurricane response that make me both sad for people, and angry at FEMA for their typical lackluster response to natural disasters.

As you no doubt are aware, in late August, the Atlantic Hurricane season started beating on the United States with a vengance starting with Hurricane Harvey, which more or less parked itself over coastal texas, and dumped a years worth of rain in something like 4 days, over much of the Houston / Galveston metropolitan area.

With the massive rainfall, the reservoirs just couldn't handle the water, and teh Army Corp of Engineers elected to release water from the dam, rather than to allow the dam to break, or simply overflow.  This flooded homes, and neighborhoods outside of the published flood plains, meaning people with no flood insurance, because they believed what the government told them about the flood plains.

And to make matters worse people that WERE insured for flood, are getting reimbursements that are pennies on the dollar for the value of their destroyed property, homes, and contents.  These homes have been rendered unlivable, and yet, when insured homeowners try to claim temporaty housing benefits FEMA who manages the national flood insurance progaram, tells them they need to talk to FEMA, and of course the part of FEMA that doesn the emergency response says you need to talk to your insurance.  Meanwhile people are stuck, in houses now growing toxic black mold top to bottom.

We spent time over the weekend with folks in one of the neighborhoods that the Army Corps of Engineers water release flooded out, and, well you can certainly tell the Army was involved.

The place looks like bombs went off in every single home. The debris field goes from house, across the street to the next house... The streets are white with the broken and now ground in remnants of what was at one time peoples walls.

Home furnishings, and electronics were everywhere, and it didn't matter if it was all high end super expensive stuff, or cheap disposable particleboard garbage, it all was on the curb waiting for the hiant claw to come pick it up, and throw it all in a landfill.

I know FEMA as well as pretty much every other government agency is stretched really thin at the levels that matter, the people that actually do the real work. And the folks in the field are doing the best they can, but let's look at some realities.

#1. In 2005 when Hurricane Katrian hit New Orleans, FEMA trailer cities sprung up all over the gulf coast to house Katrina evacuees.  Now in 2017, FEAM is saying no temporary housing trailers for people because the Katrina evacuees trashed the trailers they were provided.

#2. The beaurocracy of dealing with FEMA is almost as bad as the storm itself. And folks need to know, if you don't have flood insurance, the ONLY help it seems like you are going to get, is an offer of a low interest loan, which most people can not afford.

#3. We hear about all these hundreds of millions of dollars that have been donated for the relief effort, and hundreds of millions more that have been allocated to the City of Houston by the state for Harvey relief efforts, so where is that money going, and how is it being used to help people?

Now I've got skils enough to hang sheet rock, cobble together cabinets, install insulation, replace sockets etc... But in working the volunteer efforts, to do the repairs and the builds, materials are in short supply or there is just no funding for what we need.

While I have no way of knowing for sure, I feel confident in saying that the people of Florida are experiencing much the same pain as we here in Texas are. And I can not imagine what the citizens of Puerto Rico are going through.

 In so many ways, being one of the lucky ones that didn't get flooded, I can't explain to you the sort of, well like survivors guilt we have, and the frustration we are experiencing at trying to share our sweat and skills, and all of it seems to fall on deaf ears.

We WILL get through this, and I am absolutely confident that the resources that need to go to the right places will eventually get there. It is just painful, and frustrating to watch my family, friends, neighbors, and fellow human beings have their lives put on such a painful hold while they try to pick up the pieces and put something back together.

14 September, 2017

Remodeling project, DJ lighting for the music room, and out of the house use.... Things I am learning that aren't obvious.

Among my many interests, and part of the reason I am so slow between entries, is I am pursuing music as well as other passions in what free time I have. Specifically playing guitar, and electric bass...

My wife has been learning piano, and we are working on a room renovation to act as a music room. To that end, I wanted something with a, well stage feel, not to mention I figure I could do some side work by doing lighting support for events. Lighting gigs pay fairly well.... But I digress...


So to get to where I wanted to be, I needed to pick up some materials, (Source listed as well)



Lixada 192 channel DMX512 controller. Ebay seller Antiquechina
25ft DMX cable to run from controller, up speaker stand to…Musiciansfriend.com
2 @ Shop built Speaker stand lighting T bar. (in progress, materials from Home Depot)
2 @ 5 channel 86 LED DMX lights. Amazon.com
10 @ 3ft DMX cables to connect light to light. Musiciansfriend.com
2 @ 50’ DMX cable to run from second light, down stand, up T stand to next light on…Amazon.com
Chauvet T bar light stand Musiciansfriend.com
2 @ DMX RGBW moving head lihgts (Lixada) Pending from Ebay seller Antiquechina
8 @ @ 5 channel 86 LED DMX lights. Ebay seller Antiquechina.every bit as good as the ones from Amazon, for a lot less money.

First things first. Addressing the lights, well that is confusing as all get out. The documentation that came with the lights, well, isn't super helpful, I had to dig, and research and go about getting this all figured out. What I learned makes sense if you understand how binary works.


The dip switch addressing that is on the back of the lights, has 10 switches, 1 for DMX on / off, and 9 for addressing. Dip Switch #10 is the DMX on / off switch. 


So we have dip switches 1 through 9 that will have a value as shown below in Fig 1.



Fig 1.
Dip Switch
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Value
1
2
4
8
16
32
64
128
256
DMX-ON


Given that data, to set the 12 possible fixtures for the 16 channel Chauvet Obey 40, or cheap clones thereof, like the Lixada, you would set the dipswitches as follows in Fig 2..

Fig 2.
Fixture
DMX ID
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
1
On
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
On
2
17
On
Off
Off
Off
On
Off
Off
Off
Off
On
3
33
On
Off
Off
Off
Off
On
Off
Off
Off
On
4
49
On
Off
Off
Off
On
On
Off
Off
Off
On
5
65
On
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
On
Off
Off
On
6
81
On
Off
Off
Off
On
Off
On
Off
Off
On
7
97
On
Off
Off
Off
Off
On
On
Off
Off
On
8
113
On
Off
Off
Off
On
On
On
Off
Off
On
9
129
On
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
On
Off
On
10
145
On
Off
Off
Off
On
Off
Off
On
Off
On
11
161
On
Off
Off
Off
Off
On
Off
Off
Off
On
12
177
On
Off
Off
Off
On
On
Off
Off
Off
On
Some items of note I found when setting this up.

#1. on these lamps, channel 1 on each fixture on the controller in the main fade, but fade is the wrong word, the slider has to be ALL THE WAY on for the light to work, then you slide on / off / fade with slider / channel 2, 3, and 4.

#2. The board is equipped with a "blackout" button, and it does exactly you you would think it does. I sort of missed that one on my first time out the door.

#3. There is a small switch on the back of the unit that I have been told varies the polarity out of the DMX,  If your lights don't come on, try the other position for this switch.

So if you are setting one of these rigs up and trying to learn how to use it.,  Configure your lights as shown above, cable them in sequence. and make sure that channel 1 on each fixture / scan is all the way up. You might need to slide it down, then back up to get it to read properly. 

Per the manual for the Lixada, programming the device they recommend searching Youtube for Obey 40. So basically this thing is programmed the same way the Chauvet Obey 40. Again at a much lower price tag.