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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 1st, 2023

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  • I took a keyed industrial switch home from work that I have the power cord ran thru which also has a CT wrapped around it hooked up to a little ammeter screen and it gives accurate power draw info (volts, watts, amps)

    It’s cool but I have to turn the switch to put power on my PC which every time I do I see something flash on the motherboard and it posts three times before booting and does this weird power cycle thing so I hope I’m not fucking up the caps or something LOL.

    I’ve been meaning to re-wire it so the PC stays connected to the wall and I just use the switch on the case to turn on and off. Then keep the CT and ammeter connected and those turn on only when I turn the switch because I don’t want that screen on when I’m tryin to sleep.

    I also have a little light controller in the box with the switch, ammeter, and 120v light that’s like this old school bay accessory from 2006-ish that’s supposed to hook up to lights in your PC case but I took some multiconductor cord and terminal blocks home from work and strung them around under my desk.

    I realize all this is like an unhinged setup lol. I also have a remote start button in my living room so I can turn the PC on when I’m chillin in there and interact with it via a KVM.





  • Like most of the US, we had a weeks long cold spell with average temperatures around 5-10° F. It started to really affect my psyche. It was followed by a sprout of really mild winter weather, getting up to 60°. It snowed a bunch last night but it’s supposed to warm back up this week.

    I couldn’t even get up my street for most of the cold weather due to a foot of snow that wasn’t melting. So I was parking under a bridge and walking like 5-10 minutes each way thru the woods every time I went to work, which has been 7 day weeks lately.

    I finally got some crucial insulating done at my house but there was some bad drafts and stupid shit I found behind the walls of just holes out to nothing. Which the house is right up against a story tall retaining wall so it was almost impossible to see from the outside. There’s like maybe a foot between the wall and the house.






  • What? The IO is digital inputs and outputs, analog inputs and outputs.

    Then there’s power distribution and 24v DC device power (or 120v depending on application and often age), relays, contactors, timers, VFDs, etc. This is what the world runs on. Networking cables like that Ethernet are still part of it but a pretty small part. They just get plugged into all the PLC racks and any other device that needs it. Some of what I described can be replaced with automation and code, but only the very old legacy devices a lot of these old plants and mills still have around because they’re still functional…




  • And most of the world runs on 240 or 220v, which is a higher voltage and allows for smaller conductors.

    Idk, another factor is the US started their electric grid in the 1800s to the 1940s. It was the first in the world. Hard to stop once something is set as a standard like that. It’s like asking why they used lead and asbestos or built foundations out of stacks of sandstone rocks, all of which applies to my house haha. I’m sure in a few decades people will look back and question our use of plastics.


  • Heat dissipates easier in open air than in conduit, meaning the conductors can be undersized drastically compared to if they’re in conduit. Ever notice how the wires from the weatherhead are 2/0 awg, and on the poles and to your house (even after the transformer so same operating voltage), are way smaller? More like 12 awg on poles? The cost for the larger wire buried underground would be massive.

    Also, as others have said, maintenance is significantly easier.


  • Yeah that was 11 years ago and I did the field service portion of that job for like a year, I was fresh out of trade school and working as a grunt for GE as a 22 year old. Until GE decided they were gonna move the business to Germany and Japan and shut down the whole factory.

    It had its perks, I got a $75 per meal allowance and could put beer on it and shit. I let someone take over my room for the year back home and had basically no living expenses, just stayed in nice hotels in vegas and some rink-a-dink ones in the middle of the desert. It let me pay off all my loans in a year (which were only like $10k from a 9 month trade school thing)

    Anyway I stuck with doin heavy industry electrical work for a while. Now I have a much cushier job doing testing, QA, a bit of design work when applicable, and field service for some absolutely massive electrical systems for steel mills. These things push 6-10k amps thru busbar systems we fabricate from scratch, and are all custom. I do work a lot of OT still but I have a way better work / life balance now