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I've had the PC running now for 24 hours straight. I swapped in the supply from my mom's PC because the 5V rail was marginally better (21A instead of 20A) and my MB converts the CPU power from the 5V rail. Even though it's fixed, I'm probably going to upgrade sometime in the next 6 months...

I placed the order with Cutter. It usually takes 2 weeks give or take a few days. It'll probably take close to that long to finish up everything else anyhow. This place also had XP-Es, but mounted on a 20mm board. I would have had to dismount them from the 20mm board, and remount them on the...

Regarding not choosing the tint bins, it shouldn't be that big a deal. Cree (actually all the LED manufacturers) are getting pretty good in that you don't get horribly green or purplish tints any more. As for flux bins, Mouser appears to be selling by flux. The downside is they only have the...

Yeah, it would be something like that. I'm working out whether I can safely charge several of those cells in series at low current (i.e. overnight charge) without adding circuitry for cell balancing. I need to order emitters/optics from Cutter, which is probably 2 weeks to get to me. If...

Getting to some specifics, the setup I have uses 6 XP-Gs with 10mm optics. In retrospect it would have made more sense to use XP-Es, even though the raw lumen numbers are less, because the smaller die would be focused into a tighter beam by the optics. Right now I have about 7300 candela and...

Here's some pictures of the headlight I'm building. I still need to make the battery box and mounting bracket. Regulator board (ZXLD1370-can be configured as boost, buck-boost, or buck):

I think the 21 speeds probably includes super low gears which would make sense for the type of rider this bike is designed for. Obviously they're not going to climb 4% or 5% grades in a 42-26 gear at 12-14 mph like I do. ;) Since you wife hasn't ridden in 25 years, this is probably a good...

Is there any reason for getting a bike with a step-through frame? Those used to be used a lot back when women wore long, bulky dresses which would have made mounting a bike with traditional tubing difficult. The majority of women nowadays ride the same types of bikes men do. As for...

Actually, I think the MB is closer to 8 years old. I considered the work worthwhile because this was considered a high-end MB back in the day, at least judging from the reviews on the Newegg product page. Now whenever I upgrade the system can do limited duty as a second/backup machine.

I did it more to see if I could than anything else. I figure if I saved $300 in the short term it was probably worth the 5 or 6 hours spent on actual repair time. As a bonus, I also did some advance research for my next upgrade. ;) Here's a picture with the caps I replaced maked in red. One...

I think I got it fixed. It ran for 48 hours with the side cover off before I shut it down today to replace the 3300 uF caps. Not enough room to replace all the caps because the ones I had were larger diameter. I put in 4 out of 8. System booted into XP with the cover on just fine. So far it...

I tacked the caps onto a parts order for another project 25 pcs 1000 uF caps at 0.21 each = $5.25 15 pcs 3300 uF caps at 0.68 each = $10.20 sales tax = $1.37 TOTAL = $16.82 (actually less because I'll have nine 1000 uF caps and seven 3300 uF caps left over for other projects) I'm not counting...

I put in the 1000 uF caps. Still the same thing-stable with the cover off, shuts down randomly with it on. Last thing to do is change out the 3300 uF caps around the CPU. The caps I bought were too big. I need to order 10mm Sanyos on eBay. Even though the caps on my MB weren't the...

I haven't yet replaced the 13 1000 uF caps but the system has been running all night without shutting down. I noticed a funny thing-the system seems stable so long as I have the case open. And it doesn't appear to be a thermal issue. The system was unstable with the case closed even from a...

Everything in the first post sounds reasonable. Give me some time to get back on specifics. I'm posting now from my A78NX which is marginally stable. I'll post in more detail when I'm on a machine which isn't in danger of randomly shutting down.

I replaced the 2 820 uF caps which were bulging. The eight 3300 uf caps near the microprocessor seem OK. They're Rubicons, not the problematic Nichicons. The system is better, but still not 100% stable. In fact, I'm writing this post from it right now. I suspect I may need to replace the 13...

More updates. I removed the extra caps on the graphics card but the system is doing the same thing. Now it won't even boot to XP. Since the graphics card caps were indeed bad, and I replaced them, we can pretty much assume now the graphics card wasn't the problem, although it may have made...

They used neutral white to mean like halogen track lighting, so it's really warm white. And there's a huge market for neutral white (3500K to 5000K). 3500K and 5000K CFLs at the local Home Depot are always nearly sold out. Despite the fixation of trying to imitate incandescent with both CFLs and...

The extra caps made it worse. I'm not wasting any more time playing around with this video card. Since it seems the card may be causing some or all of my problems, I'll get a new one. Truth is even when this card was brand new it would sometimes crash when playing 3D games for a few hours. Any...

Well, looks like you may be right. I just took out the graphics card and noticed 3 bulging caps (6.3V, 1000uF). I didn't have this value handy, so I replaced them each with a pair of 16V, 470 uF solid caps. System posted fine, did a memory test, and attemped to boot into XP. No luck. I booted...

For what it's worth, a few weeks before I noticed that sometimes I would get jumbled screen displays when doing things like photo editing. When I jumped to other apps and back to the photo editing software, all was well. I do have another graphics cards in my mom's machine to test, but I'm...

Well, the machine wouldn't even post today. I guess it's definitive that it's not an HDD issue. On the potential replacement machine, I do in fact want something with some graphics grunt because there are several new train simulators out which I'm planning to purchase eventually. MSTS, like my...

I removed and reseated the graphics card just in case there might have been a contact issue. No, I didn't disconnect the HDDs in Ubuntu, but there shouldn't have been HDD access given that I booted from CD. Like I said, I'm nearly certain this is a bad cap issue. I'll know for sure when the caps...

I checked all the obvious stuff like the CMOS backup battery. I'm nearly 100% certain this is a bad capacitor problem. I've read that failing hard disks can give similar symptoms (and my boot disk is a vintage 2005 200GB Maxtor) but I don't think that's the case here. I managed to boot to Ubuntu...

My A7N8X-E may finally have given up the ghost. It was periodicly experiencing total freezes, and they were getting more and more frequent. Last night I figured I would open the computer up, dust it off inside, reseat the RAM, and replace the thermal compound on the processor heat sink. That...

Not really. There is a payback period for electrification for sure, but in the long haul it's cheaper to run an electrified RR than a diesel one, except in cases of low traffic volume. This is why most of the world has electrified their main lines other than the US. Here is a special case...

Those prices are why I'm going the DIY route (and just for the joy of making it myself). Also, I have total flexibility programming the number of light levels via a microcontroller. Runtime on full should be around 90 minutes but I plan to have multiple levels spaced 20% apart, down to maybe...

I'm aiming for not much over a pound. Right now I'm at 5.6 oz for the LEDs/heatsink/optics, and 10.2 oz for the cells. I've yet to make an enclosure for the cells or a mounting system, but hopefully that won't add more than a few ounces. I always have the option of going 4 18650 cells to cut...

6 Cree XPGs running at up to one amp, powered by 4 26650 DeWalt cells, for a headlight. I'll likely use a red Rebel for a tail flasher. I'll probably start a thread over at CPF once I'm done building the headlight. My existing bike light (~150 lumens) really isn't cutting it, either. I...

I put in about $500 in parts a few years back (mostly upgrading to a 10-speed drive train plus new wheels/airless tires). These parts still have plenty of life left in them. Because of that, I'm going to strip all the rust off the frame this winter, see if I can get the broken chainstay...

Yeah, that happened to me once. At least you can still ride when the crank breaks, albeit not very comfortably. A broken chain is what really sucks. I broke a front fork also one time, thankfully not at speed. I guess this is as good a place as any to mention it-I snagged this beauty on eBay...

Lack of catenary. Most of the world's busier railways electrify to avoid the inefficiencies/extra complexity associated with using diesel locomotives. A diesel locomotive on average might last 15 years in service. It's not uncommon for electrics to run 40 or 50 years.

No news to me-I've already gone faster than light on my bike. ;-)

Yeah, that would work. In fact, you probably wouldn't even need fins on the inside. Just forcing air at a few m/sec would increase heat dissipation by a factor of 4 to 5, meaning the candle would be good for ~10 watts of LED power, ~7 watts of waste heat, and 900-1000 lumens (those are roughly...

Yes, it's on a dimmer. In fact, the reason I chose that particular ballast is so it could work with a standard triac dimmer. And yes, the yellow covers really do look that bad in person. The original incandescent lights were nearly that bad-dim and very yellow. I could have matched the...

According to the ballast data sheet, there is protection with auto recovery against over voltage, over current, over temperature, and short-circuit. It looks like failure due to overheating shouldn't be an issue at all.

It's marked 90°C maximum case temperature on the ballast label. You're getting about 21-22°C rise above ambient, so you should probably be OK up to attic temperatures of around 65°C. The hottest I've ever measured our attic was around 60°C. Our attic is uninsulated, we have a dark colored...

I completed the chandelier in my mom's bedroom. This chandelier formerly used 25 watt candelabra bulbs and was a consistent source of complaint about both light quality and quantity. Also, despite not being used often, light bulbs frequently blew out. There was room to put the ballast under...

To dissipate the heat from the LEDs. The copper tube provides enough surface area to dissipate ~2.5 watts of heat without becoming overly warm. I'm even thinking of putting vertical fins on the copper tubes for the chandelier in my dining room because of the required light output. The plain...

The spectra of LEDs are continuous, not spiky like fluorescent spectra. To me anyway if you have an LED and CFL with a similar CRI, the LED generally makes colors look better. CRI isn't a particularly good predictor of which light source people will prefer. There's an ongoing discussion about...

To update this thread I've completed the project. We decided to simplify it, doing away with the flickering LED idea. I made 10 "candles" from 1.125" copper pipe as follows: Here are all the parts needed for one candle: This ring is a spacer needed because the copper cap is a little to...

Mine is also. Looking at me though, a lot of people take me for 170 instead of 190 to 195. Muscle weighs more than fat, and I have a lot of it in my legs from 33 years of riding. I fit in 34" pants just fine.

Happy Birthday, Dave! :b-day: :beer: Congrats on the weight loss! Maybe I need to get the flu for a few weeks.

Getting back to the subways, here's why the system was shut down.

Will and Doug, sorry to hear about what happened to you. I've been there as far as basement flooding goes. In 2006 we had about 2 inches of water when the sewer pipe clogged. This time we only had minor flooding in a few rooms. Over the years I've fixed any foundation cracks from outside...

The reason is basically that the tunnels will flood and stall trains mid-station. In short, the system will shut down, whether voluntarily or through mother nature. A controlled shutdown makes it easier to restart the system after the storm. The equipment is being stored in locations where it...

Heavy downpours now, not much wind yet. The worst of it is going to hit tomorrow afternoon. We might get another foot of rain on top of an existing near record amount of rain for August. No flooding yet downstairs. Only minor flooding when we had about 8 inches in 24 hours 2 weeks ago. The...

Funniest prank ever

Keyboards aren't too bad. It's pressing and/or pushing motions which kill me. That being said, I couldn't deal with keyboards or mice on an occupational basis (i.e. 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year). Notice also that I occasionally take breaks from this place. Guess why? Copy and paste...

Don't feel bad. I remember the one in 1976.