The next problem is that the old fan ran on 5 volts and the new one runs on 12 volts. So I had to tap into 12 volts somewhere and here is where I did that.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Emergency Laptop Repairs
We are 4 days from leaving for Africa and a Dell C400 laptop had its cooling fan quit. What do I do when there is not enough time to order a new cooling fan? Cobble the repair, so here is how it is done. First I replaced the fan with a normal cooling fan, it is glued into place. I cut the top edge of the fan back a little bit to allow more air to escape towards the CPU cooling heat sink.
The next problem is that the old fan ran on 5 volts and the new one runs on 12 volts. So I had to tap into 12 volts somewhere and here is where I did that.
The next problem is that the old fan ran on 5 volts and the new one runs on 12 volts. So I had to tap into 12 volts somewhere and here is where I did that.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Cheap printer Cartridges
About a year ago I bought some generic ink cartridges on EBay. They leaked and were replaced with a second set of generic cartridges. Unfortunately they did the same thing. It was so bad that the blue turned red from the leaking ink! Note that the only clean one is the Real Epson cartridge. The moral of the story is to use the genuine ink cartridges.
Frozen Pipes
I returned from Florida to find out that the heat was off and that the pipes were frozen and had burst. Some of the valves and fittings were burst as well.
So I moved the sink out of the way and cut a hole in the floor to find the breaks in the pipes. Three of the pipes were broken as well as some fittings.
I removed all of the copper pipes, then started in the basement and ran all new 1/2 inch CPVC pipes.
OOPS! I had to open it all back up and put in a new drain to the sink..
Then we replaced the drain to the tub as well. this required cutting a slot into the wall. You can see the water damage in the discolored wall paper.
The new drain pipe runs all the way down to the basement. We covered it with new 3/8 inch sheet rock so it all looks great now.
So I moved the sink out of the way and cut a hole in the floor to find the breaks in the pipes. Three of the pipes were broken as well as some fittings.I removed all of the copper pipes, then started in the basement and ran all new 1/2 inch CPVC pipes. OOPS! I had to open it all back up and put in a new drain to the sink..Then we replaced the drain to the tub as well. this required cutting a slot into the wall. You can see the water damage in the discolored wall paper.
The new drain pipe runs all the way down to the basement. We covered it with new 3/8 inch sheet rock so it all looks great now.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Yellowstone Rumblings and Earthquakes
I thought I would update this post by showing a map of the US and the locations of all of the earthquakes that have happened in just the last week. It is getting crazy. They are now predicting a volcano in Alaska as well as Yellowstone. What about southern California??
Rumblings, that's how I would describe it. In the news just a few days ago there was a report on the rumblings at Yellowstone. They quieted down on Jan 2 but rose up again on Jan 9 then quieted down again. The picture below is from Big Hole Peak Montana where there are rumblings going on now. As you can see after a few hours it quieted down too. What is going on here? I found similar results for January 2 and December 29 th.
If we hop over to Whitefish Montana there is something going on there too. This is more like an earthquake or more like a swarm of them, smaller ones at that. This has been coming and going for a few days now.
What do I think about it? I do not have a clue. Someone speculated that it could be caused by waves of magma moving. There is no evidence as to what it is. I read someplace that it could just be miners blasting, at least the collection of smaller earthquakes could be that. Who knows but there is something unusual happening.
Here is a link so you can check them out for yourself.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/helicorders.php
If we hop over to Whitefish Montana there is something going on there too. This is more like an earthquake or more like a swarm of them, smaller ones at that. This has been coming and going for a few days now.
What do I think about it? I do not have a clue. Someone speculated that it could be caused by waves of magma moving. There is no evidence as to what it is. I read someplace that it could just be miners blasting, at least the collection of smaller earthquakes could be that. Who knows but there is something unusual happening.
Here is a link so you can check them out for yourself.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/helicorders.php
Friday, December 26, 2008
New Can crusher / Washer Launcher
I am working on what will be the biggest washer launcher or can crusher that I have ever made. If you have not seen the old washer launcher or can crusher videos on YouTube you have to see what happens when 800 volts DC is applied to a flat coil under an aluminum washer. The washer flies over 30 feet straight up. If a soda can gets in the way it can get flattened. If you place a soda can on top of the washer it ends up about 1/2 inch shorter just from the g forces.
As I was going though some of my old pictures I could see the history of my invention. First I built what was called a 'thumper' on the Internet. To make a 'thumper' essentially you take the flash from a camera and add a coil in series with the flash tube. This 'thumper' design is available on the Internet just google for a 'magnetic thumper' or 'magnetic thumpy'. Below is a picture of my version of that device.
Next I replaced the flash tube with a big SCR. I had a pile of those big SCR's that were left over from making a time machine, but they were accidentally sold at the Rochester Ham Fest in around 2005. You can see them in the background of the picture. I also started adding more capacitors. Notice the home made aluminum washer sitting on the coil. That was from before I discovered that hard drive platters make great aluminum washers. As you can tell I was already sending aluminum washers into flight. In those early days the washer flew just a few inches.
Soon I took the washer launcher to the next level. First I used 4 big capacitors and then later I stepped up to 8 of those big capacitors. I fried the old SCR and then replaced it with an ED431825 that can handle 1.8 KV (1800 Volts) and 250 amps continuous and 6.5 KA peak (6500 Amps). This design started out with one MOT (Microwave Oven Transformer) then for a while it had two MOT's.
Before testing it a second time I changed the resistor to the meter to 2.5 meg. The meter now reads 2.5 KV full scale. I also shortened the wire to the coil to 1/2 of the original length. The next test was at 1.6 KV and it resulted in the flattest soda can yet. The video is being
uploaded to YouTube.
As I was going though some of my old pictures I could see the history of my invention. First I built what was called a 'thumper' on the Internet. To make a 'thumper' essentially you take the flash from a camera and add a coil in series with the flash tube. This 'thumper' design is available on the Internet just google for a 'magnetic thumper' or 'magnetic thumpy'. Below is a picture of my version of that device.
Next I replaced the flash tube with a big SCR. I had a pile of those big SCR's that were left over from making a time machine, but they were accidentally sold at the Rochester Ham Fest in around 2005. You can see them in the background of the picture. I also started adding more capacitors. Notice the home made aluminum washer sitting on the coil. That was from before I discovered that hard drive platters make great aluminum washers. As you can tell I was already sending aluminum washers into flight. In those early days the washer flew just a few inches.
Soon I took the washer launcher to the next level. First I used 4 big capacitors and then later I stepped up to 8 of those big capacitors. I fried the old SCR and then replaced it with an ED431825 that can handle 1.8 KV (1800 Volts) and 250 amps continuous and 6.5 KA peak (6500 Amps). This design started out with one MOT (Microwave Oven Transformer) then for a while it had two MOT's.
At some point I added the flat Coil shown below. It was wound a few turns at a time then those turns were glued down and the next few turns were added. A rotating stick held the wire down while the glue was drying. The glue was of a flexible kind. At some point the wood was shattered into pieces, so it was replaced with Plexiglas. That was a bad idea. The Plexiglas shattered on the first test launch.
I am upgrading the 8 capacitor 800 volt model to now operate with up to 1600 volts. All of the capacitors had to be turned 90 degrees so that they can be connected in series instead of parallel. Here is the preliminary schematic, it is missing the 10 amp fuse, and that is a 1 meg resistor to the voltmeter that is located on the front panel.
There were two problems with the first test run of the new design. The 10 amp fuse blew because it now draws more current than that. I replaced it with a 15 amp fuse. The next problem is that the meter pegs. I was using a digital volt meter as well and it was not supposed to exceed 600 volts but it survived at 1200 volts. As far as the can crushing goes it did not crush it much more than the 800 volt model had crushed it.
Before testing it a second time I changed the resistor to the meter to 2.5 meg. The meter now reads 2.5 KV full scale. I also shortened the wire to the coil to 1/2 of the original length. The next test was at 1.6 KV and it resulted in the flattest soda can yet. The video is being
uploaded to YouTube.
Monday, December 15, 2008
LED Sign
A few years ago a relative, Ernie I think, gave me a sign that someone was throwing out. It was large and had a car repair place advertisement. Well I removed the guts, got it working, reprogrammed it and put it in my own cabinet. The problem now is that it is too big to fit in the window.
As I was testing it out our cat Bling or as I call him stinky, decided to attack the sign. He normally attacks my laptop computer screen climbing on the keyboard as he does it.
As I was testing it out our cat Bling or as I call him stinky, decided to attack the sign. He normally attacks my laptop computer screen climbing on the keyboard as he does it.
I had to rearrange the guts to make the sign smaller. I moved the logic board to be behind the sign board. The transformer did not fit so I put that on the back side. The brown board has a 555 and a 4017 that resets the sign after 20 seconds so the car advertisement does not come up like it used to.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Home Made Dual Screen Monitor Base
Recently I had an EBay deal that I just could not refuse. They were selling 17 inch LCD monitors for $44 each without the stand. With shipping they were about $60 each and they arrived not working. It turns out that the unnamed shipping company shook them so bad as to unsolder capacitors in the power supply. So after some minor repairs they worked. the next problem was what to use for a stand. They do not make dual stands that I know of and most stands cost more than I paid for the monitors. Here is the solution. First a 1 by 6 connects the two monitors together. Drill 4 holes at each end of the 1 by 6 that line up with the mounting holes in the back of the monitors. Then I used some 2 by 3's about 1 foot long to a 2 by 6 base that is 2 foot long. The tops of the 2 by 3's were notched so that they are under as well as behind the 1 by 6 that connects the 2 monitors. I used a high quality 2 by 6 for the base since it can be seen. That one board cost me $8, the rest of the boards were all off the scrap pile.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Expanding foam and science experiments.
The Red Green show makes a big thing about 'the handyman's secret weapon - duct tape'. Well now there is a runner up. The number two secret weapon of the handyman is.....expanding foam!
Usually there is two ways expanding foam works. It either comes out really fast and runs out before you get all of the holes filled or it comes out really slow and keeps on coming forever. You fill every hole in every house on the block and it just keeps on coming. Well recently I went to fill holes in my brothers basement and I had a third thing happen. I could not get it to start so I pushed on the nozzle so hard that it broke off. Fred said I should hit it hard and see what happens, so I hit it on a rock and it started working. The problem is that it would not stop either. So I tired to use it anyway but without the nozzle it was hard to get the foam into the holes. The results are pictured below I think more went on the ground than on the foundation. This sounds like good material for another Red green show spoof like the one I already have on YouTube under bobdavis321.
We all have a favorite science experiment we like to perform. It is called leave a cup of something sitting around and see what happens. There are three possible solutions. One is It gets consumed by the cat. Two is It gets spilled on the floor. The third is the most fun - Something grows on it. Now the best material for this kind of science experiment is coffee. We all know that the nuclear resonance of coffee is slightly elevated by the caffeine so things grow in it in hyper mode. The results can be just amazing as seen in the picture below!
Another science experiment is called the bread drawer. Yesterday I cleaned it out and found some really nice looking green bread. I am sure the added color makes the flavor interesting as well.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
VE170 Monitor Repair with LED's
I have noticed that many people find my blog when looking for monitor repair ideas. So here is another one of my ideas for monitor repair. I have in the past fixed laptops by retrofitting them with LED's. The problem with this monitor is that the power supply for the vacuum tube back lighting dies.
The first step is to totally disassemble the monitor into little pieces, then carefully remove the gold colored trays that hold the vacuum tubes. Then carefully remove the tubes themselves without breaking them, like that can be done.
The LED's are spaced at about 1/2 inches apart by using the edge of a cardboard box as can be seen below. This was the test setup using a 9 volt battery, the LED's are spaced every three holes from each other. The LED's are wired in sets of 3 with a 12 ohm 1 watt resistor in series with all of the sets of three LED's. A 10 ohm to 15 ohm resistor would work just as well.
This is a schematic drawing of how it is all wired up. It shows 24 LED's but actually there needs to be 27 LED's in a 17 inch monitor.
This is what the LED's look like in the tray. They have to be angled at a 45 degree angle towards the back of the screen in order to fit and it is a very tight fit. I tried to use a flat front LED so it could aim directly up at the screen but did not see any increase in brightness.
This is what it looks like with the bottom tray full of LED's. There are a total of 27 LED's in the bottom light tray in this photo. There needs to be about 27 LED's in each of the trays. The dark areas are where the resistors are located. I no longer put any resistors in the tray for that reason.
As you might be able to guess the labor far exceeds the value of the fixed monitor. Also you can see in the photo above that unless you space the LED's so they are almost touching each other then there will be blank spaces between them. The ideal solution would be surface mount LED's on a circuit board to provide continuous lighting.
The picture below shows what it looks like compared to a laptop. As you can see it is not as bright and the picture has a purple color to it. Even thought the color looks white to the eye it is somewhat blue by comparison.
The LED's used were 3mm 16,000 MCD bright white LED's found on EBay. There are brighter LED's available that might work even better. I tried using the flat top LED's and they fit better because they are shorter and light the screen more evenly. Also the resistors can be external, wire all of the LED's up in parallel sets of 3 each, then use a 10 to 20 ohm resistor externally between it and the 12 volt power supply.
The first step is to totally disassemble the monitor into little pieces, then carefully remove the gold colored trays that hold the vacuum tubes. Then carefully remove the tubes themselves without breaking them, like that can be done.
The LED's are spaced at about 1/2 inches apart by using the edge of a cardboard box as can be seen below. This was the test setup using a 9 volt battery, the LED's are spaced every three holes from each other. The LED's are wired in sets of 3 with a 12 ohm 1 watt resistor in series with all of the sets of three LED's. A 10 ohm to 15 ohm resistor would work just as well.
This is a schematic drawing of how it is all wired up. It shows 24 LED's but actually there needs to be 27 LED's in a 17 inch monitor.
This is what the LED's look like in the tray. They have to be angled at a 45 degree angle towards the back of the screen in order to fit and it is a very tight fit. I tried to use a flat front LED so it could aim directly up at the screen but did not see any increase in brightness.
This is what it looks like with the bottom tray full of LED's. There are a total of 27 LED's in the bottom light tray in this photo. There needs to be about 27 LED's in each of the trays. The dark areas are where the resistors are located. I no longer put any resistors in the tray for that reason.
As you might be able to guess the labor far exceeds the value of the fixed monitor. Also you can see in the photo above that unless you space the LED's so they are almost touching each other then there will be blank spaces between them. The ideal solution would be surface mount LED's on a circuit board to provide continuous lighting.
The picture below shows what it looks like compared to a laptop. As you can see it is not as bright and the picture has a purple color to it. Even thought the color looks white to the eye it is somewhat blue by comparison.
The LED's used were 3mm 16,000 MCD bright white LED's found on EBay. There are brighter LED's available that might work even better. I tried using the flat top LED's and they fit better because they are shorter and light the screen more evenly. Also the resistors can be external, wire all of the LED's up in parallel sets of 3 each, then use a 10 to 20 ohm resistor externally between it and the 12 volt power supply.
Friday, October 24, 2008
The current economic and political problems
One of my favorite scriptures is Isaiah 9:6 & 7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.
That and Daniel chapter 2 carry a very clear message. The Kingdom of God has been growing for 2,000 years, and it will never stop growing. Around the world revival is taking place as people lay down their lives for the Gospel. If you are part of His kingdom you have NOTHING to fear! I personally have watched my retirement accounts dwindle. My bank accounts earn .85% interest. My money would be better off in my mattress then in the bank or stocks. But it would be even better off being used for the kingdom of God. I believe that the kingdom of God is going to rise up and take over. Not by force, but by being the only thing that does not collapse. Jesus' disciples expected that to happen and they were disappointed that they were only part of the initial 'stone' that was thrown to take down the kingdoms of this world. We are part of the mountain, but it will soon cover the whole earth.
Daniel2:31 "You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth."
Daniel 2:44 "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces."
So get ready! The revival in Florida showed that we are desperate for revival and we will accept it from almost anyone. There is real revival coming, the Kingdom of God is going to rise up like never before. I think we will soon see miracles like never before, like they were in the days that Jesus walked on this earth. God is raising up lots of people, not just one or two, but 12 or even 70 great evangelists, prophets, healers, etc. I am excited about what is happening and what God is doing!
That and Daniel chapter 2 carry a very clear message. The Kingdom of God has been growing for 2,000 years, and it will never stop growing. Around the world revival is taking place as people lay down their lives for the Gospel. If you are part of His kingdom you have NOTHING to fear! I personally have watched my retirement accounts dwindle. My bank accounts earn .85% interest. My money would be better off in my mattress then in the bank or stocks. But it would be even better off being used for the kingdom of God. I believe that the kingdom of God is going to rise up and take over. Not by force, but by being the only thing that does not collapse. Jesus' disciples expected that to happen and they were disappointed that they were only part of the initial 'stone' that was thrown to take down the kingdoms of this world. We are part of the mountain, but it will soon cover the whole earth.
Daniel2:31 "You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth."
Daniel 2:44 "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces."
So get ready! The revival in Florida showed that we are desperate for revival and we will accept it from almost anyone. There is real revival coming, the Kingdom of God is going to rise up like never before. I think we will soon see miracles like never before, like they were in the days that Jesus walked on this earth. God is raising up lots of people, not just one or two, but 12 or even 70 great evangelists, prophets, healers, etc. I am excited about what is happening and what God is doing!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
West Africa September 2008
New York City
We drove my van to NYC to save money when taking two 50 pound carry on bags per person. We were taking a musical Keyboard, an all in one printer/scanner/copier and a computer amoung other things in our second bags. To fly out from Buffalo the second bag would have been $80 each. However there was some sort of truck fire accident on I-80 so we exited and took route 46 instead. This road went through a town where they were having a 5K foot race. Needless to say some roads were closed there as well and the roads that were open were going very slow. Then when we arrived at the Holland tunnel there were 8 lanes of traffic all merging into 2 then an accident in the tunnel forced it into one lane! So we arrived at the airport at 8 PM for a 8:20 flight. Needless to say we did not make it.
Fred knew a pastor in the NYC area so he called him and found out that we could stay at his church for the night. We loaded everything back into my van and drove to his church. We slept on chairs and mattresses in the church sanctuary. They provided plenty of sheets, pillows and towels. Early in the morning Debby and Bill took my van and left to return to Olean. At 7:30 Am I got a wake up call from guess who? Later in the morning we had breakfast at a Spanish restaurant. They had really good fresh squeezed orange juice.
My cell phone was handling all the telephone calls and the battery was dying. On top of that I had forgotten to bring the battery charger so we went out to try to find one. Less than a block away we found a street vendor who sold us an AC adapter for my cell phone for $6. Then I tripped over a milk carton holder that someone normally used as a seat. Immediately I began limping and blood stains showed up on my pants. Somehow I had torn off about a 1 inch square of skin on my shin. Next we found a Rite Aid and bought some bandages and other supplies. Back at the church we had some time for email and phone calls then they serverd us pancakes and bananas. They they took us to the airport for our flight out.
The new flight tickets cost us an additional $180 to fly on the next day. We arrived at the airport at 4PM for our flight at 8:20. However many kids were there as they were leaving to go with the Peace Corps. The line was very long and slow moving. After that we had lunch at an airport restaurant. A sandwich there was $8.50 and a drink was $3. That is called Highway robbery - or maybe something even worse - Airport robbery!
So far I have discovered that I have forgotten my flip-flops, bathing suit, and a flat to round plug AC adapter. I had a back-up pair of flip flops in the van but it left with them around 6 AM. I gave a pair to Fred to pack but he left them out for some reason. In fact they were already in my suitcase when I gave it to him to put a computer in it.
Moroco
We took a break between flights in Casablanka Moroco. I borrowed an AC adapter so I can use my laptop to upload this to my blog. Everything on my screen is in French because the wonderful Internet see that I am in a French speaking country.
Mali
We are in Bamako, Mali, Africa. Last night we had what Fred called a 'wild night on the town'. We went to a bank and made off with thousands, In fact I had 200,000 with me! Then we went to a restaurant and I tried to eat half a chicken. They had my favorite drink a Mango Shake! Then we walked to a grocery store that was closing when we got there. I bought apple juice and mango jelly. The apple juice was watered down. We gave the chicken diner that I could not eat to a hungry little boy along the road on the way. That was likely the biggest meal he ever had. Then Fred and Charlie went to a bread store, and last of all we all had a small dish of ice cream! As far as I know we did not do anything that we regretted in the morning.
Thursday evening I stayed home and washed the dishes while the rest of the guys went shopping. For supper we had fresh bread but there were some problems. Fred's mayonaise for his cuecumber sandwich was bad. My Mango jelly had mold growing on it. I scraped the top 1/2 inch off the jelly, washed the top of the jar and the lid and had supper =). Fred went to get more mayonaise. When I was in the philippines we opened some dried fruit and found tiny ants in it. So we ate it anyway - extra protein. This is called a real missionary experience.
Saturday - Green Apples, clothsline, picture police, and more ants.
Well it turns out that the apple juice that I bought the other day is watered down green apple juice. That sounds like something from Dr Seus. It tastes that way too. It is a good thing it is watered down. Someone told us that there is a clothsline out back so Charlie moved all of his clothes there. Too bad it really rained yesterday! We have pet ants. They ate Charlies bread. Actually there was some left but he lost his appetite for it. I have sprayed for the ants at least twice now. Friday on the way to the church I took a picture of a famous monument. However there is a police man that claimes he was in the picture. If he had asked I would have shown him. Anyway he took the drivers license and I ended up going with the driver to the police station. They never asked to see the picture, its a digital camera and I could show it to him. They just want the money. I hope it gets settled soon.
You might know that I am one of those people that watch 'House' and try to tell them that they forgot this disease or this symptom, etc. They come up with a lot of rare diseases on that show! Anyway this morning I brushed my teeth and my tongue was black! I spent a while going through rare tropical diseases and then I remembered Bismolitis. Charlie checked with his mom and it can be fatal but usually only after 40 or 50 years. What is it? Pepto-Bismol if taken while laying down can turn the tongue black. I think the life span prediction had something to do with my age. Yes, my stomach is bothering me a little so I have been taking Pepto-Bismol and of course drinking tonic water. =)
We drove my van to NYC to save money when taking two 50 pound carry on bags per person. We were taking a musical Keyboard, an all in one printer/scanner/copier and a computer amoung other things in our second bags. To fly out from Buffalo the second bag would have been $80 each. However there was some sort of truck fire accident on I-80 so we exited and took route 46 instead. This road went through a town where they were having a 5K foot race. Needless to say some roads were closed there as well and the roads that were open were going very slow. Then when we arrived at the Holland tunnel there were 8 lanes of traffic all merging into 2 then an accident in the tunnel forced it into one lane! So we arrived at the airport at 8 PM for a 8:20 flight. Needless to say we did not make it.
Fred knew a pastor in the NYC area so he called him and found out that we could stay at his church for the night. We loaded everything back into my van and drove to his church. We slept on chairs and mattresses in the church sanctuary. They provided plenty of sheets, pillows and towels. Early in the morning Debby and Bill took my van and left to return to Olean. At 7:30 Am I got a wake up call from guess who? Later in the morning we had breakfast at a Spanish restaurant. They had really good fresh squeezed orange juice.
My cell phone was handling all the telephone calls and the battery was dying. On top of that I had forgotten to bring the battery charger so we went out to try to find one. Less than a block away we found a street vendor who sold us an AC adapter for my cell phone for $6. Then I tripped over a milk carton holder that someone normally used as a seat. Immediately I began limping and blood stains showed up on my pants. Somehow I had torn off about a 1 inch square of skin on my shin. Next we found a Rite Aid and bought some bandages and other supplies. Back at the church we had some time for email and phone calls then they serverd us pancakes and bananas. They they took us to the airport for our flight out.
The new flight tickets cost us an additional $180 to fly on the next day. We arrived at the airport at 4PM for our flight at 8:20. However many kids were there as they were leaving to go with the Peace Corps. The line was very long and slow moving. After that we had lunch at an airport restaurant. A sandwich there was $8.50 and a drink was $3. That is called Highway robbery - or maybe something even worse - Airport robbery!
So far I have discovered that I have forgotten my flip-flops, bathing suit, and a flat to round plug AC adapter. I had a back-up pair of flip flops in the van but it left with them around 6 AM. I gave a pair to Fred to pack but he left them out for some reason. In fact they were already in my suitcase when I gave it to him to put a computer in it.
Moroco
We took a break between flights in Casablanka Moroco. I borrowed an AC adapter so I can use my laptop to upload this to my blog. Everything on my screen is in French because the wonderful Internet see that I am in a French speaking country.
Mali
We are in Bamako, Mali, Africa. Last night we had what Fred called a 'wild night on the town'. We went to a bank and made off with thousands, In fact I had 200,000 with me! Then we went to a restaurant and I tried to eat half a chicken. They had my favorite drink a Mango Shake! Then we walked to a grocery store that was closing when we got there. I bought apple juice and mango jelly. The apple juice was watered down. We gave the chicken diner that I could not eat to a hungry little boy along the road on the way. That was likely the biggest meal he ever had. Then Fred and Charlie went to a bread store, and last of all we all had a small dish of ice cream! As far as I know we did not do anything that we regretted in the morning.
Thursday evening I stayed home and washed the dishes while the rest of the guys went shopping. For supper we had fresh bread but there were some problems. Fred's mayonaise for his cuecumber sandwich was bad. My Mango jelly had mold growing on it. I scraped the top 1/2 inch off the jelly, washed the top of the jar and the lid and had supper =). Fred went to get more mayonaise. When I was in the philippines we opened some dried fruit and found tiny ants in it. So we ate it anyway - extra protein. This is called a real missionary experience.
Saturday - Green Apples, clothsline, picture police, and more ants.
Well it turns out that the apple juice that I bought the other day is watered down green apple juice. That sounds like something from Dr Seus. It tastes that way too. It is a good thing it is watered down. Someone told us that there is a clothsline out back so Charlie moved all of his clothes there. Too bad it really rained yesterday! We have pet ants. They ate Charlies bread. Actually there was some left but he lost his appetite for it. I have sprayed for the ants at least twice now. Friday on the way to the church I took a picture of a famous monument. However there is a police man that claimes he was in the picture. If he had asked I would have shown him. Anyway he took the drivers license and I ended up going with the driver to the police station. They never asked to see the picture, its a digital camera and I could show it to him. They just want the money. I hope it gets settled soon.
You might know that I am one of those people that watch 'House' and try to tell them that they forgot this disease or this symptom, etc. They come up with a lot of rare diseases on that show! Anyway this morning I brushed my teeth and my tongue was black! I spent a while going through rare tropical diseases and then I remembered Bismolitis. Charlie checked with his mom and it can be fatal but usually only after 40 or 50 years. What is it? Pepto-Bismol if taken while laying down can turn the tongue black. I think the life span prediction had something to do with my age. Yes, my stomach is bothering me a little so I have been taking Pepto-Bismol and of course drinking tonic water. =)
Iwent to the police station again today with the pastor and everything went fine. They looked at the picture (shown above) and agreed that I was not taking pictures of the police. Then they had me pray for the police and we went back to the church. We have prayed for the Pastors and Bible School students and said good bye. But not without a final note from the pastor. It turns out that someone called him before we came and said there are some europeans coming and one will have a problem with some photgraphic equipment. So he knew this was going to happen and had peace throught the ordeal. Then he asked me to pray over the church as well to close out the meetings.
We saw a total of 49 people baptised over the weekend in two churches in Mali.Ghana
We waited from 1PM to 7PM for our ride to take us from Mali to arrive. We had been told that the church would provide us with a ride. They called us after 6 PM to say they were there. So we carried our baggage down but there was no bus or anything. Fred called them back and they were actually just then leaving to get us. Since our luggage had all been carried down we left it with the gate guards. We also gave the gurads all of our left over food. When they finally did arrive thay told us that the bus needed repairs. When they could not get it fixed they gave up and got another bus. So when they did actually arrive we went down and guess what? There was no bus. There was a Toyata land cruiser there that some people were removing luggage from it was laready full. It must be that someone else had just arrived. Nope. That was our vehicle. The church was providing it because some of them were going to a conference in Bobo. So guess what? There were now 8 of us and lots of baggage. Fortunatly it had roof racks. They packed our stuff up on top and wanted to leave. We insisted on ropes to tie it down for obvious reasons! That was OK because it wan not going to rain, right? It did not rain, it poured. So we arrived at a CMA guest house on the border abour 1 or 2 AM and were back on the road by about 9 AM.
We arrived at the next rest stop around 2 PM and our next ride was not there. Fred started calling and found that the person who was to set it up was just then arranging it. The people there wanted to put us on a nice Air Conditioned bus. Then after a while they treated us to a real nice supper as our transportaition had not arrived yet. Then while we were eating the small buss arrived. Fred looked it over and amoung other things it was missing 2 of its 4 headlights. It was now late and we would be driving after dark. Does it really matter that much since they just leave their lights on high all the time? They convinced us to take the 6:30 bus. So we had an hour or so to walk around and do some street shopping. I bought a round to square AC adapter so I could plug in my computer. It was a cheap piece of junk. If I wiggle it around a while it might just work on an angle. Then they took us to the bus. It had been modified to have many more seats than it was made to have. After a little while they turned off the ventilation because it was dripping water, likely because it was raining. Of course turning it off did not stop the leaks but made us all drip too. We managed to get my window open a little bit. We arrived ar our next rest stop at about 11 Pm. There was a pastor there by the name of Zachi. He is a little guy but God is going to do great things with him. He had a friend who was a taxi driver get us in the morning to take us to the Ghana border. There a friend of his came with his taxi and took us to the next rest stop. We arrived at about 4 PM.
We arrived at our first stop in Ghana. There was no Internet and there were no air conditioned rooms available as there is a conference going on and all the rooms were booked. Fred and the rest of the crew went shopping and to get a cell phone to make arrangements for the remainder of the trip to Accra Ghana. Since we were staying a while we sent in our laundry. For 5 sets of clothing I sent in I got back 5 sets of socks, and 2 of underwear, shirts and pants. Something was amis here. After searching a while they found the rest of my laundry on a clothes line. However it had rained several times so it was very wet. I hung it all up in the room hoping it would be dry by morning. That was a long night, I was sick all night and finally recovered somewhat by about 4 AM. That day Fred rented a van so I could lay on a seat and we were off again.
We waited from 1PM to 7PM for our ride to take us from Mali to arrive. We had been told that the church would provide us with a ride. They called us after 6 PM to say they were there. So we carried our baggage down but there was no bus or anything. Fred called them back and they were actually just then leaving to get us. Since our luggage had all been carried down we left it with the gate guards. We also gave the gurads all of our left over food. When they finally did arrive thay told us that the bus needed repairs. When they could not get it fixed they gave up and got another bus. So when they did actually arrive we went down and guess what? There was no bus. There was a Toyata land cruiser there that some people were removing luggage from it was laready full. It must be that someone else had just arrived. Nope. That was our vehicle. The church was providing it because some of them were going to a conference in Bobo. So guess what? There were now 8 of us and lots of baggage. Fortunatly it had roof racks. They packed our stuff up on top and wanted to leave. We insisted on ropes to tie it down for obvious reasons! That was OK because it wan not going to rain, right? It did not rain, it poured. So we arrived at a CMA guest house on the border abour 1 or 2 AM and were back on the road by about 9 AM.
We arrived at the next rest stop around 2 PM and our next ride was not there. Fred started calling and found that the person who was to set it up was just then arranging it. The people there wanted to put us on a nice Air Conditioned bus. Then after a while they treated us to a real nice supper as our transportaition had not arrived yet. Then while we were eating the small buss arrived. Fred looked it over and amoung other things it was missing 2 of its 4 headlights. It was now late and we would be driving after dark. Does it really matter that much since they just leave their lights on high all the time? They convinced us to take the 6:30 bus. So we had an hour or so to walk around and do some street shopping. I bought a round to square AC adapter so I could plug in my computer. It was a cheap piece of junk. If I wiggle it around a while it might just work on an angle. Then they took us to the bus. It had been modified to have many more seats than it was made to have. After a little while they turned off the ventilation because it was dripping water, likely because it was raining. Of course turning it off did not stop the leaks but made us all drip too. We managed to get my window open a little bit. We arrived ar our next rest stop at about 11 Pm. There was a pastor there by the name of Zachi. He is a little guy but God is going to do great things with him. He had a friend who was a taxi driver get us in the morning to take us to the Ghana border. There a friend of his came with his taxi and took us to the next rest stop. We arrived at about 4 PM.
We arrived at our first stop in Ghana. There was no Internet and there were no air conditioned rooms available as there is a conference going on and all the rooms were booked. Fred and the rest of the crew went shopping and to get a cell phone to make arrangements for the remainder of the trip to Accra Ghana. Since we were staying a while we sent in our laundry. For 5 sets of clothing I sent in I got back 5 sets of socks, and 2 of underwear, shirts and pants. Something was amis here. After searching a while they found the rest of my laundry on a clothes line. However it had rained several times so it was very wet. I hung it all up in the room hoping it would be dry by morning. That was a long night, I was sick all night and finally recovered somewhat by about 4 AM. That day Fred rented a van so I could lay on a seat and we were off again.
Accra Ghana.
In Accra Ghana we are staying at the Baptist guest house. The internet here is very strange. Facebook works, but not gmail or blogspot. Fred an I finally updated the Flash memory in the wireless router so now I can add pictures to my blog. In Accra Fred is teaching every day on Acts. Below is a picture of him with some of the students.
In Accra Ghana we are staying at the Baptist guest house. The internet here is very strange. Facebook works, but not gmail or blogspot. Fred an I finally updated the Flash memory in the wireless router so now I can add pictures to my blog. In Accra Fred is teaching every day on Acts. Below is a picture of him with some of the students.
We had a free afternoon and so we visited the mall. In Accra they actually have a very nice mall. It has a food court with exellent food. It was nice to eat something really good for a change. We went for a walk on the beach today. It was nothing like anything that you would possibly imagine. It started with a nice looking lighthouse and went downhill from there. The beach was strewn with garbage, every rock was covered with drying fish. Broken and half repaired boats covered the beach, and there were old nets everywhere. When we got back I discovered 1/4 inch welts on my ankles - yes they have sand fleas too.
When we got back to the guest house Friday they were spraying pesticides everywhere. The floors inside the building were covered with white liquid that really stinks and gives me headaches. So for a while I went up onto the roof to check my email. However really dark clouds rolled in and it got really dark. So I had to go back inside.
Friday night Fred was to speak on leadership at the church. However when we arrived there were no lights at church, electricity had been off all day. Fred taught in the morning without electricity because there was ample sunlight but now it wes very very dark. They bought 4 candles lit them and we had a church service anyway. There were about 25 in attendance in the dark.
Saturday we are working at the guest house getting stuff ready for graduation on Sunday. There is still no electricity at the church. There are about 21 students graduating. I guess their diplomas will be printed on an inkjet printer. The schedule of events may not get printed at all. That reminds me of some acronyms TIA = This is Africa. I asked another missionary what his favorite acronym was and he said CA = C'est Afrique guess what that is in English?
Graduation went great. They had a working generator. There were a couple of choirs that were wonderful. The graduates gave all of us gifts. After the service we took several pictures of them. Below is one of those pictures.
After graduation we had a last supper with the graduates in the dark. I think it was chicken and rice. Then the General Overseer took us to have some ice cream. When we went to leave the ice cream place his car made a funny sound and the steering stopped working! We ended up with all of us stuffed into a cab.
Lome TogoMonday we were back on the road again then we stopped in Lome Togo for a couple of days. We took a walk on the beach, it has one of the best beaches in West Africa. We also ate at a Lebonese restaurant. Fred is teaching at the Bible school here.
Monday night I was sick again. I have been taking pepto bismol this whole trip and spent one night throwing up when we all eat the same stuff why? However I was not at all sick both saturday and sunday, what is the key? How about blueberry jam? When we first arrived in Africa Charlie bought some blueberry jam. He did not like it so I decided to use it. I did not have any jam the two days that I was not sick! That is what I have been eating here that no one else is eating, blueberry jam. It tastes fine, the only thing unusual about it is that it pours. 
There are 'real' gas stations over here but there are a lot more of the kind shown in the picture above. Gas is 350 a liter at these gas stations versus 550 a liter at the normal gas stations. Where would you buy your gas? For a funnel they usually use an old plastic soda bottle to pour the gas into your car.
Cotonou Benin
We have made it to the last country of this missionary journey - Benin. I can no longer say that I have never been in Benin. The twins were glad to see Fred, as you can see they did not want him to leave again. He kept saying 10 more days until we go home. Below is the twins dancing to the sound from Charlies MP3 player.
We are back! It was a long trip and having two 4 year olds added to the fun. They love to play with their food. Have you ever filled one of those little loafs of bread with yougart and then tried to eat it? Guess what happens? I saved some wet wipes to try to clean up the mess but the messes were coming faster that the wipes. At one point I thanked the stewardess for saving me by taking away the food trays. The picture above shows them with the family that has adopted them.
Here are a couple of pictures from the orphanage. Both are real tear jerkers. One shows the really small kids taking their afternoon nap on a mat on the floor. The second shows some of the girls waiting at the doorway. The sense of hopelessness in their eyes was overwhelming.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
The wheelchair lift project update
I thought it was about time to post an update on the wheelchair lift project. I built a frame of 2 by 8's around it. They keep it from rotating slightly when it is all the way to the top. I then added some 2 by 4's to fasten the sheet rock to.
Next I added steel doors at each entrance. I will be adding door switches so that the lift will not move if any of the doors are open. Those switches are needed soon so people will not be looking up when I drop something like a hammer. The back door on the lift still has not been installed so it is sitting there to the right. The downstairs door was open in the picture so you can see the coffee house in the background. I will have to chop that stair off on the left so that the door will open up all the way.
Next I added steel doors at each entrance. I will be adding door switches so that the lift will not move if any of the doors are open. Those switches are needed soon so people will not be looking up when I drop something like a hammer. The back door on the lift still has not been installed so it is sitting there to the right. The downstairs door was open in the picture so you can see the coffee house in the background. I will have to chop that stair off on the left so that the door will open up all the way.
And this is what it looks like when all of the doors are shut. I still need to install the light switch and the lift controller to the left of the doorway.
New DVD duplication equipment
This year to speed up the production of the Video Bible School DVD's I bought a high speed duplicator. I have built these and used them for years, now I own one of my own. It makes 5 copies of a DVD or CD in just a few minutes.
My brother took this picture for his newsletter of me with the duplicator and the printer in the background. I do not like the picture. For some reason I look fat in the picture, how could that have happened? It must be an optical illusion or something. ;-)
Friday, August 8, 2008
External combustion car in the news
Today at CNN.com there is a story about what they call an 'air car' that gets 106 miles per gallon.
Here is a link; http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/08/08/air.car/index.html
Here is a quote from the article; "Above 35 mph, there is an external combustion system which is basically a heater that uses a little bit of gasoline or biofuel or ethanol or vegetable oil that will heat the air."
Internal combustion engines are about 20% efficient, external combustion engines are about 90% efficient. The problem with external combustion engines is that they only have one speed, full speed. Some solutions to this problem have been recently invented. One is the continuously variable transmission. Another is to have it power a generator to charge batteries and then use an electric motor. The problem with that is that generators, batteries, and electric motors are not highly efficient.
External combustion engines were highlighted on my web site many years ago under 'Sterling engines'. Another use would be to have hot springs or even volcano's power electric generators. Thus you could make essentially free sources of electricity. The most common example of an external combustion engine is a steam locomotive, remember them?
Here is a link; http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/08/08/air.car/index.html
Here is a quote from the article; "Above 35 mph, there is an external combustion system which is basically a heater that uses a little bit of gasoline or biofuel or ethanol or vegetable oil that will heat the air."
Internal combustion engines are about 20% efficient, external combustion engines are about 90% efficient. The problem with external combustion engines is that they only have one speed, full speed. Some solutions to this problem have been recently invented. One is the continuously variable transmission. Another is to have it power a generator to charge batteries and then use an electric motor. The problem with that is that generators, batteries, and electric motors are not highly efficient.
External combustion engines were highlighted on my web site many years ago under 'Sterling engines'. Another use would be to have hot springs or even volcano's power electric generators. Thus you could make essentially free sources of electricity. The most common example of an external combustion engine is a steam locomotive, remember them?
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Kingdom Bound 2008 to see the Newsboys
Once again this year I was at Kingdom Bound. We saw 33 miles, Delirious?, and of course the Newsboys. I used my cell phone camera to take the pictures so you can hardly tell what these pictures are of. The first picture is of the stage. The white screens on each side have a big picture of what is happening so you can actually see it.
The second picture is also from the Newsboys. They did an encore performance where their drummer goes up in the air, then is spun in circles, then he tilts to almost vertical, all while he is playing. Then the leader goes to another stage in the middle of the audience and plays a drum set while he is lifted up over 8 feet in the air.
The second picture is also from the Newsboys. They did an encore performance where their drummer goes up in the air, then is spun in circles, then he tilts to almost vertical, all while he is playing. Then the leader goes to another stage in the middle of the audience and plays a drum set while he is lifted up over 8 feet in the air.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Sept. 2008 Missions trip to West Africa
From September 6 to October 13 I will be in Africa. I will be traveling with my brother Fred Davis and I will be taking someone else's place who is too sick to go. We will start in Benin Africa and in 5 weeks we will be in about 5 different countries. This missions trip will cost me about $4,000! We will be teaching at Bible schools, preaching at churches, praying for people, and prophesying over people. I might fix a few things in my spare time. I really need to concentrate on getting my sermon notes more organized.
Just a few years ago I looked forward to retireing so that I could travel the world and help pastors and missionaries. Now I am able to do that but it is about 10 years earlier than I thought it would be.
Just a few years ago I looked forward to retireing so that I could travel the world and help pastors and missionaries. Now I am able to do that but it is about 10 years earlier than I thought it would be.
Another Strange Dream
God keeps giving me these dreams. I know they have something to do with revival and something to do with Gods Judgement. We are seeing both happening in the world around us. Did you know that in 1909 at the Azusa street revival someone prophesied that there would be an even greater revival in 100 years?
Strange dream July 22, 2008
There was a huge dam in this dream. It had what looked like 3 sections to it. Many thousands of people had built their houses along both sides of and even actually on the dam. There were several hotels built on the 3 faces of the dam. When asked why did you build there, they would say that the dam was 100 years old and "Would never fail".
However from above I could see the muddy water lashing at the dam with great ferocity. I know the dam was going to fail at any second. I had to visit the people there to try to warn them.
It reminds me of the sermon "Sinners in the hand of an angry God." As I pondered the dream I felt God say "Will you go now, will you preach the Gospel?".
Strange dream July 22, 2008
There was a huge dam in this dream. It had what looked like 3 sections to it. Many thousands of people had built their houses along both sides of and even actually on the dam. There were several hotels built on the 3 faces of the dam. When asked why did you build there, they would say that the dam was 100 years old and "Would never fail".
However from above I could see the muddy water lashing at the dam with great ferocity. I know the dam was going to fail at any second. I had to visit the people there to try to warn them.
It reminds me of the sermon "Sinners in the hand of an angry God." As I pondered the dream I felt God say "Will you go now, will you preach the Gospel?".
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Now I am working on tearing down walls.
The church in Salamanca is installing a wheelchair lift. Or should I say that I am installing a lift. We had to rent a truck and drive all the way to Syracuse to get it. It has 2 pieces and one of them weighs over 600 pounds and it takes 6 people to lift it.
Once we got it to the church the next problem is where to store it until we can install it. The only level place big enough is the foyer.
The next problem is that there is a concrete wall in the way. The good news is that there was a window there so the header is already in place. I cut a hole in the wall and removed the old window casing so we could work on the concrete and stone wall.
I rented a chop saw with a 17 inch diamond tipped blade. With it I cut grooves into the stone and concrete wall. It did not cut all of the way through it so we had to use hammers and knock out the blocks one at a time. In the picture pastor Charlie is taking a swing or two at the wall.
Now we are through the concrete and stone wall. Walt brought a shop vacuum cleaner and cleaned up the mess that was left behind. The next step is to remove the platform and stairs. Then we can install the lift to replace the stairs.
Now for the latest update, in this picture the stairs and landing have been removed leaving an open pit. We also stripped or removed the walls and ceiling.
Next is an even more difficult step. We need to put the lift into the hole we have made for it. We did it with about 6 guys. We started at 9 AM on saturday and had it in place by a little after 10 Am! Now to do all of the wireing and make some walls and doorways.
Well now I am working on the walls. The right side is done, the left side is going to be the tricky one.Once we got it to the church the next problem is where to store it until we can install it. The only level place big enough is the foyer.The next problem is that there is a concrete wall in the way. The good news is that there was a window there so the header is already in place. I cut a hole in the wall and removed the old window casing so we could work on the concrete and stone wall.
I rented a chop saw with a 17 inch diamond tipped blade. With it I cut grooves into the stone and concrete wall. It did not cut all of the way through it so we had to use hammers and knock out the blocks one at a time. In the picture pastor Charlie is taking a swing or two at the wall.
Now we are through the concrete and stone wall. Walt brought a shop vacuum cleaner and cleaned up the mess that was left behind. The next step is to remove the platform and stairs. Then we can install the lift to replace the stairs.Now for the latest update, in this picture the stairs and landing have been removed leaving an open pit. We also stripped or removed the walls and ceiling.
Next is an even more difficult step. We need to put the lift into the hole we have made for it. We did it with about 6 guys. We started at 9 AM on saturday and had it in place by a little after 10 Am! Now to do all of the wireing and make some walls and doorways.
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