I was wondering about getting more power from my 800 watt generator with limited modification. The only problem is the 60 amp capacity, and 12 volt regulation on the alternator. There is a way to alter the regulator to produce higher AC voltages, but the battery charge circuit must be bypassed, and the RPM must be regulated to achieve 60 Hertz for AC power capability. I also thought of changing the alternator to 200 Amp capacity, but they are costly. With a 200 amp alternator, I could produce 2.4 kilowatts. With that amount, more appliances can be readily run for limited horsepower. With a 5 hp engine, it probably is the capacity for that amount of energy (2400 / 746 = 3.2 Hp)...oh yeah, a little more. (5 * 746 = 3.7 kilowatts) Of course, 5 Hp is limited by friction, heat & bearing losses.

You ever wonder why American Automotive Engineers have not designed engines that are more efficient in reducing the wasted heat in order to produce mechanical energy from the internal combustion engine? Why has the Wankel engine not succeeded beyond the Mazda?

Who was Wankel anyway? Why is the engine not used more?

There's nothing better than the sound of power tools. I love my power tools. My Poulan chain saw, Stihl blower & trimmer, Toro lawnmower, Honda tiller and my Cub Cadet. I love the sounds, smells and feel of 2 cycle & 4 cycle power tools. I like to keep them clean, running and efficient. I like mixing the 2 cycle engine fuel. I like the smell. A few years back, I found a Poulan chainsaw at a garage sale for $40. Of course, it was almost new, and I cleaned it up, worked on the engine, got a new chain, and the next thing you know, it was humming smoothly and flawlessly. I used that chainsaw for all my downed limbs and cutting small trees in my yard. It was the best $40 I've ever spent on power equipment. My favorite machine is my 1976 1450 Hydrostatic International Harvester Cub Cadet "TRACTOR". Yes, tractor. It is not a lawnmower, even though it has a cutting deck. It is, for all intensive purposes, a tractor. That tractor weighs more than my old Honda CRX that I had out of college. Of course, I have been cutting grass with that tractor since I was 16.

A few months ago, I had the Cub Cadet looked at by a small engine repair shop, and they could not believe how much that thing weighed. They probably had never seen a real International Harvester, small tractor. Most new riding lawnmowers (and the Cub Cadet) are made with thin metal parts, not mine. The body is cast from some of the most awesome steel that has lasted for 30 years, with limited wear. The Tecumseh engine is in immaculate condition. I like the tractor, because it has a PTO, and can be used with a plow for small gardens. The tractor is so heavy, that sometimes it gets stuck in mud around my house.

I should winterize my tools, but I use them year-round. I blow my driveway about every week. I found the Honda tiller in the trash, took it to get some parts, and $10 later, I had a working 4 cycle small garden tiller.

I took my old lawnmower engine (Briggs & Stratton, 5hp) and made good use of it, by creating my own 120VAC generator. It was a small Christmas break project that was alot of fun. I now have an 800 watt, 120 VAC system for emergency power. I've described the project on my website:

"http://www.geocities.com/kenhroberts/generator/generator.htm"

Take a gander...its a dandy. It was a great use of a terrific engine. My lawnmower had been welded together so many times over the past 10 years, that I decided to make good use of the engine. One of these days I'm going to build a bigger generator with more power (2K to 5K Watts). I just don't know what I'm going to use for power.

Now if only I could convert the engine fuel to biodiesel or cooking grease...that would be awesome. I'll have to figure out the heating capacity of biofuel and the combustion temperatures for small 4 cycle engines like Briggs & Stratton. That's another project. I'm still working on my Cuprous Oxide Rectifier project, which I hope to complete by next summer. Did you know that Walter Brattain, the co-inventer of the transistor worked on Cuprous Oxide Rectifiers back in the 1930's. Semiconductor technology has come a long ways.

Speaking of technology...I'm reading a book on the History of Technology. It's a fascinating read and has much implication for the changes that society is now experiencing. The post-industrial revolution is now at hand in Mexico, China and India. When I was a child, Mexico was a place where you entered the borders to find trinkets and pesos. Mexico is now entering the 21st century with late 20th century American technology. Now to some, that might not be profound, but think about it. Mexico and China, the world's largest manufacturers of trinkets is using last century's technology. Of course, they probably have WIFI, Internet networking, but the technology is similar to America's processing & manufacturing of the last 50 years. The book, "The World is Flat" is a great book for understanding the last few years of our century and the effect that they have had on those particular countries, including the United States.

I like to think of WIFI as "wireless fidelity", like HIFI. It's pervasive and everywhere. Have you ever watched TV, and someones cellphone causes interference. I'm supposing that the person is using their cellphone while driving by my house. What's the deal...why do cellphones need so much power? It interferes with TV's, computers and wireless phones. It is annoying. I try to limit my cellphone use for these reasons.

You ever wondered about nematodes? Are they good, bad or indifferent? They seem to affect my fruit trees in my orchard...I don't know. I've been told it might be a soil acidity problem, but I want to blame the nematodes.



From a website, I found that:

"Nematodes are the most numerous multicellular animals on earth. A handful of soil will contain thousands of the microscopic worms, many of them parasites of insects, plants or animals. Free-living species are abundant, including nematodes that feed on bacteria, fungi, and other nematodes, yet the vast majority of species encountered are poorly understood biologically. There are nearly 20,000 described species classified in the phylum Nemata. Nematodes are structurally simple organisms. Adult nematodes are comprised of approximately 1,000 somatic cells, and potentially hundreds of cells associated with the reproductive system . Nematodes have been characterized as a tube within a tube ; referring to the alimentary canal which extends from the mouth on the anterior end, to the anus located near the tail. Nematodes possess digestive, nervous, excretory, and reproductive systems, but lack a discrete circulatory or respiratory system. In size they range from 0.3 mm to over 8 meters."

Yuk....they are like bacteria, but necessary. Anyway, that thing is killing my fig tree. I'm planting plums instead.

I like getting fruit throughout the warm months. I have peaches, plums, figs, muscadines, scuppernongs and apples. I enjoy making fig preserves at the end of the summer. My grandmother used to make muscadine jelly, which I'm hoping can be achieved with my orchard in a few seasons. I'd rather grow fruit than nematodes.

I wonder if I can use nematodes for generating electrical power...

Has anyone ever built an "earth battery"? I tried building one a few years back, but could not generate enough current. It also corroded pretty quickly. It was also costly, considering the copper grounding rods and galvanized pipe that was used.

I remember a friend of mine from high school who tried to extract energy from the local power line with a transformer on a long pole. Don't try this...it's way too dangerous. But there are people who try to extract energy from RF (radio waves) in their backyard. I haven't tried this yet, because I'm still working on the "earth battery". If Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (long name) can do it, so can I. Boy, I need 5 names in order to accomplish the research on the "earth battery". Low Voltage, Low Current...not too good! Oh well.

I had a friend tell me that the most visited site in eastern europe is Chernobyl. That town has a half-life of close to 713 million years. Uranium oxides have less than 1% U235, but that's still a lot of radioactivity to go around. I'm amazed that people will go visit a site that will cause risks to health for the next few million years.
I wonder if they give you a gieger counter when you visit the nearby towns and villages. I saw a website where a woman rode her motorcycle through the area, and she said it was safe on the asphalt, but not on the grass or inside any building. I guess you have to ride pretty fast through Chernobyl in order to get limited exposure to radiation.

Since scientists have cloned a sheep, why haven't they cloned ugly animals? Or maybe they have. My son wants the Giganotrosaurus to be cloned, I want the Brachiosaurus or the Quetzalcoatlus (my son corrected me on the spelling and pronunciation). That way in several million years, the dinosaurs will rule and Chernobyl will be half as lethal.

I have a friend who took a class on Genetic Engineering. He said it is amazingly simple and that anyone can now alter single-celled animals. He said that in his class they created single-celled organisms that can glow in the dark, by either providing or depriving them of a certain DNA sequence. Hmmm? I asked him if this was a capability for other animals. "As long as we know the sequence, we can inject the DNA" Now that's scary. I'm not a biologist, but this does seem somewhat alarming. I think Chernobyl degenerates human DNA, but our society will allow "Forrest Gump" to create life in his bedroom. Now all we need is "Forrest Gump" with a PhD. Yikes. I like science, but Biology scares me, even though I know that medical breakthroughs have helped us all.

What is the point of cloning? Doesn't the Earth have enough people and animals? Are scientists bored? Now if they could clone money, that would be different. I think the Treasury Department clones money, but they only let a few people have it. Oh yeah, they give it to the mints. We have to buy the money from the mints. But, I don't buy money from the mint, I have to get it from the bank. The bank only gives me money when I ask for it. All my finances are invisible. I know that my paycheck is deposited at the bank and it goes into my checking account, but I never see any money. I'll bet the bank doesn't even have real money, silver or gold. My whole life is on invisible credit, I guess. I miss the gold standard. Who caused the US to be weaned from the gold standard? Was it Barry Goldwater? Goldstein? Goldman-Sachs? What happened to the Silver standard. Why is my silver not worth its weight in gold?


A friend told me once that the whole aspect of financial exchange is an illusion and a cover-up for a much larger control issue. I hope that the control has proper feedback using Laplace transforms or is at least digital using Z-transforms for correct stability. They need to use the Routh-Hurwitz criteria for us plebes:



What? Negative Feedback is fun. Remember: Gain = G/(1 + GH)



plebian --

"Usually poor, these small farmers and landowners were the lower class. Although they could vote, their votes counted for so little that it was hardly worth it (because there were so many of them). No one is a plebian's family could hold office, or marry any noble, until the Conflict Of The Orders."

I am a voting plebian.

When my son asks for money and I tell him that I have none at hand, he responds:

"But Dad, go to the ATM, it gives you some money"

Yes it does, and it baffles me...I only wish that the paper money would get stuck together like my printer and accidently give me more. Why do ATM's cost money? They give money? What's with that? The ATM replaced the bank teller? What will replace the ATM? Can I get money wirelessly through my WIFI? How about Cellphone Money that I can download to my phone? But...my cellphone costs me money, why would it give me any money.

Ever notice during the winter months, that when it gets slightly warm, the sounds of nature change. Different type birds and insects can be distinctly heard. It's odd. Everything except cicadas.

Where do frogs go during the winter months? Do they hibernate deep under the ground? What about snakes? When ice forms over small ponds, where do the amphibians go? Do they burrow deeply under the pond bottom? I've always wondered about this. I went for a hike last week and came across a water snake during a warm day. Do they think that it is Spring? Do they crawl back when it gets cold? Reptiles and Amphibians are weird. I'm not really much of a herpatologist. I don't really like them. They probably don't like me.

One of my favorite smells, believe it or not, is the slight odor of skunk during the Spring & Summer. Not the pungent, but the musky smell that permeates the woods during those warm months. I had an experience once when a family of skunks lived next to my apartment in the Virginia mountains. They didn't bother me, and of course I didn't bother them, but I liked having them around. Sometimes they would wake me in the early morning hours, just from their smell. It's not an overwhelming smell, just a pleasant smell of the Appalachians. I like groundhogs too. They are fun to watch, while burrowing around on the side of roads. Anyway...its nice that God placed those animals on our planet, because they are interesting to observe.

I remember many years ago when there was a partial solar eclipse. During the eclipse, the light changed, birds became quiet and the trees displayed odd shadows. It was the most unusual event I've ever seen.

Picking up sticks. That's what I do in my spare time after work. I pick up sticks in my front and back yards. Our house is situated between several oak trees that tend to lose their limbs from time to time when the wind blows. Its consistent, and I'm always picking up sticks. Sometimes limbs, but mostly sticks. The kids like to whittle the sticks into arrows or spears...and then play with them around the house. I also pick up whittled sticks. Some are quite elaborate, having different whittle marks along the base and points of the sticks. I remember whittling sticks myself when I was younger. Sometimes I would find a nice triangular quartzite rock and place this in a slit in the stick and then bind it with some twine. I would then make a simple bow, and use these arrows to scare squirrels. My kids do the same. Hey, the branches never fall far from the tree.

I remember back in 1973 finding an indian paint rock in my backyard, along with my rock collection of gneiss and other metamorphic rocks for Earth Science class. I thought it was quite bizarre to find this type rock, until I realized that the Creek Indians were proliferate around my home town around 1000 years ago.