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n/t

Lots of typical knee-jerk reactions to this story. Most automakers do not have EV and car battery manufacturing facilities in China and China has reduced or removed subsidies making imports much less attractive. It seems, after a bit of quick basic research, that the slowdown request is to allow non-chinese car companies time to be able to ramp up the ability to product EVs on a large scale in China. It's not a plot to stay on old tech or to derail EV cars.

https://electrek.co/2017/05/08...
http://insights.globalspec.com...
https://electrek.co/2017/04/27...
https://cleantechnica.com/2017...

Likely Tesla hasn't complained because they are wrapping up their first manufacturing partnership in China and probably expect to be able to meet sales requirements.

http://fortune.com/2017/06/19/...

I don't think there is an all-year-around electric car that can be used in Canada, unless it is to be driven from garage to garage. With 20 below zero weather, batteries drop to 10% of what they can deliver in summer. Just get caught in a traffic jam with -20 and hope for the best. In my view, the best would be the tow-truck.

n/t

Lots of typical knee-jerk reactions to this story. Most automakers do not have EV and car battery manufacturing facilities in China and China has reduced or removed subsidies making imports much less attractive. It seems, after a bit of quick basic research, that the slowdown request is to allow non-chinese car companies time to be able to ramp up the ability to product EVs on a large scale in China. It's not a plot to stay on old tech or to derail EV cars.

https://electrek.co/2017/05/08...
http://insights.globalspec.com...
https://electrek.co/2017/04/27...
https://cleantechnica.com/2017...

Likely Tesla hasn't complained because they are wrapping up their first manufacturing partnership in China and probably expect to be able to meet sales requirements.

http://fortune.com/2017/06/19/...

So what your saying is drone only means an unmanned flying vehicle.

I disagree. http://electronics360.globalsp...

PCM is not limited to re-writable Blu-Ray, it is actually used in memory chips.

Micron used to manufacture PCM memory chips and dropped them in 2014. There are also some debate regarding whether IMFT's 3D XPoint is also PCM or not.

The real innovation in IBM's work is turning PCM into a TLC, and that is really impressive.

Well it isn't like NSA Director Mike Rogers isn't a caricature of General Buck Turgidson....

Well shit we're fucked.

It seems he is getting to be more like General Buck Turgidson or Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper every day. I'm now just waiting for him to start spouting off about a mine shaft gap.

...the reason the Mill CPU hasn't gotten VC funding.

Someone christened this the "Bell Knot" at least as early as 2006, so it's not even a new name: http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/105/The-Mysterious-Bell-Knot-Challenge

---Chip

The technology was called "riblets" and was secretly applied to the hull of Stars and Stripes allowing them to win the 1986 Americas Cup. It also allowed the US to win its first rowing medal in many years at the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Technically, it was a cheat-to-win strategy in most people's opinions at the time. I thought everyone knew about this. Google and Wikipedia are not your friend.

More here: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/Riblets.html

And here: http://www.globalspec.com/reference/67396/203279/7-4-drag-reduction-by-riblets

I'm not interested enough to read details, but I'm pretty sure that folks did UUCP (including email) over HAM radio decades ago.

http://www.globalspec.com/reference/29627/203279/we-used-to-copy-e-mail-across-2-400-baud-modems

Absolutely it works, from proof of concept ( http://shiftboston.blogspot.com/2009/10/field-by-richard-box.html ) to the practical [ http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/9305/Free-Fluorescent-Lighting ]

Yes, all the time. One of the worst sites I've seen for it is this. It's actually a pretty useful site with some good information and good tools for searching for a specific part, but when you look at any of the parts from a search, they send your e-mail address to that company and that company often spams you.

the point stands it has a negative caloric affect and so it fits the statement.

Actually, after I posted what I did, I came across several other articles which clicked in something I had overlooked. There is no such thing as negative calorie food.

For reference: Answer Fitness, CR4 (referencing a Mayo Clinic study)

OH look, a TROLL!!

Whoever modded this informative is an IDIOT.

In reality:

"Low frequency (50-60 Hz) alternating currents can be more dangerous than similar levels of DC since the alternating fluctuations can cause the heart to lose coordination, inducing ventricular fibrillation, which then rapidly leads to death within six to eight minutes from anoxia of the brain and medulla.[9] However, any practical distribution system will use voltage levels quite sufficient for a dangerous amount of current to flow, whether it uses alternating or direct current. Since the precautions against electrocution are similar, ultimately, the advantages of AC power transmission outweighed this theoretical risk, and it was eventually adopted as the standard worldwide."

Here is a whole thread about the subject:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/3212/Which-is-More-Dangerous-AC-or-DC

As others have written there are a several places to get good parts. Of course it depends on the size of the sculpture, and weight of the pieces.

I build pick and place robots for a living, excellent resources are always good to have.

Besides Granger, McMaster there is also:

Standard Din sizes, and also american
http://mdmetric.com/

another good one stock drive products
http://www.sdp-si.com/

And If you need to handle larger loads, as I expect your sculptures to need. Seek your local power distribution company (as in gear boxes).

This is one of many (Motion Industries)
https://www.motionindustries.com/motion3/jsp/mi/index.jsp

for a large list click below
http://search.globalspec.com/productfinder/findproducts?query=gear%20box&se=ggka&setag=MOTN

>>Heh. I'd love to see the airplane you'd make out of iron. Iron is very very heavy.

Carbonized iron (steel) is about three times the weight of aluminum but also nearly twice as strong, so you need less of it.

Here's what the plane would look like.

(The USSR didn't have much aluminum - or any way to import it - in WW2.)

And don't forget the MiG-25. Due to the high design speeds and expected thermal loads it couldn't be built of normal aircraft aluminum, so the Soviets built it largely of nickel-steel.
(Unlike the American high-speed planes the SR-71 and XB-70 which primarily used lighter titanium)

Heh. I'd love to see the airplane you'd make out of iron. Iron is very very heavy.

Carbonized iron (steel) is about three times the weight of aluminum but also nearly twice as strong, so you need less of it.

Here's what the plane would look like.

(The USSR didn't have much aluminum - or any way to import it - in WW2.)

Okay, I've been interested in this for a long time and I read a good thread on the topic that I will put a copy of in this post.

But first I would like to make a quick point which is that this is a major political obstacle to alternative energy. It's not a technical obstacle, it's a political issue because we've "deregulated" utilities by letting them regulate themselves and this is insanity. At least it is one way to ensure that we remain bound to fossil fuel solutions.

So, on the topic of a DIY grid-tie inverter here are a few posts from a thread started by a guy looking to outsource the design.

Some dude makes the snarky remark about why don't you just pay the price and this is the response of a user named MarkM
      (I've reformatted a couple of his posts into a single thread for readability.)

"Why don't you just buy one"

BECAUSE THEY ARE WAY OVER PRICED. That was yelled a the top of my lungs.

Solar panels cost about $4-5/Watt, inverters cost $1-2/watt. This is crazy. These grid tie inverters are no more complicated than a computer power supply which will cost you about $0.08/watt. The inherint nature of the grid tie inverters is to track the sinusoidal input and drive it to a higher voltage, thus selling the solar power on it. The IEEE 1547 require all kinds of hoops to jump thru and the inverter companies use this as an excuse to charge what they do. Again the hoops are simply jumped by a programed algorithum that monitors frequency and voltage levels. WOOOOO. I see this mans drive to find/build an inexpensive alternativ and do the gorella thing.

The way the grid tie inverters work per the regulatory hurdles is it syncs in on the line power voltage level and sine wave siganture. If power goes down it shuts off, no harm can come to the line man. This type of statement from you or utility companies is old school old day problems stemming from someone hooking a rotatry generator or non-monitoring piece of equipmnet to the line. And if a lineman is doing as he is suposed to he grounds live wires to ground before working on a "dead line". (that's a rule)

Utility companies have this power thing locked up and are going to be very reluctant to let small producers get in the game. Utility companies should not fear small producers they should embrace them and buy their excess power and resell it at a profit without any over head. The largest source of funds to build the power supply sytem is in the pockets of consumers: let consumers build it.

And as far as the regulatory cost as a part of the inverter cost that to is a pile. When the cost of regulation of a certain product is spread over the number of units sold it is small. Again we have a situation of free market and what the buyer will pay. In verter builders are maximizing there profits because competition is nill. I am all for free market but too I am for some of the Chinese or Indian products to slap the US, German and Australan made manufactures into a stop gouging mode.

The original thread is here.
http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/4482

On the general topic of grid-tie inverters you may find the following Wikipedia posts of interest. You will find the following components mentioned in the documentation for many grid-tie inverters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEPIC_converter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mppt

Flywheel batteries at the substation, and even at the house.
This way the whole grid could be backed up for a short time. Also don't for get the effiecy can be increased by using mirror array
to focus more light on the cell. Ahh the combination of solutions.

I'm amazed that this story didn't get more attention until now. When I blogged about it a few weeks ago, the first person who commented on my story was inclined to take the side of HP.

The hard drive in my Compaq x86 workstation has been humming nicely for more than 5 years. Due to the nature of my work at the institute, the number of writes to the hard drive have easily exceeded 100000 during that time.

Using flash memory as a fast cache for the hard drive will increase the performance of the drive but will decrease the overall life of the drive. Someone will be awfully upset when she makes a final save of her million-dollar PowerPoint presentation for the CEO and discovers that the save is the 100001st write to the hybrid drive.

Hopefully, the engineer who designed this hybrid drive has, at a minimum, integrated an LCD counter and a tiny speaker into the drive. The counter shall display the running total of the number of writes to the flash memory. The tiny speaker shall beep like crazy when the total exceeds 99900.

You don't need a fancy LCD screen license plate. Time to go shopping for infrared blocking paint. Yes, the same stuff used in all visible digital camera lenses can be on your plate to render them black only to a pesky surveillance camera:

http://industrial-coatings.globalspec.com/Industri al-Directory/ir_coatings

Today is the last day of CR4's weeklong celebration of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System. Today's story, "The Road Ahead", considers the future of the interstate highway system. Did you know that construction of a Trans-Texan Corridor(TTC) for a NAFTA Super Highway could begin as early as next year?

The second part of the series is available for anyone who would like to read it. This one focuses on previous roads and waterways that led to the development of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System.

"Those DSPs you mention aren't CPUs, and they're not available on PCI cards"

Since when (on both counts)?
DSP == Digital Signal _Processor_ which is the Central Processor Unit on several platforms I know of.

http://www.signalogic.com/index.pl?page=m44
http://www.bittware.com/products/type/dsp-pci.cfm
http://www.innovative-dsp.com/products/delfin.htm
http://www.innovative-dsp.com/products/toro.htm
http://www.globalspec.com/FeaturedProducts/Detail/ InnovativeIntegration/CONEJO_64_bit_PCI_DSP_Card/1 1265/0?fromSpotlight=1
and my fav:
http://www.signatec.com/products/dsp_PMP1000_paral lel_digital_signal_processing_PCI_board.asp
For the record I'm waiting for the signatec to be available as a PCIe x16 card. As it is I have to sneak time on it for transcoding...
-nB

http://memory-chips.globalspec.com/LearnMore/Semic onductors/Memory_Chips/FLASH_Memory_Chips

Slightly out of date (claims 100k writes, while current generation flash gets around 300k, I think, but I couldn't find a cite for that quickly).

That should be more than adequate for a typical 2-3 year laptop lifespan.

I'm no rocket scientist, or even engineer, so I'm sure the engineers considered this, but why wasn't welding used instead? Is there some twisting involved at this joint? Also, if it's a simple o-ring, why wasn't a more sophisticated coupling seal used, or two rings, perhaps designed for different, but overlapping, temperature ranges? From my understanding, submarines typically use double seals as part of their L1/SS program. (Although it's worth mentioning that L1/SS was directly affected by the Challenger disaster, it had its origins in previous submarine engineering failures.) At the very least, using two identical rings eliminates a single point of failure.

They're an engineering company.

Who the heck are GlobalSpec?

Is it news when some random company decides to award someone famous?

No criticism to the Apollo 13 engineers. What they did was amazing. But what's this story got to do with them?

Most people are too lazy to enter good metadata in webpages, even assuming a good, standard way of doing so. However I see some future in sites like GlobalSpec where your search is narrowed down until you know exactly what type of product you're looking for, and then extra metadata for that class of products is exposed in the search (usually in the form of sets of checkboxes and ranges of metric-aware values) -- allowing you to search by thread size on bolts, but not on other equipment where it's not relevant. I think some sort of community-driven version of this could be nice; let users create new types of attributes (or whole modules) for new types of 'items' and search using better metadata. Eh. It's an idea.

I think the more puzzling issue is plumbing

This is done with a slip ring or a series of slip rings inside of each other. A quick search brings up Slip Rings

CP

Slightly off topic I guess (as neither are hardened devices), but there are a couple of imminent bits of kit you might want to look at:

First up is the Flipstart by one of Paul Allen's spin-off companies. I haven't seen any physical models around at all, but it looks interesting - a full XP PC based around a Transmeta chip, with a very nice (on paper) 1024 x 600 screen, and an innovative external LCD display for notifications and MP3 controls. I'd really like this to see the light of day.

Second up is the OQO, which has been in vapour for a while, but hardware has been previewed at recent tech shows. Spec-wise it's similar to the Flipstart, being powered by a Transmeta, but has an innovative slide down keyboard arrangement.

Both look pretty interesting and will probably suit your needs to a degree, although as a first generation tablet PC user, I can say that the Transmeta chip isn't up to running a lot of apps at the same time that require a lot of horsepower. That's not to say it can't run apps, it just takes a while to fire up. Once it's running - say Photoshop - it's fine.

On a sidenote, I used a GSM card in my tablet for a while and it was awesome. Coupled with a Bluetooth card and the TC1000's built-in Wifi, it made the tablet incredibly versatile. I doubt that I'd move back to a standard laptop for size/weight/battery life reasons, so my next consideration is probably going to be a more powerful tablet, probably a TC1100. Although for ruggedised PC fans, HP are about to release the TC3000.