Other Interests, Idea’s & Thoughts – Page 7

Tin Whiskers

I’m not a big fan of the gradual banning of lead. Sure, I love kids and all that. However, the enviromentalists take everything too far with what they clothe in “for the greater good” arguments. It’s really an anti-capitalist movement. And, I’ve been trying for a long time to figure out what is pro-job about being anti-capitalist.

I can understand how lead in paint which breaks down slowly over time, becomes chips which get smaller and eventually turn into dust. It makes sense not to put lead in paint because we’ll eventually breathe it. However, no matter how hard I try to kick the dirt around on the floor, electronic circuits soldered with leaded solder or lead free solder don’t jump into my mouth. Maybe the difference is hard for some to see? What is it like to wield the power to ban an element on the perodic table?

So, on to tin whiskers…..

RoHS is an EU (European Union) directive that has become enforced law. RoHS means “Restriction of Hazardous Substances”. The problem is little consideration given to what is a Hazardous use of a substance and what is not. I don’t hear reports of children eating circuit boards or solder joints in wires for example. Is it about health and public safety, or about creating a portal by which government and regulatory bodies can exert command and control over huge industries and the influx of goods into a country?

Since the EU has issued RoHS directives, lead has been removed from most solders and from the tinning on electronic leads. Pure tin is now used for almost all electronic component lead tinning. Over time it forms whiskers of tin which are thinner than a human hair. They are only one crystal in thickness and they reach out and touch leads of other components. It’s often the reason why today’s TV’s and other electronics (including our RC gear) doesn’t last as long as yesterday’s. Failure of expensive satellites have been attributed to lead-free tinning of leads causing tin whiskers. It’s our punishment for letting the “zero tolerance crowd get traction and get this nonsense pushed into law all over the world. When you get a chance, in any way possible, do your part, do something about it.

Here are some great links, good reading and photos of our gift from the enviromentalists, “tin whiskers”.

I’m still looking for examples of children that were poisoned from eating circuit boards and wires.

Find lots of tech article links at: NASA Tin Whisker Homepage

An excellent blog post by Steve Smith: Tin Whiskers

1.4 Million Results on Google

As long as possible, you’ll always be able to get “real” solder from Radical RC: Solder Pastes & Supplies

The Value of Money

What is the value of money based on? Listen with care. This is a highlight of a series of 100 podcasts which I’ve been working my way through.

It begins: “There’s a famous moment in the play of “Peter Pan”, when he asks the audience to save Tinkerbell by joining him in believing in fairies……”

A History of the World in 100 Objects: 072 Ming Bank Note Podcast.

Series Title and link to home page with RSS feed; The History of the World in 100 Objects

Don’t Mess Around With Old Men

These two stupid perps pick the wrong cafe. 71 year old Samuel Williams, resident of the free state of Florida and permit holding gun owner takes care of business. I’m thinking those .380 rounds probably stung a little bit. There is an assumed risk when you go around robbing people. Not everyone is a good sheeple that just lays back and takes it. Lays back waiting for others to provide their defense. Once in a while, you find a Samuel Williams. Watch as these cowardly perps make tracks for less prickly pastures. Maybe this little shot of reality will have a targeted impact on their future decisions. Don’t mess with armed citizens if you want to avoid being down range.

I am without doubt, reservation or apology: 100% for your right of self defense. Never let anybody get away with questioning your full citizenship and full right to self defense. Anybody that wants you to be weak and defenseless probably has some very good selfish reasons. Don’t bend to that nonsense no matter what kind of language or “greater good” wacko-ism nonsense they try to spew at you. Be strong, proud of your citizenship, freedoms and rights of self defense!

Fox News Story and Video

Remember Back In The Day & Fructose

(Warning, the following post weirdly isn’t sure if it’s about green politics, recycling or man made sugars.)

Back in the day, before the anti-capitolists hijacked the movement (they call it green now), we actually did recycling. Almost everybody participated. Do you remember? One of my first jobs (1978?) was sorting a nearly continuious flow of bottles at the Little Farm Market in West Carrolton Ohio.

Photo’s of historic Woodies Market and Little Farm Market:
Rusty Cans Feb 2011
UrbanOhio.com

I remember, you could recycle metal, newspapers, oil, about anything. We paid our dues to the local boyscout club by collecting paper for recycling. Maybe it was 200lbs every 3 months or something similar. Been going on a long time hasn’t it?

1978 was before HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup). That product started to be pumped into america’s diet in the middle 80’s. According to Wiki’s High Fructose Corn Syrup page “Soft drink makers such as Coca-cola and Pepsi use sugar in other nations, but switched to HFCS in the U.S. and Canada in 1984.” I don’t remember so many people having diabetes back in the day before High Fructose Corn Syrup.

According to many, including DiabetesHealth.com – “However, fructose does not stimulate insulin secretion or require insulin to be transported into cells, as do other carbohydrates.”

According to the Wiki page, Type II Diabetes “is a metabolic disorder that is characterized by high blood glucose in the context of insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency.”

I try to keep beverages and other products that use HFCS out of my diet. There are many claims that Diabetes has risen in lock step with the increased use and consumption of High Fructose Corn Syrup. I like being able to enjoy real sweets and real sugars too much to risk becoming a diabetic over soda pop. I’ll have water please.

Spam Email Turns Out True

I get so many “forward this to everybody” emails. When you investigate the outragous claims, almost without exception they are false. A great site for this is Snopes.com. I’m reprinting this here, I enjoyed the follow on history lesson and there are some good links on investigating internt rumors that I use and you may enjoy.

Photo and statement follow:

‘In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American…There can be no divided

allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag… We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.’
Theodore Roosevelt 1907

When I Google’d “Snopes 1907 Roosevelt Photo”, the link came up snopes.com: Theodore Roosevelt on Immigration.

There you will find a nice little history lesson on Theodore Roosevelt and his views on Immagration. Many speech’s he made talking about these important issues. I thought the debate on immigration, hyphenated Americans and what language we speak was only something that has happened during my lifetime. Turns out forces have been pushing these issues for at least the last 100 years.

A couple of other sites that deal with email claims of this nature also attribute the words to Teddy actually came from a 1919 letter yet agree the email is true. Even thought the originator may attribute this to the wrong date, it seems clear these views were emblimatic of Theodore Roosevelt during his time in and after the Whitehouse. Snoopes site above is the best read on the subject.

Other useful sites for investigating internet rumors (Roosevelt links within the sites)
TruthOrFiction.com
UrbanLegends.com

Too Stupid to be Entrusted With Children

In our society there is a certain segment of brain damaged individuals who think they need to exert command and control over everything. Apparently there are 49 states that won’t even allow a child to bring or apply sunscreen at school without a doctors note. There is no excuse for this insanity. I think perhaps our money would be better spent building jail cells for those that think they “should” be able to control others in this way. The science of sunburn is well established. What you do to protect yourself is not dangerous nor does it involve any precription or abuse prone substances. Being upset about something isn’t enough. We need to push this variety of thoughtless individual out of decision making positions and care of America’s children. Individuals that think we need to treat basic skin care and hygene products like dangerous drugs shouldn’t be in charge of anything. Accept no excuses.

Listen to chief excuse maker Don Voelpel Director, Public Information (Contact: 253.571.1015) of the Tacoma School District below, he’ll explain why their rules trump federal recommendations, doctors and your own care decisions for your children.

And local Channel 9 WCPO Tacoma Washington:

ABC news in a report titled “School Sunscreen Ban Leaves Student Severely Sunburned” awkwardly cuts these criminals some slack by stating “Sunscreens are regulated by the FDA as an over the counter drug.” What is totally pathetic about this nonsense is the FDA also regulate bananas, tacos and Band-Aids. Sunscreen, bananas tacos and Band-Aid’s are all items your child of any age can freely purchase and use. We’ve decided as a society that these are harmless over the counter items that do not need a prescription. Yet in our public schools wacko alarmists have seen fit to neuter your child’s ability to protect his own skin and health from even the most simple of environmental threats requiring a doctors note (prescription). All those involved in enforcing these hurtful pseudo “good for us” laws and rules in any way – Shame on you!

WIVB News Report about doctors note requirement:

This is my year of “Do Something About It”.

Here is the contact information for the perps in this story:
Don Voelpel Director, Public Information Published Phone Number 253.571.1015

Tacoma Public Schools K-12
Central Administration Building
P.O. Box 1357
Tacoma, WA 98401-1357
Email Superintendent Arthur O. Jarvis, Ed.D., ajarvis@tacoma.k12.wa.us
Email Superintendent-Elect (Interim) Carla Santorno, csantor@tacoma.k12.wa.us

Point Defiance Elementary School
4330 N. Visscher St.
Tacoma, WA 98407
253.571.6900 (Phone)
253.571.6922 (Fax)
Principal: Olga Lay
NO PUBLISHED EMAIL

Contact Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire
Tacoma Washington City Counsel

Abused children: Violet 11, Zoe 9. Mother Jesse Michener
Jessie Mitchners Blog
Email Mayor Marilyn Strickland: Marilyn.Strickland@cityoftacoma.org
Email Tacoma deputy Mayor Joe Lonergan: Joe.Lonergan@cityoftacoma.org

My name is Dave Thacker, and I’m doing something about it.

Health of Trade Shows & Skunk Wurks Project For Toledo!!!

I have a strong conviction; if we want strong trade shows, vendors need to make sure they show people something new at the show. In todays world of instant internet communication, the moment some new product becomes available, it’s announced and the word is spread instantly. Back in the day, there was an extra level of excitment when attending Toledo or any other big trade show. It was you chance to see the newest stuff, your chance to get out a couple months ahead of the magazines. Your chance to know what was going on in our hobby. If you didn’t go, you were left behind, perhaps to be stuck behind the news and technology curve for the entire season.

For a number of years, we’ve worked hard to do our part to show people something new at The Toledo Show. It’s every vendors responsibility to contribute to a healthy trade show future for all of us. Our hobby needs healty magazines, healthy suppliers, healthy hobby shops and certainly healthy trade shows.

If your a vendor at a trade show, I encourage you do the same. Are you really so desparate and hungry you can’t hold back on exiting item a few weeks to do your part to add excitment to your favorite show? Think about it.

A recent meeting with national parks officials sparked my enthusiasm to work on a highly requested project. Sorry, can’t tell you what the meeting was about…….. However, you will see it in the booth at Toledo and you’ll want one. I’m very excited to test it out myself. It is perhaps the coolest thing to come out of our shop.

The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy

I wrote previously on the subject of “Confirmation Bias”. Sometimes it is difficult to discover the answer to a technical problem because the person bringing you the problem has a hitch, assumption, or faulty logic step in their diagnostic process. Often people draw conclusions from spotty evidence. For instance a customer shows me a receiver and say’s “This receiver is bad.” I ask: “Why do you think it is bad? The answer almost always comes back something like “I plugged it in and it does not work.” The person is saying from that one test or measurement they have drawn a conclusion. It seems reasonable doesn’t it? But, really it’s pretty silly when you think about all the things that can cause an RX not to respond to a TX. You see, the real and only conclusion you can draw from the customers test is this. “In one trial, the RX produced no apparent response.” That is quite a bit different from “This receiver is bad.” Understanding the difference in those two conclusions is why some people are good at diagnostics and others are not. To be good at figuring out a problem, you are greatly advantaged by not making any assumptions or broad conclusions.

In the case of a receiver, lets go over many measurements and tests that you might perform to decide if it is in fact “Bad”.

1. Has it ever functioned successfully?
2. Does it really match the Transmitter? (is it talking the right language DSMII vs DSMX or PCM vs FM vs AM and etc…)
3. Is it on the same channel? (in the case of non-2.4ghz gear)
4. Besides looking at the stickers, did you actually look at the tags on the TX and RX xtal?
5. Is the shift the same? For example, a positive shift JR TX is never going to drive a negative shift Hitec or Futaba RX.
6. Have you driven the servo you used on the tested RX with a servo tester to make sure it actually wiggles?
7. Have you load tested the battery your driving the RX with to see that it is high enough to actually turn on an RX?
8. Are you using a switch between the battery and RX? Plug the battery in directly so your not actually testing if the switch is good.
9. Can you demonstrate the TX driving another RX to establish that your testing with a working TX? One might complain, “I flew it a week ago!” However, we’re not testing the troubled RX a week ago, we’re testing it now. 😉
10. Have you plugged a voltmeter into an empty servo port to see if there really is voltage finding it’s way to the RX?
11. Is the crystal really fitting tightly in the socket or is it loose and wobbly?
12. Does the TX have the capability of being on for programming without broadcasting?
13. Is the meter on the TX a voltmeter or RF Output indicator? What does it say?

I’m sure a sharp thinker can come up with some more things to consider. Many of the things above we’ve found at one time or another to be the cause of a non-responsive RX. Assume nothing.

Recently we had an A123 RX pack returned by a customer. He said it tested poorly, only a few hundred mah. The customer appeared to be correct, it was testing bad after several charge/discharge cycles on our bench. And, the charger would increase in voltage rapidly when we applied charge current. Strange. However, even after several trials, a good mechanic still hasn’t drawn any conclusion. He may be moving towards condemning the battery but all tests were not complete. He cut the shrink off the pack. The tabs all looked fine. He re soldered the tabs anyway just in case there was an unseen cold joint. Note: He had originally built the pack, but without emotion, he redid his original work anyway. Many people fail at this step because “they couldn’t possibly have done anything wrong.” (yea right!). The pack was cycled again with the same poor result. Now, finding a bad battery pack is rare, exceedingly rare. We know this to be true from many years of experience. So, we keep looking. I examined the pack under magnification (even though it had been re soldered by a respected pro) and all looked good. I looked at the plug under magnification and found a thin transparent film on the plastic shell. The more I looked, the more I saw this film all over the shell. Is this paint? We decided to solder a second lead onto the pack and test again. The pack tested good. What was the problem you wonder? We can only conclude the film on the plug was thin CA the customer had somehow accidentally allowed to come into contact with the plug. It had a high resistance because one or more connector pins was evidently coated in glue. After replacing this plug, the apparently bad battery pack was proven that it was always as good as new.

So, if a battery pack fails a discharge test or an RX fails to respond, is it bad?

To read about The Texas Sharp Shooter Fallacy, check out this wiki link. Reading it is what inspired me to write today’s article. It describes in somewhat technical language a common way to foul up a test.
“Texas Sharpshooter Fallicy” Wiki Link.

THE GREEN THING

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.
The woman apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my days.”

The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”

She was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day or didn’t call it “green.”

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right. We didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right. We didn’t have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service . We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?

Author, Unknown

Perspective

What if the Mayan calendar ends in 5105 and we’ve just been holding it upside down?

Wiki Link: Mayan Calendar Wiki
NASA Link: NASA- Beginning or End of the World?

Why not let Jesse Ventura Chime In? This is/was a fun show. 😉