Fruddled Gruntbugglies

Category: House

  • Post-setting indoctrination

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    I set a 4×4 post today, complete with concrete footing. While this may not seem like much, it was a big deal for me as I’d never done it before. My parting impression: it’s a lot of work. Between digging the hole and handling the concrete, it’s quite the back breaker.

    To dig the hole, I used a garden variety post-hole digger. I can see why people recommend a power auger if you’re doing a lot of these… it’s slow going. And of course, by Murphy’s law, about 1 foot down I hit a giant rock (several giant rocks, actually). I was able to break them up pretty easily with my ball-peen hammer and a cold chisel, but it certainly added some additional sweat equity to the job. An air chisel or demo hammer would probably make this a bit more fun.

    I wanted to get the hole about 2-1/2 feet deep, but I stopped a couple inches short because I hit a giant root, and I made the executive decision that the hole was deep enough. Then I dumped in some gravel, followed by a few inches of concrete for the footing. Then I stuck the post in, plumbed it and staked it up, and backfilled the hole with concrete. It sounds easy, but it was a lot of work, especially since I was mixing the concrete by hand. The concrete is still curing, and hopefully once it’s done the post will be pretty bulletproof.

    Incidentally, the purpose of the post is to support…. a bird feeder. Yep, a 4×4 with concrete footing is probably way overkill for a bird feeder, but it was a worthwhile exercise nonetheless. I may be doing the same thing for our mailbox one of these days.. the mailbox and post have both seen better days.

  • Alarm Oddity

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    So, I’ve got the wireless keys programmed into the alarm. Everything seems to work. The only “wild card” here is the range of the things, because the receiver is mounted a little farther away from the garage than I’d like. If the range turns out to be a problem, I’d expect all of the buttons on the keys to work inconsistently. What I’m seeing in practice, is that the garage door button works consistently, but the disarm button is spotty. I get the same behavior with both keys.

    I don’t really have an explanation for this, so the first thing I’m going to try is moving the receiver closer to the garage. I’ll mount it in the new spot temporarily, and see how it works (in particular, it needs to still work with my existing wireless zones). The other thing is, I still haven’t installed the status transmitter module. It doesn’t seem like that should have anything to do with it, but I’ll go ahead and install it at the same time, and see how things go.

    Stay tuned..

    Followup.. turns out the spotty behavior did affect the garage door button after all, so most likely, this was simply an issue of the signals not getting to the receiver. My hypothesis is that the house’s aluminium siding was interfering with signal propagation. The fobs seem much more reliable now that I’ve relocated the receiver.

  • Busy yardwork day

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    I played hooky from work today so I could catch up on some much-needed yardwork. If my work schedule permits, I really like doing that because I can pick a day where the weather is good, knock off all the yardwork, and free up the weekend for more leisurely pursuits. I started at 9:30 this morning doing trimming and edging, then mowed all the grass, then mulched up some twigs with the chipper/shredder. Plus, I relocated one of our compost bins and fixed the door on our big barrel composter. All in all, a very productive day.

    Next up, I need to do a little pruning and weeding, and do end-of-season maintenance on the snowblower. Then I’ve got two outside projects I’d like to get done before I have to deal with the pool… a new lid for the sandbox, and a permanent pole for our bird feeder. I hope to get the ball rolling on these this weekend.

  • Wireless Alarm Keys Demystified

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    I successfully programmed an Ademco wireless keyfob transmitter today, and figured I’d document the process.. My panel is a Vista-20P and the transmitter is a 5804BD.

    1. Program an RF house ID into the panel. The house ID needs to be a number between 0 and 31. On the Vista-20P, this is done in location *24:

      Enter programming with 4-digit installer code + 800
      Enter *24
      Enter 2-digit house ID
      System chimes to confirm entry

    2. Install batteries in the transmitter. When prying the case open, hold the transmitter with the buttons facing down; otherwise they’ll all fall out when you pull the case apart.
    3. Program the house ID into the transmitter per the instructions. It must match the house ID programmed into the panel.
    4. Program each button individually using zone programming (*56). On the Vista-20P, zones 49 through 64 are reserved for keyfob zones. The following example will program button 4 to disarm the system:

      Enter *56 to enter zone programming
      Enter 1 at Set to Confirm? prompt
      Enter 49 to program zone 49 (or whatever)
      Enter * at summary screen
      At zone type prompt, enter 22 (disarm)
      Enter 1 at partition prompt
      Enter 0000 at report code prompt (no report)
      Input Device type will default to “Button type RF”
      Enter the device serial number at the prompt
      Enter 4 as the loop number (corresponds to button 4)
      Press button 4 on the keyfob at “Xmit to Confirm” prompt
      System confirms that the correct serial number was transmitted
      Review summary screen and press *
      Press 0 at “Program Alpha?” prompt

      Now, exit programming and assign a user number to this button: Enter master code + 8 + user number + #4 + zone number. For user 04 and zone 49, you would enter

      master code + 8 + 04 + # 4 + 49

      Keypad will chime to confirm.

      That’s it; button 4 on the keyfob should now work to disarm the system. The process should be repeated for each button on the fob (each button corresponds to a separate loop number).

    Next step is to hook one of the buttons up to the garage door opener. It appears that I need to program the button as zone type 23 (no alarm response), then go into device programming and define an output function to activate the appropriate relay when the zone trips.

    This weekend I’ll install the 5800TM transmitter so that the fobs will be able to display system status. I’ll also test the range to see if I’ll need a repeater. Hopefully I won’t.

    Followup 4/22… I’ve programmed both keyfobs and everything worked as expected. I’m pretty impressed with the range of these things.. it seems to be pretty close to the advertised 200 feet. It’s looking like I won’t be needing a signal repeater. Haven’t gotten to the 5800TM yet, and may not this weekend, but the fobs don’t need it to work. I’ll use this week to test them out, and assuming they continue to work well, I’ll put the 5800TM in next weekend.

  • Time to fix the garage door opener

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    As I noted earlier, our garage door opener receiver died a few weeks back. Rather than get a new, cheap, made-in-China receiver to replace it, I’ve decided to get a couple wireless remotes for our security system and program them to operate the garage door. Now, the original plan was to buy two bidirectional remotes (they can receive and display system status as well as arm/disarm the system, hence the term “bidirectional”), and a special keypad which includes an RF receiver/transmitter module to support the remotes. But, our system already has an RF receiver, and I recently learned that my particular alarm panel does not support more than one receiver.

    Now, why am I interested in a second receiver if I already have one installed? It’s basically because of the oddball layout of our house. Our house is very long and narrow, and the center is narrower than the rest of the house. There’s no real practical spot to mount a receiver in the dead center of the house. It either needs to go closer to the west side of the house, or the east. It so happens that most of my wireless zones are on the west side of the house, so that’s where I mounted the current receiver. Unfortunately, the garage and entrances are all on the east side, so the receiver isn’t in the optimal spot for remote keys.

    Plan A for dealing with this was to get the keypad with the RF receiver, and mount it closer to where we’d be using the remotes. But, I can’t do that because my panel doesn’t support multiple receivers. That brings me to Plan B, which is to buy the remotes and the required transmitter module, and just try them out with my existing receiver in its current location. These things supposedly have a 200 foot range, and I’m still well within that, so it can’t hurt to try it out.

    While researching this today, I learned that there’s now a wireless repeater module I can buy, which effectively extends the range of the existing receiver. So if I go with my Plan B and the performance isn’t up to snuff, I can add a repeater closer to the garage, and that should hopefully do the trick. So that’s the current plan. We’ll see how it goes!

  • Started the Pool Pump

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    After a winter of freedom from the big money-sucking hole in the back yard, I bit the bullet and fired up the pool pump today. Now, in the Mid-Atlantic, swimming season runs from roughly the beginning of June through Labor Day. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a couple extra weeks on either end, but for the most part, that’s what you get. For the past few years, my routine has been to start the equipment up around now, and uncover the pool around Memorial Day. I’ve found that starting the equipment early saves work, because it allows me to chlorinate the water before it gets too warm and algae starts taking hold. And with pools, anything that saves work is a bonus.

    Anyways, the pump primed right up using the main drain for suction. The water level is still too low to use the skimmers. And the water temperature is (drumroll please) a balmy 56°F. Another 25 degrees and we’ll be swimming.

    Now I need to start thinking about my spring pool project, repairing some loose coping and recaulking the expansion joint between the pool and the deck.

  • Mower blade

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    I took a first look at my push lawnmower today while my 3 year old rode his tricycle around outside. I reinstalled the blade (which I sharpened over the winter) and looked into a problem I had been having with the deck. Last summer I hit a big chunk of wood (or something similar) and ever since that, when I make certain maneuvers, the blade will graze the deck and make a loud, unhappy clattering noise. At first I thought the deck was dented, and banged on it a few times with my ball-peen hammer to try to get it back in shape. But, it looks like the real problem is that a weld has partially broken loose, causing part of the deck to stick out too close to the blade. If my peening attempts didn’t do the trick, it looks like I might be able to reattach the loose piece with a sheet metal screw.

    Based on the engine date code, this mower is 16 years old this year (I bought it used in 1996). The engine is still good, and I’ve been nursing it along for a while now and it keeps on going. Hopefully it’ll last me another 16…

    Followup 4/15.. I fired the mower up today. After about 5 minutes of mowing, the blade started scraping the deck again. Shut it off, drilled hole, inserted screw to hold deck together, problem solved (for now at least). Looks like the mower will live to see another season..

  • First Mow of the Season

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    Today was the big day — the beginning of the annual mowing routine. Of course, if it stays this dry, I’m not sure how much mowing I’m going to need to do this year. Today was fairly typical as far as the first mow of the season goes — serving mainly to whack down the onion grass and make sure the tractor is running OK. In that regard, it was a resounding success. As usual, the very front of the lawn didn’t need mowing yet. This year, as parched as it looks, I’m wondering if it ever will. The moles have been hard at work too, which wouldn’t really bother me, but they are making it bumpier and bumpier, which makes it a major pain to mow. This season, I may pick up a lawn roller and try to flatten it down a bit. Of course, that means we’ll need some rain at some point to soften up the ground…

    Tomorrow, I’ll see about getting the trimmer going and whacking down some weeds.

  • Garage Door Opener

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    Well… first off, I’m back from my most excellent trip to Philly to watch first and second round action from the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament. This year’s games were great, and it’s always nice to get away from the grind for a few days. It always butts up against UMBC’s Spring Break, so I get a couple extra days off afterwards to boot. And, this year I have tickets for third and fourth-round games in DC, with the overall winner going to the Final Four. That’s coming up this weekend. Oh, and it’s t-minus 9 days and counting until the official due date for our second rugrat. My pulse quickens as I type (in spite of the beta blockers).

    Anyhow, this evening our garage door opener decided to go on the fritz. We were all sitting around in the dining room twiddling our thumbs, when the garage door decided to open all by itself! Always fun. I went and checked it out. The remote receiver module is a separate unit, and as I fiddled with it, the opener tripped a few times. I could hear a relay clicking somewhere each time it tripped. Shrugged my shoulders, went back inside, closed the garage door. Halfway through closing, it stopped. Tried again, it closed this time. An hour or so later, it opened itself again, and stopped midway. Seems that it’s become sensitive to vibration or something. I unscrewed the receiver from the unit and pulled it off. It’s a nice, cheapo, made-in-China piece of garbage just like everything else these days. With the receiver off, so far, it hasn’t acted up. So I’m tempted to blame the receiver. First, though, I’ll try reattaching it and changing the code, just to see what happens. If my suspicions are confirmed, and the receiver is bad, I’ll look into getting some keyfobs for our alarm system, and programming them to work the opener.

    Nice that it decided to do this while we were home and around, rather than away with the alarm set, etc..

  • Two-Speed pool pump motor: Worth it?

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    With electricity prices set to skyrocket in the Baltimore area this summer, I’m once again looking at ways to cut down on our consumption. And in the summer, one of our biggest consumers is the pool pump. I’ve read that a two-speed pool pump motor can cut down quite a bit on energy usage. A standard swimming pool pump runs at 3450 RPM. A two-speed pump can also run at half speed, or 1725 RPM. The interesting thing is, although it’s running at 50% of normal speed, a typical model draws less than half (about 30%) of the current that it would draw running at full speed. So in theory, you could run the pump at half speed for twice the length of a normal-speed run cycle, do the same amount of work, and use less power. Now, this might be wrong. I’m not well-versed enough in fluid dynamics to say whether, for instance, 10 hours at 1725 RPM would turn over the same amount of water as 5 hours at 3450 RPM. But, for the sake of argument, let’s assume it would. Running at low speed would certainly consume less power, and longer pump run cycles are good for the pool water because they keep it from stagnating (I’ve also heard anecdotal reports that sand filters “work better” with lower flow rates — take that for what it’s worth). Of course, that’s only one side of the story. There are also some caveats..

    1. I can’t run the pump on low speed 100% of the time. I have a pressure-side pool cleaner (Polaris) with a booster pump, and I’d need to run at full speed while the cleaner was on (3 hours a day, 3 days a week or so). And, I’ll want to run on full speed for 3 hours or so after adding chemicals, to get them distributed as quickly as possible. Any time the pump is on high speed, it cuts into my potential savings.
    2. The pump motors I’ve looked at all consume somewhat more current (1 amp or so on models I’ve looked at) on high speed, than equivalent single-speed motors. Not quite sure why this is, but it seems to be a fact of life.
    3. Initial cost for a two-speed setup is high, even assuming I’m only replacing the motor and not the entire pump. The pump would need special wiring, and a new timer/control to control high vs low speed operation. Plus, I’d need a new shaft seal. I’m probably looking somewhere in the $350-$400 range when all is said and done.

    A couple years back I made a spreadsheet to estimate potential savings using a two-speed pump, and concluded that the payback period was too long to justify the initial effort and expense, given what I was paying for electricity at the time. However, with the pending rate hike, it’s probably worthwhile to crunch those numbers again..