Tosra & The Auction, day 32
Blinkenlights
The days are starting to get short and I have been thinking about light. I have quite a lot of things lying around that I can make something useful out of instead of just letting them lie, as long as it doesn't become a problem for future needs for them. Bed lamps are one thing I want, and it's not particularly difficult to do when a white LED is enough. I can read in the light, and it's nice to have some light during sex and I wouldn't have to step out of bed to turn off oil lamps before we go to sleep. I should give the guards a flashlight too, and a small wall mounted desk lamp in the day room would be handy for the guards as well. I also want desk lamps in the workshop and my office/study.
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I install a direct line from my bedroom and office up to Caecilia's bedroom. It's almost pathetically easy as her new room is basically above my office. The stairs to the attic are just a couple of meters straight in front of her door and then she is down on the balcony and can round in to my and Ciara's corridor. For lack of other things to signal with, and a bell will be too loud, I install a simple relay connected as a buzzer at each end. The circuit is basically a buzzer and a switch at each end, so we both can signal, and Caecilia can confirm that she has heard. It doesn't sound very loud, but it works, and it is like magic for most. They think it sounds like the little box is growling at them. Jane looks thoughtful.
"Robert, that's pretty much a two way telegraph. You can send morse with that."
"Yes, in a way it is."
Jane immediately gets a smug face. "So the prototype for this worlds first electrical long distance communication... is to make a booty call!"
Okay, I have to give her that one.
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Bodil have finished the box for the main pane, so I make sure to install it next to the manometer. The main panel for electricity has a moving coil meter at the top of the front, with a rotary switch to select what is displayed on the meter. Off. Battery voltage. Power outlet. Charging current via wind power. Charging current via future generator. The nice symbols for each is filled with paint. Under the meter, the panel has a door that can be unlocked by those who will have a key and inside there are two main switches that disconnect the battery or house from the battery and generators. It's hardly a good lock, but I make custom keys for me, my wives and guard captain Alith. Heh, I'm already thinking of Kari as my wife, when I havn't even married Iselin.
I start making those the wall lamps for my bed and the guard room, and Bodil doesn't mind making three simpler housings. They basically hollowed out wooden pieces with an angled moving part I can drill out and insert the LED in and a wall mount with the switch. The flashlight will be an elongated hollowed-out rectangular piece of wood with some rechargeable NiMH battery and a simple sliding switch in brass recessed on the side. The light source is a white LED recessed in a small white-painted cone shape with glass protection, and to make the flashlight more practical, it also gets a recessed belt hook in brass.
They will have to order more electrical insulators, and I need standardized electrical contacts, which is an interesting problem because the plug and socket parts both need to fit together nicely, and fit into each other when the ceramic is burned. Add what it is more like wall sockets, and a much smaller plug-socket for low voltage and signals, which have more contacts. I really hope that the potter can solve this as well, but I better make a couple of prototypes in wood and brass that can help explain and show instead of just a sketch and drawing.
Since I now have electricity in the house, just nothing connected, but it's monitored and with a wind turbine, battery banks etc, the electric power is officially finished. It just feels so wrong with 12V DC being the electrical power system in a large mansion, but again, I don't have much choice. What I can assume will be powered are some LEDs, USB things or radios as well as relays and simpler electromechanics. Nothing requires high voltage, or especially high currents. I doubt I can build a useful light bulb or efficient high-power electric motor - at least in the near future. A weak electric motor can mostly just be a small fan, while an medium size can drive a compressor for a refrigerator or preferably a freezer, if I figure out a gas with the right pressure that works, or a pump. Powerful electric motors of half to a kilowatt or more can be used for workshop machines, vacuum cleaners or washing machines. But to get 1kW from 12V is 83A, which will be so many problems in heating, losses and sparks, so practically higher power requires higher voltage. I also can not charge much with just the wind turbine, which means no high consumption.
I simply can't build more powerful stepdown circuits to be able to use a more efficient 24-60V DC system, and I need the stability and current buffer that a battery system provides compared to direct generation of electricity. I don't have enough rectifiers to use AC voltage either, although AC would make transforming the voltage up and down easy. I also can't make sufficiently thin copper wire for electromagnets in relays and automatic systems to operate at higher voltages. So unfortunately it will be low volt DC and higher current, which is inefficient, and even 12V is really a bit too high and 10V would probably be better. But it works. That feels like my mantra the last few months; 'but it works'. In the future I might have to do a double voltage power system. Low voltage for electronics etc, and higher voltage for motors that require high current and possible incandescent light.
I'm planning to make a USB socket or similar for Jane on the main panel, so Jane can use it freely to charge her cell phone. Both because it would make it easier for her, and because she won't be running in my workshop to charge it. It's not that much of an issue, just a little annoying when she interrupts sex, which we both find embarrassing. At least it taught Jane to wait for an answer before barging in. I think that my MP3 player charge most, as Iselin loves to use it.
I charge my cell phone and I am a little annoyed that I can not use the wireless QI charging, but the cell phone stays in constant flight mode and is mostly turned off. I realise I have the QI receiver from my cell phone, so I find it and start peeling it apart. This phone lack an internal charger, so I added an external receiver. I lack a QI charger, so I can scrap that receiver, and the QI receiver consists mostly of a flat coil with many turns of very fine litz wire, and it is worth saving for the best and most sensitive moving coil instrument. A QI receiver is basically a transformer without an iron core and a radio receiver, where the energy is stabilized via a 5V regulator and goes into the USB port on the cell phone. And it's a smart charger, so the phone talks to the chip to start high current charging instead of the old low power charging.
Maybe I can bodge something? Remove the QI coil parts and get another 5V USB 2A charger, and save the fine thread for trying to make moving coils, microphones or such?
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I've just not really bothered to do it before, so I unpack most from my backpack and fill shelves and the cupboard where I have put Tom's things.
I will use the white LEDs from the 9xLED flashlight I had fastened inside the backpack. 8 are normal white, but the middle LED is changed to a super-intense green with reverse polarity and an extra resistor. I've done that mod on all my 9xLED flashlights, because by inserting the battery pack in the other direction, the flashlight switch to colored light and it might be more useful. I have six, and two each with blue, green and yellow as a secondary color. Very effective along with a white plastic cone or cloth during night games to mark respawns, navigation points, Domination points, CTF flags or bases. It can be seen as a bright spot through a forest, especially in the winter when the leaves have fallen. Night games can be awesome in a bit of moonlight, especially if everyone has image intensifiers, flashlights and more.
Anyway, it is unnecessary to have all 9 LEDs in the same flashlight that requires 3 AAA batteries, that I would rather use for the headlamp or pocket burner. One or two LEDs will be my bedlamp and the small flashlight, and three can be an okay'ish desk lamp for me, maybe four so it will be easier to put two and two in a row to draw less current, even if something like 20mA isn't something I need to worry about if it is connected to the house's mains. Sure, the LED will be less light than the oil lamp, but LEDs can get closer and directed, and don't have to worry about fire. Maybe put a magnifying lens in the middle. It would also be practical to have a single LED in the corridor or the most secret rooms since it's easy to turn on and off. But I have a little too few LEDs for that.
Who many LEDs do I have? I also have two small keychain LED lights with CR2016 or CR2032 batteries hanging on different things and inside pockets on the backpack. I bought five 10 packs a few years ago and hung them everywhere, and gave some away, so it's not surprisingly some are in the backpack, or inside pockets, and one is one of those where I replaced the white LED with a red 3V blinking LED. Cheap simple 'off-game' backup that I've also given away to people who forgot, their stopped working or they lost their light. They cost half a Euro each and take up basically no space in pockets. It is so annoying when players don't carry spares with them, or the red light don't cover all around and you don't know if they are in-game or off-game. It's very frustrating to reveal yourself to in-game enemies you don't know about, because you are shooting at someone who is off-game. I've got something like four on my usual gaming gear, and this backpack have been used during large multiday Milsim games without bases, so one hung on the outside.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Add my Nitecore Tube flashlight that lives in my jacket's chest pocket with a Gerber Zip Blade, my headlamp, Pocket burner, Maglite AA flashlight where some LEDs are power LEDs etc, and the strong little blue 3mm from the USB charger, white 3mm from Swisscard and I have many LEDs. Especially considering I was actually on Hardangervidda in summer, but I'm not a person who removes flashlights just because it happens to be more daylight on this particular trip. That just increase the chance that I forgotten to put them back where they are needed in the autumn, and I have 'a thing' for always having a flashlight. Along with tools. And backup plans.
Then there are many more LEDs on things I have not taken apart as the cameras, Bluetooth headphones, and battery banks that often have small powerful surface mounted LEDs to show battery power and so on. Add my two microSD readers, each with a red LED, and two of my USB flashdrives with strong LEDs. The camera remotes also have some IR LEDs. Just my Walkie Talkie radio have a built-in LED flashlight, strong red and green surface-mounted LED to indicate transmission and reception - which I have covered with black electrical tape because they are annoyingly powerful and directed upwards - illuminated display and illuminated keypad with several surface-mounted white LEDs. Many are small and not for area illumination, but there are many small LEDs everywhere on modern technology and often unnecessarily powerful, because it is more useful than a weak one. A strong one can be made weaker by pulsing at a high tempo and then drawing less current.
Unfortunately, many designers tend to like unnecessary LEDs that are strong enough to light up a room during the day, which is annoying in bedrooms or for example when you have to drive at night and the car radio or climate control shines like a Disco. I don't know how many things I've modified, dimmed or just removed LEDs from, and many things with strong blue light have got a nicely cut piece of amber-colored Kapton tape over, or I have used pieces of sunscreen film for car windows that are sandwiched between the LED and clear plastic in the front. But right now it's quite nice to have all these strong LEDs.
Modern Midgård is definitely a world of blinkenlights. It has just shifted away from mainframes to everything else.
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When I remove the flashlight and unpack, I realise that Tom's ring flash has LEDs. So I hurry to take it to the workshop and take it apart. I will never use the ring flash as he did, and it is definitely not worth keeping as a ring flash. The advantage of a LED flash is that it can illuminate all the time and works when filming etc, which a xenon flash won't, but the disadvantage is less impulse light, and LED is generally a longer duration and less intense pulse.
The ring flash has a ridiculous number of LEDs, 128, but they are stupidly mounted in 16 modules. The whole design feels like a higher-end ring flash, and there are 16 modules with 8 LEDs in each on a small aluminium block. Probably to dissipate heat and be compact. I suspect that I can not loosen the LEDs without breaking them, because they are glued and sealed in the modules. So it's smarter to keep the modules as they are. The advantage is that each module provides a lot of white light, while the disadvantage is unfocused light, especially with each module's small plastic diffuser lens. Another advantage is that each module is powered by a mosfet that can handle quite good current, because for some reason it is possible to light the modules in different patterns. There seems to be quite a lot of useful components on the ring flash.
Sweet!
Time to measure everything before I really take the ring flash in pieces. I want to know the voltage and current requirements for modules and mosfets, how they are connected etc, and what the microprocessor sends in signals and patterns.
Two modules provide very good light for a desk lamp, and I can put a small magnifying lens in between. I should honestly use the ring flash's modules as limited lighting in rooms or corridors, and give all my sambos their own desk lamp because the lamp can also function as a bedside lamp and provide some room lighting. Electric light is practical, and it eliminates a lot of oil lamps and candles, thus reducing the risk of a fire. Also no smell from LEDs. Unless something went really wrong. Electronics work on magic smoke, and won't work if you let the magic smoke out.
We still have to have and use oil lamps when we have guests. It's a bad idea to show electric light, at least now in the beginning. However, I can put most of the lights on the same electrical supply and simply deactivate that supply when we have guests. It doesn't solve the problem everywhere unless I install extra power lines for it, but in large parts of the house it will work, and guests shouldn't run around in our private bedrooms, so they can continue to use electric light there.
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The prototype bed lamps are very easy to build and go quickly. Only a white 5 mm LED in a quickly drilled and carved wooden casing, a resistor and a home-made rotary switch made of a few brass pieces and spring where horizontal position breaks and vertical position closes the circuit. There will be finer lamps, switches and housings in the future. I attach the bedroom lamps on the bed's headboard, one for each side, and install the power cable and connect it.
I have plenty of help when I install the third wall lamp in the guards day room so they can get downward directed light on the small table without it being too bright at night. It's easy because I've already installed power in the day room. It will be possible to play simpler games in the light or read a book while keeping an eye on the outside, but if it is too dark out there like a moonless night, they will of course not see much through the window, and the glass is hardly perfect. In any case, it is quick to turn on and off, and the light source is not visible from the outside, only the faint reflection from what is illuminated.
Everyone thinks it's so magical.
Since I'm tired of no one having a clock and the sundial in the courtyard is impractical to use, I hang my old wristwatch in the day room. I write down a short guide to reading digital numbers, and what it corresponds to during the day. Iselin is happy to help them learn it, as she have learned digital numbers from reading my MP3 player. Hell, she have even memorized a lot of artists and titles in normal letters.
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I'm working on the desk lamps when Alith asks if I can set aside time to go for a walk and do the camouflage test. As the guard captain, Alith is automatically chosen when the guards want to disturb me with something, and that is something that needs daylight to be done. The weather is good and a little exercise and fresh air is a good idea.
The guards and sambos agree that testing camouflage is a good thing to do, so we go for a walk while we try them against different nature, including autumn leaves, shrubs and rocks, spruce forest, etc. We should definitely try this in greener summer nature as well, even though there are greener parts left in nature. Most people understand the purpose of camouflage, but don't see much benefit from it except during an ambush or reconnaissance. This is understandable as most fight in large groups with spears, swords, axes and shields, so camouflage doesn't have much use, and bows don't have an enormous range. Normal nature colored cloths works well enough for their use, and most people don't have many cloths. But a little camouflage is a good idea, because you never know when you have to hide.
Alith and Gunhild will try to make half Ghillies to see how well it blends in, and because it gives them something to do. They think the whole idea of a net with long strips of fabric of different natural colors is funny, but it works, especially if you combine it with a little local vegetation. Just attaching a few branches in the loops on the boonie hat shows how effective it is, and their green-brown 'camouflage' tabard has some discreet loops for branches, primarily on the back and arms. If they sit crouched or just show their upper body towards the target and tilt their head down so the boonie hat covers their face, it is quite effective. They will also try to make a camouflage net, but they will keep both projects secret. Anything with primarily military usage will be secret.
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Okay, the desk lamps can get better, and absolutely prettier, but they work. The lamp head is attached to a simple imitation of an old desk lamp arm with counterweight and spring relief, all built in wood and brass, but I will improve it. It is really unnecessary to have two LED modules around a magnifying lens in the desk lamp, but that makes the lamp work better as room lighting in the workshop. I will only use one module in the desk lamp for the office/study, as two separate lamps there will be better. It can honestly be a good idea to have two separate lamps in the workshop as well. With plugs and several sockets, they can be moved around. Nice, just finished it, and already planning to replace it. The lamp head is small, which makes it easier to see and get light where I need it than with an oil lamp. The magnification will also be useful, especially in a few years as I expect to get problems focusing on short distances. At least it will not be fine soldering with tightly placed 0.4mm surface mounted components.
In addition to the resistor to adapt the module to 12V, the biggest problem was to separate the conductors and insulate them, but it went well with fabric insulation and by attaching it to the outside and wrap paper with glue around. With the right amount of glue mixed into the fabric, I know that a double-wound copper wire will be a perfectly okay electrical wire, even if it is not as flexible as one made of thin multi-wire parts, but much less work than making wire-braided cable.
I have 13 modules left. Iselin, Kari, Ciara are three. Jane is so jealous of my desk lamp plans and uses her cell phone flashlight a lot, so she will also get one. 9 left. At least two modules in the great hall's ceiling lamp because the light will spread out in the corridors as well, and it is easier and more efficient to put two modules in series. I should also put at least two modules in the meeting room above the dining room table. 5 left. At least one in the attic, but preferably two separate due to the length and size of the room, where one should be above the table. I should put one in the library as a combined reading lamp and room lighting, which leaves two to use in my bedroom. Which is all the modules. However, I have some white 5mm LEDs I can set up to get some LED light during the winter darkness, and can put one in the guards bedroom. One or two for the wing corridor so that it is easier to find the toilets etc, and one or two inside the toilet. It will be very low illumination, but at least it avoids having to fumble around in pitch black darkness, and the eye is good at adapting to low light. I need to get nice fixtures and switches made, and in some places it would be practical with changing switches so it is possible to turn on and off from two places. With real light sockets, it becomes even more practical.
I don't have enough time to do everything today, but I choose to do an ugly assembly and install room lighting in my bedroom, great hall and meeting room, and it is easy to install an LED as wing corridor lighting outside my workshop. It's so damn magical for everyone except me and Jane. Just a small white light, without heat and so very white, and somehow it is captured wind and made into light by magic.
I've not told Jane my plans, and all my electric light with bed lamps, room lighting and desk lamps have made Jane so damn jealous.
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It's quite late when I prepare to sleep - but electric lights makes it easy to work - and I find that 'someone' has put labels beside my buzzer buttons for Caecilia. A winding pattern around a red lip imprint, with black text 'In case of lust. Push' written in English on top of the lip imprint. It feels so wrong, and when I go up to Caecilia's room to explain that that is not why I will sometimes buzz her, I see that Jane have been more creative. There is an elegant little sign on her door that says: 'Caecilia Sexbunny'. As if that weren't enough, beside the buzzer it's a caricature of me, as a grumpy crying little child. It's clear that Caecilia likes the picture, so I'll let her keep it.