it seems it still does NOT support pin swapping

To be expected I suppose, most progs don't I think. It's a really nice feature though and Protel did that in the 80s so it's not rocket science.

Just to be clear, maybe pin swapping is not the correct term. I'm referring to the ability to move the pins around on a placed chip. This is great for improving the readability of a schematic.
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Rob

I used TinyCAD for a while, I've now moved onto a pro package but I would recommend TinyCAD as being quite a nice product that was easy to learn.

Longview: Does it have pin swapping? I can't remember.
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Rob

But if your point is that good program structure should not require a 'running reset', I agree.

Yes, that's what I was referring to.

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Rob

run only on the initial power up and no other time in the event of a reset

This begs the question, why does it have to be reset?


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Rob

Do you need to physically reset the other chips as well, or just restart the program?

Unless you add hardware you can't do the first.

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Rob

Yeah there's a few of us Robs around, not the most uncommon name I'm guessing.

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Rob

Looks pretty good,

I don't see anything about Async comms, as this it the most common form of talking between gadgets I think it should be in there with explainations of Rx and Tx, ie Rx->Tx etc as they are often named in a manner that causes Rxs and Txs to be incorrectly connected together with much head scratching.

Possibly this should be project 17a as using async to talk between two Arduinos is common enough for it's own section I would think.

In fact the whole "how do I get two Arduinos to talk to each other" subject comes up here every week and we're always replying with simple ideas for protocols, it could probably have it's own chapter.

You've got how to read circuit diagrams but not how to make one. I'm not sure if this is appropriate partly because there are so many packages out there and you can't cover them, but maybe the basics of drawing a diagram that is intelligable.

Also maybe a section on formatting a program with proper use of white space and indentation.

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Rob

forgive me for being uninformed, but what is the legionnaires problem?

Sorry Reboticon, I lost track of this thread.

Legionaires is a really bad disease that grows in water, I don't know much about it but you always hear that it's been found in A/C cooling towers in office blocks and half the workers are sick. It's often fatal.

@Mohr Power Solar, you look very much like a spammer to me.

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Rob

Running water down hessian walls is good. I had a mate years ago on an outback property, they had a cool room with hessian walls soaked by a tank on top and some drip mechanism that I can't remember now. It worked pretty well but was bore water so stunk like rotten eggs, after a while you don't notice though.

Another thing to do (as you mentioned) is use the "deep earth" temp that never really varies and rig up a heat exchanger. Just bury X metres of pipe in the ground and circulate between that and a "radiator" in the house. Because it's a closed system there's very little energy used to move the water and you don't have the legionnaires problem.

In Aus we have towns where half of the people live underground like something from star wars. You buy your land and dig into the side of a hill to make a house.



This is a shot of the hill above a motel, the pipes are ventilation for the guest rooms.

On a similar note, check out this hot water system



A role of poly pipe layed out in the sun. It works a treat and I actually recommended this to an Aid agency working in Africa a few years ago as a cheap low-tech method of getting hot water. Apparently it did the job.

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Rob

hot AND humid area then they may ?need? the cooling system more

Yes good point, when it gets too humid we head south. Humidity is a real pain.

leave your domicile less often and purchase in bulk.  Many people going 'off the grid' don't stockpile food that goes bad so quickly.

We try to buy every 2-3 months and can easily live that long without hitting the shops although the choices are a bit slim after a while and there's obviously no fresh stuff left.

a fridge isn't really required

I'll have to disagree most strongly there, where would I put my beer?

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Rob

[need]

it's best to equally try to reduce usage

Precisely, hence my constant yammering about ditching the A/C.

The OP seems to have disappeared without telling us any more, like where he lives, he may be in the Sahara for all we know. But I spend much of my time in outback Australia in temps up to 40C and never feel the need for an A/C although I don't argue that it would be really nice a lot of the time.

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Rob

Do you already own these items? If so look on the back for the watts used and X that by the hours you think it will be running for each day.

If you haven't got them you're pretty much asking for how long a piece of string is.

My 240ltr fridge uses 2A x 24v (48watts) and is probably running most of the day. But that's been converted to DC and had the auto defrost removed. If you're talking about a standard domestic 240/120v fridge maybe triple that plus add losses through tthe inverter.

LED lights, not much, let's say 30W.

My LCD TV is a 14" and uses 45W.

A/C, at least 2000W or more.

So let's have a guess for your (unspecified) devices and times.

lights  30W x 4 hours = 120W
fridge 150W x 20hrs = 3000W
TV 80W x 4 hrs = 320W
A/C 2000W x 8hrs = 16000W

That's about 20,000W a day.

On average you allow for 5 hours of sunlight a day (where are you?, that makes a big difference), you need to generate 20000W of power during that 5 hours or 4000W instantaneous. So that will mean about 4000W of solar panels, about 33 120W panels or around $33000. Where will you put them?

Say $500 for a solar regulator.

Batteries, no real way of knowing because it depends when you run things like the A/C, during the day not so bad, at night you need a lot of batteries. Maybe 10 or 20 batteries, $4000 to $8000.

2000W Inverter, maybe $2000-3000.

Housing, wiring, tradesman costs, say $1000-2000.

Decent generator, $1000-$4000.

So maybe $35,000 to $40,000 but to be honest all the above is based on so much conjecture as to be fairly useless.
I have a mate living in a small house and he spent $50,000 so I know the above is the right order of magnitude.

Bottom line, plan to spend a lot.

Ditch the A/C and buy an efficient fridge (not a domestic one) and it's a whole different ball game.
 

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Rob

I've lived off-grid for about 10 years now with systems from a 2-panel 2-battery setup in my 4x4 to a system large enough to build my RV with, including welding and large power tools.

It does take work and money, no way around that, but it's good to be independant. However the orther side of the coin is that when something breaks it's you problem, you can't just ring the electricity supplier and tell them to get it fixed.

BTW, the 2-panel 2-battery setup I had would be suitable for seenu@SDC as long as he has a DC fridge and no A/C. A small 300w inverter will handle many appliances, the TV and a laptop if needed.

Oh, and don't forget a small generator for cloudy days.

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Rob

Oh I don't know, the AC probably has a pilot light. Hack that to drive a transistor and a relay then hang a 500w halogen work light off that and shine it onto the panel. Same with the fridge but that needs 1000w to compensate for the door being open all the time.

As an added bonus we will get to find out if the light really does go off when you close the door.
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Rob

one air conditioner

That'll be the killer. Plan to spend a LOT of money to keep the juice up to an air conditioner.

Don't forget batteries, regulators and inverters as well. Plan to spend maybe $20-30k with an AC, $3-4k without.

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Rob

EDIT: Forgot batteries.