The last ball game of the year - for LSU anyway. LSU at the Peach Bowl (aka Chic-fil-E Bowl or the chicken bowl) in Atlanta. LSU is often a visitor to that facility, season openers and SEC title games. LSU has played there often.
I will be at Humperdinks for the LSU Watch Party tonight. Hump's is buying food as well as the Tarrant Tigers, sort of our annual holiday season party. I expect a big turn out, hope so anyway. Hump's is a brew pub, non-smoking and lots of parking available.
We had our first watch party this year at a crummy place named "Oscar's." We had the basement, well it was not much of a basement. I really think the place was a converted McDonald's Restaurant. People left at half time and I think it soured the attendance for the year.
When Ray Croc bought out the rights to the McDonald brothers of San Bernardino, CA, one of the stipulations was that each restaurant had to have a basement. So for years, every McDonalds had a smallish basement, used for storage. When the last of the McDonald brothers died and Ray Croc passed on, this requirement died with them. Anyway, I think Oscar's was a converted McDonalds for the past.
We had good attendance but such lousy service at Oscar's and facility generally spoiled the later season watch parties. Nobody would come anymore. We also developed a second location in downtown Fort Worth. I went to one game there, it was loud and the parking was lousy.
Humperdinks generally gives us their banquet room and a degree of privacy. They are very cooperative. And I am sure for the next season opener, LSU versus Texas Christian University will be another barn burner. When we opened with the Oregon we pumped about 3,000 fans through Humps. We did similar with the Cotton Bowl when we played the Aggies.
Humps is close to the Texas Rangers/Dallas Cowboys stadiums in Arlington, Texas. They have a livery service that will take you to the stadiums and pick up after the game. Parking at Humps is free. Parking at the Cowboys Stadium starts at $25. Livery service is $10 per person, so can be kinda good deal depending on the amount of folks involved.
The Tarrant Tigers, the LSU Tarrant County Alumni Association collected about $4,500 ~ $5,500 for the scholarship fund. Due to those games, we have endowed a scholarship at LSU and are close to endowing another one. We do have enough funds to give three scholarships per year, one from the endowment, one from our chapter funds and one from a member couple.
LSU has about 200 or so students per year attend schoool from the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Competition for the scholarships is fierce.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 23, 2012
The Grind is on . . .
We slowly in exorbitantly grind down to Christmas. Time seems to be slowing down. Yet we note lots of shoppers out there. Wonder what tomorrow is going to be like
The experts say 10% of the shoppers have yet to do their bargain hunting. Or if you, gift hunting. I did note there seems to be less stock in the stores, that indicates the merchants are anticipating a leaner year. I think they are right what with all the unemployment going on and the Fiscal Cliff threats.
Every body is afraid of taxes. They are right, taxes are going up. Maybe indirectly but they are going up. All the Obama taxes kick in for Obama care. And many think the President is hell bent on forcing us over the fiscal cliff. No doubt he may have grossly misjudged the people, certainly the Congress. The House of Representatives is not buying Obama's demands.
So things are going to get tougher next year for sure. Could be a new recession or even a new depression. The President does not seem to care. Many think he has an socialist agenda and forcing a calamity will enhance his ability to force his ideas on the nation.
Oh well, we will soon know. The great unwashed are in for a great shock. The reelection of Obama guarantees nothing. And they are loathe to recognize that. So that to will soon be upon us.
With that, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The experts say 10% of the shoppers have yet to do their bargain hunting. Or if you, gift hunting. I did note there seems to be less stock in the stores, that indicates the merchants are anticipating a leaner year. I think they are right what with all the unemployment going on and the Fiscal Cliff threats.
Every body is afraid of taxes. They are right, taxes are going up. Maybe indirectly but they are going up. All the Obama taxes kick in for Obama care. And many think the President is hell bent on forcing us over the fiscal cliff. No doubt he may have grossly misjudged the people, certainly the Congress. The House of Representatives is not buying Obama's demands.
So things are going to get tougher next year for sure. Could be a new recession or even a new depression. The President does not seem to care. Many think he has an socialist agenda and forcing a calamity will enhance his ability to force his ideas on the nation.
Oh well, we will soon know. The great unwashed are in for a great shock. The reelection of Obama guarantees nothing. And they are loathe to recognize that. So that to will soon be upon us.
With that, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Friday, December 21, 2012
We Is or We Is Not . . .
Back to minerals again. I spent about an hour looking at Amelia's material on Tuscaloosa Marine Shale/Austin Chalk again. The good news is that there is a lot of oil in those two geological zones, the bad news is (note one the ises) no one really knows how to get it out. There are good wells and not so good wells scattered about into that zone.
Our place seems to have the infamous Edwards Shelf literally run right under it. It can be note to the south of us lies the "down dip of the Edwards Shelf" and a number of gas fields in the Tucsaloosa Trend (which lies below the Austin Chalk and below that is the Tuscaloosa Trend - pretty damn deep is the trend). Could be we are out of it since we are north of the shelf down dip, though no one really knows just where the edge of the shelf is (another is). It would take a number of wells to log the structures way down the hole to really figure it out exactly where the shelf begins or ends, not something that is ever really going to happen.
The LaCour #43 well is into the Austin Chalk (note that I found out if you go east it is referred to as the Selma Chalk - go figure). The well has had its problems producing oil and gas. They killed the well in August, removed the Blow Out Protector (COP) located down hole and the gasket between the casing and the inner casing. Since then, we have noticed on SONRIS Lite the oil production has quadrupled since their rework. That is a good thing but still may not be sufficient to deem the well a success. Oil production companies want all their money back PDQ, they are loathe to have to deal with a low producing well for years to get the gold back.
To the north of us is West Feliciana Parish and the big interest there is the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS). Indeed the area extends into Mississippi too. East Feliciana Parish is considered an even hot play for the TMS. TMS is above the Tuscaloosa Trend but below the Austin Chalk formations.
It still appears the magic will be in the ability to get the wells to produce. Long laterals have been drilled to increase the area of production with the idea I am guessing to make mega wells. They all seem to start okay but decline rapidly, like with in a couple of months.
One land man theorizes that the laterals are collapsing or otherwise getting stopped up (a loose term or description). He thinks the naturally fractured shale collaspses and gradually blocks up the oil flow. It is his idea to pump the lateral full of gravel thus keeping the hole from collapsing on itself. Others say use a casing that is slotted. I stress we do not know what they did or did not do. We do know that they open up the lower well and put the BOP up on top at the surface area.
There is more drilling activity to the northwest in Avoyelles Parish in to the Austin Chalk zone. There is a well over in Edinburg, also an Anadarko well and drilled by the same crew as was used on LaCour #43. We do not know if any subsurface treatments similar to LaCour #43 have been performed on that well. That well is basically located across the Atchafalaya River from McCrea area of Pointe Coupee Parish.
Mean while we is leased. That is the last is. Yes, we along with many others have an active mineral lease for both Tuscaloosa Trend (Down Dip stuff) and Austin Chalk but not for Tuscaloosa Marine Shale. Could be a good thing or who knows what. Mean while the lease money was a nice token of their appreciation. As Harry Potter said, "And now we wait."
Our place seems to have the infamous Edwards Shelf literally run right under it. It can be note to the south of us lies the "down dip of the Edwards Shelf" and a number of gas fields in the Tucsaloosa Trend (which lies below the Austin Chalk and below that is the Tuscaloosa Trend - pretty damn deep is the trend). Could be we are out of it since we are north of the shelf down dip, though no one really knows just where the edge of the shelf is (another is). It would take a number of wells to log the structures way down the hole to really figure it out exactly where the shelf begins or ends, not something that is ever really going to happen.
The LaCour #43 well is into the Austin Chalk (note that I found out if you go east it is referred to as the Selma Chalk - go figure). The well has had its problems producing oil and gas. They killed the well in August, removed the Blow Out Protector (COP) located down hole and the gasket between the casing and the inner casing. Since then, we have noticed on SONRIS Lite the oil production has quadrupled since their rework. That is a good thing but still may not be sufficient to deem the well a success. Oil production companies want all their money back PDQ, they are loathe to have to deal with a low producing well for years to get the gold back.
To the north of us is West Feliciana Parish and the big interest there is the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS). Indeed the area extends into Mississippi too. East Feliciana Parish is considered an even hot play for the TMS. TMS is above the Tuscaloosa Trend but below the Austin Chalk formations.
It still appears the magic will be in the ability to get the wells to produce. Long laterals have been drilled to increase the area of production with the idea I am guessing to make mega wells. They all seem to start okay but decline rapidly, like with in a couple of months.
One land man theorizes that the laterals are collapsing or otherwise getting stopped up (a loose term or description). He thinks the naturally fractured shale collaspses and gradually blocks up the oil flow. It is his idea to pump the lateral full of gravel thus keeping the hole from collapsing on itself. Others say use a casing that is slotted. I stress we do not know what they did or did not do. We do know that they open up the lower well and put the BOP up on top at the surface area.
There is more drilling activity to the northwest in Avoyelles Parish in to the Austin Chalk zone. There is a well over in Edinburg, also an Anadarko well and drilled by the same crew as was used on LaCour #43. We do not know if any subsurface treatments similar to LaCour #43 have been performed on that well. That well is basically located across the Atchafalaya River from McCrea area of Pointe Coupee Parish.
Mean while we is leased. That is the last is. Yes, we along with many others have an active mineral lease for both Tuscaloosa Trend (Down Dip stuff) and Austin Chalk but not for Tuscaloosa Marine Shale. Could be a good thing or who knows what. Mean while the lease money was a nice token of their appreciation. As Harry Potter said, "And now we wait."
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Battery Charger Is Working Again . . .
I did some tinkering around with the circuit. Replaced the rectifier and the LED. I probably did not have to do that to either one but it is done now. And yes, it is back functioning again.
I did buy enough components to make another one. But I need a chassis box and few Banana Jack connectors to complete the works. When I do, I will have a second charger.
The sad part is that I can no longer reach the original designer of the circuit, Mr. Chu. Since he told be he instructed pilots in basic flying in WW-II, I suspect he has passed away. We have been losing out greatest generation now for many years. And their age dictates that they are soon going to be all gone. Glad that I made the contact and have the circuit.
I did buy enough components to make another one. But I need a chassis box and few Banana Jack connectors to complete the works. When I do, I will have a second charger.
The sad part is that I can no longer reach the original designer of the circuit, Mr. Chu. Since he told be he instructed pilots in basic flying in WW-II, I suspect he has passed away. We have been losing out greatest generation now for many years. And their age dictates that they are soon going to be all gone. Glad that I made the contact and have the circuit.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Battery Charger , , ,
A few years a go I got a schematic for a trickle battery charger for NiCd/NiMh batteries. The charger could charge 1 to 20 cells. It was a current adjustable DC power supply. The elderly gentleman that gave me the circuit has, I believe, passed on. He was a instructor pilot in WW-II so I am sure when I last talked to him he was well into his upper 80's. And as with all of our Veterans of the Great War, he has passed on. At least I can not locate him anymore so that is my sad conclusion.
The circuit is pretty simple. I use a filament transformer to step down the input voltage from 110VAC to 25VAC. For those of you that do not know what a filament transformer is, it is a hold over from the vacuum tube days where they had a filament circuit hooked up to the cathode of the tubes. Filaments were power by 12.5 volts which heated up the cathode. So the secondary of this transformer has a winding that supplies 25 volts across the entire winding. It is center tapped to provided two separate 12.5 circuits. You just ignore the center tap and use the two outputs that crosses the entire winding and you have 25 volts.
The next part of the circuit is a full wave rectifier. In the vacuum tube days you used a dual diode tube that basically had one cathode/filament and two positive plates. Now one uses a single solid state device that has four diodes embedded and provides the full wave rectification of the AC current. Then you use a 100 or better microfarad electrolytic capacitor as filter to smooth out the rectified DC. The capacitor needs to be rated higher than 25 volts, they come in ranges from 25, 50 and up, anything above 25 volts will do. Simple enough, even an old geezer like me understands it immediately. Not a big deal and quite impressive since now the whole shebang is just two parts, a rectifier and a capacitor.
Now comes the interesting part to me. The part I clearly do not understand how it works but can easily wire it up. It uses a 10,000 ohm resistor hooked up to the positive side of the filtered 25 vdc. The other end of the resistor hooks up to the base of the 2N3055 power transistor. The transistor is in a T0-3 case and is mounted directly on to the aluminum box that will house the charger. The case of the transistor is the collector and grounded to the case of the charger. That takes care of the heat and establishes the ground for the transistor. The negative side of the full wave rectifier filter is also grounded. My thinking is that the current path is through the ground or negative side of the circuit. And the transistor conducts based on the biasing of the emitter. The base input is fixed. So the current flow is regulated in the collector-emitter flow. Changing the bias on the emitter allows more or less current to flow through the transistor and circuit.
Here comes the hard part, the emitter of the transistor is hooked up to a 25 ohm potentiometer or pot as we call them. That is a variable resistor. The center tap, or wiper of the pot is hooked up to ground along with the one end of the pot. Basically that allows the pot to vary the resistance in the emitter circuit to ground.
A light emitting diode (LED) is wired in parallel with the transistor base and goes to ground. The LED conducts and lights up indicating the circuit is active. So it shares the 10K resistor with the base of the transistor. LEDs are current deivices and usually need drop in the avialable current to keep it in the bounds of operation or it will burn out (open). So the resistor does double duty.
The positive output has a blocking diode in it to prevent back voltage from the battery pushing back into the circuit. It simply allows positive voltage to flow one way to out put terminal. A simple protective device and probably costs you a volt or two drop across the diode. Use one rated about say 40 volts, you can higher but it costs more for the part.
The negative output is wired directly to ground. That is the case as well as to the negative out put of the rectifier.
I put a jumper in the positive output circuit. I use my VOM to measure and set the current flow. One varies the pot and reads the output. To measure current one must insert the meter in the circuit. So I set the current value I want and then hook up the battery to be charged. It can charge up to 20 cells.
The circuit allows the 25 vdc to "float." As long as the voltage output exceeds the voltage of the battery at full charge the battery does not care. Of course, excessive voltage is not a good thing but 25 volts is acceptable. The batteries all have rated capacities in milliampere hours or ampere hours.
One divides that number, say 800 milliampere hours, by 10 which give the ideal trickle charge rate or basically a tenth of the batteries current output capacity. This is known in the battery chemistry world as C-10. All NiCd and NiMh batteries can easily tolerate that rate. Fast chargers use higher rates but have a voltage cutoff circuit so that when the battery is at full capacity as measured by voltage, it will shut down. But fast charging can be damaging to the battery chemistry.
If you want you expensive batteries to last a long time, you trickle charge them.
My problem has been to determine the polarity of the LED. I am pretty sure I have that down now, The anode must be connected to the positive source of power in the circuit. The gentleman had it connected to the base of the transistor. Thus the 10,000 resistor does double duty, one for the base and one for the anode of the LED.
So I think I have reconstructed the circuit. Not to fix it. I know it worked as the old worked a long time. I think something got kicked or trampled and did damage to the old charger. Anyway it currently does not work. So I am reverse engineering circuit so to speak.
The circuit is pretty simple. I use a filament transformer to step down the input voltage from 110VAC to 25VAC. For those of you that do not know what a filament transformer is, it is a hold over from the vacuum tube days where they had a filament circuit hooked up to the cathode of the tubes. Filaments were power by 12.5 volts which heated up the cathode. So the secondary of this transformer has a winding that supplies 25 volts across the entire winding. It is center tapped to provided two separate 12.5 circuits. You just ignore the center tap and use the two outputs that crosses the entire winding and you have 25 volts.
The next part of the circuit is a full wave rectifier. In the vacuum tube days you used a dual diode tube that basically had one cathode/filament and two positive plates. Now one uses a single solid state device that has four diodes embedded and provides the full wave rectification of the AC current. Then you use a 100 or better microfarad electrolytic capacitor as filter to smooth out the rectified DC. The capacitor needs to be rated higher than 25 volts, they come in ranges from 25, 50 and up, anything above 25 volts will do. Simple enough, even an old geezer like me understands it immediately. Not a big deal and quite impressive since now the whole shebang is just two parts, a rectifier and a capacitor.
Now comes the interesting part to me. The part I clearly do not understand how it works but can easily wire it up. It uses a 10,000 ohm resistor hooked up to the positive side of the filtered 25 vdc. The other end of the resistor hooks up to the base of the 2N3055 power transistor. The transistor is in a T0-3 case and is mounted directly on to the aluminum box that will house the charger. The case of the transistor is the collector and grounded to the case of the charger. That takes care of the heat and establishes the ground for the transistor. The negative side of the full wave rectifier filter is also grounded. My thinking is that the current path is through the ground or negative side of the circuit. And the transistor conducts based on the biasing of the emitter. The base input is fixed. So the current flow is regulated in the collector-emitter flow. Changing the bias on the emitter allows more or less current to flow through the transistor and circuit.
Here comes the hard part, the emitter of the transistor is hooked up to a 25 ohm potentiometer or pot as we call them. That is a variable resistor. The center tap, or wiper of the pot is hooked up to ground along with the one end of the pot. Basically that allows the pot to vary the resistance in the emitter circuit to ground.
A light emitting diode (LED) is wired in parallel with the transistor base and goes to ground. The LED conducts and lights up indicating the circuit is active. So it shares the 10K resistor with the base of the transistor. LEDs are current deivices and usually need drop in the avialable current to keep it in the bounds of operation or it will burn out (open). So the resistor does double duty.
The positive output has a blocking diode in it to prevent back voltage from the battery pushing back into the circuit. It simply allows positive voltage to flow one way to out put terminal. A simple protective device and probably costs you a volt or two drop across the diode. Use one rated about say 40 volts, you can higher but it costs more for the part.
The negative output is wired directly to ground. That is the case as well as to the negative out put of the rectifier.
I put a jumper in the positive output circuit. I use my VOM to measure and set the current flow. One varies the pot and reads the output. To measure current one must insert the meter in the circuit. So I set the current value I want and then hook up the battery to be charged. It can charge up to 20 cells.
The circuit allows the 25 vdc to "float." As long as the voltage output exceeds the voltage of the battery at full charge the battery does not care. Of course, excessive voltage is not a good thing but 25 volts is acceptable. The batteries all have rated capacities in milliampere hours or ampere hours.
One divides that number, say 800 milliampere hours, by 10 which give the ideal trickle charge rate or basically a tenth of the batteries current output capacity. This is known in the battery chemistry world as C-10. All NiCd and NiMh batteries can easily tolerate that rate. Fast chargers use higher rates but have a voltage cutoff circuit so that when the battery is at full capacity as measured by voltage, it will shut down. But fast charging can be damaging to the battery chemistry.
If you want you expensive batteries to last a long time, you trickle charge them.
My problem has been to determine the polarity of the LED. I am pretty sure I have that down now, The anode must be connected to the positive source of power in the circuit. The gentleman had it connected to the base of the transistor. Thus the 10,000 resistor does double duty, one for the base and one for the anode of the LED.
So I think I have reconstructed the circuit. Not to fix it. I know it worked as the old worked a long time. I think something got kicked or trampled and did damage to the old charger. Anyway it currently does not work. So I am reverse engineering circuit so to speak.
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