Dashcat2 Build

Woah!!
Great to see the updates Mister! Very nice song as well :D
Also honored to make it on your shoutout list :cool:
 
Awwww, you forgot me on the shoutout *sadface*

Anyway, great to see you back in action and moving forward brother. Hard times come and go, but its how we deal with them that will define us and make us who we are!
 
Jesse B said:
I'm honored to be on your list out shout-outs. Your project has really roared back to life!

Random question I have, don't think it's been discussed. What are you planning on doing to combat moisture? I assume insulation/vapor barrier are planned, but anything else?
Click to expand...

Assuming I somehow end up staying at this house and not moving into an apartment, vapor barrier and better insulation are planned, but the best tool I have to combat moisture is Utah's climate.

To give a practical example of how dry it is here, when I moved to Costa Mesa, CA to work for my Dad in 2006, I was there for July, August and half of September and drenched with sweat for most of that time. The temperatures there were lower than in Utah, but the humidity was much higher. In Utah, that half-gallon of water you're supposed to consume each day goes up by a gallon if you intend to do anything outdoors in summer.

Incidentally, when I moved back to Utah, I had nosebleeds every day because my body just wasn't giving up enough moisture to keep everything from drying out in there.

Outside of the dry months, running the farm at high temperatures will keep condensation off of the parts. I designed this machine to operate reliably in an ambient temperature up to 110F. That's most of the reason behind having the 1.5lb copper heatsinks meant for passive cooling and fed with fans mounted on top. My CPUs only run something like 10-15F above ambient.
 
FrEaKy said:
Awwww, you forgot me on the shoutout *sadface*

Anyway, great to see you back in action and moving forward brother. Hard times come and go, but its how we deal with them that will define us and make us who we are!
Click to expand...

You're right! I'll correct that omission another time. I quickly realized I couldn't write any smaller to include more names and, while I'd have liked to have a second sheet of shoutouts, my friend's (for now, hopefully more than friends in the future) birthday took priority since I lost my third arm in the war. :D
 
MisterDNA said:
...I lost my third arm in the war. :D
Click to expand...

:eek: thanks for the shoutout DNA, this things coming along awesomely! so how much is there left to do on the hardware? looks pretty close to done. gonna start programming soon?
 
Thanks for the shout out! Its good to see you upbeat and moving along. I am currently listening to take your time and i have to say it has a good beat and mellow tone, Its very good. Being around the Houston Texas area the humidity is a constant 70+ and it gets into the 100s here and with that temp and the high humidity its terrible lol Utah sounds like a nice place lol. Dashcat is a great name, My User name is based off of my cat who went missing, He was a Manx cat so i named him Manny.

So what is all of this power even for? I remember that you were making a game, Is that still going to happen i'll be a beta tester :p
 
woot woot!

Nice voltage drop numbers on that.. I'd post mine from my welder, but it's hella embarrassing.:mad:
 
thanks for the shout, ive always wanted my screenie on a cardboard sign, heh
Good to see you are back on track though! and that is a clean ass run on the 250v line
 
xDezor said:
Any progress?
Click to expand...

I have my daughter until the 27th so the project is kind of on the back burner.

I'm working on adding the short rack to the mix, though. I found the missing parts that will allow it.

For the next week, I've got cleanup to prepare for the house to go on the market, though it will still be a long time before it sells.
 
No rest for the wicked it seems. The house is going to be put on the market in about a week. I'll still be living there until it sells. Based on the asking price the ex pulled from within her nether regions, I'll be here for quite some time. Win-win. Either it sells and I walk away with half the profit or the price drops with time and I buy it then.

For the time being, my Dashcat2 project is taking a backseat in favor of fitness related activities since I just finished pouring money into the Cannondale mountain bike I bought broken last year and started running it in yesterday to get all the bugs worked out. It's going to need a bit more work. The front shock is shot and the chain is all squeaky. I could only do seven miles before the weather turned crappy.

Over all, the plan is to have a matured and refined repeat version of the summer I had in 1995. It's kind of my holy grail of sorts because my mind was so clear afterward. And with summer about three weeks away, might as well strike early.

Oddly enough, it was a decade ago this July that I moved out on my own for the first time. And my family moved in August of 1995 while I was in the middle of my summer run.

I found plenty of time for programming and such during that summer so I'm sure this one will be no different.

I don't know what this summer will bring. I'm really only expecting to have my mind cleared out by the end. That's all.


By the way, the new My Little Pony cartoon is funny as hell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o53GQGBl5pY&NR=1
 
I made the shoutout!
tumblr_ll3kt66I871qb4gbr.jpg




Side note: The progress is great mang. Good luck with the bike and keep the pictures and info flowing.
 
I'm genuinely nervous right now. This stuff that's happening to me right now only happens in Hollywood.

I'm riding a razor's edge. I could tag the kind of epic hyperfocus session that often comes from these things or I could keep my mind alert to changes like I need to for the given situation.
 
jmroberts70 said:
What exactly IS your situation?
Click to expand...

Summary:

Ex ditches me.
I get a promotion at work that puts me working with a girl who unfortunately turns out to be married. She becomes a shining example of what I'm looking for in an ideal mate. And this becomes scary relevant because we share so much common and/or compatible ground with each other. We become great friends.
Her husband ditches her.
We start spending time together and learning about each other while being each other's kinda sorta shoulder to not really cry on (I say not really cry because we spend all our time smiling and laughing).
Now we're progressing, being cautiously optimistic because it came out of nowhere and just feels way too right and way too amazing to be real.
 
Wow!! Yeah, I can see how it is starting to look like a Hollywood movie plot line... Still, I'm happy for you!!
 
MisterDNA said:
Summary:

Ex ditches me.
I get a promotion at work that puts me working with a girl who unfortunately turns out to be married. She becomes a shining example of what I'm looking for in an ideal mate. And this becomes scary relevant because we share so much common and/or compatible ground with each other. We become great friends.
Her husband ditches her.
We start spending time together and learning about each other while being each other's kinda sorta shoulder to not really cry on (I say not really cry because we spend all our time smiling and laughing).
Now we're progressing, being cautiously optimistic because it came out of nowhere and just feels way too right and way too amazing to be real.
Click to expand...

I would never bring god into the subject, but in this case, maybe this was a strategic move to get you two together in some way! Im just sayen!!!!!!

Grats bro, hope this works out for you cause at this point in life, you need someone who is the right match for you.

Sometimes it takes a bit of pain to earn what is good!
 
Congrats..And never be afraid to bring GOD into the subject..All the creator ever wanted is for you to be at peace. And now your heart is filled with it..Live,Love,Learn..God bless you both..For a great future ahead :D
 
Update:

She's been my girlfriend since the 13th.

And we're accidentally becoming best friends. Not a single day has gone by where we haven't been together in person.

Dashcat2 is still located on-site. However, with the inability to actually run it in this heat unless I cut a big hole in the workshop building and mount a cooler, it's sitting idle.
 
master noran said:
So has the house sold?
Click to expand...

Sounds like this deserves another Update:

The house has been on the market, but a couple weeks ago my ex got the idea that she wanted to move into the house and start making improvements during the winter months in order to sell it for more money. Under this agreement, she takes the $800 IRS tax debt that I would have been stuck paying in full once the house sold and I walk away clean, but with no claim to any profits.

It's a good deal for me because it means peace of mind. More money in her pocket benefits my daughter by proxy. And it's a chance for the ex to learn about reality. Namely, the fact that real home improvement work is a lot more involved than slapping a coat of paint on a wall. I'm out the end of September. Worst case scenario I'm out the end of October. Frankly, I want to be out as soon as possible so she gets to see what summer has been like living here.

It looks like Dashcat2 is going to get a RAM upgrade to 6GB per node, but that's if I can even run it.
 
Thank you for continuing to give us updates.

It's also good to hear that you're still continuing on with the project and haven't decided to scrap it all together.

I hope things are getting better. :)
 
xDezor said:
Thank you for continuing to give us updates.

It's also good to hear that you're still continuing on with the project and haven't decided to scrap it all together.

I hope things are getting better. :)
Click to expand...

Things are getting better. Life at this point reminds me of booting a supercomputer or getting a freight train up to speed. I want things to move faster, but I know it's worth the effort and the wait.

My girlfriend and I are still together, still taking things slow. Reality caught up with us so we're forced to spend less time together in the name of actually getting enough sleep. And there's the conflict with her parents regarding my approach to faith. They're quite strongly LDS while I'm not and neither is she. I think they see their daughter's divorce as a chance to return her to the "flock" since LDS lore is such that her current status means they don't see her in the afterlife. I guess there's shades of that in all religions and cultures.

All I want to do is love and honor her forever. And my word is my bond on that.​

I'm trying to max out my ebay sales for the year as quickly as possible. That pesky $20,000 IRS reporting thing really drags on people who sell off a crapload of expensive gear collected over the years at warp speed and also sell a bunch of cheap stuff in high volume.

My ebay ID is pvpcs.
 
Update:

I signed the lease for my new apartment yesterday. With the new place, I gain a bigger bedroom, a huge dining room that will take Dashcat2 in one corner, a bedroom with the same inner dimensions as my former workshop, a third smaller bedroom for my daughter, and central air conditioning.

In addition, since I formerly lived in Logan, Utah, I was under the iron fist of Logan City's electrical utility with a charge of $.12 per kilowatt-hour. The new apartment is in North Logan and falls under the domain of Rocky Mountain Power and they charge something like $.08 per kilowatt-hour. With Dashcat2 pulling a fairly constant 2kW while running, this works out to saving me about $2 a day in electrical costs alone.

With winter coming, the heat generated by Dashcat2 won't go to waste.

As for my girlfriend, we broke up. We're on good terms, but with all the stressful crap going on in her life, she decided she didn't want to be anyone's girlfriend right now. I understand completely and it's a matter of putting to practice the age-old quote: "If you love someone, set them free. If they come back, they're yours. If not, they never were." It's a necessary step. I've got enough going on to keep me occupied for a while.
 
Last edited:
Good to hear things are starting to come together. Best of luck with the new place!
 
Just keep on trucking, Everything is looking up for you... Besides the whole breaking up thing.
 
dont move to hawaii. $.25/kwh. :eek: lets see some pics once you get everything set up!
 
i dont post much but i've been following this and just had to jump in to tell you to keep up the good work and never give up!
 
Update:

I'm in the process of moving at the moment. I'm not planning to get much sleep tonight because I want to get this all done by tomorrow night so I have Sunday to unpack and decompress.

I'm not sure when I will have internet access again after moving. I tried connecting my modem at the new place and there must be an HSD block on the line because I couldn't get anything. Supposedly the place is wired for Comcast, but tenants have set up satellite in the past so this could get interesting.

I'm mapping circuit breakers to see where I can pull juice for Dashcat2 from. While I could just switch to a gas clothes dryer and run a cable from the electrical socket to a PDU on my rack, that would look kind of Borg-tacky in my dining room so I'm looking to route heavy-jacket extension cords through the heating ducts for one rail. The second rail will pull from the dining room branch so I hope I can tap into a circuit on the other phase pole for redundancy.

For now, I need to move food and other stuff.
 
A few more photos.

I moved the rack to my storage bay using my daughter's bike trailer and my electric scooter.
EPICDC1s.jpg


Nodes in my car.
EPICDC2s.jpg


Closer shot of the nodes in my car.
EPICDC3s.jpg


Nodes back in the rack and staying there for a bit. This was taken September 18.
EPICDC4s.jpg


Dashcat2 taken down for transport and loaded in Dad's trailer
EPICDC5s.jpg


Another shot.
EPICDC6s.jpg


Dad closing the trailer so we can take Dashcat2 to my new place.
EPICDC7s.jpg


I've never lived anywhere that came with a Bantam rooster. This guy is about nine inches tall.
bantamsmall.jpg
 
You have a beautiful rack.

:D

But seriously, I just can't get over how awesome that setup is.
 
Love it!

I've got a rooster near me too (not sure what kind though)! I think it's annoying more than anything.
 
Update:

I traced the circuits of the townhouse to see where I could grab power for Dashcat2 and found that the two bedrooms directly above Dashcat2's location share a circuit. This is a problem since one is my home office is in one of those rooms and my workstations will pull 1kW easy at full load, leaving only 400W after the nominal load from half of Dashcat2 is taken into account. And I'm sure my daughter will pull more than that, at times.

The bathroom circuit I had considered pulling from turned out to be on the same pole as the dining room circuit. I don't want to be that far out of balance so I'm going to open the loadcenter to see if there's enough slack on the wires to move that circuit to the other pole. I'll also be looking for any doubled-up branches. There's a chance the bedrooms are doubled up on one breaker when they really shouldn't be.
 
MisterDNA said:
Update:

I traced the circuits of the townhouse to see where I could grab power for Dashcat2 and found that the two bedrooms directly above Dashcat2's location share a circuit. This is a problem since one is my home office is in one of those rooms and my workstations will pull 1kW easy at full load, leaving only 400W after the nominal load from half of Dashcat2 is taken into account. And I'm sure my daughter will pull more than that, at times.

The bathroom circuit I had considered pulling from turned out to be on the same pole as the dining room circuit. I don't want to be that far out of balance so I'm going to open the loadcenter to see if there's enough slack on the wires to move that circuit to the other pole. I'll also be looking for any doubled-up branches. There's a chance the bedrooms are doubled up on one breaker when they really shouldn't be.
Click to expand...
I absolutely hate it when houses are wired like that.

That is some beautiful hardware, glad to see it back on track.

Also, be careful of that rooster, they can be serious assholes!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top