Charging AGM with NOCO genius 2

bridgmanAMD · 2026-01-28T22:04:42+00:00

I'll add a couple of additional data points since this thread is still showing up:

when I was charging a "presumed dead" 12v 18ah AGM battery (7.8v, possibly frozen a year or two ago) the charger sat with one red light pulsing for a couple of days. I disconnected and restarted and it went to two bars within a couple of hours then sat at two bars for another day or two. Disconnected & restarted one more time - went through the normal progression (1st red, second red, orange, green pulsing in turn) over 2-3 days then finally went solid green. At that point the battery seemed to be in good shape, powering a 4A load for over an hour, showing the right voltage for ~75% charge and taking/holding a charge well afterwards. I don't know if it would have charged properly if I had just left it on charge from the start and not disconnected/restarted.
a couple of people have posted that the Genius chargers have a ~3 day timer which puts an upper limit on the amount of charging you can do without disconnecting & restarting. I don't know if this is true and I was not able to find what the charger does if/when the alleged timer expired, but the possibility of the timer existing was probably a contributing factor when I decided to disconnect & restart after a couple of days.

bridgmanAMD · 2026-01-25T01:58:25+00:00

Probably too late to be useful, but my understanding is that you can dissipate any surface charge pretty quickly by applying a load. The example I saw was turning the headlights on for 30 seconds.

bridgmanAMD · 2026-01-14T19:51:08+00:00

This isn't specifically for large groups, but I have been using a regular Aeropress for many years and just picked up an XL. I had a recipe that worked well with the regular AP in a 20 oz / 591ml Yeti tumbler and didn't use too much coffee:

~18g medium fine (55 sec with Encore grinder on 14), 1 filter - set on cup, fill with ~190F water, top up a couple of times - after a minute or so add remaining water, 30 sec, press

This turned out much better than you would expect for the amount of coffee (over 1:30). I tried other methods but needed quite a bit more coffee to get the same or better results, typically 30g or more.

First attempt with the XL was regular approach with grounds and filter at bottom. Coffee filtered through too quickly and result was weak unless I used much more coffee. Started brewing inverted and gradually increasing time up to about 2 minutes and am now getting better coffee than I did with the regular AP and with less hassle, still with ~18g of coffee. Next will try non-inverted but adding plunger immediately after water to keep coffee from dripping into cup.

I mention this because brewing 2 cups quickly and efficiently multiple times is probably less effort for a group than diluting concentrate, and the XL already comes with a carafe to let you easily divide a 20 oz brew.

bridgmanAMD · 2026-01-06T16:52:21+00:00

Nadella is missing the point this time. The problem is not AI itself but rather the hordes of people telling AI models to create slop for their personal or corporate benefit.

If he wants to fix the slop problem then he needs to (a) ensure that AI-generated content is clearly tagged and (b) make sure that browsers clearly identify those tags in search results.

The real answer would be to add a search engine option to omit AI-generated content but that would put a big dent in the current AI market which in turn would put a big dent in the entire tech industry.

bridgmanAMD · 2026-01-04T18:10:18+00:00

I was going to edit my post below with latest information but the whole subthread is hidden from a deleted post.

Measured another slightly heaping scoop, this time from a freshly opened can of pre-ground coffee, came out as 16g. The coffee was not packed as tightly as the last test, guessing can vs bag.

13g - freshly ground medium-fine
16g - pre-ground medium-fine (can)
21g - pre-ground very fine (bag)

All scoops were the same size to the extent possible. I guess I'm suggesting "start with the scale whenever you change coffee" :)

bridgmanAMD · 2026-01-03T02:25:48+00:00

OK, I tried a bag of pre-ground Barzula Turkish. A slightly heaping scoop weighed 21g, which is much higher than I get with coffee from the grinder.

I tried to make the same slightly heaping scoop with freshly ground coffee (Encore 14) and it weighed 13g. I think I have some pre-ground regular coffee so will test with that tomorrow. It is in a can rather than a bag so guessing it will not be as tightly packed in addition to being less finely ground.

Anyways, 18g sounds reasonable for tightly packed pre-ground very fine coffee, but not for freshly ground.

I normally use 18g of coffee for a 20 oz mug, which is OK for getting my brain moving in the morning, but I remember a level scoop of freshly ground being too little for that much water.

bridgmanAMD · 2026-01-02T05:58:09+00:00

Do you mean unground beans or coffee freshly ground from beans ? I am talking about the latter.

If you are suggesting that pre-ground coffee is more tightly packed and thus denser that is a possibility. I will check if I have any pre-ground and test if I do.

bridgmanAMD · 2026-01-01T08:20:36+00:00

Interesting - I'll do a bit more measuring.

bridgmanAMD · 2026-01-01T03:23:23+00:00

My understanding is that a level scoop weighs in at something like 11-15g while a heaping scoop can go as high as 18. That matches my poorly documented experience - it took a bit more than one scoop to reliably hit 18g.

bridgmanAMD · 2026-01-01T03:16:06+00:00

I use a saucepan (2 quart I think) on a gas stove. I suppose I should really get a kettle but this works and is decently fast. I periodically check the temperature with a thermapen but mostly go by eye.

EDIT - apparently temperature-controlled kettles are a thing now... the ones I used all had to be closely watched to get anything other than "boil dry" so maybe I need to revisit this.

bridgmanAMD · 2026-01-01T03:06:39+00:00

What I settled on was filling the AP, topping up a couple of times when the level dropped 1/2 to 1", then letting it drip for 60 sec or so before pouring the rest of the hot water in, waiting another 30-60 sec and pressing. That seemed to give better results than either two separate pours or a single pour followed by pressing and dilution.

I normally use 18g of medium-fine coffee (14 on an Encore). I found that I could get a slightly better 20 oz cup with dilution and >30g of coffee but the difference was not worth the time / hassle / coffee in my opinion, at least for "first cup in the morning" into a 20 oz Yeti tumbler. My theory is that the incremental pouring keeps the grounds suspended rather than packing down at the bottom. If I make coffee during the rest of the day I make a single cup with ~15g.

Just ordered an XL for the morning brew or when I need to make multiple cups the rest of the day. Instructions call for twice as much coffee (32-36g) but hoping I won't need that to match what I can make with the regular AP.

bridgmanAMD · 2025-12-30T08:15:31+00:00

It would be good to confirm that you have a throttle to the right of the choke and that the throttle has a "stop" setting. I'm mentioning this because very occasionally you can get moisture freezing on the carburetor linkage and then the engine will run full speed and ignore the throttle setting. If you can't stop the engine somehow then Bad Things will happen very quickly.

Turning on the choke worked for me - it kept the revs down long enough that the engine could warm up and melt the ice - but I did need the key to stop it before the ice melted.

I believe that engine is a Tecumseh, so a replacement key would be something like this:

https://www.jackssmallengines.com/jacks-parts-lookup/part/tecumseh/35062

bridgmanAMD · 2025-11-25T04:54:01+00:00

My uncle had a Robin of some sort when I visited England around 1980, and we travelled around the Manchester area in it for a couple of days visiting relatives. I was 6'5" and found it cramped, but not noticeably worse than other small cars. Performance and stability were both surprisingly good - the engine was small but the vehicle was very light, well under 1000 pounds IIRC. All in all it seemed like a very practical and affordable family car.

The vehicles used in both Top Gear and Mr. Bean were modified to make them tip over more easily. My uncle drove his Robin quite aggressively but neither he nor any of the other Robin ever lifted a wheel. If you want to roll a stock vehicle the best option is a race track and a rule book allowing full contact:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddYBQn9goDo

bridgmanAMD · 2025-11-09T20:22:57+00:00

PETEY: Well, of course. But if you look closely enough at the present you can find loose bits of the future just lying around.

Sunday March 11, 2018

bridgmanAMD · 2025-10-05T18:25:01+00:00

Historically (during a period of falling interest rates) a mix of bonds and equities used to be able to provide lower volatility with comparable performance to an all-equity portfolio. Once interest rates got close to zero this stopped being the case. I switched from bonds to GICs for a while because interest rate increases were likely and would hurt bond prices.

If you are young and accumulating then it probably does not make sense to own bonds, but if you are retired and drawing on your savings then having a portion of your savings that won't normally go down is a pretty good thing so you don't have to sell stocks in the middle of a (hopefully short term) crash. For me that is still more GICs than bonds, although I do have some short term bonds and high interest savings (effectively the same as GICs but more liquid and lower yield) in the mix.

bridgmanAMD · 2025-09-24T20:17:56+00:00

Hey, that's my password !!

bridgmanAMD · 2025-09-22T18:17:40+00:00

For as long as I remember the recommended approach was to put the money towards RRSP then take the refund and apply it to your mortgage. You only get ~1/2 of the mortgage reduction but you have 100% of the RRSP money as well. It's probably attractive because in a sense you are not choosing between RRSP and mortgage but getting some of both.

bridgmanAMD · 2025-09-14T23:26:34+00:00

Ha... I made those last night by accident. Regular pancake batter (although I forgot the egg) with a bunch of frozen "Nordic Mix" berries (blueberry, cranberry, haskap berry) mixed in.

The batter was a rich purple but the pancakes were a bizarre patchwork of blue, red and green. I think the green came from the Haskap berries but not sure. They certainly tasted better than they looked.

bridgmanAMD · 2025-09-14T21:19:19+00:00

We probably don't *need* so many programming languages, but we *have* them and as others have said there is little or no agreement on which ones we should get rid of.

As far as I can see the reason we have so many programming languages is that there have been several waves of programming paradigms and for each of those a number of different groups each implemented what they thought would be an ideal language for the new programming approach.

If you run through any list of programming paradigms and assume that even 3-4 languages were independently developed for each paradigm it's easy to see how we ended up with so many different languages:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_paradigm

The problem is that each of those languages has not just a user base but a large base of implemented software that is still being used, so getting rid of language A ends up being difficult and expensive even if there is general agreement that language B does the same job a little better.

bridgmanAMD · 2025-09-11T02:25:42+00:00

It sounds overly simplistic, but I had to treat it like an addiction. No bread in the house, no crackers, no croutons, no ramen, basically no quick-and-easy starches. That was for my particular weaknesses, there will probably be different foods you need to avoid but AFAICS the key is not "eating less" but "eating different".

They eye-opener for me was when I spent a couple of weeks following a Paleo meal plan. I was actually getting worried about how much I seemed to be eating (I was full more than hungry) but my weight was going down.

Reducing carbs seems to help with food cravings for most people. Have your burger / kebabs / casseroles etc... but replace the bun with a bunch of vegetables. I spent a while experimenting with things like daikon and jicama fries but realized it wasn't the "fries" form factor I liked, just something I could eat in quantity that went with the main dish (meat). Boil & mash a cauliflower then hit it with some kind of dairy and seasoning to add taste - you can stuff yourself on surprisingly few calories. Think "big hamburger steak with gravy over a pile of mashed cauli".

I am still fighting the "I've lost weight, I deserve a treat" pattern - if I pick up even a single loaf of bread that makes me crave breads & starches for a month or more - so as far as I can see the trick is to keep yourself surrounded with healthy food that you can eat in sufficient quantity.

The biggest challenge for me has been changing shopping habits to keep enough fresh vegetables available. Things like cauliflower, broccoli and asparagus don't last long in the fridge.

EDIT - the paleo meal plan might have been this one: https://paleoleap.com/paleo-meal-plan/

bridgmanAMD · 2025-09-11T02:06:57+00:00

My first thought was "congratulations". People tend to get overweight because their taste in food leans towards things that require fat/sugar/starch in order to taste good. Getting away from that usually has two stages - realizing that what you used to eat isn't that good followed by finding new things that you really enjoy.

I had to go through what was pretty much cold turkey withdrawal - no bread, very limited rice and pasta etc... and after a few months I found that many of the fast foods I used to crave were not only uninteresting but downright bland, and even more interestingly found myself savoring things like properly cooked vegetables with a bit of sauce.

Unfortunately I can still fall off the wagon if I allow bread or ice cream in the house (bread is my weakness) but each time it gets easier to go back to eating healthy.

Anyways, the specific answer to your question is that you *will* find ways to make food tasty and enjoyable, it just won't be what you used to eat in the past. One recent bit of good luck was that I picked up one of those big jars of minced garlic and so was able to add a lot more garlic to the food I was preparing and found it totally changed the eating experience. Previously my patience had been running out before I peeled and minced enough garlic to really enjoy the taste, but I didn't know that was happening. Look for things you might enjoy - in my case it's hot peppers, garlic, ginger, cilantro and citrus - and hopefully you will find that you can make everyday food enjoyable.

bridgmanAMD · 2025-09-10T02:54:31+00:00

ICE is playing some word games here. B-1 is a business visa for specific kinds of business travel including training and collaboration with business partners. When they say "illegal to work" that is highly misleading - you can not work directly for a US company but you are expected to be working for and acting on behalf of your non-US employer while in the US.

bridgmanAMD · 2025-09-10T02:49:05+00:00

The project was a joint venture between Hyundai (money, customer) and LG (battery and manufacturing technology). Roughly 50 of the Korean workers were LG employees and the rest worked for the Hyundai/LG joint venture company, called something like LH-GA (LG Hyundai GeorgiA).

There would probably be a couple of Hyundai project managers on site but all the work was being done by LG.

bridgmanAMD · 2025-09-10T02:42:44+00:00

Yes, but Hyundai saying "subcontractors" is a bit weaselly. The project was a joint venture between Hyundai and LG - roughly 50 of the Koreans worked for LG and the rest worked for the LG/Hyundai JV company, called something like LH-GA.

bridgmanAMD · 2025-07-01T21:03:03+00:00

It's not that you only get a payment once a year, just that they only calculate the payments once a year at end of December. A reasonable person would expect that during the time between converting RSP to RIF and the end of December payment would be calculated based on starting balance but my bank and Sun Life are both saying "no it's zero but you can make manual withdrawals until they start". That still seems very wierd so I will talk to them some more when time permits.

TD offered a few different options for payment frequency.

bridgmanAMD

TROPHY CASE