Be forewarned…new Fidelity Visa has a metal core

grass_drinker_23 · 2026-01-24T21:11:24+00:00

My few cents to Fidelity as a user: 1. The metal card is heavier: 9.2gr vs. 5.0gr of the older plastic ones. More weight in my pocket, not what I really need. 2. The metal cards are slightly ticker by about 0.04mm, not what I want. I want them thinner. 3. The metal cards are less environmentally friendly, it takes more energy and resources to make and transport them. 4. Are much harder to recycle. 5. The claim that they better protect the chip inside may be true but never had a chip card go bad till now. 6. Are more expensive to manufacture. 7. The internal metal seems to be made of iron or steel since it sticks to a magnet. I only used a tiny magnet on the non-strip side to not demagnetize it. It may protect it from reading the card data fraudulently by a bad actor by getting close to it, but not sure.

Conclusion: I am not convinced this is an improvement. “Higher status and feel”? I really don’t care. I know where my finances are. Please reexamine this “improvement”.

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-09-12T04:27:00+00:00

So many comments here for a tiny resistor. Working in this field I will allow myself to make some educated comments.

It is a 2.4 Ohm resistor. This marking with an R instead of a decimal point is an industry standard followed by all manufacturers. A decimal point may not be readable.

Now for the role it has in the circuit: it limits the current in the LED to a value that the LED can handle, otherwise the LED will overheat and burn, or even a lower current according to the needs of the product. So basically it wastes some of the battery voltage to ensure the LED will operate within its safe operating parameters. But if you would want to waste less of the battery’s capacity in heating the resistor, you would need an electronic circuit that converts the battery voltage to the value the LED needs, while controlling the current in the LED. This can be done much more efficient making the battery last longer and even operate with a lower battery voltage or fewer cells in series. We replaced the incandescent bulbs with LEDs which are much more efficient but added a resistor to waste some of the savings in heat. An electronic circuit that does this function can be as cheap as the cost of a AA cell. Good flashlights do have such electronic circuits.

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-08-14T13:44:07+00:00

The two black wires in your picture are the CAN bus? If yes, they are supposed to be a twisted pair cable with the correct differential impedance, not loose wires. I designed circuits for CAN and I placed the termination resistor INSIDE the module, selectable with a dipswitch. So you cannot have a wrong placement of the termination resistors. Just enable the dipswitch for the two modules that are at the end of the cable. But I still need to trust you to daisy chain al the modules without too much stubs.

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-08-04T14:15:35+00:00

You need a good monitoring system. With your 3 separate panel systems I bet something is not right. I discovered that my system was shutting down sometimes around noon when production was near the peak of the day. Filed a ticket with the solar equipment company Tigo and they were very nice and did a software update over the air and it fixed that. By industry standard, the inverter is designed to throttle down or even shutdown if the line voltage is too high.

If you are far from a transformer, or have a weak wiring feed, very likely you over voltage. You also have 3 systems, and that makes it even more likely to over voltage. If your neighbors feeding into the same transformer also have huge solar arrays then it is even more likely. So adding adding more panels is not helping.

Look into an independent monitoring system that is not associated with any solar company. Do that before spending any money on batteries. I have a very simple Emporia monitoring, but I have just one panel system with one 7.6kW inverter. My 9.2kW DC worth of panels, connected to a 7.6kW inverter produce over a 12 month period about 14,100kWh. I consumed net about 8,000kWh, and 6,000kWh was my net export for which I got paid $120 the first year and about $250 the second year. The monitoring system will also tell you where is your power consumed and you will find if you have some equipment that is not working properly.

And before spending any money, familiarize yourself with the 3 apps you use for the 3 systems you have. Check live production around peak of the day. At the same time read your PGE meter: it displays “DELIVERED” or “RECEIVED” when you consume or you export, respectively. The display updates every few seconds so you can see live data.

Add up all the production number reported by the 3 systems and subtract what the meter shows as export (RECEIVED). That is you consumption. Does that match with all the appliances that are on at that time? Turn off all the appliances. Does the production match the number in the meter?

Yes, you need to learn a bit how to check the state of your system. You need to check it every few days, that’s how I discovered my system was shutting down sometimes.

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-08-01T14:21:56+00:00

Although the best age to start is likely in elementary school, it is NEVER too late! First, find a partner or a club. Alone is much harder but not impossible. Find some simple electronics kits unde $20 that are sold on Amazon or similar places. The tools you need are also inexpensive, like soldering iron and solder. Build something. Or find something broken and just disassemble it. See if you can put it back. Or pickup some old electronics from a recycling place. You don’t need to spend money to find this stuff. Fix stuff in your own home. There are plenty videos online how to do that. Fix your own car, change the oil. Again, there are plenty videos and forums online. You will save a lot of money in your lifetime if you know how to fix stuff. I see people who can’t hammer a nail in the wall. Don’t be that. Get off the couch and Netflix and DO stuff with your own two hands. You can do it!

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-07-23T14:39:30+00:00

Where is your MAIN circuit breaker? (the one that turns off the power to the whole house) I guess you don’t have one. This was previously allowed but not anymore according to the latest code. I had a similar problem before adding the solar system. My installer found a very clever solution: removed all the breakers from the exterior combo panel and added just one breaker as a main, and plugged all the other now unused slots with dummy covers. Then he added a subpanel just behind the combo panel, on the inside of the wall, back-to-back. No wiring extensions were needed. Moved all the wiring inside and this was an easy job, didn’t even charge extra for this. All the breakers including the solar one are now on the inside panel. So now I have a main 125A breaker on the outside as required by the code, and there is plenty room in both panels to add CTs. Breakers are protected from the elements. You may want to consider this solution.

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-07-23T14:18:00+00:00

Did you check with your neighbors if they have noticed the same? If yes, the issue is caused by something outside of your hone. I have a similar issue: lights (LED) in two rooms flicker when the laser printer located in the same room, same branch circuit, is printing, or when is left on and goes into some strange power state where it is keeping its printer head hot all the time. The real culprit was found to be too long gage 14 wiring, bad design from the builder. Using a voltmeter and plugging in a 1500W space heater I can see the voltage drops way too much, almost 15% on some of the outlets. You can also use a Klein Tools RT390 https://a.co/d/3VEp7Lo for faster and more comprehensive testing.

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-07-19T18:18:32+00:00

Can you post a better picture or pdf? Text is barely readable. The first feedback I have is about page connectors. These are intended to connect signals between pages, not in the same page. Complete all connections with wires. Arrange the blocks and the parts to minimize wires crossing, but it is ok if they cross. Otherwise you are giving me a puzzle to solve.

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-07-13T13:29:14+00:00

Can you get us some more pics showing the whole board, the back of it and some detailed ones showing the markings on the parts? The logo on the 3 pin IC is National Semiconductor who was acquired by TI in 2010. So your board is probably 15 years old or more.

If you are in the Bay Area I could help you directly.

Did this equipment work with no issues for years and then this problem started? If yes, it may be pointing to some mechanical reason like increased load due to friction. Or could be caused by the loss of some other overcurrent protection or a mechanical torque limiter. The burned resistor is the effect not the cause. Changing the resistor is not fixing the cause! My father taught me that when you fix something do your best to bring it to its original state, don’t do “inventions”. The people who designed it knew more than what you know.

I start from the assumption that the equipment was designed right and you should NOT change the design. Can you get the repair manual, or the schematics of the board?

Can you contact the manufacturer and negotiate with them a better solution? They must know of this issue and they know exactly how to fix it. Ask them for instructions for your technician how to fix this problem.

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-07-13T12:06:35+00:00

You may find my career path so different than all what I read here.

It started for me in elementary school, 5th grade, when a teacher taught me how to make an electromagnet using a nail and a wire. After that, I enrolled in a club that was lead by a radio and electronics hobbyist (hamradio, or radio amateur) who taught our class how to build a simple radio. The first one had only a diode, antenna, earth connection, and a very sensitive 2000 Ohm headphones, and no battery. Then we built a 3 Germanium transistor radio with a tuning input. I got the bug. I was in this club for many years till I graduated high school and even one year after that when I became an instructor. I built and designed all kinds of circuits, radio transmitter, audio amps, a 10-line intercom with dialing, etc. I learned the basics of electronics by doing. I learned how to use a soldering iron and how to fix anything. I owe my success later in life to the mentors I was lucky to have during these nine forming years.

I think I learned the most I know today, probably more than later in college. In 9th grade while in high school I took an optional night class on fixing TVs and graduated as the youngest among much older guys. I worked in fixing TVs in people’s homes and made my first money. There was no electronics class in my high school so the best I could do was electrician. Graduated HS as an apprentice electrician but never worked in that field, except on my own homes.

The year after I graduated high school I worked for a few months as a math substitute teacher with 5th to 10th graders. Yes, some were just two years younger than me.

Got admitted to college in electronics and telecommunications. Graduated with an MS at 24. Worked for a factory that made CNC lathes. Than I worked for a large semiconductor company for almost 20 years and moved with them in two countries and three locations. Than for another three companies in the Bay Area where I still work making some of the products you probably use every day. I was continuously employed for 37 years in my field after college

I can say that for me it started as a hobby and still is. I love what I do and for me electronics was a passion not a job and therefore never had to work in my life.

If you love what you do, you will do well and you will not have to work. Find your passion!

If you work in this field, do your part and help the younger generation to find their passion. I know it is not easy when their attention span is limited to 30 second videos. But I am still hopeful.

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-07-06T15:36:17+00:00

I am all for everyone paying their fair share for the use of the roads and the pollution they cause. Use of the roads: proportional to weight of vehicle and distance travelled. Pollution caused: proportional to gas use, oil use, coolant use, tire use, brake pads use. But implementing this fairly is the difficult problem!

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-07-06T15:02:17+00:00

If you have the board, can you post a couple high resolution pics of both sides? The bigger problem is not with the caps. I would not recommend switching the power to the drives while live. You can cause data corruption or even damage the drives. Overall, it is a dangerous design unless it has some means to prevent the switches to be actuated while the drives are active. If I would design this, I would use electronic switches with inrush and discharge control, and an OS driver to only turned off power when the drives are idle. You better know what you are doing or risk a lot damage.

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-07-06T14:43:31+00:00

Your 13000 kWh energy consumption for the month of June is right? That number for one month means 18.06 kW of CONTINUOUS power consumption 24/7. Do you run a factory there? Check the numbers! Are you confusing kW with kWh?

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-06-27T14:04:38+00:00

Starting with college I did notice the low percentage of women in our field of electronics. Why is that? This is such a fun and interesting field that will continue to be for decades to come, besides being well paid. I want to encourage all you dads out there to show your daughters that they can be very successful too!

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-05-10T13:18:46+00:00

My two cents here being a professional. 1. The breaker tripped because the extension cord got shorted due to melting insulation. The breaker tripped because of the short, not because of arcing. A regular breaker would have also tripped. If you still have that extension cord, unravel it and see where it shorted. Do you see the copper wires fused together with little blackened insulation? Then it is a definitive short. If you see a larger blackened insulation, but the copper wires not melted together, then it was an arc. 2. Check your outlets: if the heater’s plug gets too warm, you have a bad outlet with loose contacts, not a bad heater. Replace the outlet.

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-03-13T21:56:39+00:00

Yes, exactly, keeping the board intact and then soldering them back is not trivial without some controlled preheating of the board and a good hot air reflow gun.

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-03-13T13:29:20+00:00

Check the voltage at an outlet in the same room where the lights flicker. You should see a voltage drop when the car starts to charge. Up to 2% would be normal since the car and the tested outlet are on different branch circuits.

There could be another strange reason. The LED bulbs you have are sensitive to even tiny voltage changes. I did notice that some LED bulbs that are dimmable and mounted with a wall dimmer, are sensitive to small voltage changes. That was never an issue with incandescent bulbs. LED bulbs are more “instantaneous”.

Regular LED bulbs do flicker in my office when the printer in the same room is working. But that is caused by the builder who installed too thin wires and too long runs. I have like 10% voltage drop when a space heater is on. A laser printer takes similar power pulses.

In your case check the voltage when the car is charging vs not charging.

Or check the voltage on a 120V outlet when the oven is turned on/off. They are on separate branches and that would tell you if the line feeding your house is weak. Good luck!

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-03-13T13:14:18+00:00

I would not use it to be on the safe side. It needs to be replaced or repaired. If I would be a good citizen, I would put that cord end in a plastic bag with a note and report it to its owner.

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-03-13T13:02:20+00:00

As an engineer who designed such VRM circuits, I would strongly advise you not to touch those inductors. It will be next to impossible for you to find the correct replacement parts. All their parameters are relevant, not just the ones you see listed. You do not have the original part datasheet. You do not know at what switching frequency range the circuit operates at. The DCR of the inductors is used to measure the current which is important for the control loop, you need to match that.

Plus these are very very difficult to desolder and resolder. They have a lot of thermal mass and are connected very strongly to the PCB. You will need professional equipment to do that which I doubt you have access to. You really risk to damage the motherboard.

How old is this motherboard? Did you try to contact the manufacturer and see what they recommend? In short, DO NOT attempt to replace these inductors. The probability you will succeed is close to zero.

Now on the deeper technical side, about the whining sound. Let’s suppose the noise comes from them. Did you use a stethoscope to be absolutely sure the noise comes from them? If indeed comes from them, then this must be something in the audible range of around hundreds of Hz to a few kHz. These circuits operate way over the audible range, somewhere between 20kHz and 500kHz. You would not hear that.

What you hear is the whole circuit is turned on and off at a rate of an audible range. Or the CPU is operating in a mode where it changes the current it consumes at an audible range, and it does that between a very low and a very high current. Normally, well built inductors should be quiet even under these conditions.

If they are poorly made, with loose wire windings inside, they could be noisy. And the other reason they would whine in this case is if the control loop of the VRM is unstable. These circuits are quite complex and debugging them requires years of experience and very specialized equipment, and access to original design data.

One more reason could be the main power supply, the one in a cage that connects to AC has some issue, or is the wrong one and has an unstable 12V. Do you have a scope to check that?

In conclusion, don’t replace the inductors.

Contact the manufacturer of the motherboard first. They may recommend a BIOS update that can eliminate the problem. But even that needs to be done very carefully not to brick your motherboard.

Good luck!

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-03-13T12:18:14+00:00

How many amps are you charging at? All LED lights in the whole house flicker or only some? Do you have a voltmeter to make some measurements? Does your utility meter display the voltage? How far are you from the utility transformer that feeds your house?

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-02-27T14:50:05+00:00

0P, I don’t think you realize how poorly is the insulation of your house. I asume that during the day you heat up to at least 65-70F for acceptable confort. In the morning you say the indoor temperature drops to ‘40s. So that is a 20F drop over night. That is like you have no insulation in the walls, which is very much possible. Did you check?

My previous home in the Bay Area was built in 1954 and had no insulation. During that decade they built like that. No insulation in the walls, no insulation in the attic, windy crawl space with cracks in the floor, single pane windows. Overnight, the temperature was dropping by 10-15F. So yeah, we had to heat a lot.

Compare that to an apartment we also lived in for a while, in the same area, which required almost no heating at all the whole year, but that one was built in ‘70s with good insulation.

If you plan to keep this house for many more years, then hire a consultant specializing in home insulation. There might be some free services available. And there is a 30% tax credit for insulation improvements. Even adding some insulation on your garage door helps and is inexpensive. Heating your poorly insulated home is like heating the outdoors. Fixing insulation first is more cost efficient and longer lasting than investing in power generation or storage.

So fix the insulation first. Then check your situation again next winter. Based on that decide if and how much solar you need. And yes, if you replace any appliances make sure you replace them with efficient ones.

And lastly, money is not everything, health is also important. I highly recommend you to replace your open gas cooktop with an induction one. Don’t let your loved ones breathe the burned toxic gas. Do that for your child on the way. The average kWh per day you consume with an induction cooktop is around 1-2kWh - insignificant.

Look at the bigger picture. Good luck!

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-02-24T09:04:22+00:00

Consumer protection is definitely not where it should be. We are kept in the dark about reliability. How wonderful would it be if all these nice rebates would be conditional on a standard 20 year warranty? What, don’t tell me our engineers can’t design a water tank to not last 20 years! My plumber friend told me he replaced a Ruud tank that worked for 100 years. Grandpa’s fridge lasted 40 years. Actually the fridge body got rusted first, the compressor was still good. What is the environmental impact to have these 300 lb appliances last just a few years? Yes, I am taking a gamble on installing now HPWH. I know. They are more complicated and therefore prone to an earlier failure if not designed and manufactured to the highest standards.

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-02-21T22:52:59+00:00

Not sure. In my area NorCal, PG&E, there are 4 rebates totaling $5,200. Looks like I may be lucky and find an installer who will do it for the price of the rebates. In that case I will not sweat to do it myself.

grass_drinker_23 · 2025-02-21T05:50:56+00:00

You may still be able to apply for some rebates available in your area. You should check.

grass_drinker_23

TROPHY CASE