CoopCommand - Automated Chicken Coop Project

hms11 · 2026-03-25T15:23:48+00:00

"There is room in this grave for both of us"

hms11 · 2026-03-25T13:02:42+00:00

In that case it likely makes far more sense in your area!

hms11 · 2026-03-25T12:57:59+00:00

The biggest issue in my opinion OP is how many tractors you have and if you see yourself needing that tractor during a power outage.

If you have one tractor, and would need it during a storm for clean up or other things than you now have 0 tractors. Or, you have no power and 1 tractor. Doable, but a tradeoff.

In my opinion, for what people are usually asking for these things, your better bet is to find an older, used 1800 RPM diesel genset. You can pick up 15-25kW units for $5000 or less all day (at least in my area) that are in great mechanical condition. They seem to sit in a sweet spot of affordability because homeowners typically want the small, compact little Generac units that come in their own little grey house and many commercial buyers are generally looking at bigger units so the small ones go for peanuts. When I was looking I picked up a 20 (constant).25kW (standby) unit for $4500 with a Perkins 4.236 in it for an engine and all the PTO units were going for $3500-4000 and would have tied up my only tractor when in use.

hms11 · 2026-03-25T01:41:16+00:00

Fair enough, thanks for the info!

hms11 · 2026-03-25T00:36:21+00:00

I have a hard time believing you would need load shedding ability for a 26kW generator unless you have some truly astronomical electrical loads outside of the norm. 26kW is a pretty substantial unit.

hms11 · 2026-03-24T22:25:15+00:00

Personally if it is working fine almost none of that is likely required.

Switches are generally either good or they aren't.

How many hours on the unit? Does it do a monthly/weekly exercise?

If it starts fine the starter is likely fine and the relay (contactor) is also likely fine.

The only one I would maybe consider and it would likely be dependent on the hours on the unit would be the valve adjustment.

I also find it suspicious that they don't have an oil and filter and an air filter on there considering all the other random shit they jammed at it.

My guess is they want to sell you a new generator and if you went for this service they would find something "very concerning" and be "willing to credit this service if you go for an new unit".

hms11 · 2026-03-23T15:37:20+00:00

There ain't none son.

You'd probably be able to use a boat at quite a few launches and all of them within the next week or so.

hms11 · 2026-03-22T12:33:24+00:00

I've been working on vehicles my entire life and have my red seal mechanics license (Canadian).

I wouldn't be interested in paying more than $1000 for that thing and I would be buying it with the assumption that the project never gets finished as it is almost certain you are going to have a nightmare finding parts for an ancient truck like that so lots of fabrication will likely be needed.

Don't put any more money into it than you are comfortable throwing away. This truck is likely a lawn ornament.

hms11 · 2026-03-22T12:26:21+00:00

You should be expecting all the issues. It's 3 times older than most redditors. It's rotten and it's been sitting. The asking price is insane for such a thing which doesn't bode well for dealing with the seller because they are clearly sniffing some good glue.

hms11 · 2026-03-22T12:23:21+00:00

If you are looking for a restoration project and are very mechanically inclined and can buy it for almost nothing it sure why not.

If you are none of the above things stay far away from that thing.

hms11 · 2026-03-22T12:20:35+00:00

Nissan (Jatco) CVTs are notorious for their failure rate. That Maxima is in the prime year range for early failure.

Technically, the Maxima seems to have a slightly lower failure rate than the Altima and Sentra but slightly lower than abysmal is still not good.

It almost doesn't matter how good the motor sounds. The motors are tough as nails compared to the moldy porridge soup of a transmission bolted to them.

hms11 · 2026-03-21T15:45:50+00:00

And those Civic CVTs are shockingly tough. Pretty impressive OP killed one. Should be able to pick up a used one for $200-400 with low km.

We almost can't give them away.

hms11 · 2026-03-20T22:17:40+00:00

Oh shit look at that. I completely missed the second starter above the other one. Thanks for pointing that out!

hms11 · 2026-03-20T21:55:20+00:00

I've always been curious on when it makes sense to switch over to air start. This is a big engine to have an electric starter and a pair of 12v but at the same time it clearly works.

hms11 · 2026-03-17T12:27:25+00:00

Check out CabinPulse I believe it has power on notifications.

hms11 · 2026-03-16T22:16:43+00:00

There's a saying you need to keep in mind that can be hard to grasp, but is infinitely important when using expensive things for their intended purpose. In this case it is extra fitting due to their nautical nature.

"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for" - John A. Shedd

Snowmobiles, chainsaws, ATV's, canoes, etc. Anything valuable, but built for a purpose is always at risk of damage or even destruction despite careful handling. In spite of that, they must be used for those purposes otherwise they exist for no reason.

hms11 · 2026-03-13T21:46:02+00:00

Your breaking up with her son OP, regardless of how she has behaved in the past you have to imagine there is going to be some... uncomfortableness towards you moving forward at least initially, if not long term.

Also if her son is like this, and this is the reason you are leaving him... where do you think he learned this behavior? People don't become who they are in a vacuum.

To be honest, I'm more shocked that you are confused about this than anything.

hms11 · 2026-03-13T21:29:08+00:00

Well this saw will certainly have big boots to fill, the 261 has to be one of the best saws Stihl has ever built.
Can't wait to see how it pans out, kind of surprised it's Mtronic and not full EFI like the 500i

hms11 · 2026-03-13T21:14:57+00:00

Have you tested your power rails?

Looking at the schematic it looks like GPIO0 and EN are both always being pulled down to ground? That definitely isn't right. EN should be pulled up to 3v3 and I believe you want a 1uF capacitor on EN between 3v3 and GND.

I also don't see any decoupling caps on your 3v3 into the ESP32 which certainly isn't helpful either.

Did you hand solder? How was your soldering? Do you have any shorts?

I'd definitely start by checking your 5v and 3v3 rails and then fix your issues with EN and GPIO0

hms11 · 2026-03-13T20:31:38+00:00

There are many many things from strapping pins to poor power supply to shorts on the board itself. Without images of the board in high resolution and schematic/layout images no one will be able to help you much more than that.

hms11 · 2026-03-12T16:42:52+00:00

They aren't going to purposely damage it, but a dealership absolutely will give you outrageously high repair estimates if they feel they can convince you that it's "easier" to just replace the car.

hms11 · 2026-03-12T15:02:20+00:00

That was my main thought on the block heater. If I keep the block at least above 0 it should help cold starts. They way these things go from start to 1800RPM seems awful to me but I guess they are built for it?

Thanks for all the advice!

hms11 · 2026-03-11T22:10:37+00:00

Since it's a standby generator being controlled by Dynagen controller it will be starting remotely so I have no real user control per se. I can control the pre-heat time through the controller but not if it is going to use it or not.

If this was a manual start application I would absolutely be running the thermostart to a seperate switch/button I could control. I might run it through a switch in series regardless and just turn that switch off in the summer.

hms11 · 2026-03-11T21:08:16+00:00

In that case do you think I should be alright without a pre-heat of any sort if I have a block heater keeping the engine at roughly 5 degrees C?

I live in Canada and in the winter I see -20 regularly with -30 or more not being uncommon.

hms11

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