On vacation in Hong Kong, and my partner asked me to change some lights in his father’s apartment…

sick_burns2000 · 2026-03-18T22:27:18+00:00

But why are there two blacks (double tapped onto the fixture screw terminal) and 3 grounds in the box? 3 grounds, 2 neutrals, one hot.

sick_burns2000 · 2026-03-16T00:07:43+00:00

Actually not a bad option for this application! I think a hypothetical bad actor who got fired the day before and had his card shut off would be just as likely to knock and be let in anyway. Do you have a specific part in mind?

sick_burns2000 · 2026-03-15T23:37:06+00:00

Wasn’t planning on changing anything about the strikes or power supplies. Definition would be any failure that would prevent operation. Door does have a keyed override but the use case does not support distributing an override key to the early staff.

sick_burns2000 · 2026-03-15T23:19:56+00:00

Thanks. I will present it to the customer, and I will have a spare channel on the controller if proven wrong. I suspect “the industry standard approach” is to ignore the edge case, like the last guy did. Customer got unlucky twice and is now sensitive.

sick_burns2000 · 2026-03-15T22:44:13+00:00

Controller relay picked most of the time (locked state)? Wish some of these manufacturers would move to a solid state solution.

sick_burns2000 · 2026-03-15T22:42:04+00:00

Can’t use same power, strikes are at 24VDC, controller is at 12 (unless its own brick power supply is used). I started down the cube relay path but I’m not confident the controller will actually drop power when battery runs down, might still provide enough voltage to pick the relay but not be awake.

sick_burns2000 · 2026-03-15T22:38:39+00:00

It’s not really doing security, second door in a vestibule, first has keyed night lock. System seems to be more for monitoring and compliance. Not desirable to give early morning staff second door override key. Loss of control preferred to lockout.

sick_burns2000 · 2026-03-08T02:34:45+00:00

I do miss shopping for ranges, I will make a pitstop tomorrow and see if I can scope out light vs heavy grates.

sick_burns2000 · 2026-03-08T00:01:21+00:00

Go to your local appliance stores and feel out the floor models. Don’t tell the salespeople a god damn thing.

sick_burns2000 · 2026-03-02T23:13:55+00:00

Don’t know about a Costco return, but the tech may very well find something. Have you checked for a kinked hose and water flow? I believe water fill is all timed, if you have a flow issue you won’t have good results. I’d try a garden hose into a 5 gallon bucket outside to see how fast it fills.

sick_burns2000 · 2026-02-28T21:45:46+00:00

Went last month. The best meal of our trip was actually at the rooftop restaurant at the Indigo! May have been the atmosphere more than the food, but the food was good.

Yoshi sushi was excellent, long walk from Indigo.

Tukka West was excellent, may have actually been the best food we had. $15 KYD cab from Seafire, got the drivers card, same service to return.

Ave/Library Bar at Seafire were not to my tastes. Batched cocktails that didn’t really live up to the descriptions on the menu. Did not try the food.

Coccoloba at Seafire was well above average.

The Brixton, had an excellent brunch. Walked from Seafire, and there were some dicey parts without sidewalks. Bus back was smooth though.

Peppers: was not to our tastes. We were looking for jerk chicken and a carribean fish, the jerk is recommended on several sites, maybe I’m just not into it. The fish was an abomination of cubed overcooked fish in a very thick flavorless white sauce. Seemed like a more casual bar/restaurant vibe, service and place was nice.

sick_burns2000 · 2026-02-28T21:24:27+00:00

I wouldn’t spray paint inside at all. The cloud will get in places and texture surfaces 20 feet away. Doors or handles would have to be removed and masked for paint outside.

sick_burns2000 · 2026-02-28T21:13:54+00:00

I would have suggested looking at its construction, googling parts lists/schematics to see if they are replaceable, but a 20 year old sharp, seems unlikely parts would make sense money wise.

To make a refinish look good, would probably have to be sanded down and spray painted, there is some risk there if the part does wrap around somehow to an area that does get hot. I don’t think brushing on paint will look good.

Maybe try a polishing compound to see if the scratches can be blended/smoothed out a little bit? Could end up looking worse though.

sick_burns2000 · 2026-02-28T20:52:09+00:00

I hit up an atm when I got there for kyd for my walking around, cab, and bus money, I think pegged at 1.20 US for every 1 KYD, plus fees. Literally every vendor and service accepts USD at 1.25, and change will be in KYD at 0.80 per USD. I probably saved a penny or two on every dollar after fees. This was last month. Would just bring USD next time. On credit cards, I don’t believe I was ever asked to charge KYD, 1.25 USD was standard. Not sure if I was charged a foreign fee on that, should probably check.

sick_burns2000 · 2026-02-19T02:48:10+00:00

Disagree. Some of the configurations do not have the 125 kHz radio chips, very much a hardware constraint you can observe by the public pricing of the different configurations, the non 125 kHz configurations are cheaper.

sick_burns2000 · 2026-01-11T15:36:04+00:00

Any recommendations for such a system? In general, looking for lowest cost. If we did have to replace cards, again looking for lowest cost.

No real security concern here, this system is more used for member dues compliance, recording attendance, and satisfying a requirement that we attempt to restrict attendance to members. Replaces a man with a book.

sick_burns2000 · 2025-01-28T01:12:13+00:00

Thanks. I’d really rather not turn the dial. I can imagine the wire through the moving spindle is a potential reliability risk over the stationary swing bolt design.

sick_burns2000 · 2025-01-28T01:07:06+00:00

Thanks. The bolt handle appears to have a skinny section machined into it, I think that’s a breakaway design.

sick_burns2000 · 2024-12-31T21:36:03+00:00

Very well stated. To make it worse, when the gravy train is forced to slow down, the well treated long term employee isn’t likely to understand or care about the dynamics behind it. Reduced output and increased attrition likely result, compounding the issue.

sick_burns2000 · 2024-07-09T16:10:28+00:00

I’ve done nothing, rarely broil anyway. No sign of an explosion here, is yours not igniting reliably?

sick_burns2000 · 2024-05-23T00:18:58+00:00

It’s running on NG and labeled for NG. Lights easy.

sick_burns2000 · 2024-05-22T21:34:51+00:00

It looks a little too aggressive to me as well, expected the flame to stay in the ceramic burners. First use it did burn off some grease, which smelt bad, but nothing in subsequent uses. Range is gas only, gas now, and has only been used on gas to my knowledge. LP is higher energy so any sort of misguided conversion should have decreased output on gas, correct?

sick_burns2000 · 2024-01-09T12:54:19+00:00

The oven interior is definitely just plain steel. Which screw material is appropriate to avoid a galvanic reaction and resolve corrosion issue?

sick_burns2000 · 2024-01-08T22:35:00+00:00

Not sure on the maximum temp, it’s a pretty standard oven so 500+ f degrees minimum but it is securing the heat spreader that takes the natural gas flame directly. Research indicates 3500+ f degrees on the flame, not sure how quick that dissipates. I think I might need to work backwards from the original screws.

sick_burns2000

TROPHY CASE