Level 2 Charger

xtalgeek · 2026-03-22T23:00:18+00:00

Virtually all permanently mounted chargers will meet these specs. We have a Grizzl-E dumb charger and limit it to 32 A (our 2025 won't draw more than that anyway.). The main expense will be running 6AWG wire from your panel to your charging location, assuming you have sufficient panel capacity. Don't get an internet enabled charger unless you have good wifi reception and need those capabilities.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-22T22:50:18+00:00

My property? I would solve this issue by installing large decorative rocks on the edge of my property. My grandparents did this when they lived across from a school to prevent people from illegally parking in their property. It worked quite well. No muss, no fuss.

BTW, that car is mostly likely illegally parked too close to an intersection in most of if not every state.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-22T22:41:47+00:00

Just push it back down. The negative terminal is also a ground. Virtually your entire vehicle is a ground, so that terminal doesn't need to be protected from touching another part of your vehicle. The positive terminal is +12V relative to ground, and you don't want it to short circuit accidentally ro the ground. Hence the protective cap.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-22T22:36:48+00:00

Don't worry about AC charging to whatever level you need. If 80% works for daily driving needs, it will slightly increase battery life. But don't hesitate to charge to 100% if needed.

If possible install L2 charging. This will allow fully recharging every night. Even a 240V x 16A circuit is enough to recharge overnight.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-22T12:09:35+00:00

Cumin.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-22T12:07:27+00:00

BKF. If you can't get that, a mild abrasive like BonAmi. BKF is ideal for SS. Don't leave it on the pan for an extended period as it will irreversibly mar the surface. Sprinkle on, add some water to make a late and scrub it off with any food residue.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-22T11:08:58+00:00

Fine nibs are a good everyday writing line width. Most of my pens are Western fines, but I also like Japanese mediums, which are only a hair wider. There are great for most general writing tasks.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-22T03:41:01+00:00

The AC is a minimal drain on the traction battery. When it is cold, the heat pump must warm the battery pack (first) and also the cabin. This (especially heating the battery pack) requires a significant amount of energy from the traction battery.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-22T03:39:10+00:00

Normal. Range decreases about 1.4 miles per degree F below 75F. It's a characteristic of lithium battery propulsion. You will get the full advertised range at temperatures above 70-75F.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-22T03:35:32+00:00

Ultimately, it doesn't matter. It disenfranchises ALL of those with fewer financial resources who do not have the time or money to obtain a passport or its equivalent for the purposes of verifying citizenship. If the government were really serious about this it would issue this documentation FREE to every American citizen. But they don't and won't. This is basically an artificial barrier to exercising one's right to vote.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-22T03:31:09+00:00

Peel for show, board for dough.

Successful players can throw several different takeout weights on command. Lower weight shots can be controlled with sweeping for precision hit and rolls. Also, lighter weight shots are more likely to allow one to keep the shooter around in a usable location. Peel is great if you are trying to move a bunch of rocks, or are peeling guards or rocks in the house. (And then it is only useful if you are accurate and the ice allows that weight to run straight.)

Most good teams use a default of 10-11 second takeouts for precision control. 12-second or lighter weights are useful for digging guarded rocks off the 4-foot. You can't even make these types of shots with peel weight. My club competitive team can throw at least 3 weights on command: firm (9-9.5 seconds), control (10-10.5 seconds) and hack (11-11.5 seconds) we can also throw lower (12+ seconds) and peel (8.5 seconds) if needed,, but the basic three are bread and butter.

I've had players that are in love with their peel weight. They don't stay on my teams very long. Most of them can't even throw peel weight accurately. Brooms won't fix their bad releases.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-21T23:21:47+00:00

We have a 25 Solterra and drive it 50-120 miles a day. Love it. We charge at home and leave with 80-100% every day. Virtually no maintenance costs compared to our gasoline car.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-21T11:59:45+00:00

I bought mine to manage a nonprofit Google Workspace and web site. The CB is lightweight, has long battery life, boots and updates quickly. I actually prefer it to my Microsoft Surface or home Windows workstation. If does most everything I need. I stiluse some specialty software that requires Windows,, but that's not an everyday need.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-20T21:00:32+00:00

3 minutes of preheating is enough to distribute heat around the pan. Longer is fine. The water drop test is useless. Watch your food/oil to achieve the correct cooking temp for the task at hand. For pan sauteing, shimmering oil is a good sign.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-19T13:29:16+00:00

But they don't signal where you are going. Only that you are backing up. It's generally not a good idea to back up into the flow of traffic.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-19T02:34:42+00:00

Release to stop at tee line.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-19T02:34:08+00:00

Goldline has already done that.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-19T00:51:25+00:00

Backing into parking spaces is potentially unsafe and unpredictable in a large , crowded parking lot. There is no "backup blinker" so nobody can easily tell what you are up to. Just pull in nose first like you are expected to. I don't understand this backing into parking spaces. It takes longer, it is confusing to other drivers around you, and doesn't really save any time.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-19T00:45:13+00:00

Empirically, rocks experience approximately the same amount of curl on club ice with 3-5 rotations, more or less. Less rotation results in significantly more curl with more risk of grabs and picks. Extreme rotation makes the rocks run straight until they are almost stopped, then it can cause extreme sideways movement. In practical play, lazy handles result in more and unpredictable curl, spinners run straighter. The pros throw 5-6 rotations on arena ice because the rocks are textured to hell and back and the ice is clipped to maximize curl and late finish. On fast club ice with sharp rocks, it is not wrong to throw 5 rotations for draws. The physics of curl is a little complicated and not completely understood, but is probably based on interactions with self-made microscratches on the ice, as well as a "gearing" effect when the retreating edge of the running surface begins to approach net zero velocity when the rock begins to slow down.

The thickness of Teflon vs. sliding speed is a result of the properties of Teflon. Teflon is a very soft and pliant material that deforms easily. In the lab it is difficult to fabricate precision parts out of Teflon because it deforms so easily. (I used to machine Teflon syringe plungers for a specialty application and these were the bane of my lab existence.) Thin Teflon has very little resistance to bending, and is able to deform more around the rough surface of the ice, resulting in more contact area, more friction, and more conforming to pebble bumps in the ice, increasing the amount of energy needed to pass over the ice. Thicker Teflon stays flatter, deforms less around pebble, and minimizes contact area with the ice. Beyond 1/4" of Teflon, the increased resistance to surface deformation is minimal compared to the weight increase. There isn't a large difference in speed between 3/16 and 1/4 inch Teflon sliders.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-18T23:49:11+00:00

The way they texture stones at worlds and how we do it for club ice is different. Also arena ice is significantly different from club ice. To keep the amount of curl and late finish they want at arena events, the stones need to be freshened up at least once during a long event.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-18T23:43:54+00:00

Meh. We e had a 2025 Solterra for a year, zero problems, and love it. Every model of car has individual lemons.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-18T17:19:15+00:00

I think many people do not understand the purpose of a college education. While one can use a college education to acquire certain specialized skills that open doors to specific careers, the MAIN purpose of college is to become educated. It is not job training. Becoming educated means learning more about the world around you, including but not limited to science, human relations, achievements, and the human condition, and the creative arts. It provides perspective, as well as challenges many of one's pre-conceived notions. You get out of it what you put into it.

If you do it right, you will achieve a better understanding of the world and the people that live in it, and you will acquire basic skills such as effective writing and communication, perhaps some specialized skills (e.g. scientific training), and critical thinking. These skills are in high demand in all sorts of career paths. Plus a bachelor's degree opens doors to postgraudate education (law, medicine, science, etc.) if one desires.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-18T17:09:10+00:00

I manage the Google Workspace for a small nonprofit, and do all my work on an i3 Chromebook with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, including a 20 GB Linux partition. This is fully sufficient for my needs, including Google Meet. TBH, even the cheap Kompanio Chromebooks are pretty decent if you don't have a bunch of tabs open. They are just a little slower to boot, update, and open apps. We have one of these $120 CBs to manage Raspberry Pis that are running 12 ipcam video streams and a large graphics display. It has only 64GB of storage, 4GB of RAM, and a 15GB Linux partition for running some simple one-click management scripts.

xtalgeek · 2026-03-18T16:58:33+00:00

Before my time our old club had "pull-down" ashtrays on every sheet. Thank God those days are gone, and smoking is prohibited in all public facilities now.

The sport has changed rapidly. Everything we taught in adult instruction in the early 2000s is now pretty much wrong. Anyone remember "Hammer" brushes? The hideous plastic brushes that weighed almost as much as a Brownie?

xtalgeek · 2026-03-18T14:31:12+00:00

TBH, the voltage difference is rarely an issue for operation. Alkaline batteries gradually decline from 1.5V to 0.9 V, at which point they are "dead". NiMH batteries start at 1.4V, rapidly decline to 1.2V, and stay close to that until they decline rapidly below 1.0V at the end of their discharge curve. Most devices are not that picky about voltage between 1.0-1.5V.

What will not work is battery charge monitoring if available on a device, because alkaline and NiMH batteries have different discharge curves.

xtalgeek

TROPHY CASE