What's your project?

[Vape Fan]

Mine was (just finished) replacing pc parts.

Started out just motherboard /ASRock B550M Pro4/and processor/AMD 5500GT, and that would have been fine, except...lol... wound up getting an AIO cpu cooler since my air cooler wouldn't fit. Usually can tell if they will or not, not this time. And an SSD cooler instead of the one that came with the board, just because I like it.

Same case, except I painted a blue stripe, silver to match the aluminum on the mb & cooler. Same RAM, power supply, Wifi/BT card, fans. Put a false bottom in the case that houses 1 fan instead of the space for 2 I had in there. I custom made it from aluminum years ago for a different case,, fits in good! Painted the multi colored exposed wire bits at the ends of the cables black, with an artist brush

I don't play demanding games or anything that is considered heavy use so looked for budget friendly. Was going to be 215 for mb/cpu till I added the 2 coolers, silver paint, and a case cable that I had forgotten was causing 1 of the 3 front usb's to not work. Ended up at $290. Pretty good for basically a new pc, that's from push of the button to working desktop in 13 secs.

This mb and cpu are AM4 platform(mb/cpu/ram), which is at a dead end, even tho they mysterically just came out in Jan with AM4 5500GT and 5600GT, when they've been up to AM5 for,, about a year I think? AM4 and AM5 platforms aren't compatible. And that's fine w/me, for now...
...till I move to a diff platform with most likely this case...

乔思伯JONSBO

乔思伯JONSBO

www.jonsbo.com

...newest platform, diff AIO, diff braided cables, diff fans, & dedicated gpu...adding 800+ to the budget.
For now I'll take the 290 deal and run that for a while.
Good thing I didn't see that case before I bought parts and started fixing this one

Upgraded monitor from a 2008 21"model LOL. 27"4k! Night and day. Still have the big plasma for dual display in here but may move it out since this one screen may now be enough, considering windows snap and native PBP & PIP w/monitor. As far as video content I stream only on it and rarely a movie or TV programing in office, cept news mostly and I don't have to always have eyes on that.

The circle and logo lights are white. I put a 2.5" 2nd SSD from another build on top, connected to rear usb with one of those cables that power it too. Aaand,,, I see I missed cleaning that bottom fan that's been sitting around for years, more like about a decade.
On right, lamp shining on cat. Sharper in person since this is picture of a picture of a picture.

 

[Synphul]

My current project is driving me nuts. Fricken water heater quit so did a quick check. Got replacement elements, no joy. Got replacement upper and lower thermostats, no joy. Tested the elements and they seemed good, had continuity and 12.7ohms which is in range for 4500w elements. But some people said they could give false readings.

I understand electrical, to a point. Definitely not an electrician. Checking crap with the meter and find I get 120v on both upper legs of 220v coming into the heater at the top of the thermostat. Every damn connection pretty much has 120v on it. Go to check across the 2 hots leading in, zilch. No 220v. Crap.

Went and checked the breaker box, no 220 there either. Even from the service entry cables. Started to wonder if my meter was jacked up. Dug around until I found my fluke, nope, no 220v. Something about an open lead causing each leg to read 120v to ground because of backfeeding. Idk.
So I go out to the power pole and open the box under the meter. No 220v there either. Shut the main breaker off at the head of the service entry cable to physically isolate everything else. Bridge across the two 120v legs coming immediately from the meter to the main breaker, I get like 2.75v. Checked one to ground, 122v. Checked the other, getting 80v, 33v, 57v, 18v, 35v, 53v, 24v. Just bouncing everywhere.

Thought maybe it was corrosion or something on the lug so I squirreled the lead around until I had it right against the exposed twisted copper off the problem leg and the other lead to the bare copper ground wire. Same issue. Double checked with both meters. Day 2 or 3 now without hot water, never occurred to me that the main power could be an issue. So have a call into the power co to come out and check. Hoping this fixes the issue. Right now the only appliance I have that runs 220v is the water heater so didn't notice it with anything else. Fml.

During my searches I came across someone who ran into a similar issue. They mentioned that some of their neighbors began experiencing similar problems and they'd all recently had smart meters installed. My area was a bit slow to get to them, think I got mine upgraded to a smart meter (not by choice) maybe 6-8mo ago. Now has me curious if there's some connection there. The other person who brought up smart meters didn't experience trouble with their power right away either, something like within the first year of being upgraded.

 

[SnapDragon NY]

My projects have been mainly interior painting and putting furniture together. My back kitchen where my table is had a sliding glass door removed, it was dry walled but needed priming and painting. I also had to fix part of the textured ceiling from where my old skylight(since replaced) leaked above the back wall area on the vaulted ceiling. I went to Lowes to match my paint and get the dry wall compound to fix the ceiling and paint the back wall. I ordered a Bakers Rack from Amazon that I wanted to put on the back wall and also ordered a small 24" Roku TV to sit on it to keep me company while I eat my dinner. I think my project came out pretty good and glad I finally finished it.

 

[Jimi]

My current project is driving me nuts. Fricken water heater quit so did a quick check. Got replacement elements, no joy. Got replacement upper and lower thermostats, no joy. Tested the elements and they seemed good, had continuity and 12.7ohms which is in range for 4500w elements. But some people said they could give false readings.

I understand electrical, to a point. Definitely not an electrician. Checking crap with the meter and find I get 120v on both upper legs of 220v coming into the heater at the top of the thermostat. Every damn connection pretty much has 120v on it. Go to check across the 2 hots leading in, zilch. No 220v. Crap.

Went and checked the breaker box, no 220 there either. Even from the service entry cables. Started to wonder if my meter was jacked up. Dug around until I found my fluke, nope, no 220v. Something about an open lead causing each leg to read 120v to ground because of backfeeding. Idk.
So I go out to the power pole and open the box under the meter. No 220v there either. Shut the main breaker off at the head of the service entry cable to physically isolate everything else. Bridge across the two 120v legs coming immediately from the meter to the main breaker, I get like 2.75v. Checked one to ground, 122v. Checked the other, getting 80v, 33v, 57v, 18v, 35v, 53v, 24v. Just bouncing everywhere.

Thought maybe it was corrosion or something on the lug so I squirreled the lead around until I had it right against the exposed twisted copper off the problem leg and the other lead to the bare copper ground wire. Same issue. Double checked with both meters. Day 2 or 3 now without hot water, never occurred to me that the main power could be an issue. So have a call into the power co to come out and check. Hoping this fixes the issue. Right now the only appliance I have that runs 220v is the water heater so didn't notice it with anything else. Fml.

During my searches I came across someone who ran into a similar issue. They mentioned that some of their neighbors began experiencing similar problems and they'd all recently had smart meters installed. My area was a bit slow to get to them, think I got mine upgraded to a smart meter (not by choice) maybe 6-8mo ago. Now has me curious if there's some connection there. The other person who brought up smart meters didn't experience trouble with their power right away either, something like within the first year of being upgraded.

Are you on true 220W or are you on 208W they call 220W? Areas around here have 208W and always have problems also causes things to burn out faster.

 

[Vape Fan]

I have more going on I can get done. Some small, some not so small.
A light to go under an upper cabinet, and that part needs to be painted...
under which will be a pot rack will be.
Put a finishing effect on a mantle and mount it.
Install 4 other light fixtures. I bought a few(5) pendants of which I was going to use 1 dining area / 3 kitchen but wound up too big (there's 2 sizes avail). Someone else picked them up for me from a CL find. So I have some for sale now lol. Nice ones,,,I have a glass person that can shorten one for dining area. Even shortened still too big for kitchen.
26" tall x 17" wide/

Mouthblown $349 on sale retail

I keep adding...like today a smart thermostat ,,,,

 

[Synphul]

Are you on true 220W or are you on 208W they call 220W? Areas around here have 208W and always have problems also causes things to burn out faster.

Should be true 220w. When I first got in here the place was way worse. A power line that draped over the house and was falling down then got dropped even lower when a tree fell on it. A breaker box on a pole that I think had a fuse in one side and a butterknife or something in the other in place of a larger buss fuse. A 60a panel with screw in glass fuses.

I think it was 10-12yrs or so ago the power co came out for that downed line. I had to put in a new power pole, new meter box etc. They got rid of the sketchy line over the house. A real meter box with a breaker on the pole. I pulled the old 60a screw in fuse box and switched it for a 200a panel with modern breakers.

It's an older place so wasn't really set up for 220v initially, had a gas (propane) furnace and stove. Had an old idk, 15-20gal single element 110v water heater. I replaced that with a new 220v 40gal heater and ran new 220v line from the breaker panel inside to the heater. It's been working for a few years now. After a shower the other day (shower ran a bit short which was odd), just no hot water.
Thought well damn, had an element go out or a bad thermostat. Already had to replace the thermostat once and replaced both. That was awhile back and the water heater was working fine after that repair. But now, new elements, new thermostats top and bottom for both and nada.

So I started checking power deeper and was concerned when I got 110v to ground on just about every contact - both terminals of both elements at the same time like check the upper, 110v on one screw, 110v on the other. Move positive probe to lower element, one contact then the other and 110v on each of those to ground. Then the contacts on the thermostats all reading 110v except maybe one or two. The top two read 110v each (120-122v actual) on the upper thermostat and those are the two 110v legs from the 220v wired to the top of the tank. Yet when I place the probes across those two top contacts where I should be getting 220-240v I get like 1.24v.

Tested the elements with power wires disconnected and power off, I get a continuity tone on each. I also get a resistance of 12.7ohm on each which for 4500w elements is within range (12-13ohms). I checked each element contact to the base nut, and then to the tank ground and get no tone, 0L on the meter so nothing grounded out or broken contacts on the elements. Both the old elements and new elements read the same and check fine.

That's when I started tracking back to the main 200a breaker under the meter on the lower half of the meter box. Checked the unused spades of the panel below the single breaker, no continuity between adjacent spades (2 diff legs), continuity between alternating spades (same leg). Shut that main breaker off and got no voltage from any of the spades below the breaker to ground.

Then I went above the main breaker on the pole to test the 2/0 gauge or whatever main wires extend from the meter portion of the box to the lugs of the breaker box on the pole. 2 legs there. One tests 110v (121-122v actual) to the copper ground wire that connects to the ground rod right there at the base of the meter pole. Checked the other leg to the same ground and voltage jumps all over the place but under 80v. Sometimes as low as 15-20v, other times up around 50-60v, maybe spiking to 80v before dropping back down in the 20's and 30's again.

Bridged leads across the top lugs, one lead to one leg, other lead to the other and that's where I should see 220v. Instead I get 2.5 or 2.74v (less than 3v). Being above the breaker and with the breaker disconnected that isolates any potential problem on my end just to confirm service power and it's borked. That's also where I scraped the ends of the leads against the lightly corroded lugs to improve contact and then carefully slipped the probe tip above the lug and had the tip shoved right against the copper strands of the two power legs. The other probe off the ground bar and physically against the bare copper ground wire (clean, no corrosion) with no difference in readings on either dmm.

I can't begin to trace down any other issues until I have solid 220v coming in. Last fall is when they installed the smart meter and some have suggested that it's possible the older clamps behind the meter may have become stretched some. Others have said the connector spades on the back of the new smart meters are a bit thinner than the spades on the old analog meters, so that could be the issue I guess. Whatever issue I have with an open leg somewhere backfeeding voltage and giving me screwy readings is happening on the meter side or somewhere between pole and meter.

 

[Synphul]

C

I have more going on I can get done. Some small, some not so small.
A light to go under an upper cabinet, and that part needs to be painted...
under which will be a pot rack will be.
Put a finishing effect on a mantle and mount it.
Install 4 other light fixtures. I bought a few(5) pendants of which I was going to use 1 dining area / 3 kitchen but wound up too big (there's 2 sizes avail). Someone else picked them up for me from a CL find. So I have some for sale now lol. Nice ones,,,I have a glass person that can shorten one for dining area. Even shortened still too big for kitchen.
26" tall x 17" wide/
View attachment 214381
Mouthblown $349 on sale retail

I keep adding...like today a smart thermostat ,,,,

Cool light, I like unusual stuff like that. Unfortunate that it's too big to fit your space in the kitchen.

 

[Synphul]

Are you on true 220W or are you on 208W they call 220W? Areas around here have 208W and always have problems also causes things to burn out faster.

Power co checked it today. Ended up with a whole new 200a service panel and meter head. He couldn't get 220v off it either, the thing corroded so bad none of the lugs wanted to break free even with an impact and lubricant. They said they'd seen worse but were surprised how fast it corroded like that in just 10-12yrs. One of the meter connections was toasted and burnt looking. Now getting 241v in the house and water heater's working.