Back to the Blog!

Well I got back home and got very busy with life and other clutter. Now I need to unload the hamper of my brain onto the blog.
I'm excited about the prospect of getting this bum shoulder fixed, but disappointed that I have to wait until January. I absolutely understand the need to wait until the healing of my last cardiac stent is done enough to come off the blood thinners. I certainly don't want to clog up or bleed out, but this upper trunnion hurts a lot!
I've been playing with my Ham radio station and really enjoying it! Loaded some software that lets me control the radio from my PC. That means the radio in the boat and RV also. Ive also changed the antenna farm to a single dipole hung between the trees. I shoot the lines up using a modified potato cannon.
The cannon is pneumatic and has an electronic trigger. Basically it is a 2-inch PVC pipe barrel with similar-sized air reservoir that I pump up to 90 PSI (I use really good PVC and careful joinery!) with a Rain Bird sprinkler valve btween them.
The secret to happiness is, as always, complete discharge! The valve is an electric unit designed for home irrigation control via timers and switches and uses a clever servo-assisted dump valve. For those who've always wondered what "servo" means, in this case, it means that a small amount of the water pressure is controlled to do the major mechanical work of operating the valve. The electric motor of the servo controls a very small orifice that ports enough pressure from the high side of the valve into a chamber that swings the valve open just a little, then the valve itself does the work. Think of the last time the wind snatched a car door away from you. It took just a little work to get the door open a crack and then the wind took over.
The cannon projectile is just a wieghted plastic bottle with a piece of construction twine tied to it. I have major trees in my yard. Well over 80 feet and wide as only Georgia live oaks can be. This contraption can fire all the way over the biggest of them and out the other side.
Now for the guilty confession--- I read a bout this on the Internet several years ago and played hooky from work to stay home and build two of them! With me it's just a mental health issue.