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Can you play hooky on a day off?
Dec. 8th, 2012 08:48 pmOnly if it's not really a day off, I guess, and considering the amount of outstanding work I have on my plate right now, today could not, in good conscience, been considered a day off.
So I guess I did play hooky.
Did you get that?
Me neither.
* * * A major drain on today's time was putting together the "sous vide" controller I mentioned yesterday, for two reasons. First, by cannibalizing wire from a piece of NM-B/2 14 AWG Romex, I ended up with pieces of wiring that were hugely stiff, to the point where it was pretty clear I was going to have to solder the wire to the female spade connectors. This led to my having to visit the local Radio Shack, as I appear to have suffered a lapse as far as recalling having seen a roll of solder in my box of electronic goodies.
It was really weird to stand in line, waiting to pay for a roll of solder, while everyone else—and there were a good dozen people in the store—was pawing through ready-made consumer stuff (phones, GPS units, and so on). (Note, I didn't say I felt bad, just weird.)
My first test of the system is going on right now in the kitchen. I've created a batch of yogurt and now it needs to sit at about 100°F (plus or minus a degree or two) overnight. The photo below shows a temperature of 38.2°C, which is about on the money. If all goes well, I might actually try some for-real sous vide preparation of an inexpensive cut of meat and see how that goes.
The basic setup is this: The crock pot plugs into the controller and the controller plugs into the wall. The black wire coming out of the side of the gray box and going under the lid of the crock pot is a temperature sensor.
If the temperature measured by the sensor rises above a set temperature, the controller opens a switch and turns the crock pot off. When the temperature drops below the setpoint, the controller closes the switch and turns the crock pot on. There's a "deadband" built into the controller, so that its state doesn't change in response to small temperature changes.
Which reminds me, after I post this, I should probably go downstairs and check the water bath temperature with a separate thermometer.
* * * In other news, it's not as if the day has been a total loss on the translation side. I started in about a half hour ago, and am making progress. I will, however, have to be a bit more attentive to this stuff tomorrow.
Cheers...
So I guess I did play hooky.
Did you get that?
Me neither.
It was really weird to stand in line, waiting to pay for a roll of solder, while everyone else—and there were a good dozen people in the store—was pawing through ready-made consumer stuff (phones, GPS units, and so on). (Note, I didn't say I felt bad, just weird.)
My first test of the system is going on right now in the kitchen. I've created a batch of yogurt and now it needs to sit at about 100°F (plus or minus a degree or two) overnight. The photo below shows a temperature of 38.2°C, which is about on the money. If all goes well, I might actually try some for-real sous vide preparation of an inexpensive cut of meat and see how that goes.
The basic setup is this: The crock pot plugs into the controller and the controller plugs into the wall. The black wire coming out of the side of the gray box and going under the lid of the crock pot is a temperature sensor.
If the temperature measured by the sensor rises above a set temperature, the controller opens a switch and turns the crock pot off. When the temperature drops below the setpoint, the controller closes the switch and turns the crock pot on. There's a "deadband" built into the controller, so that its state doesn't change in response to small temperature changes.
Which reminds me, after I post this, I should probably go downstairs and check the water bath temperature with a separate thermometer.
Cheers...
