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My dad purchased one of these 3500W units for $300… best deal going.  Includes 220V service, 120V service, 12V service.  Runs pretty smooth and surprisingly quiet for 7HP.

We connected a 520W air conditioner directly to the generator.  With the other plug we connected an APC RS 700 UPS (line interactive) with about 160W load on the UPS.

The UPS would stay online with the low sensitivity setting and widest berth on allowable voltages but each time the compressor would kick on in the AC because of the thermostat we would lose enough that it would have to switch to battery for a few seconds.

Finally we tried the above power line conditioner. It didn’t seem to help the UPS at all regarding the sensitivity setting (comes from the factory on “medium”). I am definitely not sold on this unit.

We are going to do some more tests this weekend with and without the power line conditioner but using APC SC 1500 UPS instead.

Struck a deal with ClimateRight today to evaluate the CR-7000 for our application.  This unit does not have heating element (heat pump only).

The main concern is when the weather is below 32°F the heat pump is ineffective.  Fortunately we only hit overnight lows below 32°F in December, January, and February on average.

A small space heater could easily make up for the difference like this 200W (683 BTU) unit from Lasko.

I recently chose a manufacturer and design for my heater and air conditioner.  They offer different size models based on cubic feet of space.  I am looking at 200 cubic feet of area plus 1000W of heat dissipation from equipment and 400W of heat dissipation from occupants.  The question came up about the design for insulation.  Right now we have R-26 for half the floor (R-10 on the other half but that can be increased if there is room in the avionics bay), R-7 average on the walls, and I suppose I could put batting up in the peak which is just airspace anyway.

The following is specific to my location. You can get your own recommendations by visiting their website.

R-Value Recommendations for New Buildings

Heating System: Natural Gas Furnace
Cooling System: Electric Air Conditioning
First 3 digits of ZIP code: 662
Location: Shawnee, KS

These people are great… if you ever need a replacement part for a Vizio HDTV the stuff listed on their website is only the half of what they stock.  I managed to break one of the wall mount bolts for a M550SV.  They had the replacement and reasonable pricing.

Found a deal on eBay here in Independence, MO.  Much bigger than I need but too good of a deal to pass up.

Picked it up 6/28, bolted it to the trailer that weekend. It uses 3/8 NPT connectors (yes, two of them) so I had to buy a 3/8 plug and 3/8 NPT to 3/8 ID barb (at a 90 degree angle to boot) which they don’t carry at local hardware stores. Got those in the mail this week and fired up the unit tonight for the first time. It started on the first pull and purrs like a kitten although my wife said she thought it was loud when it was filling from our bedroom. We are waiting on a plastic piece called the “air conveyor” that was broken on the top of the unit (didn’t see that when I inspected on pickup). Cargo Largo (the seller) refunded me $15 for the part.

It has been so hot lately that is really my reason for not getting much progress outside. I have been working in the basement though. I moved the overhead furring strips 2″ out either side and fixed the wall on the left side. Starting to finish the wall out on the right side now. I had a lot of trouble getting the monitors on the left side off – one bolt broke on the 55″ and two broke on the 42″ it is so frustrating. I have the 55″ apart now and see that there is a better way – rather than trying to run a bolt through wood into a hole in the TV I can’t see I will attach bolts from the TV which go in the holes and get nuts on the other side (while they conveniently hold the TV in place). I can’t believe I spent $20 or more on their stupid M6 and M8 size friggen’ bolts!

Design weight of 1800 pounds loaded up!

So the good news is that the weight can be moved around and main actuator is holding the weight.  The bad news is that, although the weight is evenly distributed about the pivot point, the CG is moving around (something I should have accounted for).  Basically as the platform tilts forward more of the weight is ahead of the pivot point and it continues to get worse until it hits the bottom of the piston.  And the weight ahead of the CG exceeded the 200 pound capacity of the pistons so we were dead in the water.

I came up with a solution using springs to counteract the effect of the CG moving forward – basically the springs will keep it in a neutrally stable situation where the actuators are responsible strictly for positioning.  This should make the calculations simpler as well.  In an effort to get a spring load I took our bathroom scale out.  The bathroom scale is destroyed but best I can gather is we are looking at 160-190 pounds. The CG will be higher in the completed product so I doubled that capacity with the spring.

Finished the other roll actuator, added a sheet of plywood to the avionics bay to support the weight, and loaded up 1000 pounds of the topsoil this weekend.  Haven’t had time to do any motion tests – it sure is scary!

Removed the spacer block from the top of the roll actuator to make up the difference in size of the bottom attachment point.  Currently filling the hole with liquid nails held in place with masking tape so that the pilot bit of the bore has something to bite into.