Mushrooms and transformers

I hadn't been to Woolies for a while because Nicole has been doing all the shopping while I work. But because we both had a reasonably busy week we went together again for the first time in 7 weeks I think. Anyway, Nicole likes mushrooms.

The apples were displayed nicely.

After doing our shopping I bought a new pair of pants and after that I drove us to Henley. We wanted 2 things:
1) See the beach and smell the ocean
2) Get coffee and cake

This is the Henley beach jetty. I don't think I've ever photographed it from this angle before... Exciting!

There was also bit or sunset going on. Gets a bit boring after a while ;-)

Imagine living in one of these houses. You have to see the sunset every day! What a life...

This is the place we had coffee and cake. A quite nice little discovery.

Remember the power supply I started building? I ran into a small issue: HEAT. The end transistor can handle 200°C max. but not without cooling. I was using one 2N3055 which would have had to handle 34 volts x 3 amps = 102 Watt, in pure heat. That's a small heater... To cool this I would need a very BIG heat sink (cooling element) and also forced cooling using a fan. I no like.

The problem is this: The power supply's end stage is basically the external load in series with the internal transistor. The total voltage over these two is always the same in my old design: 34 Volts. If the voltage over the external load is only 1 Volt(this can be regulated), there is 33 Volts over the transistor. When the external load is also sucking 3 Amps through that transistor, the transistor is consuming 3 x 33 = 99 Watt of power.

So I bought the above toroidal (ring) transformer which turns 220V into 2x 12V. Rectified this is 2 x 17 Volts. So I can make the total voltage over transistor plus external load 17 Volts or 34 Volts. I'm going to make a switch that sets the output to two seperate ranges: 1-15 Volt and 14-30 Volt. This way the voltage over the transistor can never be more than 16 Volts. I'm also reducing the max. output current to 2 Amps AND I'm going to use 2 transistors. So now the max. power dissipation of one transistor will be 16 Volts x 1 Amp = 16 Watts! Easy to cool down :-)

Oh, by the way, if you have read all the above, you're a hero! And if you understand it as well, you're also a geek! :-)

Lunch again

My lunch view today. That's the Telstra building. For the Dutchies: Telstra is the Australian "KPN".

That's right. That's MY table :-)

Sorry, don't have anymore photo's. I worked hard today and I'm tired. have a nice weekend!

Happy happy day

I had to go to the dentist today. On my way there, the old tram passed the new one. I think they should have ordered more of the old ones...

The dentists reception desk. The visit went well. I had the following done by my dentist Rocco Arena:
- Periodic Oral Examination ($46)
- Removal of Calculus ($95)
- Topical Appl. of Fluoride - 1 treatment ($25)
- Intraoral Periapical/Bitewing Xray/Film ($46)
- Intraoral Periapical/Bitewing Xray/Film ($46)

That's $258 of dental work. And because I went to a private dentist, my public healthcare isn't paying a damn thing.

Everything looked great thankfully and the visit was nice and relaxed. I hadn't had fluoride since I was 12 years old. They also made me put on sunglasses against the bright light. And when the X-ray's were taken they made me wear a lead skirt. I've never felt so sexy....

After work I walked to P.J O'Brien's for a pint or two while waiting for Nicole. She was on an improvised second job interview that went well. Read her blog for more information! :-)

Guinness for strength. And also for mental relaxation.

In the evening we had a fun Skype chat with the G. I asked him to do something funny, he doesn't usually display this kind of behaviour ;-)

2-0

We had a sneak peek at the game Holland vs Romania when we went to the toilet at night.

This is the new reception desk we got at work. It was delivered yesterday. It looks nice. We have no one to sit behind it though...

When we came home the skies were dark. It started raining soon after.

The protest

During my lunch I went to a dental office. It's opposite parliament house where teachers were protesting.

It's the same as anywhere else. They want a better work-life balance and an increased pay which translates to: we want to do less for more. Fair enough.

On my way to the bus stop after work I saw the old tram. It's quite beautiful.

Excellent idea!

Looking outside while my coffee is brewing, or something.

Soup for lunch. Actually quite mega fantastic soup from the soup nazi next door. This is tomato + basil + lemon I believe.

We casually invited nine people to come have a drink and maybe a bite with us at P.J. O'Brien's, after work. Everybody thought it was an excellent idea but only Stephen showed up. Most people were "too busy" or they just didn't show. Stephen actually did have VERY little time but at least had a pint with us. Thanks for dropping in Steve :-)

Fathers day

While Nicole was baking hard I was doing some woodwork. Very handy little machine this was. Very noisy too btw. And when you're cutting and you can't find the bloody dust bag to put on it it makes a very nice fountain of saw dust. At least it sprayed away from me...
This piece of wood is actually 2 pieces glued together. It's going to get a leg under it and it will be put in the middle underneath our Ikea cupboard because it's caving in under the weight of my model trains *grin*

Karin spent the night at our place coz Gav was helping out a mate and slept there. Mason also stayed overnight. He scared the shit out of us by starting a mad barking session at 2 AM. I felt reasonably f*cked again today. I was supposed to make up for the sleep I missed while watching Holland beat France.

In the afternoon Anna, Damian, Rose and Charli visited us to eat the cakes Nicole baked in the morning. Here little Rosie is paying attention to Nicole who may have been explaining cold fusion technology... or not.

We chose the easy way out for dinner and went to Cafe de Vili's for dinner. This gives me about an hour worth of driving which is always handy. Driving went superb tonight.

When we came home I had the obligatory fathers day Skype session with my mom and dad. We bought him a big bunch of flowers.