Category: Technology

Views of science and technology from around the world

Wednesday (24-November-2021) — New Jersey

Working on RedRover and New 360 Camera.

Previously, I had to remove the mower deck on the John Deere lawn tractor. I still have lots of fallen autumn leaves that need attention. I decided to attach a leaf vacuum adapter to Red Rover. I recorded the project as a time-lapse video using a Labpano Lab Pilot One EE 360 camera. This camera does not have interval photo mode, but does have a time-lapse mode. Rather than two fish-eye lenses, it uses four 185° wide-angle lenses. The images are combined and processed in-camera to an equirectangular view (up to 8K, 7680×3840). The camera has a relatively large battery that took images for ~80 minutes. I had an external USB-C battery attached, but it didn’t seem to continue to provide power while the camera was recording the time-lapse video.

The 47 seconds of the 8K (7680 x 3840) video file was 2.49 GB. The time-lapse setting was 100x (3.3 fps) for the 47 seconds of video which would correspond to ~ 78 minutes of recording. I was not able to use the GoPro FX Reframe plug in for Premiere Pro to convert the 8K equirectangular image into a Little Planet view. First needed to convert the video to a 4K (3840 x 1920) video then process in Premiere Pro with the GoPro FX Reframe plugin. [Note – Next time record the time-lapse video at 4K or 2K].

Daily Electric Energy Used (67.5 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (28.9 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny but cold. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 38.6 kWh.

Friday (19-November-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Nature in New Jersey, Working Outside and in the Garage.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: House Finch.

House Finch. (David J Mathre)
House Finch. Image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 90-280 mm lens. (David J Mathre)

My Little Planet time-lapse video for the day. Finished removing the mower deck from the John Deere lawn tractor. Removed the agri-fabric and electric fence wire caught in the blades. Removed the blades to be sharpened. Hopefully, I will be able to reinstall the mower deck… Removed electric fence wire from the yellow plastic insulators. Completed installing the Tent Box cold weather inner insulation shell.

Daily Electric Energy Used (53.6 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (28.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Mostly sunny. Deficit of 25.0 kWh.

Monday (15-November-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Day Working Outside and in the Garage in New Jersey.

My Little Planet time-lapse video for the day. The local Coop truck arrived to deliver 12 cubic yards of black mulch to be dumped at the same location as previous deliveries. Unfortunately, the rear (power) wheels of the truck got stuck in the remaining old wet black mulch. We initially tried putting plywood boards under the tires. That didn’t work. We then tried to help pull the truck out using White Rhino and a nylon jerk strap. We then switched to a heavy duty chain that I saved from Silver Rhino I. This worked. White Rhino helped to free the truck. I’m glad I had the tow package installed on the Range Rover. Most of the day I spent cleaning and reorganizing the garage. The bags of Quikrete were wrapped in plastic to protect from moisture. The DR Power brush mower was switched to a snow blower (hopefully this means little or no snow this winter). I took pictures of the damaged components of the DR Power 25-gallon sprayer, and sent them to DR Power technical support. Unfortunately, they said they couldn’t order the replacement parts for me, and I had to contact the manufacturer — AgriFab. I sent a request into AgriFab for the replacement parts. At the end of the day I put together some more wire shelving units to store the grow bags with Canna tubers. A long day.

Daily Electric Energy Used (59.6 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (10.8 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Lots of clouds. Getting colder outside so the Geothermal HVAC is heating the house. Deficit of 48.8 kWh.

Monday (08-November-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, European Starling, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Time-lapse videos: 1) Building floor supports and moving plastic-coated wire rolls into the storage sheds. 2) Building pallet supports for the tractor implements (rototiller and snow blade).

Daily Electric Energy Used (50.3 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (26.5 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Mostly sunny. The Geothermal furnace is now on to heat the house. Indoor temperature set to 64° F. Deficit of 33.8 kWh.

Sunday (07-November-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: House Finch.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Time-lapse video building a shelf to store 2×4 and 4×4 boards.

Red-Rover time-lapse video. Holding rolls of deer fence, transporting wood boards, changing from 3-point towing-hitch to 3-point weighted tool bucket.

Daily Electric Energy Used (57.8 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (28.8 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Mostly sunny. The Geothermal furnace is now on to heat the house. Indoor temperature set to 64° F. Deficit of 29.0 kWh.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (383 kWh) from Sense. Weekly Solar Electric Energy Produced (187 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Deficit of 196 kWh.