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newsCorrect pressure for dripper irrigation
I thought that I will post about this, in case someone is
googling for information about installing a small dripper irrigation
system in their garden. They might find my experience useful.
It is just a small area, with ten Veri-Flow drippers and 13mm pipe. There is an automatic timer and pressure-reducer and filter:
Except that when first connected up, there was no pressure-reducer.
Result: those drippers sent jets of water up into the air higher than
me!
This surprised me, as I have put in dripper irrigation before, and
haven't used a pressure-reducer. However, they were in rural locations,
where the water pressure from the tap was quite low. At my current
premises, it is very high.
The Water Corporation in Western Australia states that they supply
pressure anywhere between 15mH (147kPa) and 100mH (980kPa). But I can't
find a figure for where I live.
The automatic timer is specified to work between 100kPa and 800kPa. This is it:
https://www.bunnings.com.au/holman-electronic-2-dial-tap-timer_p3120816
So I bought a combined pressure-reducer and filter, which is what you see in the above photo. Here it is:
https://www.bunnings.com.au/holman-13mm-pressure-reducer-and-filter-assembly_p3120097
Put it in, started the timer, ah, now the drippers have jets of water
"only" about 2-3 feet high! Very interesting. The Pope Veri-Flow
drippers are rated to be adjustable between 0-60 litres/hour -- well,
that "0" is wrong, they can't be screwed down enough to cut off the jet
of water.
So I examined the specifications of the pressure-reducer. It has
180kPa output. Very interesting, it means that the water from the tap
must be well above that, maybe in the order of twice.
Bunnings have a pressure-reducer rated at 100kPa output, that is a
direct screw replacement for the one I already have. So, off to Bunnings
again:
https://www.bunnings.com.au/pope-100kpa-pressure-poly-reducer_p3431632
That did the trick! So, the lesson learned here is that for a very
small dripper irrigation system, what we want is 100kPa. Perhaps with a
bigger system, with many more drippers or sprinklers, the flow through
the pipes would naturally reduce the pressure to something acceptable,
or perhaps a higher-rated pressure-reducer would be OK.
Or, if I was using sprinklers, and actually wanted large sprays of
water, then a pressure-reducer could have been dispensed with.
It was a fascinating little exercise.
Tags: general
Screening plant for fully-shaded Mediterranean climate
I have been having fun putting in some plants in the garden.
Standing at my front door and look to the side, I can see my neighbour's
front porch. What I would like is a screening plant, fairly dense,
about 1.8 metres (6ft) or thereabouts high. Problem is, that spot in the
garden is on the south side of the house, in the Southern hemisphere,
fully in shade for most of the year. In mid-summer, it will get some
sun, for part of the day.
I live on the outskirts of Perth, Western Australia, about 3km from
the coast, and the climate is mild, usually described as Mediterranean,
or similar to California, for example:
http://www.lookatwa.com.au/AboutPerth/climate.html
Today I put in drip irrigation, so can take care of keeping some
moisture in the soil over the upcoming summer. Interesting, the climate
in the South West of Australia has been changing, with more rain in the
summer:
https://phys.org/news/2016-03-southwest-australia-mediterranean-climate.html
...it is alarming that this has occurred over a small time-frame, just 16 years.
Anyway, I need to find a suitable screening plant, that will tolerate
having only indirect sunlight for most of the year. I want to be able
to prune it so as not to grow as high as the eaves of the house, and to
keep it dense. So far, I have settled on two possibilities, Sweet Box
(Sarcococca Confusa) and Dwarf Umbrella (Schefflera Arboricola).
Sweet Box
https://www.gardensonline.com.au/gardenshed/plantfinder/show_1925.aspx
Dwarf Umbrella
There are two completely different plants going by the common name of
Umbrella Tree. The one that interests me is Schefflera Arboricola,
native of Taiwan, which doesn't grow as tall.
https://www.gardensonline.com.au/gardenshed/PlantFinder/Show_1932.aspx
...hmm, that specimen is above the roof-line. I would have to prune
it to keep it at 6ft, and I wonder if that will turn out to be a
struggle, to keep it under control.
Haven't decided yet. Whatever is chosen, it will have to be available locally.
EDIT 2020-09-13:
I chose Schefflera Amate, see post:
https://bkhome.org/news/202009/schefflera-amate-for-shaded-spot-in-garden.html
Tags: general
Xmas and New Year best wishes
Here is Santa trying to deliver in Australia:
Another year gone by!
I will be taking a break at the start of 2019, for a couple of weeks.
Will probably still do a little bit of EasyOS development, 'coz I am
addicted. But very light, and won't be getting onto the Internet much.
After the break, the plan is to bring out EasyOS version 1.0. It is
positioned as an "experimental distribution", so I have an "out", it
doesn't have to be as polished as the mainstream Linux distributions.
I would like to thank you guys who have helped with testing during
2018. The feedback has been extremely helpful and has resulted in many
improvements and bug fixes.
Tags: general
amazon.com countdown
A few days ago, I impulsively placed an order with Amazon for three more books on OpenEmbedded and Yocto.
I already have two books, one of which is a light overview and I
donated that to the local library. OE/Yocto is very complicated, and I
want to move a bit further up the learning curve. Online docs are not
enough for me.
After placing the order, I read this:
Australians have enjoyed import-duty-free purchases under AU$1,000
for many years. A long time ago, there used to be import duty, now it is
coming back.
July 1, 2018, 10% GST (Goods and Services Tax) will be applied to
imported goods. Apparently, Amazon USA has a problem with complying, so
will redirect Aussies to amazon.com.au -- unfortunately, the local site
has far less on offer.
However, I searched amazon.com.au and found the same books that I had ordered from the USA, and slightly cheaper. For example:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Embedded-Linux-Development-Project-Cookbook/dp/1788399218
...odd, they give the UK distributor as the default supplier
(AU$71.29), whereas it is available cheaper from Amazon AU (AU$63.79).
Price works out about the same as USA, except it is cheaper as postage
from Amazon AU is free.
Anyway, if you want to buy from amazon.com, you have until the end of the month!
Tags: general
Merry Xmas 2017
To all you guys who are reading this, have a nice Xmas break! Like these guys:
Wallpaper is from this collection:
https://itsfoss.com/christmas-linux-wallpaper/
I would like to keep working on Easy and Quirky, but getting into
holiday mode so that side of things will be slow for awhile. One thing
that I want to do is get printing working with QuickSamba, but that
might also be delayed a bit.
Tags: general
Old blogs archived
I was meaning to convert them to static HTML pages, and finally have done it. Found a great tool for the job, Httrack. It has a browser interface, by running "webhttrack".
I re-enabled the online blogs and used webhttrack to download one of them. Oh, it downloaded heaps of files from other sites, mostly linked images.
After some online searching, found the trick to restrain download to only inside the blog.
There are "Scan Rules". Delete them, replace with:
-* +*arryk.org/blog/* -*/?delete=*
The "-*" removes everything, then "+*arryk.org/blog/*" will restrain downloads to have that text in the URL.
Httrack follows every link that it can find on the blog, which takes a very long time. I did not see the point of it following the Delete button, so added that fine filter item.
The old blogs are now here:
http://bkhome.org/archive/
This blog, barryk.org/news, is also there, converted to static pages, as I am planning to move to a new blog script (and website) in the next day or two.
Another item of news: bkhome.org is now on a new host, omnis.com
Tags: general
Issy Simpson, magician
I have been watching Britain's Got Talent on and off. Was most entertained by Issy Simpson. Don't know how she did most of it.
Here is her first performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSYa6_Siivs
Assuming that it is not "real" magic, I think that I know how she did the box. Very simple actually. She just needed one of those suction cups that are used for lifting glass, builtin to the base of the box.
Like this one, that sticks and releases in seconds:
http://btbtools.com/index.php/auto-glass-tools/glass-handling/vacuum-suction-cups-window-holders/sac123.html
Tags: general
Seagate 4TB desktop drive
Today bought a Seagate Expansion 4TB hard drive, for AU$199:
https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/seagate-4tb-expansion-desktop-hard-drive-sgex4000de
As it has its own power supply, no problem with plugging this into any of my arm boards. So, can move it around as needed.
I own a 2.5 inch 2TB USB3 drive, that will probably get relegated to a backup role.
Tags: general