Friday, December 26, 2008

New Can crusher / Washer Launcher

I am working on what will be the biggest washer launcher or can crusher that I have ever made. If you have not seen the old washer launcher or can crusher videos on YouTube you have to see what happens when 800 volts DC is applied to a flat coil under an aluminum washer. The washer flies over 30 feet straight up. If a soda can gets in the way it can get flattened. If you place a soda can on top of the washer it ends up about 1/2 inch shorter just from the g forces.

As I was going though some of my old pictures I could see the history of my invention. First I built what was called a 'thumper' on the Internet. To make a 'thumper' essentially you take the flash from a camera and add a coil in series with the flash tube. This 'thumper' design is available on the Internet just google for a 'magnetic thumper' or 'magnetic thumpy'. Below is a picture of my version of that device.

Next I replaced the flash tube with a big SCR. I had a pile of those big SCR's that were left over from making a time machine, but they were accidentally sold at the Rochester Ham Fest in around 2005. You can see them in the background of the picture. I also started adding more capacitors. Notice the home made aluminum washer sitting on the coil. That was from before I discovered that hard drive platters make great aluminum washers. As you can tell I was already sending aluminum washers into flight. In those early days the washer flew just a few inches.

Soon I took the washer launcher to the next level. First I used 4 big capacitors and then later I stepped up to 8 of those big capacitors. I fried the old SCR and then replaced it with an ED431825 that can handle 1.8 KV (1800 Volts) and 250 amps continuous and 6.5 KA peak (6500 Amps). This design started out with one MOT (Microwave Oven Transformer) then for a while it had two MOT's.


At some point I added the flat Coil shown below. It was wound a few turns at a time then those turns were glued down and the next few turns were added. A rotating stick held the wire down while the glue was drying. The glue was of a flexible kind. At some point the wood was shattered into pieces, so it was replaced with Plexiglas. That was a bad idea. The Plexiglas shattered on the first test launch.

I am upgrading the 8 capacitor 800 volt model to now operate with up to 1600 volts. All of the capacitors had to be turned 90 degrees so that they can be connected in series instead of parallel. Here is the preliminary schematic, it is missing the 10 amp fuse, and that is a 1 meg resistor to the voltmeter that is located on the front panel.


There were two problems with the first test run of the new design. The 10 amp fuse blew because it now draws more current than that. I replaced it with a 15 amp fuse. The next problem is that the meter pegs. I was using a digital volt meter as well and it was not supposed to exceed 600 volts but it survived at 1200 volts. As far as the can crushing goes it did not crush it much more than the 800 volt model had crushed it.

Before testing it a second time I changed the resistor to the meter to 2.5 meg. The meter now reads 2.5 KV full scale. I also shortened the wire to the coil to 1/2 of the original length. The next test was at 1.6 KV and it resulted in the flattest soda can yet. The video is being
uploaded to YouTube.

Monday, December 15, 2008

LED Sign

A few years ago a relative, Ernie I think, gave me a sign that someone was throwing out. It was large and had a car repair place advertisement. Well I removed the guts, got it working, reprogrammed it and put it in my own cabinet. The problem now is that it is too big to fit in the window.



As I was testing it out our cat Bling or as I call him stinky, decided to attack the sign. He normally attacks my laptop computer screen climbing on the keyboard as he does it.

I had to rearrange the guts to make the sign smaller. I moved the logic board to be behind the sign board. The transformer did not fit so I put that on the back side. The brown board has a 555 and a 4017 that resets the sign after 20 seconds so the car advertisement does not come up like it used to.



Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Home Made Dual Screen Monitor Base

Recently I had an EBay deal that I just could not refuse. They were selling 17 inch LCD monitors for $44 each without the stand. With shipping they were about $60 each and they arrived not working. It turns out that the unnamed shipping company shook them so bad as to unsolder capacitors in the power supply. So after some minor repairs they worked. the next problem was what to use for a stand. They do not make dual stands that I know of and most stands cost more than I paid for the monitors.

Here is the solution. First a 1 by 6 connects the two monitors together. Drill 4 holes at each end of the 1 by 6 that line up with the mounting holes in the back of the monitors. Then I used some 2 by 3's about 1 foot long to a 2 by 6 base that is 2 foot long. The tops of the 2 by 3's were notched so that they are under as well as behind the 1 by 6 that connects the 2 monitors. I used a high quality 2 by 6 for the base since it can be seen. That one board cost me $8, the rest of the boards were all off the scrap pile.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Expanding foam and science experiments.

The Red Green show makes a big thing about 'the handyman's secret weapon - duct tape'. Well now there is a runner up. The number two secret weapon of the handyman is.....expanding foam!

Usually there is two ways expanding foam works. It either comes out really fast and runs out before you get all of the holes filled or it comes out really slow and keeps on coming forever. You fill every hole in every house on the block and it just keeps on coming. Well recently I went to fill holes in my brothers basement and I had a third thing happen. I could not get it to start so I pushed on the nozzle so hard that it broke off. Fred said I should hit it hard and see what happens, so I hit it on a rock and it started working. The problem is that it would not stop either. So I tired to use it anyway but without the nozzle it was hard to get the foam into the holes. The results are pictured below I think more went on the ground than on the foundation. This sounds like good material for another Red green show spoof like the one I already have on YouTube under bobdavis321.





We all have a favorite science experiment we like to perform. It is called leave a cup of something sitting around and see what happens. There are three possible solutions. One is It gets consumed by the cat. Two is It gets spilled on the floor. The third is the most fun - Something grows on it. Now the best material for this kind of science experiment is coffee. We all know that the nuclear resonance of coffee is slightly elevated by the caffeine so things grow in it in hyper mode. The results can be just amazing as seen in the picture below!



Another science experiment is called the bread drawer. Yesterday I cleaned it out and found some really nice looking green bread. I am sure the added color makes the flavor interesting as well.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

VE170 Monitor Repair with LED's

I have noticed that many people find my blog when looking for monitor repair ideas. So here is another one of my ideas for monitor repair. I have in the past fixed laptops by retrofitting them with LED's. The problem with this monitor is that the power supply for the vacuum tube back lighting dies.

The first step is to totally disassemble the monitor into little pieces, then carefully remove the gold colored trays that hold the vacuum tubes. Then carefully remove the tubes themselves without breaking them, like that can be done.



The LED's are spaced at about 1/2 inches apart by using the edge of a cardboard box as can be seen below. This was the test setup using a 9 volt battery, the LED's are spaced every three holes from each other. The LED's are wired in sets of 3 with a 12 ohm 1 watt resistor in series with all of the sets of three LED's. A 10 ohm to 15 ohm resistor would work just as well.



This is a schematic drawing of how it is all wired up. It shows 24 LED's but actually there needs to be 27 LED's in a 17 inch monitor.


This is what the LED's look like in the tray. They have to be angled at a 45 degree angle towards the back of the screen in order to fit and it is a very tight fit. I tried to use a flat front LED so it could aim directly up at the screen but did not see any increase in brightness.



This is what it looks like with the bottom tray full of LED's. There are a total of 27 LED's in the bottom light tray in this photo. There needs to be about 27 LED's in each of the trays. The dark areas are where the resistors are located. I no longer put any resistors in the tray for that reason.



As you might be able to guess the labor far exceeds the value of the fixed monitor. Also you can see in the photo above that unless you space the LED's so they are almost touching each other then there will be blank spaces between them. The ideal solution would be surface mount LED's on a circuit board to provide continuous lighting.

The picture below shows what it looks like compared to a laptop. As you can see it is not as bright and the picture has a purple color to it. Even thought the color looks white to the eye it is somewhat blue by comparison.


The LED's used were 3mm 16,000 MCD bright white LED's found on EBay. There are brighter LED's available that might work even better. I tried using the flat top LED's and they fit better because they are shorter and light the screen more evenly. Also the resistors can be external, wire all of the LED's up in parallel sets of 3 each, then use a 10 to 20 ohm resistor externally between it and the 12 volt power supply.

Friday, October 24, 2008

The current economic and political problems

One of my favorite scriptures is Isaiah 9:6 & 7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

That and Daniel chapter 2 carry a very clear message. The Kingdom of God has been growing for 2,000 years, and it will never stop growing. Around the world revival is taking place as people lay down their lives for the Gospel. If you are part of His kingdom you have NOTHING to fear! I personally have watched my retirement accounts dwindle. My bank accounts earn .85% interest. My money would be better off in my mattress then in the bank or stocks. But it would be even better off being used for the kingdom of God. I believe that the kingdom of God is going to rise up and take over. Not by force, but by being the only thing that does not collapse. Jesus' disciples expected that to happen and they were disappointed that they were only part of the initial 'stone' that was thrown to take down the kingdoms of this world. We are part of the mountain, but it will soon cover the whole earth.

Daniel2:31 "You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth."

Daniel 2:44 "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces."

So get ready! The revival in Florida showed that we are desperate for revival and we will accept it from almost anyone. There is real revival coming, the Kingdom of God is going to rise up like never before. I think we will soon see miracles like never before, like they were in the days that Jesus walked on this earth. God is raising up lots of people, not just one or two, but 12 or even 70 great evangelists, prophets, healers, etc. I am excited about what is happening and what God is doing!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

West Africa September 2008


New York City
We drove my van to NYC to save money when taking two 50 pound carry on bags per person. We were taking a musical Keyboard, an all in one printer/scanner/copier and a computer amoung other things in our second bags. To fly out from Buffalo the second bag would have been $80 each. However there was some sort of truck fire accident on I-80 so we exited and took route 46 instead. This road went through a town where they were having a 5K foot race. Needless to say some roads were closed there as well and the roads that were open were going very slow. Then when we arrived at the Holland tunnel there were 8 lanes of traffic all merging into 2 then an accident in the tunnel forced it into one lane! So we arrived at the airport at 8 PM for a 8:20 flight. Needless to say we did not make it.

Fred knew a pastor in the NYC area so he called him and found out that we could stay at his church for the night. We loaded everything back into my van and drove to his church. We slept on chairs and mattresses in the church sanctuary. They provided plenty of sheets, pillows and towels. Early in the morning Debby and Bill took my van and left to return to Olean. At 7:30 Am I got a wake up call from guess who? Later in the morning we had breakfast at a Spanish restaurant. They had really good fresh squeezed orange juice.

My cell phone was handling all the telephone calls and the battery was dying. On top of that I had forgotten to bring the battery charger so we went out to try to find one. Less than a block away we found a street vendor who sold us an AC adapter for my cell phone for $6. Then I tripped over a milk carton holder that someone normally used as a seat. Immediately I began limping and blood stains showed up on my pants. Somehow I had torn off about a 1 inch square of skin on my shin. Next we found a Rite Aid and bought some bandages and other supplies. Back at the church we had some time for email and phone calls then they serverd us pancakes and bananas. They they took us to the airport for our flight out.

The new flight tickets cost us an additional $180 to fly on the next day. We arrived at the airport at 4PM for our flight at 8:20. However many kids were there as they were leaving to go with the Peace Corps. The line was very long and slow moving. After that we had lunch at an airport restaurant. A sandwich there was $8.50 and a drink was $3. That is called Highway robbery - or maybe something even worse - Airport robbery!

So far I have discovered that I have forgotten my flip-flops, bathing suit, and a flat to round plug AC adapter. I had a back-up pair of flip flops in the van but it left with them around 6 AM. I gave a pair to Fred to pack but he left them out for some reason. In fact they were already in my suitcase when I gave it to him to put a computer in it.

Moroco
We took a break between flights in Casablanka Moroco. I borrowed an AC adapter so I can use my laptop to upload this to my blog. Everything on my screen is in French because the wonderful Internet see that I am in a French speaking country.

Mali
We are in Bamako, Mali, Africa. Last night we had what Fred called a 'wild night on the town'. We went to a bank and made off with thousands, In fact I had 200,000 with me! Then we went to a restaurant and I tried to eat half a chicken. They had my favorite drink a Mango Shake! Then we walked to a grocery store that was closing when we got there. I bought apple juice and mango jelly. The apple juice was watered down. We gave the chicken diner that I could not eat to a hungry little boy along the road on the way. That was likely the biggest meal he ever had. Then Fred and Charlie went to a bread store, and last of all we all had a small dish of ice cream! As far as I know we did not do anything that we regretted in the morning.

Thursday evening I stayed home and washed the dishes while the rest of the guys went shopping. For supper we had fresh bread but there were some problems. Fred's mayonaise for his cuecumber sandwich was bad. My Mango jelly had mold growing on it. I scraped the top 1/2 inch off the jelly, washed the top of the jar and the lid and had supper =). Fred went to get more mayonaise. When I was in the philippines we opened some dried fruit and found tiny ants in it. So we ate it anyway - extra protein. This is called a real missionary experience.

Saturday - Green Apples, clothsline, picture police, and more ants.
Well it turns out that the apple juice that I bought the other day is watered down green apple juice. That sounds like something from Dr Seus. It tastes that way too. It is a good thing it is watered down. Someone told us that there is a clothsline out back so Charlie moved all of his clothes there. Too bad it really rained yesterday! We have pet ants. They ate Charlies bread. Actually there was some left but he lost his appetite for it. I have sprayed for the ants at least twice now. Friday on the way to the church I took a picture of a famous monument. However there is a police man that claimes he was in the picture. If he had asked I would have shown him. Anyway he took the drivers license and I ended up going with the driver to the police station. They never asked to see the picture, its a digital camera and I could show it to him. They just want the money. I hope it gets settled soon.

You might know that I am one of those people that watch 'House' and try to tell them that they forgot this disease or this symptom, etc. They come up with a lot of rare diseases on that show! Anyway this morning I brushed my teeth and my tongue was black! I spent a while going through rare tropical diseases and then I remembered Bismolitis. Charlie checked with his mom and it can be fatal but usually only after 40 or 50 years. What is it? Pepto-Bismol if taken while laying down can turn the tongue black. I think the life span prediction had something to do with my age. Yes, my stomach is bothering me a little so I have been taking Pepto-Bismol and of course drinking tonic water. =)

Iwent to the police station again today with the pastor and everything went fine. They looked at the picture (shown above) and agreed that I was not taking pictures of the police. Then they had me pray for the police and we went back to the church. We have prayed for the Pastors and Bible School students and said good bye. But not without a final note from the pastor. It turns out that someone called him before we came and said there are some europeans coming and one will have a problem with some photgraphic equipment. So he knew this was going to happen and had peace throught the ordeal. Then he asked me to pray over the church as well to close out the meetings. We saw a total of 49 people baptised over the weekend in two churches in Mali.

Ghana
We waited from 1PM to 7PM for our ride to take us from Mali to arrive. We had been told that the church would provide us with a ride. They called us after 6 PM to say they were there. So we carried our baggage down but there was no bus or anything. Fred called them back and they were actually just then leaving to get us. Since our luggage had all been carried down we left it with the gate guards. We also gave the gurads all of our left over food. When they finally did arrive thay told us that the bus needed repairs. When they could not get it fixed they gave up and got another bus. So when they did actually arrive we went down and guess what? There was no bus. There was a Toyata land cruiser there that some people were removing luggage from it was laready full. It must be that someone else had just arrived. Nope. That was our vehicle. The church was providing it because some of them were going to a conference in Bobo. So guess what? There were now 8 of us and lots of baggage. Fortunatly it had roof racks. They packed our stuff up on top and wanted to leave. We insisted on ropes to tie it down for obvious reasons! That was OK because it wan not going to rain, right? It did not rain, it poured. So we arrived at a CMA guest house on the border abour 1 or 2 AM and were back on the road by about 9 AM.

We arrived at the next rest stop around 2 PM and our next ride was not there. Fred started calling and found that the person who was to set it up was just then arranging it. The people there wanted to put us on a nice Air Conditioned bus. Then after a while they treated us to a real nice supper as our transportaition had not arrived yet. Then while we were eating the small buss arrived. Fred looked it over and amoung other things it was missing 2 of its 4 headlights. It was now late and we would be driving after dark. Does it really matter that much since they just leave their lights on high all the time? They convinced us to take the 6:30 bus. So we had an hour or so to walk around and do some street shopping. I bought a round to square AC adapter so I could plug in my computer. It was a cheap piece of junk. If I wiggle it around a while it might just work on an angle. Then they took us to the bus. It had been modified to have many more seats than it was made to have. After a little while they turned off the ventilation because it was dripping water, likely because it was raining. Of course turning it off did not stop the leaks but made us all drip too. We managed to get my window open a little bit. We arrived ar our next rest stop at about 11 Pm. There was a pastor there by the name of Zachi. He is a little guy but God is going to do great things with him. He had a friend who was a taxi driver get us in the morning to take us to the Ghana border. There a friend of his came with his taxi and took us to the next rest stop. We arrived at about 4 PM.

We arrived at our first stop in Ghana. There was no Internet and there were no air conditioned rooms available as there is a conference going on and all the rooms were booked. Fred and the rest of the crew went shopping and to get a cell phone to make arrangements for the remainder of the trip to Accra Ghana. Since we were staying a while we sent in our laundry. For 5 sets of clothing I sent in I got back 5 sets of socks, and 2 of underwear, shirts and pants. Something was amis here. After searching a while they found the rest of my laundry on a clothes line. However it had rained several times so it was very wet. I hung it all up in the room hoping it would be dry by morning. That was a long night, I was sick all night and finally recovered somewhat by about 4 AM. That day Fred rented a van so I could lay on a seat and we were off again.

Accra Ghana.
In Accra Ghana we are staying at the Baptist guest house. The internet here is very strange. Facebook works, but not gmail or blogspot. Fred an I finally updated the Flash memory in the wireless router so now I can add pictures to my blog. In Accra Fred is teaching every day on Acts. Below is a picture of him with some of the students.
Here is an example of God's provision. We brought a newer Sony laptop for one of the pastors here to replace his old dead Compaq. However he had someone install a new bigger hard drive in the dead laptop and wanted that in the newer computer. That would normally not be a problem for me except that Compaqs sometimes use a trox screwdriver and I did not bring one of them with me. Now what are the chances of finding a size 10 trox screwdriver in all of Africa? After trying everything I could think of I thought I should go downstairs and get a soda. On the way there there were two guys chatting at a table. I felt God tell me to ask them. They did not have a small screwdriver and could not find one. All they had was this strange tool and they did not know what it was - a size 10 torx screwdriver. Problem solved.
We had a free afternoon and so we visited the mall. In Accra they actually have a very nice mall. It has a food court with exellent food. It was nice to eat something really good for a change. We went for a walk on the beach today. It was nothing like anything that you would possibly imagine. It started with a nice looking lighthouse and went downhill from there. The beach was strewn with garbage, every rock was covered with drying fish. Broken and half repaired boats covered the beach, and there were old nets everywhere. When we got back I discovered 1/4 inch welts on my ankles - yes they have sand fleas too.
When we got back to the guest house Friday they were spraying pesticides everywhere. The floors inside the building were covered with white liquid that really stinks and gives me headaches. So for a while I went up onto the roof to check my email. However really dark clouds rolled in and it got really dark. So I had to go back inside.
Friday night Fred was to speak on leadership at the church. However when we arrived there were no lights at church, electricity had been off all day. Fred taught in the morning without electricity because there was ample sunlight but now it wes very very dark. They bought 4 candles lit them and we had a church service anyway. There were about 25 in attendance in the dark.
Saturday we are working at the guest house getting stuff ready for graduation on Sunday. There is still no electricity at the church. There are about 21 students graduating. I guess their diplomas will be printed on an inkjet printer. The schedule of events may not get printed at all. That reminds me of some acronyms TIA = This is Africa. I asked another missionary what his favorite acronym was and he said CA = C'est Afrique guess what that is in English?
Graduation went great. They had a working generator. There were a couple of choirs that were wonderful. The graduates gave all of us gifts. After the service we took several pictures of them. Below is one of those pictures.


After graduation we had a last supper with the graduates in the dark. I think it was chicken and rice. Then the General Overseer took us to have some ice cream. When we went to leave the ice cream place his car made a funny sound and the steering stopped working! We ended up with all of us stuffed into a cab.
Lome TogoMonday we were back on the road again then we stopped in Lome Togo for a couple of days. We took a walk on the beach, it has one of the best beaches in West Africa. We also ate at a Lebonese restaurant. Fred is teaching at the Bible school here.
Monday night I was sick again. I have been taking pepto bismol this whole trip and spent one night throwing up when we all eat the same stuff why? However I was not at all sick both saturday and sunday, what is the key? How about blueberry jam? When we first arrived in Africa Charlie bought some blueberry jam. He did not like it so I decided to use it. I did not have any jam the two days that I was not sick! That is what I have been eating here that no one else is eating, blueberry jam. It tastes fine, the only thing unusual about it is that it pours.
There are 'real' gas stations over here but there are a lot more of the kind shown in the picture above. Gas is 350 a liter at these gas stations versus 550 a liter at the normal gas stations. Where would you buy your gas? For a funnel they usually use an old plastic soda bottle to pour the gas into your car.


Cotonou Benin
We have made it to the last country of this missionary journey - Benin. I can no longer say that I have never been in Benin. The twins were glad to see Fred, as you can see they did not want him to leave again. He kept saying 10 more days until we go home. Below is the twins dancing to the sound from Charlies MP3 player.


We are back! It was a long trip and having two 4 year olds added to the fun. They love to play with their food. Have you ever filled one of those little loafs of bread with yougart and then tried to eat it? Guess what happens? I saved some wet wipes to try to clean up the mess but the messes were coming faster that the wipes. At one point I thanked the stewardess for saving me by taking away the food trays. The picture above shows them with the family that has adopted them.

Here are a couple of pictures from the orphanage. Both are real tear jerkers. One shows the really small kids taking their afternoon nap on a mat on the floor. The second shows some of the girls waiting at the doorway. The sense of hopelessness in their eyes was overwhelming.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

The wheelchair lift project update

I thought it was about time to post an update on the wheelchair lift project. I built a frame of 2 by 8's around it. They keep it from rotating slightly when it is all the way to the top. I then added some 2 by 4's to fasten the sheet rock to.

Next I added steel doors at each entrance. I will be adding door switches so that the lift will not move if any of the doors are open. Those switches are needed soon so people will not be looking up when I drop something like a hammer. The back door on the lift still has not been installed so it is sitting there to the right. The downstairs door was open in the picture so you can see the coffee house in the background. I will have to chop that stair off on the left so that the door will open up all the way.

And this is what it looks like when all of the doors are shut. I still need to install the light switch and the lift controller to the left of the doorway.

New DVD duplication equipment

This year to speed up the production of the Video Bible School DVD's I bought a high speed duplicator. I have built these and used them for years, now I own one of my own. It makes 5 copies of a DVD or CD in just a few minutes.


My brother took this picture for his newsletter of me with the duplicator and the printer in the background. I do not like the picture. For some reason I look fat in the picture, how could that have happened? It must be an optical illusion or something. ;-)

Friday, August 8, 2008

External combustion car in the news

Today at CNN.com there is a story about what they call an 'air car' that gets 106 miles per gallon.

Here is a link; http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/08/08/air.car/index.html

Here is a quote from the article; "Above 35 mph, there is an external combustion system which is basically a heater that uses a little bit of gasoline or biofuel or ethanol or vegetable oil that will heat the air."

Internal combustion engines are about 20% efficient, external combustion engines are about 90% efficient. The problem with external combustion engines is that they only have one speed, full speed. Some solutions to this problem have been recently invented. One is the continuously variable transmission. Another is to have it power a generator to charge batteries and then use an electric motor. The problem with that is that generators, batteries, and electric motors are not highly efficient.

External combustion engines were highlighted on my web site many years ago under 'Sterling engines'. Another use would be to have hot springs or even volcano's power electric generators. Thus you could make essentially free sources of electricity. The most common example of an external combustion engine is a steam locomotive, remember them?

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Kingdom Bound 2008 to see the Newsboys

Once again this year I was at Kingdom Bound. We saw 33 miles, Delirious?, and of course the Newsboys. I used my cell phone camera to take the pictures so you can hardly tell what these pictures are of. The first picture is of the stage. The white screens on each side have a big picture of what is happening so you can actually see it.
The second picture is also from the Newsboys. They did an encore performance where their drummer goes up in the air, then is spun in circles, then he tilts to almost vertical, all while he is playing. Then the leader goes to another stage in the middle of the audience and plays a drum set while he is lifted up over 8 feet in the air.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Sept. 2008 Missions trip to West Africa

From September 6 to October 13 I will be in Africa. I will be traveling with my brother Fred Davis and I will be taking someone else's place who is too sick to go. We will start in Benin Africa and in 5 weeks we will be in about 5 different countries. This missions trip will cost me about $4,000! We will be teaching at Bible schools, preaching at churches, praying for people, and prophesying over people. I might fix a few things in my spare time. I really need to concentrate on getting my sermon notes more organized.

Just a few years ago I looked forward to retireing so that I could travel the world and help pastors and missionaries. Now I am able to do that but it is about 10 years earlier than I thought it would be.

Another Strange Dream

God keeps giving me these dreams. I know they have something to do with revival and something to do with Gods Judgement. We are seeing both happening in the world around us. Did you know that in 1909 at the Azusa street revival someone prophesied that there would be an even greater revival in 100 years?

Strange dream July 22, 2008
There was a huge dam in this dream. It had what looked like 3 sections to it. Many thousands of people had built their houses along both sides of and even actually on the dam. There were several hotels built on the 3 faces of the dam. When asked why did you build there, they would say that the dam was 100 years old and "Would never fail".

However from above I could see the muddy water lashing at the dam with great ferocity. I know the dam was going to fail at any second. I had to visit the people there to try to warn them.

It reminds me of the sermon "Sinners in the hand of an angry God." As I pondered the dream I felt God say "Will you go now, will you preach the Gospel?".

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Now I am working on tearing down walls.

The church in Salamanca is installing a wheelchair lift. Or should I say that I am installing a lift. We had to rent a truck and drive all the way to Syracuse to get it. It has 2 pieces and one of them weighs over 600 pounds and it takes 6 people to lift it.
Once we got it to the church the next problem is where to store it until we can install it. The only level place big enough is the foyer.


The next problem is that there is a concrete wall in the way. The good news is that there was a window there so the header is already in place. I cut a hole in the wall and removed the old window casing so we could work on the concrete and stone wall.

I rented a chop saw with a 17 inch diamond tipped blade. With it I cut grooves into the stone and concrete wall. It did not cut all of the way through it so we had to use hammers and knock out the blocks one at a time. In the picture pastor Charlie is taking a swing or two at the wall.

Now we are through the concrete and stone wall. Walt brought a shop vacuum cleaner and cleaned up the mess that was left behind. The next step is to remove the platform and stairs. Then we can install the lift to replace the stairs.

Now for the latest update, in this picture the stairs and landing have been removed leaving an open pit. We also stripped or removed the walls and ceiling.



Next is an even more difficult step. We need to put the lift into the hole we have made for it. We did it with about 6 guys. We started at 9 AM on saturday and had it in place by a little after 10 Am! Now to do all of the wireing and make some walls and doorways.

Well now I am working on the walls. The right side is done, the left side is going to be the tricky one.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Update on things

Well it is already July, 2008. I have moved to Olean NY and am still waiting to see what I will do next. The church in Salamanca has purchased a lift (mini elevator) and I will be helping to install it.

The fires in California are continuing to spread, there are now over 1400 fires and California has been declared a disaster area. So much for the millions they are making by promoting Gay marriage! Here are some pictures from California. The first is a satellite picture. Notice how the smoke from the fires is just collecting over the state.


The second picture is of the evacuation areas. Some are optional and some are mandatory evacuations.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

California is on fire

Well I hate to say that I told you so, but check out the news from California. As people woke up today they discovered that there are over 800 fires started by lightning and fueled by temperatures that are over 100 degrees. The Word of God says that if you do detestable things then the land will "vomit you out". That may happen by Hurricanes, floods, diseases, fires, earthquakes or any of a dozen other methods, but rest assured it will happen! God will not be mocked, and His Word will not return void.

As people 'come out of the closet' and start bragging on the terrible things that they are doing, judgment will come upon this land like never before. I guess now is not a good time to be buying a home, unless you want to make sure it is insured against everything, including 'acts of God'. At the same time there are people rising up who are calling for revival and for this country to turn back to God.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

A cheap way to get better gas mileage

Several years ago I added a magnet to the fuel line of a Geo Prism to get it to run smoother after everything else had failed. To my amazement it worked. The gas mileage improved too. Then I got the idea of using magnets removed from old hard drives. These magnets are many times more powerful. I put one on my Dodge Grand Caravan that had an on board computer that displays the gas mileage. Over about a year it climbed from 18 MPG to 23 MPG!

The government tested adding magnets to the fuel lines back in 1980. Two trucks showed a 6% to 9% improvement but some showed very little improvement. Back then gas was 30 cents a gallon so they concluded that it was not worth it. Today with gas running over $4 a gallon even a 6% improvement would be worth it. However if you use high power magnets and leave them on for a year or more you may well see a 25% to a 30% improvement!

This modification has a long history. Adding magnets to the fuel line has been used since World War 2. They were used on Mustangs planes to get them to run better on the cheap gas. They were used on tanks to get a longer range so they could outrun the enemy. When the enemy tanks ran out of fuel they were sitting ducks.


Here are pictures of the magnets added to the fuel lines of Dodge vans. The first is on a 2.4 liter engine and the second shows 2 magnets on a 3.3 liter engine.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Pray for California at 8 PM today!

At 8 PM eastern, 5 PM their time, gay marriages become legal, so please pray for California. These things have a very bad history, look at what happened in New Orelans and Florida. California is headed headlong into a huge disaster! May God have mercy on them!

Leviticus 18:24 'Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. 25 Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26 But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, 27 for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. 28 And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.

Friday, June 13, 2008

This is a Prophecy that was given over me!

This all happened during the first week of June 2008.

1. I could not sleep one night as God prophesied through me for hours, then commissioned me, and then gave me a sign that these things will happen.
2. While walking across the Elim bridge God said to me “Pack your bags and move”. He had been telling me for months to be ready to move on very short notice.
3. I wrote my letter of resignation from Elim but could not get the nerve to send it.
4. I went to hear Bob Campbell speak in Olean and then afterwards was prayed for by Kathy and Nate.

Friday June 6 2008
Lord we just thank you for Bob. Lord we just pray that you would even just come, just bathe him in your presence God Bathe him in Your Spirit Lord, pour out your glory upon him pour out your love upon him Lord. We are just pray even for an impartation God, that he would become a changed man, that he would even run hard after You. I just really sense that the Lord is just saying that He is just Imparting something into you even new this day. And I really feel like that even people are not going to recognize you, even that the things that you have done in the past that those things are not even going to matter any more and I really sense that even a new thing is going to be birthed inside of you. I just saw a stirring of a pot and I even sense that he is birthing a new thing within you and don't even resist. I heard the Lord say just come away with Me, come away with Me. I really sense He has an awesome thing for you I heard the word destiny He has an awesome destiny for you. That he is beginning to even birth those things He is beginning to stir those things even this day.

Bob I had this picture of you just tearing through boxes to find something, [I have been living out of boxes over a year] and I hear the Lord saying son you have been looking you have been searching and you have said God there has got to be more there is something more to all of this and Lord I have got to find You in the midst of all of this. And the Lord said I am drawing you closer and closer drawing you closer even to my heart and there are things I have for you. The Lord said you are in the midst of change even significant change. Deep down within you heart you have said God I will go where you want me to go, I will do whatever you want me to do. The Lord said I am taking you even at your word now in this hour. There is going to be a change that will transform even what things look like right now. God said it is going to change and be different. Ones are going to look and say whoa that this is different than I ever thought, but God said that there is something of the future that the Lord said I am unfolding and unveiling for you. I am giving you even a bigger picture of what I have in the days coming.

I hear the Lord saying that you are even one who just wants to know what he wants you to do, what His will is what are the plans that He has. You are one that wants to be in His will. I really sense that the Lord saying that He is going to pour out that revelation, that He is going to open your eyes, He is going to open your mind even to the plans that He has. To the things that He wants to do with you. I really just sense that you are going to even know that you know that you know even what He wants you to do, even the things that He is going to do with you. I saw you just hungry for what do you want me to do what are you doing whats your next move. I sense that the Lord is just bringing that revelation even as you pour out yourself even as you just dig in and say Lord I got to know what it is. I really sense that the Lord is going to bring that revelation He is going to bring that mind change even to where you are going to know the will of the Lord you are going to know the plans He has for you.

Bob I felt like there has been a day when you felt like you were strapped in held in like a ride at a amusement park where the thing comes down and holds your head tight holding you body in place and I saw of of that released, the Lord is releasing you from that thing that has wanted to keep you in one place doing one thing. There is a whole big world out there for you. God said that there is a new release coming to you. You are going to feel it, you are knowing it inside of you. At time you feel like you are being turned upside down and when you are turned upside down I saw the pockets come out and change drop out. That spoke to me that there is significant change coming and things are just going to just be different. There is even going to be a flowing of funds to you. This is going to be bigger than what you ever had in days before. The Lord said that I am going to cause your name to come up. There is going to be a calling forth of your name kind of like people being called into active duty in the military . The Lord said I am calling you now into an active duty. This is different than anything you have walked in. The Lord said I am going to give you fresh ideas, strategies even just some witty ideas that are going to be outside the box and God said that my grace and my favor will be on it.

The Lord is saying that He is even bringing that change that even, I do not know you, but I just really sense that you are a quiet person but I sense the Lord saying that He is going to be bringing words even just wisdom, and I even sense the Lord saying that if you never open you mouth you are never going to see those things come to pass. It is even a day to open your mouth and to declare the things that He is even put in your heart even just to break out of the mold. I really sense that the Lord is going to pour out a freedom even as you just step out you are not going to be able to recognize yourself, like who the heck is that person? What is going on? The Lord is going to bring break out just a change from even who you are even now. That you are not going to recognize the man you are going to become. The Lord is going to bring freedom and release as you step out saying Lord I do not know what I am doing but I want you God. Even just begin to open your mouth I am sensing that He is going to be faithful to put the words in you mouth.

Bob I have no idea where you are at today but I feel that there is something with this area down here that is going to be significant. There is something about the root system back in here. I do not know what all that is but I feel something in this area for you, weather you came out of here or you are coming . I do not know what is is but there is something about this area [I used to live in and am moving back to Olean] I also felt to that God is going to use you to network some things just networking ideas but also I do not want to say that you are moving into the political realm but there are some things that you are just going to draw the line in the sand and say who's side are you on? I saw you almost being a fore runner with some ideas supporting something or somebody that is out there. There is just going to be a ability to clearly articulate what the thinking is behind something and what the result will be in the end. I felt like the Lord said there is a new grace on you in this hour to be able to hear what it is that you are trying to say that other have not been able to pick up on or fully comprehend or understand but now they are going to be able to understand because there is a grace and favor on you this hour.
The other thing I felt is something about the family. I saw a picture like a scratch come across the family. I felt like the Lord said that He is healing and pulling together what needs to be pulled together with the family there is a strengthening that is happening. The Lord says you can trust me on this one, I will do it, and I will do it beyond what you ever thought I could do or would do for you.

I just heard the words faith and boldness. The Lord is saying you will come to a place where you know what has been spoken over you. You have to have the faith and have the boldness just to step out and not be comfortable where you are. You might be saying how am I going to get to that place, that is not me Lord, I can not do those things. I sense that the Lord is saying you got to have faith, you have to step out in boldness. He is going to pour out a new boldness even upon even to you to where you are going to be able to go out. I saw you speaking in front of people and having a boldness and a spirit of timidity is going to be broken off you and the Lord is going to pour out a new level of faith a new level of boldness upon you. You are going to go out and have that courage and boldness knowing that you are walking in his will and walking is His plan. You are going to walk in amazing boldness.

The last thing I felt is when Nate was just ministering I felt this too and it brought back to my mind when you first sat down I felt like miracles are going to happen around you. There is the miracles of Jesus, the first miracle He turned the water into wine. I felt like there is really some miracles, substantial miracles are going to happen around you. The other thing I felt is that He has given you a mind to invent some things, there are things on the horizon. I felt God saying Just go for it, go for it, take all the restraints off and just run full speed ahead and he will be with you and help you.

So Lord we thank you for Bob Lord we bless where he is at now, and what you are doing in him. We thank you for being with him and helping him. When there are times when he is not able to sleep at night because his mind is running , I pray that you would help him to just relax and to get sleep and rest in his body. I speak into his home I speak life right now I speak the breath of God I speak revival into that family Lord even into the root system where they come from I speak reviving to take place a rekindling of fire of passion for You and for one another.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Avoid going to California starting June 16

If I were you I would not even consider going to California starting June 16. CNN is reporting that gays from all over the country are going there to get married. The CNN article is titled "Gay marriages worth $684 million", and it claims that gay marriages will boost the economy.

Do you remember what happended in Florida? Three hurricanes criss crossed the state two years in arow. Do you remember what happended to New Orleans? The Bible says this kind of behavior will cause the land to "Vomit you out".

I am not saying what will happen in California, I will leave that for the bigger prophets, but I do expect some real shaking to take place. It will cause a mass exodus from the state just like what happened in Florida and New orleans. My advice is to get out now and avoid the rush!

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Forget global warming, declare war on mercury!

First of all the people complaining about global warming believe there were as many as a dozen ice ages. What happened between those ice ages? Lets stop wasting our money on nonsense and fight a real critical problem. One in 160 children have autism and autism has been linked to mercury in 2 unrelated studies just in the last week or two.

One study on monkeys showed that monkeys that were vaccinated with the same vaccinations that our children get develop autism and other neurological diseases. There was a control group that did not get vaccinations and that did not develop the diseases. This study clearly proves the link between the vaccinations and autism.

Another study came from the state of Texas. They studied the rate of autism and the location of sources of mercury. For every 10 miles further from a source of mercury your chances of autism goes down by 1 percent. The number one source of mercury is coal burning power plants.

We need to ban the use of mercury in lights, and yes I know that a law requiring those lights has just been signed into effect by the global warming people! They are using a made up problem to create a much greater problem. Old lights were inefficient in that they give off heat. Well if you live in the northern 1/2 of the USA extra heat is not a problem! Imagine how much colder it would be if it were not for global warming?

We need to require mercury scrubbers on all power plants that burn coal. This stuff cannot just be released into the air. Have you ever seen the smoke coming from some of those power plants?
We need to ban the use of mercury in all vaccinations. Currently it is banned in vaccinations that are used only in children. That law needs to be greatly expanded.

Laws limiting the use of mercury fillings need to be expanded to make it possible to get those fillings removed. I have about 2 left and most dentists will not remove them until they are clearly leaking.

We need immediate research into removing mercury from our bodies. Two possibilities for removing mercury are chlorella and detox foot pads. What methods work the best? Can the autism be reversed?

Like the ban on Lead leading to the removal of lead from our gas and our paints, Mercury needs to be banned. Places to turn in mercury filled thermometers and thermostats need to be set up so they can be safely collected.

LETS FIGHT A REAL PROBLEM, FIGHT MERCURY!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Recycling old TV's

I just read on CNN about a program that is being set up to recycle old refrigerators. They need to do the same thing for old TV's. This fall and into next year everyone will be switching to digital TV's. What do you do with all of the millions of old analog TV's? The government needs to set up a TV recycling program. The old analog TV's will probably work on cable where a cable box does the conversion as well as in other countries that still use the old NTSC standard. If enough people complain maybe they will see the need and set something up to prevent millions of working TV's from going to the junk yard.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Revival

Most everybody has heard of the Florida revival going on and available for viewing at http://www.god.tv/. Up here in New York we just finished the biggest Leadership conference ever with about 1,000 pastors, leaders, and missionaries in attendance. Jack Hayford was the guest speaker. I will be uploading pictures and video soon at http://www.elimfellowship.org/. I thought I would share some thoughts on what is happening.

I have been a Christian for over 40 years, I know I do not look that old but... I remember back in the 70's listening to CBN radio out of Ithica NY. Sometimes the Scott Ross show would have Phil Keaggy, Peter York, and Ted Sanquist in 'concert' at Love in, now called Greater Love Ministries. I made several recordings of the show on my Reel to Reel recorder. Years later I converted them to Cassette and I still have 2 tapes of the show. Those recordings sound a lot like what is happening today.

Back in the 70's there were two cultural roadblocks. God could never use someone with long hair and ragged jeans with holes in them were definitely of the devil. I remember how repugnant those hippies looked. Why did they not know that you have to look your best to go to church? But God did use them though matter how much we were repulsed by their appearance. Now I see people with tattoos and piercings. Don't they know that those piercings open them up to a high risk of infections? Once again we need to realize that these things are only cultural and do not affect their salvation or the message that God is speaking through them.

God will also use people in this revival that have criminal records or even a history that includes divorce. Remember Joseph had a criminal record.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Strange Dream

I have a lot of strange dreams. One that I wrote down in 1997 predicted 9/11 with incredible accuracy. I have a habit of writing them down, and usually I know what they mean. I have learned that you cannot let them change what you do, but you can look back after things happen and say that God was in it. So anyway I had this dream and do not know what exactly it means.

04/17/08 - Corn on fire
I dreamed that someone was hosing down some corn. They showed me how some of the corn had caught on fire. Just the tops of the corn plants had been burnt. So I joined them in hosing down the corn. Then the little pump station was burned up. We resorted to using buckets and cups to stop the fires. I was going to take the elevator or stairs to another floor of the building. Then I saw a table full of people and explained the problem to them.
Notes;

You could not easily see the fire, it was almost invisible.
It was spontaneous combustion, the fires started on their own.
It was happening inside of a building, like maybe a hospital.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The war rages on....

We techies are waging a war on three fronts. There is the war on spam, the war on viruses and the war on Internet attacks. Every time we make a move to block these criminals they make a counter move. It is a race to keep up with the techniques to stop these people.

If you are still not using Nmap to scan your network for infected computers with unusual open ports, I can almost guarantee that you have an infected computer. There is a new Windows version so forget the excuse of needing to use the cumbersome command prompt to run Nmap. The Windows version is called Nmap-Zenmap. Don't just run a network scan but also save a print out what is normal. Every time you run it you will find new open ports on some computer. Then when you notice someone's computer has port 6670 open for the first time you can go to the computer and ask the operator what they have installed. They will claim ignorance but be sure they are infected. If nothing can fix the problem just replace their hard drive. If you are like me you will have a box or 2 of used hard drives. I keep them for months and keep running virus scans, etc to no avail.

What I am saying is that Antivirus, Rootkit detectors, and Malicious Software removal tool are all next to worthless. They might find a problem around 25% of the time if you are lucky. The rest of the time it is up to you to find the infection. They are also not very good at removing the infections either.

You may ask why I disabled posting comments to my blog? Well some turkey posted a comment that was a virus and infected my laptop hard drive. So now it has a new hard drive and once again I cannot find the infection on the old one. AVG did give a virus warning a few days after the infection but that was too late.

On the Internet attacks, tighten up your firewall rules! Sonic Wall for example allows any computer inside of the fire wall to access anything outside of the firewall. So they send someone a virus infected email that is not detected for several days. In the mean time the virus has reached out and connected to someone and downloaded who knows what. Just block everything except for ports 80 and 443. Of course you know that they will write the virus to communicate on those ports sooner or later.

Monday, April 21, 2008

This was an awesome weekend

This was an awesome weekend. The highlight was Sunday when Teddy got saved. To make a long story short I took his grandson over to see him at the Buffalo VA hospital a couple of weeks ago. It was fun sitting there talking with all of these fellow Veterans. Last Friday Teddy got to go home from the hospital and Sunday he wanted to come to church. He is over 70 but he finally got right with God. It is never to late. There were some other things going on as well and maybe I will get to them in future posts.

Another highlight of the weekend was the wonderful weather. Fred, Mary Louise, and I went bike riding along the Allegheny river in Olean. I was planning on getting some work done at the church but instead spent the afternoon helping Fred clean up his back storage room.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

House Fire South 2nd St Olean NY

Last night a house just down the street had a fire and was about 50% consumed. The Fire department was there most of the night and left at 7:30 AM. More pictures are on Facebook under bobdavis321.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Thyroid Synthroid and medical problems

First of all this is NOT intended to be medical advice.

I have been on Synthroid since around 2003. Back then I had changed doctors 3 times and they all said to see a shrink. My shrink admitted that my fingers were blue but he said I was causing it out of my felt need to be sick. They sent me to a heart specialist who said there was nothing wrong with my heart but my fingers were blue. Then a blood test revealed that my TSH was real high so they put me on synthroid. My temperature jumped from 96 to 98 degrees and 15 years of constipation was finally resolved.

I wish that was the end of the story. However it gets a lot more complicated at this point. Synthroid is T4 and you need T3 and T4 to operate. The theory is that excess T4 is converted to T3. Your brain needs T3 to operate. The amount of T3 and T4 you need varies with the temperature outside and the amount of stress you are under. So after tracking my thyroid status by the constipation I discovered that it actually shows up quicker as depression/paranoia. In fact my brain totally shut down before my fingers turned blue again. Then I took an extra 1/2 dose of synthroid and the depression lifted like magic.

I have long felt that people on synthroid need a better method of tracking their medicine. People with diabetes check their blood sugar three times a day. So I got the idea of tracking my temperature. Over a few days of taking my temperature three times a day, I concluded that it is 96 in the morning, 94 in the afternoon, and 98 in the evening. I have like a "hot flash" almost every evening, and I am a guy! I checked and if it goes below 93 degrees you need medical help. The low reading of 94 corresponds with every muscle aching, being stiff as a board, and being depressed. In fact I sometimes had "panic attacks" that also seem to be from the low temperature. It is like getting on an airplane and remembering that you forgot to pack your suitcase.

What is the solution? I do not know. I think the doctors should keep the TSH real low so that you have excess T4 to convert into T3. Another possibility is to take a Thyroid supplement like Kelp that is a source of natural Iodine, as well as thyrosine, Irish Moss, and some other stuff in it.

Having a low body temperature also leads to chronic illness. This winter I had a cold for 6 weeks before going to Asia. There it quickly resolved. After being back a few weeks it started coming back. The reason you get a fever when you are sick is because raising your temperature kills bacteria. Lowering your temperature allows the bacteria to thrive.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Viewsonic VA800 and VG175 repairs revisited.


My web site has had how to repair these Viewsonic monitors when they have garbage on the screen. You replace C19 with a 1 uf to 4.7 uf at 16 volts capacitor. Now I want to add that if it has a reddish picture with green streaks to the right of the text, you can replace C67. Again use a 1 uf to 4.7 uf at 16 volts capacitor. The capacitors should be available at Radio Shack. I have also encountered one monitor that would not turn on for 5 to 10 minutes. I replaced the capacitor that is just to the right of the C67 labeled IC to fix it. I think it was 22 uf at 16 volts but it might have been 47 uf. I have only encountered that problem once.