About to smoke some silver salmon for the first time using alder chips we just mulched, spruce tip salt that we made earlier this year, and some brown sugar.
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Finally vibe coded a script to analyze our solar data. We were gone for most of Jan and Feb and had the system shut down while we were away which is unfortunate since that is the lean-dark time. We insulated our batteries a lot more so now we’ll keep the system on even when we’re gone. We also got an irradiance meter in June so now we can track the solar we’re wasting because we don’t have loads to use it (yet).
And we were gone for much of November and December although we left the system on which is why the loads went a bit flat.
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Just ordered a DGX Spark to be our Internet-facing AI machine. I keep HAL off the Internet, but I do want to start trying agentic AI stuff and the Spark seems like it should be good for that. Wanted to wait on the purchase but with all the rumblings and the trends, as usual, best to get it while it can be got I suppose. It’s unreal how the price went up on our Pro 6000 GPU so I’m very glad we pulled the trigger on that purchase.
As we come up on winter, it occurs to me that I need to make sure this System76 Thelio Mega can operate when it’s -5F inside the cabin. Typically electronics work better when it’s below freezing, but I’m not sure and that thing is too expensive not to figure that out.
Edit: wow, this equipment does not like below freezing. That means I’ve got to keep the electric heat pump heating the cabin when we’re away just to keep the linux box happy. Lot of wasted power until I can make an enclosure for it instead.
Maybe I can find some cheap “rugged” linux laptop that can run at colder temps in the meantime.
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I think the biggest issue with electronics when going so far below freezing would be moisture. I think if the computer is turned off you should be able to keep it inside a box that keeps the humidity low but running it at these temperatures I’d guess heating and cooling of the air would lead to moisture and computer don’t like that.
Like usually computer parts have different values for the operating temperature and humidity, as well as the maximum and minimum allowed temperature and humidity when the device is turned off.
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Yeah, could put it in the root cellar but the temp still drops close to freezing in winter and has a lot more humidity so probably not a good option there either. I’ll build a controlled enclosure next summer.
Going to be finally getting into agentic AI here in a bit. Spark is currently being set up and then I think I will install Hermes. But mostly I want to use my agents for Internet research and yet despite the ability to webscrape, it seems most search engines for AI agents are paid plans?
There is one called Parallels search that seems to be free though.
Though not much help with the System76 but if you ever decide to deploy electronics(such as a raspberry pi or esp32) in an area where moisture/humidity is a problem I can recommend using conformal coating. Specifically this: ElectroniCoat, Shields electrical components from the elements with a clear spray-on rubber coating.
Had to design products in the past for harsh environments and that stuff has saved me so much headache. Just make sure to read the instructions and follow them exactly.
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Thanks! Will definitely take a look at that. Might add it to my enclosure build. (edit: ah, I see it is sprayed on electronic components directly, that will take more planning but looks like a great option). I’m guessing will just super insulate the enclosure, add a sheet metal bottom and put some heat strips on it, have an intake port and a fan exhaust port, and a bunch of thermometers and have it all wired up so the system vents/heats as required to keep the enclosure at 40F or greater. Then hopefully moisture won’t be an issue.
Then the choice is to keep it in the cabin where it will get down to -4F potentially (unless we keep the heat on) or put it in the root cellar where it might see 30F but will have far higher humidity. I’m guessing cabin is the better choice.
Just dabbling with Hermes and this agentic stuff is a whole new level. Kind of scary.
Our first burn of the season. Had a string of sloppy overcast weather (and some hail) and I have been running AI non-stop for a project and so the batteries are low. Instead of running the generator to stretch us until the sun comes up, we instead threw a log on the fire. We moved our diesel Toyo install to next summer so wood is our only backup this winter. Turned the electric heat pump off, got old smokey going, and as it heats up and the catalytic converter kicks in, the smoke ceases from the chimney and burns up in the stove.
It amazes me that our spruce forest this year provided us with chocolate covered spruce tips, spruce salt, spruce syrup, spruce tip ice-cream and then provided the wood for our kitchen build and shelves and a variety of of other things, and now it’s keeping us warm. Thank you spruce forest.
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Mom and dad brought 4 lynx kittens by the cabin today. We went out on the deck to greet them and they hunkered down for quite some time and we watched the kittens play. A half hour later two of the kittens were on the log pile right in front of our deck so they weren’t spooked. We tossed them some chicken and at least one of them enjoyed some. Hoping they come up on the deck soon.