Lee.org

Please help me find household lighting dimming that doesn’t flicker or hum! Please email or comment if you can help me.

I am sensitive to light bulb flicker (previously) including all the new LED tail lights on cars and household light bulbs and dimmers that use flickering (PWM or Pulse Width Modulation) to control their brightness.

It is a very real problem. While driving, it is extremely distracting; when I turn my head quickly, LED tail lights look like police flasher lights. And at home, a light bulb that is set to dim is soothing on my eyes except for the constant BZZZZZZ!! of the light flickering. Not fun.

Lights don’t have to flicker. They flicker because companies take shortcuts that make their lighting less expensive. In brief, instead of smoothly decreasing how much power the bulb gets, they turn the bulb on and off really quickly, fast enough so most people don’t even notice it. But I notice it. :-(. You might want to look up the concept of flicker fusion threshold for more reading.

I am willing to pay more for good lighting that doesn’t flicker. The problem is, I can’t figure out who to pay. Can you help me find household lighting dimming that doesn’t flicker or hum?

Here is a letter I wrote to Lutron (one of the biggest lighting control suppliers in the US) the other day and their (very sad) response:

I am looking to outfit my home with flicker-free and noise-free dimming lighting controls. Can you help?

I have tried using the Credenza Lamp Dimmer with an incandescent bulb and the flicker at low brightness doesn’t work for me. I have also tried using in-wall dimmers with LED lighting and both the flicker and noise of the system was bothersome. It is clear that the bulb and dimmer must be well-matched but I have yet to find a reliable way of matching them.

Here is Lutron’s response:

Application Group appsgroup@lutron.com via lee.org
Lee,
We really cannot tell you what to use. The reason for that you can get flickering or buzzing noise from any of those lamp types. And it has to do with the quality and compatibility of the dimmer with the bulbs. You really won’t know what you get till you have wired it up together. With incandescent if you have poor quality bulb you could get buzzing noise. With CFL these bulbs are typically a noisy bulb and you have to match the correct bulb with dimmer. And even with that they are still noisy. And with LEDs you really have to match up the dimmer with the bulbs and you may still get noise and flickering and that may be normal. It really is a trial and error. We have a list of CFL and LED brand and model of bulbs that we have tested and can say will work with our dimmers but that does not mean that you won’t get flickering or even buzzing noise from the dimmer or bulbs.

Sincerely,
Oscar
Lutron Tech Support
Lutron Electronics, Inc.
www.lutron.com
OM

What is your favorite daily mail?

Here’s mine:

Creators Project. New cutting edge art. I get the weekly mailer

The Daily Digg. News and stories.

SomeEcards. Humor

I saw projection mapping at an Amon Tobin concert at the Greek Theater in Berkeley in late 2012 and it was amazing. This is the next, mind blowing level! Real Time Projection Mapping on Faces!

Via Creators Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGI4oz1QnZo

Purnail is a toenail product to treat nail fungus. It’s active ingredient, undecylinic acid is available for about 1/40th the price at your local CVS!

For example, $13 for 1 ounce of 25% undecylinic acid in Fungicure vs $60 for 0.3 ounces of 10% undecylinic acid in Purnail.

Purnail is a scam. I’d like to give you better news but modern science doesn’t have a cure-all for nail fungus. Feel free to browse my site for ongoing real discussion about nail fungus cures.

Short form: orals sometimes (50%?) work but they can be toxic to your liver. Any topical has a low (10%?) chance of success at curing. Some people say one formulation has done better for them than others. Don’t hold your breath and don’t spend a ridiculous amount of money on treatments: if it seems to good to be true, it is. Keeping your infection at bay with an inexpensive topical might be the best you can do.

Purnail is almost definitely just a rebrand of another product made with the same ingredients with the same bottles and the same marketing. Take a look at the two product pages, do you notice any similarities?

What I learned on Imgur today:
Slow motion close up of a steel cutting tool

Those little splotchy marks on the metal being cut are grains. The boundaries between grains is where cutting is preferred. Notice how the tool doesn’t do the cutting, rather the material being cut creates a dead zone in front of the tool and does the cutting, increasing tool life. When this buildup breaks away, a burr is formed. Also, the shavings that are formed during cutting tell a lot about the quality of cut and if the rake angle, speed or feed of the cutting must be altered.

Last night I was a little surprised that the first hit I found for the Obama speech was NPR but I pressed on. Today I read that none of the big networks,  ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX carried the speech. Of course, it makes sense they’d all pass on the presidential speech since it’s sweeps month, there’s a lot of very important fiction that needs watching this month.

It is now official, network television is now irrelevant.

It’s been said that the revolution will not be televised. I didn’t think this would be the reason why.

A friend asked if Megan and I liked the Prius C we bought a few months ago. It’s a 2012 Prius C Model 2. Here’s the review I gave her.

“Bill” at Toyota of Berkeley sold it to us. He was “pretty good”. Of course it’s his job to say that every car we test drove was the best. The folks at Oakland Honda near Macarthur BART were insane (in a bad way). Some lady in the Honda Fremont Auto Mall was also awful. The used car consignment place… Buggy Bank in Berkeley was good but they’ve got a limited selection, and all used.

The Prius C is a great city car, pretty good highway car, a little noisy on the highway, 50+mpg highway (my record so far is 86mpg in a 10 mile stretch), 50+mpg city. It feels zippy (the honda fit 2009-2014 is sluggish get and gets mediocre MPG but the 2015 is zippy and gets better MPG).

The Mazda 3 just about crosses over into “sportscar” territory while being similar.

I squeezed 3 full size guys with 2 folded bikes in the car with no problem (that kind of amazed me)

The honda fit has fantastic views of the road, it’s like driving in a glass car. The Prius C has “very good” views of the road. I found the regular prius to have dangerous blind spots where the “A” pillar is. But your experience will probably be different because you are a much different height.

It’s little bit more expensive than the Fit but since Toyotas (and Hondas) keep their value so well, it wasn’t a stretch. We liked the interior design of the Prius a little more than the Fit. Our 2012 Prius C with 30k miles was about $18k, $19k after taxes etc..

There’s a couple models, the 1, 2, 3, and 4 with different options. I recall thinking “don’t get a 1”, I think it is lacking cruise control. Our “2” is good. I think the “3” has keyless ignition which would have been sweet but it’s like a $2,000 jump in price. And I wouldn’t bother with the navigation package since your phone is probably better than it (though I haven’t tested the prius navigation)

Obama’s Speech on Immigration tonight is pretty important. Watch it.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/20/365561535/watch-president-obamas-speech-on-immigration

Registration for December’s Oakland Workshop Weekend is now open!

Join us on December 6 & 7 to solder, sing, make ice cream, learn about mechanisms, program in JavaScript, Python, Clojure, or visually, remotely control an Arduino and more. At Workshop Weekend, a flat $40 admission gets you as many workshops as you can handle!

Register online by Wednesday, November 19 and save $10 with code EARLYBIRD1795.Select your workshops at http://workshopweekend.net/catalog

For families coming to Workshop Weekend together, we’re keeping our $10 discount for all parent admissions with the purchase of two or more admissions for children (under 18). Sign up on the same account and the discount will be automatically applied.

We have 30 workshops to choose from at this Workshop Weekend — a few old favorites are coming back alongside a number of new electronics, papercraft, and wearables workshops — and more! Join us for:

• Learn Arduino!
• Learn to Solder!
• Carousel Circuits
• Hands-on Math: Knots and Braids
• Cake Decorating
• Personal Finance
• Learn to Sing
• Intro to Clojure
• Moving Mechanisms
• LED Ornaments
• Felt Critters
• Electroluminescent Wire
• Wearable Tech: Bliplace
• 3D Copy your Face
• Flappy Bird in 45 Minutes
• Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream

…and many more!

Register and select workshops online at http://workshopweekend.net/catalog

I hope we’ll see you in December!

Cheers,
J.D., Gil, and the team at Workshop Weekend

I had a printer configuration problem so I had to delete and then reinstall my printer. The trouble was, I would delete the printer and then it would magically come back.

This solved my problem:

look in this folder:

C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS

Is it empty?

If not delete everything in the folder

Restart your computer