Report Card for Beta Units...??

[Robin]

Found a couple of pictures of our main upstairs lab. Also the turbine development area. I don't have pictures of bob's lab or the other two engineers on the other side of the building.
Labs are a fun place to hang around. Unless you are the one that has to rebuild the stuff that the engineers blow up.If any of you have read the threads regarding the Brat, you will see my reference to nailing the Brat to a tree. The C12 picture here is one of the prototype C12 controllers from the early 1990's located in my driveway. I am not nice to controllers. The Brat will replace the C12 in a few months.

[Robin]

I guess I will have to figure out how to download more than one photo at a time. Here is the main lab.
OK, I figured it out. I just had to read the instructions. I added a picture of Doug and MidNite our cat.

[Westbranch]

WoW, is that C12 still functioning?

and Live Lab Rats in a modern warren! complete with Clipper coils for heat.  do they evr go home?

[TomW]

No offence to boB, but..

I heard the nasty, viscious rumor boB's lab has a lot of porcelain in it?

I won't betray a trust and say who said that, however.

Tom

[Halfcrazy]

Nah the porcelain has been removed.

I will have to hunt down the pictures

[Robin]

The C12 is no longer functioning. I used a Romex strain relief on the wires at the bottom. Insects got inside and set up camp for all their relatives. Next time I do something like this maybe I should use the proper strain relief? Ut oh, too late for my Hawaii KID. It is over there with duck tape covering up the wire holes. Hey, you got to use what you have, right? Good thing it has a lifetime warranty!
Bob's office is actually an unused bathroom. We removed the toilet and put a nice oriental rug on the floor. It is just right for boB. If he had more space, it would just get cluttered up. Our new building should have 4 times the space for engineering. 4 times the production space also.
Found a few more pictures that some of you will find amusing.
There is a picture of Andy (electrical engineer) in my office. In the background is a cabinet that holds a bunch of Spectro Acoustics gear. Onan Parts can identify with that stuff.
The other is a picture taken in Chicago last October just before the Solar Power International expo. See, we clean up pretty good. Some of the stuff on the wall are prototype arc fault combiners. That would be Ryan on the left, Mary in the middle (she really runs the show) and Michael Tian. We buy a bunch of custom plastic parts from Michael.

[Robin]

The poster on the wall in my office is available for anyone who wants one. Just e-mail me.
robin@midnitesolar.com

[TomW]

Robin;

That cabinet is a sweet looking piece of furniture!

Tom

[dgd]

Wow! a real lab complete with dangling sticky fly catching paper complete with a good complement of entrapped insects.
I looked at the eTracer web site and there is a pic of their development lab with engineers all in white lab coats at a straight line of very tidy and clean white desks/benches, computer screens all in a row.
All wearing the company tie, white shirts and not a pencil behind an ear anywhere.

I prefer the MN lab as it reminds me of my place 
dgd

[Bunkie314]

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed the fly strips. Uh.... Just a suggestion, could use a freshen up maybe.

I would agree with dgd, looks like a fun place to hang out. Thank gawd I don't have to wear a tie......

[dgd]

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed the fly strips. Uh.... Just a suggestion, could use a freshen up maybe.

..or at least some new fly strips   
Although they are low technology insect control I suppose they are better than those high voltage UV devices that ZAP the insect with a satisfying electric crackle sound. Maybe exploded insect parts falling on the electronics or people (or in beer) would not be nice 

dgd

[Robin]

I suppose we could eliminate the fly strips for a while. We hope to be in a new larger building by the time they are needed again. We do have the electric tennis racket fly paddles. My favorite one has a motion sensor that says "DIE SUCKER" when you use it.
We don't let them down in production due to obvious reasons, but if engineers zap their own product, they get to fix it.

[dgd]

Just had a visitor looking at my KID and he asked if it could charge both house battery and starting battery in a motor home. Usually a small fixed 1 amp output maintains the start battery.
Could a future option for the LOAD output be used to do this?

[Bunkie314]

I'm already doing this with the daylight load function.  It appears to work quit well as the car battery is floating at 12.6 at night. Turns on at float and disconnects at 13.1 volt. There is already a lot of flexibility built in. I haven't limited the amp of the load side, but it is programmable. Question would be would the kid limit amps which I would imagine it should.

[dapdan]

Where's Mario? The forum has been quite silent I'm the past couple days on responding to issue/comments/questions on the kid.

Cheers....
Damani