For those interested in Linux and Open Source, I have started a new forum and blog at http://n3mtjlinux.net/forum and http://n3mtjlinux.net/blog.
These are dedicated to Linux and Open Source software and everybody is welcome to check them out.
Sunday, I was prepared to replace the switch that controlled my front outdoor light. It had stuck in the “on” position and having a couple fail in the same way, I pulled the three-gang switch plate off and found a mess. Rather a mess that made my heart miss a few beats. I forgot to take pictures of the burned wiring inside the box, but saved the switch to photograph.
Looks like a catastrophic failure to me; at first I had blamed it on a poor connection until I saw the flash marks.
The fracture was not caused by removing the switch, it was already there. You can also see remnants of melted insulation on the back of the switch.
I an sure it ejected some flame here when it happened. I was unable to get a good inside picture of the backside of the handle. I’ll update later if I do get one. The screw looks corroded, but I found no sign of water having been anywhere near the switch.
From what I can tell, the flash incident went unnoticed. We rarely switched the automatic outdoor light off. One night I noticed that the light was staying on (it is a motion light), so I went to turn it off and found the switch stuck “on”. I did not notice the melted plastic for several days until after I went to replace the switch. It seems that the line from the breaker entered the quick connect hole (I hate those things!) and the rest daisy chained off the screw terminal to the other two switches in the box, and the rest of the circuit and overheated, melting the insulation. The melted insulation pattern was not consistent with a single flash incident. I have seen insulation blown off of wires and stuck to other objects inside the box, where the bulk of the missing insulation here was obviously split away from the conductor.
The frightening thing is that we have a coat rack right next to the switch box that could have easily caught fire if a coat was covering the switch. Any guesses as to my next project? Hint: The coats are moving to a different location!
I have started a new website dedicated to Open Source software, including Linux, Firefox, Open Office, and other various Open Source applications.
The URL to the blog which is up and running, but I have no posts there yet is this: n3mtjlinux.net
I will also have a dedicated forum there and eventually a full site if all goes well.
Hopefully this will be a place to dispel myths and untruths about Open Source as well as a learning place for those interested in giving it a try.
Note that I will try to keep this in the realm of education instead of bashing the other operating systems.
It is not your imagination; the blog does look different! I switched to the Straight Blue theme, and am making modifications to personalize it.
For the next few days, please excuse the picture to the left of the Search area as I will be tweaking it to remove the white borders and jaggies. They show up nice and plain when not against the brighter background I had intended to use with another theme! The entire theme may change a little as I tweak it, too.
I guess it may or may not be easy to see that I love playing with the site as time allows. Hopefully things will settle down enough that I can do a lot more here.
While on the subject of weather technology, here is a link to an easy online course by The National Weather Service about their WSR-88D Doppler RADAR system.
It is informative, yet easy to understand. It covers the basics of how they use Doppler for weather purposes.
There is an easy quiz at the end if you wish to take to receive a certificate of completion. If you are not interested in the certificate, at least you will understand what the colors mean and just what the whole picture is telling you.
If you wish, here is a boiled down version minus the questions and certificate.
Oh, and have fun!!
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