<rqou>
or are these intended for powering things not inside the car?
<lain>
probably things not inside the car - my mom's an artist and we were always doing art fairs. lots of artists would cart a large car battery to their tent and run a big inverter to power various junk throughout the show, like lighting, maybe some music, sometimes even power tools for modifying art pieces on the spot :P
<rqou>
wb4apr has an interesting point that if you hack a prius or other hybrid the way he did, you now get a reasonably-decent generator
<rqou>
and the generator is capable of transporting itself, and you, and extra stuff too
<lain>
on the rare occasion we had a lengthy power outage, I would run my honda as a generator to power my shit
<lain>
honda as in car, not generator
<lain>
:P
<rqou>
apparently non-hybrids aren't nearly as efficient when you do that
<lain>
yeah it was wildly inefficient
<lain>
hybrid would be way better, for sure
<rqou>
if you look on that page wb4apr has another "interesting" prius
<rqou>
it's been converted to phev (plug-in hybrid) but also has solar panels on the roof
<rqou>
idle thought: i wonder if you can convert the gasoline engine part of the prius to run on CNG instead?
<rqou>
most hippie eco-friendly vehicle possible? :P
<rqou>
probably not good ROI though
<azonenberg>
Lol
<azonenberg>
personally i'm happy with my LPG-based standalone generator
<azonenberg>
up to 4 kW for ~12 hours on a 20-pound gas tank
<azonenberg>
to be more precise, 12 hours run time per tank at whatever load i run it at
<azonenberg>
it's probably a bit worse at full load but i havent tested
<rqou>
that's probably more efficient if it's fixed in your house
<rqou>
but that generator can't easily be moved
<azonenberg>
this is on wheels and portable, but not self-powered
<azonenberg>
you have to actually lug it around yourself
<azonenberg>
i want a standalone one, i saw some nice ones from CAT et al
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<rqou>
but wb4apr's prius is probably better for field day/search and rescue
<azonenberg>
yes
<rqou>
he claims the prius as a generator does 4kwh per gallon
<azonenberg>
although fwiw, in my SAR unit we use a very similar portable gen (gasoline powered, not LPG, though) at base camp
<azonenberg>
to run the command post van
<azonenberg>
they just keep a few extra gas cans around to top it off as needede
<azonenberg>
and in the unlikely event of an extended mission exhausting the gas they'd just send a sheriffs officer or one of our base camp crew out to a gas station to get more fuel
<rqou>
huh apparently a 20lb propane tank is <5 gallons
<azonenberg>
Yes
<azonenberg>
it's about 4.7 of usable capacity
<azonenberg>
if memory serves me right
<rqou>
so the LPG generator is much more efficient
<azonenberg>
well i was likely not running at 4 kW
<azonenberg>
I think i was closer to 1
<azonenberg>
maybe 2
<azonenberg>
i dont know where the peak efficiency on the curve is
<azonenberg>
All i know is that running all of my computers, the refrigerator, and occasionally microwave and toaster oven during my last few outages
<azonenberg>
i used a pretty consistent amount of fuel, which came out to approximately 12 hours per 20-pound tank
<rqou>
hmm so if it's 2kw then it's only around 5kwh/gallon
<rqou>
volumetrically not that much better, but much cheaper
<rqou>
btw fun fact: hong kong has converted basically all of their "fleet" vehicles (taxis, buses) to LPG
<azonenberg>
yeah i noticed when i was there
<azonenberg>
But I wasn't doing it for cost
<azonenberg>
Cost only matters if this is say a construction site generator, and you're operating it for an extended period of time frequently
<azonenberg>
My generator is dual fuel LPG and gasoline
<azonenberg>
But for backup/emergency power, shelf life of the fuel matters more
<azonenberg>
LPG is under positive pressure and hermetically sealed so it's good for about a decade before the tank has to be emptied and hydro tested or replaced
<azonenberg>
Gasoline, even with stabilizers, isn't good for nearly as long
<rqou>
wait, a decade? even if you left it outside in the rain next to your grill or whatever? :P
<azonenberg>
I leave it under a tarp outside so it's not actually getting rained on
<azonenberg>
and i'd likely replace it prematurely if i saw significant rust
<azonenberg>
but the law/industry policy (forget which) is ten years from date of manufacture
<azonenberg>
or presumably earlier in the event of visible corrosion etc
<azonenberg>
Either way, the shelf life is dramatically greater, which is important for something that's primarily a reserve power source
<rqou>
there's actually an lpg tank on the front porch of my apartment right now
<rqou>
i have no idea who is responsible for it :P
<rqou>
all the housemates said "not mine" :P :P
<rqou>
i hope it's empty
<azonenberg>
lol
<azonenberg>
Which reminds me we havent had many power outages in the last few months, i should fire up the gen for half an hour or so to circulate the oil and keep the battery charged
<azonenberg>
It has a pull cord in the event the battery dies, but i much prefer the electric start
<rqou>
jump start it from a car? :P
<rqou>
it's actually very hilarious/disappointing when hybrid cars decide they need a jump start :P
<rqou>
this switch is being used as a "random crap aggregator"
<rqou>
it's probably not entirely necessary :P
<rqou>
the uplink is 10gbit
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<azonenberg>
ah i see
<azonenberg>
in my case i'm using 10g (among other things) as an upstream link for the starshipraider
<azonenberg>
which will easily be capable of saturating it
<rqou>
hmm, thinking about whether i should buy another intel x520
<rqou>
$150 or so
<rqou>
for the two port version
<rqou>
yeah, i just ordered another x520
<rqou>
now i can upgrade my NAS and get 10gbit
<azonenberg>
i have a lot of upgrades i want to do, including a dual xeon mobo for my desktop :p
<azonenberg>
But i'm trying to save for a house
<azonenberg>
and those things are... not cheap :'(
<rqou>
do you know if fanless skylake is a possibility?
<rqou>
my nas is currently a fanless bay trail :P
<azonenberg>
No i dont know
<rqou>
the current upgrade plan is "the weird skylake pentium that has ecc ram"
<rqou>
which is very budget-friendly :P
<azonenberg>
my nas has a spare pcie slot now iirc
<azonenberg>
so i could put 10g on it today
<azonenberg>
i just dont have anything for it to talk to yet :p
<rqou>
i got a 10g nic because of you actually :P
<rqou>
you pointed out on your blog that 10g ethernet is one of the simplest high speed "get data into pc" interfaces
<rqou>
no need to mess with tuples of 16-bit integers or similar crap
<azonenberg>
Yeah
<azonenberg>
It is
<azonenberg>
And i'm excited to finally get to play with it soon
<azonenberg>
things just keep coming up :'(
<rqou>
hmm i just realized i should fix the structural masking tape currently present in my NAS :P :P
<rqou>
my NAS used to be a wifi router
<rqou>
so it has two wifi cards in it
<azonenberg>
lol
<rqou>
but nobody makes full-size pcie wifi cards anymore
<rqou>
so i was mounting mini-pcie ones on adapter boards
<rqou>
but i didn't have the correct standoffs
<rqou>
but due to the way the connector pushes on the card, you can hold the card in place with masking tape
<rqou>
yes, this works
<rqou>
hopefully the two wifi cards don't interfere with each other too much? :P
<rqou>
one is an ath10k 802.11ac card on 5ghz and the other is an ath9k 802.11n card on 2.4ghz
<rqou>
i never benchmarked to test if the bay trail celeron is even fast enough to shuffle packets at the maximum data rate
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<rqou>
azonenberg: not sure if i should describe this NAS as hacky, adorable, sad, or some combination of the above: https://goo.gl/photos/JYi5AFd1uFQuWCT97
<lain>
ha
<rqou>
notable features: mATX in a huge crappy case
<rqou>
no fans at all
<rqou>
picoPSU
<rqou>
masking tape wifi card adapters
<rqou>
no cable management
<rqou>
it's actually pretty creepy when you boot this without a hdd because it makes no sound at all
<rqou>
oh and * intel server gbe nic plugged into the gpu slot