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Installing OpenGarage
Last week on a whim I ordered a little OpenGarage unit. OpenGarage is an open-source hardware and software design that allows for remote monitoring and triggering of a garage door opener. My garage door opener is old and doesn’t have software built in, which is fine, but having the capability to remotely check and trigger the door would occasionally be nice to have. So, for $50 I figured it was worth a try.
The unit arrived earlier in the week. Minimally packaged in a small padded envelope, it’s smaller than a deck of cards, a small circuit board in a 3d-printed enclosure. The kit included a wire for connecting it to the garage door opener and a Micro-to-USB-A cable to provide power. It was a breeze to connect to my home wifi network, and easy to register for an online token so I can connect to it when I’m away from home. This morning I installed it - two screws hold it to the garage ceiling, the wires connect to the same opener terminals as the hard-wired control button, and voila!
It will take me a little time to figure out what automations I want to set up. OpenGarage supports IFTTT integrations, so I may experiment there with some time- and event-based notifications. For now, though, it looks like it was an inexpensive, easy way to get online monitoring and control capability I didn’t have before. Neat!
An Appliance Installation in Four Lowe’s Trips
Setting: a local homeowner has an old dishwasher that is dying. A new dishwasher was delivered and is sitting in the garage, waiting to be installed.
Lowe’s Trip #1: Electrical Stuff
The old dishwasher had just a raw electrical cable coming from the unit. The wire ran through a hole in the floor and was connected up to the breaker box in the basement using wire nuts. The new dishwasher has a proper electric plug. So on the way home from work I hit Lowe’s for a grey electrical box, a GFCI plugin, and an outlet cover plate.
Came home, wired up the box before dinner. Got out a big drill bit and expanded the hole in the floor to fit the big plug.
Lowe’s Trip #2: Water line
I don’t do plumbing work that often, but when I do, it’s the little latent leaks that make me nervous. I read the installation manual for the dishwasher and it suggested “hook up the water line, turn on the water, and check for leaks before putting the unit in place”. Great idea, I thought. However, the existing water line wasn’t long enough to make that work.
Hit Lowe’s again, bought a longer water line. Hooked it up to the dishwasher. Ran the hose down through a separate hole in the floor, hooked it up to the water pipe in the basement. Turned the water on. No leaks.
Ran the electric plug end through the hole in the floor, plugged it in. We have power. Now we just need to hook up the drain hose.
The drain hose boot is marked that it will accommodate up to a 7/8” pipe. The PVC drain pipe plumbed up to the dishwasher location is marked 3/4”, but it turns out that’s 3/4” inside diameter. Outside diameter is a solid one inch. And the rubber boot doesn’t stretch that much.
Lowe’s Trip #3: Drain Pipe Fitting
Perused the PVC aisle. Then to the next aisle over with kitchen plumbing supplies. A “standard” dishwasher install would have it near the sink so the drain hose could tie in to the sink drain. Ours is on the opposite side of the kitchen, so whoever did the first dishwasher install here (sometime well after the house was built in 1959) ran the PVC drain line down through the floor and across the basement ceiling to tie in to the drain there. But I digress.
On the second trip through the PVC aisle, my wife notices the exact fitting we need. Sized to fit the 1” outside diameter pipe on one end, with a tapering ribbed end opposite it to grab a drain boot. I knew I had PVC glue at home, so paid for the fitting and headed back.
Grabbed the cans of PVC primer and glue from the basement. Opened up the primer and primed both pieces. Opened up the glue. It had solidified into jelly. Read the instructions on the back of the can. “Do not use if glue has hardened.” Deep, frustrated sigh.
Lowe’s Trip #4: PVC Glue
I know exactly where it is after perusing the PVC aisle less than twenty minutes previous. Head back home.
Glued up the fitting to the drain pipe. Let it sit for twenty minutes to harden up. Hooked up the drain hose. Carefully slid the dishwasher back into its slot. Confirmed that the hoses weren’t kinked. Nervously checked for drips under the water line fitting a couple more times. Still seemed ok.
PVC glue said to wait two hours before putting any pressure on the joint. Two hours later was getting close to bedtime, so we put the unit on the quick cycle to try it out. Had a minor heart attack when the display turned off every time we shut the dishwasher door. Found the full manual online and discovered that was by design. Let it run. 60 minutes later: clean dishes.
Here’s hoping I don’t have to repeat that task any time soon.
Adventures with Hot Water, or, Providential Timing Once Again
Last night after Wednesday night church, as we were just about to settle down for the night, Becky called out to me from downstairs. It wasn’t her usual voice, asking me for something - this was her oh-no-this-is-trouble voice. “Chris I need you downstairs.” When I got downstairs, I got part two of the announcement. “We’ve got water all over the floor.” Now, the words “water on the floor” bring back instant connotations of the flood last summer. Fortunately, though, what we found wasn’t anything near so troubling. Which is not to say that we were very happy about it, since there were puddles of warm water all around the floor near the water heater.
I pulled out a flashlight and confirmed my suspicions: the water heater had developed a leak and was dripping the last of its contents out onto the floor. I turned off the water and gas feeds to the heater and Becky got out the towels. (One nice side-benefit of the flood: we now have a large supply of towels that are good for nothing but wiping up the floor.) We wiped up the remaining mess and then, rather than settling down to watch a little bit of TV, pulled out the computer to do some online water heater research. My posts to Twitter and Facebook evoked sympathy, advice, and at least one offer to help with an install. But having neither the time nor really the know-how to do the install, I decided to head for Lowe’s this morning, based on their proximity to our place and a good recommendation from a friend.
I had a one-hour window this morning to leave work, purchase the water heater and arrange for install, and get back to work before my meeting started. It was a quick trip to Lowe’s, and I found that at 8:00 in the morning there are plenty of employees there and ready to help. I selected my heater of choice, ponied up for installation and the city permit, and headed back to work. The woman at Lowe’s figured there was no way we’d get it installed today, hopefully tomorrow, otherwise it’d be Monday. I offered a quick prayer for an installer with some free time and headed back to work. Thirty minutes later I got the phone call back from the installer. Would I be available today at 11:00? So providential timing number one: we were able to get the heater installed the same morning.
It’s a nice water heater, too - high efficiency, 50-gallon, eligible for a rebate from the gas company, 12-year warranty, etc. And, so far as I can tell, it heats water nicely. (My shower tonight was quite pleasant.) Oh, so on to providential timing number two: our income tax refund got deposited to our bank account yesterday. It’s not how we’d planned to use the money, but it is sure a blessing to have it there for the need.
Thus concludes this chapter of the Mundane Adventures of Chris in Iowa. Tune in this weekend to find out about Chris’s first time on the Stonebridge worship team. Good night.