I love my new MacBook Pro. The media loves a possible negative Mac/Apple story. After all the news after low battery life on my MacBook Pro, I was getting paranoid and wondering at every battery indication drop. So I decided to actually test my laptop. There are a lot of details on how to do this on the web but essentially it is as follows:

1. Set Volume at 50%
2. Set Brightness at 75%
3. Set Keyboard brightness off
4. Notifications off
5. Ensure most background programs off
6. Ensure it is 100% charged
7. Get iTunes Playlist of 1080p movies
8. Set playlist to repeat
9. Play playlist at full screen
10. Unplug
11. Wait 5-10 hours

I waited 8+ hours and went to sleep. I could see when I went back into iTunes, after I started it up again, where the movie stopped. I could then determine how much longer the playlist lasted. In the end I must have been getting paranoid from the news cycles because my MBP lasted 620 minutes or 10.3 hours. Apparently Apple promises 10 hours in this scenario. So I am sorted.

Well I dished out for a new macbook pro. The one with the touch panel. Looking forward to playing with it (in 3 or 4 weeks). I normally do my development work on one of my many Mac Mini's or my trusty 11" Macbook Air. It is truly amazing how long that Macbook Air worked. It had a 5 year old processor and only 4 GB of ram yet it would allow me to run Xcode, simulators, Safari etc, all concurrently without any problem. I did the majority of my IOS apps with it. I was only slowed down occasionally by the small screen, but it worked well and was extremely portable, and looked (still does) beautiful. My main reason for the new computer is that the battery seems to be nearing the end of its life on the air, surviving only an hour on a full charge. Tuire has an iPad retina, the twins have their iPad mini's (in big shock cases) but I am sure that I will find a use for the poor old guy though!

As for the lack of old school USB on the Pro, I rarely ever have my Air connected to anything other than Wifi to my network, so it's perfect for me. I may get a small cheap dongle hub if required. For the curious I took the basic 13" touch panel model but maxed up the ram to 8GB. For future proofing, you always should max up the RAM as it is not user upgradeable.

My neighbour was upgrading his RV and he asked about my RV rebuild project. I then found out he would sell me his old RV for less than the cost of my rebuild. To top it off the RV was loaded with more than I hoped to put in my rebuild.

The only issue was a water damage on the hybrid beds and on the dome over the shower. Both issues are the only issues that I could find on line regarding this model. The leak on the beds are due to folding the hybrid rubber flap incorrectly. The dome leak was/is a caulking issue, that might be fixed already. However I will cut out the bathroom ceiling and have a look just in case. I really didn't like the idea of buying a used trailer due to how easy the walls/ceilings rot. However we knew and trusted the history of this unit. Our neighbours bought it used (one year old) and used it for the past 6 years. The interior was spotless. The dealer offered little on a trade-in due to the leak. They don't want the possible hassle.

So far we have only tested out everything in the driveway, but everything works very well and the kids love it! No leaks over the last two downpours.

Pictures below. The RV is a 2007 Starcraft 185sb Antigua. It is a 18ft hybrid RV sleeping 4-6 people!

​I will rebuild my triple-e trailer into a utility trailer.

In my final design, I put two good antennas, the CYD-1430 at 46 ft, and the Winegard HD8800 at 43 ft. I then face mounted my regular day in day out use antenna (the DB8e) on the tower at about 37ft. One bay is aimed at Watertown, one bay at Plattsburg. This is about a 60 degree beam width. That antenna should not work as well as it does. Finally for fun, I put a four bay clone at 39ft. aimed between Montreal and Plattsburgh. 

Face mounting the DB8e on the DMX is very very easy and looks way cool. Note the DMX is a 40' tower on a one foot hinge addition and a 7ft mast (5'8"above tower peak).

​First night I am getting ABC and all the Watertown stations but it looks like a unusually good reception night. I will have to wait for some long term results. In the pictures you can see my old chimney mast still up. More details on the install can be seen on the Antenna Tower page. My hourly scan results can be seen on the OTACanada reception scan page

Summary
46ft - CYD-1430 on a RCA TVPRAMP1R preamp pointed towards Watertown (on rotor)
43ft - Winegard HD8800 on a Kitztech KT-200 preamp pointed towards Watertown (on rotor)
39ft - 4 Bay Clone on a CPA-19 preamp pointed towards Mount Mansfield Vermont
37ft - DB8e on a Channel Master 7777 (dual input one) pointed towards Watertown and Plattsburg.

In my cleaning up/sorting of my misc. electronic kit, I stumbled upon an old rotor. I believe it is a channel master rotor (or a Radio Shack copy). Of course I had to see if it worked - and it did! Now I have two CM rotors. I am thinking of putting both on my tower project.

In my tower design I realized I would need at least 100ft of rotor wire. I currently only have a 75' stretch. I had given up my last 200ft to my brother-in-law and didn't feel like buying another roll of 500ft. You can buy cheap stuff in 75ft. However I did have lots of CAT5 that I didn't need (I have 1000' of CAT6 I need to use first). Cheap rotor wire is typically 22 gauge. Good rotor wire is 20 gauge, CAT 5 is 24 gauge. Rotor wire is typically 3 wire (Channel Master) or 4 wire. Easy solution is to pair up wires in a CAT5 for a 4 wire cable. Pictures show a typical wire hookup, the video below shows the rotor opening at normal speeds. The rotor bolts are currently in a container of vinegar "derusting". Don't forget to cut off the unused pair to avoid shorting.

I originally wanted to install my antenna tower on the two floor side of my side split house. The plan was that I probably could have climbed the final section and a half easily for maintenance. I have since changed up the plan and will design a hinge base for the tower. That only leaves me with a small section on the other side of the house where a tower could be lowered without hitting  a tree. My other worry about the North side of my house was that all the stations are to the south and I would be receiving signals over 40+ feet of metal roof. They say that if you 10 feet above the the roof diffraction would not be an issue but I am not convinced.

A man can never have too many projects.

I currently have wood floors in all rooms but two. I used some spare time today to start the pine floor in the kids room. Really this is step 3. Step one was buying (cheap from Home Depot - about $1/sq ft). Step 2 was acclimatizing for 6 months. Step three is now planing. I bought approximately 170 sq ft of rough pine in 1x8x8', I have a 13" mastercraft planer from my brother-in-law. Not the best but it works. I used the planer to plane it down to 3/4" (0.756" actually). Took about 6 straight hours of work, as each pass took off only 1/32". Looks good and ready for the next steps: Jointing, Ripping, Tongue & Groove and finally the easy bit - installation. In the bottom picture below, the stacked wood right of the newly planed pine is the reclaimed/pallet douglas fir which will be the last bit of the puzzle and used in the master bedroom and kitchen floor.

Decided to make a simple but solid seesaw for the kids. First I moved the kids sand box to create a suitable space for the seesaw (at least 10x4ft in area). I then built a simple frame using 4x4's and my spare pipe. Cross beam is 12". Frame height was about 35". I cut the pipe in the end to be about 24". Next trick was to attach the pipe clamps to the seat board. I needed more strength than just wood screws so I used short bolts. 1/4 bolts fit the clamps and were very secure. I probably could have got away with just two clamps. I drilled an insert so that the munchkins would not be walking on or bumping into exposed nuts. I dug holes about 12" in depth to place the frame. I aimed for the pipe to be approximately 22" off the ground. Once level all around I then used quick set post cement to lock it in place. I tried to keep the kids off for at least 20 minutes. I then drilled holes through the pipe on each side of each frame to place the locking clips (4 in total). A side benefit is that the seat board can be removed easily at any time for repair or events. You can also drill lower holes in the frame assembly for even smaller kids. My two just turned 4. Overall the seesaw turned out a lot more solid than I expected. 

I used parts I had kicking around:

• 4x4x8' post or I used 3@4x4x3' of spare pallet wood
• Aproximate 24" of 1 1/2" pipe (not sure why I had this, I think it was fence or antenna post)
• 2 @ lynch pins
• 2 @ pin clips

Parts I bought ($32 worth at Lowes this time)

• $10 - 2x10x8' spruce for seat board. I refuse to use preserved wood for heavily contacted areas. I'll paint it a solid color later. I also plan to shape the seat.
• $3 - 3 @ 1 1/2" pipe clamp. Two would work with the bolts I used.
• $3 - 6 @ 1/4 1.5" Bolt, lock washer and nut.
• $6 - quick set post cement. This stuff works well, just add water and tap.
• $10 - set of play structure handles.