Doors

I talked to Tom on Thursday and said I was thinking of just doing small bedroom door first, in late May, and then do master bedroom door when I remodel master bedroom, around July or so.  That sounded good to him.  I also told him I had purchased the material for stuffing behind the door jambs.

Busy week, I went to dentist for cleaning and exam on Tuesday, edged the front yard on Wednesday, got an eye exam that same day, then picked up the new glasses on Friday.  At work I was pressing forward to make a major software update on Monday.  I called Allen & Allen on Thursday, good thing, because it turned out they couldn't currently order Jeld-Wen doors as I had been planning to do.  Instead, they now have TruStile and WoodHarbor doors.  I checked those out online on Thursday night and Friday.  They are very impressive!

But before that, I went to Home Depot after dinner on Friday and got quotations for two Jeld-Wen doors.  Neither one seemed exactly what I wanted, but the choices available through the new Jeld-Wen ordering program seemed very limited.  I wanted a fire rated wood residential door.  But in residential doors, there did not appear to be a fire-rated option.  So one quotation has a plain flush interior solid core door, and the other quotation has a commercial interior fire rated door with metal jamb.  The first is quite inexpensive for a custom order door, the latter is more than I expected to pay.  The commercial door had lots of hinge and hardware options, far more than the residential door.

On Friday I got down to Atlas Floors on time to pick up the new Armstrong Luxe Plank for the hallway.  But I hardly thought about trying to get down to Allen & Allen before they closed at noon for the state independence holiday.

TruStile does not seem to offer flush style doors.  They are all too stylish for that.  But you can get fire rated doors in any style (so it seems to claim on their website) up to 90 minutes, and the 90 minute fire door has an impressive STC rating of 38 when equipped with a set of seals they list on their sound control page.  That was the best of any of their 1 3/4 width doors, and better than any Jeld-Wen rating I have seen (and the Jeld-Wen ratings seemed to be for the door only, not the entire door assembly--which would likely be far less).  So even with regard to sound control, TruStile seems much more serious in their product line than Jeld-Wen.  We will see hopefully on Monday when I go down to Allen & Allen what the prices are like.

Insulating door jamb gaps

Standard door construction results in a gap between the door jamb (part of the door assembly immediately around the door when closed) and the adjacent framing member.  This gap is normally covered up by moulding on both sides, forming a traditional looking door casing.  This is good for making a door assembly free from settling issues.  But it is not good at all for acoustics.  Sound vibrates the moulding on one side, and air inside the gap transfers the sound to the moulding on the other side, with very little attenuation.  You almost wonder whether the unstated function of a traditional door is to ALLOW the transmission of sound, so you can hear your kids screaming, etc.

Sound Isolation Company suggests running the drywall all the way up to the door casing.  Carpenters are somewhat reluctatnt to do that, for various reasons.  But my new builder Tom has agreed to give me some time between the installation of the doors and the final moulding, to allow me to stuff the gaps with sound absorbing material.

I have chosen Ultratouch cotton insulation for this purpose.

 

Weekend of April 21

1) Mowed front and south side lawn (didn't mow north side near AC compressor).

2) Setup Insteon network and got it to control new Patio light and pre-existing X10 Kitchen light.  I wrote an earlier post about this, which took about 10 hours of fiddling to get working.

3) Moved some recent construction supplies to Lyndhurst, and generally cleared up living room and master bedroom.

4) Cut out barcode and info from Casablanca box and recycled it

5) Tested new Broan fan.  It seems much quieter than master bathroom fan with replaced motor.  I will see if motor and fan blades from new fan can fit into the old unit.  They are essentially the same model made by same manufacturer, but 30 years apart.  This will require some work in July or thereabouts, so in the meantime new fan was put back into box and into Lyndhurst.

6) Set up living room stereo (after construction) by moving right panel and tweeter back into position, and plugging back in electrostatic energizers.  For some reason Sonos box in living room has needed rebooting twice.

7) Set up ethernet line from Lab to Kitchen using previous cable with 25 foot extension.  Despite being temporary, this cable is now run pretty much like a permanent cable would be until whole house networking is added.  It now runs along the baseboards around the hallway corner...which looks much nicer than near the ceiling.  The added extension (and new double female adapters) made that possible for the first time.

8) Vacuumed corner of kitchen where new security camera outlet was placed.  There was some drywall dust remaining there.  Then put stuff back into position, clearing up an incipient mess in kitchen.

9) Attempted to seal gap between patio and house in back, using self-leveling Novalink caulk and foam backing rods I had purchased last year and still hadn't used (and was wondering if the caulk was still good).  I used a variety of sizes of backing rods to get the gap fully stuffed first, but apparently did not do well enough toward one side, where the caulk just ran into the ground.  That area will need to be re-sealed, possibly with regular caulk, then re-sealed with Novalink again.  I already used about 6 large tubes of Novalink, half of my purchase last year.  As many as 2 tubes were "wasted" because of the inadequate backing, but possibly having that extra caulk in the ground isn't a bad idea anyway, since there are channels going under the house foundation.  It's probably better to have them filled with caulk than airspace that can fill up with water.

10) Measured door jamb widths and did some online research verifying 4 9/16 size.

11) Went to supermarket to get about 1.5 weeks worth of food and stuff.

12) Laundry: NU (new underwear style: boxer shorts and XXL(long) shirts), sheets.

My struggle with Insteon, finally successful

I spent many many hours starting on Saturday afternoon getting my new Insteon Smartlink to control both the new Insteon patio light switch, and the X10-only Keypadlinc kitchen light, and by 3am on Sunday morning I had finally succeeded.

Three hours in, even getting the Insteon Patio light to work seemed hopeless.  But finally, I got both lights to work through Insteon, a major victory over some of the most awful software, the Insteon Smartlinc controller for iPhone and browser.  The old X10 Power House controller software that runs on Windows is much easier to use.  I have always liked the Insteon concept, and I think the Insteon hardware is much nicer than X10, and should be more reliable because of the dual band design, but now I see that their software is lousy and very hard to use as advertised to control X10 devices.  It almost seems like they don't want the X10 compatibility feature to be useful to most people, so they can sell them new Insteon devices to replace them.

First off, I could not connect the Insteon to my kitchen network hub because that hub wasn't getting internet anymore.  Because I took my main ethernet wire to the kitchen down for construction.  The Kitchen Mac was getting internet through Wifi only.  So I connected the Insteon Smartlinc to the main network switch in the Lab (formerly known as Computer Room).  That was hard  enough, with the limited space in the room, the high mounted router/switch, and getting an AC power cord to reach.  I tried one setup with the Smartlinc positioned on the second shelf, and when that didn't work I got another power cord and positioned the Smartlinc on the top shelf, right next to the Linksys router.  I was thinking I needed to get those RF signals to reach the kitchen despite the bathroom mirrors and other objects in the way.

But after that, hours of trying to get the patio light to respond had ended in futility.  When I engaged the Linc feature of the Insteon iPhone app, and held the Set button of the Insteon switch, I got one beep but not the required double beep.  I was beginning to think that Insteon was not linking to this switch because I had added an X10 code to it.  I was planning to "chat" with Smarthome online on Monday.  I was feeling very disappointed because I wanted to get this to work This weekend, and it was unclear if even Smarthome technical support couldn't help.

But then reading online about Smartlinc it became clear it was just as limited in range as old X10.  The Insteon has both AC line and RF signaling, the Smartlinc only does AC line signaling.  So if X10 signals to the kitchen from the Lab are pretty much blocked these days by line interference, the same is true for Insteon signals.  So then I had to re-visit my decision of hooking up the Smartlinc in the Lab and not the Kitchen as I had originally hoped.

I then tried connecting the Smartlinc to the network switch in the kitchen.  Since that switch no longer had any direct Internet connection, I turned on Internet Sharing in the kitchen Mac.  That did not seem to help.  The Smartlinc was not being detected by the iPhone app.  Clearly I needed to re-connect the ethernet wire between Lab and Kitchen.

I had been hoping I would not have to do that until the hallway is remodeled.  Or even then, I might not need this ugly connection with my whole house network wiring through the attic that I have planned for May.  The wire I put up now will simply have to be taken down for the remodeling on May 14.  But I needed it now so my light timers would work, and I needed it now for security.

So I hooked up the wire.  I wasn't intending to do a nice job.  But I didn't want to mess up the new wall.  So I did it the best way ever.  I ran the wire over the doorways (using AV staples, but never stapled above human passage to prevent the possibility of a staple falling on somebody) but then down along the baseboards around the entryway corner into the hallway.  I had never done that before because the wire isn't long enough.  But now I had a bag of ethernet couplers I ordered for the whole house network.  So I used a coupler above the Lab doorway to attach a 14 foot Cat 5E patch cable.  I used a couple of nails driven into the doorway above the Lab to make sure the wire there is secure, despite my no-staples-above-passageway rule.  I was also careful NOT to run the ethernet cable around the Scandia rack where the router is.  If I did that, tugging hard enough on the cable could cause the rack to fall over.  So the cable is just drooped behind the shelf to secure it slightly, but could be pulled out (and even pull the Linksys down) if pulled hard enough.  It is taped above the Lab closet with Tyvek tape, but even if the tape should fail the cable would be held in place by a picture hanger and the aforementioned droop.  I try to see ways things could fail and be sure they wouldn't be catastrophic.

It all paid off because after some more fiddling, I had Internet on the kitchen ethernet switch again, and then I could see the Smartlinc through the iPhone app, with it plugged into a Kitchen outlet.  Now I tried to do the linking of the Patio light switch, and I got the double beeps instantly.  It was a strange feeling after having struggling with linking for hours in the evening, and never getting anything but one beep after minutes at a time.  It had been a line communication issue after all, solved by moving controller near wall switch.  This was about 11:45 on Sunday night.

I had started working on this project around 4pm on Saturday afternoon.  I needed to back up my iPhone, then check the latest version, then re-set my Apple ID password, then install the Insteon app.  I had all that done by about 5:30.

So while I had finally gotten the patio light to work, I was strongly hoping to get the kitchen light to work also.  For about a decade I have had a Smarthome X10 compatible dimmer on the kitchen light.  For all that time, it continues to be very flaky.  I have added a phase bridge to my house, put all noisy digital devices on filters, and made other refinements, but still the X10 control of the kitchen light switch from the X10 computer module is very flaky.  It went from flaky to non-working after the installation of the new patio light.  Either with fluorescent or LED bulbs, the patio light makes so much electronic noise that control from the X10 computer module is now unable to control it.  And that is one of my key security lights to make the home look lived in.

So when I started this projects one of the big hopes was that the new Insteon controller would be able to control both patio and kitchen lights.  I could locate the unit in the kitchen all the better to control the kitchen light using X10 signals.  Currently I have an RF module in the living room also on a circuit that is close enough to control the kitchen light (and all other X10 devices in house) but it has no timer or macro features.

Insteon Smartlinc is advertised as being able to control X10.  But I still worried about this, and feared I might need to replace the X10 kitchen light switch with another Insteon switch.  And I wouldn't be able to get to that for another month, which wouldn't be good for security.

There was nothing in the Smarlinc app that would do anything for X10 at all.  No mention of X10 anywhere.  I hoped matters might be a little better with the browser software.  So I decided to try the Insteon browser software, which is accessed through an Insteon URL.

The Insteon browser software is very peculiar, apparently the entire thing runs through servers at Insteon.  You interact using your browser using web-based controls that ultimately send signals over the internet to control your Smartlinc.  This doesn't work with only a LAN connection, it requires an internet connection.  People paranoid about privacy would not like this kind of arrangement.  It looks like Insteon not only knows what you are doing, they could in principle control your home.  Of course the iPhone app operates over the internet also, and quite likely through the same Insteon servers.

The browser software is so counter-intuitive I spent hours trying to make any sense of it at all.  There is a page that lets you set up Insteon "scenes", but nothing you click there will bring you to any page that lets you actually configure those scenes, it only takes you back to the room menu.  But what you do is check the "Show" box next to each scene you want to be able to configure, then it appears as a link on the Room page.  You click on that link, and it takes you to a page where you can configure the scene by linking Insteon actions to it, and setting timers.

Well even on that page there is no mention of X10.  But there is a link where you click to create Custom Controls.  On that page you have two boxes in which you can enter special codes.  Some of those codes control Insteon, others control X10.  Learning the codes is not unlike learning programming.  The examples at the bottom of the page only control X10 device A1, leaving you to wonder what the codes would be for other devices.  So quite likely you click on the ? icon.  This brings you to a page which tells you that Support has ended for the Smarthome Wiki.  All you can do is download the (one page) quickstart guide or (very long) manual.  I had scanned the manual at the beginning of the day and didn't see much useful for making X10 timers.

I did some Google searching and found a page that discussed how to write the custom controls for X10 devices.  But it also didn't give examples for any other device than A1.  It said that you had to look up the codes for other houscodes and unit numbers in a linked table.  Well you click on that link, and it takes you to the page that says Support for the Smarthome Wiki has ended.

It was at this point that I strongly believed Insteon was systematically locking out information to allow X10 devices to be controlled.  All the better to sell replacement Insteon devices.  IMO, this has been the problem with Insteon from the very beginning, a very limited commitment to compatibility.  It was this kind of narrow vision that killed both Commodore-Amiga and Digital Equipment Corporation computers.  They both had wildly succesful early computers, but then tried to force customers to migrate to their new systems by limiting compatibility and support.  If they had played their compatibility card to the max, they would have had a built-in advantage no competitor could touch.

But I hoped I was wrong, and was thinking I would chat with Smarthome people on Monday.  Still this was nagging me.  So finally I took another look at the techical end of the Smartlinc manual.  Well there they also had an explanation of how to build X10 custom commands, similar to what I had seen on the Smarthome Wiki after a google search.  But in this case, they had the magic tables that give you the magic characters for each house code and unit number.

For my choices, housecode O requires character "4"  (A requires "6").
Unit number 8 requires character "D".  Of course there is nothing intuitive about this at all, you simply have to use the lookup table in the manual.

The overall code required to turn unit O8 on is:

02634D00P102634280

and to turn unit O8 off is:

02634D00P102634380

The difference being the third from last character, which is "3" for on and "2" for off.  Well this mysterious code is actually described, bit by bit, in the back of the Insteon Smartlinc manual, starting at Page 16.  You have to piece together the required bits for what you want to do.

Once I actually discovered that section of the manual, it was only a minutes to success.  But prior to that I had been trying many different characters.  And even after I found that part of the manual, I had been using the wrong pause code due to a copying mistake.  So I spent some time with an X10 monitor trying to figure out the codes that Insteon was actually creating.  But once I actually copied the exact required characters from the manual, it worked.  And that was about 3am.

Doors: 30 x 80 x 4 9/16

I downloaded the Isodoor order form and found it requires specification of door jamb width, and there weren't any preset answers.  So I got out two large 1/16" graduated rulers to measure.

I was thinking 4 1/2 but it seemed clear the width was greater than that, at least by 1/32.  When I did the most careful measurement I could with two rulers (holding one flat perpendicular to the back edge of the jamb) it seemed to be 4 9/16.  That seemed funny so I decided to scan online.

Sure enough, 4 9/16 is the sort-of standard (no one wants to call it a standard like the 80 inch height) of door jambs for 2x4 framed walls with 1/2 drywall (typical).  And you can easily see how the 2x4 (which is 3 1/2 inches deep) and the two layers of drywall would add up to 4 1/2.  But why is the jamb 4 9/16 then?  I don't know, but I am pretty sure 4 9/16 is the specification I need anyway.

Here's a blog in which one guy says his local home center only stocks 4 9/16 and 6 9/16 (obviously, the latter is for 2x6 framing).

Now, this came after a couple hours of confusion.  I found several descriptions of how to measure door jamb width that seemed to suggest you start on one side of the wall, and then to the inside edge of the moulding on the other side.  Well that would be correct for a door with moulding only on one side.  I found a 30 second video where the height and width of the door are measured with the pre-existing door jamb, then the jamb depth is measured from one side of the wall with the jamb removed--very confusing.

Belden 7915A

This looks like the coax cable to get for my home network, Belden 7915A.  It's double shielded, but some say has better shield performance than most quad shielded.  But it's also nice and flexible and good for wiring distribution systems.  It's got full 3Ghz bandwidth, adequate for satellite systems and in fact preferable to quad shielded for that application because of low DC resistance.  It lacks the 4.5Ghz bandwidth of Belden's precision video cables like 1694A, but I can't see why I would need that, and 1694A is twice as expensive.  The most likely use for these cables is composite video which has a bandwidth of about 10Mhz, about 300 times less than 3Ghz.

Here's an interesting discussion in which several people have wired video distribution systems with 7915A and love it.

Update:

I've now ordered the cables, I'm getting mostly 7915A in 75 and 50 foot lengths.  For the run between master bedroom and kitchen, I've decided to up it to 1694A, and go with 60 feet in case 50 is too short. I ordered the 7915A from BroadbandUtopia and the 1694A from BlueJeansCable.

Soundproof Wall done; other updates

Tom and son completed the texturing and painting of the soundproof wall on Wednesday.  It looks beautiful now.  Though I think perhaps the texturing at the rounded edge is a bit much, could be smoother.  But it is top quality workmanship for sure.

I noticed the missing outlet and light switch covers as they were leaving, and they fixed that.  I didn't notice the missing trim...but that was part of the deal last week.  They cut the price by taking off the re-trimming, since I'm going to be doing the trim when I do the hallway floor in the next month.

Tom agreed to do the new doors after I get them next month.  He did say "they will be in your garage."   It does seem like he doesn't like to pick things up.

I'm planning to order one of the two hallway doors from Jeld-Wen through their dealter Allen & Allen who is likely better prepared for custom orders than Home Depot or Lowes.  I originally thought A&A was a door dealer who might even install the door normally.  But it turns out they are a high end home center where you (and contractors) buy stuff, not unlike Home Depot in function, but carrying the good stuff, often made in USA.

Along with the hallway door to the Queen's room, I will order a solid core bifold closet door.  The hall door should be solid core and 60 minute fire rated to get the top Jeld-Wen STC rating.  It would be nice, also, if I could get it with seals as if it were an exterior door.  But I will get the solid core interior in any case.  It will not have sweep or threshold.  The door bottom gap is the one deliberate concession to allowing the occupant to hear outside (and not feel shut in) and hear her own pets when outside the room.  OK, it's also required because it would be extremely difficult and expensive to add the HVAC return to do otherwise.  My friend who plans to live in the Queen's Room (though date uncertain, it could be years away) says she doesn't need soundproofing (and didn't want me to spend money on it); because she has one bad ear she can always roll over in bed to muffle the sound.  But I believe sound control is one of the most important aspects of home design, especially for audio nuts like me hoping to live with someone else, so I am doing the sound control anyway.  But knowing her preference, I'm  also more comfortable with not making it 100% for her room.  What I've already done, with the soundproof wall, eliminates the worst aspect of the Queen's Room acoustic, a booming and rattling bass in the room when I play the living room stereo at moderate levels.  The soundproof wall is on the axis of both 1000 watt subwoofers and right at a hugely modal room corner if you consider the entry way and hall to be an extension of the living room (sound waves don't know the difference).  What leaks through the existing hallway door now is much less unpleasant.  The level of bass is already 18dB down.

As for the King's room, however, it is a suite unto itself and needs no microphone to the front (excepting the future wireless multiport intercom camera system).  So it will get the real soundproof door, with door sweep but no threshold (I don't like the idea of walking over threshold constantly in bare feet).  My friend has dog and cat and works different hours.  With soundproof door, I am hoping, we can live together in greater harmony as I can sleep through the process of her getting up and going to work, and animals whining afterwards.  I really hope so anyway.

I continue to like the 230 pound Isodoor from Sound Isolation Store because it has good performance AND is otherwise just like an ordinary wood door.  Sound blocking doors from other companies are thicker, heavier, and more like industrial doors which have been prettified slightly with wood covering to cover the metal.  And they are heavier and may assume 2x6 or staggered stud framing.  On the other hand, these other doors do have higher soundproofing ratings.  But I want my home to be a well conceived luxury home, not an industrial facility.  And I worry that these other doors in addition to costing more will cost much more to install.

I'm finding that while I can control my new patio light with the X10 control module in the kitchen, it is not operable by the X10 timer and macro module in the lab.  Also, with the new Insteon switch right next to the kitchen X10 light switch for the kitchen, the X10 switch can no longer be controlled by the X10 timer either.  I have ordered an Insteon home control module.  Unlike the old X10 unit, it does not hook to computer through serial or USB port.  Instead, it connects to Ethernet, and can be controlled by any computer on the LAN, and by mobile phones.  This unit will be placed in the kitchen itself.  I'm now hoping that from that vantage point, it will be able to control both the X10 and the Insteon switch in the kitchen.  I may need to replace the X10 dimmer switch with an insteon equivalent.

True bug light would be DC powered, or AC LED

The problem with 120V LED's being bug lights is the electronic DC conversion circuitry generates heat, heat results in the emission of infrared from the base of the lamp holder.  Infrared attracts moths.  If it were not for the conversion circuitry, the LED light would generate very little heat.  So obviously then the way to have true bug lights would be to have the light fixture supplied with the required DC.

Or, another option, would be LED's designed to run on A/C.  That's a bit hard to imagine, but I imagine ways it could be imagined, bipolar LED's or LED chains.

Weekend of April 13

Probably the most crucial thing this weekend was having my friend inspect and approve the new soundproof wall in front of the room she will live in someday.  Hearing my description over the phone, she was worried I had destroyed my home with a too-narrow hallway.  The hallway is slightly narrower, by 3 inches at the neck, but actually more passible with the old CD racks removed, since they took up over 6 inches.  I will probably not reattach the 5 foot long abstract painting I had in that location, but get a smaller and thinner picture.  My friend strongly supported that idea, but I have no idea when I will find a suitable new painting.

I also attached the front bezel for the A/C unit inside Lyndhurst, and programmed it for summer operation (87 degrees, 11am to 8pm, Energy Saver).   Even with timer set the fan turns on occasionally at night to "sense" the temperature.  I think if I didn't turn on Energy Saver, I wonder if the fan would be on all the time.

Even after much hammering with a rubber mallet and even a regular hammer, and bending with pliers, I could not get the exposed chassis of the A/C bent sufficiently to get the bezel on all-the-way.  The contractors had bent the chassis during installation and for that reason couldn't push the A/C unit all the way into its own frame.  As a result, even when the bezel is aligned with the control panel, the top back of the bezel is about 1/2 inch away from the places where it is supposed to clip on top.  So I was unable to get it to clip on the top, and in order to attach the #6 stainless screws at the bottom, there has to be even more tilt of the front bottom into the unit and front top leaning out.  So the whole bezel tilts away from the top about 1 inch.  It doesn't look too bad, and as it is nevertheless squeezed onto the chassis very tightly and held with the two screws on the bottom, I believe it is very secure.  The bezel is also serving it's engineered functions including covering the thermostat so it doesn't get triggered by tiny gusts of hot air, and directing cold air at the top  In the final attachment (btw this process took over an hour) I cracked a bit of the bezel on the bottom.  But the crack is not near the screws fortunately and the bezel is holding despite the small crack.  I am glad to have gotten this job finally done (if not done well) after more than 12 months of putting it off.  As warm weather is arriving now there was no more time to delay.

I mowed the back yard, mowing all around Lyndhurst and mowing down weeds around the tree.  I left flowers that are growing around the tree.

I brought the spare clips from the soundproof wall construction and the spare camera back into Lyndhurst, along with the new 6 ft 375 lb ladder.

I removed the fluorescent bug light the electrician installed this week and changed it out with the Miracle LED light I had been pointing toward the patio.  I then replaced the patio light with a Miracle LED bug light, so the patio is lit by diffuse yellow light.  I adjusted both lights so that the entire back yard is lit, and actually the front of the patio is slightly darkened for better privacy.  I had found that the CFL bug light was actually attracting bugs.  Now I see the Miracle bulbs are attracting moths also, probably because the heat generates infrared, but since the LED bulbs produce far less heat, they should attract fewer moths.  The key bit about bug lights (and most LED's) is that they do not emit blues and ultraviolet, which attract most flying insects including mosquitos.

On Saturday I downloaded the instructions for the Insteon switch that controls the patio light, and programmed it to accept X10 signals for on and off.  On Sunday I tried to program my X10 home control program to turn the patio light on at dusk and off at dawn.  Unfortunately, the code I had chosen was also the code used by the computer monitor in the lab, so I changed the code for the patio light.  And I needed to replace the batteries and reset the X10 home control module so it would accept new timer programs.  But even with all this set up correctly, the light did not turn off at dawn because the noisy circuit it is on rejects X10 signals from the lab circuit where the home control module is.  I tried turning it on and off immediately through the home control program and even that did not work.  This might be a good time to buy an Insteon home controller which uses RF and line signals to get the control signals across more reliably than X10.

Also this weekend very much enjoyed performance of Verdi's Requiem at the San Antonio Symphony with my friend.  She had not been feeling well toward the end of the week, and was still not quite back to normal this weekend, seeming a bit withdrawn.  But we had the traditional drink at home afterwards (when she inspected the wall and new fan).  And she called twice and came over for a visit and lunch on Sunday.  Though there were some rough edges in our interaction this weekend (she had gotten the crazy idea I might have stolen her identity and could be charging money in her name--apparently someone was doing that) it ended on a good note and we had much more interaction than on any weekend in months and more than the average Symphony weekend.  We discussed terms of future cohabitation.  She wanted to be informed if I take any home equity loans (I paid off my home mortgage last year), anything which could possibly cause me to lose my home "so she can be prepared."  I told her I am constitutionally not disposed to home equity loans and do not intend to consider anything like that until retirement, and would be happy to let her know if I do.  I am happy to pay the minimal extra interest required on my credit cards and zero percent credit offers as the price of living on my own terms and not putting my home ownership at any risk, even from such unexpected possibilities as losing my job.  My friend is currently forswearing all credit, considering it all evil, but as for me, it's hard to run a castle without credit.

By some fluke, I had neglected to pay off one of my credit cards (the one that has a zero percent offer expiring this month...I had originally hoped to pay it off this month until the contemplating the extra remodeling costs) until Saturday, and the due date was Sunday.  Perhaps I forgot about it because I was originally intended a full payoff after my April 6th payday.  I got the minimum payment in electronically at 1pm on Saturday afternoon, and the website seems to say that it will be credited that very day even though it is a weekend day (but such payments don't show up in their accounting until the next business day).  So I dodged an unexpected bullet.  If I missed a payment date on one card I hardly use it might bring higher interest rates on all other cards, or at least that's the way it went before the recent credit reforms.  If you do rely on credit, you need to keep up with it.

Fan too fast?

Along with asking about the wallplate/remote compatibility (no, as expected, but I've never seen it stated online) I asked if I could disable the top two speeds.  No, as expected.

It does seem awfully fast, though still quiet, smooth and stable, at it's top speed.  It feels FAR stronger than any fan I've experienced, yet the CFM increase over the typical 52" fan is only about 30%, not 400% like it feels, 7000 cfm vs around 5500 cfm.

But it's merely turning at a leisurely 176 rpm, according to the specs at Hansen.

Also according to Hansen, a fan with 3/8 blades like the Bel Air, and with 55 inch blades, can spin at 222 rpm according to UL safety standards.  The UL standard is actually based on the speed at the tip of the blades, but Hansen's has done the calculations for you.

I couldn't believe this when I read it, but then I watched the blades spin at the lowest speed, indeed it was 25 RPM or so, and the next speed was 50 rpm or so.  I was easily convinced now that each speed up was about another 25 rpm higher.  Now the air really kicks up at the top speeds, but the speeds actually aren't much faster, that's just the nature of wind energy, it follows a cube law rule.  The fan appears to be rotating faster than it is because of all those blades, which your mind can't really compensate for--it seems to assume two blades in a blur.

So the Bel Air is actually spinning far slower that UL guidelines.  Those guidelines were intended to minimize serious injuries from ceiling fans in homes.  One of the more serious kinds of injury that could
occur from a ceiling fan would be laceration, so the UL standards minimize that risk by requiring a that blades be a minimum of 1/4 inch thick, and 3/8 inch blades can spin faster because they already have less risk of laceration to begin with, and less risk of breakage (a jagged broken blade can be far more dangerous than a rounded new one).  The Casablanca Bel Air is UL listed, has rounded blades and blade mounts, solid furniture grade wood blades that are less likely to fracture and become sharp (rather, if obstructed the fan would more likely just come to a quick stop, the motor isn't really THAT powerful--the energy is mostly in the rotational inertia), and spins at a lower speed than UL requires.

By the way, there are fans priced at Hansens that have higher rpm and even higher cfm.  I just saw one top Emerson fan with both.

I was hit by my Hunter fan inside Lyndhurst, running at max speed, when I was on the ladder.  It was a non-event, I barely felt it, except that I had to stop the fan and "repair" the blade by mashing the pressed board together.  The hunter fan is a bit less powerful, and the blades weigh less, so likely being hit by the Bel Air at top speed would be more noticeable.  The Hunter seems to be spinning much more slowly, and doesn't generate much wind.

I see the rpm of the Bel Air is not at all out of line with other fans.  Though the less expensive La Fleur fan by Casablanca does have a slightly lower top speed of 135 rpm, which would be like speed #5 on the Bel Air, but that is noted as having output slightly below the average for full sized fans.

But at least by the specs the Hunter Stratford fan, sold for $119 at Home Depot, has an even higher speed than the Bel Air, 188 rpm, but not nearly as much cfm (5100 or so cfm, about 40% less, just a tad more than the La Fleur).  Most full size fans seem to have a top speed in the 150-190 rpm range, though only the premium ones have more than 6000 ccm.

As I was doing this "survey" I noticed a Hampton Bay fan that looks pretty similar to the Casablanca La Fleur, the Hampton Bay Chateau Deville.  It has slightly higher top speed and slightly higher output, but only manual reverse function.  Still, it seems to have the dual ball suspension system like Casablanca fans and even more obvious.

Update: The Hunter fan inside Lyndhurst does seem to spin pretty fast actually.  It could be about the same RPM as the Casablanca on speed 5, judging by eyesight.  But it seems to blow little air, about like the Casablanca on speed 2 or 3.  That's absolutely nothing like the Casablanca on Speed 5 or 6.  To be fair, Lyndhurst inside is about 60% larger.

RG-6 coax

My current plan for whole house network includes 2 RG-6 coaxial cables to each room.  These could be used for analog standard definition video (NTSC), S-Video (using both cables), stereo audio, FM or VHF antenna, stereo audio, mono balanced audio, or broadband signals.  One RG-6 is capable of huge bandwidth, possibly more than twisted pair digital cables like Cat-6a.  Digital cables were invented not to have huger bandwidth than coax, but to be cheaper.  In almost every application where analog is needed, RG-6 will work, with very little loss.

Here's an interesting discussion of coaxial cables.

Quad shield was developed to prevent cable tv break-in, where a strong local channel leaks into the cable and causes beats with cable channels.

Elsewhere I've seen it said that Belden has triple shield equivalent to quad shield of other manufacturers.  But belden also has quad shield.

The UHF connector (UHF does NOT stand for Ultra High Frequency, in fact it's very frequency limited) is kept alive by Hams and CB's.

The BNC was a hit for lab applications in the 1950's but tends to cause grinding in aircraft so a special screw-on aircraft version exists.

The holy F connector which is required on US consumer products requiring VHF antenna was originally designed to be a connector cheaper than dirt because it can re-use the center conductor of the cable itself.

All of the coax types named "RG-xx/U" are mil specs, but the modern variants are generally entirely different than the originally specified cables (which were performance constrained by modern standards, copperweld instead of copper, and just a single braided shield instead of multiple shields, etc.  But now the name "RG-6" is vague because there are so many possible variations; in the old mil spec system each variant had a specific designation.

Casablanca remote or wall plate, take your pick

I called Casablanca today and they confirmed that my Bel Air fan can be operated by the included wallplate, or by the Casablanca remote control (not included, but I bought one on Amazon.com because the place where I bought the fan didn't sell it), but not both.  When using both, they get mixed up.

Actually, I'm smart enough that I might try using both, since I understand what the problem is.  Neither the wallplate nor the remote has a receiver to pick up the signals from the other.  And both control have complicated logic that requires a local understanding of what the ceiling fan and light are actually doing.

But even for me, it can be very disconcerting.  Turn the light on (but not the fan) at the wall and then dim the light with the remote and the fan might start running, if it had been running the last time you used the remote.  The fan beeps when it comes on under remote control, and the high speed of the fan can be startling or even intimidating.  Even if not already at high speed, in the process of trying to turn it off quickly you can panic, and then push it up to the high speed by not pressing the right buttons.

Still, I think I can handle it, but I'm afraid that others might not.  So I will keep the remote in reserve for those times I use the bedroom.

I think the problem could have been fixed by having whatever control you use should only try to change the function you are actually changing.  If I dim the light at the remote, the remote shouldn't bother to make sure the fan is running at the indicated speed also.  It should just send the signal for dimming the light.  Duh.  OK, then, the speed indication on the remote will be incorrect.  THAT is the graceful failure--let the stupid indicator be wrong rather than have the fan do something unintended.  The art of computer programming is partly determining how and where things should fail.

But as well described in the book The Inmates Are Running The Asylum, that isn't how things end up being programmed because programmers don't think like users.  OR, in another variant, it's a bureaucratic mess up.  The specification writer (possibly the Boss) wants the remote control to show fan speed, AND insists that the fan speed indication be accurate (perhaps someone complained about that).  The program designer finds the only way to guarantee that the fan speed indication is correct, mostly, is to re-send the fan command whenever any command is sent.  This never goes around the bend again, or when it does it is simply found that the way to "fix" the problem (rather than graceful failure to display the correct speed, as I suggest, or having all units have a command receiver--a large additional engineering and manufacturing cost) is simply to declare that users not use both controls.  That's a loss to users IMO because we end up with crippled products that could have been so much more.  And that's just one example of how this sort of thing can happen.

I think it's a shame because dual control (wallplate and remote) is very nice.  The "hack" that both Casablanca and Hunter use for those users who must have remote control is to have a remote that sits in a clip on top of the wallplate.  Well, that's stupid, because if the remote is misplaced there won't be a proper switch near the door when needed.

The soundproof door

I am so tempted to get the soundproof door made by Sound Isolation Store.  It sounds well thought out. Except, my plan has been to disable or remove the bottom door sweep to make it open and eliminate the need for an air return for the room, which would be expensive and also difficult because there may be little or no room left in the ceiling almost everywhere for a return.  Yes I know that would ruin their STC rating, but it's still a solid and quiet and well made door, and the door bottom could always be stuffed when needed.  It would be worth that to me if I still had money to burn.  Unfortunately, I've already burned through well more than $10,000 this year on home improvements, with bigger improvements yet to be done.

So I've been looking at other options.  Big national doormakers Masonite and Jeld-Wen both make a solid core door claimed to block noise.  By most reports the problem is not with their actual solid core door products, which are fine, and excellent value for the money.  The problem is that they may just use standard jambs and such.  The standard jambs and hardware lose much of the potential of these doors, which could meet STC 45 or thereabouts with good jambs, seals, and hardware.

Here is a great post that suggests various parts for building a sound blocking door.  The author mentions that major door makers all can make a 5 ply solid core flat door blank with STC of 45.  Then get a flat metal jamb (no stop) or solid birch single rabbit.

The Soundproof Wall. Or just luck?

Before remodeling started in January, the Queen's Room had boom and rattle when playing somewhat bassy music in the living room.  The bass was sometimes even louder than in the living room itself, always louder than in the adjacent hallway, and the wall behind the closet would shake and rattle threateningly.  My friend said that she wouldn't mind my playing my stereo, she is not disturbed by me playing loud music, she can even sleep through it.  But I never demonstrated this for her, and I don't think this was what she had in mind.  The Queen's Room seemed to attract boom and rattle like a magnet

The first remodeling rebuilt the wall on one side with two layers of 5/8 inch drywall--the thicker kind.  In between those two layers were applied 4 tubes of Green Glue sound damping compound.  The entire wall was rebuilt, even around the door, but only on the queen's room side.  On the hall side, the drywall was merely caulked to the framing to make it rattle less, and I personally pulled off two hanging pieces of drywall that had cracked out of place (the cracked pieces popped out of one of two layers of very thin drywall the original homebuilder Rayco had used.

The result of that remodeling was that the wall became much more quiet sounding than the rest of the walls in the house.  There was no rattle and considerable sound reduction in the queen's room itself.  The wall inside the queen's room had a "rock of gibraltar" feel to it, deader than any interior wall I had come across.  Even the hall side seemed much quieter than the other walls in the house when you knocked on it.

With all this, however, there were some disappointments.  For one, you could still tap on the hall side and hear sound in the Queen's room.  Despite the very damped feel, there was perfect coupling between the inside and hall side walls.  Rob had added extra studs to the 24" oc framing so that the average stud was about 12 inches from the next one, and often less.  All these studs turned the wall into a nice, if heavily damped, string telephone.  The added solidity, however, was appreciated because now the whole house seems to creak less (though this does not appear to be a load bearing wall, it is attached to one that is).

But the biggest disappointment was that the bass boom had not disappeared.  There was still a bass boom at 45 Hz and 40 Hz.  A 45 Hz tone played in the living room would sound nearly as loud inside the queen's room, and much louder than in the hall right outside.  Although the wall was stopping higher frequencies, it was doing basically nothing for the deep bass except delivering it to the queen's room with a slight boost, just as before, except without the rattling.  I played a large set of tone and ultimately did a spectrum analysis that showed that most frequencies were being shut out of the bedroom almost totally.  But just a sliver between 40 and 45Hz were not being attenuated, and in fact 45 Hz was being slightly boosted.  The spectrum analyzer showed 45Hz more loud in the bedroom than at the listening position in the living room.

Now it turned out, as I had feared at the time, that Rob did the electrical wiring incorrectly.  The electrician John Jones could tell this just from my description and photos of the boxes Rob left in the wall without access covers.  John really wanted to fix that problem.

So I decided back in late March during the first days of the recent electrical work to go ahead and remove the hallway side of the wall, fix the electrical wiring, and also re-build that side into a fully soundproof wall as well.  At the time I was also thinking of remodeling the hall as well.  John Jones recommended his favorite contractor, said he was a genius, so I decided to have him do it.

John's recommended contractor Tom was slow to gain interest in the project, and wasn't interested in doing the floor part of the remodeling at all.  (Now btw his son has expressed interest in doing that next month.)  But he quoted a price at our first meeting and I agreed so the project went forward.

On Monday April 8, Tom took the wall apart on the hallway side.  On April 9, John Jones and his son T.J. rebuilt the wall, replacing the wiring and moving the electrical boxes to the attic (which is legal).  In taking apart Rob's work John found other faults which indicate it was indeed a very good idea that the electrical work was re-done.  It was not only done badly it was done dangerously.

On April 10, Tom and his son rebuilt the wall with Green Glue Whisper Clips holding 25 gauge furring strips separating the framing from the new wall surface, aka decoupling, which is especially useful (and about the only useful thing) for low frequencies.  Then two layers of 5/8 drywall were attached with 4 tubes of Green Glue in between the sheets.  I remeasured at 45 Hz while they were taking lunch and found that there had been only a modest 2dB improvement.  I had suggested triple drywall to Tom earlier, and he had seemed very skeptical, but when he came back he quickly quoted a price for one more layer of drywall and I agreed.  I said I was hoping for another 2dB improvement, that would make it worthwhile.  I was also hoping for a big win, that somehow 3 layers of drywall would be far better than just 2.  I noticed that Whisper Clips have a "recommended load" of 3 layers of drywall and wondered if that was what they needed to get the decoupling working.  I also read online posts by Ted White, a leading independent seller of Green Glue, and he says that 3 is much better than 2 layers.

After the third layer of drywall was applied, I measured another 1.5dB of improvement.  It wasn't what I had hoped, but 3.5dB total improvement was something real, something to be appreciated.

Within an hour or two of all the contractors being payed, I discovered something truly strange.  I closed the closet door in the queen's room, and the bass now dropped by 13dB more !!!

To be clear, I was measuring about 82dB in the living room, 78dB in the hall, and 81dB in the queen's room before the second remodel.  (I never measured before the remodeling project...it was too horrible to measure.)  At first it seemed like I was only getting about 3.5dB of improvement, making the level in the queen's room now 77.5dB.  But now the level had dropped to 64dB.

Now I could play a very aggressively bassy album, Bass Ecstasy, in the living room, and it could be easily tolerated in the queen's room.  Only when I played Bass Ecstasy loud enough to rattle the walls in the living room was it more than noticeable in the queen's room.

I consider this a big win, more than what I had realistically hoped for!

But it comes with a question.  Perhaps I didn't need to rebuild the wall at all to get this result.  All I needed to do was...close the closet door.

Unfortunately, I never thought of closing the closet door before, and I had never done any relevant measurements.  But I have several observations that suggest that what's going on here is not simply the closet door operating by itself, but an interesting acoustic interaction.  My current belief is that if I had rebuilt the hall side of the wall at least a little bit, I would not have achieved this result.  I even suspect that it was specifically the 3rd layer of drywall that did the trick, though I have no evidence for that.  I think that the bedroom wall is now so heavy, with 5 total sheets of drywall on it, that vibrational energy takes a different path, ending up shaking the end of the house, where the closet is, rather than the center, where the bedroom wall is.

I do know that the situation was far worse in the bedroom before the new closet was even built.  I also vaguely recall playing music and walking near the new closet after it was built and thinking it was a quiet place, not the noisy place it is now.  So what I have is one solid fact and one vague recollection which support my current theory.  I also have a lot of pretty good general knowledge, that bass is very difficult to dampen and passes through most modern wall assemblies without much attenuation and in fact with amplification at resonance regions like 45 Hz.  I also do have the measurements I made which clearly showed improvement, though smaller than hoped, as additional sheets of drywall were added.  If the whole problem were that I should have simply closed the new closet door (after the new closet had been constructed...and some dampening and extra drywall already added) I should not have seen 3-4 dB of improvement from the 3 new sheets of drywall achieved.  While making those measurements, I did nothing that should have affected the closet door (it's been open for weeks) if that was the sole source of improvement, or even the primary noise source.

Another theory, discounting my vague recollection of hearing less bass in the closet just after it was built, suggest that if I achieved 3.5dB of improvement by eliminating some noise source, it should have been a major contributor of that noise, approximately equal to all other sources.  Then, reducing some second source of comparable level (the closet) there is no limit to how much it can fall after that, if those are the only two sources.  So it couldn't be that the closet was a much more important contributor of noise originally, it could only have been roughly equal.  By this theory, if I had closed the closet door before the final wall construction, I would at most have seen about a 3-6dB change.  So if I achieve an 18dB change in total, at least 12dB of that change must have come from the new wall.

So depending on which theory you believe, I achieved somewhere between 3 and 18 dB change by doing the latest round of wall soundproofing, at the crucial resonant boom frequency of 45 Hz.

April 9-10 recap

1.  Ceiling fan with light and switch installed in Queen's Room.  (Rob had said "not possible.")  Casablanca fan has wonderful bright and dimmable light, perfectly stable blades even at high speed.

2.  Dedicated 20A 10G isolated ground circuit for master bedroom stereo and TV.  GFCI breaker, phase matched to existing bedroom circuit.

3.  Previous switched outlet in bedroom now unswitched more useful.  So bedroom now has unswitched outlet on each of 4 walls.

4.  3 outlets in Queen's Room have local GFCI protection (separate GFCI breaker on each outlet).  They are also now white decora outlets.  The fourth outlet had existing GFCI through King's Room circuit.  That outlet is now gray with gray plate to remind occupant it is for low power use only.  So all outlets in room have GFCI protection from shock.

5.  2 security cameras added to camera system.  Cameras watch front access to south side of house, fence, and utility hookup area.

6.  New bathroom fan motor installed.

7.  Four 15A circuits (14g wire) in house had 20A breakers.  They have been replaced with 15A breakers.  Two of the wires were burnt.  I'm thinking there is at least one more circuit that needs breakers downgraded to match wire used.  The home builder Rayco created a fire hazard by using wire too small for their alleged 20A circuits.

8.  New outlets added to hall and garage near rain bird controller.  Existing outlet in garage fixed, put into box standing out from wall and GFCI added.

9.  Numerous faults were found in Rob's wiring of Queen's Room wall.  He put boxes in wall without access covers.  Inside the boxes, wires were held together with nuts but not twisted.  Wire connecting 120V AC for doorbell transformer was connected in wall with no box (wire nutted connection tossed in wall).  All these faults fixed, and electrical boxes moved into attic to meet code but not interfere with soundproof wall.

10.  6 feet of soundproof wall, with Whisper Clips and 25g metal channels hold 3 layers of 5/8 sheetrock damped with Green Glue and sealed with Green Glue Acoustic sealant.  This is above and beyond the construction in all but the most expensive home theater rooms.  Measurement of deep bass has gone from being louder than horrible loud resonances in outside hallway (even after 2 layers of 5/8 with Green Glue inside Queen's Room) to quietest room in house, 45 Hz attenuated by 18 dB, on top of the previous improvement.  It is now possible to listen to Bass Ecstasy at satisfying level in living room without occupant of Queen's Room developing hernia as would have happened before.  A tolerant occupant could ignore just about anything I play now.  This actually is a miracle, and I'll tell the story in another post.  Cool rounded edge of new wall assembly makes hallway appearance look like custom home.  Six tubes of Green Glue used but there was absolutely no VOC, no smell in my house whatever.

11.  Future plans for household network wiring and hallway remodeling discussed.  I may have new remodeling work done by Tom's son.  I may install whole house networking next month when wires arrive.  Thinking about getting sound proof door.

updates

1.  On the way home Friday night, I made an unexpected red light stop on a last minute trip to the supermarket.  It caused a water bottle to fly off the front seat and right on top of the newly repaired bathroom fan.  The cage fan got so crooked it scraped while I was turning it.  But I meticulously bent the cage back into shape when I got home, taking no less than 15 minutes doing so.  I fired up the fan and my re-shaping made it as good as when I was down at Post TV.  It even seemed to get quieter as it was running.  Whew!!!

2.  On Saturday night I went to home depot and got a big canvas tarp, a DuPont composite plastic tarp, and a thin cheap plastic cover.  And I got a 375lb capable 6 foot fiberglass ladder.  I set up the canvas and composite tarps on the floor (composite on top).  Then I set up the ladder and looked at the ceiling hole.  Yep, it had big gaps around the electrical box.  But most of the air I was feeling was actually coming from the nearby A/C vent.  When I shut of the A/C fan (except in summer, I run fan all the time for better air quality) it was clear there was actually hardly any air coming out of the hole.  But I could still feel some.

3.  I played bassy music on the living room stereo to hear how it sounded in the Queen's Room.  The throbbing bass was very audible in the room.  I then measured sine waves at 45 Hz (the peak response in the Queen's room) and 40 Hz.  Those were the only two clearly audible frequencies.  Everything else is fairly well suppressed.  But 45 Hz is actually louder inside the Queen's Room that in the hall just outside.  The wall doesn't attenuate 45 Hz at all, in fact it amplifies it slightly!  I did a full spectrum analysis of the sound leakage, with measurements at the living room listening position and inside the Queen's room.  The full spectrum showed the peaking at 40 and 45 Hz and little else.  THERE is the problem (and I don't actually know that decoupling the wall will fix it, but it's the obvious next thing to try).  And indeed the peak at 45Hz is louder in the Queen's Room that at the listening position.

4.  On Sunday I actually sealed the hole with Green Glue sealant.  It went fast when I finally got to it.  A friend help me with paper towels.

5.  I noticed screws intended to be moved from one set of holes to another for fastening fan.  I moved the screws, but before that I tried to find smaller screw with same threads.  Failing that, I got out my dial spanner and measured the threads at 0.19 inches.  I did the measurement very carefully to put no stress on screw, and I inspected the threads afterwards in sunlight.  I saw no damage to threads from spanner.  I noticed that sunlight caused random spots (aka highlights) on the edge of the threads to sparkle, and same sparse but random sparkles appeared in places where I hadn't measured as those I had, so it looked that I had not even scratched the screw.  I wiped it off with a clean cloth.  I moved both screws to their second position. On Monday evening I bought 10-24, 10-32, and 8-32 screws believing that one of them (most likely 10-24) would fit and therefore block the now-open holes in the back of the plate.

6.  Also on Sunday I mowed the front yard, showing a friend how to hook up my electric mower.  I took the ethernet cable down from the wall that is being rebuilt, coiling it up near the front door subwoofer.  I started the Wifi mode of my kitchen table Mac.  I disconnected the AC which powers the Acoustat speaker polarizing voltage because polarized speakers attract dust.  I marked with masking tape the position of the right Acoustat and Elac supertweeter.  I then moved the right Acoustat and Elac to the back of the living room to minimize contact with construction dust.  I washed 4 loads of laundry and changed the sheet on my bed.  I printed out relevant Green Glue documents and lined them up near the wall.

7.  On Monday Tom called around 10am and was getting the metal furring channels I had purchased on Friday.  (I was afraid I would have to go with him to pick up at store.)   He removed the wall to the Queen's Room on the hallway side.  It was very slow going.  He had intended to install the furring channels right away but decided the wall needed another stud next to the door frame to support the furring channels there.  So he would return to do that on Tuesday.

8.  Worker from irrigation company reset my computer for new watering ordinances, and he staked the pomegranate tree using the stakes I had bought earlier for my friend to use.  He did not think it necessary to move the tree to get a good staking, but the support is rather low.

Errands finally done, ready for April 9

Today I finally got around to bringing the old bathroom fan motor down to Post TV, as suggested by my electrician.  It was an interesting scene in old shabby office that had no other customers or retail displays. Two guys, one old guy doing all the walking around and one slightly younger guy fixed in front of his computer in back but clearly visible.  The older guy first plugged my motor in and explained that the motor was not repairable.  However, they could get a replacement.  He pulled down a replacement but it seemed the wrong motor had been put in the right box.  He went through all the boxes, nothing was right.  The other guy called Nutone to see about ordering the motor but Nutone said the motor was "obsolete."  It was looking hopeless (and vaguely reminiscent of the last time I went to Post TV, about 20 years ago, and did NOT get my VCR fixed).  Finally, a third guy named Cal with a Russian accent showed up just then and seemed to be the boss and said he would fix it, no problem.  Basically what he did was attach the front and back brackets from the old motor onto the nearest matching new one.  At first it was very noisy but he fixed that by smoothing down the shaft, or something like that.  As he was working the motor, he said "Out in the field, we learned how to do whatever was needed."  I didn't ask what "field" he was talking about, though it sounded interesting. The oldest guy cleaned the cage fan and then the whole thing was bolted together and re-tested.  Meanwhile a few other guys showed up, one saying to the boss that he should be sailing because the weather was so nice.  The boss made it clear he did not have a sailboat.  After paying I was on my way.  I don't remember Cal from my previous visit to Post TV.  Actually seems like a better place now they have someone who can actually do whatever is needed to fix things.

Just prior to that, I went to Lynwood to get the furring channels needed for my new soundproof wall.  I showed them the specs I needed and they said they had it.  I payed for 6 pieces.  They said they could not cut them, but said it was no problem if my contractor picked them up on Monday or Tuesday.  I then called Tom from my cell phone.  At first, he didn't recognize my voice.  He agreed to pick up the furring channels.  He said he would be out on Monday around 9:30 to 10:30 to open up the wall.

Not previously mentioned, the new contractor Tom, recommended by my electrician John, came out on Tuesday this week.  Just like over the phone, at first he seemed very skeptical about this green glue stuff.  He thought maybe a soundboard or special drywall would be better.  He asked if Green Glue had any test reports.  I said they had lab tests, STC ratings, and everyone on the web who was serious about home theatre was building their walls like this.   After I showed him the instructions for installing the clips he was somewhat less skeptical.  He was thinking this could work.  He then speculated that the green glue worked by creating resonant pockets between the panels.  I tried to suggest that air pockets weren't necessary and were in fact undesireable.

Since then I have printed out the Green Glue test report that shows the exact assembly we are building, which has an STC 65 rating, and also bass rejection that is even better than expected for STC 65.  I also found on the Green Glue site another test report showing soundboard to be inferior.  I printed out the Wikipedia entry on Constrained Layer Damping, which is clearly what Green Glue is (although not mentioned in official literature).  I'm hoping Tom will apply 3 tubes of Green Glue, the max effective amount, and not try to make too many air pockets.

The Casablanca Fan arrived on Wednesday.  Conveniently, it arrived when I was home, so I took it straight in.  It was not raining at the time, but had rain heavily the day before, and then after.  I checked it out a couple days later, and it is beautiful.  Apparently Hansen had it drop-shipped directly from Casablanca.

I ordered pre-cut cables in 75 and 50 foot lengths for my new whole house wired network.  It was very very hard to find pre-cut Cat 6A shielded cables.  After much searching, I found one vendor that seemed big (GSA approved, etc) and offered exactly the cables I wanted, for very reasonable price.  I did notice that it said "call about availability" but it was 3am so I just went and ordered them anyway.  I got a call saying the cables would not be available until the end of the month.  I was not surprised.  I have not called back.  I am thinking that I will simply have to wait until then to get this kind of cable.

I also ordered keystone inserts for Cat 6A shielded cable to fit into a multi-port panel.  Those were also very hard to find, though not as hard to find as the pre-cut shielded Cat 6A cables.  To get all the required features in a female-to-female keystone that doesn't require punching down on bare cable made it even harder.  But I found some for what seemed to be a good price for this sort of thing, but more than twice as expensive as plain old Cat 5E keystones.  I ordered them on Wednesday morning.  After submitting the order, there was no "confirm" page and no shipping price was ever stated.  I requested 2 day shipping, but that's unnecessary without the actual cables.  On Friday I got a call to approve the shipping.  I didn't call back until completing the two errands described above, then got a busy signal.  When I called back again, slightly after 4pm CDT, they were closed.

I've only started pricing RG6 cables.  I'm thinking each room should have 4 Cat6A digital ports, and 2 RG6 ports.

Obviously, the network stuff will have to wait until I get the cables and keystones.  But other than that, I have mostly prepared for the 2nd day of electrical remodeling on April 9.