Producing gas for cooking

Today was one of those days when I was so exhausted from the work week that though there were big plans to go under the bus and work on brake lines, nothing major really got done. Instead it was a series of side projects and side-side projects. 

As some of my readers know, I have an interest in robotics. For a long time I have thought about getting a screen to run off a Raspberry Pi for occasions when a network is not available. It would be possible to configure the Pi to run as a hotspot but most of the time it runs off the house network. To change that, it is possible but I would need a screen as a backup in case something went amiss. Thus today I took delivery of a cable that can connect the Pi to a backup camera screen that I have spare. It's a microscopic screen but should be OK for configuration if need be and it runs off 12v. I have been asked if I ran the bus off a Pi but the answer is no. The Pi is for other things.

One of the other side projects involves producing hydrogen gas. To this end I have two dollar-store stainless steel knives set up in a bath of salt water with a cap over the cathode designed to collect hydrogen. In this case, the hydrogen might have chlorine gas mixed with it but the point is just to produce hydrogen via solar power. So far the experiment has been running just over a month and has produced some very small bubbles. I do not expect to produce a meaningful quantity of hydrogen in the experiment. 

It seems that producing two mols of hydrogen (about the quantity needed to fill a garment bag) takes two full days at 1 amp. I can pretty well guarantee I'm not getting that much. Mostly the experiment has been running off a 15W solar panel placed in a non-ideal location. The fact there are gas bubbles is encouraging but it might take many months to generate anything meaningful.

Another project today was to put handles on two of my hinged solar panel pairs. This makes them much easier to carry - like a suitcase. There is no latch as yet to keep them latched together. That might come in time but as Lowes (hiss, spit) had no worthwhile latches, it might take a while.

With hydrogen production, salt produces chlorine gas - not ideal and in fact quite dangerous. For an experiment however, that's fine. If the gasses from both anode and cathode were mixed and it was just pure water then I would produce Brown's gas which is an explosive mix of hydrogen and oxygen. This would work well for cooking but isn't the safest thing to use.

To put it simply, this is a fun experiment but won't likely yield enough hydrogen to cook anything with in a reasonable amount of time. 

Today I broke a rule and answered somebody's post on social media. Every now and then I want to contribute and I always get my head snapped off for bothering. Somebody posted that they were going to buy a school bus and didn't know where they were going to park it. They said they'd asked their boss about parking in the company car park and he was not happy. Well, that's a no then. My suggestion was that if it was not possible to locate a parking space before purchasing the bus it would be better not to purchase the bus. That was shouted down as being rude and negative which is pretty much all that happens to real suggestions on social media. All people go there for is positive affirmation of their own ideas. Putting it bluntly, it encourages conversations like this.

• Hey, y'all, I had this great idea about jumping off a bridge onto a  busy road. 
• Yeah, why not do it. Just think, you could get a day off work.
• My aunty jumped off a bridge into traffic and won $10,000
• No. Don't do it - that could kill you.
• Don't be such a nasty person. She has a perfect right to jump off a bridge!
• You're horrible - your should leave this group immediately and see a psychiatrist.
• I'd be banned if I told you what I really think of you and your dog stinks.

It's all about the poster getting positive affirmation of the poster's own ideas. Nothing about honest discussion or honest opinions. Nothing that advances the person or their personal development. In fact, because the poster can block everybody that disagrees with them, it leads to really dangerous situations where dangerous ideas cannot be countered. One example from the bus would would be poorly secured large or heavy items in a bus such as cast iron woodstoves which in themselves are a whole new level of danger and stupidity. 

As far as social media is concerned, the problems are vast. The person giving advice might know what they're talking about but might also just be copying (with errors) what they have read elsewhere. Indeed they might not even own the equipment they're discussing and might just be yet another unemployed individual posting about the way they think things should work. So many people, for example, were nasty about my welding. The fact that I can beat my welds with a sledgehammer and they don't fall apart never changes their attitudes. Put together a weak weld that looks pretty and they'd be full of praise.

Basically, I'm not big into social media. Here's the thing - if somebody is always on social media or has a huge number of posts over a short period then perhaps that's all they do. There are always more talkers than doers.