Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Upgrading Lead Acid 80AH batteries to two 100AH LifePo4 SOK batteries.

 

Upgrading two Lead Acid 80AH batteries to two 100AH LifePo4 SOK batteries.

Why:

  • My current two and a half year old batteries were dying.

  • The SOK batteries were approximately 100lbs lighter than the lead acid batteries they replace.

  • The SOK batteries have 120Ah more usable power.

Items purchased:

  • 2 x SOK 100Ah replacement batteries 2 x $600. They were discounted from $650 to $600. At the time I am writing this, they are $570.

  • Cabling kit - $51.64 – Included 2/0 welding cable (probably overkill). It is a lot more flexible. Cable connectors and heat shrink.

  • Bus Bars - $39.99, I only needed one.

  • Progressive Dynamics 60 Amp Replacement Converter Section for PD4060 - $272.00

  • 3’ Aluminum angle iron - $6 - Lowes

  • Wire protectors split wrap $8 - AutoZone

I had to replace the batteries in my 2018 Forest River 3271S. If I try to add a 7A load to the old batteries they would only last 20 minutes before they would drop below 12V. It was time to replace them.

To replace them with what I already had would have cost ~$200 and probably only last 2.5yrs.

To upgrade cost me lest than $1470, but I should get 2.5x more usable power and they are guaranteed for 7yrs. They are truly maintenance free and I don’t have to worry about draining them below 50%.

Saving 100lbs of weight is an added bonus.

One of the negatives is, the SOK batteries are not the same size as the lead acid batteries. They are around 1.5 inches taller. They do not fit in my steps like the lead acid batteries. This is the reason for the added expense of $92 for the cabling kit and bus-bars. I needed to place the SOK batteries in a storage compartment next to the stairs.

One of my other choices would have been two Battleborn 100Ah batteries. These would have been direct replacement but would have cost $700 more for the two.


Before you start:

Turn your battery disconnect switch to “OFF” and disconnect from shore power.


Step 1:

Take pictures of the old battery lay out, draw up a wiring diagram, and label all the wires.

Step 2:

Remove the batteries and clean out the battery compartment. My lead acid batteries left sulfuric residue in the bottom and were beginning to corrode the metal box. I used baking soda and water to neutralize the acid.

Step 3:

Mount your bus-bars.

Step 3:

Place the new batteries in their new position in the storage area and measure the wire needed.

Step 4:

Create your cables. I used my bench vice to crimp the cable connectors. There are hammer crimpers and other types that will work. It is important you make good crimps.

Step 5:

Put on your wire protecting split wrap.

Step 6:

Connect your cables.

Step 7.

Turn your battery disconnect to “On” and make sure your rig’s 12V systems are working. Then turn it off.

Step 8:

Replace the charge controller. Since mine was a direct replacement It was very simple. Some newer Progressive charge controllers have a jumper to move so it will charge LifePo4 batteries. Alas, I was not so lucky.

Step 9:

Connect to shore power and turn your battery disconnect to “ON”. T urn shore power on.

This should be it. Your charge controller should be charging your batteries. After around 10min, you will probably hear the fan on the charge controller kick on. The batteries suck a lot of current.

I have an inexpensive battery monitor. I saw it begin charging and supplying 58Amp to the batteries.

It is very important you check the temperature of your battery cables during this first charge. I had one cable connection that was getting very hot. It appears the original connection to the 60A breaker had a less than ideal crimp. The added resistance was generating heat. I needed to re-crimp it. This was one of the cables that was installed on the rig at the factory. This would not have been an issue with lead acid batteries since they do not draw as much current.

At the beginning of the charge cycle, I was seeing 58As being supplied to the batteries. After an hour or more, it began to drop. Eventually it went to near 0.

Once you have everything working the way you want, secure the batteries. I used some angle iron. You can use wood or whatever you have laying around. You don’t want the batteries bouncing around.

Make sure you recycle your old lead acid batteries safely.

Links:
Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCmwBfIk9Gs&ab_channel=LoveYourRVLoveYourRV

SOK Battery
https://www.sokbattery.com/100ah-12v-lifepo4-deep-cycle-battery.html


Cable Kit
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K4W2PX3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Power Converter
https://battlebornbatteries.com/product/progressive-dynamics-60-amp-replacement-converter-section-for-pd4060li-lithium-series-electronic-power-center/


Bus Bar
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C5SC7TB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Battery Monitor
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CTKYFTG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Pictures:

Batteries new home


The old battery box under the steps now has a bus bar. The little gold thing on the right is the shunt for my battery monitor,

Here is the old converter/charger. The new one looks exactly the same.



Here is the storage compartment reletive to the door/stairs/old battery compartment.


Friday, December 23, 2016

Google Fiber Review

Google Fiber Reviewed

Overview:

  1. Moving from AT&T Uverse (TV & Internet(/ Vonage (Phone)
    • I regularly saw down load speeds of 25Mbs and upload speeds in the single digits with AT&T.
    • TV Picture was better than TWC but compressed.
    • I had Vonage for 8yrs the only complaint was it could not do FAXs unless you upgrade to a business plan.
  2. Moving to Google Fiber Internet, TV, and Phone
    • I am seeing nearly 1Gbs upload and download speeds
    • The TV picture looks significantly better on my 4k OLED TV than with AT&T.
    • The phone works reliably. I have not tried to FAX yet. I do like that is integrated with Google Voice.

The Installation:

I had and an 8:00AM installation appointment. Not 8:00 AM to noon. Just 8:00AM. The technician was here at 8:00AM. Actually he may have been a couple of minutes early. This sure beats TWC and AT&T. The last AT&T appointment I had, the guy showed up 2hrs outside the 4hr window. So far Google has them both beat. 
I don't have your normal setup. I have 2 TV's, one in the living room and one in the upstairs office. The upstairs office TV was serviced by an AT&T wireless TV set top box. The Google Tech needed to have a wired connection from the downstairs set top box to the upstairs box. He always used the existing coax used by the previous TV providers. I asked if he could use Ethernet? He said yes but he had never done that. I guess I was going to have to school him. I had wired my house with Cat5 cable 15yrs ago. At first the upstairs TV box did not work. The signal was passing through another router and 2 switches. He called his support line and they told him it would not work going through a switch. I told him, what they meant is, it should work but it has never been tested. I found that the Ethernet cable to the switch by the upstairs TV had popped out. I plugged it in and it worked. I just saved the technician a lot of crawling around in my crawl space to run new cables. 
We noticed my switches were only showing 100Mbs with their connection status lights. As I stated earlier, I had run Cat5 cable 15yrs earlier. For 1Gbs, you need to run over Cat5E or above. I guess I will be doing some rewiring sometime this spring with Cat6 cables. 
 The Tech installed the phone modem with no issues. He transferred my existing land line number from Vonage to Google Voice. I saw no interruption of service. 
The main downstairs TV box installed without an issue.
The whole process took a couple of hours. It probably would have taken an hour less if we did not have that adventure with the upstairs TV. 

The internet:

As I stated the speed is as advertised. I just need to upgrade my network to take full advantage of it. The wireless speed runs around 86Mbs. We got around 25Mbs with my old duel band router. The Google router is really good.
The network management is probably the simplest I have ever seen. Just point your Chrome browser to fiber.google.com and you are there. It is so simple, my in-laws could manage it. You can set up your wireless, run speed tests, etc... Very simple. You would expect Google to do this right and they did. 

TV:

This is where Google does not shine. While picture is excellent the remote and screen layouts are not so great.  For example, every DVR remote I have ever seen in the last 15yrs has a DVR/LIST or some single button to bring up your recorded shows. The only way I can see to get a list of my recordings is to hit Menu and then select DVR. I also don't see a easy way to delete multiple recordings. It may be there but I have not seen it yet.
You can cast from your Chrome browser and Google Play Music app to the TV. I uploaded 2K songs up to the Google cloud and I can "Cast" them to the TV box. Actually, I can cast my whole computer screen to the TV box. This is cool.

TV wish to haves:

  1. A single button push to get to DVR recordings.
  2. Integration with Google Home. If I had a Google Home device, I would like to say, "OK Google, Put on CNN" and have it show CNN on my TV. 
  3. They have APPs on the Menu. They only have 4, NetFlix, VUDU YouTube, and Weather. Google is the master of integration. They really did not show their expertise this time. Maybe they are planned for future upgrades. None of the other TV providers provide any real integration. I guess I just expected more from Google. 

Do you need 1Gbs?

Probably not but you probably need more than 25Mbs. 
I have up to 2 laptops, 2 desktops, 2 tablets, 3 cell phones, and my VOIP phone connected to the internet at one time. If you have a couple of people streaming content, and you are on the phone, things can get dicey, 
Also, Google fiber does not have data caps. Most providers do have or are planning on implementing data caps and throttling. I would regularly use more than 750GBs per month with AT&T. Since I had TV and internet, they did not charge me for the extra data. I am not sure if they were throttling me. AT&T Uverse Fiber, which is also available in my neighborhood gives you 1TB of data if you get internet only and unlimited if you include TV. 1TB may sound like a lot, but if I am using 750GB at 25Mbs, I would expect to blow through 1TB in a couple of weeks. It is like dropping a V8 into a Toyota Corolla but keeping the 10 gallon gas tank. You may go real fast but not very far.

Would I choose Google Fiber again? - YES! 

Friday, November 11, 2016

Updating speakers in a 

2013 to 2017
 Ford Fusion SE with 

the 6 speaker  
infotainment systems
  • Speakers installed:
    • Front – Polk Dxi6501 – Component system with a 6.5” woofer, 1” tweeter, crossover
    • Rear – Polk DX651s – Two way system with a 6.5” woofer, 1” tweeter, integrated crossover

Goal

    Improve the quality of sound not quantity.
    I am not trying to impress the teenager across the street or piss off my neighbors. The OEM speakers that came with the car are lacking, to say the least. While the volume is sufficient the quality of the sound is not so great. Because the OEM speakers are fairly efficient due to their small and light coil assemblies, I expected to notice a decrease in volume/efficiency. Note the comparison of the OEM woofer and the Polk woofer.



    The Polk is on the right. Bigger magnet does not always mean better but usually it does. The larger magnet generates a stronger magnetic field giving it the strength to more accurately move the cone.
    I was looking at some Alpine speakers that looked equivalent and sounded pretty good at Best Buy. The problem is, they were 3db less efficient than the Polks. 3db may not seem like a lot but on average, for every 3db increase in volume, you need to double your amp’s output power. Since lack of efficiency is a known issue, I felt it would be better go go with the Polk’s.   

The results:

While I do need to turn the volume up more than with the OEM speakers, the sound quality is much improved. There is no more bass than before. They are a little brighter but adding one notch in the bass boost and setting the front crossovers to -3db did the trick. The improved sound is really apparent with piano and guitar sounds. While there is not more bass, the bass that is there is a lot tighter. I listen to, jazz, classic rock, blues, classical, and blue grass. All sounded significantly better.

This install:

I used this website to find out how to remove the door panels and access the speakers. These are excellent instructions.

http://www.paulstravelpictures.com/2013-2016-Ford-Fusion-Interior-Door-Panel-Removal-Guide/index.html

Issues I encountered:

  1. The holes in the doors for the speakers are around 7” in diameter. This leaves around a 1/4” gap around the speaker. This causes the speaker to not be mounted on an acoustically sealed cavity. Not being sealed allows the bass to be muddled. My solution was a $1 piece of foam core poster board between the mounting bracket and the door’s sheet metal. The poster board is the white stuff around the woofer. It does not have to look nice, since nobody should see it. No.. that is not where I put the crossover box.
  1. Where to put the crossover box. Crutchfield suggested putting it behind the kick plate, in front of the door. This would require running wires between the door and the car frame. I did not want to do that. I was able to mount the crossover box to the door panel, above the woofer, in front and below the tweeter. I used double sided tape to attach it to the door panel.


  1. I wanted to put the tweeter in the same place where the OEM tweeter was but it would not fit. The new tweeter’s housing is ~1/8” larger than the OEM one. My solution was to surface mount the tweeter with the flush mount bracket. I had to drill 2 holes in the wire mesh, one for
    the wire and one for the mounting screw. I also needed a longer screw.

  1. Chrutchfield suggested some foam baffles to protect the speakers from the elements. These had 2 issues. First, since the actual holes in the doors were larger than 6.5”, they did not really fit well. Second, they decreased the volume of space behind the speaker, raising the resonant frequency of the speaker enclosure. Since the interior of my 1.5yr old car was perfectly clean and these speakers are bass challenged, I decided not to use the baffles.
 

Some things to consider:

  1. If sound volume is important to you, (You want to impress the teenager across the street and piss off your neighbors), consider installing a 4 channel in-line amp such as the Clarion XC2410. http://www.crutchfield.com/p_020XC2410/Clarion-XC2410.html?tp=115
  2. If bass is important to you, consider a 5 channel amp like the Clarion XC2510 with a sub-woofer. http://www.crutchfield.com/g_120/All-Car-Amplifiers.html?tp=115#&nvpair=AG_Type|FF5@Channel&nvpair=FFBrand|Clarion
I did not want to do these because I did not want to mess with the wiring. The wiring would involve fishing wires from the doors to the kick plates to the amp, along with a wire through the firewall for power. I could do it but I just don’t want to.

Why I purchased for Crutchfield?


I have purchased several head units in the past from Crutchfield. Their support and customer service has been excellent. They will usually include wiring harnesses and adapters with your purchase for little or no charge. Most places charge extra and don’t tell you need them. You find out when you have everything apart. For head units, they usually include instructions for the exact model car I am installing in. They did not have instructions for the speaker installation for my Fusion. Crutchfield is in Virginia. I ordered the speakers late Sunday night and they were at my door in North Carolina, Tuesday morning. This was normal shipping.   I am sure there are other good companies to purchase from but this is the one I am familiar with.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

How to Sellect and Place Surround Sound Speakers

Background:
Audio was my passion before I started working in the computer industry. I had taken some studio recording classes, did PA for a lousy rock band, and sold TVs and stereos.  I then got my FCC first class license while in electronic school. In 1976 my audio system cost nearly $2000 and it sounded ausome. This was 1976 dollars. It makes me sick thinking about how much that would be in today’s dollars. Lucky for us technology is a lot cheaper today.

Below I will show you what you need to know to get a good value 5.1 speaker system for around $650. Yes, this will not be a studio quality system but it will be a lot better than if you just picked up almost any of the theater in a box systems. Our ultimate goal is to configure an entire surround sound system for ~$1000. You can apply this knowledge to higher or lower end systems as well. It all scales.

Summary:
    1) Don’t pay list price for speakers. 30% discount is the minimum you should expect.
    2) Speakers are the most important components of a surround sound system.
    3) L, Center, & R are the most important speakers.
4) Don’t buy speakers unless you can listen to them. If you can, bring your own music to demo the speakers with.
5) Don’t get fooled when comparing speakers. Listen to them flat. Louder is not necessarily better.
6) Make sure the speaker’s power rating is greater than your receivers power output(RMS into 8 ohms). Ignore dynamic output power.  
7) Don’t get ripped off for speaker wire. 16 or 18 gauge lamp cord wire works fine.
8) Stay in phase. Connect +’s to +s, Red’s to Red’, -’s to -’s. and Black’s to Black’s.

As people replaced there standard TVs with HDTVs, they do not have to accept the less than HD sound that their slim TVs provide. Modern TVs have sound not much better than a laptop. In this post I will cover basic components of a standard surround sound system and the basic things you need to look and listen for. I will also give advice on placement and shopping suggestions.

Parameters
I will define a surround sound system comprising of a receiver and either 5.1 or 7.1 speakers. The ".1" refers to the number of sub-woofers. To keep things real, lets assume our budget is ~$1000. You can spend less and you can spend a lot more. I have seen some good  configurations for $600.

Speakers are the thing you listen to but most people are entranced by the lights, features, and power of the receiver. If you have $100 to put towards better speakers or a better receiver, in most cases you will realize better sound if you put that extra $100 towards better speakers.

Because speakers carry the highest profit margin on any component of a surround system, besides cables, you should realize the greatest discounts. I expect to get around 30% off list price. 50% is not unusual. Some less common professional series speakers may not have such high discounts but you can always ask.

Listen:
When shopping for speakers, the first thing you must do is listen to them. Listening is the best way to determine if a speaker system is right for you. Some times it boils down to a personal preference. When you go shopping for speakers bring a couple of recordings of they types of music you like to listen to. You want music with a good range of sounds, like percussion, brass, strings, and vocals. Ask the salesperson to put the music on and have them switch between the speakers you are are considering. Also ask them to play through their best speakers so you can hear what the “if money was not an issue” would sound like.

Things to listen for are, clear and sharp highs. Do the cymbals sound like they should or do they sound like someone through a towel on them? Do the vocal sound like the singer is standing in front of you or do they sound like they are standing outside the room? Do the drums have a good thump or do they sound like someone hitting the bottom of a trashcan?

Don’t let your ears trick you. You will perceive louder sound as sounding better. Speakers have different sensitivities. In the specs this is documented as the number of db with 1 watt of power at 1 meter. The higher the number the louder, more efficient, a speaker is. Just because it is louder, does not mean it sounds better than another speaker. You will need to consciously try to compensate for the difference in efficiency. Another way your ears can trick you is perceiving more bass is better, especially at low volumes. This is what “Loudness” button does on some receivers. When the sales person is demonstrating the speakers, ask him to make sure he/she has the receiver set to “flat”, no bass or treble boost. If you want more bass when you bring the speakers home, you can always add it by the receiver settings or speaker placement. When listening to speakers, if a speaker is on the floor or in a corner, you will hear more bass. I don’t want tp go into the physics of why this happens but believe me it is true.
  
Specs:
What about specs? All good quality audio components have specs that are published by the manufacturer. Understand, specs that are not compulsory, manufacturers may not publish all specs. They also have a tendency to try to add confusion by publishing similar sounding specs but are derived on some non-standard scale. The specs you are looking for when it comes to speakers is, power rating, resistance (ohms), efficiency(DB with 1 watt at 1 meter), and accuracy (+ or - DB from 20 to 20K Hz). If the manufacturer does not publish these specs, look for reviews online where they derive these measurements during testing.

The power rating is the min and max power that should be supplied by your amp/receiver. The min is the least power you receiver should be able to produce to create a decent sound level in a normal room. The max power is the max power you amp/receiver should be able to produce “cleanly” into 8 ohms without damaging the speaker. Actually you can fry a speaker with significantly less power if the power is not clean. If you overdrive you amp it will do what is called clipping. Basically the signal is a sine wave. If the amp is just a multiplier. If the input source x the multiplier of the amp is greater than the max output of the amp, the tops of the sine waves will be flat at the max power level. This flat level is DC current. Speakers do not like DC current because the speakers become a short and get very hot and warp the coils in the driver. Don’t want to bore you with electrical theory but believe me, if you crank up your system so loud it distorts, it will eventually fry you speakers. Back it down.

Resistance is futile but necessary. Speakers usually have a resistance of 8 ohms. Anything less can cause you to blow a breaker on you receiver or fry it totally. Usually only very high end receivers can drive loads of less than 8 ohms. To be safe, only deal with speakers with resistance of 8 ohms.

Sensitivity we discussed above. If your receiver is lacking for power or you have a large room to fill with sound you may care about this. In most households this is not a driving factor, unless you really like pissing off your neighbors or your wife fills the room with heavy drapes, thick carpeting, and overstuffed furniture. Soft things suck sound out of the air. BTW- people are soft. I usually only use this number to help be compensate for volume differences when comparing speakers.

Accuracy is how accurate a speaker reproduces an input signal across the hearing spectrum, 20 to 20K Hz. This is measured in + or - db. The lower the number the better. Basically if the number for a speaker is + or - 3db from 20 to 20K Hz, it means each frequency  inputted at the same power level, the resulting volume will not differ by more than 3db. If a speaker manufacture lists a range larger than 20 to 20K, it is useless unless you are a dog or a humpback whale. For sub-woofers, they will most likely have a range from 20 Hz to something a lot less than 20K Hz. This is acceptable since sub-woofers only need to reproduce low end sounds. The same thing applies to satellite speakers but at the other end of the spectrum. You do want to make sure the ranges from the sub-woofer and the satellite speakers do have some overlap or you may have a hole in the spectrum your system can reproduce.

Because of the physics of sound, size does matter. Usually the larger the speaker enclosure the richer sound on the low-end range. This is because of the natural resonance of the cabinet. Also. speakers should be heavy. This improves the cabinet's resonances and assures it does not dance around the room at loud volumes.

When all else fails, search for professional reviews. Take customer reviews with a grain of salt. Look at sights the specialize in audio hardware reviews, not Consumer Reports or Better Homes and Gardens. A place like Audio World is a good place to start. Always try to find multiple reviews. Speakers can be a “personal preference” type of decision, so assume any author has their biases.

Speaker Priority:
When selecting for 5.1 or 7.1 system speakers, some of the speakers are more important than others. This is an issue I have with many pre-configured speaker packages. Usually they use the same speakers for the rear satellites as for the front speakers. If manufacturers would put better speakers up front and maybe some less expensive speakers for the surround satellites, the total sound would be much better for the same cost.   

The 3 most important speakers in a 5.1 or 7.1 system are the front right, left, and center speakers. These define the sound stage by helping to create for the listener the placement of instruments and sound effects. Put on Dark Side of the Moon and you will know what I mean. The center channel speaker provides vocals in videos and may provide some center placement of instruments in music. Most music is recorded in stereo so what is sent to the center channel is determined by the receiver and its surround sound settings. These three speakers, L, R, and Center provide most of the sound so they are the most critical to your listening enjoyment. My personal opinion is put at least ½ of your speaker budget into these three speakers.

The next most important speaker after the front 3 is the sub-woofer. This single speaker provides the low end sounds, base drums, rumbling of thunder, etc... The reason you only need one of these and its placement is not that critical is because the low frequency wave lengths are longer than the distance between your ears so you can not perceive direction of the low frequency sounds. I will assume you will only be considering powered sub-woofers. There are only a couple of things to look at, first the speaker diameter. The larger the diameter, usually the lower the frequencies that are reproduced. The next thing is power of it’s amplifier. The more watts, usually the louder it can go and the more easily it can drive the lower frequencies. When the sub tries to produce really low frequencies the signal approaches DC and this causes speaker driver to suck power. This is why a 100W to 300W sub is not unreasonable. The next thing is Signal to Noise Ratio. This is how much unwanted noise (hum and hiss) as compared to the wanted signal is produced by the electronics of the sub. The higher the number the better.

Sub-woofer connections can differ. I like to have a single sub-woofer connection directly from the receiver to the sub. Most receivers today have a sub-out output. With this, the receiver can provide a low power signal to the sub. Usually the receiver will have an adjustable crossover setting allowing you to determine what frequencies go to the sub only. It is not unusual for the sub to also have a crossover filter adjustment. A crossover is the filter that cuts out the frequencies the speaker can’t handle and only allows the frequencies to pass that it can reproduce. The last thing you want is for the sub to be sent signals for bells or your satellite speakers to get the signal for a bass drum.

The last speakers in the speaker hierarchy are the 4(7.1) or 2(5.1) satellite speakers. These speakers provide 3D spacial placement of sound in the room. Is 7.1 better than 5.1? It depends. Do you have a place to properly place the extra 2 speakers in a 7.1 system. In my house, I would have to put one in the fireplace and the other right over a couch. If you have the place to put these properly, go for it. But if you can put extra $’s into the front speaker by eliminating 2 satellite speakers, stick with a 5.1 setup. Also HDTV signals and DVD’s only provide 5.1 sound. Blue-ray and some pay-per view satellite shows on DirecTV have 7.1 sound. 5.1 works fine for my needs and I don’t get any complaints from my wife about how the system looks.

Since the satellite speakers only provide placement and the most important sound comes from the front speakers, you can get a way with less expensive speakers for the rears. You don’t want to go to cheap. I would say a reasonable rule of thumb would be, the rear satellites should cost no less than 1/4 and no more than ¾ of what your front R & L speakers cost. I would lean towards less than ½ of the cost of the front L & R speakers.

Example 5.1 Configuration:
For example, lets say you have $650 to spend on your speakers. Expect to spend $350 on the  3 front speakers, $200 for the sub and $100 for the two rear speakers.
An example configuration from Newegg.com 11/26/12
    Polk Audio Monitor40 Series II $149 a pair
    Polk Audio CS2 Series II Center Channel - $149
    Polk Audio PSW Series PSW505 Subwoofer- $229
    Polk Audio Monitor30 Series II - $79 - Regularly $120.
Total - $606

If this is to much trouble Polk has a pre-packaged speaker system for $399, the Polk Audio RM510. While my configuration is significantly better, the pre-package system will sound a lot better than your TV speakers. You get what you pay for. Will my configuration sound 50% better? I think so.

It is not required that all the speakers come from the same manufacturer. My home speakers are a mix of Polk and Harmen Karden speakers.  The nice thing about Polks is you can usually find them at Best Buys and listen to them, then buy them cheaper on-line. Speakers will sound better at home than they will in the store because you can better place them and you will have better acoustics.

There are a number of good speaker lines that are available in the price range we have been discussing. Boston Acoustics, JBL’s consumer line, Infinity, Advent, and others make respectable speakers. Yes, Bose does make lower end speakers but I think you can do better with more traditional designs at this price point.  

Speaker Placement:
Now that you have bought your speakers, where do you put them? The front L & R speakers should not be placed more than 12ft apart. Any more distance between them, you have a very good chance of having a very indistinguishable sound stage. You will not easily tell where the instruments or sound it suppose to be in front of you. 6ft is good distance. In my system at home, I have them on either side of my 46” TV, since they mostly serve as my TV speakers. If I wanted to put them 6ft apart, I would have to hang them off my windows. You will probably have to make some trad-offs when it comes to speaker placement. For a home theater system, you really want the speakers an equal distance on ether side of the TV with the TV in the middle. The center channel speaker goes directly over or under the TV. Don’t put it on the floor or near the ceiling. The sub-woofer can go just about anywhere. Don’t put it in a corner or behind furniture. The corner will make it sound even boomier and if you put it behind furniture the sound will be blocked. The rear channel speakers should be slightly behind the listener to fully behind. The satellites should  be at ear level or slightly above. These are optimal placement suggestions but we all live in the real world and our houses or spouses may not accommodate “optimal”. Just do the best you can.

If your room is a rectangle, have the front speakers at a narrow end of the room. This way you will better take advantage of the acoustics/resonance of the room. This is not always possible and most people will not notice the difference.






Speaker Wiring:
When wiring your speakers, you don’t need to get monster speaker wire. I use 16 gauge lamp cord wire. Just don’t have to much extra wire. Having an extra foot or two is OK, but don’t have an extra 5ft looped somewhere, unless you want to also hear the local AM radio station or your neighbor’s CB radio.
The most important thing to be aware of when connecting your speakers, do not mix up polarities of your speaker connections. All speakers and receivers have a “+” or “-” terminals. They may be color coded as Red and Black. Don’t mix these up or your great sound system will sound like crap. This is the most common mistake people make. Each wire pair has either a silver side and a copper color side or a smooth casing side and a ribbed casing side. Keep these straight. Put all the copper colored or ribbed wires to the red terminals and the other wire to the black. It really doesn’t matter which as long as you are consistent with all the speakers.  If you do mix them up, one or more of your speakers will be 180 degrees out of phase. Basically one speaker will be pushing out and the other one will be pulling in and they will cancel each other out. This makes the sound seem muddy and you will not be able to visualize the sound stage because the sound placement will be messed up.

Safety:
        Don't run wires under carpet or in traffic areas. Worn wires can short and fry your amp if your lucky or burn you house down if you are unlucky. Also you need to avoid trip hazards. Several places sell wireless devices that will allow you to run your rear speakers wirelessly. Rockfish is the brand sold at Best Buy. They have a Universal Wireless Rear Speaker kit for $109. 
Sorry about how long this post was but I tried to condense it as much as I could without getting too technical. My next post will cover selecting the right receiver.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

My first impressions of my Android tablet


My first exposure to Android:
I got my Toshiba Thrive 5 days ago and here are my first impressions. This is my first real exposure to Andriod. 
Summary:
1)      If I needed to replace my PC, could I replace it with a tablet?- NO
a.       I need to run my tax program
b.      I need to edit and read .docx files
c.       I need a real keyboard to be productive (yes I can get a Bluetooth keyboard but then I would just have a laptop.)
2)      Would I buy an iPad or an Android tablet? – Android
a.       I don’t like the restrictive nature of the iTunes/iPhone echo system. Some people are happy with iTunes/iPhone’s restrictions, I am not.
3)      If I had only $400 to spend and I had to either get a laptop or a tablet I would get the laptop. If I
had only $1000 to spend, I would get a better laptop, a smartphone, go out to a nice restaurant, and 
maybe a Kindle Fire.
Background:
For the last year and a half, I have been using an iPhone 4 which is my first and only exposure to Apples iOS. I like my iPhone but I am always frustrated by the restrictive nature of the platform. When looking for a tablet, I wanted to try something different and hopefully more open. Since I have been involved in Linux development for the last 12 years, Android devices seem to be a natural fit. Costing less than an iPad2 was an added bonus.
My main use for a tablet is to learn app development, e-mail, web browsing, and the occasional game.
I shopped around for a while and determined my minimal requirements.
1)      Android 3.1 or higher
2)      Duel core Integra 2
3)      16GB of storage
4)      1GB of memory
5)      7” screen or larger
If money was not at issue my first choice was an Asus Transformer Prime with better graphics, 10” screen, and a 4 core Integra3, but I would then be hitting the iPad2 price point. Instead I was able to get a Toshiba Thrive 16GB 10” tablet for almost half the price. Yes, it is thick and heavy but I got it for a good price and it will serve my needs. This is important; determine what you need to do and your budget.

What I like about iOS(iPhone/iPad):
It works. If you don’t mind staying within the boundaries defined by the iOS platform, it is a great platform. It is well integrated into the iOS/iTunes echo system. It is easy to use and it is very stable.  

What I like about Android:
1)      You can add extra storage - Unlike iOS devices, every Android device I have seen has an SD or micro-SD slot for additional storage. If you buy a 16GB Apple device, that is all you have. The only remedy is to buy another expensive device for more storage. Most of, if not all, the Android tablets can handle up to 32GB SD or micro SD cards. You cannot install apps onto the SD cards but you can install data files, like MP3 files, movies, etc…. I have 16GB of music which I can put on my SD card and leave my main 16GB free for apps and other stuff.
2)      Integration with Google-Yes Google is a big brother corporation like Apple but Google allows me to do more of the things I want to do. My GMAIL. Google Docs, and my Calendar are all seamlessly synced between my Android tablet device and the Google cloud. If I don’t have my tablet with me, no problem. I can get on any device with an internet connection and a browser and get access to all my stuff. I don’t need to back things up because they are on the cloud and Google does it for me. The downfall is, Googledocs does not do you much good if you don’t have access to a WIFI connection to the Internet. There is no local copy of Googledoc files on the device.
3)      You can print some things – From Googledocs you can print to your windows PC if you do the setup through the Chrome browser. Yes, you need to have your PC powered up but you don’t need to buy one of the very few printers that support Apple iOS. I can print to any printer that is connected to my PC. Actually my printer is a network printer that my PC uses. Google does have a few Cloud Printers which do not need a PC as a proxy. The Cloud Printers just need to be connected to your network. This is similar to what Apple has. The one thing nice about Google’s solution is, it allows me to use the printers I already have.
You cannot print everything, such as screenshots or from the browser on the tablet. While print options are better than Apple they are not complete.
4)      You don’t need iTunes or email files to your device to copy them – When I plug in my Android tablet into the USB port of my computer, it mounts as if it is a USB flash drive. I can simply copy, edit, and delete file just like a flash drive. If I want to put a PDF document on my tablet all I need to do is drag and drop. The only way I found to do this easily on my iPhone is to mail it to myself. I then had to leave it in my e-mail.
5)      I like the Android desktop – The Android desktop just looks cooler. I like the widgets. The iOS desktop seems so regimented compared to Android.
6)      It is running Linux – Having worked on Linux for the last 12 years I am prejudice, but is a rock solid OS. You don’t need to know Linux because it is buried underneath the Andriod UI like most things using Linux, like your home router, DVR, cable set top box, and the ATM machine down the street.  

What about Android I don’t care for:
1)      It sometimes does not work – The one thing I like about iOS, is that everything works for me 99% of the time while Android seems to work 97% of the time. The Android OS is fine, it seems the applications have issues. I crash the browser at least once a day. The OS always seemed stable. It appears to be an issue with the apps or maybe Java. I am not sure the cause, I am only sure of the results.
2)      Things are different from iOS – This is more of a “what you are familiar with” issue than a functional issue. I am just use to where things are in iOS. Everything in Adroid is there; I just need to learn where they are.
3)      Security – Because of Apples restrictive app store, you are less likely to download a mischievous app. The Android marketplace can be like the Wild West. You need to know what you are downloading. Practice safe downloading.
4)      No Screen Capture – This is dumb simple on an iPhone. On Adroid, you need to get the SDK and connect to a PC. Maybe when I start playing with the development tools, this will not be an issue but for the average user, it is not practical.
5)      No iTunes support – This is not an issue for me. I have all my music on CD’s. Yes, I like the physical media. When you are my age you can find a lot of music you like in the discount section of Best Buys or WalMart. I have around 150 CD ripped to MP3 format.  If you have all your music in iTunes format, you are probably out of luck. It will only play on Apple devices or in iTunes. There is a restriction free format for iTunes. If you music is in this format, you should be able to convert it to mp3’s. As I stated earlier, not an issue for me.