Pressure Cooked Eggs

An odd title. But, first I'm still messing around with a status display. Nothing really fancy but at least I don't need to scroll the screen to see the info. The resolution of the 4" screen is only 320x480 and you need to use a stylus to get to the scroll bars of the screen. I have a few ideas how to make an enclosure for the RPi (Raspberry Pi) but need to allow for good ventilation as the screen drives the microprocessor hard enough to generate some heat. And I still want to add some virtual buttons to bring up the graphs. BTW, even if you include the screen, the cost of the whole "computer" is around $70.

The eight year old Dell netbook that the RPi is sitting on now has Windows 7 installed as well as the driver for the USB serial interface and the Morningstar charge controller software. This is just in case I wanted to make some changes to the configuration. I also installed the USB driver from Mads Electronics in case I need to change the firmware on the truck engines computer. The most significant parameter for me of the aftermarket firmware is the tire diameter within the ABS section. This allows me to get the speedometer (and odometer) to match the GPS by adjusting the diameter in 0.05" increments. I now have it within a couple of tenths of a mile on a 100 mile trip. The device is a "tuner" and I have it set for "towing" with a modest 70 hp boost. I originally set up the Dell as a hackintosh running OS X and at 2.3 lbs was my lightweight, travel computer. It's been on a lot of trips due to its rugged design. 

Since the forecast for today was mostly sunny, I ran the battery bank down a bit so the charge controller would stay at a control state of "BulkCharge" to see how much power I can get from the single panel. This is the power produced so far today. The dip around noon is a large spruce tree blocking the sun. Yesterday, the system was in absorption for most of the day as the batteries were charged.

To run the battery bank down, I steam cooked a half dozen eggs in an electric pressure cooker (14.2ah) and made some frozen pot stickers for lunch on the induction burner (15.5ah). Between the two tasks I drew about 30 amp-hours from the battery bank. Plus, I had the inverter and Ubiquity radio running for most of the day (22ah/day). 

BTW, for anyone wanting to hard boil eggs, the pressure cooker is the way to go. High pressure for 5 minutes. The shell practically fell off and perfectly cooked. I'll have to remember this technique.