This is another time lapse I shot this week. I rigged my tripod to the front passenger seat of my truck and drove around Allentown for about an hour. I used a shutter speed of 1 sec and a 6 second interval to shoot. Since I’m hooked up to the laptop, I’m dependent on the transfer speed of the images over the USB cable, so I’m still playing around with how short I can get the intervals.
Here’s one of my first experiments with time lapse photography. I set up my camera on our back patio late this afternoon while the wind was going and was able to capture a few clouds going by. It’s just under an hour of real time, compressed into this 25 seconds. I’m using my Nikon D70 hooked up via USB cable to my laptop while running the Nikon Capture software in the time lapse mode. In this experiment I had it take a picture every 15 seconds.
Tonight I started working on a way to mount my electric trolling motor to our canoe.
A long time ago when I had my sailboat, I had also gotten a 12v trolling motor to go along with it. Ever since I sold the sailboat, I’ve wanted to see about mounting it to the canoe. Well, I’ve finally come around to it, and after doing some quick research online I found a number of different ready-made mounts that you can buy, but seeing as how simple they seem in design, I figured I can build my own.
I did a really quick and dirty mockup of how I might be able to mount it:
It’s going to need a long piece of wood that runs the width of the canoe right behind where I sit, extending out about a foot, so that the motor’s mounting bracket can be attached to another piece that forms an L shape. I’m going to try and attach the mount to the gunwale with some sort of system that will allow me to easily put it on and take it off… maybe something like mini C-clamps.
I also realized that the motor is pretty substantial in weight. Originally I was going to mount the battery box in the stern where I sit. But because of the total weight of the motor, me and the battery, I’ll probably have to mount it toward the bow and possibly even shifted over to the left a bit, to counter the weight of the motor. Putting the battery up front will also help trim the canoe a little better, although I still may need to add some additional weight up there.
My CHECK ENGINE SOON light came on while driving into the office this morning. That made what was already going to be awful morning even better.
This light came on for me a few years back and at the time it had to do with a loose gas cap. That doesn’t seem to be the case this time around. On the way home I stopped at Autozone and had one of the techs read the ODB II computer for me. Turned up an error code of P0440, which according to his reader had to do with the Purge Valve that sits on top of the manifold.
I also checked the Avalanche forum to see what I could find, but so far only found one post about 440 being a generic code having to do with the emissions evaporative system that can include any one of these issues:
I think I’m going to start with the Purge Valve as a starting point, only because that’s what the AZ tech’s device said specifically.
The forum had a diagram of the part that helped me locate where under the manifold cover it’s located. (#3 in the picture below). So I went under the hood tonight to see how difficult/easy it will be to replace. It’s not too bad actually – It’s close to the front with two lines connected to it, one for the vapor pipe and the other for the solenoid. GMpartsdirect.com has it available so I’ll order the part and see about replacing it.
Domenick Naccarato is a creative director, an amateur woodworker, an artist, a photographer, a husband, and a father. When not otherwise busy working in front of a computer, building some piece of furniture, fixing something around the house, painting, taking pictures, or making wine, he is usually found with his wife and two daughters at their home in the Lehigh Valley.
