by Bill Westphal
We lost power Wednesday evening like most of us here in Altadena. The camera and computer used for the Altadena WeatherCam are suported by a UPS (Uninteruptible Power Supply). That, along with a UPS for the DSL Modem and Router, normally keeps the Altadena WeatherCam online for about 4 hours without Edison power.
But when the UPS was about to run out of battery around 2:00 a.m. Thursday morning I powered it down "gracefully" only to find that it would not power back up using the generator or when Edison restored power.
It could have been the on/off switch, power supply or motherboard among other things. I tinkered with it for a while and after considering that it had been runing continuously since 1992 I figured it was just real tired.
So, I set up a laptop that I had, loaded the programs and restored files from my back-up drive and voilà, the Altadena WeatherCam is back on-line! I'll look for a suitable replacement in the near future and transfer everything to it going forward.
I received many emails offeing assistance and well wishes from locally and abroad. It was heartwarming.
I should point out that the Star Of Palawoo survived the wind storm and Dr. Phil Elkins has it lit for the past few nights.
Best wishes to you all who are still without power.
