Waching daily May 28 2017

Stage 21 Monza - Milan

Milan at the Giro, light is on the table

Giro d'Italia doesn't only give you the chance to cycle

but to visit the places you ride through

Milan is a strange city

It was intended for bicycles, since it's flat

Yet over the 20th century, we have done everything to avoid using them

Over the past 20 or 30 years, a movement has emerged

showing a change in our mentality

When you are in a car

you have a certain view of the city and your surroundings

It's like being imprisoned in a cage, in a private space

Riding a bicycle gives you a sense of freedom

You live in symbiosis with your surroundings and the people you meet

A bicycle gives you an incredible freedom

It's priceless

Thinking about the Giro d'Italia, the word "family" comes to mind

But also the city

Giro d'Italia was born in Milan

Regardless of where the race begins, it finishes here

Milan is Giro d'Italia's birthplace

The first stage from Milan to Bologna stretches over 300 km

Milan hosted both the start and the finish

"Illuminiamo le Tavole" (Bringing Light to the Table)

is a programme launched by the association "Quartieri tranquilli"

Enel was proud to join the project in December 2015

by providing a space to store the food

donated by large food companies to "Quartieri tranquilli"

It was an opportunity to practice corporate volunteering for Enel

Enel is an Official Sponsor of the Italian Cycling Team

For more infomation >> Milan at the Giro, light is on the table - Duration: 1:54.

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What is the Best Selling Beer in Japan? - Duration: 8:28.

Yow! Yow! Yow! This is Chris from Last Beer

Standing. I'm about to go on this bar and

get really wild on a Friday night in the

party area in Kyoto, Japan. Yeah, I got a

beer here

of course. What the fuck it's Friday night

well why would I not put up a beer.

Hanging there all night till about 2 in the morning, 3 in the morning.

The thing actually in Japan what's really cool

about Japan, I like some of the messed up

laws in the states. I'm an American living in

Japan for years. The bars are still open all

night, until morning.

Some of us choose the clothes just all the laws

because they have to. This far right

here still up until 5 or

6:00 in the morning.

It's that crowded. Alright guys so I

want to ask you guys an interesting

question. And I'm just curious if you guys

get this right. Now I'm not expecting you

guys see if it's right, don't worry I'm

not, it's not some sort of quiz I'm going

to hold anyone accountable for. But

it's really interesting if you can

answer those questions and please write

in the comments for me. What do you think,

by the way I'm sporting my, our

green Titties & Beer That's Why I'm Here Cap.

These things continue to sell, you guys

love them I appreciate you guys for about

picking this up. What do you think the

number one best selling beer in Japan is?

Go ahead and write it in the comments. See if

you guys can figure it out. I'm looking

at the comments, what's the best selling

beer in Japan? Okay, let's list out

the popular ones so one of you guys might

know. There's Sapporo Black Label which

is very popular in the States even though

it's a Japanese beer.

There is a some said Budweiser.

Absolutely not, I mean Japan; I love this

country but they're still kind of bias

to their own Japanese things so no

there's no way a foreign beer would be

the most popular one. Tsing Tao that's from

China by the way. It's Chinese not Japanese.

So there's Asahi Super Dry,

there's Kirin,

there is Century Malts the for mainstream

beers the main mainstream and there's

one more Yebisu. Thse are the 5 mainstream

beers. And you guys probably know 2 or

3 of them living in the state, Sapporo

Yebisu is that the #1? Okay that's a

good guess by the way. That's one of the

5, I mean you'd probably be surprised

that the micro beer culture here in Japan is

actually a serious micro beer culture.

Over the last 5 years I've been

astonished living in here. I've been living here now

for over a decade and the last 5

years is an explosion of microbreweries

just like there were in the states

back in the night in the 80's and 90's.

Here it's art is happening everywhere you

go there's micro breweries but still there

are 5 main stream beers. There's Yebisu,

Sapporo Yebisu, Sapporo Black Label, Kirin,

Asahi Super Dry and what am I missing

here? Uhm, yeah! Suntory Malts. Yeah, Suntory Malts. So

which one do they think guys is the best

selling one? The most popular one in the

states is by far Sapporo Black Label. They

Sapporo done a very good job of marketing

that overseas. Well I'll give you a hint

right now,

Sapporo Black Label is not even a good

seller in Japan. It's kind of like

Foster's did with Foster's did a very

good job their selling overseas. You know

from Australia but in Australia Foster's

is not that well it doesn't sell very well.

Victoria Bitter is the number one beer

in Australia. I've been in Australia a

few times with all the friends. Yeah Victoria

Bitter is number one selling best beer

in Australia by far. They have a pretty chance in the

marketplace. That's right Jim! That's

right. Asahi Super Dry it's really

interesting because Asahi has done a

absolutely horrible job of marketing

overseas. It's almost non-existent beyond

Japan but in Japan they dominate the

market. They're by far the best selling

beer.

It used to be Kirin but Asahi

really got aggressive and they overtook

them several years ago and now Kirin

cannot catch up.

Asahi is by far the number one best

selling beer in Japan they have they

operate 40% of the market. You know what

tell you what Jim you win is a

free product including shipping $30 or less.

So private message us on the

page and you will get you a, hook you up

with a free product okay? Yeah I wasn't

planning to do that but it's a fair

question when you win.

So yeah private message us we'll hook

you up with a free product including

shipping $30 or less. You're on! You

got it!

You win! Cool? Awesome! Thanks, no no I

that wasn't my plan but it's actually

a fair reward so what the fuck let's

do it.

Alright guys Cheers! Asahi Super Dry is the

number one bestseller in Japan. And yeah,

by the way what's my personal favorite

beer in Japan?

My personal t2 favorites are Suntory

Malts. I'm talking about mainstream beers

I'm not like about the local beers. There's a

lot of great craft beers these days. It's

really as the evolution has been

unbelievable but I'm think about the

mainstream 5 beers that sell like the

Budweiser's, the

miller lights of the world here in Japan.

Those are the 5 beers and all those 5 I

would say that my two favorite are Yebisu

and Suntory Premium Malts.That is

better quality beers, I mean still very

lesser price but better better quality.

But Asahi is basically a, how do I

describe this ,it's got a little bit

higher alcohol content than a light beer

in the States

it's 5%. It's dry but it's got that light

watery taste that makes it easy to drink

which is why I think it's really

dominant in the market. You can drink 50

Asahis and not feeling full at all. Alright

guys cheers, thanks for watching this

video. And by the way we came out with

some we've got some new stuff sweatpants.

That's our newest product and you guys

better ask for it for a long long time

and I finally got it coming guys. I

literally got it coming we're doing

the final stages of preparation. You guys

wanted it beer koozies! Yes guys I've been

very very particular on this one, I've held

off on it for a long time because I

don't want to sell shit I just don't

want to sell shit. And most of beer

koozies out there they're crap, they're

just crap. I mean the thing you buy

in the main stores they're they're crap.

I mean they're not going to last more

than a few months and they're going to

tear apart. So I didn't want to sell them

so I've been holding off for a longer time.

Finally! I finally got a source for beer

koozies and they're good these are good

quality. I have been actually been using a

couple of them myself here in Japan just

for about a month or so just to make sure

they're there they would stick. The

knocking cheap guys, got myself for $15 plus

shipping it's expensive for these things

but they are good quality they will last

you for a very long time I promise you.

And they're coming out literally we're

actually ready to go I just had to do

some couple of things I was lazy and

launched them but tomorrow within the

next 24 hours we'll we have blue beer

koozies, good quality because it's up for

sale. That you can already see our first

two designs on the page we have a lots

of products up in there.

And as an American but I live in Japan for

all these years you guys know, you've been

following these videos. Been here over a decade in

Japan, I end this in cheers in Japanese

which is Kampai!

Uhm, Jim message us. Hook you up!

For more infomation >> What is the Best Selling Beer in Japan? - Duration: 8:28.

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#139 Is there a simple and Cheap way to protect your super caps? How? - Duration: 12:29.

Grüezi YouTubers.

Here is the guy with the Swiss accent.

With a new episode around sensors and microcontrollers.

In video #133 we used super capacitors to safely shutdown the Rapberry Pi.

In the comments, viewers asked about over voltage protection of the super caps.

I will show you a big and small and cheap possibility.

And I will show you one concept which does not really work.

But why do we have to protect Super Capacitors?

And how can we protect them?

Most Super capacitors are only specified up to 2.7 volt.

If we need higher voltages, we have to connect a few of them in series.

To give the Raspberry a save shutdown I used two caps because it runs on 5 volt USB.

So, the basic diagram is like that: Two Super capacitors in series across the 5 volt connector.

If we charge now capacitors in series, the current is equal in both capacitors.

But, if the capacitance are not completely equal, the one with the lower capacitance

charges faster and its voltage can go over the rated 2.7 volts.

To avoid that, we have to connect a resistor in parallel to the smaller capacitor.

Like that, part of the current can flow through this resistor and therefore is not used for

overcharging the capacitor.

Because we do not know, which of the capacitors is smaller and exactly how much, and because

some other things can happen, we add a small switch to this resistor.

It switches only, if the voltage of the capacitor is close to the 2.7 volt.

Like that, we can use quite small resistors and bypass a big amount of the current.

As soon as the voltage is in the save zone, the resistor is switched off again.

If we use such a concept for all our capacitors, and our protection voltage is 2.7 volt, they

are protected against over voltage as long as the total voltage is lower than the number

of capacitors times 2.7.

In our case, the voltage would have to stay below 5.4 volts.

Which is ok with USB.

The specification allows a maximum voltage of 5.2 volts.

Let's start with the simplest concept: Zener diodes.

The easiest way would be to solder a Zener diode across each super cap.

But what is a Zener diode?

Normal diodes conduct current only in one direction and block it in the other direction

(at least up to their very high blocking voltage).

Zener diodes are somehow different.

In principle, they also block current in the "wrong" direction up to a certain voltage.

But this voltage is low and exactly specified.

You can get Zener diodes for many voltages.

If we check one with our transistor tester, it shows two diodes in opposite direction.

The one with the voltage of 0.8 volt is the normal diode.

The other one with 2.4 volt is the Zener part.

Let's have a closer look: On the positive voltage side, we see a curve of a normal diode.

On the negative voltage side, we see the Zener behavior.

At the beginning, nearly no current flows.

At a particular voltage, the current starts to flow.

But this is not at a sharp voltage as we can see.

The curve is only bent.

Because all these things happen on the negative voltage side, we have to use the Zener diodes

always in reverse direction.

This is, why I mirror the curve now.

Just a small remark: Not all transistor testers are able to measure Zener diodes properly.

And all can only detect these diodes if they have a low Zener voltage.

So, let's check how this simple concept works.

I have 2.4 volt and 2.7 volt Zeners.

I start my test with no protection at all.

Two 10 Farad Super Caps are connected in Series and 5 volt is applied.

If both are discharged at the beginning, they load quite evenly.

The difference is small, because their capacities are similar.

I discharge now the left capacitor a little to simulate uneven capacities.

If I load them again, the right one quickly approaches 2.7 volts and I have to stop the

experiment in order to not harm it.

Let's now protect this Cap with a 2.4 volt Zener.

To understand what happens, I measure the current through the diode with the yellow

Fluke meter.

As we already know from the chart, the diode already starts to conduct at below 2.4 volt.

So, a part of the current is now "diverged" through the diode instead of the capacitor.

This part does not charge the capacitor anymore.

So, the other cap can catch up.

But because the current through the diode is quite small, the protection is not big,

and the voltage exceed 2.7 volts a little.

If the imbalance between the two capacitors would be bigger, this protection would not

work anymore.

And, we easily can imagine, that a 2.7 volt Zener would not work at all.

So, this is a simple protection, which works somehow for these small capacitors.

But fortunately, we have a better one: The TL431.

This part is called "Precision Programmable Reference" and it is a very versatile part

which can used for many applications.

It is also quite cheap: 50 pieces for 1.20, including shipping.

It is even cheaper than a 2.4 volt Zener, where 50 pieces cost more than 3 dollars.

The TL431 is a neat small part in a TO-92 package.

Its symbol looks much like a Zener diode, with the exception that it has three pins

instead of only two.

The third pin is called REFERENCE.

If we look at the block diagram of the chip, we see, that it consists of a precise 2.5

volt reference and an Opamp used as a comparator.

As soon as the reference voltage is above the 2.5 volt, the transistor switches on.

So, if we connect the REFERENCE and the cathode pins, we get this diagram.

Because I mirrored the diagram of the Zener diode, both are compatible.

We have the positive voltage to the right and positive current up.

We immediately see the difference: The bend of the TL431 is much sharper.

At exactly 2.5 volts it starts to conduct up to its maximum rating of 150 mA.

This is nearly the curve we were looking for.

The only thing is, that it is at 2.5 instead of 2.7 volts.

So, let's try out and replace the 2.4 volt Zener with the TL431.

We also start with unevenly charged capacitors and see, that the current through the TL431

starts to increase much more and much sharper at 2.5 volts.

The voltage across the super cap still goes above 2.5 volt, because the parts are not

ideal.

But still, the behavior is much better.

At the end, the protected and the unprotected caps each show around 2.5 volts.

If I would now increase the voltage to 5.3 volt, only the unprotected cap's voltage

would increase and would exceed its specified voltage.

Which is obviously not good.

So, we could protect both capacitors.

Which anyway would be a good idea, because we do not know, which one has a smaller capacity.

Below 5 volt total voltage, this would work fine.

But as soon as we cross these 5 volts, both TL431 would start to conduct and produce a

short cut.

They would heat up, and maybe even would destroy themselves.

Maybe you remember the word "programmable" from the description of the TL431?

Programmable means, that we can change the "Zener voltage" with a simple trick: We

connect the reference pin to a voltage divider.

Now, the reference measures a lower voltage and therefore, reaches the 2.5 volts at a

higher voltage.

If we calculate our resistors with the formula from the data sheet, we can set the cutoff

voltage to 2.7 volt.

Problem solved!

If you really want to make sure, that nothing bad happens to your protectors, you can add

a small series resistor.

Like that, the current through the TL431 is limited.

If you plan to work only with USB voltages, this is not necessary.

So, this is a great concept to protect small super caps when you are sure, that the two

capacities are similar.

To show you the limitations, I double the capacitance of one capacitor by adding a second

one.

Now, we see, that the current through the TL431 gets quite high, and the voltage crosses

2.7 volt, even with a cutoff voltage of 2.5 volt.

To avoid that, I bought the voltage protectors shown in the last Mailbag video #137.

They can be used for large capacitors up to 500 Farad.

I re-engineered its PCB and its diagram is here.

They also use a TL431, but they use a big transistor to amplify the effect.

So, let's check, if it works.

I keep the "tougher" scenario with the two uneven capacitors and protect the smaller

one.

Now with a protection board instead of the TL431.

The rest stays the same.

Here, the protection kicks in at 2.66 volt and the voltage never exceeds this value . The

other capacitor can easily catch up.

And if we would have two such protection boards in series, our USB voltage could go up to

2 times 2.66 volt = 5.32 volt, which is above USB specs anyway.

Summarized: We wanted to protect our Super capacitors

against over voltage The first concept using simple Zener diodes

worked somehow, but with very narrow limitations The usage of a TL431 Precision Programmable

Reference did what we wanted for our small capacitors, and even at lower cost.

With a voltage divider, we were able to set the protection voltage at the right level.

We looked at the diagram of a commercial product for larger capacitors and discovered, that

they also use a TL431 The commercial product worked too, and, because

it supports much bigger currents, can also be used for bigger capacitors.

BTW: If we do the calculation of the voltage divider of the protection board, we find the

2.66 volts we measured before.

Not bad!

I hope, this video was useful or at least interesting for you.

If true then like.

Bye