i ended up sleeping until after 22:00. so, it wasn't merely a nap. i'm up, now, and have eaten, but i need to take a shower before i get back to finishing this - and i really should finish it tonight.

i did get my fan.

the device is about the size i expected, but it's substantively weaker than the one running, which is not exactly a surprise. i knew it would be weaker, but how much weaker? i cannot seem to get rid of the burning smell, which currently smells like a burning wood log, like at a camp fire, which is still gross, but at least a little better. the type of burning shifts, but the burning is constant. the fan is absolutely necessary. so, this is not going to replace the fan, or at least won't for the moment, and i'm going to need to find other ways to cut down electrical, including turning the modem off when it isn't in use.

i tested it on the two usb 3 ports on the chromebook and on the usb 2 ports on the laptop and the chromebook. i could not a discern a difference in pull. but, i got a lot less out of the hub (which would have wired the fan, the mouse, a usb key and the wireless keyboard in series - presumably on 0.1 A.).

i suppose that it's possible that the different ports are running in series, locally. that would mean i could have gotten up to 0.5A on the laptop, and again on the chromebook. but, if i could pull at a higher amperage, why wouldn't i have pulled it out of the usb 3 ports? the fact that i didn't would indicate i'm pulling at 0.5A on the device, max.

but, when plugged directly into the laptop, the fan doesn't seem to respond at all to changes in power consumption out of the other ports. it reacted to the keyboard in the hub, but not to the hard drive in the port next to it. i tried copying files to and from the drive, running media off of it - nothing affected this stoic fan, in the slightest. it just churns. keep in mind that the maximum power usage over usb 2.0 is only 2.5W, and an external drive is definitely going to use all of that if it can. that would suggest that the ports are really not in series at all, that it's getting it's maximum pull out of a 0.1 A connection and that it just can't pull any more than that. ever.

so, the device would be 0.5W max, rather than 2-3. that's kind of what i thought. tech specs are terrible across the board. you don't know what you're buying, anymore. if elizabeth warren wants to run against technology, why doesn't she insist on regulating specs so that you actually get what you pay for?

regardless, this is enough evidence to take a gamble on the solar panel, if i think it can do well in low light. i actually think that reducing the circuitry could increase the amount i can pull, if there's some kind of breaker being pushed down by the os. it might actually pull more power from the leds, if i can get a solid 250-300 mA signal. and, will that turn it up a little?

logic is fun, and logic is useful, but logic is not enough for a proper epistemology - i do defer to empiricism when required. i want a reading before i plan my next move, here. so, i got one of those little ammeter/voltmeter combos for what was left on the pre-paid debit ($11). i overpaid, but i don't want to wait a month for it to get here from china. it should be here by monday.

if i do the reading, and it's only pulling 100 mA then i've got the green light to go solar. if it's pulling higher than that after all, and this is the best the thing can do with sufficient power, then it's not worth it, after all, and i'm stuck.