Friday, November 4, 2016

Precise Measuring of Angles for Segmented Bowls

I am a woodworker and recently, I have started to make Segmented Bowls. In order to do this, one makes a ring out of smallish wood segments that are cut to very precise angles. An error of even a tenth of a degree is multiplied by the number of segments - typically 8 to 12 or more and up to 144 for some very complex bowls. This causes the ring to not meet at the end. There are ways to compensate for this, but I prefer to get my angles more precise.

Initially, I purchased a high precision digital protractor. It was not high precision enough.
My first ring ended up with a gap of several degrees.  I viewed this experiment as a failure.

My First Sled

So I moved to geometry. That worked much better. Here is a photo with the clamps in place and a workpiece up against the stop ready to be cut.


Here is the same sled with the clamps removed and the distances marked:

So - what about the math? First of all, the base line (closest to the saw operator) must be perpendicular to the blade. That should be easy on a well-aligned saw.

Next measure the "Line parallel to base". I suggest metric system since the rulers are usually more precisely calibrated and also in decimal units.

To get "D", multiply the this distance by the Tangent of the Angle. In this example we are looking for a 12 segment bowl, so we can go to Google and enter "Tangent of 15 degrees" to get .26795.

Draw the lines on the wood and position the fence board. You should get an exact 15 degree cut.

Using Yardsticks

Last weekend, I attended the Segmented Woodturner's Symposium. There, I was introduced to Wedgies - a better way to make a segment cutting sled. This seems to be an improved technique. It uses two fences. The angle with the base line is not as important as the difference in angle between the two fences. I have not yet built one of these, but a major problem seems to be getting this precise angle. My solution again is using geometry - this time using yardsticks. 

Well, not exactly yard sticks - more like meter sticks. I bought three (that's right - three) 40" rulers from Harbor Freight. These are just over one meter long. I arranged them as follows using three clamps:


On the far end, I clamped the two yardsticks so that the 1 meter marks exactly lined up:
This time, I am looking for a thirty degree angle. So, I 
  1. Cut the angle in half (30 / 2 = 15 degrees)
  2. Get the Sine of this (Sin(15) = ,2588)
  3. Multiply this by the aligned marks on the ruler (.2588 x 100 cm = 25.88 cm)
  4. Double this (25.88 x 2 = 51.76 cm)
So, rather than trying to use the ends of both rulers, I opted for setting the left side at 10 mm and the right side for 61.76 mm.


I then measured this with my "High Precision" angle ruler
and it measured 29.8 degrees. Does this mean that my system was off by 0.2 degrees? NO! It means that my precision angle protractor is off by .2 degrees. Multiply this by 12 and we have a total error of 2.4 degrees. Not good enough for a closed segmented bowl ring.  (To be fair, the protractor is specified for .3 degrees, so it is within spec). How do I know for sure which is correct? 

Well, my wife's father was a printer and he left us a large metal 30 - 60 - 90 triangle which I think is probably pretty accurate. For years, my wife has insisted that we hold onto this as a souvenir of her father's business. Well, I tried that and it exactly fit in the angle I created using geometry. 






Monday, March 7, 2016

BootMgr not found

I got this message when I tried to start one of my computers. It was running Windows 7 Home Premium. There are 2 disks in it. One is the original 1 GB disk and the other is a smaller SSD.

I figured that the problem is with the SSD, so I tried swapping the two drives. It seemed to boot one time, but I noted that the two drives were swapped. I expected the larger drive to be C and the smaller one to be D, but they were reversed. I don't understand why.

Later, I tried this again and got the error message.

I found that it would book OK with only the smaller drive installed on SATA0, but it would not boot with the larger drive on SATA0.

After booting on the smaller drive, I made a Windows 7 System Repair Disk. I booted from the larger disk and tried to use the repair disk, This failed.

I next tried booting with SATA0 on the smaller SSD and SATA1 on the larger disk. It failed.

When my system boots, I see a brief options screen from the boot ROM with an option for "ESC=BootMenu". I clicked ESC and then in the boot menu, selected the smaller drive. This worked.

Next time, I selected F10 to get into the Setup Program. Under advanced, I found that the system had been set up to boot from larger hard drive, even though it was on SATA0. I changed the boot order to prefer the smaller SSD. I rebooted. This worked. Hurrah!

The older larger hard drive had originally been the only drive on this machine and was fully bootable. My guess is that my system had been using the boot manager on this drive all along and that somehow, the boot manager on this drive failed. So, the problem is not really fixed, but rather made irrelevant.

Next step was a bit of an experiment. I downloaded AOMEI Backupper Standard (free). and cloned the SSD to the larger hard drive. This took several hours. BUT - when I was done, I configured the computer with only the large (newly cloned large hard drive) on SATA0. It booted. Voila - Success.

After that, I put the whole thing back together and found that it booted from the SATA0 SSD. The other drive was there as Drive D, but was showing with a capacity the same as that of the SSD.

I guess I could run a partition program to get at the remainder of that disk. I think I will save that for another day.

UPDATE - I believe that eventually this stopped working and a repeat of the process did not help. Eventually, we learned to work around the problem.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Connecting FHV Website to SQL Server

On 3/16 or so, I found that I could no longer attach my FHV web project to SQL Server. I tried many things, but ended up uninstalling ALL SQL server stuff and re-installing SqlServer 2012 with Advanced Services. I had saved the old FHV database (from C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\DATA). I had not saved the scripts to create the tables, though I do have the data in CSV format.

So, now with a new empty, SQL Server, I create a DB named  FHV. Next I create a user named Fhv_Web_User with password from Web.Config file. User mapping to FHV with db datareader and db datawriter.

Next, can I reboot and still start the database? Yes I could and the DB started automatically. I then stopped it (SQL Configuration Manager) and copied the databases from the DATA folder to D:\SQL Server Stuff After Fresh Install. Then I copied the old FHV files back to the DATA folder and restarted SQL Server and voila. I had the database with all the tables and contents.I then copied the old FHV.mdf to the new backup folder and deleted the old backup folder.

BUT - Fhv_Web_User could not connect - not even with Management Studio. Nor could I modify the properties. So I created Fhv_WebUser2 and this time I specified [dbo] as the Default Schema and I could then connect and the web site started working.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Connecting JBL Bluetooth

Today, I connected my JBL Flip 2 Bluetooth speaker to my computer.

I started by charging the device and then turning it on using the power button in the center of the top.

Next, I clicked the Bluetooth icon on the Flip 2. Next I went to Start -> Devices and Printers -> Add a Device. And added the JBL Flip 2. The computer did some grinding.

I next did Start -> Control Panel -> Sound. (You can get to the same place by right-clicking the speaker icon in the notification area and selecting Playback Devices.

At this point, the sound was still coming out of the computer speakers. I disabled the computer speakers and they disappeared. A Google Search told me that I could right click on one of the other devices and select Show Disabled Devices.

The solution seems to be to set the Bluetooth Hands Free Audio as the default device.

There is one other communication device that I am not sure of right now. I am guessing that this is my Bluetooth Behind the Head headphone.

Monday, December 8, 2014

123D Catch the Lego Tank

Yesterday, I tried making a 3D model of the Lego Tank.

My first attempt was using natural light with the camera (Panasonic DMC-ZS19 at manual mode - no zoom with fixed exposure. It did not work particularly well. I saved it as Tank 2.

In the evening, I tried it with artificial light - that is with all lights in the room on. I set the zoom to 3X and stepped back far enough to just fill the image. I shot the first ring from my chair which I moved around the image. I then stood and did another ring and then I shot while holding the camera over my head.

I noticed a problem when there was a light source directly behind the tank. I reshot those images, changing the shooting angle just enough so that the light source was not directly behind.

The results of this effort were much more satisfactory. Still, the cannon itself did not come out very well.

Next, I did a save and then selected the Generate Mesh icon. I selected "Standard" and "let her rip". It took a while, but I then ended up with a nicer image - with a much fuller barrel / cannon.

Since that worked so well, I tried looking at the tank from the top and then selecting the tank and a bit of the surface on which the tank was sitting. I selected the most detailed mesh and "let her rip". I think it is better, but it is somewhat difficult  to say. Restricting to just the tank and a small amount of what is underneath was certainly a good idea, but the cannon / barrel is still not great. I should probably have taken more photos around this area.

Now, after all this processing, I am not really sure that the more detailed meshes are any better than the less detailed ones. The cannon / barrel is not all that great in any of them. All of them show blurring at the top of the tank. I took about 8 - 9 images per quadrant going around at the base and fewer going around with the camera raised. I think that might have been the problem with the image of the top of the tank.

This morning, I tried to get a better set of images. I went around the outside - paying particular attention to the gun. I then shot from higher up making sure I took plenty of pix. The initial result was TERRIBLE - probably because the software failed to stitch the upper row of images. So I manually stitched a couple of the images and resubmitted. It managed to stitch the rest. The result was that the top was more clear, but still not perfect. Gun barrel might have been better, but was still not great.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Low Volume Automatic Maple Sap Evaporator

Sugaring for the Common Man

Introduction

It seems to me that the thorniest problem for very small volume maple sugaring (a few gallons per year) is the evaporation step. Gathering the sap can be a rather pleasant walk in the forest. Watching sap boil can get slightly tedious after a few hours. And if you leave it and get distracted, disaster is not far behind – especially if this is taking place on the kitchen stove. I resolved to do better.

This season, I built a high-efficiency, automatic filling, electric evaporator with a timer and a low level shutoff. My wife thinks it looks like something Rube Goldberg would come up with if he wanted to make soup in a toilet, but it is working extremely well. Here is a picture:



Safety Considerations

The system I built is never going to get approved by UL or the CSA. All the more reason for you to take safety extremely seriously. You are building and using this evaporator at your own risk and if you don’t feel comfortable doing this you probably should not be. I am pretty with building and tools and if you are making your own maple syrup, you probable are too. If not, you might want to partner with someone who is. But here are some really important guidelines:

  •  Use this unit only when plugged into a GFI outlet. Any outdoor outlet should already be GFI protected and if not, the outlet should be replaced and tested. Please, please, please – do not violate this guideline. The penalty for violation of this recommendation could be death. Think about it.
  • Use this unit ONLY outdoors and away from anything flammable. I don’t expect a fire, but you never know. Maple Sugar will burn and so will the wooden box around the boiling chamber. Also, there is 115 Volt power next to lots of wood. Wood is a pretty good insulator as long as it is dry which it might not be the case when the unit is outside. And the unit should only be used outside.

Overview

My evaporator consists of:
  • A Boiling Pot. This is a very cheap 12 quart stock pot with an electric hot water heating element mounted through the side as low as possible in the pan.
  • A wooden case to hold the pot and the various accessories described below.
  • A float system to switch power to a small pump when the sap level gets low in the boiler.
  • An inexpensive “fountain pump” in a 5 gallon bucket with a tube running into the boiling chamber.
  • A low sap level safety shutoff system. This is a fulcrum under the wooden case that tilts if the sap level gets too low, thus throwing a safety shutoff switch.
  • A timer so that the time duration of operation can be limited.

That’s all there is to it. But even so, I will elaborate below.

The Boiling Pot

I wanted my Boiling Pot to be simple, inexpensive, reliable and efficient.

I purchased a cheap12 Quart stock pot and the heating element for a hot water heater. I managed to find one similar to one I found on Amazon called the “Good Cook Stock Pot”.  Purchase the hot water heater element from Lowes or the local hardware store. Be sure to get one for 110-120 Volt operation. In addition, I needed a large, very thick washer and a nut that would secure the heating element to the stock bot. I purchased the washer at my local hardware store, but it was a little bit too small, so I had to file out the inside slightly with a curved file (or rattail file) until it would slip over the threads of the heating element.

The 1.25” nut was pretty tricky. “Rich” at the hardware store finally sold me a fitting for 1.25” electrical connector which included a nut with the correct threads. Here is a photo of the electrical fitting I bought. I used the nut from this on the heating element. You do not see the nut in the image because I used it before I took the photo:


With these parts, I was ready to mount the heating element into the stock pot. I cut a 1.25” diameter hole as low as I could in the side of stock pot. It helped that my stock pot was extremely cheap, but even so, this was a challenge. I started by drilling a small hole at the center of where I wanted the larger hole. Cutting a piece of 2x4 to the exact diameter of the pot and putting it under where the hole would be allowed me to have something behind the metal that was getting drilled. Once I had the small hole, I drilled ever larger holes until I had one that was 3/8 inch diameter. From here, I removed the piece of wood and started using a sabre saw with a very fine blade. I drew a ring of the correct diameter and drilled toward the ring from the hole. Careful here. It is really easy to go outside the lines and if you do, the pot is ruined. When the hole was almost large enough, I started using a small grinding wheel on a hand held rotating tool (Dremel tool or similar) until the edges were smooth and the hole was large enough.

The image here shows (not very clearly) the inside of the pot with the washer and nut over the heating element. The arc that runs from top to bottom is the junction between the sides and the bottom of the pan.

At this point, fill the pot with water to make sure that it does not leak.

My calculations are that my boiling pot will boil away about 2/3 gallon per hour, assuming 100% efficiency. I am sure I am not getting 100% efficiency, but I think it is close to that – about .06 gallons per hour.

In theory, this boiling pot is useful by itself. Put a couple of gallons of sap in it, connect a 115 V wire to it and plug it in. You will hear it start to heat the sap. In a few minutes, the sap will be boiling. Keep refilling it and make sure that the sap level keeps the heating element covered. But, if you let the heating element get uncovered (or apply power before you put the sap in), the heating element will burn out almost immediately.

The Wooden Case

As we said above, the boiling pot would work by itself if you were to run a wire to the heating element, but if that is all you plan to do, you might just as well have purchased an electric hot plate. (Not a bad idea actually, but get the highest wattage you can find.) The wooden case is there to provide a place to mount all the other features.

I made mine into a 14” cube from some half-inch plywood that I had sitting around. I cut a circular hole in the top large enough for my stock pot to fit through. I used a router to cut the hole, but a saber saw would work almost as well. You have to tilt the pot as you are inserting it to get the heating element to fit through the hole in the top. On mine, the handles of the pot rest on the sides of the top suspending the pot in the box. I recommend half inch plywood so that it is strong enough to hold the other parts of the system.

I will leave the exact size and design of the box up to you. I included ¾ x ¾ inch pieces of pine scraps inside at the edges to give myself something to screw into. After a few days, I also added handles to the sides of mine to make it easier to move around.

The Float System

This is the part of the system that does the most for convenience. You can put about 2 to 2.5 gallons into a 12 quart pot and you need at least a gallon or a gallon and a half of sap to cover the heating element. If you don’t watch it carefully, the sap level will go down and expose the heating element and the heating element will quickly burn out and also ruin the sap. The float system solves this.

Our float system consists of a copper toilet float-ball (Available from Amazon), a wooden tower with a lever arm at the top and a replacement “sump pump” float switch (Lowes: ProPlumber Plastic Float Switch). I wired this to a standard 115V outlet that the pump can be plugged into. I used heavy wire to connect the lever arm to the sump pump switch. I used a 12" long piece of ¼” threaded rod to connect to the copper float and I ran this threaded rod through an eyelet on the lever arm. I used “Binder Clips” (available from Staples) on the threaded rod to set the on and off points over and under the eyelet on the lever arm. Using binder clips makes it easy to adjust the switch points. I also used some very heavy wire to place a guide loop under the lever arm that keeps the threaded rod close to vertical as the float moves up and down. To install or remove the float/threaded rod, I unscrew the threaded rod from the float.  I know this sounds complicated, but it should be pretty clear when you look at the image  below:

I purchased a cheap “Water Garden Fountain Pump” from Lowes. I put this into a 5 gallon food safe plastic bucket (Lowes again), plugged this into the outlet and ran some tubing from the pump to the boiling pot. My pump used the same tubing as I used when tapping my trees.

Voila! Whenever the sap in the boiling pot goes down enough to trip the float switch, the pump goes on and refills the boiling pot. When the level gets high enough, the pump shuts off.

I figured that this is enough to let the system run for about 6 – 8 hours without attention. But I wanted a margin of safety, so I set up a second bucket with a siphon between the two buckets. This doubles the capacity. Of course, there is no limit to the number of buckets that could be added to the supply in this way. Here is a photo of my supply system:

Safety Shutoff System

I am a naturally cautious guy and the float switch / refill pump system just looked like it a area where a lot could go wrong. I designed a system that would automatically shut down the system if the sap level got too low.

You are probably wondering what could go wrong. Well, there were a few things I thought of and a few things I did not think of. Bottom line is that so far, this safety system has shut my system down several times – saving the heating element as well as a large batch of syrup each time. Trust me – this is worth adding. 

Here are some of the possible failure modes:

  • Sap in supply bucket runs out of supply bucket (this happened to me)
  • Pump fails
  • Pump line freezes due to cold
  • Sap in supply bucket freezes
  • Lever arm freezes due to cold (this happened to me)
  • Float unscrews from threaded rod (this happened to me)

I wanted a simple and reliable shutoff system and decided on something that would tilt if the sap level got too low. The tilting would shut off a switch. I added a outrigger on one side of the box and put a fulcrum under the box such that the box would tilt if it were empty, but stay level if it there was enough sap in there. I put a switch on the end of the outrigger. Here is a photo that shows the outrigger. 

At the end of the outrigger, I used two pieces of pine. There is a piece of ¼ inch plywood under this. I used this arrangement in case I needed to add weights of some sort. If you look carefully under the outrigger, you can see the side of the electrical box in which I mounted the switch.


 I used a “decorator” style switch both because of the shape of the switch and the fact that it takes very little force to throw the switch. When I mounted the electrical box onto the outrigger arm, I used a few washers under one end so that is it is tilted. This way, when the arm rocks down, the switch flips to the “off” position, shutting down the system. Another approach would be to mount the electrical box level and glue a block or wood or something to the “off” side of the switch.

At this point, you should be asking why the wooden box would rock to one side. This is because of the weight of the arm out to the side and the fact that there is a fulcrum point set so that the whole thing rocks if the level gets too low. The fulcrum is a ¾” x ¾” board screwed to the bottom of the box. There is another ¾” x ¾” board at the edge of the box opposite to the outrigger arm so that it is level as long as there is enough sap in the boiling pot.

It is best to position the fulcrum using experimentation. Get the entire system built up, except that the fulcrum is not screwed into position. Be sure to have all the parts such as the wires, the sides of the wooden box, the copper float, etc. in position since these will affect the balance point.  Put water into the boiling pot to the point where you would want the safety system to trip - an inch or so over the top of the heating element. Then adjust the fulcrum so that it is at the point where the system just rocks. Mark the position of the fulcrum and then screw it into position. It is possible to make adjustments later by adding small weights to either the box or the end of the lever arm.

Timer Switch

I included a timer switch in my design. The switch I used allows me to set the system to run for 1, 2, 4 or 8 hours. This turned out to be non-essential, but handy. I built mine into the system itself. If I had it to do over, I would have put the switch into an extension cord which I could either use or not use. I think a better use of the timer would be for when the boiling is close to being done and you want to let it boil for another 5 minutes or 30 minutes or whatever and you don’t want to either stand there watching it or risk forgetting about it.

Wiring

The system draws about 15 Amps which means that you should wire it all together using #14 copper wire. I used solid house wiring cable and connected everything together with standard wire nuts. I used spade lugs crimped to the wire to connect to the sump pump switch. I ran the wires inside the box where possible to keep the out of the way.

Operation

To use the system, set it up on a fairly level flat surface. Pour enough sap into the boiling chamber before plugging the unit it. Put the pump in the sap supply bucket and run the hose from the pump to the boiling pot. Plug the pump into the switched outlet. Make sure that the switch on the outrigger arm is switched to “on”. Put some time onto the timer switch. The pump should fill the boiling pot and you should hear the heat come on in the boiling pot. Manually tilt the unit to activate the safety switch. Make sure that it shuts off the pump and the heater element. Switch the unit back on to continue.

Finishing the Syrup

This is the part that is not automated and not yet solved to my satisfaction. The problem is that the sap boils and boils and boils for many many hours and then turns to syrup fairly suddenly. This can happen while you are not paying attention and hot syrup will boil over – not only ruining the syrup, but also making a terrible mess.

So – here is how I am dealing with this – at least until I come up with a better method. First, I keep track of how much sap has gone into the boiling chamber. When I have boiled about 50 gallons of sap, I figure that is enough to make about a 4 to 5 quarts of syrup. If I don’t let the levels in my boiling bot get down below a gallon and a half, the sugar concentration should not get high enough to boil over. At this point, I am ready to transfer the hot sap to our kitchen stove or a hotplate. This is also a good time to filter the sap.

I purchased an 8 quart stainless stock pot in which to do the finishing. I wanted a pan that was tall, but with a relatively narrow base so that the level of the syrup is high enough for a candy thermometer. The first step is to determine today's boiling point on this thermometer at your altitude. Note the temperature – probably something just under 212 degrees F unless you are right at sea level. Then start boiling the sap/syrup mixture. Keep the candy thermometer in the boiling mixture and watch the temperature. The boiling point will rise as the water leaves the pot causing the sugar content to increase. Stop boiling as soon as the temperature has risen 7 degrees.

As an alternative, you might also decide to do more with the evaporator. Here is where a timer switch might be useful. You might decide to give it another 15 minutes of boiling which you can set on the timer and then test the boiling point. The timer switch allows you to walk away for a few minutes without worrying about getting distracted.

I expect to do some experimenting with this over the next week or so and I will update this blog if I come up with any better ideas.

Electric Versus Gas

I thought about using gas instead of electricity. The great thing about electricity is that it is easy to shut off. But I also think it is more cost efficient.


According to what I got from the internet, it takes about 400,000 BTUs to evaporate 40 gallons of sap (to make one gallon of syrup). The internet also tells me that there are 430,000 BTUs in a 20 gallon propane tank – again about enough to make one gallon of syrup. This costs about $20 around here. The other alternative is Electricity. 400,000 BTUs is about 117 KWH. Electricity here is more expensive than in most places - $.15/KWH. The same amount of electricity therefore will cost about $17.50. At $.10/KWH, it would come to “only” about $12.

This of course assumes 100% efficiency. My guess was that I could build a much more efficient electric boiler than I could a gas boiler. Also, I liked the idea of not having to schlep to the Hardware Store to refill the gas canister. So I decide that my evaporator would be electric.

Using 230 Volts

The wattage of the heater element I purchased is 115V / 15A / 2000 watts. The store also offered one that was 230V / 20A / 5500 watts. In theory, that would boil the sap down 2 ½ times faster. WOW! I had to try this.

So, I built one of these into a 20 quart boiling pot and connected it directly to the 230 V outlet that I user for my table saw. It boiled like crazy, but I shut it down after a couple of hours. I just did not feel comfortable around it. It was not plugged into a GFI outlet. There was no auto shutoff. The higher current rating meant that I had to use #12 wire which is much harder to work with than #14. To me it felt like an accident waiting to happen.

My suggestion is that if you need to evaporate faster, build another 115V evaporator.

Conclusion


Bottom line is that this is a pretty simple system that worked extremely well for me. Build your own. Let me know how you make out. If you come up with improvements, please let me know about that too.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

MVC3 on Soft Sys Hosting

I am trying to get an MVC 3 web application running on a Web Server. Soft Sys Hosting claims support of MVC 3 and .Net 4.0 and since this is what I am using, I thought I would give it a shot.

Setting up Soft Sys Hosting

I started by logging in and ordering a package including domain name N1-Web.com. That was easy. What was much more complicated than it had to be was setting up all the logins. I don’t know why there were so many. I set all the passwords to be the same. See Password Safe

Host Name

User Name

Description

https://www.n1-web.com:8443

https://173.248.177.6:8443

nwebcom

This is the login to Parallels control panel for ONE machine account.

http://domaincp.softsyshosting.com/customer

wc@wc1.us

This is the login for the master account

ftp://www.n1-web.com

Nwebcom

This is the default FTP account. It is read only.

ftp://www.n1-web.com

Warren

I had to set this up to get an FTP account that would allow me to write

With this, I was able to upload HelloWorld.html to /httpdocs and display it using: http://www.n1-web.com/HelloWorld.html.

Uploading Files

I am starting by copying the following to /httpdocs:

  • Bin directory (including EntityFramework.dll which I hope is not necessary)
  • Content directory
  • Images directory
  • Scripts
  • ASPX files
  • N1_Logo.gif
  • Global.asax
  • Web.config

I also renamed index.html to index.html_old.html

 

Trying to run the web site

When I tried to run the web site, the system told me I had errors but would not tell me what they are. I added <customErrors mode="Off"/> to the <system.web> section of Web.Config.

Then when I ran it again, it tells me:

clip_image002

So, I contacted them and they did something that caused me to get a different error message:

clip_image004

I was able to make this go away by getting rid of the line: <customErrors mode="Off"/> in Config.sys that I had added above. This gave me a bit of success; I was able to get the default page of my application, then go to the users page and then try to do a filtered search. The attempt to go to the database failed and of course since I could no longer see my errors, I did not get an error message.

So, I surrounded the code in N1_UserController with a try/catch block with catch doing a Response.Write(U_Log.ToHtmlText(ex));.

This showed me the error which was that it could not find MySql.Data. I tried copying MySql.Data.dll from: clip_image006 to the bin directory on the web site.

That worked! Horray! I am up and running.