Oh my God, this is going to be long! Two big things to report today. I'll try to make it short. There's fieldwork today. Quite a big one I would say. The fieldwork takes me to a factory in Pulau Indah. My task is to install an inverter and configure it so that the speed of the motor is governed by an external potentiometer. The configuring part is easy. Just a few keystroke and it's done. Its the installation part that really brings out the sweat in you.

The inverter is from LS Electronics. I've never "played" with this brand before. Its about twice the size of yesterday's Mitsubishi inverter. First Mr. James maps out the wiring connections inside the control panel. The control panel is about two meters high and there's a lot of relays, circuit breakers, PLC's, voltage regulators and miles of wires. Surprisingly, not a single inverter is currently installed inside the control panel like what I used to see. This is going to be the first one so we need to find a space to attach it to the wall of the control panel. Lucky us the inverter is small enough to fit at the right side of the wall where most of the wire that we are going to modify is located.

The drilling and wiring part is the wettest part of the entire installation process. I was sweating like never before! Can see my sweat dripping on the floor! Maybe it was the warm atmosphere of the factory. But seriously, I've never been so wet like this before! That part took about two hours.

After everything including the programming part is done, the motor of interest is powered up. Thankfully, the motor is running at the correct direction and did not vibrate violently. The current is also acceptable. Another satisfied customer. At the end of the installation, my hands are very dirty with black dirt all over my palm and arms. I washed it three times with dish-washing soap but the stain is still there! But nevermind that because I have done a great job and obtained such a meaningful experience. And I did almost everything by myself!  

First part done, now the second one. The first part does not justify the title though. Here's what the title is all about.

There's an incident just two doors beside my office. In the morning I saw a few policemen standing in front of that office like they just found some illegal stuff. Soon after I saw a big police lorry reverse-parking at the front door of that shop lot. Then they start to load some untagged boxes into the lorry. The workers next door said that the police has just found a HUGE stash of illegal cigarettes! Apparently someone has been using that shop lot as a warehouse to store those illegal ciggies! Later on the reporters start coming in to take photos and interview the policemen.

It took them three lorries of the same size to load all of the ciggies from the "warehouse"! Such a huge stash of illegal ciggies perhaps enough to cater the need of the entire city of Kuala Lumpur for a day! Just now I saw the news saying that "Polis Selangor telah merampas rokok haram bernilai 500 ribu ringgit di Taman Bukit Puchong" (Selangor Police have confiscated illegal ciggies worth 500 thousand ringgit in Taman Bukit Puchong). Wow! Half a Million! That amount can easily afford the new 5-Series plus a nice single-digit plate number!! *drooling* And it all happened just two doors away from my office! I thought this neighbourhood is very peaceful and crime-free since the police station is very near! Got to be more careful now.