101–110 of 181 posts
Speaking of which, I really hate those chargers that force you to use two batteries instead of one. I get that it is cheaper to design it that way, but come on.
Speaking of which, I have yet to see a consumer battery charger that isn't incredibly cheap feeling. Even ones for charging different chemistries or that let you set current rates are a mess of low-quality molding and cryptic button presses.
Eneloops are fantastic. I've been using them for 10 years. They have very low self discharge so you can keep them on the shelf for a year and they will still have 70% charge which is very different to most rechargeable batteries. They don't leak unlike alkaline batteries and you can run them to 0% charge without damaging them unlike Lion batteries. The terminal voltage is only 1.2v so there is the occasional thing th…
Don't shed a tear! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi
Repairs are beautiful.
My offshoot rant is that it should be easier hold devices at a longevity charge. I want some gadget that keeps my essential gear in a long-term maintenance mode. Oscillate it 20-80% or keep it at 50%, whatever is optimal. Every time I've looked into building something like this it seems like there's no standard reporting of charge level over the wire. I would waste a genie wish on this to have it in the USB spec and…
Isn't that the "Battery_Status" message in the USB PD spec? Page 152 in this pdf: https://e2e.ti.com/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-discussion...
Combine that with the "Battery_Capabilities" message (page 163) to get the total capacity, and you can calculate the charge percentage.
I have one of the newer models and when the battery runs out, I have to stop what I am doing and charge the mouse. Yes, you can get through the rest of the day with a quick 5-minute charge but if you're like me, you won't remember to plug in the mouse at the end of the day and will have to repeat the quick-charge multiple times until I finally remember to plug it in overnight (usually by writing a sticky-note). I assume Logitech's answer to this would be: buy a second mouse as a backup!
The only major downside is that these older mice don't do bluetooth and USB Type-A ports are getting more and more rare.
This has greatly informed my decision to always try to buy things that take AA batteries, or at least easily replaceable li-ion batteries (at worst).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> good link on how the thermostat gets paired with the boiler? You should have a book with the boiler that says how your system is setup. They nearly always include schematics and are very helpful. Typically you can open a cover and see the wiring details as well. Forget about web sites, there are too many different ways a system can be setup, so even if they are not slop they can still be inapplicable for you. Once…
Yeah. Have your manuals handy if you get a furnace guy/electrician in. My electrician actually wired up my thermostat wrong when I got a new thermostat in.
As I said totally OT, and I do have a couple of good C/H firms I can get in to sort it.
Some government needs to force some standards. Power tools are the worst. Each company is trying to create a network effect and it's anticompetitive.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah. Have your manuals handy if you get a furnace guy/electrician in. My electrician actually wired up my thermostat wrong when I got a new thermostat in.
Thanks, and to the other guys. But I am asking about a remote wireless thermostat. How does it know to talk to my boiler, and not her next door's? As I said totally OT, and I do have a couple of good C/H firms I can get in to sort it.
I'd add that, where I live (New England), furnace failures can be basically catastrophic so any theoretical convenience advantages just aren't worth it.
Designers have a choice in lithium-ion though. 18650 is is pretty large cell but there's 14500 which is AA sized or 10440 which is AAA sized. They make versions with the usual battery "nub" rather than the flat faces for spot welding, and built-in protection circuitry to prevent over-discharging. You probably would want to use ones of a different size than normal 1.5v cells though. A personal favorite of mine is RCR1…
> Designers have a choice in lithium-ion though. 18650 is is pretty large cell but there's 14500 which is AA sized or 10440 which is AAA sized. They make versions with the usual battery "nub" rather than the flat faces for spot welding, and built-in protection circuitry to prevent over-discharging. You probably would want to use ones of a different size than normal 1.5v cells though. A personal favorite of mine is RC…
Not saying the cylinder doesn't have it's place, but so many of my devices would like a flat pack.
If that happened, it'd have the added benefit of being able to standardized a bms protocol for the packs. Hard to have control pins with a cylinder.
And if you were super clever, you'd make those packs stackable so they could be charged and discharged together.
I did something similar with my old 286 system. The CMOS battery failed and I rigged up a replacement using velcro and 4 AA batteries. Worked great. Sadly I had to toss that system when I moved to a smaller apartment :( Looking back, tossing it was a huge mistake.
> Looking back, tossing it was a huge mistake. On the other hand, being afraid of ending up with similar feelings like you, I keep stuff. So I sit here in a room where I'm probably one or two arms-length away from VGA and DVI cables and other relics, "just in case".
Another reason they call me the cable guy at home ( though mainly because I probably have at least 800 cables in my studio )