Now, I know that everyone is pretty attached to their favorite stripper.
The trouble is, sometimes this attachment is not terribly healthy…
I’m talking about wire and cable strippers, of course!
After decades of searching – across scorching deserts and over frosty mountaintops – I have come to the conclusion that these strippers really are the best.
9 months ago, I made this video: Make your own stylish smartphone Faraday Box in 10 minutes
Since then, I’ve learned a ton more about Faraday cages, and experimented a lot to make an even BETTER box.
It turns out that my original box was only so-so at blocking Bluetooth. My original testing of Bluetooth blocking was, shall we say, not very thorough. My primary focus was blocking cell network signals.
I also mistakenly assumed that if Bluetooth was blocked, WiFi at 2.4 GHz would also be blocked. Nope! WiFi is much harder to block due to the higher signal strength (among other things).
I’m fired!
To make matters worse, contrary to popular belief, we’re still learning about how Faraday cages actually work!
And so, I give you: Stylish Smartphone Faraday Box: Mark II
If you’ve ever accidentally chopped through a wire or electrical cable, you know how much fun it can be to try to repair it so that it stays waterproof, dust proof, weatherproof, etc.
I recently had just such a fun experience myself. It turns out that there are quite a few nice products out there to make the splicing process WAAAAY easier.
Keep in mind that the type of splice you use depends greatly on the application – and even the type of wire (solid vs stranded).
A wire splice for an automotive-type application must be pretty strong, because vibration is obviously an issue.
An underground electrical cable doesn’t have to withstand vibration, but it definitely needs to be waterproof!
If you have a fuel or water tank that is either metal or colored plastic, you may have run into the same problem I had: How do you know when it’s empty?
Mechanical level gauges are nice, but not always practical or even possible. So, I went on the hunt for an ultrasonic level sensor for my fuel tank.
Alas, what’s available on the market is too expensive, not very reliable, and often goofy in terms of features. So I decided to build my own!
This ultrasound fuel gauge can be built for around $33 using a breadboard, Arduino Uno, and one of 2 different ultrasonic transceiver modules designed for use with Arduino or Raspberry Pi boards.
There are many ways to trace a bunch of wires from point A to point B. Most of them kinda suck for one reason or another.
Enter the Voltcraft LZG-1 / Extech CT40!
With this gizmo, you can trace up to 16 wires at once. The system uses a remote unit with 17 alligator clips (16 + one for the common/return conductor).
The remote unit sends a 5V pulse width modulated “square” wave to the main unit. Clip 1 is a ~52% duty cycle wave, and Clip 16 is about 98% duty cycle – at 32 Hz. This allows the main unit to distinguish between each wire reliably – as long as the resistance of each wire is less than 30kohms (which is pretty high).
The main unit also doubles as a DMM. Although it’s not the greatest digitial multimeter, it’s good enough for most applications.
Everyone likes to throw things away.
But nobody likes the sight of an overflowing trash or recycling bin, and even fewer people like to take out the trash.
What if I were to tell you that with a simple Life Hack, you could save bin space and time?
What would you pay for such a hack? $19.99? $49.99? $199.99? $1,999,999.99?
Well, watch this vid for FREE… and BE AMAZED!
First, remain calm. Second, watch this video!
A tripping circuit breaker or GFCI/RCD/differential breaker can be really annoying. It normally doesn’t happen.
When it does, the end result can be that you run around the room with your undies on your head, screaming like a wildperson.
Obviously, if your vacuum cleaner is charred and black and there’s a funny smell in the room, you’ve just figured out why the breaker tripped. But usually, the problem is a bit more subtle than that…
It turns out that with a bit of work, you can often cleverly narrow down the problem to one gizmo and save yourself some money – without setting anything on fire!
Yay!
Let’s say you upgrade the graphics card in your puter.
You fire it up, and it appears that Windows 10 is booting.
The hard drive light is blinking away, and you might even hear a startup sound, or you can see that your ethernet port light is blinking away madly.
Only trouble is, your screen is blank!
What to do, what to do?
This isn’t exactly “techie” in the traditional sense, but it does involve friction, and it’s super-handy to know. Actually, I thought everyone knew about this, but apparently not.
What to do when your wooden drawers are sticking?
Easy! All you need is any old type of candle, a hand, and a mostly-functioning brain.
Anyway, I couldn’t resist making this one of those “Life Hack” videos. I hope this tip transforms your life in ways you cannot possibly imagine. 😜
These days, LED bulbs are all the rage – and that also now includes LED replacement tubes for fluorescent light fixtures. As of May 2017, these LED tubes are relatively new.
They are also frequently more complicated to install since you can’t always just swap the tube and fire it up.
When you factor in light output, power consumption, ease of installation, and cost, are they really worth it?
Ultimately, it depends… But this video will give you an idea of what to look for so you can make up your own mind!
Recent Comments