Feb. 13, 2022
I recently decided to make the switch to LiFeP04 for the second battery in the cruiser and eventually settled on a Victron Orion-tr Smart 12/12-18 to charge it.
While capacity testing the new battery on the bench I used a mess of random wire I had sitting around. Queue disaster. With my thinking obscured by the fog of a bad headache, I reversed the polarity when reconnecting the setup. The protection on the BMS kicked in, but not before the Victron was damaged.
May. 17, 2020
The Samlex SEC-1235M is a well priced and performing switchmode power supply. Two things have been bugging me though - the lack of Anderson Powerpole output and the loud fan.
AD5X wrote a comprehensive review of the power supply[1], in which he addressed the fan issue by including a 100 ohm resistor in the fan circuit. I performed the same modification and now the fan is not audible over the ambient noise. A bit of time with a multitool to cut out an opening for a panel mount Powerpole housing and it’s good to go.
Jan. 19, 2020
July 2019 I went up to Silverton, CO for Hundreds in the Hills 9. Trail selection had been done months earlier, and whilst some of the best driving was still closed due to the snow (most notably Black Bear Pass), there was still some great trails to run.
Day two saw me heading up Imogene Pass. Along the way I kept hearing a clicking noise, but after stopping a couple times to check found nothing and continued to the top. After a quick lunch I was still unhappy not having located the source of the noise and did another check. Pretty quickly I found the problem -
Jul. 21, 2019
Somehow I managed to kill the Bluetooth module I was using (reverse polarity maybe?) and of course couldn’t find another - I’m surprised there isn’t demand for such a module, maybe a project for another time.
Anyway, took a slightly different approach this time. Used a standard HC-05 type module and mounted it in the head. Wired up to some +5v I found and connected to the input side of the RS-232 driver included in the radio head (connected to the 2.5mm socket).
Nov. 25, 2017
Quick afternoon project to hook the TM-D710 up to a Galaxy Tab 2 8.0 I recently mounted in the car. APRSdroid can consume and display waypoints using the Kenwood proprietary format outputted by the radio, all that was needed was to get the data to the tablet.
For this, a small Bluetooth - serial adaptor was mounted in a project box. It’s a variation of the popular “HC-05” module as was labelled “BTM-05”. It includes both a MAX232 and a voltage regulator, so nothing further was required for power and data.
Feb. 10, 2017
While walking through Walmart a few weeks ago I noticed a Black+Decker WiFi enabled slow cooker. My initial thought was what a great idea - being able to remotely start dinner or adjust the cooking parameters is really convenient. The second thing being the security issues these IoT devices present - an always-on device on your home network phoning home through an unknown service with no updates or transparency - not to mention the eventual abandonment of the services/apps supporting it.