The Unreasonable Effectiveness of ESD Bags
Why ESD bags are the best static safe storage solution and nothing else comes close
Bob Adams 5
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Wheel Brightz Controller Teardown
My kid’s used bicycle came with this controller and he ripped the LED string off. He wasn’t interested in putting it back so I tore it apart.
Battery Cover Design in FreeCAD 1.0
After many years of using Fusion 360, I have started to learn FreeCAD to support open source options and to get around the 10 editable designs limit. In this post I walk through my learnings from the first project I finished with FreeCAD.
Using Grok for a Workout Plan - Conclusion
At the end of August, I set out on a 12-week fitness plan generated by X’s Grok AI to improve my running time. In this post I review the results.
Quick & Dirty USB Flash Drive Repair
This post covers a quick repair that I did for a family member who had mechanically damaged their USB Flash Drive.
Hop Analysis with AAR Lab
In 2021 I was given the opportunity to take the hop harvest from a family friend’s house. To check the efficacy of my drying process, and to evaluate the suitability of the hops for my beer recipes, I sent a sample of one variety to Advanced Analytical Research in Madison, Wisconsin to evaluate.
Using Grok for a Workout Plan - Introduction
Due to some personal circumstances, I have found myself in need of a more rigorous fitness regime. Since the internet is full of fitness data, I hope that Grok is well trained and can provide a good workout plan. This post introduces the plan and goes over the starting data.
Teardown of a "Labtec Internet Keyboard"
A brief investigation into an early 2000s era keyboard.
My Home Server Build
After three years of accumulating parts, I finished a home server for hosting media, git repositories, and backups. In this post I go through the overall hardware & software setup.
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Google Home Mini - Input PCBA Reverse Engineering
A first step into reverse engineering the electronics of the Google Home Mini
Initial calculations for a 3D Printed BGA Socket
One of the more frustrating things when extracting flash memories is finding so many footprints that don’t have off the shelf sockets. In this post I go through some thoughts and calculations on what it would take to make a 3D printed socket for a BGA part.
My First Gridfinity Drawer (For Batteries)
Turning a pile of batteries into a neatly organized drawer.
Project Trash Pile - Part 2 - Initial Teardowns (Phones 3,4,9,11, and 12)
Starting with the most unresponsive devices, it is time to start taking them apart.
One Week with the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon 3D Printer
A summary of what I printed, my first impressions of 3D printing, and my general thoughts on the machine.
Project Trash Pile - Part 1 - Introduction
With two-year cell phone replacement timelines, there is a large amount of electronic scrap floating around. I bought 5 lbs. of it to see what I can do with it.
Ride On Toy Repair - Faulty Horn and Ignition Buttons
This post is a quick overview for a fix I had to implement on a toddler ride-on push car. My son’s toy had two of three buttons fail, with only the music button retaining functionality.
A quick review of Root VC's portfolio companies (August 2024)
I have been fascinated by Root VC for a while due to their relatively large number of investments in companies that make physical hardware. They also happen to have a neat website that emulates a terminal interface, but what sort of companies do they invest in?
Teardown of a Best Data PCMCIA 56k Modem
Relegated to the free bin of a 2023 garage sale, what is inside this decades old piece of technology?
Teardown of a Yada 720P Roadcam Dashcam
I picked up this camera for $0.50 last year and was curious about what can be found inside.
A simple repair to an Infant Optics DRX-8 Baby Monitor Camera
When my toddler knocked over the baby’s camera unit it stopped powering on. This post documents the solution to that problem.
Approach to notes in Logseq and Roam Research
In this post I go through my thoughts on two different note taking apps as I have used them to keep notes on homebrewing, electronics, daily to-dos, etc.
Brewing water analysis (Brighton, MI well water)
This post gives the results of a brewing water analysis performed on water samples from my tap as well as from my Berkey water filter. The intention was to baseline the well water available at my house and confirm the arsenic filtering of the Berkey.
My 2020 Books
Although I did not explicitly set out to read a book per month in 2020, it worked out to be roughly that amount based on the habits I built in 2019. In this post I analyze the works I consumed in 2020 and compare it to the 2019 books.
Controleo3 Build - Element replacement & upgraded boost
This post provides guidance for people who need to swap elements between TO1303SB toaster ovens while building a Controleo3. These modifications may be necessary if the oven was damaged during assembly or if a boost element upgrade is being implemented.
My 2019 Books
One of my goals in 2019 was to read at least one book per month. This post is a retrospective of that effort.
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My Coffee Can Radar Implementation
This post covers my implementation of MIT’s Coffee Can Radar project. In this implementation the original mini-circuits RF components are used and a custom PCB is developed to replace the breadboard originally used.
A review of three years on Coursera (2015 - 2018)
In this post, I will go through and review my experiences with Coursera over the last three years. This review will cover amounts paid, my thoughts on the format of assignments, and what lasting benefit I think I’ve received.