# sheet metal (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 1 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover sheet metal. Page: Feed: --- ## [Only Strong Opinions Are Worth Sharing](https://blog.oxplot.com/only-strong-opinions-are-worth-sharing/) _2026-08-22 · oxblog_ People occasionally describe someone as having strong opinions . The phrase is usually delivered as a neutral observation, though it often carries the faint scent of a warning: this person may be stubborn, loud or difficult. Those are failures of conduct. They have little to do with the strength of an opinion. By strong , I mean a conclusion that can bear weight. Its owner can account for where it… ## [The Sloppiest Thing About AI](https://blog.oxplot.com/the-sloppiest-thing-about-ai/) _2026-08-21 · oxblog_ There is a fashionable new way to avoid thinking. Notice an em dash, a tidy list or a sentence with suspiciously polished edges. Announce that AI was involved. Dismiss the whole thing. The post may be correct. The product may work. The patch may fix the bug. None of that matters once the detector in someone’s head has beeped. The work has been placed in the AI bucket, the bucket has been labelled… ## [A Shower Shelf Held Up by the Taps](https://blog.oxplot.com/shower-shelf-held-by-taps/) _2026-08-20 · oxblog_ Shower storage for renters is a parade of bad compromises. Suction cups eventually surrender, adhesive mounts are only notionally removable, and caddies hanging from the shower head put a cluttered collection of bottles at face height. So I had PCBWay fabricate a shelf from a single piece of 4 mm aluminium sheet. It cost about A$200 including shipping, which is absurd for a shower shelf and… ## [Figure-Eight Extension Adapter](https://blog.oxplot.com/figure-eight-extension-adapter/) _2026-08-17 · oxblog_ Most wall chargers insist on hanging directly from the wall. One white-label USB-C travel charger I found does something much smarter: its interchangeable heads include an IEC 60320 C8 inlet alongside the usual country-specific wall plugs. Fit that head and an ordinary C7 “figure-eight” mains lead plugs straight into it. Apart from Apple’s chargers, it may be the only travel charger I’ve seen that… ## [TinyGo in Zed](https://blog.oxplot.com/tinygo-in-zed/) _2026-08-16 · oxblog_ I’ve moved my embedded Go work to Zed . It is super fast, pleasant and increasingly secure by default. For me it beats the shit out of messy VS Code: fewer layers, less interface debris and no feeling that my text editor is a browser wearing a tool belt. Zed is a native Rust application with a purpose-built, GPU-accelerated UI designed to render at 120 frames per second . Unfamiliar worktrees also… ## [A Control Panel for Electronics Prototypes](https://blog.oxplot.com/electronics-prototype-control-panel/) _2026-08-15 · oxblog_ Every prototype needing human input starts with the same chore: wire loose buttons, LEDs and a potentiometer before testing the interesting part. So I made that recurring mess permanent. This scrap-built, 3D-printed panel has four momentary buttons, two toggles, one potentiometer and three LEDs. Ten controls and indicators connect to any microcontroller through ordinary jumper wires. It is a… ## [Never bet against Elon](https://blog.oxplot.com/never-bet-against-elon/) _2026-08-11 · oxblog_ You should never bet against Elon. Peter Thiel, Economic Club of New York, 2018 Thiel then admitted that he had considered rocket reusability inconceivable . SpaceX did it anyway. The distinction is useful: skepticism costs nothing; a specific public prediction creates a ledger. What follows is the strict ledger: public dismissals from named industry leaders or people with exceptional access to… ## [A Common Thread](https://blog.oxplot.com/a-common-thread/) _2026-08-04 · oxblog_ Around the middle of 2019, I started making the equipment around me speak one electrical language. I built a USB Power Delivery sink controller, then converted more and more of my equipment to USB-C . The point was not the connector itself. It was being able to reach for one cable and one power supply with some confidence that things would work together. Quite by accident, I have done the same… ## [Ryobi 18V Cigarette Lighter Adapter](https://blog.oxplot.com/ryobi-18v-cigarette-lighter-adapter/) _2026-08-03 · oxblog_ I wanted an easy way to get useful power out of my Ryobi batteries without building another power supply. So I put a car cigarette lighter socket in a simple 3D-printed attachment and wired it straight to the battery terminals. That’s the entire circuit. The socket is connected directly to the battery terminals. There is no voltage conversion hiding inside the print. Read the rest on the site ... ## [DJI Neo 2 Smallest Crush-proof Case](https://blog.oxplot.com/dji-neo-2-crush-proof-case/) _2026-08-02 · oxblog_ I wanted a DJI Neo 2 case that could disappear into a backpack without the drone getting crushed by everything piled on top of it. The result is a 3D-printed case measuring 163 × 185 × 47 mm, including room for the drone and the small spares I actually need. It may be the smallest crush-proof case for the Neo 2 out there. The flexible radio-module antennas remain outside, avoiding the empty case… ## [Marketplace for AI-Powered Professionals (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/JDd20lygYtda) _2026-08-02 · **Sponsored**_ Find professionals who use ChatGPT, Copilot, and Claude to deliver work faster. ## [AI Pro Tips](https://blog.oxplot.com/ai-pro-tips/) _2026-08-02 · oxblog_ I’ve posted enough scattered AI tips on Slack that it’s time to put them in one place. These are operating principles, not commandments. Nothing applies everywhere; don’t blindly follow any of this. Read the rest on the site ... ## [PowerScope](https://blog.oxplot.com/powerscope/) _2026-08-01 · oxblog_ ChargerLAB only provides a Windows app for the Power-Z KM003C. I wasn’t going to install a whole separate operating system just to use one USB power meter, so I built PowerScope . It graphs live voltage, signed current, power, temperature and USB rails at up to 100 samples per second; records sessions; exports CSV and JSON; and captures and decodes USB Power Delivery traffic and cable E-Markers.… ## [Muting DJI Neo 2 Speaker](https://blog.oxplot.com/dji-neo-2-mute/) _2026-01-14 · oxblog_ The DJI‘s Neo 2‘s onboard speaker is one obnoxiously loud piece. So I opened it up, unplugged the speaker cable from the main board, and snipped off the loose wire and now it’s blissfully silent (except the little startup music that plays out of the motors!). Speaker connector location. Gotcha: preserve the blue thermal putty. It is a soft gap filler , not ordinary CPU paste: it bridges uneven…