Hardware - All Comments

RE: Pi Webcam

Aniket_kumar_raj — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 07:49:06 GMT

looks complex

RE: De Soldering

Problemchild — Thu, 21 May 2020 15:38:12 GMT

Hi Mark, good post I too had a unit similar to the Denton it was great actually lasted 20 years or so.

The Duratool unit is about 1/3 the 30 year old price I'd that Denon but not as well built.Ive not had the same problems with the seals but I did find a smear of vasoline helped them.

I too hold down the pistol grip longer than strictly required like Compact does this really does keep the element clear along with a bit of bravery to hold the iron on the joint for a while before squeezing the trigger to make sure that the entire joint is molten

RE: De Soldering

dubbie — Thu, 21 May 2020 14:03:48 GMT

I've only ever used a hand held solder sucker which I have managed with. I still have the original one I purchased when I was 16 (I'm now retired) still with the original plastic end. It's a bit melted now but it still does the job - mostly. I only do pin-throu-hole soldering so thi is fine. One day I might try surface mount components and then I might need something better.

Dubbie

RE: De Soldering

colporteur — Thu, 21 May 2020 12:30:24 GMT

Comprehensive post M. I enjoyed stepping back in my career to the 1980's, with your Pace description. I recall the details, the glass tube, the flexible strip of aluminium like a stick of gum that was housed in the glass tube and I especially recall cleaning the darn thing when the suction didn't work. I completed a repair course with Pace the start of my career in electronics. Things I learned on that course stayed with me my whole career.

RE: De Soldering

msbettyhunt — Thu, 21 May 2020 11:52:25 GMT

Your guidance is really very helpful. Thanks

RE: Jumper Cables

neuromodulator — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 13:01:55 GMT

As others suggest 4 wire should be good to measure resistance. But I would like to add that to measure high currents you can do it without robbing a bank through shunt resistors. One that supports a max of 200 A costs 8 usd on ebay... at max current it just drops 75mV, which is pretty insignificant.

RE: Jumper Cables

jennifert — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 06:11:30 GMT

Quite helpful piece of writing, thanks for the post.

RE: Electronic Diet - Engineering a Solution

mcb1 — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 07:19:45 GMT

So I ran across this the other day (and added ot the first blog)

http://media.supercheapauto.com.au/sca/images/zooms/540712-zoom.jpg

[View:/resized-image/__size/620x356/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-1b2237e2-cf0f-4e73-9a2d-fb5497631c1e/5810.contentimage_5F00_186848.jpg:620:356]

As I said in the first blog, not sure what function the App gives, but it is bluetooth, so presumably you'll need to be within range.

It seems someone has done a review and it certainly appears promising under certain circumstances.

They are priced at the above store for NZ$43.95 inc tax, which isn't too bad.

Maybe I might have to grab one for experimental purposes.

I have a friend who has solar power, and we were discussing some of the issues he is having at the moment with one battery that may be dead.

The history feature in this, just might give him some valuable information.

Mark

RE: Pololu Balboa (balancing robot)

fmilburn — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 16:08:09 GMT

I have eyed these in the past - may have to get one. My interest has been around what additional capability I could add with the Raspberry Pi.

RE: Electronic Diet - Engineering a Solution

mcb1 — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 23:21:20 GMT

Thanks guys.

Glad you liked it ... now to start fitting it while the battery is fully charged again.

Mark

RE: Electronic Diet - Engineering a Solution

three-phase — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 19:53:25 GMT

Excellent insight into your problem solving strategy.

Kind regards

RE: Electronic Diet - Engineering a Solution

DAB — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 17:28:46 GMT

Defining the problem is the key.

Once you know what is draining the battery and by how much, then you can assess using an automatic shutoff circuit for all but the essential devices.

DAB

RE: Electronic Diet - Engineering a Solution

jw0752 — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 14:49:37 GMT

Hi Mark,

Very nice flow chart of the analysis and decision making process leading up to designing a fix for a problem.

John

RE: Electronic Diet - part 2

jw0752 — Fri, 23 Mar 2018 22:30:21 GMT

Hi Mark,

Is there a time of day when there would be demand for using the car? If there is any correlation to light you could install a MOSFET switch that would turn on or off with the sun light and eliminate the idle draw for half of the day. Or power only the radio receiver and use the MOSFET to switch in the rest of the circuit when a signal is received.

John

RE: Electronic Diet - part 2

three-phase — Fri, 23 Mar 2018 22:10:02 GMT

Depending on the age of the vehicle, I would suspect that there are also some additions to this 65mA such as the radio, clock and engine computer that usually have permanent 12V feeds to them, although you would hope they will be considerably lower than your alarm unit.

I think commercial and workload pressures encourage too fast a route to step 3 of your list and I am pretty sure at my current company a good majority of the engineers don't even know that step 4 exists.

Kind regards