Author: David Dobson

I was gifted a da Vinci 1.0A 3D printer that did not print and was partially dismantled

I purchased 6x 9Ah 18V non-genuine Makita batteries to power the billycart I built. After their first charge and then use one of them would not charge past 1 bar on its gauge or 17.35V instead of 20.5V.

I wanted to make a new downhill billycart for Space Pilots camp that I didn’t have to push up the hill. Unfortunately that didn’t happen this year, but I did make an awesome attempt that will need to finished before next year.

It is powered by (or will have) 2x 2kW motors, 6x 9Ah 18V Makita cordless drill batteries.

I was drug tested at work today and the swab and testing unit looked interesting.

I needed to dig a few 1/2m holes for posts and was feeling too precious to use a shovel and crowbar. So I made a drill powered post hole digger

Amy was worried about leaving me home alone, but it has been a very educational experience. I have learnt some valuable lessons this evening.
1. Don’t eat cold meat that smells funny.
2. Pick up the junk mail I dropped (and probably asked to).
3. Don’t glue broken propellers together
4. Don’t play with my toys inside- holes appear in the bathroom wall.

I got a free laptop that has a stuffed battery so I thought I would tear it down.

I 3D printed some AA to C battery adapters to use in my sons Nerf gun (which currently doesn’t work- I can forsee a post on this repair soon) as we have a supply of these because we use rechargeable batteries. I was asked the question “Do those really work in practice? Do you get any appreciable run time from AA’s in something that expects C’s?” to which the short answer is YES, and the long answer is below.

For Christmas my lovely wife got me an Oculus Rift S VR headset which I think is awesome. My kids also think it is awesome and as such I haven’t been able to get much time on it with them hogging it, so I got another second hand one hoping to simply plug it into an older computer with a leftover mining card. There was nothing simple about it.

I couldn’t find the 12v 10A ac adaptor so I tried powering the car fridge from an ATX PSU. I thought it was a good idea, the PSU did not agree with me.