1 year really goes by fast, thanks Dave for keeping it going!

I also enjoyed the effort we put in on the pixel canvas thing, I think we punched above our weight for the size of our userbase

Good to know, I’m mainly looking at repairing a few things for now, but hoping to find some small hobby kits to practice on later on.

Will give it a go this weekend!

I’m not sure how to explain it, it’s a power connector (I believe) on the inside of an oscillating fan but not the part that gets plugged in to the outisde. It’s the 4 pin header type of plug if you know what I mean. So it stays plugged in all the time. Sorry I don’t know all the terminology, I’m still trying to learn!

Thanks!

I’m trying to solder a loose socket on a circuit board. There seems to be very little solder originally on it, which I believe was causing the issue I was having when trying to turn on the appliance. I did make sure to get 60/40 solder with rosin core, but I think it’s too big and would be easier if it was thinner. I think it was 1.6 mm.

Is one of those brass wool tip cleaners fine by itself, or do I need a sponge as well? I did manage to get a few different tip sizes, so I can play around and find which works better

Anyone got some tips on soldering? Trying to fix a loose connection.

Also if anyone knows of any good/cheap kits out there to practise on too

I don’t really know. I’m guilty too of not following any of the Covid news haha

Do FedEx have their own drivers in Auckland? IIRC they get handed over to Nz Couriers here in Hamilton, who I find aren’t as reliable as the DHL drivers.

It’s usually too expensive for me but occasionally I stump up for it, as I find Auspost to be really slow, which most sites use when sending here from Oz.

Have to say I love when stuff gets shipped with DHL. Practically overnight shipping from Australia. I know it costs more but so worth it sometimes.

My wife got her flu jab earlier this week and the nurse recommended her to get a COVID booster if she can because cases are spiking again apparently. I think the general public doesn’t care as much any more

The inverter will be for converting 12v to 240v. I think it’s just simply wiring it to the 12v lithium battery, then plug in lights to inverter. I can’t find a simple answer on if it’s possible to convert the lights to use DC and it seems way more difficult, even though I lose some efficiency from using an inverter. If I ever add more I’d go the route of looking for DC powered lighting.

Inverter will be handy though as I could use the battery in a power outage to power other things as well.

Haha yeah I haven’t committed to anything yet. It’s just the cheaper options I’m not 100% sure are going to work correctly and if I that happens I’m going to have to spend even more to fix it anyway!

But I’ve thought about making a portable solar charging station for a long time to learn a bit of how it all works. I’ve found there is actually a lot of information online for setting up solar and batteries in the RV/camping and vanlife communities, although it’s definitely overkill to just power some lights 😂

I’m not as nervous around batteries as I am around messing with 240V. I know it’s all dangerous though, I’ll do a lot of reading first before I do anything I’m not sure about. Got to make life a little exciting somehow 😁

Everyone should just send his office pictures of their meals everyday to get confirmation if it’s woke or not

Seems like we’re always a couple years behind the trends!

It’s a sad state we’re in that we have politicians in power who unironically use the term “woke”.

I just bought a multimeter. I better learn how to use one now 😅

Been contemplating powering my outdoor lighting again. Starting to think about getting one of those Bluetti or Ecoflow portable power stations. Or even making my own and getting an inverter and a lifepo4 deep cycle battery. I would also need a charger for it I guess, I’m not sure I would save any money either. It’s also a lot more than I wanted to spend on this. Why does everything have to be expensive!

We kinda just continued the Japanese theme we had going. We had watched Giri/Haji > Tokyo Vice season 2 > Shogun. I had read the book when I was a teen, so it was nice to see it on screen.

Severance is so good by the end of the season, can’t wait for the next season.

We just finished Fallout, 3 Body Problem, and Shogun and enjoyed all of them.

Looking forward to Apple TV’s Dark Matter, based on the Blake Crouch book (which was pretty good too) starting this week.

I can guarantee you there were people in the 80’s and 90’s who thought music was better in the 50’s and 60’s and so on and so forth all the way back through time since Grog hit two sticks together rhythmically

I believe Sony owns the Helldivers IP, so they may not have had much choice in the matter.