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How To Decrease Grip

Published August 8, 2011

The orange plastic shown above is the pull-off / snap-on cap from an Elmer’s All-Purpose Glue Stick, the same one which I’ve been using to glue labels on to SDrive NUXX packaging. For some reason the packaging designers for this glue stick saw fit to add vertical serrations to the cap, oriented in the direction that one pulls to remove the cap. These serrations would be useful if one had to twist the cap to remove it, but as it simply snaps off they only serve to make the cap harder to use than necessary.

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Injured Robin at Bald Mountain

Published August 5, 2011

Yesterday evening while riding to Addison Oaks by way of Bald Mountain I came across this robin laying on it’s back in the middle of the Conklin Road connector. It was laying across the entire trail, and it took a bit of effort to stop before running it over. Looking like it’d just been in some sort of fight it just laid still while I took it’s photo, doing little beyond pivoting it’s head to look at what I was doing.

After a minute or two of looking at it I tried to get it to grab on to my finger with it’s feet, but seeming uninterested in this I tried to pick it up and move it off the trail. As I went to pick it up it bit/pinched me with its beak then lopsidedly flew away down the trail. I’m quite curious what it’d been hurt by. Perhaps a cat or maybe some larger bird?

Once the bird was moved from the trail I carried on, not stopping until I got back to the car, a bit more than 2 hours later. It was a great night for a ride on one of my favorite local trails.

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Colorado Beer

Published August 5, 2011

Erik and Kristi recently came back from a long weekend trip† to Colorado bearing beer. As a result the house is now graced with thirteen bottles of stuff that’s not available in Michigan. The twelve normal bottles are now in the fridge cooling and the one 22oz of Magic Mirror is sitting in the basement aging.

This sampling is comprised of (left to right):

Left Hand Brewing Company:
400 Pound Monkey
Milk Stout
Black Jack Porter
Stranger American Pale Ale

New Belgium Brewing:
Mothership Wit
Ranger India Pale Ale
Somersault Ale

Grimm Brothers Brewhouse:
Magic Mirror Imperial Köttbusser Ale

Odell Brewing Co.:
Myrcenary Double India Pale Ale

Boulder Beer Company:
Kinda Blue Blueberry Wheat
Mojo India Pale Ale
Sweaty Betty Blonde
Hazed & Infused Dry-Hopped Ale

These will be quite tasty over the coming weeks. I know for certain that the couple of these which I’ve had before are quite good, and I’m quite certain that the rest will be quite tasty as well. Mmm.

UPDATE: It turns out that the Boulder Beer Company stuff is actually available in Michigan. That doesn’t make it any less tasty, though.

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Replacement EPDM Bands for Garmin Quarter Turn Bike Mount

Published August 3, 2011

New Garmin cycling GPSs (such as the Edge 500 and Edge 800) use a new style of mount that can only be affixed to bikes with an elastic band mounting system. This Quarter Turn Bike Mount (Part Number: 010-11430-00) comes with EPDM bands for this mounting, and documentation (seen above) strongly suggests that the same sort of replacement band be used. This is a valid recommendation as EPDM is a very good material for long-term exposure to the elements, but it’s not always that easy to find a specialized material like this.

While Garmin sells the Bike Mount Elastic Bands (Part Number: 010-11430-01) set (six bands, three of each size) themselves for US$5.99, it’s possible to buy them from an industrial supply shop like McMaster-Carr for quite a bit less. Specifically, these rings appear to be as follows:

Small Garmin Elastic Band
AS568A Dash No.: -125
Width: 3/32″ (.103″ Actual)
Inner Diameter: 1 5/16″ (1.299″ Actual)
Outer Diameter: 1 1/2″ (1.505″ Actual)
McMaster-Carr Part Number: 9557K158
Price (as of 2011-Aug-03): US$9.12 for 50 Pieces

Large Garmin Elastic Band
AS568A Dash No.: -131
Width: 3/32″ (.103″ Actual)
Inner Diameter: 1 11/16″ (1.674″ Actual)
Outer Diameter: 1 7/8″ (1.880″ Actual)
McMaster-Carr Part Number: 9557K165
Price (as of 2011-Aug-03): US$9.62 for 50 Pieces

While a pack of 50 bands is overkill for most people’s needs, the price of ~20¢/ea is considerably better than Garmin’s ~$1/ea. At that price a group of friends, a team, or a shop could go in on a box of replacements and just keep them sitting around for use as needed. It also would be trivial to order smaller or larger bands if one needs the mount to fit larger or smaller surfaces; just be sure to get the 3/32″ (.103″ actual) bands and order whatever diameter desired.

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Black & Decker Pivot Driver (Model 9078) Power Supply

Published August 2, 2011

Today’s public service announcement is to inform you that the Black & Decker Pivot Driver (Model 9078) uses a 5VAC ~200mA power supply with a typical 2.5mm barrel connector for charging. The 3.6VDC marking on the driver itself is the power requirements for the motor, the charging connector is unlabeled, and a decal on the unit simply directs that only power supply 90500898 be used. Now you know that 905 That is all.

(This sort of information is often terribly hard to find when needed, such as when the device needs a charge, the power supply is missing, and a suitable replacement can’t be found. Hopefully stuff like this will one day help someone.)

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Fennel, Propolis, and Myrrh Toothpaste

Published August 2, 2011

For the last few months I’ve been using a tube of Trader Joe’s-brand Fennel, Propolis, and Myrrh toothpaste when brushing my teeth. I rather like this toothpaste, as it tastes strongly of fennel (one of my favorite flavors) while brushing, yet doesn’t leave a lingering, cloying, fake-mint taste in one’s mouth like most big-name toothpaste. Also, unlike mint, the slight leftover fennel taste also doesn’t clash with whatever breakfast food I happen to eat later in the morning, be it coffee, orange juice, cream cheese, or just about anything else.

I’d prefer it if I could get this flavor toothpaste with fluoride, but neither the Trader Joe’s labeled product nor the natural toothpaste heavyweight Tom’s of Maine (now partially owned by Colgate-Palmolive) offer this flavor with the tooth-friendly additive. Unlike some It’s a good thing that I’m a regular drinker of tap water; I’ll just get my fluoride that way.

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SDrive NUXXs Ready To Ship

Published August 1, 2011

There we go, twenty nine (29) assembled SDrive NUXXs packed in bubble wrap and ready to ship. The thirtieth unit is waiting on some parts (small plastic key caps)that Digi-Key mis-shipped. Or, if a buyer so chooses, I’ll fit their unit with yellow key caps. Here is the USPS Priority Mail packaging sent complimentary upon request. It, of course, requires that I use them for all shipping, but I was planning that anyway.

Now, time to sleep. I’m very overtired. This is a bit more work than I planned on.

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SDrive NUXX Ordering Begins 04-Aug-2011 @ 14:00 EDT

Published July 28, 2011

Orders for the second run of SDrive NUXX parts will be accepted beginning on Thursday, August 4th, 2011 beginning at 2:00pm EDT (2011-08-04 @ 14:00 GMT-4) via this page: SDrive NUXX Ordering Page.

Pricing is US$150 for an assembled and tested SDrive NUXX, US$40 for a PCB / End Panel / Microcontroller set. All prices include shipping within the United States, and shipping to international destinations require a US$10 surcharge for each assembled device and every five PCB/panel/uC set.

The ordering page is up, but is not currently live, with all order submissions going into a sandbox. At the date/time mentioned above the page will go live and orders will be expected up until items are sold out. There are 30 assembled SDrive NUXXs available and 20 PCB/panel/uC sets.

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SDrive NUXX PCBs Washed

Published July 25, 2011

This evening I finally got around to soldering the last of the washable parts on to the SDrive NUXX PCBs that I’m assembling. After washing off the water-soluble flux I blew off the water with an air compressor then stacked them as seen above to dry under a fan. With the air conditioning running most days here (due to the hot weather and Roxie now living here) the house’s air is nice and dry and should be perfect for allowing any lingering or absorbed water to evaporate before soldering the rest of the parts in place.

I took a few more photos today during this work, including a bunch of the PCBs laid out on the workbench, flux that needs to be cleaned off, a now-clean PCB, and another view of the PCBs stacked for drying.

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