The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Category: Home Ec

Things around the home & hearth

  • Generic Sony NP-FS11 Battery Packs: Surprising Contents Thereof

    So I dismantled the three junk packs I got from halfway around the world and rebuilt them with better-quality cells. Search for NP-FS11 and you’ll find the rest of the story.

    Some observations…

    These cases are the thinnest plastic that doesn’t actually break when you pick it up: to crack the case seam, you must push firmly. Two of the three packs were already cracked and the third yielded to a slight squeeze.

    What’s inside? Welly, welly, welly, what do we have here?

    DOA Battery Contents
    DOA Battery Contents

    The cells are labeled Sony Energytec, which ought to be a reputable brand name. Some possibilities:

    • Counterfeit cells
    • Quality test rejects

    I don’t know why you’d bother putting counterfeit cells inside a generic case; it’d be more profitable to sell a completely counterfeit battery with a fancy Sony label. So I’m guessing these came from a batch of cells that failed inspection and were miraculously saved from destruction.

    Battery Protection Circuit Board
    Battery Protection Circuit Board

    They have the usual protection circuit board on the top. What’s a bit tricky is that you must unsolder the three leads connecting to the case terminals before you can extract the cells. I unsoldered the strap from the negative terminal while I was at it; the positive lead is inaccessible beyond the black IC on the left.

    After that, it’s a straightforward rebuild.

  • Stove Knobs: Index Marks

    Reflective index markers for stove knobs
    Reflective index markers for stove knobs

    The black knobs on our black-front Kenmore stove have slightly raised pointer extensions. At a glance, you cannot tell whether the knob points upward to OFF or downward to 5.

    Oddly, the oven temperature knob has a nice white index line engraved (well, molded) in the pointer extension. So it’s not like they didn’t know how to do index lines. I’m guessing they had to take a buck out of the build cost and omitting four index lines added up to just the right amount.

    I added tape markers shortly after we got the thing. The previous tape was fluorescent orange; the adhesive lasts several years before turning gummy. These new markers are snippets of outdoor-rated retroreflective tape and should last longer.

    Run the knobs through the dishwasher occasionally to get ’em nice & shiny. Surprisingly, that doesn’t seem to bother the tape.

  • Too Many Deer: Another One Bites The Dust

    One Less Deer
    One Less Deer

    Sat down for some tech reading in the Comfy Chair one morning and spotted a lump near the road, at the foot of the deer crossing warning sign.

    While I don’t know if this deer was one of that group, it’s a fair bet.

    There was no freshly smashed glass or broken plastic in the area, which indicates a relatively low-speed collision, the kind where the deer’s legs snap against the bumper and the body rolls over the hood, crushing sheet metal and deforming plastic frippery along the way.

    Many cars display that kind of damage around here. They look as though somebody walloped them with a huge sandbag, which is pretty much the case.

    The animal huggers seem strangely silent about such events. If they had the courage of their convictions, they’d subsidize drivers (and gardeners) affected by the deer overpopulating the area. But, no, they never offer to do that.

    I did find this in the driveway across the street…

    Deer Whistle
    Deer Whistle

    Before equipping your car with such gimcrackery, read that.

  • Generic Sony NP-FS11 Lithium-Ion Packs: FAIL

    Somewhat to my surprise, the eBay vendor responsible for those curves sent three replacement NP-FS11 batteries, commenting:

    We’ve sent all your comments to the factory and ask them for a total quality inspection in this batch of batteries.

    Here are the capacity curves for an initial charge, a test, recharge, and another test on each pack. The curves match up reasonably well (the top & bottom traces are nearly exact overlays), so I believe the results are accurate.

    MaxPower NP-FS11 - Packs JKL
    MaxPower NP-FS11 – Packs JKL

    One pack is the best I’ve seen yet. The other two are junk, pure and simple.

    So, to summarize:

    • One of three batteries DOA in first batch, others weak
    • Two of three batteries DOA in replacement

    Overall, that’s a 50% failure rate even if you have relaxed standards…

    I decided that, despite their “customer service”, this level of quality deserves the dreaded Negative Feedback checkbox.

    Now, to saw the cases open and replace the cells. I cannot imagine any way to justify this on an economic basis, but we’ll certainly have enough batteries for that camera when I’m done.

    If I had any confidence that spending more on the batteries would get a higher quality product, I’d do it. The question is, would another order of magnitude make any difference?

  • New Tires For the Van

    So I bought 530 bucks worth of new tires for the van; it’s ten years old with 66k on the clock. Picked the most suitable ones:

    • Near the top of the Consumer Reports list
    • Best constellation of features for our use
    • Available at the local tire shop

    CR is essentially the only place that does actual across-the-board tests; you can disagree with their methodology, but it’s pretty much the only game in town.

    I wound up at the local tire shop after bouncing off one of the online sources. In this case, tire + shipping + installation costs more online; the local shop was one of the online source’s installers.

    So I went direct. They’re aboveboard: the balance + installation charge is the same no matter where the tires come from.

    Had a 10:00 appointment and it took 90 minutes to get out of the shop. Not impressed.

    The tire pressure monitor light came on halfway home. Well, OK, maybe it’s noticed the tires are bigger? But it’s a differential rotation counter, sooo… that’s not the problem.

    Checked the pressure after letting the tires cool off for a few hours.

    • 37 – Left rear
    • 32 – Right rear
    • 40 – Left front
    • 34 – Right front

    The pressure monitor was definitely doing its job!

    Adjusted them all to 36 psi (hard, but we’ll see how it rides), reset the monitor, and it’s all good.

    Factory trained and certified mechanics, my obscene-gerund deleted-noun.

    Oh, and the lug nuts were evidently tightened by Andre the Giant… gotta break those suckers free before we do much more driving!

  • Relics of the Empire: Phone Books

    Stacks of Phone Books
    Stacks of Phone Books

    Saw this mountain at Marist College. I wonder how many will go directly to the recycling bin?

    I can’t recall the last time I used a phone book; it’s faster and easier to type the name & location into that little search field, whack Enter, and click the obvious hit.

    If you look hard enough, somewhere in the first few pages you’ll find the instructions to turn off next year’s phone book. We’ll see how that works out…

  • Zire 71 Battery Replacement

    I tote around an ancient Palm Zire 71, which suffices for my simple calendar & to-do lists. This is my second, as the first failed when the flexible cable connecting the guts to the charging / USB connector crapped out; turns out that the slide-to-open feature that reveals the crappy camera also stresses the flexy cable to the breaking point. Now I don’t do that any more.

    The battery (well, it’s actually a single Li-Ion cell, but let’s not be pedantic) finally stopped taking a charge, so I did a full backup, tore the thing apart, and popped in a new battery. This being my second Zire 71, things went smoothly…

    I got a stack of surplus Palm batteries some years ago, but they’re readily available from the usual suspects for prices ranging from $5 to $50. We’ll see how well mine survived their time in isolation.

    The connectors don’t match, which means you just chop off them in mid-wire, then solder the old connector onto the new battery. A few dabs of Liquid Electrical Tape and it’s all good.

    Some teardown instructions are there, with fairly small pix.

    General reminders:

    • Stick the teeny little screws on a strip of tape
    • Watch out for the tiny plastic switch fin on the side
    • Torx T06 screws on either side of the camera
    • The silver shield around the shutter button snaps under the sides with more force than you expect
    • There’s a metal strip over the connector that can be taped back in place after the plastic posts snap off
    • Gently pry the flexy cable up off the base, using the tabs on either side
    • The speaker seems to be held in with snot
    • The battery shield is not soldered in place!
    • The battery adhesive comes off with a sloooowww pull

    Although it may not be obvious, I replaced the crappy plastic window over the camera with a watch crystal. Much better picture quality, although much worse than my pocket camera.

    Backup and restore with various pilot-link utilities:

    pilot-xfer -p /dev/ttyUSB1  -b wherever
... hardware hackage ...
pilot-xfer -p /dev/ttyUSB1  -r wherever
pilot-dlpsh -p /dev/ttyUSB1 -c ntp
pilot-install-user -p /dev/ttyUSB1 -u "Ed Nisley"

    The thing seems perfectly happy with a userid of 0, which is good because I haven’t the foggiest idea what else it could have been.