Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
Mostly because I have the technology, here’s a battery rundown test for the (guts of the) Alpatronix iPhone case:
Alpatronix iPhone XS case – battery test setup
Bypassing the entire battery controller doesn’t tell you when it thinks the lights should go out, but does give an indication of the raw battery capacity:
Alpatronix iPhoneXS Charger – 2021-11-06
Multiplying the nominal 3.7 V by the nominal 5 A·hr capacity says it should have a nominal 18.5 W·hr capacity at some unrealistically low discharge rate. Given that I found it at the end of the driveway with no provenance, I didn’t expect much.
To my utter astonishment, it delivered 17 W·hr at 500 mA!
The iPhone was nowhere to be found, so harvesting its organs seemed appropriate:
Alpatronix iPhone XS case – opened
I assume the four steel disks aligned the coil with the wireless charger.
A few hours of steady tension relieved enough of the sticky tape to release the battery:
Alpatronix iPhone XS case – battery removal
Although its bag now sports a few wrinkles:
Alpatronix iPhone XS case – battery adhesion
The alert reader will note the outside of case proudly proclaimed “Capacity: 5000 mAh” while the underside of the battery says “4920 mAh”, but that’s surely close enough for consumer electronics these days.
The battery charges through either the Qi coil or a (mercifully standard Micro-B) USB jack and everything seems to work.
Not sure what I’ll do with a bare lithium cell and its charger, but they ought to come in handy for something around here.
For reasons that made sense at the time, two weeks ago I ventured outside the house. A few days later, this appeared:
Lyme Disease – arm rash
The pallid skin over on the left comes from a bike glove. The central bump is one of those annoying sebaceous hyperplasias appearing after a Certain Age and not relevant here.
Having been around this particular block a few times, Mary recognized the diffuse red rash, sleeping 30 of 36 consecutive hours, and a day-long 103 °F fever as Lyme disease. I’m currently taking 100 mg of doxycycline twice a day and (after a week) feeling better, while sleeping a lot more than usual at random intervals during the day.
We’re both highly aware of Lyme disease: Mary routinely dresses in a complete overlayer of permethrin-sprayed clothing and I generally strip-and-shower immediately after any yard work in similarly sprayed, albeit less enclosing, attire. In this case, we think a tiny Deer Tick nymph affixed itself to the outboard side of my wrist, where I could neither see nor feel it, and (because I didn’t take a shower after being outside for only a few minutes) remained attached long enough to infect me.
Caught and treated early, Lyme disease generally does not progress into “post-treatment Lyme disease”, an ailment rife with what can charitably be described as serious woo, despite some evidence of actual disease.
Some of Mary’s Master Gardener cronies have endured co-infections of Babesia microti and we’ll be watching for those symptoms after doxycycline tamps down the obvious problem.
I’ll be puttering very carefully around heavy machinery and posting irregularly for a few weeks …
Memo to Self: the Basement Shop has a lot to recommend it!
Apparently the stink bug’s armor doesn’t count for much when the spider has the luxury of attacking through a weak spot in the underbelly after the critter stops struggling.
Stink bugs cause considerable damage to crops (notably apples) in the Hudson Valley, but they haven’t been the existential catastrophe we all expected when they first arrived.
It’s hard to be sure, but I think there’s a paper wasp nest around the bundle of wires just above the transformer / ballast / whatever. Perhaps the repair tech departed with the job unfinished?
As with traffic signals, flashlights, and automotive lighting, the LEDs surely work long after the driver circuitry has given up.
I passed another dead deer on New Hackensack Rd while hauling groceries home:
Deer Collision – roadkill – New Hackensack Rd – 2021-09-08
The next day I walked past the other side of the collision at the corner gas station’s dead car collection:
Deer Collision – front end damage
A closer look at that nice rounded dent links the two contestants:
Deer Collision – front end damage – deer hair detail
The impact didn’t blow the airbags, so maybe the car isn’t a total loss, despite extensive front end damage and some scrap metal inside the engine compartment.
As far as I can tell, Vassar College has been holding a deer cull every January, but taking out a few dozen deer definitely hasn’t eliminated the road hazard. If the folks objecting to the cull set up a fund to help drivers damaged by the objects of their affection, it’d demonstrate their understanding of the problem.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 