Drill Baby Drill

So, I wanted to use my drill driver yesterday, but it has battery problems. I had in-securitized the security screws as previously described. The new batteries had arrived, but I had not installed them. So, now I am motivated.

Here are the old and new parts. The new batteries are NiMH type and have more than double the capacity of the old NiCad type batteries.

I arranged the new batteries to mimic the layout of the old batteries and then soldered bottom tabs. The tabs on the batteries are not oriented exactly as needed for this application, which makes sense since these are used for many applications. As a result, I rotated the cells to create a good enough orientation on the top and bottom.
Top tabs next. This shows how I used a paper clip to hold the tabs as I soldered them.
Then I added the connector to the top battery using a rubber band to hold things during soldering.

I verified the connections with a voltmeter. After this, I smushed the tabs so they would fit better in the case. Even so, some additional smushing was needed to get the case screwed shut. I tested the assembly in the drill.


Success!

Rick

Too Hot, Too Cold, Just Right

We have a 96 Honda Odyssey van. I keep thinking of selling it. It keeps coming in handy. So now we have a van with more than 198,000 miles. Recently the van was too hot since the A/C stopped working. At 198,000 miles, stuff happens.

I took it in for repair and before the shop could find the root cause, the A/C spontaneously started to work again. Since it is hard to fix something that is not quite broken, the shop asked me to bring it back when it failed again. I agreed with their logic and appreciated their non-random methods.

It soon failed again just prior to when we needed the van and really, really needed the A/C to function. Since it failed on the Thursday before the July 4th holiday, the shop was very busy and not able to look at it until the following week.

We really needed the van, so I went for plan B. They shop had narrowed down the problem and well described what they had already checked, so I knew the A/C thermostat was the likely problem. Using Google, I found the electrical schematic for the A/C system for my van. Using the schematic and a volt meter, I confirmed that this A/C thermostat, located behind the glove compartment, had failed.

I called the local Honda dealer and they did not have the part on hand. So, I opened up the black box (it was not working anyway) as shown.

I was not able to tell what component had failed, so I soldered in a jumper wire (see below) to make the thermostat relay appear as always on.
It worked. We made the trip just fine, but it was too cold, which seems better than too hot.

I ordered and installed the new part this week and it now it is just right!

Rick

Security Screws - (In)Security Screws

It is a good thing that battery packs have security screws. Security screws vary, and my drill driver battery pack has this style. The center of the torx screw has a small post.
But I want to replace the batteries on the battery pack for my drill driver. To even order the batteries, I need to verify what I have. I could order a special tool. But I am already special and I don't need a special tool to make me feel special. Enter the Dremel tool with a tiny cutting wheel..
Now I have an (In)security screw.
Repeat 4 times. Now a regular slotted screw driver works very nicely.
So I verified the battery style and quantity and ordered the batteries. I will cover battery replacement in a future post.

Rick

Switching Switches

Some of our light switches are in an inconvenient locations. So, at night when we turn these inconveniently located switches off or on, we spend some time in the dark as we stumble our way across the room.

Turns out, they now make motion sensing light switches. They look like this.


I installed two and we love what they do for us. When we walk into these rooms, the lights turn on. After we leave, they turn off automatically after a delay. In the process of getting these installed, I have become unusually knowledgeable about motion sensing switches.

First off, they sell both vacancy sensing and occupancy sensing switches. Occupancy sensing switches activate when you enter and turn off, after a delay, when you leave. Vacancy sensing switches turn on only when you push a button and then turn off, after a delay, when you leave. Product packages clearly state the type, except some may say "manually activated occupancy sensor" which apparently means vacancy sensor or perhaps some scientifically created breed derived from these two switch types.

But wait, there's more. Some work with compact florescence lights (cfl's) and some do not! The product packaging does NOT make this clear. IF the package says "fluorescent magnetic ballast lighting" THEN it will not work with cfl's. I like cfl's. I like them so much I will throw away a perfectly good incandescent bulb and replace it with a cfl. Almost all occupancy sensors sold at retail locations are of this type and they do not work with clf's.

There is a technical reason for this situation and it has to do with how houses get wired. In summary, some wall switch boxes have a neutral wire present and some do not, so stores sell the type that do not need a neutral wire to work.

Occupancy sensors are available that work with cfl's and they always require a neutral wire to operate. It took me some extra steps to find them, so I ordered 5.

Bonus outcome, we are using a little less electricity since we tended to leave these lights on more when we had to turn them on and off the old fashioned way.

Rick

Monitor Monitoring

My spouse does a lot of computing and usually has many applications and many windows open at once. Being the household IT person, I set her up with two monitors a couple of years ago using a dual output video card. She did not actually ask for the solution but ended up loving it and using both monitors commonly.

I continued to monitor her use of the dual monitors and found that even two monitors posed a limitation on many occasions. In her work she tends to cut and paste from several applications while also monitoring and replying to email.

Technology marches on and I figured that three monitors should now be possible. My first attempt to plug in a second video card for the third monitor did not work. Some computers can handle two cards, but not this particular computer. After some on-line research, I marched over to my favorite giant electronics store and bought a Diamond USB Disply adapter model BVU195. This small device connects to the computer USB port and a monitor. After installing the device software, it shows up as a third monitor on the computer.


It works great. I note with interest that this device can also be used to add up to six display devices so I will continue to monitor the situation.

Purse Problem Prevented

My daughter read my blog about repairing the zippers on a tent and asked me to use the same trick on her purse. The purse had two brass zippers and the trick with pliers worked on both.


I tightened up one zipper too much and had to pry it open a bit.

Reflecting on the Past

A while back when I had more hair, my son was creating a report on Helen Keller and for that he wanted to trace a picture from the front of a library book. In the past, we had traced pictures by first taping them to a window, but this was a book cover so that would not work. We did not have any tracing paper either.

But I did have a piece of glass in the garage, so using the glass and cereal boxes on our kitchen table, I set up this arrangement.

This second photo helps to show how it works.

I don't recall how the overall report turned out but I thought the picture was great.