A few redditors made their opinions known that one should just purchase the correct USB C power supplies and adaptor cables, and then they’d “just work”.
The entire point of this video was that if you have to use a specific USB-C power adaptor, it may as well not be USB-C. This was lost on these people, apparently.
The USB-C to XT60 adaptor to power the Turnigy battery charger actually ended up being used on a lot of occasions to just borrow a MacBook charger to power it off mains - it’s quite handy.
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It’s 2021, shouldn’t everything support USB C? The power delivery spec allows the device to request a wide range of voltages other than 5v for much greater power. But although 12v is among them, there’s a bit of a problem. Watch to find out how we get around this, and modify radio chargers to support USB-C, make a USB C to 12v barrel jack adaptor, then an ISDT T6 Lite RC Lipo charger, then for the grand finale, a USB C to Magsafe 2 adaptor!
Also, can you tell that it’s been a while between filming both halves of this video? If you want to play “spot the difference” with the workbench, leave your answers in the comments below!
00:00 Intro
00:18 Why it’s not quite as simple as you might think…
01:51 And what we do about that…
02:33 USB C Radio Charger (Wouxun KG-UV9D+)
03:16 USB C Radio Charger (Baofeng UV-5R)
03:44 USB C to barrel jack
05:06 USB C ISDT T6 Lipo charger
06:24 USB C to Magsafe 2 adapter
09:35 Outro
Production-wise, mTracker 3D is amazing when used with drone shots.
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We get invited to attend Antennapalooza - an amateur radio event that takes place in the field behind the Alian Electronics manufacturing facility in Drouin. The event features some tech talks and takes place in a field where you can set up some antennas and get on the air. Many just drive in for the day, but if you want to stay the whole weekend you can camp there.
00:00 Intro
00:28 Camp setup
00:34 The World’s Worst Camping Table
00:58 How to free-stand a Spiderbeam pole
02:00 Propagation…
02:07 The Big Drone Shot
02:44 Whether the weather?
02:56 Automotive Power - Bob Tait VK3XP
03:05 Mounting Mobile Antennas - Ian Jackson VK3BUF
03:22 Portable Ops - John VK3BSE
03:45 Adjusting the Inverted-V
04:02 Mobile Antenna Misbehaviour
04:16 Maritime Ops - Paul Anslow VK2APA
04:39 Portable Free Standing Mast - Graeme Brown VK3BXG
05:03 The Big Packup
05:25 Outro
Doing the whole range in one go wasn’t the best idea, my legs were a bit sore for the next week. But it was fun.
This is the last time you’ll see the eTrex for a while, after I damage the screen in this video.
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Warning: The Wells Cave ascent up Cathedral Range is quite challenging and can be dangerous in certain weather conditions (wet or windy) or if unprepared or unskilled at climbing. Do not descend via Wells Cave Track, it is an ascent route only.
In this video, I get the great idea that the entire ridgeline of Cathedral Ranges could be done in one day. It can… if you’re dedicated. But maybe it shouldn’t be.
(oh, and at at 00:10, that should read “2x1 callsigns”… oops)
Well here’s a video devoted to something that didn’t happen.
First appearance of the eBike as a subject, rather than a background prop in the workshop scenes.
First footage of the bike actually being ridden (albeit briefly).
End includes a teaser for the Cathedral Ranges video, featuring some scary climbing footage.
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Ever wanted to ride a bicycle over the West Gate bridge? No? Sounds terrifying? How about with 10,000 other people?
In this video, I dust off my bike and prepare it to participate in Bicycle Network’s Around The Bay mass ride. This ride is notable for not only its size, but the ability to ride over the West Gate Bridge - somewhere normally completely off limits to bikes - on two lanes reserved specifically for the event. But my bike’s not quite had all the care and attention it’s deserved, and so we’re going to give it a good clean, work out how to make it a little quicker and go over how to carry things.
00:00 Intro
00:38 Clean all the things
02:13 How to run a GoPro for a whole day
03:30 How to carry all the things
03:27 Tyres and keeping the air in them
04:42 Handlebars
05:05 The finish only everybody could have predicted
06:18 Sneak preview of what’s coming soon…
Decided to do a quick test to see if that furry microphone cover was actually better. It was.
Funnily enough this is the second use of the fan, only we’re not camping this time.
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The foam cover that comes with the lapel mic I use is almost completely useless at stopping wind noise. I bought two aftermarket ones - a bigger foam one, and a fur one and I find out if they’re any better - and if the stock one even does anything?
Audio’s a bit bad at the start as the lapel mic can’t be a prop and a microphone at the same time… sorry!
This one was the start of a new series “Adventures from the Workbench” - by calling it an “adventure”, it totally doesn’t depart with the name of the channel, right?
This one made Hackaday, gaining it a lot of views (but not as many subscribers as I thought I’d get).
There’s some more footage of some future attempts I have to make a second video about at some point…
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Update: I’ve ordered some additional stuff to try a few more experiments and there will be a follow-up video coming. Subscribe so you don’t miss it!
Ever heard of a Nernst lamp? It’s an incandescent globe that uses a ceramic filament. But isn’t that an insulator? How does it conduct electricity? How can you make one yourself with a potato peeler? How well will it work?
A GoPro is literally the worst camera you could use for this - ultrawide lenses at a zoo - where you can’t get close to anything.
With most of the clips having 200% digital zoom on them, it’s surprising this produced a video that works - but it’s still effectively 1080p.
With travel not allowed from Australia at the time we were returning (and not really allowed from the rest of the world at all, at the time), the airport was very empty.
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After MOTAT, we visit Auckland Zoo. While a GoPro is just about the worst camera to film at the zoo with, some heavy use of digital zoom was made, but I think I got away with it.
Keep watching for some bonus footage of a very empty Auckland airport on the way out…
The frustration from trying to track that 3D title at the start made me buy mTracker 3D…
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We visit the Museum of Technology and Transport in Auckland, NZ. It’s part historical museum, part historical village, part science centre, part technology showcase. We were last here for the Penguin Dinner event - a “formal” conference dinner event run as part of linux.conf.au in 2015.
MOTAT consists of two sites named MOTAT 1 and MOTAT 2. MOTAT 1 contains most of the scientific exhibits and collection, MOTAT 2 consists of a huge hall full of aircraft. You can catch an authentic vintage tram between them, which also stops at Auckland Zoo in the middle.
Highlights include much old fashioned electromechanical telephone exchange equipment (all fully working, and with rotary phones provided for you to operate it), a collection of interesting vehicles, a collection of interactive science exhibits, a live blacksmith’s shop and a collection of historic trams - one of them even from Melbourne.
I really enjoyed this one, and I’m glad I got to fit it in. Things didn’t go as planned, in general, during this trip, but this one went exactly as planned.
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With a few spare hours to go on a quick adventure, I embark upon a rather ambitious plan involving using a ridesharing service to go hiking. It doesn’t go entirely according to plan, but I do my best to make it work.
Oh, and I didn’t plan to have two consecutive videos where I explain volcanic basalt “organ pipes”. Just turned out that way…
