Personalized Vinyl Decals – Check it out!
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Drift Trike Electrified!
Tag along on my journey electrifying this Triad Drift Trike with an e-bike motor and battery pack. You'll also get to hear about my experience as a first time noob MIG welding. When I first got the drift trike, it was really just for myself and my son to scoot around on. With few hills and no access to those mountainous roads you see in most videos made the fun became more of a workout…
Review: Newwear Q3 Smartwatch
I was recently sent this Newwear OLED Smartwatch from Banggood to try out. It has a number of features including heart rate, sleep, step counter, sedentary reminder etc. Checkout the video below for my thoughts on the watch. The Good: Nice quality screen, heart rate seems accurate, great battery life (note that screen turns off after preset time). The Meh: Can barely read the screen in the sun; forced to navigate through all items one-by-one.…
WeatherCloud – IoT
So, my son's been bugging me to get him some of those LED strips for his room. You know the ones that you see on Amazon with the remote controls. I couldn't just go with status quo, so instead with a little grit and some free time I got on the LED cloud bandwagon and built him something a big puffy cloud with lights - what every teen wants right? ;-) What is it? It's…
COVID-19 Daily Stats on a Nextion HMI using ESP8266
While Covid-19 picks a fight with humanity, keeping busy and your mind clear is important for all of us. In addition to getting out on hikes and biking with the family, what better way to pass the time than to built IoT stuff! Since I had a new 7" Nextion HMI screen sitting around just waiting for a project, and had some vacation time, I decided to buffer up my skills and get to work.…
3D Printed Diffused Case for NeoPixel Ring (12 LED)
Not being able to leave well enough alone, I'm toying with adding more show to my basement disco setup. I decided to pick up a couple NeoPixel rings (12 LED version) and integrate them into the music-reactive mode. These will be slotted in the open space at the bottom of the speakers near the sub port (see link below). This was designed to fit for this NeoPixel Ring. If you want to print some, download the…
Basement Disco: NeoPixel Music Sync with MSGEQ7
I didn't have a lot of time in 2019 for projects as much of it was dedicated to finishing the basement. A year ago it was nothing more than concrete, storage and dustballs. Took the job on myself and did everything except hanging drywall and mudding (I hate that part). Best part of doing your own basement is you get to hack in all the bits and pieces necessary for future projects - like LED…
Review: LED Ring Magnifier PCB Bench Vise with Helping Hands
3rd hand tools are a must-have when working with soldering. You need something to hold the PCB, the solder, and the soldering iron. Basically any project where you need a (wait for ) 3rd hand! A magnifying glass is also helpful for those with aging eyes. My friends at sent my this to check out and I have to say I'm impressed. Read Before receiving this, I had made my own with a combination of…
Review: Adjustable 30V/10A DC Power Supply
I recently received the LongWei 30V/10A (Model: LW-K2010D) power supply from to review. Full disclosure - it was sent to free for this review. That said, I'm transparent about my views on things and don't sugarcoat. The below review is my first impression of this unit doing some basic validation of it's functions. In the coming months I'll drop back in and update as I get more experience with this PS. The review is broken…
3D Printed Banana Jack Inset Speaker Plate
In Nov 2018 I took on the adventure of finishing my own basement. I'm now at the point where I'm wiring my AV system up and focused on the audio part. When looking to find banana jack wall plates for the speaker connectors, I was surprised to see that most are flush mount with the banana jacks sticking out. You can find some that are wall mounted, but they can be pricey and don't fit…