When you've lost your Bro 😭

 

Digitech Wireless TWS Earphones with Bluetooth® 5.3 Technology (AA2165)

I recently purchased this product from Jaycar NZ and had some interesting issues with it.  I went online and found that I'm not the only one so I'm going to go over what I've discovered so far.  Some of these things are just things to note and aren't issues that I had myself but that others did appear to have problems with.

So without further ado... 

As long as the earphones haven't been used already, there will be a small thin plastic film (blue in colour for me) covering the earbuds charging contacts.  You need to remove this thin plastic film before they will be able to charge from the charging case. Pretty obvious thing really but not immediately obvious to everyone.

The LEDs on the charging case indicate the charge state of the battery in the charging case not the earbuds. While the charging case is charging, the charge state/level is indicated by a line of solid blue LEDs with the rightmost LED flashing blue indicating that it's charging.  They all turn solid blue once it's fully charged.

So far it appears that the earbuds will charge whether the charging case is on charge or not.  Obviously when the charging case is not charging it's going to be using up it's battery to charge the earbuds so the earbuds won't charge if the case battery is discharged.  The case will keep topping up the earbuds so if you don't use the product for a while, then both the case and earbuds could potentially end up discharged.

When you place an earbud into the charging case, the LED on the earbud briefly flashes red and then stays red, indicating charging.  Once the earbud is fully charged the LED turns off.  However the electrical connection between the earbuds and charging case are somewhat fiddly/dodgy, perhaps a manufacturing issue with line up of the metal contacts.  So I noticed that sometimes one or both earbuds will think they have been removed from the case and turn on and initiate a bluetooth connection.  Moving the offending earbud while seated in the charging case usually restores the electrical connection between the charging contacts, and the earbud will then turn off and start charging again.

Opening the charging case or knocking it, when the earbuds are inside, can break the electrical connection between the metallic charging contacts on the charging case and the earbuds.  Because the earbuds automatically turn on when disconnected/removed from the charging case, this results in them attempting to initiate a bluetooth connection, LED on earbuds flashing red and blue and then off when connected (??), and hence begin discharging.  If this happens often, which it does, for example when the case and earbuds are in a backpack while walking, then the earbuds will lose some charge depending on how often they are disturbed.

The included manual states "Note: The earphones will automatically turn off after 3 minutes or if they're too far away from your device.  I can confirm that this does happen as long as no bluetooth connection occurs or the bluetooth connection is lost or dropped or you don't inadvertently touch the power button on the earbuds.  My Linux based laptop puts the bluetooth module into low power mode when there is no input source/stream so this also results in the earbuds turning off.  Somewhat annoying.

That's all so far. I'll add more as I use it more.

Proud to be a Kiwi

Something I found lurking in my Inbox... (likely some of the figures are well out of date.

Just imagine...If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Air New Zealand one year ago, you would have $49.00 today.

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in the AA one year ago, you would have $33.00 today.

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Canterbury Finance one year ago, you would have $0.00 today.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminium cans for recycling refund, you would have received $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg.

A recent study found that the average Kiwi walks about 900 miles a year.

Another study found that Kiwi's drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year.

That means that, on average, Kiwi's get about 41 miles to the gallon!

Makes you damned proud to be a Kiwi!!

Tesla's upcoming Battery Day

A while back, maybe 8 years now, I remember watching a video of the Tesla Model S vs. an Audi on stage demoing the time in takes to refuel.

You can see this here https://youtu.be/6_XEv2f_Uhw. I can't find the original video but this is what I remember.

You'll hear Elon talking about the quick replacement of the battery packs and you'll see it happening on stage, not once but 3 times, while the Audi is being filled up with gas.

When I saw this I thought this would be awesome.  You could setup this underground at Supercharger sites and/or petrol stations to drop out a battery to be reconditioned underground meantime replacing it with a newly reconditioned one.  You'd have maybe 20 batteries in this underground system in various states on reconditioning and recharging, ready to go into the next car to roll up.  This would give you a ”refuelling” time of less than a has gas guzzler.

I'd say that would be somewhat revolutionary and definitely worth making it into a day called Battery Day.  Don't you?

You can quote me on this if I'm right 👍

How timely Mr Trump

The Plan

In the beginning there was a Plan.

And then came the Assumptions.

And the Assumptions were without form.

And the Plan was without substance.

And darkness was on the face of the workers.

And they spoke among themselves, saying, "It is a crock of shit and it stinks."

And the workers went unto their Supervisors and said, "It is a pail of dung and we can't live with the smell."

And the Supervisors went unto their Managers, saying, "It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none may abide by it."

And the Managers went unto their Directors, saying, "It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength."

And the Directors spoke among themselves, saying to one another, "It contains that which aids in plant growth, and is very strong."

And the Directors went to the Vice Presidents, saying unto them, "It promotes growth and is very powerful."

And the Vice Presidents went to the President, saying unto him, "This new plan will actively promote the growth and vigor of the company with powerful effects."

And the President looked upon the plan and saw it was good. 

And the Plan became Policy.

And this is how shit happens.

via https://upjoke.com/

Hot on the heels of the previous post...

Well I've only just posted something about LED tech and Bridgelux and then I found something even better :)

Some bright lights (pun intended) using theoretical computations have come up with an alloy primarly made from galium nitride, also used in LEDs, that can break the chemical bond between hydrogen and oxygen molecules when exposed to sunlight.  What does this mean.  Immersed in water and exposed to sunlight it splits the water to produce hydrogen gas which of course can then be burnt or used in other catalytic reactions say for example engines in cars or better yet in catalysers that produce electricity to power electric cars or power grids.

Going a little bit sideways and you could perhaps combine the LED technology with an onchip water splitting, hydrogen catalyst to power conversion to produce external or underwater LEDs that provide their own power from the environment.  Perhaps I'm dreaming but it's a good dream.

This technology could also perhaps do away with these terrible and hugely expensive power producing plants especially the Nuclear ones.  And we know what those things are capable of.  Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Goes South

Here's some more of the same in the last fews years:

New Class Of Catalyst For Fuel Cells Beats Pure Platinum By A Mile
New Aluminum-Rich Alloy Produces Hydrogen On-Demand For Large-Scale Uses
Portable Tech Might Provide Drinking Water, Power to Villages

Cheaper lighting via lower cost LED manufacturing process...

Okay so for a while now I've been following this company called Bridgelux because of their research into more efficient LEDs and cheaper methods of manufacture.  They have been using silicon as the substrate for the galium nitride layer that emits the light we see from LEDs.  Other materials are currently used instead of Silicon, like sapphire or silicon carbide, but these are more expensive than silicon to extract and/or manufacture.  However the GaN mix, until recently, hasn't produced the same Lumen figures as the LEDs made using the more expensive substrates.  This is where Bridgelux has just stepped in.  Their new research has increased the output of the GaN based LEDs and they've had success with fabrication on larger, lower cost silicon wafers.

So what does this mean?

I'm hoping that it means LED lighting for everyone at lower cost than the current incandescent and CFL lighting and better quality colour.  Plus lower demands on the energy production systems and power grids.  This could also lead to cheaper and simpler alternative power generation systems for residential homes.  And as an extra bonus all those prefab plants that are no longer capable of producing layers for CPU manufacture can be used for this process instead.

Here's a couple more articles about the push to LED lighting:

No compromise LED replacement
LED light a window to a new future
New Zealand Manufacturer Supplier

Bullshit and Brilliance...

received via email

A wealthy old lady decides to go on a photo safari in Africa, taking her faithful aged poodle named Cuddles along for the company.

One day the poodle starts chasing butterflies and before long, Cuddles discovers that he's lost. Wandering about, he notices a leopard heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch.

The old poodle thinks, 'Oh, oh! I'm in deep doo-doo now!' Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the leopard is about to leap the old poodle exclaims loudly, 'Boy, that was one delicious leopard! I wonder if there are any more around here?'

Hearing this, the young leopard halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the tr ees. 'Whew!' says the leopard, 'That was close! That old poodle nearly had me!'

Meanwhile, a monkey who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard. So off he goes, but the old poodle sees him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figures that something must be up. The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the leopard.

The young leopard is furious at being made a fool of and says, 'Here, monkey, hop on my back and see what's going to happen to that conniving canine!

Now, the old poodle sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back and thinks, 'What am I going to do now?', but instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn't seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old poodle says,

'Where's that damn monkey? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another leopard!

Moral of this story....

Don't mess with old farts ... age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill! Bullshit and brilliance only come with age and experience.