A curious case of flickering lights and a well pump

This has to be one of the most unexpected troubleshooting finales I've seen in a long while.

UPS on the cheap: Ecoflow River 2 versus River 3 (non-plus)

This blog post compares UPS transfer times between Ecoflow River 2 and River 3 (non-plus). That's it. That's the intro.

Powering a USB Dash Cam: Lessons Learned from VanTrue N4 Pro

Welcome back guys and gals. This time around, there won't be any diagrams, pictures, or wonky Excel charts. Just a public service announcement from a guy who just spent a few days troubleshooting an issue with the VanTrue N4 Pro dash cam. I promise to keep it short, unlike the troubleshooting process I just went through. Ha ha.

This is for folks who are using their dash cams with 3rd party power supplies or cables. If you're using the exact power supply that came with your camera, this issue might not apply to you.

DIY 16-bit precision voltage source with MAX5717A DAC

If you need a precision voltage source, you have three options. You can spend thousands of dollars and buy a lab instrument from a reputable company, you can spend hundreds and get an amazing enthusiast-grade device from Ian Johnston, or... If you're a cheap ass like me, you can build your own device that might just be enough for your use case at a fraction of the cost, and with hours and hours of fun included for free. Guess what we're going to do!

26 AWG solid copper wire: the perfect choice for hand-soldered Arduino projects

This post is my little token of appreciation for the 26 AWG solid core copper wire. Perfect for creating permanent version of Arduino projects, or if not perfect, then at least much simpler than wire wrapping and much, much more practical than using solder traces. Man, I love 26 AWG solid core.

Using a FLIR thermal camera to improve the taste uniformity of a tea-infused cake

Making a layer cake is a serious task. There are... layers... of complexity to it. Make a mistake, miss a step, and the whole thing can turn into a disaster. 

Quick look: Voltage drift / instability on Ruideng RD6006 power supply

This post is a quick record of voltage drift / variations I noticed during recent experiments with using a MOSFET as a voltage-controlled resistor, where the MOSFET's Gate-Source voltage was driven by the Ruideng RD6006(W) DC-DC power supply.

TL-21 Kelvin clip test lead upgrade for DER EE E-5000 LCR meter

There's no shortage of blog posts and videos describing TL-21 probe upgrade for the extremely popular DER EE E-5000 LCR meter. With that said, this post will is somewhat repetitive, but hey, I already took the pictures, so why not share.

For impatient readers, this is what the finished job looks like:

Measuring NiMH vs Li-Ion voltage sag at small loads with ESP32

This article is a brief excerpt from my experience with using Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) and Lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells for powering home sensors running the ESP32 Wi-Fi microcontroller.

Measuring breadboard wiring resistance: how bad is bad?

This article is a brief record of my early breadboard wiring adventures, because learning things the hard way is fun! You may also read the related post if you wish:

NiMH vs Li-Ion voltage sag under small loads