lemann

Viewers were asked to collect cycling data from their cities' busiest intersection, providing a rough insight into how cycling varies across the world.

This video goes through the collected data, and some of the findings are pretty interesting IMO...

A particularly notable one is the impact of helmet laws potentially ruining commuter, utility, and casual cycling in a city.

The data was anonymized by the channel and shared for all to freely browse:

• Spreadsheet - Google Drive
• Interactive map - Google Maps

I've noticed quite a lot of new accounts popping up recently, wondering if something new happened over at Orange Alien HQ or maybe is this just normal growth?

The soft pedals are an interesting idea I think, but I share the same concerns about their longevity. Some interesting books mentioned at the end too...

If you're not familiar with Shifter, this is a pretty great channel focused on urban cycling, with lots of insight and tips on to improve your commuting experience

This decade old electric cooler box gave up the ghost around 2 years ago, with the indoor outlet plug no longer working. The independent 12v input was still operational, so I kept it with the intention of eventually fixing it...

And two years later, this is the eventually 😅. The integrated 10v ~45w unit had failed short on the primary side, with a burnt out Y-capacitor and some fried zeners. I started removing bits from the board to try and find all the broken components... but ended up letting out the magic smoke in the process, oops!

I set out looking for a new power supply, and came across a 12v 45w unit from Meanwell. It was actually smaller than the cooler's original power supply too, meaning more internal space to use later 🤫

After searching for a distributor that was actually willing to ship it to a home address, I ordered, and boom:

It's so tiny compared to the original.

Next I installed an Arduino Nano to control the TEC/peltier module & fan via a cheap LED repeater. I was hoping to reuse the internal temperature sensors, but left them disconnected for now

After hours writing the arduino code, I finally got it into a usable state. There were issues with brownouts rebooting the Arduino, however with the Meanwell supply in-circuit those mysteriously stopped.

There are 3 power modes now for the module: 30W, 40W and 50W - with the first two using PWM, and the last one giving it all the beans. I wanted to PWM control the fan too, but decided against it since it sounded absolutely terrible at whatever PWM frequency the Nano is using.

It powers on to 40W by default, which is under the 45W max rating of the PSU.

Everything looks good so far running from the bench supply:

Now all that was left was to connect the internal supply, and the 12v vehicle input. I was actually supposed to use JST connectors for the Meanwell psu, but didn't have anything on hand - so improvised with crimping spade terminals and friction fitting those on

And the moment of truth. Up until this point I hadn't actually checked if the replacement psu was working or not

Looking good! I don't really like the LEDs though, so might do something about those in future.

You might be wondering how exactly I change the power settings... well since the manufacturer decided it was good enough to shove all the cables in the back, I did the same with a pushbutton 🤫

Glad to have the electric cooler working again though, feels nice to save large things like this from going to the landfill and extend their life a bit. Excited to hear any thoughts and feedback!

How nice of Windows to spam me with notifications when I temporarily fill my scratch disk, despite turning them off...

I've been in need of a bench supply for a while, up to this point I've been using little buck/boost boards with a multimeter to get the voltage I want when working on a project. The limitations of that started to show though, so I was after a more ideal solution.

After spending a while looking at various power supplies, I happened to come across this tiny adjustable supply. After binging a bunch of videos on it, I decided it'll do, especially compared to the absolutely chonky big alternatives.

Right out the gate, the aluminium casing feels amazing, but they could do with a bit of a stronger adhesive holding the glass screen cover in-place 🤦‍♂️ I'm personally not too bothered by this, but it doesn't set a good first impression IMO

A few seconds after pressing the glass back into place, the opposite end of the glass popped loose. At least I now know there are screws hidden under here if I ever decide to open this in future 💭

Aside from that, it has pretty reasonable specs for the size:

• Dual input, either AC (mickey ears plug) or DC 7-28v (XT60)
• 30V 10A (max output 200W on DC, max 100W on AC)
• Minimum output 1v 500mA
• 65W USB PD output (handy for the Pinecil I recently ordered to replace my old iron 😁)
• 200x200 IPS display
• AC input uses GaN parts

When watching the videos a few people complained about the absence of an XT60 to banana jack. This may have changed at some point, as one came with mine

The internal AC converter appears to supply 19V into the unit, which you can use via the XT60 connector at the rear. Not sure if intentional or not, but pretty neat nonetheless - as long as you dont accidentally leave a lipo plugged in there 😳

I'm not sure if its worth the price tag ($60-120 depending on where you look) when you can get a RuiDeng clone for under $30. I mainly jumped for this because of the size, integrated AC input, and that 65W USB-C. Voltage ripple is a little concern at lower voltages where some components may not be so forgiving...

Happy with the purchase so far though, can't wait to start using this for projects!

Never realised that quite a few third party mods for the deck are available - such as a transparent chassis, colourful buttons, and even an aftermarket APU cooler.

Linus pretty much pimps the heck out of the refurbished deck in this video.

The main downsides shown (aside from the difficult chassis swap) were the aftermarket chassis joystick tolerances being a bit tight, and the new HD screen increasing system power consumption by at least 10W - while also bringing a noticeable performance penalty, with ~37 FPS on the HD screen vs 60 FPS on the standard deck screen when playing F1

Picture of a bus stop, where a separated bike lane runs straight through the space a bus driver is expected to pull in to

Edit: Added description

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.one/post/4012716

Specialized Como 2022 😍

Mine for a month as a part of a free ebike loan scheme im my city. The new scheme replaces our old dock-based ebike scheme which went bankrupt due to constant vandalism 😭

Loving the loaner bike so far, handling is pretty similar to my personal bike with the swept handlebar and rear pannier. The assist boosts me up hills with ease, and makes heavy shopping feel like nothing!

Wish I could own one but it's out of my price range at the moment.

Cycled to the train station this morning, and was completely taken aback by the constant queues of cars waiting at lights. It looks so exhausting to be constantly at a standstill in traffic like that...

The bike paths on the other hand were practically empty, got to the station in the same quick time it would have taken outside of rush hour

Looks like an actual road with drainage, raised sidewalk et al, but it's very narrow.