DIY 450D external power supply

I had a third party battery dead, so why not convert it into an external power supply?

First of all, open the case carefully.

And then you see there are two Lithium cells inside, lift them up:

Take them out with the circuit board.  This is supposed to be the protection circuit, we're going to keep them both as the interface to the camera, and also to serve as the protection circuit of the external battery.  I will use two unprotected 18650.

Put the battery case inside, insert it into the camera, mark where you should drill a hole for the external battery.

Now, you're ready  to do the soldering work.

Solder the case, mark the polarity.

I put some hot melt glue for insulation and for fixing the cable in place... you may want to fill more just to glue up the cover.

QED.

I think it is good for astrophotography.  You don't want to remove the camera just  to replace the battery, one could do it externally without touching the camera body.

Replacing the hard drive of Dell Inspiron 2020

It uses a 3.5" desktop HDD, the original one was a Seagate 512G.  I'm going to replace it with a Seagate 1T.

The original plan was the following:

1. Clone the original hard drive
2. Disassembly the Inspiron
3. Replace the hard drive

But then the cloning process was not very successful.  The way I did was to connect the new hard drive with a USB to SATA cable, and then clone from the internal hard driver.  However, I soon realize that the sector size was different, and none of the software that I tried could do the clone.  I believe even a "dd" won't work.  I found that internal drive had 512 bytes sector size, while USB connect drive had 4K sector size and that is the source of the problem.

Finally, I backup the original drive and then install the new hard drive, followed by restore from the backup image.  It works flawlessly, Windows 8 does not complain about the change of hardware.  I've created a new partition with the added space and it works fine, too.

Keeping food for camping

To keep food fresh is an issue for camping.  Vegetables are easier for one or two days, but meat could be hard since you can hardly have a refrigerator outside.  Some people will bring a large ice box, but this is not often an option for someone without a car.  And it makes no sense to bring a large ice box if you're going alone.

So I bought the following for this purpose.  I boiled some soup yesterday and I couldn't finish it at once, so I put them into the bottle for later consumption.  The weather is not cold and I expect it could keep the content hot for a few hours.

BU 

After two hours or so, I could the cap was pretty warm.  I believe the cap is the weakest link.

I will try it out soon by first freezing some meat, and then keep inside, see if it could keep them until the next morning.  Consuming it at the same night is problem free, you don't even need such a bottle, but I usually have can food before buying this one.

Toaks Titanium Cookset plus a small gas stove

This is an ultra-light setup, big enough for personal use and marginal for two persons.  I bought it for hiking + camping trip.  While I've no time to go camping immediately, so I tested it at home with my BRS-8b.

The cover could be used as a frying pan, and it fits nicely together, that handle is really nice too.  The first exercise is to reheat the soup from the refrigerator and it works flawlessly.

To complete this ultra-light setup, I've also bought a small gas stove with a tripod shape converter, you could see how compact and light weight it is.

 Finally, I bought some more titanium stuff so as to complete my ultra-light collection.

So right now I've a pair of chopsticks, a fork/spoon, a cup and also a 800mm water bottle.  Enough for the moment.

Solo Hiking: Dragon's Back

Actually, I did it before, but this time is longer and more complete.

I did wear a heart beat monitor to alert myself, there are so many people along the way perhaps this path is so famous.

Taking bus 9 from Shau Kei Wan MTR station, all the way to 土地灣 (also indicated as Dragon's Back), the entrance of the hiking trail is in view after dropping off.

The view could be really nice when weather permits.

I brought along my ukulele...

I should do more hiking myself and I wish to have my first solo camping soon!

Summer Camping

I hadn't gone camping in summer for something like 20 years.  It's always rainy, and exceptionally wet and hot here in Hong Kong.  This is a breakthrough to me to serve 20 kids in a local campsite.  When we said a campsite, we have bath room and we can have meal without cooking and indeed, we just cooked our own breakfast.

To tackle the hot weather, I have another camp which has good ventilation, and I have a small fan inside, powered by 3 18650 batteries in series.  I found that a set of 3400mmAh battery could last for a whole night.

This time I have so many 18650 with me, 3 for another small fan, 6 for a portable mobile charger, and another 6 as spare, and also 1 with my tent lamp.

Replacing the fan of Asus Eee 1005HA

I guess not many people were interested in this thing, it's an aged net book running Windows XP. I had replaced its hard disk a few years ago, and also its keyboard, the battery pack was replaced, too. In case you're still interested, here we go.

First of all, get a new fan from taobao at 15 RMB, it contains the heat sink for the CPU and chipset:

Taking away the keyboard is relatively easy, and you can see the fan now, but then it could not be replaced yet since the CPU and chipset is on the other side, unluckily.

So you have to remove this board from the case...

 

You finally see the whole fan/heat sink assembly:

 

Take away and replace, done!

Finally, a video to tell you how to disassemble completely: youtube

Replacing zenfone 5 screen

This is the first time I do it, and it's very encouraging and fruitful.

New screen ordered from taobao on the right, actually, we could order a plain screen which is even cheaper, but then you have to remove the glue on screen by yourself using a hair dryer.  The above contains also the plastic case and it saves some effort.

Fully removed, it contains the battery, which also holds the SIM cards slot.  Notice that you should also remove the proximity sensors, the ear piece and the three buttons on the side in case the new screen module does not contain.

It's not very hard after all.   Here is a youtube clip showing how to do the disassembly:

Top Link Express (匯購八方)

幾年前, 淘寶用得不多, 因為運費很貴, 每件分開來寄, 至少都要 $33 或以上, 還有許多店不發香港... 例如一個手機套, 在淘寶便宜很多, 但加上運費, 立即就貴過在香港買... 此外, 直運到家並不方便, 因為家裡總不是常常有人, 另外寄到往宅區還有附加費

後來有了淘寶官方集運, 可以把不同的貨品集合起來, 一次過寄來香港, 大批東西都是幾十元運費就可以了, 輕便的, 可以便利店取貨, 輕重的, 可以到自提點, 家裡不用有人等收貨

早幾天開始試用非官方集運, 價錢更便宜, 而且倘若是買一件貨品, 首重還差不多減半呢! 此外, 就算是比較大的物件, 也可以寄到街坊小店, 所以提貨的地點也方便了, 不必都到指定的自提點, 而且辦公時間亦較長呢!

Added on 30/June:

某次我在同一間商鋪買了兩件東西, 誰一知店主分開兩次來寄出! 我記得有次用官方集運, 結果其中一件收不到, 因為選轉運時只看見一個訂單!

但用非官方集運就簡單了, 因為凡收貨地址有你的會員編號, 那些貨物都會出現在轉運單上! 這對於重新發貨也很有用呢!

Asus al31-1005 battery pack disassembly

It was not doing good after several years, and I've ordered replacement battery pack which will support my 1005HA for 5-8 hours.  Today, I took the plunge to disassemble it to get the 18650 inside for other purpose.

At the very beginning, I actually wanted to do it cleanly, for example, to even replace the 18650 with some new batteries but then the case was too thin and fragile.  Only three cells were inside.

They were from LG with 2200mmAh... not bad. Below is the circuit board for charging, etc.

I found a device which I suspected it to be a temperature sensor, to avoid overheating.

Most of the battery pack was indeed empty space.

貝澳營地

天氣開始回暖, 二十度左右, 不用帶足睡袋, 一個睡袋打開兩個人用, 相對輕便

去到東涌, 打個電話去營地問, 尚餘幾個營位, 否則就改去南山營地... 個天幕第一次露營用, 相當唔錯... 最慘係遇上星期二大清潔, 結果第二日要拆, 唯有暴晒

呢個 Mobi Garden T3 第一次用, 四個人勉強可以, 因為有兩個細路女, 啲袋就放在營前和營後的空間...

景色不錯吧!

還有其他節目... 養一晚吐沙, 第二天吃剛剛好

等日落才煮飯, 興鬆一陣 

簡簡單單的預備... 充電枱燈相當有用, 好似第三定第四次用了, 但其實佢電量唔夠用一晚, 記得帶埋充電線

先煎雞扒, 啲女最鐘意嘛

晚上在營內玩陣 card game

貝澳係好方便, 但經常爆滿, 海浪聲較大, 沙地略斜, 其餘頂級

電油爐 BRS-8B

用咗 gas 爐好多年, 其實又方便, 又好用, 不過次次都掉兩個氣罐, 不太環保, 心裡唔太舒服

趁住減價, 就入咗個電油爐, 呢個電油爐用 gas 都得, 而我個 gas 爐都開始生銹, 遲早都要換, 所以買呢個算係一物二用

電油爐本身係較貴, 摸埋都二三百起跳, 而 gas 爐就幾十蚊有交易; 另外, 電油爐操作比較複雜, 而 gas 爐就簡單好多喇...

論火力, 一般電油爐強過 gas 爐好多, 但呢個同樣可以係缺點, 因為煮某啲野係需要細火多啲... 燃料成本, 電油爐略平

初試 BRS-8B, 感覺非常好, 開一陣已經燒到紅晒, 火焰係藍色既... 燃料從五金鋪買, 啤酒樽散裝, 一支大啤 $15, 應該可以用足兩日一夜, 火力大用嚟打邊爐應該會好好多

--

後來有機會試用 gas, 需要駁 adapter... 因為燃料經過火焰才噴出, 所以火力較猛, 亦用得較乾淨, 原本支氣得返好少, 但估唔到火力好大, 而且用得好清, 無浪費!

我諗我都唔會再用個舊爐了

假天花 DIY

在太子道西某鋪頭買, 我的浴室是 195mm x 95mm, 材料大約 $300, 連鋁板和鋁角

另外買一支玻璃膠, 兩卷雙面膠紙 (固定位置用), 一卷牛皮膠紙 (固定位置用), 一把鐵剪...

我儘量把天花放得最高, 先安短邊, 因為較易固定

裁好長短, 準備膠乾了放上去

經過一天努力, 差不多完成了, 只欠一支新的燈

舊的就可以退休了

絕 ukulele solo

正歌我一編好就彈得到, 但副歌就應該要稍為練一練, 又一平民譜, 希望大家鍾意

昨晚臨瞓時編好, 今早起身彈, 作個記錄, 雖然爛, 但夠新鮮...

我的心你要稱頌耶和華 (讚美之泉) ukulele solo