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Blue ESR Meter Kit

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Blue ESR MeterEver since I started doing LCD monitor, and G5 iMac repair, I’ve wanted/needed to pick up an ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance) meter. Electrolytic capacitors are the bain of pretty much all modern power supplies. Pretty much everything else in a modern power supply is invincible compared to the caps… and while I’ve been extremely lucky that every iMac and LCD monitor I’ve repaired had obviously bad capacitors (bulging), that isn’t always the case… which is where an ESR meter comes in.

I won’t get into ESR in general, but you can find info on wikipedia here, or on this site. But basically, as Electrolytic caps age, their ESR increases, and generally once it rises above it set point, the device it’s in will stop working. In many cases, you can tell when this happens due to bulging/leaking. But that isn’t always the case, and having a meter is a good idea. I purchased the Blue ESR kit made by AnaTek, based off a design by Bob Parker for $73 off eBay. The kit arrived in a standard box, and was well organized. In about an hour and a half of soldering, I had the unit up and going. Really all you need is a soldering iron, some flush cutters, and if you want to calibrate the battery low indicator, you’ll want a variable bench power supply. Other than that, it was a piece of cake. While hourly, it’s not worth the $20 saved to buy the kit, it was worth it to get the satisfaction of building a kit and having it work. The instructions are easy to follow, and the unit fired right up when I was done.

I’d highly recommend it if you spend time doing repairs. At some point I’ll buy the Blue Ring Tester kit as well, as it makes diagnosing bad transformers easier, but for now, I’ve probably spent enough on test gear for the time being.

[xrr rating=5/5]

Star Trek Into Darkness

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star-trek-into-darkness-posterTime was, Star Trek movies appealed only to Trekkies, and worse, for years only the even numbered movies were “good”. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084726/, The Voyage Home, The Undiscovered Country, First Contact. Nemesis pretty much broke that tradition, as it wasn’t very good.

With the J.J. Abrams movies, things have changed quite a bit. The movies no longer require the Trekkie aspect, and so far, both the movies have been good, even if they aren’t terribly “Star Trek”.

With all that said, “Into Darkness” starts out pretty quickly, and could easily be seen as just continuing on from the first movie. Everybody is still around, and they’re all doing pretty much the same things they did in the last movie.

The movie starts out fairly quickly with the Antagonist (Benedict Cumberbatch) indirectly blowing up a building, then Starfleet deciding to go after him, when he then runs off to Kronos (Qo’noS), which given the time period, is serious (the Federation and the Klingons don’t really get along). So there’s drama there. You do get to see Klingons, which is something there haven’t been in a Trek movie for a while (short of Worf).

The movie maintains a good pace throughout, and while a bit predicable (or in one case, predictably groan-able), it kept the audience entertained. I did not notice all the lens flare this time, though a coworker did say it was there. So maybe there were more, but they seemed less “in your face” than in the first movie.

I don’t want to give away much more, but Benedict Cumberbatch was definitely a better Antagonist than Eric Bana, but much of that could have been writing, and also, the first movie didn’t have a whole lot of room for an Antagonist… it was largely about character development. Nero was just a means to an end. Benedict is definitely an Antagonist, and does the part well for being an otter. Highly enjoyable!

[xrr rating=5/5]

Tumi Alpha Gusseted Card Case with ID

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tumi-alpha-gussetedIn February, I purchased a new wallet. I’d been tired of having a giant wallet in my pocket (I keep it in my front pocket), so I started looking for slim wallets. This search quickly led to “gusseted” wallets, or wallets with one large pocket for cards. This also quickly pointed me at the Tumi Gusseted Card Case wallets. A quick trip to Amazon, $40 later, and I had one ordered and at my doorstep two days later.

Build quality seemed very good. The outside of the wallet is almost a ballistic nylon feel, and the inside is leather. One side of the wallet has two slots for cards (main use debit and credit cards) and a slot below for other cards (I keep my proximity card in that space). The other side has a clear slot for ID, and the main gusseted area for less used cards. The gusseted area easily holds 13 credit/business cards, and probably could hold 20 or so total. What the wallet doesn’t have is space for cash. This is okay for me since I don’t carry cash very often, but it might be a serious issue if you tend to use cash.

I’ve had the wallet for about 4 months now, and I’m still very pleased with the build quality, what it holds, etc. The few times I’ve had cash, I can simply fold it and stick it in the middle, or in the slot behind my debit cards.

[xrr rating=5/5]