Posts tagged with "battery"
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Taking Care Of Rechargeable Batteries
For all the great things that are talked about Li-ion batteries, I do not have a good feeling about them. I agree they are much lighter than lead acid batteries and can probably handle more current. But I always felt the maintenance and life of these batteries is far worse than traditional batteries. Take the case of phones or laptops. In spite of taking great care, they generally don’t last as long. Most of my phone batteries show lowered performance after 3 years and very poor performance after 5 years. I am sometimes left with swollen batteries. And to think we are using Li-ion batteries in EVs. I wonder how long they will really last when the environment they operate in is much harsher when compared to laptops and phones.
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Sensors Tell A Story
After having set up my solar panel, I installed a bunch of voltage and current sensors in various places to collect data about my power usage and also to keep track of how much solar energy is being generated. The plan was to optimize and maximize solar power usage. I want to eke out every bit of power from the panel and optimize the hell out of solar energy. I also wanted to build some visual artifacts (graphs) out of the data. If you are like me, crazy about data, and data analysis, then this post is for you.
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Follow-up to Virtual Meetup #7
Thank you to everyone who joined the virtual meetup #7. We had a very low turn-up but we certainly had a lot of questions. This post is a follow-up to that meeting so you know what we discussed. As it usually happens, the topics we covered varied quite a bit from investment related things to solar panels to taxes.
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Acer Aspire 7 Review
As you already know, I recently purchased a budget gaming laptop – Acer Aspire 7 with Nvidia GTX 1650 graphics card. I really did not need a gaming laptop because I barely play games anymore. But the deal was so good compared to a similarly spec’ed laptop without the graphics card, that I could not pass up the deal. It’s been only 10 days since I have the laptop under my possession, but that does not deter me from writing a review. If you are also looking to buy this laptop, this post might help you in making a decision. If you are not planing to buy one and are still reading, you might be here to pass some time. Either way have fun.
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Purchased A New Laptop
The festival season has begun, well at least for Amazon and Flipkart. So it is time to find some good deals on all those things that you wanted to buy. Err, I mean the things that you needed to buy. Strictly speaking for a minimalist it should not matter whether it is sale time or not. If you don’t need something, don’t buy it. But of course we are all human and we fall prey to some temptations. At least I do. I have been wanting to buy a laptop for sometime now. Astute readers of my blog might already know that I have a budget. And according to my annual budget, I am allowed to buy a new laptop every 5 years. Now, I know it is probably too frequent to be buying a laptop every 5 years. But since I spend a considerable amount of my time on a laptop, it would be nice to have a decent upgrade. You know where I am going with all this don’t you? As if the title didn’t already give you a clue.
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Wiring Solar Panels, Solar Management Unit and UPS
If you have been following my solar panel project story, you know what parts I needed to get started on the project. I ordered them from Amazon and they started arriving at my door step in due course. Once I had everything delivered, we carried the panel to the roof. I made some basic electrical measurements to make sure everything was in order. Next we ran the solar cables from the terrace to the ground floor. According to the manual, the wiring has to be done in a certain order. I will explain the connections in that order.
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Laptop Upgrades And Lap Gadgets Review
Over the years I have been upgrading my laptop to keep it humming along. Normally the upgrades are mainly to help keep pace with the rising demands of my development tools. However, the latest upgrade to the laptop has been to extend the life of the laptop until I can buy another one. You see, I tend to upgrade my laptop every 5 years or so. I purchased my current laptop in late 2016. So it is almost time to replace it.
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My Search for an Ideal Phone
I have always used some of the more expensive android phones up until my brush with minimalism. After that, I decided I need to buy something for what it is really worth for me. I have always been a value conscious guy, which means I try to get the best value for my money. But nobody ever said that the money needs to be a small amount :) . So I used to buy moderately expensive stuff, but still with good value. I considered a $2100 gaming laptop a worthy buy because of the value of the components. Which is also the reason I don't buy Apple products. Don't get me wrong, the products are absolutely beautiful and well crafted and the attention to detail is impeccable. The engineering and innovation that goes behind those products is commendable. But I always feel that the value could be better spent at something other than the good looks and perfection. Anyway back to the point. So after trying to practice minimalism, I decided to go with things that are less expensive but still value for money.
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How to Change Scooter Battery
Recently, the trusted battery in my scooter finally died. We own a Hero Honda Pleasure and its battery has never been replaced since we purchased it in 2011. That is a full 8 years of service, which is quite amazing for a scooter battery. Anyway, we decided to replace it. Now, I have replaced car batteries a couple of times so far, but this would be the first time replacing a scooter battery. However, the instructions in the scooter manual for replacing the battery were surprisingly simple. So I thought there should be a post about it, because ... why not?
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