It’s more like I have to buy things so I can build/fix other things, and tbh kinda the main input I still require from “the system”. Belts, bearings, seals, gaskets, relays, control boards, pumps, props, etc. Recent outboard motor refurb is a great example: a new one would be $5-8k, I spent ~$300 doing rings and bearings, new impeller, new seals everywhere, new zincs, new prop, fresh paint, new spark plugs. Still had to do a lot of shopping! Arguably more than the high roller who just buys a new motor, that’s a low double digit number of parts vs one big thing

Anyways it wasn’t meant as an argument or some kind of rhetorical gotcha, more a long shot at making a new friend and not having to shop anymore lol. People have a lot of different ideas of fun, mine’s closer to tearing something apart and seeing how it works than trying not to get ripped off while meeting material needs

So glad I could be the one to share that with you :)

I mean… Shopping for parts and materials is usually my least favorite part of any project, conceptually not having to deal with that sounds great if I didn’t have negative trust in the mechanism. If you find it fun, maybe we should team up!

We’ve been there before.

It’s still early but this is a strong frontrunner for post of the day

Hey. Do NOT let Elon have the funny numbers. They’re mine, you joyless dweeb! 69 420 1312 666 1337 5318008 <-- this is where I keep them, feel free to borrow a couple or share more

Quite possibly, you tell me!

I found him on yt and was also initially trepidatious for that reason. The low production of his videos (pretty much all are one shot/one take playing a song outdoors) and clear lack of algorithmic support have largely assuaged those concerns. There are of course more radical acts I absolutely love, but Wingnut Dishwasher’s Union or Andrew Jackson Jihad are for a much smaller audience. I’m glad he’s doing what he does and appreciate being able to relate to his music along with my family

I’m going to restate this take more positively: continuing in the tradition of Guthrie and Dylan, Wells’s direct lyricism and simple folk melodies provide a much needed continuity with the American counterculture of yesteryear

See also Jesse Wells. Guy’s cooking rn

And hoarding all the firewood is a dick move, you got to cut down trees to get it, a little fire warms and comforts but too much consumes and destroys. P deece analogy

Sorry about the slop, good luck wading

“Monster” was definitely facetious, hope you’re having a nice day friend :)

My uncle got an old road maintenance truck, I hooked the spotlight/flashers back up and added a PA. He loves hitting the flashers anywhere he pulls up, hassling people working outside with the PA, and spotlighting deer/drunk kids in the field. Your dad is a monster

Clearly you should turn it into a gift for me, that’s generations newer than the headless laptop I’m using now lol. Fr tho, find someone who’ll appreciate it. Way too nice a rig to languish as a 3rd server/media box

You got causality reversed here man. They’re military infrastructure, the chatbot slop is just sugar coating

“Everyone” does not use their phone while eating or pooping. I make an effort to engage with mine as little as possible, in a perfect world checking it when I wake up when I get home and before bed. For me the phone is a weird mix of useful tool and addictive drug, almost impossible to drop entirely but very much worth limiting access to. Constant stimulation is certainly a choice you can make, but probably not a healthy one. I view what you’re doing the same way you might view someone saying they always drink a beer in the shower.

What differentiates PipePipe? I really liked Tubular, which was NewPipe+SponsorBlock, but it quit getting updates

I haven’t had access to grid power in over 10 years and am pretty familiar with this stuff as part of day to day life. I do now have solar. Really don’t think me and everyone else I know have been getting this consistently “lucky” for this long across such a wide range of devices. The 11-15v a nominal 12v battery system normally experiences is not a huge amount of fluctuation, and I have yet to encounter a 12v device that couldn’t take it. On the contrary, I’ve tried much dumber stuff and gotten away with it. There’s a 9v piano keyboard and a 19v computer monitor wired straight into that same battery. The only time I’ve actually killed something is by reversing polarity. Voltage too low=won’t turn on, voltage too high=gets hot, and all these years of wiring up random scavengings to see what happens have taught me most gear is surprisingly tolerant/resilient

e: for SBC stuff, automotive USB charger makes a great 5v rail. My “homelab” was at one point a pi 3b and a 5v Buffalo wifi router running dd-wrt plugged into a cigarette lighter

Hey, I have a lot of appreciation for the infrastructure you maintain so don’t take this the wrong way: you’re very confidently overcomplicating this one all over the thread. People run nominal 12v stuff direct from battery all the time and it’s fine. It’s the norm in RVs, boats, and off-grid housing. There’s usually quite a bit of wiggle room. The router I’m using right now won’t actually cut out until ~8v and sees almost 16 during my ancient lead acid battery’s eq cycles. It’s completely fine and has been for years. Not industrial or automotive grade by any means, a low-end Netgear from the thrift store.

You also state “while there is DC power the battery in a UPS isn’t used”. Assuming you mean AC that’s still not quite correct, it’s always being charged at least a little and tapping it for DC is perfectly fine.

That’s my advice to op, and a setup I’ve run before: replace the 12v battery attached to their existing UPS and wire the router/any other 12v devices right to it. A UPS is just a nicely packaged battery charger/inverter/transfer switch. Wiring them to larger/cheaper batteries that don’t happen to fit their casings is also entirely viable, as is running either of their outputs to a load panel. Sky’s the limit :)