Batteries and Power
104 episodes
#5984: Reading a Mystery Adapter's Voltage Without a Label
An unpowered DC jack is electrically silent — so how do you find the right voltage? The answer isn't in the pins, it's in the current curve.
#5955: Work Lights: Lumens, Lux, and the Specs That Matter
Lumens is the easiest spec to print and the least useful on its own. Here's what to read instead when buying a work light.
#5871: Why Your USB-C Charger Won't Talk to Cheap Devices
A pocket speaker charges on USB-A but flashes red on USB-C. The answer is two missing resistors and a handshake that never happened.
#5865: Four Pocket Players That Won't Sell You a Device Today
Mono, Fonix One, Sudo, and DuRoBo Krono all promise phone-free podcast listening — and not one of them is ready to ship today.
#5767: Inside Private Grids That Run Themselves
From hospital CHP plants to remote mines, private grids already run like miniature utilities. Here's where the fence line sits.
#5754: Your Home Rack's Power Problem, Solved
Data centers look immaculate, your rack looks like a raccoon got into a cable box. Here's what actually transfers from pro PDUs to home.
#5734: USB Amps: What Actually Happens When You Plug In
Your device pulls current, it doesn't get pushed — and that changes everything about picking USB adapters.
#5732: Why You Own 40 Unlabeled Power Supplies
Three standards bodies tried to fix DC connectors. The box of mystery bricks in your closet is the result.
#5721: What's the Red and Black Speaker Cable Actually Called?
It's called zip cord — and the gauge you need depends entirely on current, not the 300V printed on the jacket.
#5720: Active, Passive, and the Speaker That Lied to Daniel
A rented PA speaker turns out to be mislabeled, and untangling why reveals the real difference between active and passive — plus what mic and line ...
#5676: DIY Cable Guide: Barrel Jacks, XLR, and What to Avoid
Soldering your own cables won't save money — it buys exact-length runs. But some connectors hide polarity traps and tooling costs.
#5634: Battery Platform Lock-In: Innovation vs Stability
Cells change every three years. The battery interface barely moves. Buyers research the wrong one.
#5611: Why Your Label Printer Quits After 10 Seconds
A label printer that charges for ten seconds then dies — and what that tiny failure reveals about building a diagnosis-first repair bench.
#5609: IEC Cables: Terminate, Split, or Extend?
Rewireable C13 connectors, splitters, and the length ceiling — the practical answers to running power without daisy-chained plug strips.
#5540: Why Your Trackpad Clicks Stopped Working
Your trackpad surface works but the clicks don't? That's not a trackpad failure — it's a swollen battery pushing the click plate out of reach.
#5521: Old Laptops as Home Servers: A Field Guide
That dead-battery laptop in your drawer can still serve. Here's the whole playbook — headless Linux, thermals, and the battery question nobody agre...
#5424: ThinkPad E15: Swollen Battery or Bad Keyboard?
A dead arrow key and a jammed trackpad on a two-year-old ThinkPad E15 might be one problem, not three.
#5376: Why a Zello Pager Wearable Doesn't Exist Yet
Pagers blink until acknowledged. Zello beeps until you tap. But nobody's shipped the wearable that bridges them.
#5372: 10 Power Tools, Ranked by What to Buy First
A purchasing sequence, not a wish list: the 10 power tools a homeowner should own, in the order you should actually buy them.
#5371: Corded vs Cordless Jigsaws: What Actually Matters
Amps and SPM are the least predictive specs on the box. Here's what actually determines whether a jigsaw cuts square.
#5323: When to Keep Old Tech for Parts (and When to Let Go)
An old Kindle in a drawer raises a question every collector faces: spare, parts donor, or e-waste?
#5286: Soldering Isn't Dead — It's a Hiring Bottleneck
Robots build the boards, but humans fix them — and the industry can't hire enough people who can hold an iron.
#5266: Why Cordless Rotary Tools Sag Mid-Battery
A dead USB port, a sagging battery, and the real physics behind why cordless rotary tools lose their bite mid-charge.
#5265: Repairing a $50 Dremel When the Warranty Costs More
A $50 tool, a 90-minute drive, and a warranty that costs more than the item. How macro PCB photography and public documentation make repair possible.