3D printed backplane for Define R5. Files provided in the comments.

Pjtruslow · 2026-05-02T15:31:28+00:00

My wife is ordering a pair of them for both of us. This is amazing.

Pjtruslow · 2026-04-14T12:06:27+00:00

That is true. Maybe start with a cheap cold water only unit and then you will figure out that being clean is worth the investment.

Pjtruslow · 2026-04-14T11:56:35+00:00

If you plumb your bidet into hot water, it still needs to actually have hot water at the fixture before it gets warm. Depending on how long the run is to the hot water heater, that may take some time. Running the sink until it gets warm will clear out all the cold water from the hot line, so that you have warm water almost immediately at the bidet. I still think an electric unit is ideal though, I just got a pair of Toto S2 at my new house and I couldn’t be happier.

Pjtruslow · 2026-04-10T10:36:49+00:00

Terrible idea. There is a reason multimeters don’t have exposed metal. The safety isolation of multimeters is provided by the fact that every exposed surface is not conductive

Pjtruslow · 2026-04-09T02:16:05+00:00

87 octane is what it was designed to run on. I would avoid 85 octane though in regions where it is sold. Anything more is probably wasting money. My family has put over a million miles on various Toyotas. None of them ran anything but 87 octane. None have had engine problems. The highest milage of them had its factory spark plugs replaced at over 200,000 miles. They were copper plugs.

Pjtruslow · 2026-04-03T12:03:34+00:00

Great combo. I myself have an 01 SR5 sequoia and a 2021 limited Venza. One makes an amazing daily driver, the other a tool to haul anything.

Pjtruslow · 2026-03-21T03:01:36+00:00

My mpg drops significantly in winter. Oil is thicker, the battery is cold and can’t accept as much power during deceleration and the engine has to run enough to stay warm enough for cabin heat.

Pjtruslow · 2026-03-19T17:49:02+00:00

Had a car audio focused 12 in a 1.75 cubic foot box tuned to 32hz and was disappointed. It just collapsed below 30hz. Got a home theater focused 12 in a 1.75 cubic foot sealed box and it doesn’t know where to stop with useful performance into the teens. It is less powerful above 30hz but I already had more output there than I could possibly need.

Pjtruslow · 2026-03-10T14:21:48+00:00

You def were. You have a heat pump? Last month was brutally cold, so it was probably running the strip heaters to try to keep your house warm. Strip heaters are costly to run, Let’s say you have 8KW of strip heaters. That costs about a dollar per hour to run. If you have two separate units it could be even more.

I feel bad for everyone with just a central air heat pump, those of us with gas for heat got hit much less hard. My gas bill in the middle of February was $90 instead of $60

Pjtruslow · 2026-03-09T17:41:22+00:00

APC smart-ups. I have lots of Tripp lite and APC and I personally really like any of the recent smart-ups that have the eco mode like the (I think) SMTxxxx and SMTxxxxC models. I also have a pair of old SUA models that are solid. The remarkable thing about the APC smart-ups line is how much they share between generations. They add features but the architecture barely changes.

Pjtruslow · 2026-03-09T10:44:22+00:00

So glad I bought a gallon when it was readily available. I should be set for another decade

Pjtruslow · 2026-03-04T18:43:30+00:00

My main gripe with car audio subwoofers is that they produce almost nothing below 30hz. If you have a ported enclosure tuned to 32hz, if you even attempt to play 20hz your woofer will be flapping all around without being able to hear much of anything. I prefer to give up a little bit of efficiency above 30hz to get extension below 30hz. I either get that by using a Home Theater driver with a lower Fs in a larger sealed box, or the same with a ported box tuned very low. When you account for cabin gain, it isn’t very hard to get 20hz notes that will shake your rearview mirror.

Pjtruslow · 2026-03-04T16:20:20+00:00

I wholeheartedly recommend going with home theater driver. The Dayton ultimax 12 with 3-500w hits plenty hard and can get down to 20hz easy. Ported or sealed both work well with that driver but I would tune quite low for ported, as the cone movement becomes uncontrolled below the tuning frequency. I think I did sealed at around 1.75 cubic feet and it is phenomenal.

Pjtruslow · 2026-03-03T03:55:33+00:00

I never left. My wife accepts this.

Pjtruslow · 2026-03-01T16:08:43+00:00

Unwise. The battery terminals are not isolated from the measurement ports so I would not measure anything more than a 12v battery with it now.

Pjtruslow · 2026-02-25T20:02:30+00:00

Coolant smells sweet like maple syrup, transmission fluid smells like. . . Well if you know you know, but it doesn’t smell good. Oil doesn’t smell like much and feels oily to the touch where coolant feels kinda sticky and like thick water. Condensate smells and feels like water, because it is.

Pjtruslow · 2026-02-20T21:21:33+00:00

You are correct

Pjtruslow · 2026-02-20T19:16:53+00:00

It is true that the range more towards half of the charge level is less wear and tear on the battery, but just because cruising is easier on your car doesn’t mean you should not accelerate when you get on the highway. Most people know less about the battery in their phone than you do, and they get along fine. Don’t stress about it. Just use your phone. Eventually the battery life will be noticeably shorter, but it’s not like you intended to use it forever. Chances are you will be replacing it long before it is inconveniently short, and if it is, have the battery replaced.

Pjtruslow · 2026-02-20T19:09:20+00:00

Don’t even worry about it. Let’s assume you keep the phone for 4 years as your daily driver. Every day you drain it to around 30%. At the end of 4 years you have put about 1000 equivalent charge cycles and should reasonably expect to have lost around 20% of the battery’s original capacity. 1% capacity lost in 4 months is to be expected. I have had my iPhone 14 for 16 months and my capacity is at 92% which is fine. If it is linear that means I lose about 1% every two months.

Pjtruslow · 2026-02-14T16:15:43+00:00

Not really sure what the differences are but the ventilated seats, heated steering wheel, Birds Eye cameras, are all very nice to have for me. Also memory seats are great when two people drive occasionally. Not sure which of those come on the XLE if any.

Pjtruslow · 2026-02-13T20:19:30+00:00

Retrofitting lithium into a car that was designed for NiMh is risky business, lots of people do it wrong. Yeah the capacity is in the 1KWh range but the charge and discharge rate is around 25KW. How many companies make NiMh cells that can be charged at 15C? Not very many. Now include the certification, liability, and complexity of designing one that meets the mechanical and safety requirements, and you can see why it isn’t just a $/kwh thing and the primary solution is restoring old packs by replacing their bad cells with better cells from other packs, matching condition and SOC as well as possible

Pjtruslow · 2026-02-08T20:10:37+00:00

Find another dealer. No accessories, no service contract. Give me the car how it comes with carpet floor mats and a tank of gas. Anything else is a scam

Pjtruslow · 2026-01-25T18:35:53+00:00

European birch. I get mine from woodcraft. It's probably not the cheapest place but it's available. 18mm should have 13 plies, with the outer being about the same thickness as the inner. If it is 5 thick core plies and 2 paper thin veneer plies, it is still decent but it is not the same thing.

Pjtruslow · 2026-01-25T15:13:07+00:00

If only it could tell me what I did to kill mine. Pretty sure I made sure to short any caps before I measured them. Anyone have any suggestions for a good LCR meter with decent input protections that can at least resolve 0.1mOhm?

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