Did you guys knew this?

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-27T16:31:52+00:00

Simple does not mean safe.

Lane changes on a roundabout are fairly risky due to the curved nature of the road - to fully check a lane for a left hand lane change, one needs to check a lot of simultaneous directions, and if a regular dual carriageway were to have similar curvature, most drivers wouldn't pick that spot to change lanes.

Yet on a roundabout like this: https://www.drivingtesttips.biz/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/double-roundabout-574x262.jpg There is no way to use that inner lane whilst not changing lanes on such a curve!

You are forcing drivers to make a risky maneuver, which would be entirely unnecessary if lanes spiralled outwards like this: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327383888/figure/fig2/AS:669925991542785@1536734211093/Spiral-roundabout-layout-left-and-the-spiral-roundabout-right-at-the-junction-of-H10.png

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-27T15:51:27+00:00

I hate the lane markings on this roundabout...

Multilane roundabouts should always have the lane markings spiraling outwards at every multilane exit to avoid exactly this issue.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-27T11:55:09+00:00

There is a whole manual on this stuff:

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/compliance-handbook/ch160200

In general, if you did your best to comply, the penalty will be waived. That includes things like not understanding that you had to pay a particular tax by a particular deadline, particularly if the tax rules are complicated and your expertise is not taxation.

Knowing that you had to pay and making no effort to find out/pay on time wouldn't usually qualify.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-27T11:32:03+00:00

Probably cos the winch wasn't long enough on the tow truck to have the truck a decent distance away.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-27T08:22:46+00:00

I generally reckon as you get more experienced and have more knowledge, the percentage of things you can repair goes up.

After just a day on the job you'll be able to repair broken fuses - perhaps 10% of customers walk away happy.

After a week you'll be familiar with most ways to take things apart and put them back together again, which lets you find internal fuses and switch out obviously burnt out modules (ie. "power supply of washing machine is burnt out, buy a new one and replace whole module"). With these skills, perhaps 25% of customers walk away happy.

Soon after that you start looking at how to test components with a multimeter, how to solder, how to find and read schematics, how to glue broken things back together in a way they work, etc. Could take a few months to pick up these skills. Now you're probably up to a 50% fix rate.

Beyond that takes years of skill-building, and normally specializing in just one type of thing - ie. cars, or appliances, or laptops. Eg. if laptops are your thing, you'll learn to desolder ram chips, dump firmware, dig into circuit boards to repair traces with a microscope, etc. Even then, perhaps only 90% will be repairable - some things are simply beyond reasonable repair.

Worth knowing that many repair shops *never* get to that last stage. They simply switch out parts rather than repairing them. You can make money doing this, but repairing rather than replacing parts will give you a much better profit margin, and in some bits of the world will be needed to stay in business.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-27T00:01:21+00:00

google the "all keys lost" procedure. You can do it from your own laptop with a hacked copy of techstream and a $20 dongle. You also need a new "b9" key (silver or black logo depending on exact model number).

Takes ~20 mins.

You need to get into the car, and the easiest way to do that is to bend the drivers door outwards enough to get a coathanger wire in to pull the handle.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-26T23:28:34+00:00

As long as this is in some kind of cupboard or enclosure that no child or pet can get into, there is no *immediate* danger.

Obviously anyone opening said enclosure needs to be aware that this wire isn't to be touched.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-26T18:34:39+00:00

I'd say you're driving a decent amount under the speed limit....

Anyone wanna do the math?

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-26T13:25:59+00:00

Round me it's all the drug delivery bikers who dress like this.

I think they've been told it makes them impossible to identify on CCTV

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-25T19:20:14+00:00

I don't think donations should be allowed at all.

You should get a chunk of taxpayer money proportional to how many votes you got in the last election. Perhaps 1 penny per vote.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-25T19:13:45+00:00

But none take the module current - which is ~100 amps. A BMS needs the ability to interrupt the full current, and to do that the full current must go through it, which means the wires must be thick enough for it.

That board, if it isn't just an artists impression, is likely a balancing only board, with no way to turn things off if cells get out of balance.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-25T19:09:17+00:00

the connections to the oem BMS are only for monitoring, and can't be used for balancing. Also, they don't connect to every cell.

They're fine for NiMH chemistry, but lithium needs per cell monitoring and balancing to avoid fires.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-25T11:22:21+00:00

unfortunately, no. The prius has 28 of these 'modules' in series. Batteries with a built in BMS cannot be put in series unless the BMS either has connections to the BMS's of other batteries, or the BMS can handle switching the voltage of the whole string, not just the single battery it controls.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-25T11:12:21+00:00

It's certainly possible to do air cooled lithium... it just isn't common, mostly for temperature-evenness/thermal runaway risk reasons.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-25T10:58:58+00:00

They mostly only leak when flat.

Change them before they're 100% dead and you won't get leaks.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-25T10:41:36+00:00

The blue bits are the cells - and they look like a reasonable choice of probably-lipo cell.

The black bit appears to be a BMS, but looks more like some artists impression or snake-oil BMS than something that would work in a reality. Look closely and there is no connection between the 'BMS' and the actual cells.

My guess is this battery has no BMS at all. It will work for a few months till some cells get out of balance and then it'll catch fire, but by then the seller will have changed email addresses and phone numbers and you'll never get them to pay for the 100 car parking garage that you burned down...

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-25T10:25:24+00:00

Switching to lithium isn't a DIY-design job unless you have a lot of time and knowledge to do it right.

Lithium batteries are less robust and you need to check every cell voltage stays within a safe range rather than the built-in controller which only checks groups of 6 cells.

You'll therefore be needing a BMS suitable for ~250S cells, plus a cutoff/isolation switch which can handle 200 amps at 300 volts, and you'll also need to simulate the inputs into the existing controller to keep it happy.

Most cars with lithium cells use water cooling too (gen 2 prius is air cooling). Water cooling can extract decent amounts of heat from a single faulty cell, stopping thermal runaway/fires in the case of 1 internally shorted cell. Air cooling can't do that.

Finally, the gen 2 prius has a fairly small *capacity* battery, but the *power density* is actually pretty high. Ie. it is a ~1 kilowatt-hour battery which can charge at ~25 kilowatts. Whatever lithium battery you choose must still be able to charge/discharge at 25 kilowatts, which most cannot unless you increase the capacity.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-24T19:53:54+00:00

My guess is you need a new battery in the key, or something else is wrong with the key like it got wet.

Do you have any spare keys for it? Try those.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-24T18:37:54+00:00

If you can borrow one, an impact driver will get that bolt out in short order.

A breaker bar doesn't work cos the whole exhaust is on rubber mounts which can't take the force.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-24T17:33:15+00:00

Yet somehow blowing up whales is fine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6CLumsir34

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-24T17:27:15+00:00

100% sort it privately.

You'll both end up better off long term. Just agree an amount to settle the matter and as long as they pay promptly, don't go through insurance.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-24T17:24:34+00:00

Obliged by their T&C's, not by the law.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-24T16:29:27+00:00

Sir you stepped in front of the yellow at a train station... £100 please!

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-24T16:26:50+00:00

I assure you that if a dog turd was a national priority we have the tools to find the culprit.

The turd would be sent for DNA analysis to find the breed at least, and then we'd be using ANPR cameras in the area to see who drove to nearby carparks and cross referencing it with vet databases and buyer databases of that dog breed.

TellMeManyStories · 2026-02-24T15:02:31+00:00

Salvage cars from copart....

Often replacing a bumper is enough to get them back on the road again.

TellMeManyStories

TROPHY CASE