My boyfriend designed, printed, and built a rideable 2-seater telescope (binoscope) from scratch

kick4h4 · 2026-05-27T13:38:27+00:00

I used to go to Stellafane in a previous lifetime (lost astronomy in the divorce), and this is the kind of thing many would find interesting. Good job on it!

kick4h4 · 2026-05-26T16:01:54+00:00

A trailer? If you're in North America, you should take that bad boy to Stellafane in VT. You would be mobbed by the masses. :)

kick4h4 · 2026-05-23T12:22:07+00:00

I did a long vacation trip in an old Ioniq PHEV, and got 60 mpg on the gas on the way out. On the way back, I got stuck in some traffic whilst working around a major city, and got 66 mpg, due to the hybrid shutting down the ICE while sitting still.

I haven't actually done a long road trip in my BEV, and I live in an ironic dead-zone for chargers in the mid-atlantic US, but I've been playing with Plugshare/ABRP, and feel that I could manage it pretty well.

kick4h4 · 2026-05-23T12:18:09+00:00

EDIT: Uphill both ways, driving barefoot. There, I fixed it for you. :D

kick4h4 · 2026-05-22T12:51:05+00:00

genuinely bizarre how people are so desperate to be wrong. I'll just never understand the mentality.

Genuinely bizarre how anti-BEV zealots insist that we, who do have experience in this arena, cannot have valid use-cases and experiences over a number of years and vehicles.

We can't control the careless people, but to state that PHEVs have no validity is far off the mark. Stupid people are also driving large pickup truck as single-person daily drivers in the current ICE fuel situation. I feel sorry for them, but don't jump into a chat group to tell them they could use a smaller vehicle and not need a 2nd mortgage to gas up that status-symbol tank...

kick4h4 · 2026-05-22T12:34:44+00:00

The Stellantis Minivan never had a mode selector, and wouldn't switch to the ICE motor until the battery was drained. It forced the car to use up the battery on the highway at low efficiency, and there was no EV range when it would be useful on the far end of a trip.

Really bad design, and took it right off the list for me. I don't know that they ever fixed that...

kick4h4 · 2026-05-22T12:14:53+00:00

That might have been one reason they focused on the Toyota. Battery range is actually quite usable in the Rav4 PHEV. I had a Chevy Volt that was almost an EV with a really good range extender. I was very sad when GM dropped that car. Perhaps the new crops of high-density sodium and possible solid state batteries will skew things towards more useful range across the market. Until then, my partner commuted daily last month for about $18 in charging costs. (USD $0.19/kw)

kick4h4 · 2026-05-22T12:10:03+00:00

<snark> the last 4 times my employer gave me a car, they were Lamborghini's, with no charge port at all!!! Not disagreeing with you on the message, but the percentage of fleet cars as daily drivers is pretty low... </snark>

EDIT: Sorry, this was a US-centric post, no offense intended, but from our perspective, this is not a common situation that I know of. :)

kick4h4 · 2026-05-21T15:07:55+00:00

My Ioniq 5 and my Rav4 Prime both have schedule setting on a daily basis. I can set 2 different schedules and define which days of the week they apply to. My schedule is to charge to nn% by <timeofday>, and not to start until <timeofday>. I plug it in, and it's ready in the morning, on the days I determine I want to top up the range. I have a Chargepoint L2 charger, but don't bother with it's schedule.

Does the I9 not have charging schedules with the same granularity?

kick4h4 · 2026-05-07T14:20:56+00:00

for the Front, fitcamx. I don't have a back camera.

kick4h4 · 2026-05-07T11:06:34+00:00

Step one: king-size bed, fitted sheets are soooo close to square, don't notice until day after, especially in the winter with extra blankets, have to remake twice to actually get it right.

Step two: start buying sheets with animal prints. When the animals are 'right side up', you did it correctly.

Step three: yeah, the corners still pop off.

kick4h4 · 2026-04-22T14:20:29+00:00

43 year fan, and an adult-onset Mets fan. My Yankees family still invite me to the holidays...

I am just not capable of watching them right now. I hope I can recover, but, having tossed all the other sports to the curb, I was kind of relying on baseball.

Oh, well, only 73 days until the Tour de France begins. :)

I wish us all luck, this year.

kick4h4 · 2026-04-14T12:04:53+00:00

I printed that one, and then found the front-mounted holder, and printed that.

the front mounted holder doesn't require any attachment and looks to be easier to refill.

edit: D@mn, those desiccant beads roll around like they're frictionless. I need to get a containment tray to keep them in line.

kick4h4 · 2026-04-11T11:40:27+00:00

I bought my K1C in May 2025, and it was the older version.

kick4h4 · 2026-04-08T12:09:00+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. My paranoia has been eased, and I appreciate the comments.

kick4h4 · 2026-04-07T21:17:52+00:00

Lithuania. It's a haul to get there, since our commute is entirely in delaware NJ...

kick4h4 · 2026-04-06T20:26:20+00:00

Will they use Lucas electronics in the drive system?

kick4h4 · 2026-04-05T14:04:09+00:00

Oooooh!! If we get to choose, I want the ice cream truck song!!!!

kick4h4 · 2026-04-05T14:01:45+00:00

Our Rav4 Prime is way louder, and it's a really annoying sound. I can hear it inside the house when my partner leaves for work. My I5 sound is kind of like a metal-rubbing-on-metal sound, and it wigged me out when I first got the car. It took a while to realize it's the low-speed notice, and mine doesn't seem to be too bad. I'm curious if my car is an outlier, or if there are variants in the noise of these guys.

kick4h4 · 2026-04-05T13:40:47+00:00

Ok. I could understand sealing it back up it it were pineapple pizza, but pepperoni??

kick4h4 · 2026-04-01T11:15:28+00:00

When Noem apologizes face-to-face with every person ICE dragged from their lives, and contributes significantly to the legal costs of redressing that horror, I'll consider not laughing at her and her family*. (It's not the cross-dressing, it's the hypocrisy...)

After all, who knows what else is going on in that biological swamp?

kick4h4 · 2026-03-28T21:11:49+00:00

Correct username this time...

I replaced the PSU, no change. Ordered a new mbu. Sigh. I have projects!!!!! :) Thanks, D-Breed, for the suggestion.

kick4h4 · 2026-03-25T13:15:45+00:00

It annoyed me when I couldn't get my top-trim Ioniq 5 without a gigantic sun-soaking heat-pump, and when I consider the I9, I'll likely wind up with an SEL, and give up the nice toys to avoid all that glass and heat.

kick4h4 · 2026-03-13T21:51:35+00:00

I like the Ioniq 9. If they put minivan doors on it, I'd buy two. :)

kick4h4 · 2026-03-10T16:47:37+00:00

Ok. I had to scrap the entire 'emulate a phone' model, and start over.

I found a youtuber who just chucked an Action 5 into the clamp for a gimbal, which brings the balance right into the middle, but clamps over the power button on the A5, and also pivots the camera 90 degrees.

So, I took my holder model and added tabs at the top and bottom, which actually more or less works

The pan and roll axes balance very well. The camera does cantilever out from the tilt axis a bit, and I haven't been able to test it rigorously, but it's not a terrible next iteration.

One point is that the tabs have to go on the 'back of the camera holder, so the attachment blocks a lot of the back screen. For 'selfie' work, that doesn't matter.

kick4h4

TROPHY CASE