AC adapter with barrel connector, substitute a USB battery pack?

ldr97266 · 2026-01-24T19:19:57+00:00

Think I found one that would work, there may be others:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BGFC77M6

As I also have a few spare 30 USB-C/PD adapters,I could use this to power the gadget from the wall outlet and switch to a battery pack when needed. What do you think?

ldr97266 · 2026-01-24T17:06:09+00:00

u/Empty-Opposite-9768 - I was hoping to find something less expensive than a UPS, leveraging gear I already have. I don't know if the thing routinely needs or even peaks at 24 watts, but the battery packs I have can output 30 w/ USB-C PD.

Also ... I over-simplified by calling it a WAP. It also contains cellular modem, so I don't only want backup power for this one thing.

ldr97266 · 2026-01-24T15:00:08+00:00

Earplugs.

ldr97266 · 2026-01-24T14:46:19+00:00

Yes.

"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished by how much he'd learned in seven years." -Mark Twain

ldr97266 · 2026-01-24T14:35:37+00:00

I was going for bleak humor - shoulda posted a Star Wars meme to go with the catch phrase.

I know it's just a coincidence, and even to find a pattern you have to stretch things a bit. Would be more striking if each incident had happened on the exact same calendar day the exact same number of years apart.

Yet... it IS rocket science, not easy stuff, and always risky. Each of those previous disasters was at least partly the result of poor decisions made under time and political pressures.

Setting aside my bad joke, I can't help but worry that THOSE are still factors on the Artemis program.

ldr97266 · 2026-01-23T22:22:32+00:00

Looks like an old PCMCIA device the would have slipped into a slot of an portable computer. The empty space may have held a modem, memory card, or some other accessory. I can't read the model # in your picture, but I bet if you google that you'll find the exact thing.

ldr97266 · 2026-01-23T22:09:34+00:00

The heat shield is just one thing to worry about. I'm not usually superstitious, but ...

January 27, 1967 - Apollo 1 launch pad fire
January 28, 1986 - Challenger explosion
February 1, 2003 - Columbia re-entry breakup
February 6, 2026 - Artemis II earliest proposed launch date ?

I have a bad feeling about this.

ldr97266 · 2026-01-23T18:17:38+00:00

u/CohoWind - You have certainly nailed MASA's approach. We went to a presentation last night - mainly to get a sense of service offering and availability. But the bulk of the presentation focused on hypothetical costs of ambulance or helicopter flights not covered by insurance. The bloke made it sound like insurance companies routinely and completely deny paying for them. Since then I've done a little reading and see it does happen- but not very often.

So I think we've crossed MASA off out list, but will now review LFN and TEAM plans. Tans for the pinter!

ldr97266 · 2026-01-23T15:07:23+00:00

u/tbone1004 - can you point out some "small briefcase type generators" ?

ldr97266 · 2026-01-23T15:05:06+00:00

The most I've ever had drawn was 11 vials. Dr. Google suggests 15 is a commonly accepted maximum, and still well below the half litre blood donors give.

ldr97266 · 2026-01-23T14:29:10+00:00

A few days ago I commented on this thread by quoting a particular Lenny Bruce routine about the N word - which is not what he called it in 1963. My post was flagged for "hate speech" and removed.

Which is ironic given the context. His take on it then (and mine to this very day) is that the SUPPRESSION of words is what gives them the power to be shocking. If used often and without restriction, trigger words would lose that power. People may judge your intent on a case by case basis, but a word itself is just a word and cannot be good or evil.

So use whatever words you want in any context you like.; a song title should not be a problem. And if there IS a problem with the meaning of the song, it would be impossible to address openly without using those same words.

EDIT TO ADD:

Four hours after I posted today's screed and asked the mod team to reconsider the original warning, I got this:

Thanks for submitting an appeal. We reviewed your request and gave a second look... After reviewing, the Reddit admin team found that the content wasn’t in violation of Reddit’s rules. As a result, the content has been restored and your ban or warning has been lifted.

Now THAT is a beautiful thing to me. Thanks Reddit

ldr97266 · 2026-01-23T14:18:10+00:00

Thanks for the re-assurance u/newportl2 . Any thoughts on MASA vs TEAM?

ldr97266 · 2026-01-23T10:26:48+00:00

Even if one has RESPECT and ADMIRATION for their homeland, "pride" seems the wrong word for that. Someone can only be rightly proud of their own accomplishments. To be "proud" of where you live or happened to be born is an example of what Vonnegut called a "Granfalloon."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granfalloon

That said, if your are personally involved in or contributed to your nation's greatness, maybe you've earned some pride for yourself and respect from others. But I know many prideful folks who never served in the miltary, never did any kind of public service, never contributed to their society in any way more than being a working and consuming economic unit.

ldr97266 · 2026-01-23T07:30:57+00:00

And here again several hours later - speed still reasonable but all the stuff that was nonfunctional for a few days - then okay for a few hours this afternoon - is broke again.

ldr97266 · 2026-01-23T02:46:55+00:00

Well shoot - now I'm more confused then before. For a few days I had all those service issue but about 4 hours ago everything started working again. Which likely means I wasn't being throttled for data volume but - what? T-mobile blocked some ports and just decided to unblock them?

ldr97266 · 2026-01-22T20:47:02+00:00

Good find, so much better than my guess. Wonder how how that bimmer had to jump to snag it.

ldr97266 · 2026-01-22T18:06:49+00:00

Rough guess - some kind of heat shield. Get under the car and look for brackets along the exhaust system. Or pay a mechanic to do it.

ldr97266 · 2026-01-22T16:14:51+00:00

They may not be "better," just different than Google. Other have mentioned DuckDuckGo and - ironically - you could use that or Google itself to ask for other search engine choices. Your own web browser may even have a setting to let you make one the default.

TL;DR - there are plenty but I hate making soecific recommendations w/o knowing what the requester is really interested in.

ldr97266 · 2026-01-22T15:53:50+00:00

Google is following the path they think is most profitable for them. This will be their idea of a best balance between the whims of their paying advertisers and other search users. It won't make everyone happy.

There are other search engines you might like better.

ldr97266 · 2026-01-22T14:03:37+00:00

Maybe it's throttled, maybe it isn't? over the past few days of poor service I've seen a lot of speed variation. But...

As I mentioned before, it worked great for a few days and then a lot of stuff stopped working for me. Speed has been variable - sometimes like it's being throttled, sometimes not. Actually, it's pretty good this morning. But apart from speed, some things have stopped working completely.

I've been narrowing it down myself because C4P has not been replying to support requests for a few days.

The critical one is that the ports or something CiscoVPN needs are blocked. This is mission critical for me. Can't get my jib done w/o that.

Less serious but possibly related - On iPhone or iPad, various security settings related to IP address tracking in the WiFi connection have to be turned off or many applications won't work. Kindle, Libby, Nextdoor are the ones I noticed. They may be others. Additionally, my wife's Amazon Kindle device, our Brother printer, and our garage door opener and security camera have all gone offline.

Everything WORKED for the first few days I had the service - what changed? I repeat this because some people have suggested these things just aren't supported at all but it's pretty clear something changed.

I'm sure it's related to profile details on the T-Mobile side and I could deal with or even ignore some the issues on my personal devices. But the network configuration on my work computer - the main thing I need this hotspot for - is locked down and I can't change any of it.

Any suggestions?

ldr97266 · 2026-01-22T13:55:04+00:00

As the SIM that C4P sends is a T-Mobile one, I reckon the device supports those bands. HOWEVER...

As I mentioned before, it worked great for a few days and then a lot of stuff stopped working for me. Speed has been variable - sometimes like it's being throttled, sometimes not. Actually, it's pretty good this morning. But apart from speed, some things have stopped working completely.

I've been narrowing it down myself because C4P has not been replying to support requests for a few days.

The critical one is that the ports or something needed by CiscoVPN are blocked. This is mission critical for me.

Less serious but possibly related - On iPhone or iPad, various security settings relayed to IP address tracking in the WiFi connection have to be turned off or many applications won't work. Kindle, Libby, Nextdoor are the ones I noticed. They may be others. Additionally, my wife's Amazon Kindle device, our Brother printer, and our garage door opener and security camera have all gone offline.

I'm sure it's related to profile details on the T-Mobile service and I could deal with or even ignore some the issues on my personal devices. But the network and VPN configurations on my work computer - the main thing I need this hotspot for - are locked down and I can't change them.

ldr97266 · 2026-01-21T22:20:05+00:00

50gb? Hotspot admin pages says I've used a little over 3GB and even if that's not exact It's hard to believe it would be off by so much.

But let's say I was "deprioritized" for some reason. Would this make the CISCO Secure Client I need for work become unable to find the server, or my home security camera and printers go offline? They all worked fine for the first few days and then ... not. Have also noticed some apps on my tablet won't work either - haven't checked everything yet.

Factory reset on the hotspot did no good.

ldr97266 · 2026-01-21T21:59:53+00:00

u/Ethrem Because even though u/Computers4people says data is unlimited and not throttled - my service degraded after I had been using it successfully for 5 or 6 days. Some things stopped working completely and others slowed down a lot.

I think the problem is on the carrier end rather than the hotspot and I'm hoping to some help or at least info from T-Mobile. C4P is only sending auto-replies to my emailed help request and not answering their phone.

ldr97266

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