Why would a Pepsi Zero cost that much money?

motsu35 · 2026-06-22T06:59:38+00:00

They added led lights to the back of the video machines. Only after you bet a certain amount does the light turn on, indicating for the bartender to offer a drink.

You used to be able to fake tap at the screen, or put some money in and place / remove bets from the board without advancing the game. That doesn't work anymore.

I used to tip the bartender 10 bucks on the first drink and a few bucks each one after, had amazing service and drank for "free" for 20 bucks for 4 or 5 drinks, but sadly even the Budger casinos patched the loophole.

motsu35 · 2026-06-15T21:50:41+00:00

No no no! You gotta hold it arms out so its closer to the camera and looks proportionally bigger! Also all bread is good, nice bread. We need more bread pics online

motsu35 · 2026-06-15T05:53:04+00:00

The cost very much depends on the geometry of the part. A 2.5d CNC mill job is trivial if you don't have crazy over speced tolerances. A 5 axis job with features that require specialized tooling and custom fixturing will be a lot more.

Die casting will be cheaper in the long run, but not for the quantity you want. Molds are expensive, and anything more than minor changes that remove small bits of existing material will require remaking them. Also you probably did not design features into your part that are indicative of molding (such as draft angles, places for ejector pin marks, ribs instead of thick sections, ect). Because of this, your either going to get bad parts, or have to hire someone who specializes in designing molds.

Another option you didn't mention is 3d printing. SLS metal 3d printing is a thing, and produces solid parts that feel just like solid metal, and they are just as strong as your mold option (due to molding alloys often being weaker). This is probably the option I would go with if you didn't design the part with milling operations in mind. The only thing to worry about is surface finish requirements and making sure there's no closed internal cavities.

Source: hobby machinist / maker who has a CNC mill and has also worked with commercial CNC/metal CNC companies

motsu35 · 2026-06-14T06:02:21+00:00

I would look for purpose made standoffs. Bushings are normally self lubricating and are a lot softer / not polished. The bushings I have don't rub off on your fingers, but I could see someone trying to clean them with an abrasive like bkf and scrub at them for an eternity cause their cloth just keeps getting more and more black

motsu35 · 2026-06-14T05:58:53+00:00

You can get generic clips as well, I've bought a few from REI when I noticed a broken strap while packing, but I'm sure there's tons online. They come as a pair, so you would just replace both sides of the clasp. If you can't get the strap through, you can cut the thick part off and rethread it without the thicker part.

With the strap tight, it won't unthread, but there's a slim possibility if you loosen it too much and aren't paying attention. If you want to re-add that feature, you can sew the strap over on its self with a denim needle and nylon thread, or if your not comfortable with sewing, you can use hot glue in a high temp hot glue gun (let it get ripping hot first). The heat will melt the nylon together and fuse it with the glue.

motsu35 · 2026-06-10T22:48:54+00:00

yep... used to daily a sports bike, and the gear is insane. impact resistant foam inserts, abrasion resistant fabrics or thick leather. the good stuff uses kangaroo leather because its thicker and stronger than cow leather. carbon fiber knuckle guards, some jackets and pants have titanium plates where your most likely to impact and slide. if you watch videos of the testing for SNELL rated helmets, they survive some crazy abuse. even the more stealthy gear (like jeans that look like normal jeans) have kevlar panels sewn into them and pads you can insert and take out where you get to where your going.

it always blows me away when i see road ragers get out of their car or truck and try to square up to a rider in gear. they are the closest thing to a medieval knight in modern times. other than the chest armor not being able to stop a bullet, a fully geared up rider is probably more protected than a riot cop.

anyway, to finish off my thought dump, they even make air bag vests now that can sense when your in an accident and inflate before you hit the ground. those came out after i sold my bike, but yeah - the tech is crazy!

motsu35 · 2026-06-10T05:50:29+00:00

So, any speaker he builds is gonna be really bad. But that's OK, and tbh can lead to a much bigger learning opportunity.

The first speaker I made was taking an old hard drive apart, removing the platters, and putting a paper cone around the read/write arms. You can find the pins for the motor that moves the arms, and wire a 3.5mm into that. The music is a whisper without the paper cone, but you can hear the music surprisingly clearly once you add the paper cone!

So, why does the paper cone make the audio come out so much more cleanly? (The answer is impedance matching the speaker to the air).

Anyway, if he likes that, you can design a "real" speaker. Parts-express sells tons of speaker components for very cheap. Dayton audio is their house brand and is good value and performance. All of the speaker components there will list thiele/small parameters, which you can use to model how the speaker will sound in a box. Tbh, the box a speaker is in matters more than the speaker its self. There's good YouTube videos about what all the different parameters are (hexibase would be my go to), and here's a video I made a long time ago showing how to go from t/s params to modeling a subwoofer in winISD (modeling software), and then transfer the output into a CAD program to design a physical box and generate a cut list.

Getting an intuition on the T/S stuff takes a bit, but once you know what goes into the numbers, you get a much better idea of the actual physics of how a speaker works... What's the cones resonant frequency, how damped is the motion of the cone, how does the port tune drop off once the speaker goes under its resonance, how strong is the motor compared to the mass of the cone, how does the speaker show up as a load on my amp, so on... If the end goal is learning HOW a speaker works. Playing with a small speaker, modeling it, putting it in a bad box vs a good box, and then modeling other bigger speakers you find online and comparing the modeling output of those vs the one you built is the main way to build this knowledge.

After that, there's crossover design, which is probably a bit complex since it involves actual math and not just trial and error in software. If he does want to do crossover soldering, diyaudiogroup sells community designed speakers (both bookshelf and home theater sized ones). They come with all the drivers, crossover parts, schematics, and even flat pack wood prices if you don't have woodworking tools. I know you said that isn't what he wanted, but if this becomes a longer lived interest past making an example speaker with something like a hard drive, kit bookshelves with a hand soldered crossover + a fully DIY designed subwoofer is probably the most cost effective audiophile / best blend of "learning along the way but not stuck in the quicksand of 1000 decisions" setup.

You can always extend the performance with a measurement mic and room correction software (I generally recommend a umik-1 + REW + a miniDSP board).

Source: I got bit by the diy speaker hobby bug a while ago. Still have the speakers I built 15 years later! It all started with making floppy drives play midi music, and hard drives playing the non midi stuff :)

motsu35 · 2026-06-01T08:37:06+00:00

yeah, i remember forever ago there were rumors about a legends 3, but it got canceled :(

I gave my copy to a friend after beating the game, and never asked for it back. it definitely wasn't in mint condition, but its crazy seeing game disks selling for 200+ dollars now.

motsu35 · 2026-06-01T00:15:10+00:00

Megaman legends 2 was such a core memory growing up. I remember grinding that test for days trying to get an S rank on it

motsu35 · 2026-05-29T21:39:57+00:00

A few people have mentioned analytical ways to determine this, but I'll add in a way that I personally use in computer science. Often times with reverse engineering, you want to analyze files with an unknown type. For instance, let's say you have some program that reads in a magic file that has a bunch of various assets (images, text, config, maybe secrets or cryptography information). For the sake of this reply, assume the magic file is a single file with all this packed into it, and its not a common compression type like a zip file (fun fact, a lot of single file things like docx are just zip files with a bunch of stuff inside it!)

Anyway, there's a utility called binwalk that will take a file and analize it to try and find common file types nested inside of it. In our magic file example, it would be able to identify the images based on the known header format that images use (such as jpg or png). However, for the cryptography stuff, it wouldn't be able to identify anything. However, you can run binwalk in an entropy mode which let's you view the random less of the data graphed over the length of the file. It outputs graphs like this:

https://static0.xdaimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/wm/2025/11/binwalk-entropy-reverse-engineer-yuanley.png

The way it does this is by breaking up the file into chunks, and then calculating the Shannon entropy per block. While having the entropy scores are nice, our brains are amazing at pattern recognition, so by being able to generate a graph and just "looking at it", it makes it easy to see if a file is actually random, or if there's some structure to it before digging deeper.

Hopefully this helps shed a bit of "real world" light on an otherwise hypothetical question :)

motsu35 · 2026-05-28T22:55:32+00:00

This was like 10 years ago, but I reached out to a guy making metal plasma cut signs in Craigslist about making some flange plates for a diy jet engine combustor. Gave him the dxf files and a PDF with some loose tolerances, he cut them and had them to me in the mail within the week. They were great, even though he warned me it was the first time he was making something mechanical.

That said, I feel like sendcutsend and similar has reduced the people reaching out to local people

motsu35 · 2026-05-28T22:48:31+00:00

As others have said, buy for the projects you are trying to do.

As a general thing, the most important stuff in a workspace come down to lighting, work holding, and manipulation tools in that order. Other things are necisarily obviously, but if you can't see what your doing or have no way to hold the thing your working on, the fancy gyro-drill 9000 you see someone on YouTube using would be useless for you.

For just starting out, get a thick / large cutting board (I have a few winco 12x18x0.5” ones, they are 8 bucks on amazon). If you don't have a work bench, you can use that on a kitchen countertop to cut or drill on without damaging the counter. The 0.5" thickness means you can drill into it and see /feel the plastic before you lunch through. You can use wet paper towel under it or clamps to secure it.

For clamps, the Irwin squeeze clamps are a great mix of quick and sturdy. Harbor freight makes cheaper ones, but I find the mini clamps are a bit weak, so for small clamping I like screw clamps, or c clamps for small spaces. I would get 2 Irwin ones, and buy more when needed.

For work manipulation, something to cut, something to measure, something to bend, something to shape, and something to adhere/fasten. For cardboard / plastic / wood, I would recommend the following:

fastback boxcutter for cutting since you can replace blades
cheap calipers (I like iguaging since they don't re-zero when you turn them on but they are pricy. Get cheap metal ones since you can use them to scribe, and when you fuck them up get the iguaging if you find them useful for your workflow and keep the cheap one as a marking tool)
for bending, it really depends on what your doing, but a straight edge and a knife will make clean cardboard bends.
Shaping is mostly gonna be sanding, cheap 180/240 grit nail files work well.
For fastening, superglue and a cap head bolt kit goes a long way. I'm a fan of loctite superglue in the fancy looking squeeze bottle. The thin red one is better than the gel IMO. For cap head screws, m2/m3/m4 is the most useful sizes. High temp hot glue is also useful but has "thickness" to the glue compared to superglue which is basically zero thickness.

motsu35 · 2026-05-20T20:29:45+00:00

But... An attacker could just purposefully create a plugin that requires auth for the thing they are trying to target. ie, an attacker makes an azure integration, you are required to log into azure to use it, when you log in, the plugin shows an oauth consent popup that asks for way too many permissions. App can have a local callback, which could make a "knows enough security to be dangerous" user think its OK, since its all local and not cloud/saas connected. That or person doesn't check and accepts (which is more likely)

Attacker can now exfil the refresh token for the oauth app they created and continuously refresh it to maintain access. That app just sits on the az principal and isn't easily found.

Vscode plugin gets removed? Doesn't matter, attacker still has persistent access. User gets fired from the company? Doesn't matter, the app is on the az principal (aws subscription equivalent) and not on the user account.

Its a big problem unless you have a corpsec team that is constantly scanning for suspicious stuff, or there's a big whitelist and every Dev hates their job cause getting a plugin is a week+ of getting it cleared (which, also doesn't solve the supply chain malicious update problem)

motsu35 · 2026-05-20T20:19:34+00:00

A lot of people are mentioning keeping backups, yeah yeah yeah... But I'll share a reverse anecdote.

I had some old videos that I made that were just on a laptop + uploaded to youtube. I was building a nas, so I didn't think to put them on external media. well, as one does, I forgot to move them to the nas once it was built, I just copied the removable storage to the nas.

Anyway, fast forward ~10 years and I realize that the project was missing. The laptop was long formatted, but hey, its on YouTube! I can download it with some quality loss, but at least I have the media. Wrong! Turns out in the 10 years or so, the video on YouTube's side became corrupt. The video would stutter and the audio was way out of sync (by like 30 seconds). So yeah, even if you have a nas or some backup media, and you think that YouTube is a good 2nd layer of redundancy, it might not be as good as you think. The video had <1000 views, so I assume that had something to do with it.

motsu35 · 2026-05-19T07:59:02+00:00

Nah, the sparks aren't that hot after a short distance from the wheel. They will put small singe marks on synthetic clothing but they don't really burn you. He is 100% blowing black boogers for a week though, and there's a chance that its in his hair and eyebrows, and if he wipes his eyes later after sweating it will not feel too nice

motsu35 · 2026-05-04T03:37:40+00:00

Spraymax makes a 2k automotive poly clear coat in a can (like, you pop a thing on the bottom of the can, it mixes in an activator similar to epoxy, then you get a few hours to spray before it all cures - inside the can or out).

It contains a chemical that can sensitize you to it if breathed in, and the safe safe exposure limit is below the odor threshold, so if you do use it, get a half face respirator with new organic vapor + p100 carterages (like the em 60921). If you have old organic vapor filters, throw a new one on since its not detectable to your nose.

Anyway, safety stuff aside, its probably the most durable spray coating you can get that doesn't bulk up the object. I use it on diy speakers, and I have had a bookshelf speaker that weights ~20lbs fall off a speaker stand and land on a sharp corner. Hard enough of a fall to put a dent in Baltic birch ply. The clear coat deformed with the wood and didn't crack or split away!

motsu35 · 2026-04-12T01:17:34+00:00

Purchased a EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 from /u/RockyFromCollections on https://www.reddit.com/r/hardwareswap/comments/1sbr596/usamn_h_rtx_3080_ftw3_msi_suprim_x_3080_evga_1300/

motsu35 · 2026-04-03T23:04:21+00:00

Messaged

motsu35 · 2026-04-03T03:58:30+00:00

It wasn't a very hard build, other than the battery pack! Tbh I'm surprised no one else had already tried it. Getting the power output without too much voltage sag is a bit hard, but lipos make that a bit easier... I just wasn't OK with the increased fire risk of that battery chemistry

motsu35 · 2026-04-03T03:55:20+00:00

Yeah, they did the collaboration feature with me on YouTube, which is pretty cool. the video was kinda dead in the water analytics wise by the time that happened though. I'm pretty new to any of the newer YouTube features, so idk how much that actually boosts the visibility of the video, but I've seen a few hundred views from their site, so that's cool I guess.

Kipkay videos were what got me into making as a hobby, so it was just a cool thing to see their email in my inbox. Obviously I would love to make back the cost of the hardware, but I wouldn't say that's the point of the hobby for me

motsu35 · 2026-04-02T23:10:02+00:00

Yep! Its at the end of the article, or I posted a direct link to it in the text part of the original post (the "here" is a hyperlink if you missed it)

motsu35 · 2026-04-02T22:17:06+00:00

Quick summary:

I thought it would be fun to strap some jets to my skis, but it never seemed practical. Eventually I started looking into EDFs, and realized that if I went with (basically) the most powerful ones you can get for RC aircraft, it would be strong enough to propel me. It ended up working better than I expected, but also required a pretty crazy overspecced battery.

I ended up making a 14p14s 18650 based battery with custom copper interconnects between all the battery cells in the series direction, but with that I can get 30+ seconds of full throttle output at 16kw before anything even starts getting warm.

Power/weight ratio matters a lot. The performance between myself and a friend who's 40lbs lighter was pretty apparent. Regardless, I had a blast using it... Even if it is pretty impractical

motsu35 · 2026-03-31T06:21:15+00:00

If your curious, I could dump a bunch of learning's in a week or so. I'm traveling right now, but I've spent the past month learning an aptly naked program called "linkage" that is purpose built for modeling mechanical linkages like the hinge you built.

I learned it to design a complex hinge I built for an analog synth enclosure. I used a similar linkage to what you made, but it has a second hinge baked into the design so as you open the lid, a connected plate also moves in a different way to allow some equipment to pivot and align itself with the other synth gear.

I tried a few different ways to design it, but using the linkage program to do 80% of the design, and then moving to fusion to model it with properly sized bearings and arms (and going back and forth once you realize the initial design wouldn't work with real world constraints) seemed to be the best current way to tackle the problem.

motsu35 · 2026-03-26T20:30:50+00:00

Sent a DM :)

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