u/maker_monkey
maker_monkey
maker_monkey
This! OP: Don't be a prisoner to your own pricing. When I had a small company, people were constantly nagging me to do small contract side jobs and wouldn't take no for and answer, so I started quoting them a high hourly rate with generous minimum hours. More often than not, they would say yes and I'd make a few grand for maybe two hours work.
Lesson: don't say no, just price it worth your while. Have rush-rates, overtime rates, jump-the-queue rates, miss-dinner-with-my-family-rates, whatever it takes so that you and your employees feel good about the transaction in the end. They might say no and go away, which I would still count as a win.
maker_monkey
They are less common, but you can certainly get 3.6v li-ion batteries in a aa size. https://a.co/d/00W0nPjy
maker_monkey
94521
maker_monkey
94521
maker_monkey
A mobile phone service I've used in the past quoted $250 to replace the screen, which is more than a refurb phone costs. The bare screen and frame only costs about $80 on amazon, however, so I ended up buying a heating pad and fixing both my most recent phone (with a black screen) and one that got 2 lines a few years ago.
maker_monkey
By plug and play, I mean a lot of people don't have the ability or wont take the time to install a gauge pod. Adding some double-stick tape might be about their limit. People like me who would install one are gonna be more rare and more likely to be a lot more particular about their gauges, such as wanting physical needles or segmented leds that match the rest of their dashes. You might be able to improve the latter by adding some better layouts in a variety of styles to match different interiors, but I still think the market is likely too small to be worth your time.
maker_monkey
Congrats on getting your gauge to this point, but imho there really isn't much of a market for this in its current form. Most people don't have the skills or inclination to do a lot of tweaking or customization, and even installing a custom gauge pod will be an insumountable barrier for many. Thats why the existing products are simple universal plug-and-play devices that you stick on top of your dash.
For the type of folks who might want custom gauge pods, easy readability and consistency with their other gauges is likely to be important. For instance, I created my own retro-styled universal OBD gauge for fun, but made it to match my existing voltage gauge.
maker_monkey
I ended up adapting one for my spyder b/c I wanted auto-dimming, a compass, and thermometer. I think it came from some minivan. It wasn't too hard to make an adapter for the base.
maker_monkey
Palmpilots were already out by 1996 and mobile phone manufacturers were experimenting with different form factors. The iPhone was so much better designed from a product point of view than anything that came before it, but all of the technology was already around in some form and developing rapidly. For mass consumers, the iPhone seemingly came out of nowhere, but people in the space would have recognized it as a natural progression of what already existed.
maker_monkey
I used the comparator to get a clean signal and to isolate the nano but youd probably be fine without it. Is your tester on the obd port? If so, this is similar to what i did when i was debugging my init sequence. I wrote a sniffer mode into my gauge software and used it to capture the init sequence from an obd reader. I later hooked up a cheap logic analyzer to track down a timing issue.
maker_monkey
Yes u can use a $20 logic analyzer with a y cable and voltage divider if u want to record communication between your car and a code reader or other device. Ive done this for debugging.
If u actually want to experiment with your own messages since the there isnt going to be traffic there on its own, here is my open source project for a k-line obd gauge built from an arduino nano every, dual comparator, transistor, and a few other bits.
maker_monkey
It hesitated for about 30 seconds, but then powered right up.
maker_monkey
I cleaned off the goo and cut some textured vinyl to cover it. Pretty happy with how it came out.
maker_monkey
In general, if you are traveling between two locations at the same altitude and stopped at both ends, you are doing no net work, so all of the chemical potential energy in the fuel used eventually transforms into heat (and a little bit of light) in the form of air resistance, rolling resistance, and radiated from the brakes, radiator, bearings, and engine itself. So much depends on the details of your car, but yes, it all goes into heat.
maker_monkey
When people talk about ″blending″ in this context it's about feathering out the base when you apply it. There's nothing you can do after the fact to remove that line other than paint over it, which probably means doing the whole car at this point.
maker_monkey
NTA. This is a near textbook example of entitlement. People like this never stop demanding more and more. I would stop even allowing him to park there when you are not home.
maker_monkey
Worst was the Kreg crown moulding jig. It's so tall that that it only leaves enough cutting depth on my saw for 2″ moulding, and so wide that I have keep a thin board underneath it to keep it from falling off the side of my miter saw. So much easier to just hold the moulding in place by hand.
maker_monkey
I love mine and actually bought a second so i can have two different lengths, but I had to mod them significantly to overcome their design defects. I relocated the saw clamps to the side so they don't flex the sled when tightened down, added guide blocks to keep the rear from fishtailing, and added teflon tape to the sled channels to remove the ridiculous amount of play the sled has riding on the track out of the box. After that, they work great, and I was even able to use one with a wet saw to cut large format porcelain tile for countertops.
maker_monkey
Yes. I'm not saying they are the same, but I wouldn't want to live with a scratch either. Imho, it's not a terrible deal for a working phone if you are ok with it, however.
maker_monkey
The reason i recommend dr colorchip is that you can't mess up. It's formulated so that you wipe away the excess with the mild solvent they give you. So essentially you can do and redo it as many times as you like until/unless you are happy with the results. In practice, it usually means getting paint into any recessed grooves but not overflowing above the surface, which is what makes pen touchups look awful.
maker_monkey
I am in the same boat wanting to stick with a microsd card, but a refurb ultra on amazon with presumably no screen damage is only $200 usd. https://a.co/d/021x8EgT
maker_monkey
That certainly can be a factor, but imho when thinking about the Fermi Paradox it's important to frame appropriately in terms of probability. Given the immense age of the universe, the question is not "are we looking for the types of signs that THEY are sending", but what are the chances that NONE of potential candidates would show signs we can detect. A mismatch can reduce the probability, but if the number of civilizations is high it could cancel that out.
maker_monkey
Neither. It would look like absolute ass with either of those. First, see how much paint transfer you can get off with very carefully with acetone or buff off. Then, I'd use dr colorchip to try to fill in any remaining deep scratches. It's the best you will be able to do short of a professional repair. Absolutely do not fall for the false advertising touchup products claim they can do, as you'll just be making a professional repair inevitable and more costly.
maker_monkey
Bingo. The goal in any free market should be to set prices that balance supply and demand. Too much work? Raise prices. Too little? Lower them (or offer other incentives). Of course this applies to the market for labor too. The reason OP lost their lead tech and the reason they cant get any good candidates may be that 38/hr isn't competitive in a market where others are offering 5k bonuses.
Imho, what little unique data they are getting from these individual trips has to be entirely eclipsed by the millions of miles logged by end users. So it seems to me the most likely reason for running them at all is simply to be able to claim ″xx robotaxi miles″ to help support the stock price.