For longer touring and casual sport cycling I want to finally get my hands on a bike computer. Have used my phone so far, but I don't like

• battery life
• water situation when it's rainy
• arguably not too good for the camera stabilizer

My requirements are not too high I would say, but I would like

• connectivity to some peripherals (ANT+ I guess)
• ability to add GPX files and also extract them
• not buy myself into some cloud (or otherwise fenced) solution

What it boils down to: What would be the least restrictive brand out there?

I am aware of https://github.com/hishizuka/pizero_bikecomputer but currently I don’t see myself tinkering that much – since I do longer tours I need some kind of decent case, a way to take it off and be a little tough.

(Sorry if this is not he perfect place, I could not think of another community that would fit well)

Unlike most people these days (at least that's what it seems like) I don't own a 3D printer. But a soldering iron is a little like a 3D printer, I assume: as soon as you have it, you find all kinds of uses for it. And while the project I got it for has long been abandoned, I find myself using it quite a bit. My latest addition were a few helping hands inspired by Matthias Wandel, which beats "fixturing" with pliers and random heavy objects. Which led to even more soldering. And while all soldering guides (of the 1 I actually watched) tell you to take care of ventilation, sitting in your freezing cold room, windows open, and holding your breath makes you really think about all those funny-looking fumes.

Disclaimer

Don't get me wrong: I love inhaling toxic fumes like the next person that has bought spray paint to "revive" their plain white IKEA shelf. Jokes aside, work safety is important! The inspiration for this fume extractor was taken from other DIY online posts and I have no way of verifying its effectiveness in cleaning the air. I will always crack a window in addition to using this extractor.

Design Considerations

In particular industrial extractors come with some kind of snout - a piece of flexible tube to position the air intake right above the soldering job. This seems very smart, and I almost went to shop for more parts to join the 12V PC fan and the activated carbon filter already sitting on my desk. However, I did a bench test with the setup at hand and decided to not let scope creep get me this time. The fan I chose really moved some air, and it felt like I could arrange my little setup in a way that does not compromise on extraction action too much. The other place where I considered LocLine was for mounting the fan to its stand, which I skipped for the same reason. The last thought that had the potential to complicate things was the wiring. My soldering iron runs on USB-C - I don't have a full-blown soldering station (yet). I have seen a solution online where all power needs kind of merged at one place, which I really liked. Unlike in the post however, I decided against putting all the controls by the fan. The reason being that I decided to put my fan on a stand and add some pivoting capabilities. Messing with switches and cables on that likely top-heavy contraption did not seem like a good idea. So cables will go on the stand, where they are easy to reach and replace (should I ever get to actually installing them).

Build

As stated above, I don't own a 3D printer (yet). So instead of printing this straight forward piece, I spend the better part of my weekend sawing, screwing, glueing and painting this straight forward piece. I made the dimensions up on the fly and cut everything down with my track saw. The circles were cut with a jig for the router and everything went together with glue and some screws.

(

After I had everything together, I decided that this thing deserved a nice finish. After all, it will sit on my desk right in sight. Luckily I had used the cheapest plywood I could find, so I got to do loads of filling and sanding. After enjoying that for a while, I decided it did not deserve that nice of a finish. Even after multiple coats of filler, sanding, and primer, I can still see some wood texture and make out where the screws went (when looking closely at least). Also, I had decided that adding holes for threading inserts AFTER finishing would be a smart idea. It was not - the finish was messed up in the process.

The filter can be replaced through a little opening in the top. Even though it looks a little messy, at least I don't have to get out a screwdriver to do this. If you own a lathe or have to go to the hardware store anyway, I think the top could be fully closed, and rather have some thumbscrews for opening the lid. In between the fan and the filter sheet I added some 5mm wooden strips that were glued to the fan. This way nothing can rub against the blades of the fan.

For the stand, I just screwed a few thicker pieces of plywood together and called it done. This will later hold a switch and some wiring (probably maybe).

(yes, I increased the length of the legs in the meanwhile, hence the different look in the thumbnail)

Resume

After having used it a little now I can say: It was absolutely worth it! Soldering indoors feels much more bearable and I would even call it an absolute must-have from now on!

Like with every project of course, there still is room for improvement:

• I made everything up on the go. That worked out, but it's not fancy-looking or anything. My helping hands are neither, so that's fine I guess
• Put the pivot point lower on the fan to get some more flexibility in positioning
• Make the base from something denser and slim down the legs to cut down the footprint a little
• Add a shroud
• Elongated holes in the stand would be nice for further adjusting flexibility
• When installing the wiring, I will also try to add a light on top of the fan.

Building a Cloud ceiling lamp

Or: How I build the single most flammable object in my flat.

Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting.

And while I would love to say that it was this line that inspired me, it was rather a friend of mine that had those 20$ plastic candles hanging from strings in her hallway. Waving a plastic wand around they not only turned on, but also left quite the impression on me. However, the more keen eyed might have already noticed: There are no candles on my photos. There's no wand either. This is not even about floating candles and I'm just about done with them. Now while I really liked the looks, I didn't like the thought of changing batteries every week (I never checked the runtime of those plastic candles you find everywhere, but I doubt it's anywhere near acceptable for me). Adding permanent wiring came to my mind, but this would require hiding cables and a transformer somewhere. Not that easy with the average ceiling, at least if you live in a rented flat and consider moving within the next 15 years. Luckily J.K. Rowling also came up with this whole indoor cloud thing, so I ended up with a build idea after all.

Now that you know how this idea came about, let me ramble about the build a little. Not that I think I'm the most qualified person to do this - you will be able to find plenty of images online where people did the same thing, arguably lots nicer than my own build. But no one tells you that you should not be doing this because it's annoying and sticky and fiber gets everywhere. Also it's not unlikely to catch fire and burn down my whole apartment with it. But starting from the start: I grabbed some cheap 20mm thick foam board, attached two wooden cross members to it and into those some hooks. This way I can hang the whole sheet to the ceiling and also got space for the cable bits. While still being cumbersome to hang, it allows for an undisturbed underside (where the cloud part is). And even more important: The cloud can be assembled on the living room floor (or any other floor you would like to cover in glue and fiberfill). Next were the LEDs, where I grabbed 8m of 60LEDs/m strip. With a fitting transformers and a ZigBee controller everything lights up and integrates into Home Assistant. Playing a little with the look I decided on a fairly dense layout, leaving only around 5cm between the rows of LEDs. The fiberfill does a good job of covering up whichever bad job you did laying out the LEDs and no one will be able to see that you bend the strips around the corners instead of doing a proper wiring job. Speaking of the fiberfill: You don't need much of it. If I had to guess, 500g would be plenty for my 120*60cm panel. I don't have an exact number here, but the reason is not that I seem to have no perception of how much 5kg of fiberfill are. So I totally don't have a human sized box of fiberfill sitting in my apartment that barely lost any weight. And even though it's not much weight you need for the cloud, it sure seems like a lot when it frees itself from the double sided tape and comes tumbling down. After being pissed at the tape and myself for being lazy, I did it 'right'. Hot glue and spray glue did a good job at fixing the fiberfill to the foam board, my hands and the floor. No more cloud fall so far.

All jokes aside: I tried to sneak a few actual numbers and useful information into my text, and yes it was annoying to build. On the other hand it's low effort in both tool requirements and cost. If you have a way of getting outside for the glue up, I'm certain that's a good idea. At least if you use spray glue. Also while the fiberfill did a great job at covering up the LEDs and making it look fluffy, it barely covered up the contour of my very rectangular board. I thought it would do more here, but it is what it is now. And regarding the fire hazard: Enclosing the strips in aluminium channels is certainly a good idea!

The whole looks is not for everyone and I'm fully prepared to take it down in a year or two because it turned into a filthy rain cloud. But until then it sure does give off some nice light and makes for an interesting piece to look at.

This is not a post about a build of some kind, but more of a research/question. So no build photos right now, but if you have some input I would be happy to read it :)

After having to do some flying the past days and my soft/fabric suitcase breaking apart I looked into getting a replacement. What I need is a large suitcase for checked luggage. Not some crazy odd or large shape, but a decent suitcase for (multi) week traveling. I love the old Aluminium rimowa cases, but they are super pricey and I also heard quality is not what it used to be. So I thought: Maybe I can build an Aluminium case myself? Surprisingly I can't find too much online about selfmade suitcases. Does anyone have experience/resources regarding this? Are there regulations (other than size) I would have to follow?

Zarges (alu crates) is quite the name around here, and my first naive thought was: Rivet some wheels and a handle to that thing and you have a nice case. Of course I would want to go a little further here, but do you think that would be somewhat feasible?

Thanks for reading and I am happy for any feedback :)

Who doesn't love opening a loot crate? Not the gambling stuff (well it's still kind of gambling), but the ones in game. The ones that give shitty loot and guns you don't know how to play. The ones that make you end up with a bullet in your head 50% of the time because you drive into the middle of nowhere to get them.

Ok this will not be about stupid PUBG references, but thoughts and images of the process of making a "PUBG loot crate" for a friend of mine. For everyone unaware, it looks something like this:

Goal:

• build a small loot crate that vaguely resembles a PUBG loot crate
• make it from wood (3D printing would have been an option here, but I just don't like the look and feel too much for such a project)
• improve my wood finishing & painting skills

Not goals:

• make an exact copy of the in game loot crate from PUBG
• spend tons of time and money on it
• get 50 new tools

The box

While making a wooden box is indeed a skill to learn, having it heavily painted and modified made me not want to spend too much time on it. So I just bought one and sanded it smooth (not enough).

To add some depth to it, I went to add a bottom and some ridges to resemble the corrugated panels of metal containers. The ridges were cut by hand and everything was sanded (almost enough) before glue up. I used normal wood glue and clamps, no nails or screws. For alignment I had done some marking with pencil and it ended up fine. For a more precise project, I would have made small spacers and nailed everything in place with a nail gun (which I don't have). Getting rid of the glue with a wet cloth was crucial here, because hand sanding all the inside edges would not have been fun. Some wood filler was used to even out small imperfections, but I should have used even more here. In the finished product I can see where I did a good job and where I got lazy.

Each vertical piece was glued on as one, just because that seemed easier. Of course I had to split the box again, which was easy enough with a hand saw.

The paint

After the glue up, paint was up next. 3 coats of primer went on with sanding in between. 180 and later on 240. It still showed some wood pattern at this point, but I would not know how to improve this. Not buy cheap ass primer? Sand more? Even more coats?

After that, I sprayed it with red paint and also lightly sanded with a 320 grid sanding sponge. This ended up looking just about how I wanted, but could still have been a little smoother. Painting is hard. Also I need to build some painting triangles, because it got stuck to the underground twice.

The finish

Last paint related thing was the rough look. With nothing else on hand, I dabbed on acrylic paint. It did not seem to stick in the beginning so I went all in. To an extend that I thought I had ruined the piece when it was all dry. Looked like a cheap ass camo clothing pattern designed by a 3yo (or something even worse).

First I tried to carefully remove only the top coat of acrylic, but this quickly hurt the lower coats until even the primer showed. So I just went to town with all my sanding paper and even a paint scraper. Took way more time than I wanted, but at least it turned out ok. A sanding sponge came in clutch here for reaching all the crevices. Definitely a worthwhile 'tool' to have. This is the part where I would be interested in other approaches to achieve this look - something I have to look into.

The extra bits

For the straps I just ordered some 10mm wide nylon band. Could have payed more attention here: The straps are not simply cut and go, but I had to get out the sewing machine to attach the plastic bits.

Also simply no one seems to own one of these blue IKEA bags anymore, so I had to cut up some old apron for the blue top. Not exactly what I was looking for, but got it close enough.

The resume

Fun project, that of course took longer than expected. My learning with the paint is once again: Take your time! I think I would have needed to spend more time on almost every step to get that 'perfect' finish. But for the first time it felt achievable with my equipment on hand. That's encouraging! Since, on this project, everything was roughed up anyway, it did not feel like a failure. The rest was pretty straight forward and it was a really enjoyable project with minimal space and tool requirements.

TL;DR: This is a ramble about my old and new keyboards, with some finger pain along the way.

• Hotswap has it's drawbacks
• QMK is nice
• I like macro keys

Due to my job and love for gaming, I spend quite a bit of time in front of a keyboard. With that in mind (and also some enabling colleagues) I went on a big long search for the perfect keyboard. Quickly I became interested in split designs and finally pulled the trigger on a Mistel Barocco MD770. It's now 1.5 years later, and this text was not typed on the Mistel.

The old

The Mistel Barocco MD770 is a super nice keyboard. I like the clean look, the split form factor and the fact that I can 'merge' it into a 'normal' keyboard. This saves me from messing with the whole keymap when gaming. What I had to fiddle with however, was the keybinds while not gaming. There is no GUI for that and you have to do it by combinations of key presses. It worked, but I had to check the manual every time I wanted to change something. Also the bluetooth connection often took some time (no issues when wired) to get going. So it had it's minor drawbacks, but not enough for me to go out searching again. After over a year with the board however, an issue pressing enough came up.

The issue

Being a gamer all my life, I never really had issues with hand or finger pain. But getting older and/or really diving into FPS about half a year ago messed with that. After longer gaming sessions I started to notice pain in the fingers of my left hand. Since I also do climbing, it took quite some time for me to figure out, that in fact the gaming is the issue. It seems I press WASD like a mad man when running around. Press less hard then - duhhh! I tried, but the MX Brown switches just didn't give the feedback my fingers needed.

I like climbing, I like gaming and I wanted this fixed quickly. My best idea, apart from tying to press less hard, was to find switches with a clearer feedback. This is when I discovered, that the Mistel sadly does NOT have a hotswap PCB. Which leads us to chapter three.

The new

With virtually endless options for keyboards and some money to throw at the problem, I was not quite ready to desolder my whole keyboard. So I went out there with my requirements figured out:

• split layout that can mesh together (for the reason above)
• hotswap (because that's what made me end up here)
• staggered is fine
• QMK support
• (macro keys)

The rest was mostly a gut decision - I found the Keychron Q11, liked the mostly clean look and the macro keys and just went with it.

With it I ordered some Cherry MX ERGO CLEAR, some cheapish keycaps that at least support this split layout and some O-rings. Most important answer first: Yes it helped with the finger pain! The actuation point is way more recognizable and the O-rings make the bottom out a lot less hard. I love the switches and also the sound is quite nice. The dedicated macro keys including a GUI to set them all up are also a major improvement in my books. I use them for media management and some undo-redo action which is super convenient. The keyboard itself is also quite beefy with its aluminuim body - not a super big deal but it feels nice. Last thing I want to talk about are the hotswap sockets: You just push in your switches and are ready to go - sounds super easy. And it is. Unless you don't have any feeling in your fingers (duhhh again) and just smash them in. I broke some sockets. Nothing that could not be fixed with some solder, but I was not even aware that this is an option. My fault but still something to watch out for at least.

This year I did my first bike packing trip. For starting out I had rented some equipment, but with the goal of doing more trips in the future, getting some bags of my own was clearly on the list. With the idea of using panniers for my main storage, I wanted to add some fork bags to balance out the weight a little. Also they are the least obstructive (other than frame bag maybe) from my POV. Somewhat enjoying DIY, the idea of designing the cages myself grew on me.

What this is

Some insights and thoughts on the process of designing and making some aluminium cargo cages for a bike.

What this isn't

A guide on how to design and make aluminium cargo cages for a bike. I have no professional training on anything I did here. This is my first time doing something like this.

Designing

After making some sketches on paper, I quickly jumped into 3D modelling on the PC.

The software

The software I choose was OpenSCAD. Reasoning was that I like open source software and I don't know any CAD software anyway. With it being a non-interactive tool, I hoped to somewhat make use of my coding knowledge/background. You write a script and the tool compiles it into a 3D model.

This however, did not work out very well. Going into it without much of a plan, I ended up with a very confusing file with loads of duplicate code and lots of guessing when trying to figure out dimensions. This was not the fault of the tool, but only my own. Not saying I'll never go back to it, but for the next job I will try some more interactive tooling. Some more structure and thought out process would benefit any tool however, so that's a learning I'll take with me.

The looks

Hard requirements were the screw positions for mounting to the fork and space for some straps where the bag is attached. In the middle of designing I noticed, that I might want some material running from the screw attachment points across the whole width of the piece (this might not have been required since the 3mm aluminium I used was plenty strong).

The whole design evolved around these requirements and some hexagons I wanted to add. Everything was kept symmetric and I tried to pick up the angles from the hexagons in the other angled pieces.

For sizing, I tested my dimensions on some cardboard cutouts and went with what felt right.

The issues

• The lower part was meant to be bent around and then welded at the seams. However I failed to provide additional material for the bending, therefor it was cut of and completely welded in the final product.
• The lower part is too wide. Instead of taking a second to think about it, I just kept the lower piece wide with the idea of grinding of the excess. I should have made the diagonal piece of the notch the same length as the vertical line it will get welded to.
• The straps of my chosen bags do not line up perfectly with the cutouts on the cage. There is enough space to make it work and not look super off, but it would be smarter to get the 'target bag' first.

Also I think it turned out a little like any cage you can buy in a shop. Wish I had made it a little more unique, maybe carry the hexagon idea along the edges...

Fabricating

Having access to at least some of the tools required for fabrication made the project seem somewhat reasonable in the first place. I would not know how to go about this, if you don't have a welder (other than designing a part that does not require welding).

Laser cutting

The whole idea heavily evolved around the idea of using a laser to cut my model from some aluminium sheet. However the laser I planned to use was not available anymore by the time the design was finished. No big deal I thought, there are ordering services for just about anything online. Which there are. But many of them ask a heavy fee for low part counts. To a level that would shut down the whole idea. It took quite some searching until I found someone willing to do the job for a feasible price. Had I not found a laser, filling and cutting with a saw would have been my last resort. Luckily it didn't come to that.

Other than the design issues mentioned above, it turned out just like I wanted!

Welding

You should find someone else to tell you about TIG welding. On the photo you can see the lower base that turned out too wide and never got ground off. Also the lower base that was cut off instead of bend due to missing clearance.

Painting

3 base coats, 3 top coats of matt black. Some deburing beforehand would have helped the final look as well. I always underestimate how much all these details show up after painting.

Bags

For bags, I decided on Cube ACID PACK PRO 3 (which are 3 liter bags). Even though I bought these, this was not the super easy part. Going into this project my thought was that it will be super easy to find fitting bags. But I had to do quite some digging to find something I liked. 3 liters per site are plenty for my setup, since I just want to spread some weight forward. I have seen these cages used with 5 liter bags, which worked fine as well. The straps do not line up perfectly with the cage, but there is enough wiggle room to make it work.

Final thoughts

It was a fun project and I will hopefully get to enjoy these cages for a long time. Without having done most of the things required to tackle this project, it took me quite some time to do. But I learned a lot and will surely go into my next CAD/metal/fabrication project with more of a plan!

I hope someone can get something out of my post. This checklist should help if you consider doing a similar project (maybe even any DIY project at all)

Don't do this if you

• want to save money
• need some cages quickly

Do this if you

• enjoy making stuff!

Recently I quit Strava and started using OsmAnd to do my routing and also recording of bike trips.

I can store and view the tracks fine, but the interface really is just for viewing single tracks. I would like to organize my recorded trips a little better, in a fashion that e.g. Strava allows:

• add some meta information
• compare tracks and all the related info
• extract some further data from the tracks and compare them (something like "your fastest 2k")

Is something like this out there? (I did not deep dive into GPX itself, maybe I am looking for something that is not even in the data)

Happy usenet user for while but finding german content has been somewhat hard. I would be happy to receive a DunkenSlug invite and will be happy to share back!