potate

joined 2 years ago
[–] potate@lemmy.ca 8 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

I recommend you check out the Big Mac Index as it makes this stuff easier to understand.

The fact that $1CAD is worth less than $1USD or €1 doesn't mean much. It's just numbers printed on a screen/plastic/paper. What matters is what it buys.

The Big Mac Index was developed by The Economist to make this easier to understand. It calculates what what a Big Mac costs in each country against a common currency. It doesn't matter if $1USD = $1CAD or $1,000CAD. What matters is what that buys.

In 2022 - the year the graphic in the posted link corresponds to, a Big Mac cost $5.35 in the US and $5.17 in Canada when using the same (USD) currency. This implies that the effective difference in purchasing power is a paltry 3.5%.

If a burger is $5USD in the US and $7CAD in Canada, and the exchange rate is $1USD = $1.40CAD then those prices are the same.

I was just in Japan where I was paying 5000¥ for a fancy coffee - which was about $4.5CAD - roughly what I'd pay here in Canada.

[–] potate@lemmy.ca 17 points 3 days ago

Grifters gonna grift.

[–] potate@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 days ago

My partner and I don't have ANY tv's.

Neither of us are super into TV or film in a way that builds creativity or community (we don't critique the technical or artistic merits of pieces, and we aren't into anime or other genres where there's potential to build a community around a shared passion). When we turn on the TV, it's to turn off our brains. We decided to not build a shrine to turning off our brains.

We have a laptop with a good screen and speakers that we use when we want to watch something together.

[–] potate@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I checked belts, they're good.

I'm wondering if there is enough of a weight difference between the old and new extruder to have fouled the configuration.

[–] potate@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No, checked that and the period of the undulations is speed dependent

33
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by potate@lemmy.ca to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world
 

I have an Ankermake M5 that I hadn't used in a while and recently got back to printing some stuff. I had a few prints come out well but then turned my extruder into a giant glob of melted plastic on an overnight print. I ended up just replacing the whole extruder as there's been some revisions and I figured it would be nice to upgrade, and replace the v-wheels and all that.

The new extruder initially had a ton of problems with stringing, but increasing retraction fixed it. The problem that I can't seem to figure out is curved surfaces are now sort of wavy. It's regular - turning into vertical peaks and valleys. I'm doing a print currently with the speed turned way down, but the issue persists.

Any ideas?

edit: After some trial and error, I figured out that it was a slicer issue. I was using the EufyMake slicer because that one can send jobs to the printer directly. When I resliced in Prussa, the issue disappeared.

 
[–] potate@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago

That's some impressive reporting

[–] potate@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

Ah good, we can talk physics.

Newton's Second Law

Okay, let's start with Newton's second law:

F=m*a

but we're going to flip it around to

a=F/m

so that acceleration of a body is equal to the force acting on that body divided by its mass. What this tells us is that for a given force f applied to a vehicle of mass m, the vehicle will accelerate at rate a.

Where does that force F come from? From the tires acting against the pavement per the lever arm equation:

t=F*d

or, a force F working through a lever arm of length d will produce a torque t, but again, we're going to flip it around a bit to give us

F=t/d

Which tells us that a given torque t operating through wheels of radius d will produce a force on the pavement of F.

Now we're going to combine the two to give us

a=t/(d*m)

So, acceleration is directly proportional to the applied torque and inversely proportional to mass which absolutely supports what you are saying at first glance.

HMI

HMI is an acronym for Human Machine Interface which is a whole mechanical design field built around helping humans interact with complex machines like cars. Now I have to admit some ignorance here, but I don't know what type of vehicle you drive so I'll start simple.

In my vehicles, both gas and electric, there's two pedals specifically related to acceleration. The accelerator (sometimes called a throttle) and the brake pedal - and these pedals are remarkable devices.

The accelerator (negating regenerative braking that we'll touch on later) controls positive acceleration while the brake controls negative acceleration. Basically, the accelerator makes us go faster (forward or back) and the brake slows us down. But here's where it gets nuts - these are proportionate input controls. It isn't like a light switch rather, it's more like a dimmer - the more you press on the pedal, the more acceleration you get. The way this is accomplished is by controlling the torque applied by the motor. This is key - we can control the torque output of the motor.

Puting it all together

You are absolutely correct that the electric motors in EVs can generate absurd torque which, as we've seen, results in incredible acceleration. I certainly had some fun when my EV was new. But, 99% of the time, I'm driving in traffic or on the highway and my accelerator inputs are very light - the motor is generating only a small amount of torque it's capable of producing.

Gas cars operate in a similar, albeit wildly more complex manner (the accelerator pedal controls the amount of air getting into the engine, then a feed forward control mechanism is guessing how much fuel is needed and a feedback system monitors for the presence of unconsumed oxygen or uncombusted fuel in the exhaust). The important thing is that both are capable of delivering variable torque based on operator inputs.

So let's imagine we have two cars stopped side by side at a stoplight that turns green. Both vehicles can use their accelerator pedals to control their rate of acceleration and they both accelerate away in a nice sedate manner.

As I mentioned in a previous post, an Ioniq 5 (EV) weighs about 2000kg while a Rav4 (gas) weighs about 1700kg. The EV therefore weighs roughly 15% more. If both vehicles leave the line at the same rate of acceleration the torque output from the EV will need to be 15% higher.

a=t/(d*m)

That then takes us back to Newton's Second Law and thus the longitudinal interaction force between the tire and pavement will be about 15% higher - which is not nothing, but let's add some context.

Perspective

The coefficient of drag Cd for the Ioniq 5 is 0.288 vs 0.310 for the Rav4 - about 8% higher. The drag equation is

Fd = 1/2 r * u^2 * Cd*A

where r is the air density, u is velocity, and A is the reference area. In this case r and A are equal (well, mostly equal in the case of area) for our ICE and EV examples.

What this equation tells us is that at a given speed, the Rav4 requires 8% more driving force to overcome wind resistance. This isn't just during the acceleration phase, but at all times.

It also shows us that drag forces go up with the square of speed. That means that if you increase your speed from 100 to 115km/h (15% increase), the drag forces go up by 32%.

So if we compare the EV to the ICE vehicle under cruising conditions, the friction forces between the tire and the pavement are HIGHER for the ICE vehicle in this example.

Even more than that, the impact of increasing speed dwarfs both the impact of mass and the impact of the coefficient of drag.

Summary

I haven't come across a peer reviewed body of knowledge that compellingly argues that an EV and an ICE vehicle, driven similarly, will have substantially different rates of tire wear. Rather, speed, proper inflation, and road surface seem to be much more significant. The bulk of reports of accelerated tire wear come from journalists and influencers reviewing vehicles - groups who likely enjoy the acceleration that EVs are capable of, but don't have to use.

[–] potate@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The tire thing is FUD in my experience - and I haven't seen anything other than anecdotal evedince that under similar driving patterns and styles there's substantial differences in wear. My Ioniq 5 for example only weighs ~15% more than a Rav4 and less than a Honda Pilot.

When I drove a Subaru STi, I shredded my first set of tires. My station wagon, that weighed more, the tires lasted forever because I drove like an old man. With EVs, if you have fun enjoying that instant torque by punching it off every stoplight, you'll definitely shred some tires. Accelerate smoothly and I don't see why tires would see substantially shorter lifespan - which is what I'm seeing from my personal tread wear so far (but that's anecdotal and therefore of extremely limited value).

[–] potate@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] potate@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

Yea, I need to make it simpler, thanks for the feedback.

[–] potate@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

Thanks for the feedback, I'll add a link to a blank calculator where you can load the details of the vehicles you want to compare.

[–] potate@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Hmm, depreciation on my Ioniq isn't anything like that bad. And I had a fuel injector quit in my last car at 130k. The cost of replacing all four injectors was a heck of a lot more than quoted. I intentionally lowballed service costs for ICE vehicles because people tend to (dramatically) underestimate what they spend on maintenance.

Also, the tire thing is FUD. Tire wear is higher IF you regularly use all that torque. If you floor it off every light (which is very fun) you shred your tires. If you drive conservatively there's minimal difference. My Ioniq 5 weighs about 2000kg, a non-plug-in Rav4 hybrid weighs 1700kg, and a Honda Pilot is around 2200kg so the weight just isn't that different from other vehicles.

 

I built this calculator in the hopes that radical transparency would help.

It's Canada-centric, but you can plug in local prices, gas and electricity rates, etc, and it should successfully pull grid emissions data from your area.

I'm looking for any feedback on how to make it more useful, compelling, etc.

Thanks!

 

Go DONATE plasma (or whole blood) at Canadian Blood Services. The tainted blood scandal of the early 80s had a couple of underlying causes, but at the core was that not enough Canadians were donating which led to two major problems.

  1. We started buying blood - and who did we buy blood from? The Americans - who sent us blood that was collected from prison inmates as a way for them to earn credit at the commissary, among other high risk sources. This blood was deemed too risky for domestic use, but just fine to sell to Canada, the UK, etc.

  2. For profit collection in general - this disproportionately preys on marginalized groups AND it incentivizes EVERYONE to lie. The first question on the donor questionnaire is 'Are you feeling well today'. If you are dependent on the $50 or whatever you will get from that donation, then you are way more likely to rationalize that the way you have been feeling lately is just allergies.

The recommendations of Tainted Blood Inquiry were:

  1. blood is a public resource;
  2. no one should be paid to donate blood or plasma;
  3. Canada should collect enough blood and components to satisfy its own needs;
  4. citizens should have free and universal access to blood components and products; and
  5. safety of the blood supply is paramount.

Grifols (the paid plasma company) permits plasma collection at double the maximum frequency of Canadian Blood Services, they sell resulting blood products overseas without donor consent, and they seem to be getting repeatedly cited for failure to follow standards for collection. MAKE THESE TURDS UNNECESSARY BY DONATING.

If you are healthy, eligible, and can, go donate plasma (or whole blood). If you are in Calgary, and nervous, you are welcome to join me on my next donation (Thursday) to see what's involved.

 

We are so, so absurdly lucky in Alberta - we get SO MUCH SUN. It's mid-March and I generated double the power my heat-pump equipped home used. Even after I replace the power I pulled from my EV commuting to work, that's still 7kWh more power coming off my roof today than I used. My gas bill is zero, my power bill is negative today and it's still technically winter ...

 

I'm a Jew. My grandmother survived the Ravensbruck concentration camp, death marches, and unspeakable horrors.

Israel does not speak for me. Criticism of Israel is not inherently anti-Semitic (a word that doesn't even mean what people think it means). Israel is committing war crimes. This is a genocide of parity with what my family experienced.

I stand with Palestine.

 

I made the biggest political donation of my life after this policy was announced - and sent a screenshot to my (barely elected) UCP MLA letting him know. There's a lot to hate the UCP for, but this one really takes the cake.

 

Another day, another CPS officer getting special treatment and avoiding (most) consequences after assaulting an indigenous person.

I mean, I guess the poor guy did get told he has to miss his trip to Greece... I wonder what punishment would have been doled out if the situation was reversed?

 

Was tearing my hair out this morning when I couldn't listen to podcasts on the way to work. I updated my S23 Ultra to ONE UI 7 yesterday evening and this morning Android Auto was working fine EXCEPT that I had no audio. Adjustment of volume in the car and on my phone were unsuccessful.

The solution was to make a quick phone call and now audio works fine again. I have no idea why it worked or why audio wasn't working to begin with - but I thought I would share in case it helps anyone else.

91
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by potate@lemmy.ca to c/games@lemmy.world
 

Looking for some advice. My Switch Lite is approaching the end of its life and given that a Switch 2 is basically the same price as an OLED Steamdeck I was thinking it might be a good time to jump back to PC gaming.

I'm not much of a gamer. I got the Switch Lite because of portability and the ability to wake it up, play for ten minutes and then toss it back in my bag. My only beefs with the Switch ecosystem is that you can't download DLC - for Cities Skylines I have the bare game on Switch but a pile of DLC on my laptop for example.

So - would going with a Steamdeck make sense? Any gotchas I should know about? Is there a better option?

Thanks all!

**edit: y'all rock. I'm ordering an OLED Steamdeck

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