ACME fails again ...

Here in the DE/MD/NJ/NY/PA area of the US we have a supermarket chain called ACME. I swear to Bob that it is run by idiots!

I spotted this in my local store recently.

It's a recall notice. It tells of a product recall for a chicken nugget food item. But look behind it on the shelf (click the pic to enlarge). It's the very same item that has been recalled!!!!

3D printed Anderson Powerpole distribution box

I have a Robo3D 3D printer which I'm having a lot of fun with. I'm also trying to build a GMRS repeater for use on a farm. I laid out all the hardware only to discover that I needed a tidy way to distribute the power to the various devices.

The repeater being laid out on a 2'x2' piece of 3/4 plywood

Meet the Parametric PowerPole Breakout Box which can be found here on Thingiverse. The Parametric part comes from the way in which you can create anything from a 2 port to an 8 port box.

I printed a 4 port box. As you can see, it has 6 ports. No my printer did not do it wrong. The ports at either end allow the power to be connected to the box without loosing one of the 4 ports. One can also stack the box together to make larger boxes. In the above pictures I've assembled the connectors the wrong way - DOH. Luckily I caught it before I soldered it all together.

That is #12 solid electric wire connecting the PowerPoles together. I pulled the ground wire from a small run of Romex household electrical wire and used it to connect things together. The joins were wrapped and soldered and the ends were crimped and soldered.

Depending where you get them from PowerPoles can be as much as $2 a pair so using that price as a guide (I buy mine in bulk and have them on hand) I managed to construct this box for about $15 including the price of the PLA 3D printer material, electricity etc. Not too shabby!!

Schrodinger's Cats?

What is it about cats and boxes. Every time you put an empty box down onto the floor it becomes immediately inhabited by a cat. Or does it? 😉 Perhaps this was what captured Schrodinger's imagination and shaped his ideas on Quantum Physics?

For the cat lovers out there, here is a collection of just a few of the cats that inhabit my apartment. Please understand that they are not _my_ cats. Indeed, one of the cats has another cat as his pet.

Elvis

Gracie

Boots AKA Orange Dog

Gracie

For his next trick, Boots will make a girl disappear

Rascal. He's a Lhasa Apso with a Doberman complex. The cats are bigger than him.

Wash my clothes in what?

Found at the local Korean supermarket

My girlfriend asked if they had any Dragon dung but this was the closest they had.