Battery & Reel

It was time to “re-purpose the bulk of the 18650 lithium cells salvaged from the e-scooter battery.   This time I would use 15 cells instead of the previous 10 cells as the remaining cells have less capacity.

A slight improvement on my previous method.  This time I secured the individual frames inside the battery case using hot glue

There were sufficient cells to make two batteries with cases ordered from Aliexpress.

After completing the spot welding I tested the battery before final assembly

With 15 cells to a battery the rated capacity is 9Ah.   However as the cells have a reduced capacity the batteries have an actual capacity of slightly more than 6Ah.

The last three lithium batteries I “liberated” from the local rubbish tip disappointingly only provided two usable cells.  However that brings my total number of available cells to 11 which means I can make another battery.

That got me thinking about the different types of batteries I have for my power tools

[L – R]

Aldi 14.4V battery for the Aldi drill.  I’ve already replaced the cells in the battery.  They were very poor quality and in future I won’t be buy and Aldi battery devices. 

The next battery is for my Bosch drill which I bought to assist in the fitout of Waiouru.  It still works but only has a 3Ah capacity

The 3rd battery is a DeWalt 6Ah

The last two I made and are 6Ah and 9Ah respectively.  

I’ve now discovered it’s possible to buy a battery adapter plate.  If the Bosch battery fails I’ll buy a DeWalt to Bosch battery adapter plate and standardise my batteries around DeWalt.

After gaining confidence using the drone during the recent fishing competition I realised one limitation was the length of line on my spinning reel.   This prevented the drone from taking the line further out.

A search on Aliexpress identified a trolling reel which a much greater line capacity.  It had an initial price over $100 but had been discounted to $80.  Jan did her magic thing with discount codes and Cashback reducing the price to $40.   A bargain!  she also managed to get $8 off the 1000 mtrs of braided line

 

 

Now I need a cool and still day to test my new drone fishing setup.

Not Totally Stupid

When I found Jan crying in the kitchen I knew I needed to take action.   Time to “man up”.   The obvious thing to do was remove her from the situation and take over.  

I peeled and sliced the remainder of the bag of onions.  One conclusion from this kind act was to realise I need a new pair of goggles.  These don’t fully seal!  Whilst I didn’t cry, I’ll admit to weeping slightly towards the end.

 

Last weekend I attended a fishing competition run by the 4WD Club of which I’m a member. 

I’m not a good fisher and am more likely to catch a cold.   However one of the things I wanted to do during the competition was try out the dropper system I’ve made for our drone.   It was with some trepidation I sent the drone out to sea towing my fishing line.  I carefully watched the drone and panicked slightly received a surprise when the drone jerked in the air.  I had been concentrating on controlling the drone and hadn’t been watching the reel.  I’d used all of the line on the reel.  The dropper system worked and my bait was now 300 metres from the shore.   No bites; but at least I have some confidence with using the drone and dropper.

During the day Phil caught two fish.  Neither were edible and were therefore ineligible to be included in the competition.   Apparently only edible fish count.

Several of the club members were very serious about the competition fishing from 7AM to 7PM.

Then a flathead committed suicide foul hooking itself on my second rod.  The one that was close to shore.  I didn’t even know there was a fish on the end until I recovered the line.

Big enough to be legally caught and edible.   It was the only edible fish caught during the competition.   I now have the trophy! 

What a surprise.  Even more of a surprise when I was informed the winner has to organise the competition for 2026

America Created This Crisis

This is just my opinion and I’d be pleased if a reader could explain why I’m wrong!

During the last two weeks the world became a far more dangerous place and in my opinion it was caused by the historical actions of the USA.

During the past 150 years America has oscillated between isolationism and acting as a world leader. Culturally, your average American is an isolationist. They are inward looking and are not particularly interested in what is occurring in the rest of the world.

The USA only entered WW1 at the very end. Afterwards the US President, Wilson was a strong support of the establishment of the League of Nations (first attempt at the creation of the United Nation) but America never became a member and reverted to isolationism.

During the period 1939-1941 the US President (FDR) walked a quiet and fine line attempting to support the Allies whilst pacifying an isolationist Congress and Senate. It wasn’t until Pearl Harbour that the USA discarded isolationism.

In the immediate aftermath of WW2 the USA entered a number of security treaties (eg, NATO, ANZUS). However it didn’t take long for US politicians to decide this wasn’t in their isolationist interest and there have been no legally binding security treaties since. No doubt Israel and Taiwan would love a security treaty with the USA!

America saw communism as a threat to their capitalist beliefs and set about isolating the USSR. The Cold War commenced. In the picture below I show the world from the USSR perspective. The USA was successful in surrounding the USSR. The consequences of a nuclear war between the superpowers resulted in a number of localised conflicts. However the superpowers ensured none of them came into direct conflict (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan).

The Cold War ended when President Regan’s “Star Wars” caused the financial collapse of the USSR.  Gorbechev agreeing to the reunification of Germany and the independence of USSR satellite states.

During the 1991 negotiations between the USA and USSR Gorbechev reputedly asked the USA Secretary of State, James Baker if Russia could join NATO. This was refused. However Baker gave a commitment NATO would not expand further East.

In 1999 NATO expanded accepting Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The USA had breached the agreement.  Russia was not happy.

With President Clinton’s approval NATO further expanded East in 2004 when a further 7 former USSR satellite states joining ( Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia) Then in 2007 Albania and Coatia joined. Russia saw a tightening net encircling her.  A second breach of the agreement.

In 2017 Montenegro joined followed by North Macedonia.  A third breach of the agreement.

I don’t doubt the majority of these new member states were fearful of Russia and saw NATO as a security blanket.

Talk of Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO was the final straw for Russia.

Putin had already destabilised Georgia and saw a rapid military action as a means to ensuring Ukraine became a client buffer state between Russia and an expanding and threatening NATO.

The invasion didn’t go to plan. Putin’s advisers had over estimated the ability of their military and under estimated the resolve and capacity of the Ukrainian’s.

The west saw an attack on a sovereign democratic country and poured resources into Ukraine along with attempts to isolate and financially cripple Russia. The problem was the USA, which was vacillating between support for democracy and isolationism.

During Trump’s first term (2016-2020) it was quite clear he is an isolationist and his focus was MAGA. The MAGA supporters are clearly isolationist and have a strong powerbase within the Republican party.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 Biden was able to send support to Ukraine, but it was sporadic as he attempted to garner support from both Democrats and Republicans. However Trump was able to thwart or delay support by appealing to Republican politicians through his MAGA base.

If Harris had been elected president of the USA then support for Ukraine would likely have continued.  Whilst Russia has vast reserves of manpower and would have continued to fight irrespective of casualties,  it would be a shortage of military equipment and the collapse of the economy that would have forced Russia to the negotiating table from a position of weakness. Putin would have been replaced as he cannot afford to be seen to have failed.

However isolationism in the USA was on the rise. Americans were not interested in a war that they didn’t see as relevant to them and were more interested in MAGA. They voted for Trump.

Trump promised to end the war in 24 hours and then within 100 days of taking office. In order to achieve this he will give Russia what it wants; Ukraine as a destabilised buffer state. In return America will gain access to Ukrainian rare earth minerals.

NATO member states are now fully aware they can no longer shelter under the American military shield. Trump is right! The reality is they have been taking advantage of the USA and spending significantly less on defence since the end of the Cold War. Finding the money (and people) to increase military strength will be a significant issue for NATO countries.

I suspect Ukraine may have the resources to continue fighting for another 12 months whilst it endeavours to reach some type of conflict resolution with Russia. However the result will be that Russia keeps all the territory it has gained and there will be a neutral Russian compliant government in Kyiv. Forget any thoughts of NATO and EU membership.

Georgia will also decide against NATO and EU membership.

Yet more ideas

I’m starting to be convinced that Jan thinks of more projects to keep me occupied.

After her successful cataract operation she has returned to playing with her organ.   Not that one…… I mean the one she gets a tune out of.  That doesn’t sound right either!  The organ has a keyboard and plugs into a 240V power socket.   Apparently the problem is there isn’t enough light to read the music and the wall socket is a single into which the organ is plugged.  could I replace it with a double socket allowing her to have a light.  It’s a 10 minute task but I need to buy another dual wall socket.

Meanwhile I’ve visited the local recycle centre to dispose of the old engine oil from the last couple of oil changes I’ve completed on the 4WD.  I usually replace the engine oil and filter in between the manufacturers scheduled services.   I also took the opportunity to deposit the dud 18650 lithium cells that failed the capacity testing.  Whilst doing that I noticed someone had left three lithium power tool batteries in the disposal bay.   I might be able to salvage a few good cells from them.

They are all 36V but one is considerably lighter than the others.   I suspect it is a 5S1P with only 5 cells whilst the others are 5S2P containing 10 cells

After pulling them apart I was surprised to see the ‘light’ battery actually contained 10 cells.  But they feel very light.  It’s a ‘no brand’ battery and I suspect they are very cheap low capacity cells.

The other two battery looked to be well made with the AEG containing a heat sensor.  An indication of a high quality battery

I’ll test all the cells and see if any are worth keeping.

A few days later

Only one of the batteries had any cells worth salvaging.  The ‘light’ cells had a capacity between 300-400mAh which was woeful.  They are obviously very poor quality cells.

Meanwhile, I’ve finished the cover for Jan’s kitchen gas hob.