The There Are No Stupid Questions Thread

For Android: Youtube Vanced. Never see an ad, also use Adguard on Androids. Search will find them. Obviously they won't be on the playstore. On either PC or Android tubeninja.net works consistently. Youtube is a censoring company now more than anything. Anything you want, really gotta download it.

On Chrome or Firefox (pc) there are many adblock extensions available. Haven't seen a youtube ad in years.

I hate youtube for the censorship and anti-conservative bias. Wish a viable alternative would surface.

What happens if you put a Lithium Ion battery in a charger the wrong way when that charger does Not have Reverse Polarity Protection? Not just putting them in the wrong way but leaving them in and walking away!

I am considering[at her request, does not want me to buy her a new one] giving her an old Trustfire- TR-003P4 Charger to use for her new Thrunite TC15 Torch. I do not believe the charger has RPP. Not in manual.

So, what happened?

I canā€™t say what will happen, but probably not a lot.

Liion cells are typically tested for reverse polarity charging. Here is a 30Q factory test which it passes.

Reverse charge test
Test method - To charge the standard charged cell with charge current 10A by 0V for 2.5 hours. Criteria - No fire, and no explosion.

That Trustfire charger only charges at 500mA. I would guess the battery would get warm or maybe hot depending on how long it was left charging. It might get hot enough to vent, maybe. IDK.

The bottom line is I would not use that charger when you could get a much better one for $20 that is faster, safer and better overall.

Why not use the TC15 built in charger?

:+1:

I know,the TC15 has the USB built in. My thinking is if she turns out to be a flashaholic or needs to charge her depleted battery while she is using her spare 30Q, she could put it in her new charger.Can not use the light and charge the battery at the same time! :slight_smile: In addition two cells could be charged at once instead of one at a time using the USB in the flashlight.

I asked HKJ. He said:

-I asked if the Reverse charging would stop at 2.5V and he said NO, it would destroy the battery and possibly the charger.
:
-I asked if the battery could blow up? He said,
Either the charger or the battery may blow up or the battery may blow up when you turn it around to charge it correctly.

So I bought her a nice simple charger- XTAR MC2 Plus battery charger. :smiley:

It has RPP and If the batteries are put in the wrong way ALL 4 grids will flash. :sunglasses:

https://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/index.html

This is what I use. When it quits working I just install it again. The seem to keep up with the changes and so far a fresh install always works until yt makes changes and then a fresh install fixes it.

For the mp3 converter part ffmpeg can handle pretty much everything.

I am on a mac so the underlying UNIX makes this easy. However, I think the windows binaries should be well supported and if you have a linux box it will be easy as well.

Whatā€™s a good and possibly free DVD authoring program for Windows 10? I have a collection of MP4 video files that Iā€™d like to burn to a DVD with a very simple menu to select. Would love to do this without having to drop $$, as itā€™s not something Iā€™ll be doing often. I know some free software companies will offer trial versions with a watermark or reduced resolution. Would prefer 1080p, but could live with 720p.

Picture

I received my FW3A back in June from Neilā€™s gadgets. Same day walking my dog at night the whole lens element just fell out. I have no idea what specific parts I need to order. Neil hasnā€™t response to 4 different emailsā€¦

I don't know about a free DVD authoring program...

But you won't get 1080p or 720p.

The DVD format is 720 x 480 pixels, which is way less.

I used to make DVDs all the time, but I abandoned physical copies of video years ago.

x264 or x265 + Plex (or other DLNA client) FTW

Iā€™m just now realizing I should have said the battery would be ruined if charged backwards. I assumed this would be obvious, but maybe not. Charging a cell backwards, overly discharging it (going below 2.5v) over heating it (above 60Ā°-75Ā°C depending on cell) will ruin the battery. They should be disposed of. You get weird changes in the internal chemistry. Trying to charge a compromised cell can result in it venting or catching on fire. Compromised cells tend to get way hotter than usual while charging (proper orientation) and may never reach a fully charged state so the charger keeps going and the cell will over heat resulting in venting or fire.

Itā€™s interesting that HKJ says the charger may catch fire (backwards orientation). I would not expect that, but I guess it depends on the charger design. So thatā€™s an extra danger I was not thinking of.

This is why Liion Safety 101 says you should always be near, keeping an eye on charging cells.

Yes, youā€™re right 1080p is Bluray. I also had a wrong understanding about 720p. I see now that it refers to the vertical pixel height, so DVD is 480p (x720 wide). A friend of mineā€™s mother had a DVD player and wanted to get some video put on disks to play on it.

No stupid questions, but there are stupid spammers. Markā€™em, friends.

Gotā€™em :smiley: :+1:

Hereā€™s a dumb mod question: Iā€™m interesting in swapping the star in my Rofis TR20 from cool to warm, but I havenā€™t been able to find anything that looks compatible. Thereā€™s not enough wire to a normal star where + and - are on opposing sides. Does the stock star style have a specific name? Where the contacts are 90 degrees from each other?

Thanks.

Extending a wire is very simple. You can solder an extension and slip some heat shrink over it. The hard part here is finding a star with that big section cut out. Is that cutout needed or can a round star fit?

It has wings to prevent it rotating when you screw on the bezel, but I think you can get away with not having those. Press down on the lens as you screw the bezel. Watch to see if the led starts rotating. You donā€™t want it rotating too much or it might rip the pad off the mcpcb or maybe cut into the wire insulation causing a short.

Usually when you have a weird, unique star itā€™s best to reflow a new led onto it, but that is a bit more tricky to do.

Exentind a wire is as easy as this:


.

Canā€™t you reuse the Rofis MCPCB?

Thanks for the responses. A round star looks like it will fit, with the wire extended. So Iā€™ll try that first and see how it goes.

This is my first mod in more than a decade. Back then no one was really reflowing LEDs so I never had to learn. Iā€™ve ordered a pair of MCPCBs and bare LEDs from MTN electronics to learn with, may end up doing a reflow and just keeping the LED on star for something else.