Category Archives: Misc.

Anything that doesn’t fit into the other categories :^)

Bicycle Lift

Misc., Uncategorized

I purchased an e-bike this past year, and to help make maintenance easier, I figured a bike maintenance stand would be useful.  Did a lot of research, and found it challenging to decide on one stand over another as I was conscious of both cost and stability.

Another concern was the ease of getting a heavy e-bike (mine is around 28kg) into the stand – and looking at the options for powered lifts, they were over a thousand dollars.

I ended up deciding to build my own lift, using a dual motor standing desk base as the platform.  The dual motor base has a capacity over 150kg, substantially higher than any of the commercial bike maintenance stands I saw, even the expensive powered options.

With the base frame assembled, I attached 2×4’s across the back legs – this is to add rigidity to the lift, and also provides a platform to add weight onto which counterbalances the lift with a bike on it.

In place of the table top normally attached to the standing desk frame, I used 3 thick hardwood boards I had.  These boards are about 2 1/2 inches thick, and between 4 and 5 inches across.  These were planed so they were all the same thickness, and nice and smooth.  They’re attached using counter sunk bolts and washers going through the boards, and through the table top mounting holes of the desk frame.

After the top boards were attached, there was a couple inches of metal  from the desk frame protruding – I used an angle grinder to remove the excess metal, filed the edges and touched up with some paint.

I then attached a bench top bike clamp to the top – found this one on Amazon, and it’s rated for about 40kg.  It was about $50 and figured I would give it a go.  I did trim a few inches off the main tube to reduce the distance I had to lift the bike to get it into the clamp.  I think I cut perhaps 6″ off.

I must say that I’m very pleased with how this worked out – the lift is very quiet, and surprisingly quick.  The inexpensive clamp is easy to use and adjust, and I haven’t noticed any strength issues moving the bike around while lifted and clamped in.

Total outlay was just over $200 CAD, buying both the new desk frame and bench clamp on Amazon.  Might have been able to find a deal on Marketplace or something for a sit stand desk, but I wanted to be sure of the two motors, and people were typically asking more than $200 for a used sit-stand desk.  The price of the stand is about $100 higher than when I bought it this past summer – but the cost to build is still substantially less than a commercial power lift bike maintenance stand.

I’ll add a photo of the completed stand someday – Garage is too messy at the moment to get a good photo!.

LibreElec & VPN on Raspberry PI

Misc., Music

Tried out a vpn service for my Raspberry Pi media devices, called PureVPN. Their app works great on OpenElec, however OpenElec doesn’t run on the current Raspberry PI 3B+ hardware, and there is no indication that it ever will.

PureVPN
LibreElec does support the current hardware, however the PureVPN app doesn’t support LibreElec. I contacted PureVPN support, and they were unable to provide any timeline as to when their VPN app would support LibreElec, and I’m not willing to use older Raspberry PI hardware to accommodate PureVPN’s requirements. I was able to get a refund with minimal hassle. If it wasn’t for their inability to support the hardware/software I wanted to use their service on, I would probably still be using their service, as it was a very good value.


I found another vpn service, called Ivacy, and it does install & function. I found that some of it’s configuration settings, such as split tunneling were not intuitive, and their notifications as to when it’s connected and when it’s not connected were not very obvious. I experienced regular connection drops – seemed like every hour, the connection would drop. Getting a refund a week after signing up was straightforward and appreciated.


Now I’m using NordVPN, and I’ve found the connections to be much more reliable – and there seem to be a greater number of servers in some regions to connect to. While it’s not the least expensive option out there, I think the reliability is well worth the extra expense.

New Host!

Misc.

After many years with my previous web host, I’ve now moved everything (I think) over to Web Hosting Canada.

So far the site response has been excellent – much faster than my old provider, which was taking 30-45 seconds to load a page, or log into the wordpress admin console.  I also like the fact that this is a Canadian host, and the servers are in Canada.

 

Waffles :)

Misc.

I received a new waffle iron for my birthday a few days ago – a vertical style Cuisinart. Tried it out for the first time this morning, and it worked great! It makes thicker waffles than our old waffle iron (which was also a Cuisinart), I guess they would be a belgian style.
I used the Classic Waffles recipe from Allrecipes.com, and tweaked the amount of milk – adding a couple extra tablespoons so that the batter would pour nicely into the top of the waffle iron.

Waffles 🙂
 
Recipe Type: Breakfast
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1.5 cups warm milk +
  • 1/3 cup butter, melted
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Plug in, and preheat waffle iron.
  2. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl until smooth.
  3. Fill scoop provided with waffle iron, and pour into top funnel. If the batter doesn’t pour very easily, and an extra tablespoon or two of milk, and mix really well.