TrakR MAXel - Never buy another expensive battery
16I think the pixel things are neat (at least for the price) but I hate that they chew up coin cell batteries like a hungry robot during the human eradication apocalypse. A lil solder and a 2AA battery pack later, and I was in business:
I made this monstrosity in September of 2019, and have yet to see the battery report lower than full. I slip this one in a secret compartment in my laptop backpack, and have mostly forgotten about it until I got my latest regrettable purchase of 20 more of these silly things a few days ago.
If you’re handy with the iron and screwdrivers, this could be done (neatly) inside of remote controls with enough room to accommodate the little thing. One small snag is that the front case needs to be attached to enable the connection to the speaker, but this could also be remedied with a little soldering fudgery.
- 5 comments, 13 replies
- Comment
Clearly, you have discovered the way to defeat the impending move to assert global supremacy via addicting the entire world to dependence on CR2032 cells to find All The Things - and then grabbing the entire supply of those batteries and their production capacity. It was a valiant effort, now completely derailed by your heroic efforts. We stand in awe.
@werehatrack not all heroes wear capes!
@msayler True. But if you did wear a cape, odds are it would be made from a weighted blanket.
@rockblossom or bamboo rayon sheets
@msayler @rockblossom Or Irk bags.
@msayler @rockblossom @Tadlem43 Or (in my case) Coleman checkered tablecloths.
@werehatrack CR2016.
Nice - now you’ll always be able to find your Trakr battery pack!
@macromeh I estimate that I’ll be able to find it for at least the next four years!
Yes, we need more projects like this.
I’m currently taking apart a broken micro drone to build a RC paper airplane.
Meh, sell more cheap drones so I can break them and then disassemble them for parts.
@fibrs86 I’m fully stocked on micro drones, need an extra one?
@msayler I just bought checks receipt 5 from Menards at $10 each. That brings me to 8 total: 2 RC paper planes projects, 2 hover craft projects, 2 ‘oops I sure broke that’, and 2 to just play with.
@fibrs86 I need more info on rc’ing paper planes with micro drone parts. Got a link for a lazy person?
@djslack This is the one I’m attempting. This guy builds a lot of crazy stuff.
@djslack @fibrs86 Wow, that’s a great idea, thank you! I have a few busted drones so I’m definitely going to do that.
@fibrs86 this is now added to my ever longer list of projects. Thank you!
Hmm… now I want to retrofit my pixels with LIR2032 rechargeable cells and a hand-spun coil with bridge rectifier for wireless charging.