u/toybuilder

I have a really old asphalt driveway with a lot of loose gravely bits as it had been naturally falling apart over decades. There is also just accumulated dust and dirt and leaves around the house.

There are walk-behind floor sweepers that I saw advertised on sale on one of the more well-known Chinese branded-product sales site -- they look like lawn mowers, but have counter-rotating sweeping brushes. (About $50-$100 for Chinese generic ones; $200 for name brands)

I don't know if they would work well with the gravely bits. And I don't really want to own yet more stuff.

I tried to look at tool rental, but it doesn't look like Home Depot rents anything like this.

A more construction-oriented tool rental place does have a ride-on sweeper, but they are $300+ just to rent for a day.

I don't want to just leaf-blower the area, as I don't think that does much except to displace really light-weight dust and leaves.

Is there something else that I should look into?

https://preview.redd.it/rv0jrltgq5kh1.png?width=541&format=png&auto=webp&s=c149474ec93b0a6d0d8d033af239838ddb69f4b4

I went to a BMW Drive Experience event and got a chance to try the i7. An over-the-top luxury vehicle. During the demo, the BMW rep switched the car between different performance modes which also resulted in different level of simulated engine noise.

And it was ridiculous. One of the main desires for an EV for me is to run silent. What felt really odd to me was that the noise was there, but the harshness and vibration didn't match.

I didn't take pics or videos (except for this terrible pic at the loading area), sorry, but here's a YT video showcasing the fake V8 sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXbRDpf8uVw&t=71s

Sound effects aside, the car was very impressive. The massage chair was nice (all four seats!), and the theater mode where the shades are automatically drawn and a large-screen display lowers for the rear passengers was pretty cool.

Alas, the test drive was very short on a mostly busy city street circuit, so I didn't get to fully explore the performance of the car. The car turned remarkably well for its size due to dynamic rear wheel turning.

https://preview.redd.it/h6zyadn4cgih1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=60edaca36bab22b0dce3ecb91a644f7a1a7883b5

I had an accident a few months ago, and after the repair, I seem to notice an noticeable loud clicking sound about a second or two after unlocking the doors with the remote. It doesn't always happen, but seems to happen after mostly when the car has been locked for a while.

I haven't ruled out the charge port locking mechanism; however, the sound is noticeably different from when I unlock the charge port with the remote.

I don't recall hearing this sound before the accident.

Anyone has any thoughts/suggestions as to what it might be?

Source: https://youtu.be/tWhXeL9jfD8?t=211

We in the U.S. are so behind...

Thankfully, we are starting to see a lot more announcements and actual buildouts this year. With more stations, EVs become more attractive to more potential buyers.

I recently had a thought that a kayak might be a fun hobby to try, and I'm wondering if living in Pasadena is conducive to enjoying kayaks. I did an evening paddleboard outing (in Newport) about a decade ago and really enjoyed it. I may be romanticizing the idea, but I am now wondering if a kayak (plus freshwater fishing, though not required) may be a way for me to have an outdoor hobby.

I'm helping a friend ceramic tint the sides of her Ioniq 5 to help with the summer heat.

I tried to find the window size to plan how much film to order and what it'll cost, but didn't find the information online, so I ended up measuring the windows myself with a tape measure. I then approximately reconstructed the window outline and dimensions.

The blue bounding box is what I consider to be the minimum safe working size of film. It looks like 20" wide x 15 feet (or 36" x 10 feet) will do the job.

Note: if you've never tinted windows before, be prepared to throw out the first few attempts trying to shrink the film to match the glass curvature. It's a learning process.

I am not doing the rear glass, as it's much larger and very curved and likely beyond my ability to do it well.

https://preview.redd.it/pg1j90dabbgh1.png?width=3459&format=png&auto=webp&s=58403a84c6431f613f3f8ff05d16fe343fd1d3ef

My L2 installation is conditionally approved with correction -- it needs a placard at the EVSE and at the circuit breaker indicating the current limit and that the limit is not to be adjusted.

Just in case anyone else runs into the same problem, here's what I did. If your inspector raises the same correction, show him this image and see if he's okay with it.

I am sending this to a print shop that makes outdoor weatherproof vinyl stickers. It's going to cost about $22 to print and have it shipped. ($15 + tax/shipping)

[EDIT: This language may not be appropriate for a fixed-limit installation that does not have dynamic load management... See comments below.]

https://preview.redd.it/8u255p9yc9gh1.png?width=1254&format=png&auto=webp&s=18166da1ce08da728e40ca143c4c4f1b9c4df47d

In case it's useful, here's the prompt to generate this easily with AI tool (I used ChatGPT):

┌──────────────────────────────┐
│          ⚠ WARNING           │
│                              │
│   ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM   │
│      EV CHARGER LIMITED      │
│                              │
│ Max Charge Current: 32 A     │
│ Circuit Breaker: 40 A        │
│ Controlled Load: EV Charger  │
│ Set Date: 07/10/2026         │
│                              │
│ EMS current limit is part of │
│ the electrical installation  │
│ and shall not be bypassed or │
│ increased without verifying  │
│ service capacity.            │
│                              │
│ Do not remove this label.    │
└──────────────────────────────┘
Can you typeset the above into a high resolution 2.5 inch x 2.5  inch square label suitable for printing?  The warning triangle should be a black triangle with a white exclamation mark. Put a solid orange background across this top header.

TL/DR; how should I evaluate whether Tesla is right for an aging driver and what specific things should I check?

My father's always been a sloppy driver. While he mostly avoided accidents, even as a kid, I remember seeing him being sloppy (drifting in lanes, not parking straight, etc.).

Now, as he is aging, he is starting to get a little slow and even sloppier. In the past decade, my parents' car has started to have various bumps and scrapes.

We have tried to have them use ride-hailing services, but they refused, as they don't want to rely on random drivers.

They have a friend with a CT who showed them FSD, and my mother has expressed a strong desire to now get a Tesla (M3 or MY).

My dad is kind of a tech-idiot. My mom is tech-savvy. While I wish my mom would do more of the driving, when they travel together, he's usually the one driving.

We have a demo/test-drive scheduled with Tesla. I'm assuming that an even longer rental would be better to truly evaluate if a Tesla would work for them?

What are some things that we should be mindful of addressing, especially with respect to more aging drivers, and especially with someone that is not Tech-savvy? Amongst my siblings and respective spouses/partners, we are split on whether the tech stack would be too overwhelming for him. I personally worry whether he might get even looser out of complacency and not able to adequately to make interventions. There is also a language barrier concern, as they are not native English speakers (and as they age, they are reverting back to Taiwanese/Chinese language all the time).

Also, is buying/leasing new for the latest HW for FSD essential?

Sorry for the wall-o-texts. TIA.

I hadn't fished in nearly three decades -- loved the quiet and inner-focus that I needed back then as a stressed-out college student -- and had been thinking about picking it back up again. When I saw fishing poles at Costco (two Uglystiks plus kitted tackle box for $80), I just grabbed them on a whim.

Now, I'm trying to figure out where to go. I used to go to Castaic Lake -- not exactly pretty, but it felt more remote and quiet, and the fishing was good.

Where do you go for fresh waster fishing? What do you like about that place? Where should I avoid?

Between the high heat, bright sun, and being a little distracted, I didn't notice the white car that blended with the sun-washed road in the backup camera view which I couldn't see very well due to the glare.

I'm sure the backup sensor was beeping at me, but I recently had gotten a bit numb to it due to the sensor always going off due to plants at a parking location I frequently visit. Bad mistake. Not realizing that there was a car parked behind me, I proceeded to back out of my parking spot.

And then, the Foot-of-God stomped on the brakes and for a moment I thought maybe I hit something. I heard the emergency braking alert sound as it happened.

Got out of the car to see if I hit anything. Thankfully, no.

https://preview.redd.it/69upa3c154fh1.png?width=1469&format=png&auto=webp&s=beee946f01d06ccf46e21bc9cc33e6929ba94b4f

https://preview.redd.it/n22bw1b4gcdh1.png?width=1477&format=png&auto=webp&s=4375ce81714109fd5916d44202fa902cfa492e3b

It's probably only meaningful to me, but I flew in a JAL 747 the year right after this model was released.

I just had a Level 2 Emporia Pro installed, hardwired on a 40 A circuit and set to 32 A max. I got it because it has dynamic management. The EVSE and the included Vue power monitor (installed at the main breakers) logs data so that you can monitor the power delivery.

This is what happened with my '23 LEAF SV Plug last night as I charged it to 100%. I found the charging curve interesting.

The charging rate hovers at 6.43 kW as expected through most of the session. Not quite the official 6.6 kW number, but close enough.

As SoC approaches 100%, that rate tapers down over 50 minutes to about 0.52 kW before charging initially stops.

After stopping, the charging cycles on and off (three times) with small charging bursts at 10 minute intervals. It's a small amount - only about 0.17 kWh in total. I'm guessing it's topping off as it balances the cells.

Sharing this info because I thought it was interesting.

https://preview.redd.it/ad8w3w4m9rch1.png?width=792&format=png&auto=webp&s=0596a2d95861910129397169d0da964dead32d81

https://preview.redd.it/jf9rq369arch1.png?width=785&format=png&auto=webp&s=4895acafe57b0f8cbf02e3ba1c7464fd35a71c84

My son is interested in pursuing a MechE degree in college.

He has two months of free time and he is open to the idea of working on a project this summer, but he doesn't know what, exactly.

I do a lot of EE work and have picked up bit and pieces of MechE-adjacent skills along the way. I think the future is headed where EE and ME will be more joined at the hips than they were traditionally.

What is a good thing for him to do on his own (with some participation from me)? He unfortunately realized his desire to go into ME only recently and never participated in things like FIRST FRC/FTC or the like. He had focused his attention on sports for a long time, so that was taking up all his free time.

What would have the best payoff? CAD/3D printing? Arduino based robotics? Making his own go-kart? Manual turning and machining? I can think of a bunch of things based on my context, but would love to hear from folks here.

Thank you!