David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
Can you replace a battery in a tablet? That’s a good question. It’s almost always possible. The question is whether tablet battery replacement is practical. Some companies make it really easy to replace a battery, and some make it really hard.
Vintage Lionel transformers activated the whistle using a rectifier disc. These discs tend to degrade over time. You can expect to pay about $5 for a replacement disc. But a modern diode is much cheaper, works better, and is more reliable. Here’s how to replace a Lionel RW rectifier disc with a diode.
Lionel transformers use a selenium rectifier disc to produce a jolt of DC voltage to activate their train whistle. These discs degrade over time, so a decades-old transformer often produces a pretty anemic whistle–even one of the bigger transformers like the 190-watt Lionel KW. Replace the disc with a diode for a cost effective and reliable fix for that wimpy whistle. Here’s a step by step guide to a Lionel KW diode upgrade.
If you need to fix a screw hole that is too big, I have good news for you. Depending on the material you’re using, it’s usually pretty easy.
After talking about scale, Andy Tolch, owner of the excellent Andy’s Toys, asked me about the scale of Tootsietoy cars. I don’t have a ton of Tootsietoy cars but was able to identify and measure five of them. The results surprised me.
It’s a good idea to ask what to do between jobs, or in between jobs. What you do in between jobs can help your career, or it can hurt you. So it’s important to take it seriously.
Sometimes you need to wire a bathroom fan and light on one switch. Code often requires a fan in bathrooms these days, but you may only have one switch. Or maybe you have two switches but just want one switch to run both. Fortunately it’s easy to do. Here’s how.
In 1996, Dr. Thomas Pabst, a German MD then living in England, created a web page where he talked about motherboards, video cards, and a then little-known phenomenon called overclocking. Dubbed Tom’s Hardware Guide, Dr. Pabst’s hobby site spawned a long list of imitators, creating a new industry: PC hardware enthusiast sites.
In 2006 he sold the site and walked away.
For some people, the only enjoyable part of cleaning Lionel track is arguing about how to do it. The rest of us don’t even enjoy that part. Recently I unearthed a decades-old secret that mostly eliminates the need to clean track. Sound too good to be true?