Day: November 24, 2021

Turkey fryer

Why Deep Frying Turkey Can Go Very Wrong

November 24, 2021 by 93 Comments

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and that means Americans across the United States will be cooking up a turkey feast. One of the most popular ways to cook the bird is by deep frying it in oil.

Local TV stations everywhere spend this week warning about turkey frying. They’re not wrong… if things get out of hand you can end up burning down your house, if not your entire street. Let’s talk the science behind November turkey fires, and hopefully avoid a turkeyferno.

Simple Errors

The typical setup for deep frying a turkey involves lowering the bird into a big pot full of oil sitting on a gas burner. Ropes and pulleys are often used to lower the turkey into the pot to avoid getting one’s hands near the hot oil. Ideally, this should be done in a backyard, away from structures, to provide good ventilation and plenty of room in the case something does go wrong.

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Sam testing the motor on his ebike

E-MonoWheel

November 24, 2021 by 16 Comments

Generally, monowheels are that wacky, wildly futuristic transport that we lump in the same category as hoverbikes and jetpacks: strange, currently impractical, but very cool. Not content with waiting for the distant future, [Sam Barker] made his own electric monowheel. (Video, embedded below.)

The hardest part of any monowheel is that the outside rim needs to stand enormous abuse. It supports the weight of the vehicle and provides most of the structural integrity, but also is the means of propulsion. [Sam]’s first thought was to use a trampoline frame as it is a round and reasonably sturdy tube steel. He 3D printed the rollers that connected the subframe to the trampoline frame. Flat bar stock was used to make the angles inside the subframe and straight tube steel connected the inner frame into a trapezoid. The trampoline frame was welded together and on the first test spin, it broke apart from the stress. It simply wasn’t strong enough.

Not to be dissuaded, he found a company that bends steel into custom shapes. He stole the e-bike kit from another bike he had converted earlier, and the wheel was turning. Some handles and foot-pedal later, it was time for a proper test drive. Overall, the result is pretty impressive and the double-takes [Sam] gets while riding down streets in town are wonderful. If you’re looking to scratch the monowheel itch, check out this wooden monowheel.

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You Can’t Upgrade Soldered-On Laptop RAM? Think Again

November 24, 2021 by 82 Comments

Upgrading the memory in a computer is usually a straightforward case of swapping out a few DIMMs or SODIMMs, with the most complex task being to identify the correct type of memory from the many available. But sometimes a laptop manufacturer can be particularly annoying, and restrict upgradability by soldering the RAM chips directly to the board. Upgrading memory should then be impossible, but this reckons without the skills of [Greg Davill], who worked through the process on his Dell XPS13.

The write-up is a fascinating primer on how DRAM identification works, which for removable DIMMs is handled by an onboard FLASH chip containing the details of the chips on board. A soldered-on laptop has none of these, so instead it employs a series of resistors whose combination tells the BIOS what memory to expect. Some research revealed their configuration, at which point the correct chips were sourced. Surprisingly it’s not as easy as one might expect to buy small quantities of some RAM chips, but he was eventually able to find some via AliExpress. An aside is how he checked the chips he received for fakes, including the useful tip of hiring a dentist to take an x-ray.

The final step is the non-trivial task of reballing and reworking the new BGAs onto the board, before testing the laptop and finding the process to be a success. We’ll leave you with his final words though: “But next time I think I’ll just buy the 16GB variant upfront.“.

We’ve seen quite a lot of [Greg]’s work here at Hackaday, one of his most recent was this amazing LED D20.