Amopé is an electric personal care device for smoothing out calluses on the foot. I found one in the house that was low on battery and placed it on the charging cradle. After letting it sit over night, it was still low on battery the next morning. To diagnose the problem, I placed the two prongs of a multimeter on the contacts of the charging cradle. The needle moved, so I knew that the charging cradle was working.

For the next step, I secured the Amopé to the charging cradle with masking tape and left it alone over night. The next morning, the device was still low on battery.

I then noticed that if I applied pressure to the Amopé, the charging light would sometimes flicker. I tried placing a heavy object on the Amopé, but the charging light would not come on. So, I knew I had to apply even more pressure. That’s when I remembered that I had an Irwin Handi-Clamp. Once I clamped the Amopé to the charging cradle, the charging light started pulsing. I left the device alone until the Amopé had a solid green light. When I turned the device on, it was fully charged.

I had a large area rug with a non-slip rubber backing. Unfortunately, the rubber backing started to breakdown and adhered to the hardwood floors underneath. After a vigorous effort, I was able to remove the adhesive from the hardwood floors. However, disposing of the large area rug stumped me.

Since the local bulk disposal day was months away, I thought about cutting the rug into smaller rolls. However, the carpet was quite fibrous and had a thick canvas edge. I wasn’t confident that my regular scissors would do the trick and searched for carpet knife, only to discover that it was actually a real thing. So, I headed to Home Depot to pick up the Personna Pro Folding Carpet Knife. For $9.37 + tax, it was worth a gamble.

The moment I made my first cut, I could not stop smiling. That knife slid through that carpet like butter. The canvas edge took a few extra cuts, but I had the rug cut into strips and bundled for the regular garbage pick-up so quickly.

After two years, the Roomba started breaking down. First, the Roomba would not charge even when seated in its dock. The orange light would not pulse. The other behavior was that it would approach the dock, when the dock button was depressed, but it would twist, turn and collide with the dock as if it could not detect it. I finally called tech support, and we went through all the typical steps: resetting the Roomba, making sure the contacts touched the dock, etc. The odd trick that got the Roomba working again was to spray compressed air into the battery charging outlet.

So, the Roomba was charging again, but it would not return to its base. It would run out of juice before the cleaning cycle ended, which tells me that cleaning cycles are timed, instead of based on the remaining charge in the battery. After a few more weeks of delay, I finally ordered a new battery.

Installing the new battery was easy. Just remove a few screws. I also cleaned the Roomba at the time. With the bottom panel removed, I could see dust everywhere. So, the Roomba has been working like new again. On one hand, I’m disappointed that the battery only lasted two years. However, it was working every single day during that stretch, which is more work than all the other vacuum cleaners I have owned have put in to date.

This morning, I stopped by the local Orchard Supply Hardware store. This has been an unusually dry winter. However, the recent storms have woken me up in the middle of the night. I don’t mind the soft sound of rainfall. What I do find maddening is the drip, drip, drip sound once the rain tapers off.

I had previously used The Silencer, which is a sponge glued to a magnet. I don’t believe that the price has changed in six years! It was still $2 and change at OSH. But, for a product that last a season or two, I was open to trying a different solution.

Beside The Silencer, OSH also had RainQuiet for $6.99. Each box contains two pads. So, that is $3.50 per gutter versus $2.39 for The Silencer. If RainQuiet lasts for more than a season or two, it’ll be worth the extra buck.

So, what you get this about a 1/2-inch course mesh pad affixed to a plastic backing. This pad can be cut to size. I ended up trimming about 3/4-inch from the long side of the pad. It attaches to the gutter via a standard office binder clip. It’ll probably rust over time, but should not wash loose like the magnet.

In a few hours, I’ll be able to tell if RainQuiet delivers a good night of sleep.

Winter means rain, not snow, out here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Two years ago, I had installed The Silencer on all the gutter downspouts. The bad news is that these magnetic sponge pads wear out. The magnet portion is still good. It’s the sponge portion that fails over time. I think the glue that binds the sponge to the magnet finally broke down so all I was left with the magnet. Little use that does in silencing the continuous dripping sound. Fortunately, I had a few leftover Silencers since the only time that the dripping noise proves bothersome is late at night when I’m finally headed for bed and all the shops are already closed.

The next project is to save the leftover magnet from 2 years ago and glue a thicker sponge to it. I wonder if a thicker sponge might be able to completely dampen the drip, drip, dripping sound.

The Ryobi Non-contact Infrared Thermometer is one of those tools that you never realized you needed until you actually have one in hand. It offers both practical and fun applications around the home. If one room in the house feels colder than the others when the heat is on, you can easily take the temperature of the air exiting the vents.

I’ve also used the Ryobi Infrared Thermometer to measure the temperature of

1. dimmers;
2. frying pans;
3. incandescent, fluorescent and halogen light bulbs
4. laptops;
5. bath water

The Ryobi Infrared Thermometer displays the temperature of anything that you are curious about. A great stocking stuffer for Christmas.

Battery Change

The battery compartment for the Ryobi Infrared Thermometer is located under the trigger. The compartment door slides partially down, and then comes out.

Benjamin Moore & Co. recently released a free iPhone application entitled Ben Color Capture. From the application, you touch the Capture button to either take a photo or select one from your camera roll. Then, when you touch a point in your photo, Ben Color Capture will return a color strip with the matching Benjamin Moore color. I believe the Strip button returns a matching color strip and the Harmony button returns complementary colors. While this application is great in theory, color matching based on a photo is naturally an imprecise operation.

First, the color of an object can be affected by the lighting, as well as surrounding objects. For example, if you take a photo of your house, the color of your house will be different depending on the quality of the lighting. Obviously, in full mid-day sun, colors will appear lighter. Conversely, if you take a photo in the shade or on a cloudy day, the colors may appear more muted. So, while the Ben Color Capture application can give an approximate color range, it cannot return the exact color.

Additionally, nearby objects can affect the color of your house. For example, reflective tile can cast their colors onto a nearby wall. Of course, Ben Color Capture doesn’t account for all these factors. When I tested the application, Ben Color Capture said that the external walls were Wenge. In reality, I used Benjamin Moore paints and the actual color is Woodstock Tan, a significantly lighter shade of brown with a slight green cast.

Despite these shortcomings, I still like this application. If you are looking to paint (or repaint) your house and really like the color scheme that someone else has used, Ben Color Capture would be a great tool for finding a similar palette.

I never understood the Itsy Bitsy Spider song when I was a kid.  What the heck is a waterspout?  Nowadays, children have it easy.  Everything is spoon-fed to them.  You sing the spider song and see the nice colorful drawings of a rain gutter and the downspout.  Oh, that waterspout.  Well, it’s been raining quite a bit as of late, in contrast to last winter.  And, because of that, I’m hearing that drip, drip, drip sound more and more often.  Enough to actually do something about it.  Actually, the dripping sound was so noisy that my neighbor asked about it.  So, I head down to Orchard Supply Hardware and pick up “The Silencer.” OSH is selling them for $2.39/unit. With tax, my total cost is $2.59/unit. The Arkco website has them for $14.00/6-pack, or $2.33/unit, and this price includes sales tax, handling and shipping. Could have save $0.25/unit if I had first checked online. Basically, this product is a sponge with a magnetic backing. You can probably fabricate something like this on your own. I opened the package and placed the magnet on the lowest bend of the downspout. I don’t have any technical sensors to measure the decrease in decibels, but I can say that this product made an appreciable difference. It did not completely stop the dripping noise because water dripping on a sponge makes some noise. However, the sound level went from very obvious to barely perceptible. It’s worth the two bucks and change.

How do you rearrange the furniture after moving day? Without the able assistance of movers, we tried to move a heavy Toshiba television. Not one of those modern slim plasma TVs mind you, but a 5-year-old CRT. That big and bulky 200-pound monster was designed to sit in one place. We managed to ease it off the television stand and onto the floor. However, after we moved the television stand, we couldn’t get the television back off the ground.

After a few days of meditation, I headed down to the local U-Haul for a Forearm Forklift. I could have gotten a much better price via Amazon, but I didn’t want to wait another 3-4 days. So, with the Forearm Forklift in hand, I headed back home. This time, the television just floated off the floor, much to my amazement. Here’s the big secret. (1) Instead of lifting the television with my fingers, my much thicker and stronger forearms supported the weight of the object. (2) I didn’t have to search around for some non-existent handle or crevice to grab ahold of the television. The lifting straps make it easier to lift heavy objects without obvious places to grab onto. (3) With the Forearm Forklift, I could begin lifting from a position higher off the ground. So, instead of crouching down completely and being unable to generate any lifting power, I started the lift while seated. I didn’t have to lift using any upper body strength. Standing upright was enough power to hoist the television back onto its television stand.

I no longer fear the television. With the Forearm Forklift, we could move it again if we wanted to. It’s also much cheaper than a hydraulic lift table, which was the other solution I was contemplating.