January 2020 - Garage Topic

All Metal large Tablet Holder WITH Case For DJI Mavic Remote Control, Finally!

After many years of looking at drones, I recently acquired a DJI Mavic 2 Pro. I was slightly familiar with drones from watching YouTube videos and reading articles on the internet, but once I actually owned one, I quickly found out that I had a lot more to learn. One of the problems I was having was trying to fit my Samsung Note 8 properly into the holder that is part of the Mavic remote control. It just never seem to fit correctly. And when I did get it to stay in there (certainly not fit correctly) the cable connection was so sketchy that any little movement caused the USB C plug connection at my phone to disconnect. It’s pretty clear that DJI designed most of their stuff around Apple products, and that’s fine, but that doesn’t do me any good as an Android user. After looking around on-line I saw many aftermarket phone and tablet holders that looked great in pictures, but in person they weren’t so great. (I had to return several) I finally stumbled upon an all metal phone and/or tablet holder that looked pretty good, and based on it’s description it should hold my Note 8, OR my new Samsung TAB S6 tablet…. so I bought it.

Once the holder arrived, after being on back order for about two weeks, I was very impressed with the overall build quality and fit & finish. It is everything the product listing on Amazon says it is. The one problem is….. The only way for it to hold my Samsung Note 8 phone, or my Samsung Galaxy TAB S6 tablet, is to remove them from their cases. I did fly my drone a few times with my Note 8 removed from it’s case, but I refused to remove by new table from it’s case just to fly the drone. I really wanted to see the drone view on my larger tablet screen so I did fly it one time with the tablet on the tailgate of my truck with a long USB cable going to the controller. The large tablet made flying the drone WAAAAY better than watching on the small (relatively) screen of the Note 8. Way better!

So back to Amazon I went in search of a quality, all metal tablet holder that will hold the Samsung TAB S6 WITH a case. They don’t exist. At least not that I could find and I spent hours looking for something that world work. I even searched google for something that might not already be listed on Amazon. Again, no luck. So after some serious thinking, I discovered the all metal holder that I already own would do what I’m looking for with just a little modification. And so the modification project began.

After some measuring of my tablet and tablet holder, I knew what I needed and headed to the store. below is a list of items I purchased to make this modification in case you’re reading this and planning to do this same modification for yourself.

One piece of 1″ wide X 1″ tall X 1/16″ thick X 4′ aluminum angle. You don’t need four feet but my store didn’t have it any shorter You could get my with about three inches and still have leftover.
Four #6-32 X 3/8 long, Allen head cap screws. You can use whatever screw you would like but this is what my store had in 3/8″ length, by #6 diameter, and also had a drill bit/tap kit available in that size.
Two #6-32 drill bit/tap kits. I bought two, but if you don’t break anything, one kit should be just fine. They were slightly over 5 bucks each. I can return the unused set next time I visit that store, which is fairly often.

Tablet holder Mavic drone 1" X 1" X 1/16" X 4' aluminum angle — Tablet holder Mavic drone 1″ X 1″ X 1/16″ X 4′ aluminum angle

Tablet holder Mavic drone #6-32 X 3/8' allen head cap screw — Tablet holder Mavic drone #6-32 X 3/8′ allen head cap screw

Tablet holder Mavic drone #6-32 drill bit tap kit

Once I had all the parts and pieces it was just a matter of cutting two pieces of aluminum angle to the correct size, drilling two holes in each aluminum angle, drilling two holes in each end of the metal tablet holder, tapping threads in those four holes, and then assemble for test fitting. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of the hole drilling process but I just used a cheap bench-top hobby drill press. It even has a bent shaft so the chuck and drill bit run completely out-of-round. lol.

The pictures below show the results of each step:

Aluminum extension brackets cut to size and holes drilled.

Tablet holder Mavic drone aluminum extension brackets

Holes drilled and tapped in metal tablet holder.

Tablet holder Mavic drone holes drilled and tapped

Aluminum extension brackets installed on the tablet holder.

Tablet holder Mavic drone extension brackets installed

Finished with both extension brackets installed.

Tablet holder Mavic drone finished with both brackets installed

Test fitting the Samsung TAB S6 WITH case in the modified tablet holder.

Tablet holder Mavic drone test fitting on Samsung TAB S6 tablet

One last thing…. I need to take off the new aluminum extension brackets and do some filing and sanding to smooth all rough edges. I do have a large disc sander, which I did use briefly on these brackets, but it’s too course and leaves a rough finish. I need to hand finish these for a nice finsh that won’t cut my skin, or leave marks in the plastic tablet case.

This thing is ROCK SOLID now! The tablet fits very tightly and feels like it’s permanently installed. There is absolutely no movement to speak of. I can’t wait to fly the drone with this new (modified) tablet holder. Look for an update at the bottom of this article with the real world flight test results, and pictures of the finished, hand smoothed brackets.

Disclaimer: If anyone reading this has found themselves in the same situation I was, and is thinking about trying this modification, please do so with caution. Just because it worked for me without damaging the tablet holder itself, doesn’t mean everyone will have the same results. Precisely drilling and tapping small holes in sintered powdered metal parts (I’m pretty sure that is what the original tablet holder is made from) can be tricky. Not to mention, drilling a hole in an already small (relatively weak) piece of metal can remove enough material to cause the part to lose it’s original rigidity and can break very easily. MODIFY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Thanks for stopping by Garage Topic.

USS IOWA Machine Shop Tour. BB-61

A while back I toured the decommissioned USS IOWA Battleship in San Pedro, California. This USS IOWA was the first of four ships built in the IOWA class of battleships, which was the last class of battleships ever completed by the United States Navy. And if I’m not mistaken, these four ships were last battleships ever produced anywhere on earth. So, you could say, even at 78 years old this is the most modern battleship still in existence today, along with her 3 sisters ships, USS NEW JERSEY, USS WISCONSIN, and the USS MISSOURI. All four IOWA class battle ships are now floating museums. As mentioned the IOWA is floating in San Pedro CA, the MISSOURI is floating in Pearl Harbor HI, the NEW JERSEY is floating in the Delaware river in Camden NJ, and the WISCONSIN is floating in Norfolk VA.

I am a bit of a WWII Navy history nerd and touring this ship was a major highlight for me. I won’t bore the readers with countless specs and trivia about these ships because that isn’t really the focus of this website. However, the machine shop on the USS IOWA and all of it machine equipment is probably right in line with the interests of Garage Topic readers.

When I arrived at the dock where the IOWA is moored in San Pedro, I was very excited to just walk the deck of such a famous ship, let alone get a full tour. For this WWII Navy nerd, the feeling of being within feet of the ship was amazing. It made the hair stand up on my arms and the back of my neck. They have retired US Navy veterans welcoming visitors onto the ship as you walk up the gangway…. and of course I had to ask for permission to come aboard, which the Navy veterans granted immediately.

Once onboard you are allowed to walk wherever you like. It’s considered a self guided tour. The do have yellow arrows painted on the various decks which help to make sure you don’t get turned around and keep moving in the right direction. But you’re still free to tour the “open” spaces as you wish. In fact, I’m pretty sure I somehow got started on the tour backwards so I was moving against the grain for the entire tour. Luckily for me there wasn’t much of a crowd that day so moving against the grain wasn’t much of a problem.

Just as I finished the tour, and I was standing outside on the aft main deck looking over LA Harbor, one of the IOWA museum employees approached me and asked how I liked the tour. After visiting with him for 5-10 minutes, he asked if there was something I wanted to see that was not on the self guided tour. I said yes, I wanted to see the Machine Shop…. and he said “why didn’t you say something sooner?” lol. He said “that easy, follow me!” And off we went to the machine shop…

Below is a gallery of pictures from the USS IOWA machine shop. These are the same pictures shown in my YouTube video but they are probably easier to see in gallery form than in a video slideshow. Side note: If anyone reading this would like a full resolution copy of any picture(s) shown in this gallery, just send me an email and I will send the full res picture(s) to you.

One of the coolest things That I was shown in the Machine shop was this steel workbench top that was stamped with the name’s and home addresses of the men who worked in the machine shop during WWII when the IOWA was parked in Tokyo Bay on V-J Day, August 15th 1945 when the Japanese signed the instruments of surrender on the deck of IOWA’s sister ship, USS MISSOURI. This picture is included in the gallery above but I just wanted to crop-in a little to show detail.

Another cool fact about the IOWA machine shop is…. All of these big machines were lowered into this space while the ship was being built in the late 1930’s – early 1940’s. They have never left the ship since it was born, they have seen several wars and many years of on-again/off-again long term storage. The IOWA was commissioned and de-commissioned three different times for three different wars and spent almost 70 years on the US Naval vessel register. And the amazing thing is…. all these machines still work great! The USS IOWA museum staff still use these machines on a regular basis to maintain the ship to this day.

And lastly, I know this is a controversial topic but it’s worth mentioning…. When most Navy vessels become museums, they are usually demilitarized and most have their propellers removed so they can never move under their own power ever again. However, the USS IOWA is different… Even though this ship has been technically donated from the US Navy to the “Pacific Battleship Center” which is the non-profit organization who operates the USS IOWA as a museum, the United States Congress passed a law to keep the battleships, and specifically the USS IOWA, in such condition that if ever needed again, the ship could be returned to the Navy and active duty.

Below is a copy/paste from the the USS IOWA wiki page:

On 17 March 2006, the Secretary of the Navy struck Iowa and Wisconsin from the NVR, which cleared the way for both ships to be donated for use as museum ships; but the United States Congress remained “deeply concerned” over the loss of the naval surface gunfire support that the battleships provided, and noted that “navy efforts to improve upon, much less replace, this capability have been highly problematic.” As a partial consequence, Congress passed Pub.L. 109–163 the National Defense Authorization Act 2006, requiring that the battleships be kept and maintained in a state of readiness should they ever be needed again. Congress ordered that measures be implemented to ensure that, if need be, Iowa could be returned to active duty. These measures closely mirrored the original three conditions that the National Defense Authorization Act of 1996 which laid out for the maintenance of Iowa while she was in the “mothball fleet”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_(BB-61)

I know there is absolutely no way the US Navy would ever want to recommission an 80 year old ship to use in modern times. But for THIS battleship Nerd, just knowing that congress specifically made a law that would allow the IOWA to POSSIBLY return to active service greatly satisfies me.

I would like to thank all of the employees and volunteers of the USS IOWA museum who work hard every day to preserve this important part of US Naval history.

Thanks for stopping by Garage Topic.

Harbor Freight Braun 3 in 1 Quick Connect Light Kit Review. Folding Slim Bar Flashlight .

I take a look at the all new Harbor Freight Braun 3 in 1 quick connect LED light kit, item number 56200. This light was brand new for Harbor Freight in November 2019. It is very similar to the older Braun folding slim bar from last year but this new model is brighter and includes 2 other light attachments, along with a detachable magnetic hook for hanging the light, and a carrying case. check out the video below for more info.

The New Harbor Freight BRAUN 3 in 1 LED light kit.

YouTube video down below.

PROS:

Brightness. Just like the folding slim bar from last year, this new folding bar is VERY bright. This light will easily illuminate any tight work space with more than enough light to get the job done.

New attachments. This new BRAUN 3 in 1 model comes with a hook attachment that also includes additional magnets. The new attachment allows for even more mounting or hanging options so you can get the light pointing in just the right direction.

New light tip: The new folding slim bar has a loop on the tip of the light bar, which the old model did not have, which makes it much easier to hang this light under a hood, or in a wheel well. (for example)

Flexible shaft. The flexible shaft light is a great attachment for getting light into extremely tight places or into a cylinder of an engine for inspection. Its this attachment that makes this new product worth having in your tool box.

Removable battery. I am very happy that BRAUN and Harbor Freight decided to keep the removable 18650 battery, like the original light from last year had also. A lot of guys have purchased 18650 battery chargers with additional batteries from Amazon or eBay, and keep extra batteries charged so when their light goes dead, they’re not stuck waiting for a light to recharge. They simply swap out the battery for one that is fully charged and they’re back up and running within a minute or two. It’s great for guys who need a light for an entire 8-10 hour shift. Many of the other brands on the market who manufacturer similar lights do not have removable batteries.

Fairly well made. The overall light and it’s attachments seem to be fairly well made. The majority of the light base (handle) feels like it’s made from aluminum, along with the green quick disconnect collar. The attachments seem to mostly be made from sturdy plastic.

CONS:

Flashlight attachment. The standard flashlight attachment is nothing spectacular. Sure, it does the job of a standard flashlight but it’s not exceptionally bright, and it’s not the main reason for buying this kit in the first place. Not to mention, almost everyone already owns a standard flashlight anyway.

Storage Case. The storage case that comes with this light kit makes me scratch my head. The light and it’s attachments are NOT in the case when you you purchase the kit and it’s a bit of a puzzle trying to figure out the best way to fit all the pieces into the case. There are many small elastic straps and Velcro loops that are apparently designed to hold all the bits and pieces individually but yet nothing seems to fit particularly great. The storage case would be much better if it was just a zippered pouch….. no Velcro elastic holding straps, no mesh netting sewn into each side…. Just a small bag with a zipper is all you really need.

Over complicated, and basically unusable BRAUN 3 in 1 storage case.

Retail price. The original retail price when I purchased this light was $59.99, which is about 1.5 times the price of the original slim bar light from a year earlier. However, I don’t know anyone who has paid full price for their light because you can usually find coupons that make the price on the original light either $24.99, $19.99, and sometimes as low as $18.99…… So asking $59.99 for this new light kit is a bit of a stretch. However, as I write this review for Garage Topic I see the retail price today is listed at $49.99 on the Harbor Freight website, and I have heard of coupons for this light making it as low as $39.99.

Conclusion:

The light and it’s attachments are very nice. They work great and are very handy while working on cars, trucks, heavy equipment, etc. I have also found these folding LED slim lights (new style, or last years model) are excellent for camping. The magnets will hold the lights to my truck door, tailgate, bed side, or easy-up tent supports, etc. I won’t go camping without my harbor freight LED folding lights. At full asking retail price, it’s not that great of a deal. I recommend waiting until you find a decent coupon and buy this light kit at the discounted rate. The standard flashlight attachment is basically an after thought. Sure, it’s usable, but it’s not why anyone buys this LED light kit. If you need a folding slim light, or flexible shaft light, this is a great product when purchased with a coupon….. just leave the standard flashlight attachment inside the confusing storage case in the bottom drawer of your tool box, and then you will love this new BRAUN LED light kit. lol

Thanks for stopping by Garage Topic.

Chinese Hydraulic Wire Crimper with 4/0 Welding Cable Review

Today I demonstrate my new 16 ton Chinese hydraulic wire crimper that I bought from Amazon. I will be using it with 4/0 (four aught) 100% copper, fine stranded welding cable and per-tinned crimp lugs. I even cut apart the finished crimped fitting to inspect the quality of the crimp connection. I bought this crimper to use on a starting unit for heavy equipment that we were building a few months ago and I was impressed with it’s capability, especially for the low cost of the tool. I figured it was worth sharing my experience with the good people of Garage Topic and youtube. Harbor Freight offers a hydraulic crimping tool also, but it costs more than the tool in this review, and it’s a smaller crimper. The largest wire listed on the Harbor Freight tool is 0 AWG (zero gauge). The cable I am crimping in this review is 4/0 (four aught) which is four sizes larger than 0 AWG. (zero gauge) This 16 ton Chinese crimper comes with 5 sets of dies LARGER than the 4/0 I was crimping. (11 sets of dies in total) This thing is an absolute beast for the price. I should have bought this tool sooner!

YouTube video down below.

I am pretty sure that most of the 16 ton hydraulic crimpers listed on Amazon and eBay are probably from the same factory in China. They are just re-named, or re-branded depending what the private sellers decide to call the product in their Amazon or eBay listings. The unit I purchased from Amazon is called “Goplus”.

This is a picture of the hydraulic crimping tool I purchased:

PROS:

Low cost. I do not remember the exact price that I paid for this crimper but it was considerably cheaper than the Harbor Freight crimper, which is also considerably smaller than this unit. Not to mention, this crimper is WAAAY cheaper than the well known, brand name crimpers that is available on the market.

Capability. This crimper comes with eleven hex dies which will cover a wide range of cable and wire sizes. Everything from a wire just large enough that you wouldn’t want to crimp it with a hand crimper, all the way up to cable sizes that your average guy would probably never be working with anyway. Another thought I had was…. the dies are nothing proprietary. They literally look like a square piece of metal with a hex hole punched in the middle, then cut in half to make the die. A handy guy in his home shop could easily make custom dies for this crimper out of a square piece of mild steel, drill a hole, then cut in half. Presto! Instant custom die.

Simple and easy to use. This crimper is very easy to use. There is one vale to open and close just like on a hydraulic floor jack, and a handle to pump the hydraulic jaws together. That’s it. (The jaws are spring return) As long as you have the correct size dies installed for the size of cable and fittings you’re using, and you center your fitting in the dies, you really can’t screw up the crimp. Then you just pump the handle until the dies come completely together, so there is no longer a gap between the dies. Done.

Complete kit. The crimper comes in a blow mold case, which is not very good quality, but the only thing the case does is hold the tool and dies together while being stored. The case does not affect the functionality of the tool while it’s crimping wire or cables. And besides, for the cost of this tool, I really didn’t expect the case to be great anyway. lol. It also comes with an extra set of o-rings so when the tool develops a leak in the future, you will already have the o-rings to fix the leak….. if the extra o-ring kit isn’t lost by then. lol

Quality of crimp. I was very impressed by the quality of the finished crimp. Between the size of dies I was using, and the size of the fittings and cable I was crimping, I was VERY happy with the result of the finished crimp. I used my sawzall to cut a test crimp apart to inspect the crimp quality and it looked perfect to me. See for yourself below:

Freshly cut apart with sawzall to inspect quality of crimp

Finished crimp with adhesive lined shrink tubing

CONS:

My number one complaint is die sizing. The numbers on the dies are not inline with any numbers used for wire sizing here in North America, not this part anyway. I’ve been told it’s some sort of metric wire sizing….. which is perfectly fine, but it’s just not very convenient of anyone in North America. You would think if they’re selling millions of these crimper kits here in North America, it wouldn’t be too much trouble to have a different set of dies stamped with AWG sizing. It takes a little trial and error to get the correct size die for your project. I recommend at least one or two test crimps with scrap wire to make sure you get the sizing correct before crimping anything on your project itself. I was mildly upset with the die sizing but then I remembered how much I paid for this crimper kit and I immediately had a smile back on my face. lol.

Other than die sizing, and the low quality case, there really is nothing else to complain about with this hydraulic crimping tool.

Conclusion:

I would absolutely recommend this hydraulic crimper to anyone who needs to crimp any wire or cable that is too large to crimp with a hand crimper. It is a complete kit that covers a wide range of wire and cable sizes, it is very easy to use, it gives very high quality crimp results, and is very reasonably priced. The only down side would be if you’re a commercial contractor, who needs to prove that he used certified crimp fittings with a certified crimper, on a commercial job, then this crimper would not be for you. However, if you found yourself in the situation that I just mentioned, you’re probably not reading this review anyway. You would most likely be standing at the city desk of your local electrical supply house picking up that well known, brand name crimper that I mentioned earlier in this post, and paying 60 times (roughly) more than I paid for the crimper in this review.

For the average guy who is looking to crimp heavy gauge welding cable, or battery cables, or even cables for your DIY solar system install, this crimper would be excellent for you.

Thanks for stopping by Garage Topic.

Check out the crimper video on my YouTube channel

Autel MK808BT MaxiCOM Wireless Bluetooth OBDII Professional Scan Tool

I was able to review the Autel MaxiCOM MK808BT OBDII scan tool a while back. There are several reasons why I like this scanner, and a few reasons why it’s not so great. First, lets cover the main reasons why I like the MK808BT.

YouTube video below.

PROS:

1) It will communicate with every module on any OBDII vehicle. Every vehicle made has different modules that monitor and control certain systems of the vehicle. This OBDII scan tool will scan for codes and provide live data from every module in the vehicle that it’s connected to. Most cheaper OBDII scan tools will only scan and display data from the the ECM. (Engine control module) Well, that’s great, but what about the other 5 or 10 (or more) modules in that vehicle? Abs brake module, SRS module (air bags), fuel pump module, body control module, transmission control module, etc, etc… This scan tool will scan and display trouble codes and live data from every module in the vehicle.

2) It has full live view data. The live data list for any given module is 100% complete. If the data PID exists in any given module, it will be displayed on the screen. A lot of the cheaper OBDII scan tools will only display a few of the most common PIDS and hide the rest. This scan tool displays all data PIDs

3) The Autel MK808BT will also display generic OBDII data from any vehicle…. which is data without the manufacturer’s (vehicle make) overlay. It’s just raw data from the vehicle.

4) It has wireless Bluetooth connectivity between the scanner and the vehicle – VCI. When you power-up the scan tool, about one second later you’ll hear a loud BEEP. That beep lets you know that the scanner and the VCI are connected to each other and they are ready for use. This happens automatically, every time you turn the scan tool on. I’ve never NOT had it connect immediately. The Bluetooth data connection between the vehicle’s OBDII port and the Autel scan tool is very good. I did not walk very far away from the vehicle to do an overall distance test, but I did walk around the vehicle inside the shop, and outside in the driveway and I never lost connection. The speed of the connection also seems to be very good. I did notice that it took about a half to maybe 1 full second to fully populate a full live data list but I’ve noticed that same delay with my MK908P which is a much more expensive scan tool. That short delay could have also been caused by the computer in my test vehicle. Either way, it was such a minor delay that it was barely worth mentioning. I only noticed the delay because I was specifically looking for it. Another thing I liked about the wireless Bluetooth VCI is that it comes with a mini USB port so if something happens to your wireless connection, you can simply connect a USB cable between the VCI and the scan tool and it now becomes a wired connection. I did test this and it worked flawlessly.

5) It offers all the main “service functions” like EPB, DPF, SAS, ABS, BMS, TPMS, auto brake bleed, oil reset, etc. Most of the cheaper OBDII scan tools do not come with the ability to perform ANY of these typical service functions… but this comes with pretty much every service function you could need. The list of functions are “possibilities”. Keep in mind, if some (or all) of these function do not exists in your vehicle’s computer, then this scan tool will not be able to command those functions. For example: EPB, which is electronic parking brake. My 2006 GMC 1500 pick-up does not have electronic parking brakes so that function does me no good because the computer in my truck wouldn’t know what to do with that command. lol.

6) This Autel MK808BT has SOME bi-directional controls. For example, I can operate the blend doors in my dash for the HVAC system, open and close all eclectic windows, lock/unlock the doors, etc, etc. The scan tool will be able to operate some functions inside the vehicle depending on the make/model. My test vehicle is a 2006, if you tried it on a newer vehicle it may operate more functions as cars became more computer dependent, and more modern over the years.

7) Other pros worth mentioning: The scanner runs on the Android operating platform and it feels like it’s physically very well made, it does not feel flimsy at all. It comes in your typical blow mold case with owners manual, power brick and two USB cables. (one long, one short)

CONS:

1) The MK808BT does NOT have full bi-directional control. Sure, I mentioned earlier that it had some control, but I haven’t been able to find any power train controls. I am not able to cycle the fuel pump, I am not able to open/close evap solenoids, etc, etc. Unfortunately, if you NEED bi-directional controls, then you will need to step up $300-$400 dollars more and buy a higher end model. However, if you are good at diagnosing modern cars, you may not need bi-direction control. The fact that this scanner has FULL live data for all modules, that should be enough to diagnose MOST problems on today’s vehicles.

2) Annual updates are NOT free. This isn’t the end of the world because having to purchase annual updates is fairly common with mid to high end scanners but it still sucks for your average guy to pay for updates that may only get used a few times per year. If you’re a mechanic working in a busy shop and use your scan tool every day, then it’s not such a big deal.

Conclusion

The Autel MK808BT is an excellent OBDII scan tool for serious DIYers, backyard mechanics, and even full time mechanics. If you’re looking for a scanner that will display ALL data for any given vehicle (whatever you’re plugged into) along with having the ability to perform all service functions, then this tool will be hard to beat! If you absolutely NEED bi-directional control, then skip this tool and keep going up the line to find another model that will fit your needs.

Please check out my YouTube video review about the MK808BT below.