The "New Toys" Thread

Hah, that one even has the LXT logo moulded into it. I have the USB charger too, very handy. Can recommend the folding LED torch.

I find that Amazon or eBay sales are a good time to get genuine batteries, sometimes with up to 25% off.
 
Some converter I found on google tells me 18V 4Ah equals 72Wh.
I also have an Anker 20100mAh power bank. Anker themselves claim it's 72.36Wh. So they're the same size, then.

In case someone is wondering how 4Ah and 20100mAh (20.1Ah) can be equal, it's because you accomplish a whole lot more with one unit of current (A, Ah) if you crank up the voltage. The best way to compare batteries is to use Wh or watt hours.
 
Some converter I found on google tells me 18V 4Ah equals 72Wh.
I also have an Anker 20100mAh power bank. Anker themselves claim it's 72.36Wh. So they're the same size, then.

That's a bit misleading, the mAh rating was clearly calculated at the cell voltage of around 3.6V rather than the output of 5V. That drops it down to a far less impressive 14400mAh. My 85Wh power bank is rated the same way though, at around 3.7V to get its initially impressive 23000mAh rating.

I had never done the calculations but having such an impressive capacity for USB charging from a tool battery is great because said 85Wh power bank is dead. I have one 5Ah Makita battery that gives me 90Wh so I will bring this to Ringmeet this year to charge my electronics. I've also never come across a power bank that charges in an hour.

Makita uploaded a video to Youtube yesterday of their new XGT series with 36V (advertised as 40V for some reason) batteries, one of which is 4Ah and a whopping 144Wh. No USB charger yet, though.
 
So they're upping the voltage now? I thought Makita were all-in on the 18V platform since they have things like lawn mowers with four 18V battery slots, etc.

Their new 18V wheelbarrow is hilarious, btw. One wheel drive.
 
So they're upping the voltage now? I thought Makita were all-in on the 18V platform since they have things like lawn mowers with four 18V battery slots, etc.

They have sold 36V batteries for a while but this is a totally different type, they're essentially just trying to play catch-up to DeWalt. Except DeWalt batteries are downward-compatible with 20V tools and these aren't. :dunno:

Makita seem very hit and miss with the good tools they sell, they now have a cordless machine polisher (DPO600) at a decent price but their equivalent to the portable vacuums offered by Milwaukee, DeWalt, Ryobi, etc. isn't very good value for money. I paid about £100 less and got this Bosch instead, it has a more simple filter and dust bin arrangement and is just as powerful. It just isn't brushless, such a big loss. Apparently I didn't post about it.

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I also got one of these adapters from eBay so I can use my Makita batteries with it.

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For a cheap thing from China it's surprisingly well made and works perfectly. The vac drinks a lot of juice, though.
 
Got tired of having to reach across my dining table to turn my torchier on an off and these were on sale... I just hope the app is made in a way where it doesn't have to go over the internet to connect to these so that I can firewall them off to be local wi-fi only.
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Plugging in things to charge is barbaric so picked this up for my phone/headphones at my desk at home.
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Replaces my Logitech M310. I was gaming with @TobiasG, @Anesthesia, and @Galantti when my existing mouse of 5.5 years kicked the bucket. Well I actually finally was fed up with the problems that I left the gaming session to go get a new mouse. I figured corded would be better and why not join the #pcgaminghardware lifestyle and get an RGB mouse?

All in all, pwns newbs well, I can headshot much easier now when sabotaging other players trying to complete missions. :D

@loose_unit and others have gotten the GloriousPC mouse, but $50 for a mouse was too rich for my blood, I’m more of a $30 mouse kind of guy.
 

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Always great when new hardware works as intended and nobody gets shot in the back by accident :D
 
So, I got a new robot vacuum. A Xiaomi Roborock 2 S50.

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I had an old Roomba before, bought used for cheap to test out the whole robot vac thing. The way it worked was you pressed the big round start button on top to turn it on, ideally before you left for work in the morning. It then trundled along and changed direction whenever it bumped into something. When the battery was getting low it started looking for the charger, but still not with any kind of brains. The charger had an infrared beacon on top and when (or if) the bot eventually managed to get within range, it docked to charge and turned itself off. Sometimes I would find it dead on the floor because it didn't make it home in time. I honestly don't know how good or bad the battery life was because one battery cycle equals one vacuuming cycle and that's that.

The Xiaomi on the other hand is LIDAR guided and connected to the internet and stuff. I'm fully aware they're a Chinese company and the amount of system permissions the iOS app asks for on first launch is mildly frightening. BUT, intelligent navigation is so much better than the dumb Roomba. It builds a floor plan of my flat and cleans everything methodically. If it runs out of battery it goes back to charge and continues on where it left off until the entire floor plan is finished, but it seems my flat is too small for it to use more than a third of the battery even with the vac set to full power "turbo" mode.

It's a lot better at actually picking up dust and dirt than the Roomba ever was. It's also a lot less rough on the furniture - for example, the Roomba always opened the bump-to-open doors and drawers on my IKEA TV bench. The Roborock doesn't.

And having the app is excellent because I never remembered to actually turn the Roomba on when I left for work. I can remotely start the Roborock at at any point during the day.

It's never been stuck on anything and I've never had to carry it back to put it on the charger. I'll probably move the charging station under the bed to get it out of sight because why not? When it needs emptying I'll just use the app to summon it :D
 
Been using it daily since I got it. Being able to just turn it on remotely from wherever while you’re fiddling with your phone makes a huge difference from having to remember to start it before you leave in the morning. It’s been stuck once and when I got home and moved my office chair it continued where it was, finished the job and went back to the dock.

It also doesn’t need emptying after every cycle like the ancient roomba did.
 
You are basically describing my Roomba :p

a friend described his roomba as “as dumb as before, the difference is it pings your phone when it gets stuck“ ? I guess he has an older model.
 
a friend described his roomba as “as dumb as before, the difference is it pings your phone when it gets stuck“ ? I guess he has an older model.
There are also like a million models that go from like $150-1000 so it also depends where on that price scale you land.
Mine usually gets stuck if I miss some random item of clothing or a blanket being on the floor and it gets stuck in the wheel.
 
Made my first computer component purchase since middle school that isn't a harddrive. Bought a 2nd 8gb RAM module for my laptop so that I can play RDR2.

My laptop can already handle GTA V maxed out, and I think this one upgrade will be what I need to be able to play RDR2 with fairly high settings.
 
Made my first computer component purchase since middle school that isn't a harddrive. Bought a 2nd 8gb RAM module for my laptop so that I can play RDR2.

My laptop can already handle GTA V maxed out, and I think this one upgrade will be what I need to be able to play RDR2 with fairly high settings.
Annnddd it doesn't work. Ordered an identical RAM module that came in my laptop originally, was delivered today with no packaging save for an unmarked anti-static bag. Popped it into my laptop and nothing. Took it out and laptop worked fine. Swapped it with the module that was in there and nothing. Swapped them back and it worked fine. So guessing I got a faulty module. Sending it back and getting a branded matched pair of 8gb sticks.
 
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Replaced the top one with the bottom one.

The old Radeon 7970 served me well for a good few years, but just wasn't quite up to the task anymore. The lack of hardware x265 decoding and upgrading to a 4K monitor several months ago had me itching to upgrade for a while. Historically I've always gone ATI/AMD for my video cards, but the ongoing problems with AMD drivers being (extremely) buggy with a few older games I still play a lot (as well as with plenty of newer games) cemented the decision to switch to the other team. The driver situation really has become intolerable.

The new one is an RTX 2070 Super, just a Windforce model, no built-in overclocking or anything. Haven't tried too many different games with it yet, but the difference in Horizon 4 between the two cards is nothing short of jaw-dropping.
 
iPad Pro 2020. Base storage (128 GB these days) and LTE because i actually use this thing on the go and tethering is annoying even if apple does make it seamless.

Expensive, but it’s a properly nice bit of kit. And as always with Apple stuff, there’s the mildly insane resale value. I financed part of this by selling my 2018 10.5” Pro. Got almost half the original purchase price back after two years.

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I've been using Makita's plastic Makpac boxes to organize my ever growing collection of 18V tools.

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They're stackable and can be latched together for easy carrying, but they're built from brittle plastic and I broke the hinge on one of them today so I would have had to shell out €30 for a replacement. There's also the pesky problem of them taking up the entire trunk of my car.

Spent €44 on one of these instead and it seems to be able to fit all my tools with a lot less wasted space.

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The longest side is about 70cm and it comes with a pair of wheels and a retractable handle so it can be wheeled like a carry-on suitcase. Awesome stuff.
 
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iPad Pro 2020. Base storage (128 GB these days) and LTE because i actually use this thing on the go and tethering is annoying even if apple does make it seamless.

Expensive, but it’s a properly nice bit of kit. And as always with Apple stuff, there’s the mildly insane resale value. I financed part of this by selling my 2018 10.5” Pro. Got almost half the original purchase price back after two years.
Very nice! I'm considering the same thing for myself, but I will go for more storage as it will have to replace my laptop (2010 13" MacBook Air with 256 GB). But I'm still waiting, as my laptop refuses to die.

The Covid-19 and home office situation meant that I had to buy some new equipment to make that work out. I bought a new keyboard and mouse. I went for the Logitech MX Keys and the Logitech MX Master 3 mouse. I love the comfortable keys, on that keyboard and the ergonomics of that mouse and how easy it is to switch devices between my desktop PC and my work laptop.
 
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