Aqualab

Celebrating the independent kiwi spirit of invention.

LED Driver List

A fully searchable list of commonly available LED drivers. Maintained in a database with more than 1,360 entries, and several have multiple configurations or versions.

The parameters for LED driver searches are passed in the URL so it's easy to bookmark the results of a particular search (although getting Google not to hit it up for gigabytes of downloads each month was a mission). If bookmarking a URL you can just use the parameters you want and delete the ones you don't.
14 November 2019 – all Lights Castle drivers removed; the site is now a scam site.
December 2022 – Fasttech has closed. The drivers are still included for reference.

O-ring, Tailcap, Cable Grommet & Silicone Grease List

A searchable list of commonly available silicone o-rings, tailcaps, cable grommets and grease. More than 370 items listed.
14 November 2019 – all Lights Castle o-rings removed; the site is now a scam site.

Inventions & Fabrications

Super Soaker Reservoir Expansion. How do I make the water in my Super Soaker CPS 1000 or CPS 2500 last longer? 12 February 2000.
Air Cannon/Water Gun. How do I make the Mother of All Water Guns? 28 May 2000.
LED Torch (LED Flashlight). How do I make something useful from a pathetic little torch? 5 October 2004, last updated 13 May 2009. (FYI - a torch is what Americans call a flashlight. But those Yanks are crazy anyway. If they say "I've got gas in my pickup" or "I'm fully gassed up" they're not talking about gastrointestinal rumblings. I've added a bit of history on the term "flashlight" to the page.)
Car interior lighting. Every so often I get sufficiently annoyed with the feeble lighting inside my car that I do something about improving it. 18 December 2007, last updated 8 November 2010.
Caving headlamp. Lots of notes I made designing a cave-worthy headlamp. 24 January 2010 to 15 May 2012.

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Solar Power and Camping

Solar panel types. At time of writing there are just three main types of solar panels that produce enough electricity and are widely enough available to be worth considering.
Battery types. Quite a few types, but it boils down to just two that are worth considering, and one of those isn't suitable for camping.
Solar charge controller. Some considerations of what is needed to make a good DIY solar power camping setup.
Camping fridge types. Three types, each with its own benefits.
Review: 200 W solar panel. Surprisingly well commoditised, and at a reasonable price.
Review: 12 V fridge. Also 12 V fridge specs (because the seller sadly doesn't provide accurate info) and 12 V fridge testing.
Review: Solar battery cell suppliers. Not a huge number of supplies, but at least one offers some great products.

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Swimming Pool Maintenance

Chlorine Shock Treatment. What it's all about, what to use, etc. This article stemmed from frustration about ridiculous and sometimes stupid advice given by pool professionals (and others) who should know better. Last updated 16 December 2001.
Non-Chlorine Shock Treatment. By using a non-chlorine product to shock your pool you can save money and time. Last updated 16 December 2001.
Chlorine Stabilisation. Unfinished, sorry.

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Research

Recommended articles are marked with a *.

*	Article	First Posted	Last Updated
	4WD Off-road Tyre Pressures. Is down-pressuring when I go off-road all it's cracked up to be?	29 Sep 2005	29 May 2009
	Anomalous Acceleration. Why are the Pioneer 10 and 11 space probes not accelerating as expected on their trip out from the Solar System?	11 Sep 1999	11 Sep 1999
	Apple's G4s to Russia. Why isn't Apple exporting its G4 supercomputers to Russia when it is now allowed to?	28 Sep 1999	28 Sep 1999
	Astrology. Why do people bother with this stuff?	11 Nov 2005	15 Nov 2005
*	Balrog Wings. Do Balrogs have wings?	5 Dec 2005	14 Oct 2018
	Barometer, How to Use. How do you use a barometer to measure the height of a tall building?	27 Sep 1999	27 Sep 1999
*	Batteries. This is a collection of articles that cover a range of battery topics. What type of battery should I use for [`insert activity here`]? How long will my batteries really they last? Where can I buy new batteries? *What was wrong with the Consumer* test?**	22 Jul 2002	21 Sep 2023
	Carbonic Acid. How long do caves take to form?	27 Jul 2009	12 Jun 2011
	Caving Overalls Fabric. What's the best fabric for making caving overalls that doesn't cost ridiculous amounts?	26 Feb 2018	14 Mar 2018
	CD-R, Destroying a. How do you destroy a CD-R? By Bob Starrett.	22 Mar 2000	22 Mar 2000
	Dice. A look at the probability distribution given by rolling numbers of six sided dice.	19 Feb 1999	28 Mar 2023
	Dice – Percentile. A look at various ways of creating a normally distributed percentile using dice.	14 Nov 2018	14 Nov 2018
	DV Colour Space. How come a DV stream is only 3.5MB/s when DV is fixed at 5:1 compression?	13 Jun 1999	13 Jun 1999
*	Famous Five ages. How old were Julian, Dick, Anne, and George? How old was Timmy? What years did the adventures take place? How can we optimise the timeline?	25 Dec 2005	4 Jul 2023
	Famous Five Alternate Optimised Timeline. If we dig a little deaper (aka, go a little crazy) how could we arrange the timeline?	22 Sep 2012	4 Jul 2023
	Famous Five Secret Passages. Which Famous Five books featured secret passages?	22 Sep 2012	4 Jul 2023
	FireWire, USB, and USB 2.0. Both FireWire and USB have advantages and disadvantages for different uses, but where does USB 2 fit into the picture?	11 Apr 1999	11 Apr 1999
	Flash Memory Cards. What types are there, what's best?	11 Jan 2003	18 Mar 2011
	Flash Memory Card Online Shops. What are the nicest web sites to buy flash memory cards from?	21 May 2008	18 Mar 2011
	Food Colouring Allergies. What food additives are people most likely to be allergic to?	12 Feb 2000	12 Feb 2000
	Freeze-Frame Swoops. How do they create those amazing freeze-frame swoop shots in music videos, movies, and TV ads?	14 Apr 1999	14 Apr 1999
*	Fuelstar Tin-based Fuel Combustion Catalyst. Does the Fuelstar tin pellet fuel catalyst really improve fuel economy by 12-15% and engine power by 5%?	31 May 2008	1 Apr 2015
	Ginger - What is IT? What is the revolutionary invention code-named IT and Ginger? Includes a short bio on inventor Dean Kamen.	12 Jan 2001	12 Jan 2001
	Greyscale & Gamma. How do I know if my monitor is adjusted properly?	30 Nov 2003	1 Jun 2004
*	LED Driver List. Why do I need (or want) a driver for my white power LED? What types of LED drivers are there?	1 Feb 2008	18 Dec 2018
	Lighting Efficiency How much light can I get from a halogen lightbulb compared with a high power LED for the same input power?	30 Jan 2006	31 May 2007
	Mayan Chronology. When did the Mayan dating system start?	20 Nov 1999	20 Nov 1999
	Moon, Unstable. How come the moon stays up when man-made satellites regularly fall down?	12 Sep 1999	12 Sep 1999
	O-ring, Tailcap, Cable Grommet & Silicone Grease List. A searchable list of commonly available silicone o-rings, tailcaps and grease.	24 Jun 2012	18 Jan 2016
	Peanut Butter. Who invented peanut butter?	7 Dec 1999	7 Dec 1999
	Risk Attack Rolls. What are my chances when making an attack in Risk?	3 Nov 2003	3 Nov 2003
	SCSI connectors. A brief explanation of the various SCSI connectors available, including diagrams of what they look like.	9 Apr 1999	9 Apr 1999
	Stationery codes. An explanation of the codes found on school exercise books.	20 Jan 2009	30 Jan 2009
*	Supercomputing Retina. Does the eye really do as much processing as a supercomputer?	26 May 2003	1 May 2009
	You Are My Sunshine. Now, what were those lyrics again?	9 Apr 1999	9 Apr 1999

Celebrating the independent kiwi spirit of invention.

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