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Celebrating the independent kiwi spirit of invention.


On this page: LED Driver List | O-rings & Tailcaps | Inventions & Fabrications | Solar Power | Swimming Pool Maintenance | Research


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

 
 


 

  • 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


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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.

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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Inventions: Super Soaker Backpack | Air Cannon | LED Torch

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