r/techsupportmacgyver

so i throttled my speed a bunch so its spread over a couple days
stupid but it scratches the itch

I had issues where smart devices eg a robovac refuse to connect to Wi-Fi networks with an absurdly random password. I figured it was the password. It's something along the lines of Fa_uP+Wu'&#m"z){Q='3,j^H>9>>M)j and I had issues putting it into ESPhome's secrets.ymal file despite trying to escape the special characters.

Even though there is only one antenna, the throughput is less than 2 Mb/s for download and upload, just enough for commanding IOT devices, it can barely load it's own web UI.

The extra capaictors are added as I had issues in the past from powering the ESP32 with USB cables. It's being powered by a SMÅHAGEL. (rarely IKEA does fire sales on their USB chargers)

The ESP32 is powered by https://github.com/martin-ger/esp32_nat_router and put on a guest network.

Lenovo Y50-70

I reused the Kensington Security Slot to insert a USB-C port with a decoy board to supply 20V from a USB GaN power supply.

The decoy board was supposed to be an IP2721 but in reality a Chinese clone arrived so the external LED I installed lights up regardless of the Power-Good signal. In series I inserted an "ideal diode" XL74610, to avoid voltage feedback when using the original power supply. A mosfet is also connected to the decoy board output, which connects a 560 ohm resistor to the sense pin, so that the computer interprets that a 90W power supply has been inserted.

Its a pd 45W one. Has a lot of life left on it.

I have made myself a heatsink for my SSD using a spoon and some thermal paste from a Dell precision M 4700. The reason why I did this is it would throttle down to 300MBPS. With this upgrade it now hits 1GBPS for about 2 seconds throttles down to 700MBPS for half a sec and then returns to 1GBPS. Overall an improvement my main test was downloading TF2 and it burned my finger when I touched the spoon so good I guess. Total cost: my favorite spoon. Also no it does not hit the back panel.

My roommates' 97 TJ threw a couple check engine lights, then stopped running entirely. The hint was that the CEL **wasn't** coming on when I turned the key. Capacitors had leaked and dissolved the flex PCB, the 5v regulator circuit was straight up gone! I tried repairing it with new capacitors but there just wasn't enough left. As a hail mary before spending hundreds on a used ECU that probably has the same issues, I tried two $0.50 5v regulators from Amazon and it worked! The check engine light even stopped tripping and the engine runs better lol. Not a bad fix for $1. Screw Chrysler for using shitty capacitors, and why is this this even a flex PCB?? Anyway I smothered it in 3M Quadrack hot glue and resealed it with RTV before bolting it back on and sending it around the back 40.

My Quest Pro’s USB-C port died a while back, and honestly I was pretty close to just throwing the whole headset away. I tried different cables, angles, chargers, and all the usual “maybe it’ll magically work this time” rituals, but it kept getting worse until it basically became an expensive paperweight. I couldn’t justify buying another headset when the rest of it still worked perfectly, so one night I decided to do something completely ridiculous and tore apart the charging dock to see if I could somehow feed power directly into the headset. At first it just made the screen go black because the headset thought it was docked, and I genuinely thought I had finally killed it for good, but after a lot of trial and error, soldering tiny wires, and making increasingly questionable engineering decisions with tape and zip ties everywhere, it suddenly worked. Now it charges while I play, and even though it looks like something salvaged from a sci-fi junkyard, I weirdly love it more now than when it was stock.

This is the Motospeed CK101 a cheap mechanical keyboard which I like because it's white and has Greek keycaps. It had a Micro USB plug which broke after a few months of use so I decided to save the keeb using a 4 wire female Type C plug from AliExpress. Thankfully the board had pads for a female JST plug that is used in other models, this gave me plenty of room to solder and also allowed me to cut the Micro USB part to fit the Type C plug.

AMD does not (in most cases) support the Thunderbolt protocol and no adapters exist to convert thunderbolt 2 to simpler display port (afaik).

Here, (on the Dell laptop) I used a virtual display driver + the Sunshine app to “stream” the display data to the old MacBook Pro.

On the MacBook Pro, I used the Moonlight app to receive that stream and output it to the Thunderbolt Display via the Thunderbolt port. The Thunderbolt Display even keeps the MacBook Pro charged with its built in MagSafe charger.

And only one cable to the Dell for everything. (I connected the Ethernet cable to the dock after taking this picture)

Latency is absolutely nill and feels like a native display!

Howdy everyone,

For reasons unique to my home, I have a need for a wireless controller with a more directional focus.

I maxed out the number of wired controller extenders I can use (depending on the consoles controller port voltage and amp output) so I had to think of a way to maximize the waves themselves.

My solution is a 3cm tall plastic pizza table glued to an aluminum 12"x12" street sign.

From my testing, I get at least 33% more range with this setup, than letting the wave propagate purely omnidirectional.

Anyway, since my results were so good, I thought I would share it with you kind folks who may be in a similar situation to myself, and wish you had just a few more extra meters of signal.

super Glue + baking Soda + pen refill

LG V35. noise free, crisp, full 32 bit 44.1 effects chain in a termux container going straight to the DAC, android is completely out of the way now

adreno 630 GPU acceleration, audio playback via internal storage or firefox. no root required

impulse response, delay, 30 band equalizer, plenty of other effects. i use this as the DAC for my stereo setups and IEMs

source shows up as s16, but all the linux apps are showing up as float32 sources with resampler copy straight into the effects buffer

i had to fight both android and linux for this, learned a ton about how audio moving through memory and buffers can affect bass and treble quality. but the resulting audio quality was absolutely worth it. the DAC is the entire reason i bought this phone. intending to try REW room correction by using this as a source now that its all running at the same bit and sample depths, and before i was fighting buffers which messed up the clock and distortion. it wasnt audible but it was very fatiguing on the ears

Had corrosion damage from a leaking bridge battery, which killed the inverter and the ccfl was dead. Managed to get a replacement oem inverter from a similar model, but the ccfl in that one is about to die.

Got a cheap led backlight kit, did a shite job replacing the dead ccfl with leds. The inverter with the kit isn’t compatible (wacom power supply is on the same pcb)

Fuck it, external power. (Until I replace the display)

I’m in France with an old 1960s guillotine paper cutter. I’m trying to keep her around but the electromagnet has been giving issues.

Today the cylinder that holds two copper rings totally broke off, making the electromagnet clutch inoperable. I’m trying to get a handle on vocabulary and the machine simultaneously to see if I can fix both. If anyone’s liable to want to help out.

Third photo is the piece that broke off. Fourth photo is the piece it broke off from. Second photo are the spring-loaded retractable rods that make contact with the copper rings as they spin. Today it heated up which must have caused the issue but I’m not sure how or why. It also seems like the two pieces may have been merely glued together…the break is extremely clean.