British Tech Guru

Yes, the welding doesn't look perfect and it has warped the 14 gauge steel body panel but it has held up for 10 years. It was done with the old Harbor Freight AC stick welder using 1/16th welding rod, moving it quickly to avoid burning through the steel. It isn't pretty but it works and as I said, it has been there 10 years so it clearly isn't going to fail.

I took the 120v inlet out and covered the hole with aluminium tape which I then sprayed white like the rest of the bus. In 10+ years I have never really needed 120v. At one time I had a microwave in the bus but it was one from my old apartment and it rusted through while it was just sitting in the bus - not from wet in the bus but from rust that clearly had been hiding under the paint on the inside. The electric kettle I had in there fell apart when I used it in the house. After that I just figured there was no point in replacing them since I have no generator. A $20 butane cooker will replace both the microwave, the kettle and eliminate the need for a plugin or a generator. It also allows me to keep my solar minimal (just like I like it).

So I worked on Labour Day to remove the 120v inlet and probably pulled or strained muscles that will give me grief on Tuesday. Now I need to work on putting the 12v power distribution panel under the counter. That's a job for next weekend since I do not wish to tear myself up so badly that I need to take time off work.

The basic plan is next weekend to install the distribution panel and then to install the shelf in the cupboard so I can put things that are on the counter in the cupboard. That might not all happen next weekend but it would be nice if it did. I want then to use the milling machine to make four panels for my XT60 connectors. Once they're in place I can make some switch panels using the milling machine.

It'll probably take several weeks to reach a point when my micro machine lab is completed. This is the frustrating thing - so many youtubers make things look quick, easy and pump out so many videos because they don't have real jobs or make real money. A lucky few are probably just kept by a partner who makes more money.

I did get to try out one of my milling bits and it performed really well.

Having got the 12v supply line from the back to the front and the 120v supply line out, I have the machine lab workbench to complete then the other jobs waiting to be done on my motor-home conversion will be...

1. Move the driver's seat mount back 6 inches.
2. Replace the brake lines to the rear wheels.
3. Install shatter proof screens over the windows inside.
4. Strip and paint the whole vehicle. This time, using Acrylic paint instead of the terrible paints that the online schoolbus groups advocate.
5. Screens outside the side windows for privacy and protection.
6. Shelves at the back.

Add into that electronics and robotics projects. It's all going to be very busy.

1 day ago | [YT] | 2

British Tech Guru

I had intended to put the power cable through the gland in the floor of the mobile lab. Sadly, after a week of work my back was not happy. That's not to say that I have been in the slightest idle however. Those that know me know that I'm always doing something - mostly to help others.

Anyway, I took the two Home Depot recycled rubber mats from under the bus last week and put them over the railings of the disabled ramp. As one wasn't in great condition I decided to put both on the ground where I make my videos. While doing that I noticed the table and chair which are of unknown vintage are in poor shape. Something to consider when the chair collapses under me, depositing me on the ground or when the immense weight of a Pi Pico collapses the table.

Now I have something black and rubbery as a base for when I sit to make my videos. It's nothing special but does give me somewhat of a use for the brand new but rotting rubber mat and the other rubber mat too.

I do intend to put the power line through the floor into my micro machine lab this weekend (even if it's on holiday Monday). Today as I said, my back was giving me grief. Tomorrow I will have to help my disabled lady friend by hefting her electric wheelchair up and down with the manual lift on the pickup. That is always a workout!

One of the other things done today was to take off the mass of cardboard that filled the pickup truck bed to the brim and beyond. That's the biggest problem with everything having to be ordered online instead of being able to go into a shop to buy and pick it up the same day. The other thing was to take the ordinary refuse bags off. There was space for another 3 in the bins but since I had the pickup out I did those too.

As it has been near a month since I last drove the pickup it ran a little roughly but smoothed out by the second run. It's always an exciting drive with no functioning shock absorbers and as I discovered today a footbrake that only works when the engine is on and a park setting on the transmission that allows it to roll backwards.

The plan with the micro machine lab is still to put the wire through the gland currently used by the old 120v inlet. The cable bundle then will go to a 6 gang terminal block. I have to use a terminal block for neatness. The wire I'm using underneath is copper clad aluminium. I'll use pure copper wire inside as I can solder that. I want to mount the power outlets and the switches on machined aluminium plates. For that I need to use my milling machine via a temporary power connection. That'll be an experiment - how many layers of 1/8th aluminium can I mill at one time. I hope 4 for the power connectors and 2 for the switches. I want to try to make them all to be identical.

I've looked at 12v drill presses but they have universally seemed to be awful with very sloppy quills. The quill on the press I bought that worked with the 12v drills I bought was sloppy beyond belief. I measured 2mm of slop - enough to snap any drill bit under 1/4 inch! It thus looks like building my own drill press using a pair of linear sliders is probably coming in the future.

Now that Trump's stealth tax has made everything from China horribly expensive I'll have to be very careful about buying anything. It's all made in China even if it's assembled in the USA. The only way to get around the China taxes would be to drive to Canada, have them shipped to Canada and then drive them back across the border. The problem there is that it's 865 miles from here to the nearest Canadian town so that's 1730 miles round trip and at 19mpg at my local $2.65 a gallon, a total cost of $241 of fuel alone - not to mention probably 3 - 4 days worth of driving and hotels for several nights. At that, it's cheaper just not to buy anything until I happen to be in a different country.

Checking Temu's prices... I bought 20 LM317T power controllers for $4.98 in late 2024. Now that order would cost me double that. Sure - it doesn't sound much but when you consider the sheer volume of stuff I used to buy for my electronics lab. I'm lucky I guess in being well supplied for a while.

So, I can't now just willy-nilly buy Chinese equipment to try out and keep using if it works. It's a shame because a lot of what I would buy just is not made in the USA.

2 days ago (edited) | [YT] | 3

British Tech Guru

This was part II of breakfast - a steaming cup of instant coffee (who's got time for all that messing about with coffee makers) and an apple fritter (hey, it's got fruit in it so it's healthy). I had a leisurely breakfast as my back was punishing me for being alive, courtesy of a work accident a few years ago. No - I'm not on disability - I enjoy working too much.

So, after breakfast and a few domestic chores (Y'all know the kind of thing - 'er indoors standing over me, brandishing a whip in one hand a flogger in the other with an electric cattleprod shoved in her belt just in case while I did them) I got on to working on the bus and the lab wiring.

A few days ago I had a dry afternoon and the day off so I spent an hour wiggling under the differential and trying various tools and ways of getting a single screw inserted into one of the bus ribs and the cable attached via a cable clamp. By the time I'd done that I was exhausted and my back was giving considerable grief.

Today I've been under again and am working more on the wiring. Aside from vicious mosquitoes I have had to go under and come out from under the bus several times. I'm sure my back will be even more interesting tomorrow. But I'm at the point where I can run the cable as far as the entry point. I don't know if I'll make it this weekend but I'll try. I really want to get power to my micro machine lab.

A couple of days ago I put a seemingly unpopular posting about racism having seen too many nationalist styled UK videos. I got some really angry responses after drawing attention to the disguised racism in them. I just hope I don't get so many of those video nasties showing up in my feed. Here are some of the nasty comments left (posters names redacted).

1. This is one misguided soul.
Why did youtube recommend this video?

2. Because Englishmen traded their balls in for soy about 20 years ago. Have fun being Africa 2.0.

3. I watched 1m12s before I had to stop. At this point in the game you are incapable of being educated, and your rhetroic is harmful to the country that made you and the people that make up tht country and pay for its invasion. Shame on you. Your channel will not go much further, thankfully.

The poster of comment 3 seems to have deleted their comment. I'm assuming that these 3 people were racists. I don't bow before racists, sexists or any other group that seeks to support anything other than equal rights. I don't believe in fewer rights for any group or more rights for any group. All must be equal.

My response to all those posters was "Thanks for boosting engagement, much obliged." I'm not angry at any of them for their comments or their downvotes. I'm just disappointed that so many support inequality and lack compassion for others. And yes, I forgive them as they have not yet learned the important things in life are kindness and compassion.

So, my aim for this weekend is to get power to the entry point of the micro machine lab.

1 week ago | [YT] | 0

British Tech Guru

Seeing Racism Exploit YouTube—and Why It Bothers Me

I still can’t get over how much openly racist content is allowed on YouTube. I’ve seen videos spreading xenophobia, antisemitism, and outright racial hatred—content that should be banned under hate speech rules. Yet some of these videos have stayed up, while others get taken down—not for the racism, but for pirating Pink Floyd. That’s the world we’re living in.

Racism in Britain has deep roots, and it affects everything from politics to everyday life. The Brexit vote is a stark reminder: far-right groups used fear and prejudice online to sway opinion, amplifying division with alarming speed. Watching these tactics in action online is both shocking and depressing.

It’s the way these videos normalize hate that really gets to me. They present dangerous stereotypes as truth, turning viewers into unwitting carriers of intolerance. YouTube should be a platform for learning and connection, yet it’s being abused by extremists, giving their ideology a megaphone it shouldn’t have.

I find this abhorrent. Racism damages people, communities, and society as a whole—and seeing it spread online makes it feel like we’re backsliding. Platforms need to enforce their own rules more consistently, and all of us need to stay alert to the narratives being pushed. I want YouTube to be a space for curiosity, creativity, and understanding—not a breeding ground for hate.

1 week ago | [YT] | 1

British Tech Guru

Brain fog sets in fairly quickly in high temperatures. Those of my viewers who don't experience temperatures in excess of 90F or 35C have probably never experienced it.

Working today in the bus it was very hot with high humidity. Outside the humidity was 90% and the temperature rose to 97F. Inside the bus was muggy and oppressive. In fact due to the weather I have had a headache all day.

So, working is a case of doing very small amounts in short periods with longer periods of rehydration and cooling down in the air conditioning. It was almost a case of doing one screw and having to retreat to the AC.

What happens is - while you're still cool, work goes well. As you warm up, work becomes more challenging and mistakes happen; things just don't go quite right and then brain fog sets in. That's when you can't see why it didn't go right. Some people at that stage would get angry and make more of a mess. I tend to stop and go to sit down to try to work out what's happening. Then I realise I'm just sitting there getting hotter and it's an effort to do anything. That's when I head indoors for fluids and cooling.

Today was one of those days. Forget making videos - that's just too much on top. Mind, doing one screw does not make an entertaining video.

Right now I have several projects on the go:
1. Underbus wiring for the micro machine lab.
2. Installing the micro machine lab
3. Putting shelves in two cupboard under the micro machine lab.
4. Brakelines - I still have not finished those.
5. Reworking a wiper mount I had to DIY.
6. Reworking one of my two backup camera mounts.
7. Moving the driver;'s seat back. It needs to go back further than I can adjust it.

Then there are all the electronics and machining projects I need to do. I could definitely do with another Covid shutdown. I got so much done during Covid shutdown. It took a month or two but I did get my parking area and driveway laid perfectly using just a wheelbarrow, shovel, rake and 50 tons of crusher run. I got on with quite a few other infrastructure projects on the homestead too. That was all before my back injury - that slows me down a lot. It makes going under the bus somewhat painful every time.

1 week ago | [YT] | 1

British Tech Guru

The problem with 3D printing is not the obvious one. People will say "bad filament: or "Chinese" or "bad printer" without looking beyond what they read online. I've had this printer probably for over a year and it has produced some usable prints. These, though, have all been small prints. I set to recently and tried several of the tips and tricks employed by the 3D printer community and came to the conclusion that it was something else as none produced any improvement.

Bear in mind my lab is off-grid with minimal power. It has a nominal 12v supply (14v actual) powered from batteries charged from 140W of solar panels. There is thus not enough headroom for air conditioners. I do have a dehumidifier but it's not used and can only drop humidity to 50%.

Reading around it seems many kinds of filament and specifically the PLA that I use, needs humidity of 30% or less. My 77% is better than the outside 90%. I'm checking humidity in the house and that looks - even though the AC is going - to be 54%. It could drop overnight without my cup of tea or me breathing in here. I'll have to check tomorrow's low reading. So at the moment it looks like even moving the 3D printer into the house won't help much.

At the start I was skeptical of 3D printers because they were so over-advertised. When a bunch of people enthuse publicly about something it usually turns out to be crap.

I looked at various options along the way - Lego, Meccano, Erector sets, metal strips from the hardware store etc. Recently I even found something called FuturoFrame which is a kind of robot-builders' Meccano. It was nice but hideously expensive. In the end, a year or so ago, after getting so many disappointments from 3D printing I got my Chinese micro lathe then a Chinese micro milling machine and a micro saw bench. All I need now is a micro drill press. I also need to complete the wiring to the future machining lab - that's weather dependent and the ground is wet and there's Hurricane Erin on its way. Pre-hurricane rain is already soaking the place.

So, the future will be a micro machine lab - as soon as I can get on the ground to install the power lines.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 2

British Tech Guru

These were two attempts to build a cover for some electrical equipment. They failed and I could see them failing which is why I stopped the 3D printing.

It seems that 3D printing is just not going to work for me in my microcontroller lab for reasons I'll go into in a future video. It is not - however much equipment snobbists might like to claim - anything to do with the fact I use the cheapest 3D printer on the market (which is also the only 3D printer I know of that'll run off 12-24v).

This is why I'm building my micromachining lab. I just needed a few parts 3D printed to make holders for switches and for XT60 power connectors and a cover for a terminal block. Well, that's not happening due to the fact 3D printing won't perform in the lab.

As far as 3D printers go, the technology in all of them is identical. I could tweak mine to go faster but don't see the point. I'm not in a great rush for anything. I could also spend a large sum to solve the problem I'm getting with 3D printing but it's just not worth the expense when I've already decided to go for a micro machining lab. There are more reasons behind it than just 3D printing being a failure. I do need to use materials that won't melt in heat and which are lighter than plastic. Micro machining offers me those things and is probably faster than 3D printing as I'm working with rods and bars and sheets rather than spools.

I'm held up by rain on installing power to the micro machine lab. The latest tropical storm is dumping a lot of rain over me at the moment.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 0

British Tech Guru

On my way home from work, I picked up a couple of things from the local shop. The doughnuts were unfortunately not a great buy. I had a couple last night as did 'er indoors and didn't feel too great after. She had to fight a revisitation of the doughnuts. Figuring I was just tired form the week's work (I currently start at 6AM and finish at 4:45PM though this might change to a 5:45AM start next week), I sampled the doughnuts again in the morning. Nope. Still as awful as last night. That was 'er indoors experience also. Still by now we're down to about 4 left. I rather suspect they will be entering the compost bin!

That led me to think about the food we eat and how abysmal it is. Fruit that's picked so green that it's bitter and allowed to ripen in storage where it gains some of the colour it should have but none of the juiciness nor sweetness. I pick fruit from the shop and it is bitingly cold as though it has been frozen. Shelf life is very poor. There's no point in buying a big bag of any of it as within a week it's mostly rotted. That's not natural.

Forty years ago, the veggies were fresh, having been grown locally. The fruit was fresh and in season. Bread was fresh and baked locally, usually instore. Very little was frozen and while the selection did often contain some things that were going soft, care and selection meant that the bad portions were removed and the good eaten. Leftover bad food or dried bread from the shop was collected by farmers to feed to their pigs. Food had taste and texture. It was good back then. Now it's all bland, not matured and full of chemicals. Basically, just plain nasty.

So that prompted a short video on food which will air on the 15th of August.

I'm dog tired from my work week since work started up again at the beginning of the week. The rubber mats under the bus were holding puddles of water so even if I had felt like going under there then I would not have because I would not want to get soaked in the process. Next weekend is forecast to be dry. This weekend we have some of the hangover from a tropical storm. Yes, we are in hurricane season. That started on June 1st and ends on November 30th.

Once I can get the power through the floor and distributed to bench outlets, I can put the shelf back in the bench and store all the stuff on the bench in the cupboard under the bench then install my micro machine lab. I didn't film it but I did work toward installing the lighting by making up more LED lighting strips. These use aluminium angle, self adhesive LED strips and magnets to hold them to the ceiling.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 3

British Tech Guru

A few days ago I had to have a loaner car from the dealer as my usual vehicle (a 2005 Xterra) developed a fault with the transmission. This, by the way, is a replacement transmission installed about 20,000 miles ago. So I took it in to the dealer who repaired that, did the brake pads and the shocks at the same time.

While my Xterra was undergoing repairs (I'm not a high mileage driver - I bought my Xterra in 2006 with 8,200 miles on the odometer. Now after 19 years in my hands it still only has 164,000 miles on the odometer and is in great condition with no noticeable rust. I'll keep it going!

So, I had a loaner car which was a 2025 Nissan Versa. When I picked it up on Friday it had just 17 miles on the odometer. When I returned it on Tuesday and picked up my Xterra it had only 90 miles on the odometer. Again, I'm not a high mileage driver. I drive 5 miles to work and 5 miles back, twice a day. Other than that I avoid going anywhere if at all possible.

The upshot is, having had this brand new car I thought I'd do a user review of it. That's the good, the bad and the ugly. Sadly not all of the video is in perfect focus. My phone did not like the black interior. That video comes out next Wednesday.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

British Tech Guru

Occasionally I get a decent 3D print - that's when the 3D design software (TinkerCad) and the slicer (Slic3r) produce something actually printable. I've had issues where I've saved a TinkerCad STL file, and when Slic3r loaded the STL file, half of the design was missing yet it was still visible on TinkerCad.

The next issue is the printer filament just snapping. I went to the 3D printer today and brushed my hand lightly against the filament as I loaded an SD card with the GCODE image into the printer and the filament snapped and went flying. Very odd!

Finally there's the way the print never ever seems to want to be good. These prints I aborted because one was coming off the print bed and getting warped or was just not adhering to the bed. None of the prints look anything but rough.

This is the reason that I am going fully away from 3D printing and turning more toward a micro machine shop. What I'm trying to print with the 3D printer are a cover for the terminal block that will connect the main power lines to the under desk distribution lines. I also need to print a mount for an XT60 power connector as the whole lot will run off XT60 sockets. Then I'll need mounts for my emergency cutoff/power switches. Those, I have yet to design. At this rate I might be better buying some vinyl plank from Lowes and using the milling machine! It would certainly be faster and more accurate.

What really kills me about 3D printers is the sheer quantity of waste they produce. Not just support materials but when 9 out of every 10 prints fails to pass my quality control standards then that's a heck of a lot of waste. It all goes into landfill!

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4 weeks ago | [YT] | 2