Twelve Volts, Cheap

When I was working on the Volvo M41 overdrive transmission as documented in the Beck TD blog posts (Parts 51 through 57), I had need of a power supply that supplied a LOT of current - 20 to 25 amps at a nominal 12 volts - to actuate the solenoid that made the overdrive engage. To get there, I just used the battery from the car, which worked great but is an obvious inconvenience to remove and carry over to the workbench. I resolved to find a better solution...

Upgrading an iPod

This little device is the iPod Mini, made in 2004 and 2005, with the huge-for-the-time capacity of 4 Gigabytes of storage. It has remained a popular model in part because it, among all the iPod variations, is the easiest to repair and upgrade. There were two "generations" of the Mini, and the second generation is preferable for its much longer battery life.

If you click that photo to enlarge it, it's easier to see on the screen that this is no longer a 4 GB Mini - now it has 128 GB!