Combining Ryobi Batteries and Emergency Preparedness

As I've written about before, I really like my Ryobi tools. I have a number of batteries to go with the tools that sit idle most of the time. Ryobi sells a USB charger as well as an inverter that plugs into the batteries. Ryobi's options didn't fit well with my usage as I wanted a way to be able to power 12V electronics such as my HAM radio, HAM radio charger, etc. and using a 120V inverter would be very inefficient. I found a 3D printed case that goes on top of the battery that was pretty close to what I wanted. However, I didn't want a power switch, didn't want USB ports and it didn't terminate in Anderson PowerPole connectors that I use with my HAM radio equipment.

The first step in creating what I wanted was to get the case to look right. As my son is a wizard at Fusion 360, I asked him to make a few modifications to the case to close it up. I then printed the pieces and purchased a step down converter and some Keystone 209 cell leaf spring contacts. I soldered the spring clips to the step down converter, soldered the other end of the converter onto a short piece of 14 gauge wire and then terminated the wire in the PowerPole connectors.

Using some screws I had lying around and hot glue, I assembled all the pieces. Now I have a case that I can easily put on a Ryobi battery that has a 12V PowerPole connector on the top ready to accept any number of devices.

It is a pretty simple project and am not sure when I'll ever need to use it, but I have 2 of them just in case I need some extra emergency power. I have a cigarette lighter adapter to PowerPole that I can plug in and then can put USB chargers in there or I can plug in an inverter or even my HAM radio. I'm not sure of the runtime with a battery, but with the 7 Ryobi batteries I have, I'm sure I can at least charge a few cell phones!

How would I evacuate in an emergency?

This year has brought more reasons to prepare for an emergency and has gotten me asking myself if I am ready. When we had the great toilet paper shortage of 2020, I worked with my son on preparing our emergency kit as he was working on his Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge. This was a good start, but was more geared towards what to do when we didn't have access to supplies or food. We didn't think much about evacuations until the fires in Northern California started.

Several years ago, I wrote about preparing for an emergency. This was a start for what we'd need to take if we had to evacuate our house. Looking at the people leaving their homes in Santa Cruz and not being able to return for potentially weeks, having digital copies of things is only part of the solution.

How else can we prepare in case of an evacuation? Thinking about this, I realized that we have camping gear that is readily accessible. This includes tents, sleeping bags, ground clothes, flashlights, camping stove, etc. If we grabbed all this as we were leaving, we'd have a lot of gear needed to survive outside of our house. Clothing is one area that I will say that we're not that organized for an evacuation. We do have duffel bags under the bed, so we'd grab them and shove clothes in them.

While the reasons to evacuate our house in San Diego are small (tsunami is unlikely, wildfire where we live is also not likely; the most likely reason is post earthquake having a limited amount of time to gather stuff), I think that given 15 minutes, we would be in good shape to evacuate. The plan is pretty basic and consists of gathering the following:

• Laptop bag in my office - stuff it with the hard drives and other documents (extra keys and safe deposit key as well) that are kept in the fire safe. The bag already has an extra laptop charger and a way to connect the drives. Also, put my laptop in the bag.
• Portable electronics including hotspot, laptop, iPads and phones.
• Plastic boxes next to the fire safe that has chargers, some camping supplies, flashlights, HAM radio equipment.
• My wallet and keys.
• Portable HAM radio off my desk.
• Hats and coats that are easy to grab on the way out.
• 3 large plastic containers of emergency supplies that are in the garage.
  
• Tents, sleeping bags, chairs, and tarps used for camping.
  
• Gallons of water that are in the garage stored right as we enter the garage. We use these for camping, so they are replenished periodically.
• Some clothes. Put them a duffel bag stored under the bag. Include hiking shoes.

After pulling together everything, I'd load it into the car (along with the mammals) and go.

Our house is relatively small and my office is right next to the garage, so getting items out of my office and loading them into the car is easy. The camping gear is in a rack above my car and the emergency supply boxes are in a cabinet right in front of my car.

I hope that I never have to use my plan, but by thinking about it and rehearsing it in my head makes me rest easier at night.

Ryobi Tools Still Going Strong

About a decade ago, I wrote about Ryobi cordless tools. At the time, I stated that the tools weren't the top of the line, but adequate for my use. In the course of that time, I've added a number of tools and batteries to my collection. I've been very pleased with the variety of tools from a tire inflator to a jigsaw to a vacuum cleaner.

I think I'm up to almost 20 tools and a handful of batteries. Having the right tool for the right job is always key to me, so when I've found deals on new tools to add to the collection, I've been trying to jump on them. In the time that I've owned all the tools, I've had 2 or 3 batteries fail, but other than the circular saw initially not working, everything is holding up. My most used tool is probably the reciprocating saw. It has gotten beat up as I use it to cut bamboo, tree limbs, etc. It still is a solid performer.

For the average homeowner, I would hands down recommend the Ryobi 18V tool system as having a single type of battery for all tools makes it so easy to just grab a tool and use it. I have 2 of the chargers mounted on my workbench and can just charge batteries when I need them; the charged batteries sit on a shelf and I always have one ready.

Failure of Slent Sunglasses Nose Pieces

Last year I purchased a pair of prescription sunglasses from SportRX. As my eyes are pretty bad, my choice of sunglasses is quite limited (thick lenses). This time I got a pair of 100% Slent glasses. These glasses have held up fairly up with all my outdoor activities as well as driving. Unfortunately I recently noticed that the nose pieces had melted. This is either from the heat when the glasses sit in my car in the center compartment (not in direct sunlight) or broke down due to my sunblock.

When I contacted SportRX, they said to contact 100%. 100% said that I should contact SportRX and get them covered under warranty. I've had them over a year, so the warranty has already expired. A helpful customer service rep at 100% tried looking for replacements, but was apparently unable to locate any and offered me 50% off at their site. Since I only wanted sunglasses, it would cost me $55 to just replace the nose pieces! Ouch.

The nose pieces are pieces of rubber so I decided to ask my son if he could 3D model replacements and I could print them in TPU. It wouldn't quite be the same material, but I thought it would work well enough. After 6 iterations, he was able to come up with replacements that fit well. My 3D printer has once again proven its value!

While the nose piece isn't as comfortable as the rubber that came with the sunglasses, they'll do the job.

My son has allowed me to post the STL file as long as I give him credit for his hard work.

Here is the file.

I hope that these help someone and I wish that companies would provide STL files for parts so that people can print replacements (or make replacement parts available at a reasonable price) and not simply throw something out because a simple part needs to be replaced.