A flurry of shopping

You have to love the internet. Today I bought ...

From Hobbyking:

1) a meter to measure the internal resistance of batteries. That tells you about the quality of the battery, they deteriorate with time. As do we all.
2) Two more things that beep when a battery is depleted, telling me it's time to change battery
3) a dozen XT150 connectors, in case they're better for bike use than the XT60 or XT90


From Dealextreme:

1) An electric shaver, because the one I got from them before is *so good* and I want a spare.
2) 3 nine volt batteries, for use in smoke alarms
3) 5 travel adaptors because so many of the things I get don't come with UK plugs
4) A reel of solder; the one I got a while back has been very good, and it's best not to run out. It takes a few weeks for things to arrive from China.
5) Heat shrink tubing, because it makes my joints look so neat, by covering up the joint.
6) A pack of small 12v batteries, used for powering various things, I'm nearly run out

From Ebay, where I *really* went shopping-mad:

1) 12 XT150 connectors.
2) 3 smoke alarms. At £2.50 each, they're really cheap, and I'll put them in the computer room, one above each rack of computers, and one near to where I keep the bike batteries
3) Two reels of 26 AWG wire, one red and one black, for wiring up things that don't carry much current
4) 20 sheets of emery paper, I'm on my last sheet now.
5) 12 hacksaw blades. The one in my hacksaw is blunt.
6) A tin lunch box shaped like an ammo can. I calculate that it will take three of my bike batteries
7) A heavy-duty plastic lunch box, top opening.I calculate that it will take four of my bike batteries. This means that when I go out "fully loaded", I don't carry all the heavy batteries in one pannier, I can split them to either side.
8) A digital voltmeter that can go up to 100 volts. I'm planning to run bike.3 on 66 volts.
9) A pair of small bike lights, front and rear. I only want the rear, but I get both for 99p. When it's night and I'm on a road, I'm very keen that people can see me.
10) A PDA holder. I'm nearly out of spares (I break them from time to time, I've never found one that's robust). When it arrives, if I like it, I get a few more.
11) A set of five silicone elastic straps. They seem to be useful for all sorts of things, like a very thich and tough rubber band. I'll carry them in my emergency kit.
12) Half a kilogram of E45 cream. I'm getting "bumps on the skin" quite often, and E45 soothes it.
13) A pair of Altura panniers. There were on a "buy it now" of £20, and I think they're worth twice that. That's the same kind that I use, and mine are beginning to get rather ragged from all the abuse they've had.
14) Two 10 watt 220 ohm resistors. That's so that I can preload the bike controller. When I plug the batteries in and switch on, a large surge of current goes to charge up the controller capacitors, and that means arcing on the contacts.  What I'll do, is when I plug the batteries in, the resistor will bypass the switch, so that the capacitors can chrage up, but at a small current. Then when they're fully charged (a few seconds) I can switch the main switch on.
15) A "helping hands" with two crocodile clips and a magnifying glass. In soldering up connections, I've sometimes wished I had a third hand. One for the soldering iron, one for the solder and one to hold the wire I'm soldering in place.
16) A tool for removing the gears and freewheel from the rear wheel of a bike
17) 10 connectors for 12 volt lamps
18) 12 lamps, 12 volts and 30 watts. I've put all that together onto a wood board, and that gives me a load that I can run a battery to.