Copasetic Flow

 Soon, I'll get the bandwidth to document Project TouCans entire power supply system. For now, suffice it to say that, like the rest of TouCans, it is non-standard. One of the non-standard issues we run into is that while there's a USB-C cable accessible outside TouCans for charging the internal batter pack, the battery pack's charging indicator is hidden inside of TouCans in its optional batter pack housed in an empty can of Progresso tomato soup. Consequently, we've occasionally not charged the batteries because the USB-C connection was unhappy. Enter the MakerHawk multimeter. The meter acts as a USB-C female to female adapter, which frankly we needed. It also ships with a USB-C female-to-female barrel, I'm not sure why yet. We haven't used it. When we plug the radio in to charge, we plug the charger into one side of the meter and the internal battery pack's charging cable to the other. When the cables are plugged in correctly, (sometimes we have to flip t...

 This has happened once before. I hooked up the USB-C charger to the Imuto power brick which is now basically inside Project TouCans, left it over night to charge, and nothing. I woke up to the resounding 60 cycle hum that is the Imuto's internal buck converter stepping up the available voltage of the unit. Project TouCans Dry Docked and Charing—I hope. As with most engineering mistakes, there's a a way around ever having this happen again, and as with most engineering mistakes, that way involves process. Interestingly, there are two processes to avoid the not-charging Imuto conundrum. The first way is more interesting, yet less effective: Unplug  the keyer power input, making sure to leave the TouCans power input plugged in. You'll know this worked because you'll still hear the hum over the headphones. Now, plug the charger into the keyer power output from the Imuto. (This particular power brick is nice this way, you can charge it while it's being used. TouCans int...