Being able to smugly utilize the thing that people always ask why you carry around is one of the best feelings there is.
Beamogging the darkness-cels
I get excited when my solar/battery setup seamlessly deals with short power outages. That $35k I spent years ago really pays off so I don’t need to wait 5 mins before browsing memes.
Mine unfortunately has a 3s delay before it cuts over to battery when grid synch is lost. Too long for servers to stay up. So I went and bought a lithium power station, and put it online in UPS mode. Now when the grid goes out, the UPS kicks in, the house battery kicks in, and I have 16kwh (plus whatever solar is coming in) before I need to start turning off servers.
Did you see the old “follow the light” post from /r/flashlight? It’s a classic
The memes must flow.
I can get a battery/inverter set up in about 10 minutes that’ll last from dusk until bedtime that’ll run my entire server and network and TV.
The trouble is that the power usually comes back as soon as I switch the inverter on.
Can you add a UPS switch to your setup so it switches on automatically before the server even knows it lost power?
It’s just a bare 100mah battery and inverter. it’s a setup half built for camping so it was never intended to work as a ups. I’ve just got quick at dragging it out of the garage and plugging my server ups into it.
Hardware loadout for a curious prospective battery buyer?
The Ionic GenBox looks good but I don’t have one yet so I can’t say from personal experience. Basically a portable battery with built-in UPS, DC-to-AC inverter, and MPPT controller for solar charging.
They come in a range of sizes up to 2400W continuous output, which is probably more than you need for a server but it could handle things like an electric kettle or a portable induction stovetop.
The portable power station I have now is a Tenergy but it’s only rated up to 500W. It’s good for what it is, but can’t really handle a coffee maker. Perfect for charging laptops and stuff though, and has a built-in MPPT controller so it is solar-chargeable.
Wow, reasonably priced too – thanks stranger!
No problem! Definitely check which model you choose to see if it does pure sine wave function on the AC output. I think the 800W model and up do it.
It might not be necessary for every use case, but there are some things that probably require it. If you’re running a computer/server off of it directly (i.e., not charging a laptop battery), then I think you need pure sine wave.
I wish r/fleshlight was this wholesome.
I mean, looking into it (you can thank me later), it seems like a great support group!
Very little friction to speak of. I’ve seen some communities that just felt like a square peg in a round hole and this one definitely doesn’t have that vibe.
Dunno, seems more like a circlejerk to me.
It can be both
It will not work here:
“Sir, This Is A Wendy’s”
but maybe here:
“Anyway, this is a Walmart”Power outage at the grocery store. Big day for me.
Beamshots.
That moment where you pull out the fleshlight and it makes you a hero. People, almost exclusively other guys, will ask you where you got it and you get to talk about it. This. Is. Your. Moment.
Not gonna lie, it was the highlight of my day haha
Edit: one too many has. It’s important to accurately quote.
The customers at the sperm bank: 😱
People, almost exclusively other guys, will ask where you got it
I’ll let them have it. I’ve got three more at home.
From either Hank, Jackson, or Simon, iykyk
It’s plenty holesome.
That’s my problem with EDC. I love the idea of being prepared for any eventually, but all my realistic eventualities boil down to how I’m going to pay for something, or how sunny it’s going to be.
It took me way too long of concentrated thinking to figure out that EDC meant every day carry have associating the acronym with Electric Daisy Carnival for so long
Having paper currency as part of your EDC for when electronic payment goes down feels great until someone starts calling you unc for having a wallet. Trust me.
Why would I not have a wallet? I would never trust tap pay on my phone, I don’t even have full access to my email on it
You’re weird.
Anybody worth the trouble is at least a little weird.
The man who sleeps with a Machete is a fool every night but one.
Heavy is the ass that carries the wallet. 😞
I love skipping ahead in line when card payments fail, absolutely worth it.
Rarely happens nowadays though, and a lot of people still carry at least some cash in Germany. So it only really happens at grocery stores, when people do their big shopping trip.
The youth are against wallets now?? What am I going to do, shove every card I could conceivably one day need into my pockets like I’m deranged?
That wallet stays at home. 99% of the time all you need is drivers license and Apple pay. Though I can’t seem to not take my credit card and bank card.
You wouldn’t do well where I live. We do have card readers in almost all places now. But you ain’t getting far with apple pay. Very, very few stores have that feature activated.
You either pay cash or swipe. And cash is still much appreciated.
Sigh. You still don’t need a wallet to carry a whopping two cards.
Kids just put their cards on the NFC function on their phone.
I’m in the middle with a ridge wallet
The blind reliance on technology is staggering
I keep my cash between the pages of my pocket notebook.
Ever try it? At any normal store the clerk is going to say they cant do anything without the register connected to the network
I got a black titanium Ridge wallet and it fits in my coin pocket. I love it.
Look at this, and be enlightened:
At least some version of this, mine is a lot more compact, 3 cards and space for some bills or papers/tickets and the like.
E: I guess this photo doesnt show the fact its a phone case very well after all. Be moderately illuminated then instead🫠
To really throw you for a loop, that’s what my dad uses.
I’ve tried them, but they’re not for me. I have something similar to a ridge, and am learning to live being unc to the younger guys.
I swear I was a young guy just the other day. Time flies
I could never be comfortable with a combination wallet and phone case. If my phone is ever lost or stolen, the first thing I’m going to need is my wallet. If I lose my wallet, I’ll immediately need my phone. If they’re both the same thing I’d be screwed.
Same. I change out my EDC every few months to account for the weather. And obviously if I need to pass a security checkpoint, I’ll leave some stuff at home.
One thing I haven’t regretted yet is keeping spare medication in my bag. The number of times I’ve left the house and realized I forgot my antidepressants is frankly embarrassing.
A small AAA pocket flashlight with a magnetic base comes in handy surprisingly often and can be clipped into a tiny jeans pocket for carrying. You can even use it from there if it’s angled.
You’re not going to save the day with it but it’s pretty neat to have on hand. (That’s pretty much as far as EDC goes for me.)
I carried one for a couple years and found that I never used it. The few times I needed a flashlight, it was easier to reach for my phone than my keychain.
If I leave my house, my edc flashlight is on me, and I literally have a use for it every day. I used it probably 4 different times today. It’s kind of astounding how many times you could use a lil extra light real quick, even if you could sort of not need the light. Like when I was checking under my car seat today. I could sort of see under there without a light, but since I had the light right there in my pocket, I used it, and it made it way easier.
Hmm… This is one of the first posts I see the day I get my internets back after getting blown away in the hurricane last week.
MFW the roofers came to inspect a leak a couple of weeks ago and the kid turned on his phone’s light before climbing into the attic.
Me after lending the kid my 3000 lumens pocket flashlight.
There’s an entire horror game about having only your phone flashlight during a power outage.
Actually, it looks like there are a few.
There’s an entire horror
gamegenre about having only your phone flashlight during a power outage.
I was walking at a festival around 2010, maybe 20m behind a group of kids who had flashlights and headlamps. I wanted to have my light going in case they turned and walked a different path or whatnot. I turn it on normal-beam and they all stop and exclaim to each other about how crazy the light behind them was. I felt sooooooo happy! They all wanted to check it out and were astounded it does so many things. I felt like the coolest gurl in the land!
Ah, the classic good guy with a flashlight story.
Good guy with a flashlight will save you from bad guy with a flashdarkness.
These guys are going to love the apocalypse.
No we aren’t. We like being the heroes in little emergencies.
When the big emergencies happen, we’re just as likely to die as anybody else. Anybody who says differently is a complete moron.
Prepare for the most likely scenario, and you’ll be fine. For the big problems, the best insurance against that is being an active member of your community. Prepping by being there for city council meetings and advocating for responsible city budgeting and city planning is way more likely to save you and your family than kitting your Jeep with a generator.
Nah fam, my Kershaw knife and my Fenix flashlight will make me a god in the apocalypse
… For a while.
Realistically speaking, I give the typical armchair preppers a couple weeks, at best.
Realistically speaking, if any of the apocalypses they fantasize about come to pass, I hope I die quickly. I’m not fit, I have injuries and require recurring medication, and it’s unlikely I’d be any boon to any other survivors.
I’m not in any danger of self harm today, but in a zombie apocalypse, I would be.
If you’re a good hang you could still be a boon. I’d rather be in an apocalypse with someone with a positive outlook and a good sense of humor than an asshole with twenty flash lights. You have to remember that even in the world that we live in now, clowns and comedians get sent to hospitals and war torn countries.
I’ve recently been reading Semiosis, which is in part about surviving with low resources, as one would presumably be doing in any apocalypse. It’s a series of short stories. There’s one story specifically about the loss of a member of the community who isn’t well liked, but who provides art and a sense of history.
He’s the second to be found murdered. (That’s not a spoiler, it’s literally the premise of the story.)
You do have different sorts of prepping though. Some act like they are preparing a fallout shelter and equipment to continue for years afterwards. If you are buying a freeze dehydrator, you are going too far.
But far more reasonable is stuff like being prepared for a power/gas/water outage or local shops can’t get restocked for a few days.
Also being prepared doesn’t have to mean having equipment to replace those functions. It could also just be something to keep you going for a few days without it. Tinned food that can be eaten cold for example.
We have enough dry ingredients to last a few weeks if necessary and rainwater collection with water butts. Not ideal but if there was an emergency we could boil and drink it. Camping stove and I keep a tub of sticks as fuel for it and to leave them to dry out.
My “prep” plan is mostly hurricane based. I have a sump pump, generator, a 2-weeks supply of non-perishable food, a camping stove, plus my backyard propane grill, and of course my cordless tools, and now my little power station with solar panels. I sat my ass through Fran, Ivan and Matthew, I’ll sit my ass through the next one.
I sat my ass through Fran, Ivan and Matthew, I’ll sit my ass through the next one.
It’s nice when people think of their pets during challenging times. How old is your donkey?
I am not opposed to preparing for a disaster; in fact, I think it’s wise.
Same. I would hang around for a few days just to vibe, but I’m not fighting for my life in the apocalypse. I’ll chill till it’s really inconvenient and then check out
I get it. This summer I bought a battery bank and portable solar panels so I can a) take some load off a circuit that is overtaxed in the summer and b) be able to very slowly charge the car in the event of an emergency.
A month after getting it, we got a notice on our door that they we’re working on poles and our power would be out for 8 hours. I kept my whole homelab, and refrigerator running the whole time and the entertainment center running most of the time. Any thought that I spent too much, given the probably utility, immediately disappeared. I wouldn’t call it pride in my decision, but it came damn close.
You can charge your car with a powerbank?
Yes. you need a grounding adaptor, though.
You have my exact use case energy wise (homelab + fridge). Can I ask what battery and panels you got?
I was able to get a good deal on a lightly used 3.6kWh EcoFlow DELTA Pro and this ZOUPW 480W panel. I got 380 - 395W through the July afternoon, but I’ve since learned I didn’t have the panel at a good angle given my latitude and time of year.
How do you run into a battery like that lightly used if there isn’t anything wrong with it? Seems weird that someone would get rid of it to me?
Friends of my mom were planning to do RV life for a year or two (while wait-listed for a retirement community) but they decided to rent one for long vacation to be sure. The husband bought the powerbank while it was having a sale, sure they were going to buy an RV as soon as they got back. By the time their vacation was over they vowed to never set foot in an RV again, and he sold the powerbank and AC to me for $400 less than he paid for it. He also hadn’t accounted for the Delta Pro being 100lbs, and they had trouble getting it up and down steps.
People will ask you where you got it and then you get to talk about it!!
That happened in other responses!
Used to work at a brewery, they had flashlights around a lot of places. I bought my own (which was much better than the ones they had). So many times when the power would go out people would ask me to come with them or borrow my flashlight.
Surprisingly powerful for something the size of one of those old mini M&Ms tubes.
That’s not a store, it’s a screenshot of the latest indie horror game /s
Ahh yes, Dark Quiet Death.
Removed by mod
Doesn’t every modern phone have a built in flashlight?
I’m happy to lend a flashlight to somebody. I’m not giving them my phone.
Not nearly enough lumens compared to actual flash lights. I’ve got a rechargeable light that’s 6000, 3000, and 1500 lumens in the 3 modes. A phone is about 150 at best.
6000? Damn
My bike light is about 800, I don’t really know what I would need 6000 for… But I kinda want it.
Pffft. Those suck so hard compared to my edc flashlight.
I’ll honestly say that I thought flashlights were flashlights for the longest time. Like, sure, some are brighter, whatever. I finally picked up one from a recommended thread and when I got it I was floored at the quality difference. I immediately went and bought a 2nd one that day.
Where did you get it? I want to talk about it
Wurkkos fc11. Nothing super crazy by flashlight enthusiast standards, but it has the Nichia led variant which came highly recommended.
That depends. Are you a guy?
Almost exclusively
Where’s this recommended thread?
Edit: Found it https://lemmy.world/post/52339818
The original I saw was back in reddit days about 3 or 4 years ago. But that one you posted is similar. I think the fc11 got an update and is now the fc11c
