Your pet peeve, technical or otherwise.

[Poroit]

"The global power tools market was valued at $38.32 billion in 2023, and is projected to grow to $59.70 billion by 2031. The market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.7% from 2024 to 2031"

I hope we do see some future Standardization as it should help reduce the stock pile of old Lion batteries.

[Analog Kid]

Outlaw all portable power tools except for Festool ...

[metrologist]

google says there 33 million smart meters in the uk,power consumption on the suppliers side seems a bit secretive but figures between 5 and 8va are mentioned , a fair bit of power needed just to run the meters before the consumer plugs anything in.

There is the old way where you put someone in a truck to drive around and read all those meters...

[PlainName]

google says there 33 million smart meters in the uk,power consumption on the suppliers side seems a bit secretive but figures between 5 and 8va are mentioned , a fair bit of power needed just to run the meters before the consumer plugs anything in.

Google also says there are 29.9m dwellings in the UK. Even assuming some have multiple meters, I know plenty of people who don't have, and won't have, smart meters. So either Google is fibbing or Google is fibbing 

[Siwastaja]

https://community.eonnext.com/threads/1588-Smart-meter-and-tariff-change-threat/
...
I sense bullshit.

Of course it's bullshit. And this kind of BS communication makes a good pet peeve.

However. There is nothing BS in modern day electric meters. Technology ages. Meters need to be swapped at certain intervals anyway. Idea of someone manually reading out numbers of a meter is insane in 2025. We stopped doing that here 20 years ago and are now on the second round of "smart meters".

The cost of replacing a meter every 15 years is totally negligible in the big picture. So is the energy consumed by the meter (by the way, which gets lower every iteration on modern regulations).

Mass manufacturing makes these meters really low cost, and swapping the meter is a 15-minute job; including travel it's not much different from reading the meter.

Then again, it also does not magically save huge amounts of energy. Maybe one customer out of 100 is inspired to save energy or shift their consumption off-peak by better on-line services. And maybe that one out of 100 is enough to offset for the CO2 footprint of having those 100 meters manufactured and installed.

But this is all irrelevant in the big picture. Swapping electric meters is just normal life. It is neither saving the planet, nor destroying it. It does not bring you cheaper electricity, but also not more expensive.

When consumers are demanding for explanations for such mundane everyday action (the triviality of which they don't understand), then I understand the temptation for the company to come up with some utter bullshit like the message you linked to. In a nutshell: stupid answers for stupid people.

[pcprogrammer]

Swapping electric meters is just normal life. It is neither saving the planet, nor destroying it. It does not bring you cheaper electricity, but also not more expensive.

Correct, destroying the planet is not even what humans are doing. Destroying the environment is a different thing though. The planet, unless we really blow it to bits with some very powerful bomb, is going to survive us humans.

Things becoming more expensive, is due to us humans wanting a pay raise every year, the greed of big corporations, the growth of population, narcissistic politicians controlling our daily live with making stupid decisions, the list goes on.

[PlainName]

"Parents working from home is affecting school attendance, says Ofsted chief" The Grauniad

Seen a lot of it about, recently. It should be 'are' and not 'is'. I presume they refer to the fact or parents working from home, but in that case it should be rewritten to explicitly note that.

[themadhippy]

"Parents working from home is affecting school attendance,

walob, parents working made it easier for us to bunk off as we had somewere to spend the day instead of roaming the streets

[TimFox]

"Parents working from home is affecting school attendance, says Ofsted chief" The Grauniad

Seen a lot of it about, recently. It should be 'are' and not 'is'. I presume they refer to the fact or parents working from home, but in that case it should be rewritten to explicitly note that.

A sentence that would be better if re-written.
The (grammatical) subject could be the gerund “working”, which is singular.

[Analog Kid]

OK, nice segue into a peeve of mine. Except that I don't want to pose it as a peeve but rather as friendly advice to all the writers here, especially those whose native language isn't English, since this is such a common point of confusion.

It's all about its, and when it gets apostropized and when it doesn't.

It's a shame how some people mangle English: gets an apostrophe since it's a contraction ("it is").

The picture of the cat showed its leash: no apostrophe since it's a possessive.

There. It's not that complicated.

[mwb1100]

Replacing windshield wipers.

  - no standards on how wipers attach to wiper arms, so there has to be a "universal kit" that works with 10 different attachment mechanisms

  - the instructions on how to piece together the correct universal attachment configuration is composed of nearly microscopic instructions  (since there has to be 10 different sets of instructions on a single 6" x 4" sheet of tissue paper) written in a pictographic language one step above Egyptian hieroglyphics

  - invariably the procedure has to be done in poor weather and the small parts involved preclude wearing gloves

  - you're never sure if the force you are applying to remove or attach some part of the puzzle is what is needed or if it's the amount of force that's going to require another trip to the auto parts store

  - even though I purchased the new wipers from the same manufacturer as last time (so I had familiarity with the puzzle's solution - so I thought), the manufacturer decides to use a different configuration to attach to my vehicle's wiper arm, so I have to start at the novice level again

  - after successfully solving the puzzle of attaching the new wipers, I have horrible nightmares because the wiper attachment turns out to be a low-rent Lament Configuration puzzle summoning Hellraiser Cenobite demons

[Analog Kid]

Amen to that.

As a result of the last shitty wiper replacements, my windshield now has a nice arc-shaped scratch from where one of the wipers detached itself from the arm and dragged a sharp edge against the glass. Ugh.

[shapirus]

  - the instructions on how to piece together the correct universal attachment configuration is composed of nearly microscopic instructions  (since there has to be 10 different sets of instructions on a single 6" x 4" sheet of tissue paper) written in a pictographic language one step above Egyptian hieroglyphics

  - invariably the procedure has to be done in poor weather and the small parts involved preclude wearing gloves

  - you're never sure if the force you are applying to remove or attach some part of the puzzle is what is needed or if it's the amount of force that's going to require another trip to the auto parts store

Oh yes how true.

I went through all of the quoted a few days ago. Literally, exactly as you described. Even though my car has a simple generic hook attachment, it wasn't easy. I knew I was doing it right. Only the matching part on the wiper would refuse to slide onto the hook despite my best effort, because the hook on the arm has sharp edges and bites into the self-locking plastic part on the wiper instead of sliding in smoothly. I had to use a knife to shape the plastic "lips" or whatever you call them, to make them expand and be able to slide past the sharp edges of the hook as it pushes into them, and even after that use a flat object to bend them sideways as I was pushing it in. What a mess. Maybe I should take a file to that hook on the wiper arm to round off those sharp corners. Or maybe not (as it'll rust more).

Ironically, these were wipers by a brand that I used in the past but switched to something else later. I think now I know (again) why. Hope I remember this the next time to avoid buying these again.

One more issue. These are "aerodynamic" shaped wipers, those with that asymmetrical profile. Nowhere in the manual do they explicitly say which side goes up, and they can be installed either way. I had to deduce that from tiny crappy photos in the manual and the orientation of some unrelated text on the wipers. These two suggested the same orientation, so I decided that the level of certainty was high enough.

[shapirus]

A fresh one: soft power buttons on battery-powered devices, especially those with built-in li-ion batteries. As low as the standby current is, it is often sufficient to fully drain the battery between uses on infrequently used devices, sometimes beyond recovery.
I don't care about your fancy stuff. Give me my good old physical switch that cuts off the battery completely.

[Xena E]

A fresh one: soft power buttons on battery-powered devices, especially those with built-in li-ion batteries. As low as the standby current is, it is often sufficient to fully drain the battery between uses on infrequently used devices, sometimes beyond recovery.
I don't care about your fancy stuff. Give me my good old physical switch that cuts off the battery completely.

Worse.
Devices known to brick their battery then loose firmware at the same time.

X

[Fryguy]

A fresh one: soft power buttons on battery-powered devices, especially those with built-in li-ion batteries. As low as the standby current is, it is often sufficient to fully drain the battery between uses on infrequently used devices, sometimes beyond recovery.
I don't care about your fancy stuff. Give me my good old physical switch that cuts off the battery completely.

Worse.
Devices known to brick their battery then loose firmware at the same time.

X

Oh yes , two of my favourites too -   

[calzap]

Equipment with rotary or slide combo on/off switch and intensity adjustment where as soon as it's switched on it's at maximum intensity.   Depending on equipment, intensity can be audio volume, fan speed, brightness, heat, drill rpm, etc.   No, no ... proper way is to start low, then progress to high by turning the knob or moving lever.   Really not that hard to design.           Mike

[TimFox]

Equipment with rotary or slide combo on/off switch and intensity adjustment where as soon as it's switched on it's at maximum intensity.   Depending on equipment, intensity can be audio volume, fan speed, brightness, heat, drill rpm, etc.   No, no ... proper way is to start low, then progress to high by turning the knob or moving lever.   Really not that hard to design.           Mike

The only equipment I have encountered with this feature have involved motors that are happier starting at full speed, from which the operator reduces the setting.
I have never seen audio volume or CRT brightness done in this manner.

[calzap]

Good point on motors.  I won’t be so irritated now when fans start at full speed.  The brightness issue has been with flash/spot/trouble lights, not CRTs.             Mike

[coppercone2]

I notice some things that do very repeated work, you can turn them way down, and eventually they will not start if you stop them mechanically. But this is usually way past the normal region of operation.. Like you can run some stuff at like a few percent rpm of the total, but then it also stalls very easily.


But,

For usual motor devices (that start fast and then can be set slower, like AC fans), is this because the static friction, and overcoming the magnetization effects of the core (?) will draw excessive current?

Static friction seems like a obvious problem, and just momentum, but is there a electromagnetic factor too? Related to the core (like something with core magnetization)?  Or is it purely based on friction and momentum?


I always used to think it just had to do with basically letting it break free from grease that settled or got sticky after a long period of disuse, but I wonder if there is another problem? I.e. lets say you just put the thing together with brand new bearings that are very free and precise. Is there like additional resistance to rotation from another (electrical) factor that's overcome with a higher current before it gets spinning? something related to frequency of the AC waveform ? (iirc this was called slip? so it has very high slip on turn on, and higher voltage helps for some reason?)


Is there like a SOA curve for slip and time? But the voltage is lower, so you would think there is less power going through. It makes me think of like saturation (its not acting like a good inductor?)


At least, you would think they would find a comfortable place to start it, that is not full power, because its often ridiculous to start it at full power.  Is the optimal place to start that kind of motor is its maximum rotation speed?

[PlainName]

It would seem sensible to me to start the motor on slow, and then the user winds it up until it runs and then can back off to the desired speed. That way it's possible for the motor to be started at a slow speed, at the lowest power necessary, and then not speed up significantly (if the user is reasonable quick on turning it down). If full speed is needed then it's simple to just whack it up full instead.

[jonovid]

It would seem sensible to me to start the motor on slow, and then the user winds it up until it runs and then can back off to the desired speed. That way it's possible for the motor to be started at a slow speed, at the lowest power necessary, and then not speed up significantly (if the user is reasonable quick on turning it down). If full speed is needed then it's simple to just whack it up full instead.

the way to design is type of micro controller code IMO to monitor the motor RPM with a feedback loop.  applying full power at start up then throttling back the power level when a set RPM is obtained.
however if the motor failed to reach any RPM. within a set time limit a shutdown would be triggered. with cooldown time added before resetting.

[coppercone2]

It would seem sensible to me to start the motor on slow, and then the user winds it up until it runs and then can back off to the desired speed. That way it's possible for the motor to be started at a slow speed, at the lowest power necessary, and then not speed up significantly (if the user is reasonable quick on turning it down). If full speed is needed then it's simple to just whack it up full instead.

USUALLY this is a low cost switch with 3 settings. bench top fan, kitchen fume extractor, etc


they start fast and go slow, for some engineering reason


THough, I have also seen them infinitely variable, but they also start on max and dial down

[shapirus]

USUALLY this is a low cost switch with 3 settings. bench top fan, kitchen fume extractor, etc


they start fast and go slow, for some engineering reason

I think the reason to start varaible speed fans on full speed is to allow the user to make sure that the fan is operating properly and isn't stuck or half-dead and is still able to spin at full speed.

I never searched for the actual answer, but that's always been my understanding, primarily in connection with computer case fans.

[PlainName]

USUALLY this is a low cost switch with 3 settings. bench top fan, kitchen fume extractor, etc


they start fast and go slow, for some engineering reason

I think the reason to start varaible speed fans on full speed is to allow the user to make sure that the fan is operating properly and isn't stuck or half-dead and is still able to spin at full speed.

I never searched for the actual answer, but that's always been my understanding, primarily in connection with computer case fans.

But the user would just turn it on and wind it up until it works, then adjust down slightly.

I have a fan right here with rotary variable control incorporating the on/off switch. I turn it slightly clockwise to get over the initial click and it is on its slowest setting. The fan works no problem (but, as noted, if it didn't I'd just turn it up until it did). I turn the dial clockwise and it goes to full power. That seems to me to be how it should work - if it started on full it would be a right pain every time I wanted to use it.

Think about an electric car. Would that be OK to start under full power and then wait for the driver to reduce speed?