10 minute black beans, minimal washing up and uses the bean juice.
1 tin of black beans
1 onion (chopped)
1 garlic clove (chopped)
1 teaspoon oregano
Chilli powder or flakes (1/2 or 1 teaspoon)
stock cube (veg or chicken) + little water
Olive oil
Cook off onions and spices in oil for 3 minutes to ‘bring out the flavours’ like you would in a pan. I was skeptical this did anything but it’s important. Onions come out a bit soggy otherwise.
Dump remaining things into pyrex bowl/vessel and microwave on high for 10 minutes. DO NOT DRAIN THE BEANS. The bean juice has lots of flavour and starch that helps the dish.
I could never get my boosted board to fit inside the lockers at my gym. It’s been a huge pain in the ass for me. I’d either have to carry it around the gym with me or ask the office to store it away. But recently a woman who works there said no electric vehicles are allowed on site so I can’t do that anymore.
The lockers were nearly big enough. So I decided to trim a bit of the deck away to get it to fit inside.
I have two boosted stealth’s and a spare deck. So was prepared to fuck one up in the name of science.
I ordered this katsu trim router with a flush cutting bit and used one board as the template. The battery could be shuffled down one screw row to move it back about 20mm. The ESC can stay where it is.
I clamped one deck to the other as my template, but shuffled back about 30mm for the front cut and 10mm for back. Then cut it away with the router.
I was worried the deck wouldn’t be solid enough inside for this to work. Because of the snowboard like construction. But it’s super strong and I’m not concerned at all it’s going to break.
About 40mm shorter
I drilled some new mounting holes for the trucks and put it all back together.
The wheelbase is slightly shorter and the deck is 40mm shorter. I can’t tell the difference riding it around. However one thing has changed…
This bitch now fits in the locker baby
Success! I can now sneak my forbidden skateboard into the gym and store it away safely. By using the deck as a template it has kept the original boosted deck shape and looks totally normal (photo below).
If it didn’t have another deck I would’ve 3d printed a template to use instead. This would have worked better probably.
Boosted XR Battery is made up of 26 LG HG2 Cells. In a 13S2P config. The LG HG2 has the following specs:
Capacity = 3ah or 3000mah
Charge methods: 1.5A @ 4.2V or 4A @ 4.2V
Charge time @ 4A = 85mins, 1.5A = 165mins
Nominal Voltage = 3.6V
I did some quick maths to figure out how long my battery should last.
The battery pack is technically 267WH. But it’s limited for safety to 199WH. On Pro or Hyper mode I get about 6 miles of range.
Roughly 33.3wh per mile
1 Battery cycle = 200wh = 6 miles (sort of)
A lithium battery life cycle is considered over when it’s capacity has dimished to 80% of original capacity. Even if it has more life to give, thats the official guide. I’m sure the chance of RLOD error gets higher as capacity drops.
If we look at the cycle life charts in the data sheet for the HG2 we see some interesting things.
LG HG2 Datasheet
Here are the 10A and 15A cycle life charts. A (or amps) is how much power is being used during the discharge. The Boosted Stealth has a max power rating of 2100W. Which is roughly 22.43 amps for the Boosted XR battery.
The higher your speed mode the more amps you can push through the motors. As you’re not constantly flying around at top speed in Hyper mode I’d guess the average discharge rate would be somewhere around 15A (maybe less). The charts show theres not much difference in cycle life between 15A and 10A. And we can get 400 cycles before dipping below 2400mah or 80% capacity.
400 cycles works out as 2400 miles. Which is quite reasonable I think. Things change when we look at the 20A discharge chart however.
Uhhhhh…. scary
The cycle life at 20A is WAY worse. It only takes 200 cycles at this discharge before reaching 80%. Bad bad bad. 150 cycles is only 1200 miles. That’s50% less than at 15A. Half!
So how does this make me feel? I like going fast but I also like having my Boosted Stealth. I literally go everywhere on it. To work. To the shops. The cinema. So here’s what the charts are saying if you haven’t gotten it yet.
Higher Speed modes = Battery Dies Faster.
So I’ve decided that my new speed mode is 4 (or Pro). This is 22mph on the Boosted Stealth. It’s plenty fun at that speed. And it could mean nearly doubling the battery life. I can’t say for sure but it will definitely last longer.
Fast Charging
What’s interesting about those life cycle charts is that the cells are being charged at their max speed of 4 amps. And because we have 2 cells in parallel in our XR battery their max charge rate is 8 amps!
The Boosted Charger is only 2 amps. And is painfully slow. I’ve been using a 2.8 amps charger for months now which is about 30mins faster than the original. I was a bit scared at first but so far it’s been a dream.
2amp (left) vs 2.8amp race. Slow was at 68% when the fast reached 100%
And I’ve just ordered a 5amp charger. 5 amps is much higher than 2. A far scarier amount of amps. But 5 amps is only 62.5% of the max rate which sounds quite conservative to me.
The battery I’ve been fast charging is on firmware 2.5.1 (aka the good one). My other board is on 2.1.7 and I’m nervous to fast charge that. I’ve had many 2.1.7 batteries RLOD on me.
Conclusion
My boosted stealth I ride around everyday is nearly on 2000 miles on the odometer. And that’s what got me thinking about all this.
The numbers in this post are likely worst case scenario. Because they all calculated with the 199wh capacity when the batteries are actually 267wh.
The greatest single purpose robot of all time is probably the dishwasher. I think not having a dishwasher is the source of a lot of stress, breakups and house tension. It saves you time and having to deal with the filth of eating. It’s more water and energy efficient. Literally nobody doesn’t want a dishwasher.
But people don’t feel the same way about all kitchen robots. Like the air-fryer or the microwave. I meet a lot of people who are very tribal about the way they see appliances. People who ‘would never own a microwave’.
I recently discovered the company Anyday who make these sexy microwave dishes. I saw a video with David Chang cooking a bunch of cool shit in Anyday’s on YouTube and got obsessed. It’s the first time I saw my microwave as a really cool kitchen appliance. I’m equally or more excited about cooking in the microwave than the air fryer now. The two together are a dinner powerhouse.
You can’t buy Anyday’s products in the UK. But any pyrex or ceramic dish works fine. The main thing is being able to trap steam to cook things fast and evenly. You can do this with clingfilm on any dish (but it feels kind of gross). I grabbed all my saucepan lids and put them in the microwave one by one and found a few didn’t spark up. You can put metal in the microwave if it’s smooth and stainless steel.
Pyrex also have a similar thing to Anyday called Cook and Heat. The lid is plastic and not glass. But it has the same silicone seal and steam vents. And the food isn’t in contact with the plastic lid so I think it’s okay.
Some dinners I’ve cooked a’la microwave
Sushi rice with gochgugang chicken.
Rice in the microwave is a game changer. It takes 20 minutes but it’s set and forget. In a 1 litre pyrex jug I infused some garlic and ginger in olive oil for 1min. Added 2 chicken thighs, gochujang, tamari and cooked at 50% for 10 minutes. I’m still learning cook times so probed it until it was 71c internal. For veg I sliced up some carrots and mushrooms and micro-steamed in some tamari for 2 mins.
I took it to work and microwaved it for 3 mins. It fucking slapped.
This was a prototype work lunch
Pasta with tomato sauce
I didn’t microwave the pasta. But I’m going to try soon and know it’ll be fine. While my pasta was cooking traditionally I micro-simmered my tomato sauce. In a 1 litre pyrex jug I infused some garlic and chilli flakes with EVOO for 1 min. Then added some tinned plum tomatoes, salt and pepper. And cooked it at 100% (I think) for about 8mins.
I’ve been making this spicy tomato pasta for years in the good christian way with saucepans. This micro version was just as good and way simpler.
El paso beef burrito kit
I have fond memories of my mum getting in an El Paso fajita kit growing up. We were strictly a chicken fajita household but recently I spread my wings a bit and tried the burrito kit. It’s nice. The tortillas are still fucking tiny.
I was brave and didn’t even brown the mince in a pan. I browned it off in the microwave on its own first. There’s no maillard reaction going on but its about to be submerged into burrito sauce so I don’t think its matters honestly. I added the diced onion and peppers and cooked it for about 10 minutes. I made a fresh salsa relish thing while it cooked away and we also microwaved the tortilla packet.
It was tasty but it definitely lacked some of the original wow factor. I’d say 80% as good for 20% of the effort. Mince beef is a tricky one. I think chicken would be totally fine. El Paso chicken fajitas would be a 95% as good situation I’m sure.
Asian marinated chicken with rice and veggies
This one is fuzzy to remember but it was something like a chicken stir fry with rice. In a large pyrex dish I added chicken thighs, chilli oil, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, agave syrup. I cooked it at 50% for 5 mins. Then added some courgette and carrot and cooked for 5 more minutes. Using the same dish cuts down on washing up. And I’ll often throw the veggies just on top so they don’t mix in with what’s underneath. This way they’re more like simply steamed veggies and not a homogenous element of a curry like thing.
Broccoli and Mushrooms.
Broccoli is so good in the microwave. It comes out super green and is really easy to cook it to snappy crunchy perfection. You don’t have to drain it and can immediately dress it in EVOO, butter soy etc. I often add the soy before cooking for extra steam and you can see it cooking away in bubbles of soy sauce vapour.
Scrambled eggs is something I’ve cooked in the microwave for years. Cook at full power in 30 second bursts until the eggs begin to curdle up like they do in a pan. Whip the cooked egg in with the raw egg every 30s and stir in some cold butter at the end.
Then I’ll microwave some chorizo chunks in EVOO for 1 min and you get a fried chorizo side with a deep red chorizo infused oil to garnish it.
The 1 Litre Pyrex Jug
This thing is a phenom. I started cooking in it because it was my only pyrex dish. But I realised the handle on it was a very similar user experience to the air fryer. You can grab it by the handle to stir, shake and dish up your food from.
Par micro-boiling some tatties before roasting in the air fryer.
My only gripe is that it doesn’t had a good lid. Right now I just use one of the saucepan lids that doesn’t explode in the microwave on it or a bit of clingfilm.
However I just found out about a 1 litre pyrex jug with a lid. I don’t know if the Heat and Cook with the amazing lid is a better buy or not.
The reviews on Amazon say the lid is fine in the microwave. And it would mean you can drain excess water off veggies are steaming. I often forget to drain and dress them in some EVOO and realise it’s a watery mess.
What makes a good single purpose robot?
For me it’s something that saves me time and energy. But also has a set and forget element to it. The way microwaves and air fryers turn themselves off after the timer dings adds lots of ‘I’m not paying attention insurance’ and repeatability to cooking healthy food for dinner at home. I love cooking and think my kitchen robots only add joy to the process.
Foot notes
Future experiments
I went through a Basque cheesecake phase in February. I can’t wait to try cooking one in the microwave
Old iphones can be turned into really cool things other than phones. I have a 3D printer and a CNC machine so I often think of ways I design something to turn an old phone into a new gadget.
Below are some projects I’ve made with old iPhones. Things like nice looking digital clocks, iPhone DSLR camera, 4G back up wifi router. The basic idea of all these is to take a useful app like a digital clock and combine it with a new enclosure for the iPhone.
Digital Clock / Smart Home Hub
I designed this case to make the iPhone look more like a smart home hub. I machined the wooden case from birch plywood so it feels solid and high quality. The white parts on the back are 3D printed. One is like a photo frame stand to keep it upright on a table. And the keyhole thing is a hook to mount it on the wall.
It’s mostly used as a clock. There are loads of clock apps you can download to get it to look like any style you want.
It could also be a useful smarthome control hub. I can control my smartplugs via the kasa app or ask siri something. But Apple announced in WWDC 2023 a new dock feature in ios 17. When docked your iPhone turns into smart hub thats fully customisable.
Update coming in September
I’m really excited about this. I would love one something like this on my bedside table or desk. iOS 17 is compatible with the iPhone XR/iPhone XS onwards. That means the only older style iPhone to get it will be the SE 2nd gen. Either way it’s good inspiration.
The buttonless modern iPhones are much sexier and have wireless charging too. When they start becoming older and cheaper some cool things will be made for them.
Make a wholesome bedtime device
I read about this idea from Tim Urban. He dug out an old iPhone and removed all the apps except ones that are not horrrible dopamine rushes. It’s got no sim and isn’t signed into iCloud.
You can wind down via Kindle app, crosswords, podcasts, meditation apps etc. But also can set your alarm which is really useful. I always listen to a semi boring podcast when I go to bed so I might start doing this.
Dedicated camera
This is a 3D printed project I designed last year. The design is inspired by my old Canon 30D DSLR. It adds a nice chunky grip, tripod threads, cold shoes etc to make filming video on iPhones easier.
I made another one for my iPhone 8 and used it to film lots of b-cam in videos. The best thing is that I can airdrop the files to my mac instead of messing around with an SD card.
I’ve thought about turning some of these into real products. If your interested in potentially seeing that subscribe to my mail list. If I release a product I’ll share it on this blog first, and by being subscribed you get notified of a new post.
I’m always tinkering with homemade projects. I’ll continue to post what I’m making and sometimes share the 3D files on my printables too.
Leave a comment if you’ve got any other ideas or made something yourself!
Future ideas include:
permament iphone / ipad satnat and music thing for car
