Facilitate the Kid Inside

Well it was an early morning here in Lahore! Just finished morning prayers and I had quite a time slot before going to my day job 😅

Let’s use the time productively! City is under total shutdown, because it’s too early (5:30ish) 😄 Well, I had multiple options while moving to some local park!

Option 1: Pick my ongoing book to read amidst trees 📕

Option 2: Take DSLR out and enjoy watching birds and relax 📸

Option 3: Well, this was new in my list.. I almost forgot that I’ve an RC Mini Cooper S in my closet! Take it out and do some crazy stuff! “Waise bhi doctor kehte hain, Akele walk karne se behtar he k koi saath ho” (having company during walks is recommended by doctors too) 😂

But you know, at this early morning, I was sooo in the mood of overcomplicating the situation 😂 And that’s where my Engineer inside came out and also the part in me who thinks about least Carbon footprint 😆

Running an RC Car in a park means I’m going to run out of quite some batteries man.. so much carbon footprint? This is a bad idea man! I usually use disposable 1.5V AA batteries.. and I’ll definitely run out of these on the go!

At this point in time, I thought:

“Put everything you got into the main thrusters, Jarvis”

This is my statement to think faster 😆

So, fyi, I’ve been into DSLR imaging with full on accessories! 😅 So it occured to me, what the hell those rechargeable batteries Flash light are doing in my closet??

Took out my Digital MultiMeter (mnemonic of my Degree in Electrical Engineering) and put it to use 😃 Measuring the voltage before using any battery is always safer.

Now this engineer in me forced me to document the voltage levels to see which cells are usable right now without giving them a charge! 😃 And I did that too 😂

Red ones are disposable cells while green ones are rechargeable batteries

To my surprise, no rechargeable battery surpassed 1.3V so they all are 1.5 up there.. Highest charged rechargeable batteries are at 1.3V. 4 of them are at 1.3, rest are less charged.. 1.1, 0.7, 0.3 respectively. Just did a quick google to find flash light batteries charge level. It was 1.3V 🥲 What do you mean man?? At this time where to find freaking rechargeable 1.5V batteries??

Scenario is getting polynomial problem now 😂 multivariate calculus being involved 😂😂

Well, I thought its just an RC car.. I won’t mind if I get performance issues also.. So I made a combination of cells. It’s ok to give less voltage.. But it should be able to pump enough energy to the motors. And there might be some voltage regulation inside that may cater old cells also. So we are cool I think.

In my experience, multiple cells in any toy are mostly placed in series.. That’s how this helps me think that current will not flow from one cell to another cell due to voltage difference because they are not parallel connected. 🥳 I can safely use 1.3V cells while mixing them with disposable and environment unfriendly 1.5V cells 😅 Wasn’t it too much of analysing? Yeah.. Analysis is paralysis!

Then there was final test! Does it work? And it did work!

You’re ok to board 😂 Proceed to ignition 🙌

And then I took the 1.1V and 0.7V batteries and put them on charge with my power bank inside my bag too.. 😅 Too much preparation for just an RC drive in park.. isn’t it? But just I’ve a trauma of running out of rechargeable batteries while playing with my RC cars since childhood 🥲

So this step is vital for my solace! 😆

Then I went to the park, and the hardest part was to actually face the world with my toy 😅 Instantly, thoughts were like.. what these people will think of me? Am a kid? Retarded? Or what?

Second half of me: It’s my EGO talking to me!

Thanks to the lesson I learnt on Leadership Summit this year in Nepal. They don’t pay my bills.. so their opinion has to be my least concern! And Bingo! This was the most enjoyable walk I had recently!

Imaged my toy with phone.. Drove this car on the wildest tracks if it was life sized 😆