Navarre Bartz – WindowsTechs.com

BMW i3 Mod Brings Small Trucks to the EV Future

Posted on October 26, 2026 by Navarre Bartz

A two door pickup or ute in white with a black hood and blue accents. It's built from a chopped up BMW i3 REX EV.

Trucks are handy, especially if you’ve got messy or dirty loads, but there aren’t a lot of options if you want a small electric pickup yet. [Michael Pick] decided to …read more Continue reading BMW i3 Mod Brings Small Trucks to the EV Future→

Meshtastic Pet Tracking

Posted on October 25, 2026 by Navarre Bartz

Four black plastic devices, two with a black, stubby antenna, sit on a blue cutting mat with white guidelines. There is also a PCB and a couple grey-ish clips in the assortment. One of the devices is open, showing another PCB with various components including a GPS antenna and LoRa radio. A silhouette of a dog is screen printed next to the text "LIA" on the PCBs, and the same text and image is present in the shell of the device in the top center.

Most commercial pet trackers require a subscription or network connection to function. [Jon G Aguado] wanted a better way and designed LIA, a Meshtastic collar tracker. LIA uses a custom …read more Continue reading Meshtastic Pet Tracking→

Reading QR Codes by Hand

Posted on October 22, 2026 by Navarre Bartz

A person with blonde hair and light skin in a black t-shirt points at an image of a large QR code with what appear to be pictographic humans dancing in place of the usual blocky squares between the finding squares.

QR codes can be a handy way to send a link or contact details without all that tedious mucking about with typing in a link, but they aren’t very useful …read more Continue reading Reading QR Codes by Hand→

Spreading Life to Bleached Coral

Posted on October 20, 2026 by Navarre Bartz

A series of ten close up images of two pieces of coral. In the first, on the top left, the coral on the left is bright white while the one on the right is brown with darker brown spots. Text reads: "Week 0." The last image, on the bottom right, shows both pieces of coral as brown with darker brown spots and the text, "Week 9." The intervening images show the white, dead coral, slowly becoming more brown as time progresses.

Coral bleaching is a major problem for ocean ecosystems as the ocean gets warmer. Researchers at Stanford have found a new method for regenerating bleached corals. Scientists working on coral …read more Continue reading Spreading Life to Bleached Coral→

Driving On the Moon at a Blistering 11.6 MPH

Posted on October 19, 2026 by Navarre Bartz

A shiny, silver vehicle with tools on a mesh rack on the back half and a large open cab up front drives across a grassy field under blue, partly cloudy skies. A person in a black shirt stands in the background with a drone hovering above their head. Two women in white helmets are piloting the vehicle from the cab.

As NASA continues humanity’s slow march back to the Moon, different pieces of the puzzle of establishing a more permanent base there are falling into place. One of these pieces …read more Continue reading Driving On the Moon at a Blistering 11.6 MPH→

A Simple Solution for Streamlining Battery Recycling

Posted on September 30, 2026 by Navarre Bartz

A drawing of a battery cell with gunk on the labeled anode and cathode called the "thick and inactive interphase layer." An icon of a dead battery with two red bars within a pictograph of a battery is superimposed. An arrow points to the right to a cleaner looking cell with a full battery icon with green bars inside showing the cell after regeneration.

Lithium batteries have become the backbone of many modern devices ranging from toothbrushes to semi trucks, so what are we going to do with them when these rechargeable cells finally …read more Continue reading A Simple Solution for Streamlining Battery Recycling→

GM’s Experimental EV from 1969

Posted on September 25, 2026 by Navarre Bartz

A small orange car with a bold horizontal white stripe and the text "XP 512E" emblazoned on the side. The footprint of the vehicle barely exceeds the size of the seats, almost like an Isetta, but the top canopy opens upward and the lower front fascia contains a side opening door. If it were green, it would probably be what an LLM would generate with the prompt, "Make a car that looks like a frog."

Electricity is the once and future drivetrain for automobiles, but until the advent of lithium batteries their capabilities were somewhat modest. One EV blip on the automotive timeline is the …read more Continue reading GM’s Experimental EV from 1969→

The Mazda Suitcase Car Rides Again

Posted on September 21, 2026 by Navarre Bartz

A man in a beige, vintage 90s suit rides a very small go cart with a look of terror and/or elation on his face.

Once you arrive at your destination via plane, it can be a drag waiting for a rental car. Why not bring your own with a replica of the Mazda suitcase …read more Continue reading The Mazda Suitcase Car Rides Again→

Ride the Rails on a OneWheel

Posted on September 16, 2026 by Navarre Bartz

A man in white and black railroad overalls rides a short one wheel platform suspended between two rail wheels on a steel axle.

The US has tons of abandoned rail, especially in urban environments, so it seems a shame to let it go to waste. [OneWheel] decided to modify one of their boards …read more Continue reading Ride the Rails on a OneWheel→