Knog Blinder—How to Fix Broken Mounting Strap

The Knog Blinder 4 is a great rear blinky bike light—super bright, cool flashing modes, and USB rechargeable.  But the Achilles' heel of these bike lights is the attachment band, as confirmed by the repair needs around the internet. (Same issue with the Knog Frogs!) A few of these sites have hinted at fixes, and certainly the 3D-printed cover is a good go at it (I tried it and it works!), but when I had two of these lights' straps fail on me I had to find a simpler / smaller / cleaner solution.

Knog Blinder with broken strap on right side

It turns out all it takes is a few minutes with some snips, a zip tie, and two small o-rings.  The result is a mounting mechanism that works very similarly to the original but if it breaks it is easily fixed!

Saeco Vienna Plus—How to Fix and Replace the Dosing Microswitch

The Saeco Vienna Plus is a great, relatively inexpensive (especially refurbished) automatic espresso machine!  After 6 months I started to have a problem where the bean grinding step would time out after grinding and grinding.  This led to compacted grounds and a clogged grounds chute -- the immediate fix was to open up and clean out the grinder.  This distracted me for a long time from real troubleshooting and determining the true root cause of the problem.  It turns out that the dosing microswitch was getting stuck / gummed up after sitting still from morning to morning.

Update 5/31/2020: Also check out my Ultimate Troubleshooting Guide for the Saeco Vienna Plus!