Casio GG-1000 – Calibrate Watch Hands After Battery Change

Leave a reply

Casio GG-1000 – Calibrate Watch Hands After Battery Change

Casio GG-1000

I own a Casio G-Shock GG-1000 Mudmaster and dug it out yesterday only to find out the battery was dead. I just so happened to have a couple of 395 batteries and opened up the case to change them.

That went well and I put the Mudmaster back together. When I went to set the time that also went well, however, the procedure is to set the time digitally and when you are done the analog hands move into place to reflect the right time.

If they don’t then you need to calibrate the watch hands by using something called H-Set.

That will put the second hand, the hour hand, and the minute hand pointing straight up to 12 o’clock.

Only mine didn’t do that. The hour hand on mine went to 6 o’clock while the other two hands did what they were supposed to do.

Continue reading →

TOOCAA NOVA Smart Home Laser Engraver Review

Leave a reply

TOOCAA NOVA Smart Home Laser Engraver Review

I’ve reviewed quite a few laser engravers on this blog. Recently, TOOCAA reached out to me and asked me to review their new TOOCAA NOVA Smart Home Laser Engraver.

Two years ago I reviewed the TOOCAA L2 Laser Engraver for them. That review can be found here.

I found that to be a good machine and I passed it along to a good friend of mine who uses it to this day. To sum it up, I have had good experiences with TOOCAA. Also, it needs to be stated that they provided me the TOOCAA NOVA to review and have in no way attempted to influence any kind of editorial control at all. What you read here will reflect my thoughts and my thoughts alone.

I was specifically sent the 20 Watt Creator Bundle ($1164.90). Additional modules can be purchased to include a 2 Watt IR module.

Continue reading →

Install Syncthing On QNAP TS-433

Leave a reply

Install Syncthing On QNAP TS-433

Well, this was harder than it should have been. Syncthing is quite likely the best synchronization software out there. At least I think so. Some years ago I kind of got tired of building up NAS devices and bought a QNAP TS-433 four bay NAS. This device uses an OS called QNAP Turbo System (QTS).

And I was kind of shocked to find out that Syncthing was NOT available in the QNAP App Center. What to do, what to do?

All is not lost. Read on.

It turns out that you can install Syncthing in a Container on QTS. I’ll demonstrate how to do this here. Hopefully, this will be beneficial to someone out there.

In retrospect I wish I had just built up another NAS and slapped TrueNAS on it.

Continue reading →

BlindsMagic – The Ultimate In Smart Blinds Window Treatments

Leave a reply

BlindsMagic – The Ultimate In Smart Blinds Window Treatments

Over the years I have documented a lot of smart home devices. Some of the most useful, in my opinion, are smart window treatments. And I have reviewed smart blinds from a few manufacturers. Recently a company named BlindsMagic reached out to me and asked me to review their BlindsMagic Smart Blinds which I happily agreed to.

Let me provide a quick statement of how much I love these things. I live in a pretty large two story house. Each story has its own HVAC system however, my upstairs system simply wasn’t keeping up during the hottest days of summer. Every upstairs room is surrounded by attics accessible by a small door in each closet. The closets get HOT which then transfer heat into the rooms. When it gets over 90 degrees outside my air conditioner stops keeping up and the temps gradually increase upstairs. Sometimes my smart thermostats will even tell me there must be a problem.

Fortunately, (or unfortunately) we had a tree fall on the house which got us a new roof. The new roof included some attic vent fans. Additionally, I installed a smart exhaust fan in one attic compartment. The air conditioner does a much better job now but the temps can still rise albeit slightly on super hot days.

Enter Smart Blinds.

Continue reading →

Heltec V4 Meshtastic Review

Leave a reply

Heltec V4 Meshtastic Review

Heltec V4 Meshtastic

I’ve recently rediscovered Meshtastic and have built up several nodes in the past week. It’s not that I need more of them, I just enjoy testing the various boards. In this entry we’ll be looking at the Heltec V4 Meshtastic LoRa 32 board. In my opinion this is one of the better boards for installing in a solar fixture.

It seems like the latest crop of Meshtastic boards are designed to integrate easily into solar fixtures. The Heltec V4 is no exception. It comes with everything you need for a solar installation.

  • Heltec V4
  • 2 cables with JST terminations. One for solar, one for lithium battery.
  • Antenna
  • Pin Headers

The Heltec V3 and V4 are nearly identical however the V4 has higher transmit power.

Continue reading →

Meshtastic Heltec T096 – Best Solar Build

4 Replies

Meshtastic Heltec T096 – Best Solar Build

Meshtastic Heltec T096

I’ve recently gotten back into Meshtastic and built a couple of solar nodes. For my second node I used the Heltec T096 Mesh Node.

In my opinion this is the EASIEST solar node build that is out there. There is no shortage of solar node projects out there on the interwebs. Most of them are based around the Harbor Breeze solar lights ($9.98).

My key considerations for choosing the Heltec T096 are simple. The board includes a Battery Management System (BMS) and the only hookups are to the battery and to the solar panel. In the Heltec T096 packaging there are 2 power cables with the correct sized JST connectors for the board. Solder one across the battery terminals and solder the other to the solar panel. That’s it.

Here is what Heltec says about their BMS – “Integrated lithium battery management system (charge/discharge management, overcharge protection, battery power detection, automatic switching between USB and battery power).”

The board also incorporates Bluetooth, LoRa, and GNSS. It is based on the nRF52840 and the SX1262 LoRa transceiver. The GNSS chipset is a Unicore UC6580.

The best part of this board is that the nRF52840 sips power making it perfect for a battery powered installation. The antenna I used is this one.

Continue reading →

Cigman CM-S05 12 Line Laser Level Review

Leave a reply

Cigman CM-S05 12 Line Laser Level Review

I recently was contacted by Cigman to review their 16 Line Laser Level (CM-S04). Following that review they asked me to test and review their new Cigman CM-S05.

The principal difference between the two are the number of projected line and the fact that the CM-S05 can be gesture controlled. Conversely, that means once it is setup it doesn’t require touching to operate.

The line lights can be dimmed and turned on or off just by using hand gestures. Also, this keeps the CM-S05 from being touched by dirty or greasy hands and touching the machine to push a button could shake or move your alignment slightly.

My video below demonstrates the function of the gesture controls. Additionally, I show the components of the CM-S05 kit.

This is an interesting development in the world of laser levels.

Continue reading →

Newer Isn’t Always Better – Vintage Gear

Leave a reply

Newer Isn’t Always Better – Vintage Gear

Vintage Gear

Tech is always moving forward. But there are times when they just plain got it right. Some items become somewhat timeless, or at the very least become nostalgic. Having some solid vintage gear can stop from having constant upgrade-itis. We always chase the newest, and latest, and greatest thing.

The Sony Alpha a5000 is one of those pieces of tech that can still give new gear a run for its money. The a5000 went on sale in March 2014 making it 16 years old.

There is no doubt that I’m an old school guy. I prefer vacuum tube audio compared to the harsh sound of transistors. For me there was a golden age of most devices. Vacuum tubes ruled the audio world in the 50’s, 60’s, and into the 70’s. Conversely, I think the golden age or cameras was 15 -20 years ago. Heck, to be honest I actually prefer film cameras to digital cameras. But I never got into film.

The world famous landscape photographer, Ansel Adams once said this, “It is the photographer, not the camera that is the instrument.”

And that leads me to this statement: I am NOT a professional photographer. I’ve been a camera nerd for over 20 years. I don’t make a living with my cameras. So anything I say should be taken with a grain of salt. These are MY opinions. And I can guarantee that if I posted this on a camera forum I’d get raked across the coals. And that’s okay. This is my blog.

Continue reading →

Offline Computing – Preparing For Uncertain Times

1 Reply

Offline Computing – Preparing For Uncertain Times

Offline Computing

This is an article I write every couple of years. The more this world descends into chaos, the more I think to it wise to update the content. I’m not a Doomsday guy but it is easy to imagine a scenario where we are without things like electricity, cellular networks, and internet for extended periods of time. Having a computer capable of offline computing and receiving communications could be life saving or at the least life enhancing.

The time to prepare this computer is now because if you wake up to massive outages it will be too late. And you should make a habit of keeping it up to date and adding content to it as required.

I’m not going full prepper on you here. But I am trying to help you get past a catastrophic event such as a hurricane, or other massive weather event that could cut you off for an extended period of time. It could be as simple as the power lines are down, or as extensive as someone popped an EMP off over the Untied States.

Additionally, while I tell you I am not a hardcore prepper, I am a believer in Bible Prophecy. If you aren’t, that is cool. I am. And bits and pieces of it are unfolding now as we speak. Here is an example ripped from recent headlines. The US and Iran are tangled up. One key sticking point is that Israel withdraw all troops from Lebanon. In Genesis God promised Abram land and defined its boundaries. It is much larger than the current state of Israel. One border is the Euphrates River and you certainly have to work your way through Lebanon to get there. Currently Israel is about 30 km into Lebanon at the Litani River and wanting to move deeper north to expand their buffer zone.

Continue reading →

Coospo TR70 Smart Radar Tail Light Review

1 Reply

Coospo TR70 Smart Radar Tail Light Review

Coospo TR70 Smart Radar

I recently purchased a Coospo CS600 bicycle computer which I reviewed here. Additionally I blogged about creating custom maps and took that discussion over to Reddit. Somewhere along the line Coospo contacted me and asked me if I would review their Coospo TR70 Smart Radar Tail Light. Yes. Please.

Before I received it I did all the requisite homework such as reading the manual, reviewing the FCC ID Reports and by reading and watching tons of reviews.

While there are certainly much better bicycle reviewers than me that doesn’t necessarily mean there are riders with a better understanding of active and passive radar systems than me.

In fact I was a little bit (a lot bit) disturbed by some of the reviews which really had not much technical merit to them at all.

Some reviewers seem to think that because the Coospo TR70 is inexpensive that surely it is inferior to more expensive offerings. That’s not how you review a safety item.

I think I should first boldly state that:

“Having a bicycle radar should never stop you, not even once, from looking over your shoulder.“

Continue reading →