BlindsMagic – The Ultimate In Smart Blinds Window Treatments

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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.

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Heltec V4 Meshtastic Review

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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.

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Meshtastic Heltec T096 – Best Solar Build

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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.

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Cigman CM-S05 12 Line Laser Level Review

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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.

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Newer Isn’t Always Better – Vintage Gear

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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.

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Offline Computing – Preparing For Uncertain Times

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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.

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Coospo TR70 Smart Radar Tail Light Review

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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.“

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GhostBSD – A Linux Alternative

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GhostBSD – A Linux Alternative

I’ve always loved trying various operating systems. So it is with GhostBSD. Most of the time I put these OS’s on a virtual machine which is fun, but you can’t take a virtual machine with you.

I have a whole bunch of laptops around here and one that I routinely try with various Linux distributions. Once upon a time I had installed FreeBSD on something and was proud as punch when it worked. Not too long ago I tried it again and borked the Desktop GUI installation somehow or another and then bounced directly to KDE Neon. Ultimately, I decided to do another BSD variant and GhostBSD comes with a Desktop Environment. In fact just like Linux you can configure a bunch of different environments for it. I got the version with MATE Desktop.

GhostBSD describes themselves are being “Unix like”. While being based on FreeBSD, you seldom see the word Unix pop up. FreeBSD is an open source derivative of AT&T’s Unix which was not open source. A bit confusing, but let’s just call it an operating system and move on.

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CIGMAN Laser Level CM-S04 – Keeping Things Straight

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CIGMAN Laser Level CM-S04 – Keeping Things Straight

CIGMAN Laser Level

Have you ever put extra holes in the wall from hanging pictures until you got them level? Additionally, have you ever hung a crooked shelf? Have you failed miserably at trimming the bushes in an uneven manner? There is a cure for all that and more. It is the CIGMAN Laser Level CM-S04.

Hint: This is a tool. Dad loves tools. Father’s Day is coming up. You’re welcome.

Here is the Amazon link ($199 currently).

Seriously, Dad needs a tool like this for general household and yard maintenance. I can level our camper to perfection in literally seconds.

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Foxwell RT280 Thermal Camera

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Foxwell RT280 Thermal Camera

You might not know it yet, but you need a Thermal Imaging Camera. This provides you a quick and easy diagnostic tool to see if something is running above its published temperature specifications. Conversely, it can tell you if something is too cold possibly indicating it isn’t working at all. Enter the Foxwell RT280 Thermal Camera. Below is a quick promo video I made just showing its form factor.

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