Author Archives: John Hagensieker

Ooni Karu 12 Review

Ooni Karu 12

For a number of years I have fancied myself a bit of a good pizza chef. Mind you, I only made pizzas for myself and family and friends but I’m getting pretty good at it. My craft has evolved over the years. But I have really stepped up my game with the addition of an Ooni Karu 12 Multi Fuel Pizza Oven.

I want a giant kitchen with a real brick oven but at 60 years of age I’m probably in my last home. Over the last couple of years I’ve been eyeballing outdoor pizza ovens. The other day I was in a local Dick’s Sporting Goods store and I saw one in a store for the first time. They have always been sold out.

An employee came by and asked me if I was interested and I replied, “Maybe”. His response was “We can’t keep them in the store”. Okay, John, it appears the time to get an Ooni is now or never. I got just the oven and I sprung for one of their pizza peels as well. I have no beef with the pizza peel but I’m a woodworker and subsequently made my own wooden pizza peel. Probably should have just done that from the start.
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LG 43UQ7590PUB Piece Of Fucking Shit Award

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LG 43UQ7590PUB Piece Of Fucking Shit Award

LG 43UQ7590PUB

I recently bought a new smart TV from BestBuy. The LG 43UQ7590PUB

It’s a Piece Of Fucking Shit and earns John’s Tech Blog’s coveted Piece Of Fucking Shit Award.

I bought it in January 2023 and it has been nothing but trouble. My wife and I frequently watch TV in separate rooms and just about the time I get comfortable and engaged in some program here comes the call from the other room.

“Honey, the TV sound disappeared”, or “Honey, the TV just rebooted and now XXXX app doesn’t work”.

I’ve reached the point where mild annoyances that this TV produces has now expanded into full blown rage. Two days ago I told my sweet wife…….“Fuck this fucking TV. It is driving me crazy. I’m buying a new TV”. Normally, there might be a little back and forth discussion coming from the mouth of a reasonable and loving partner. Option exploring. My wife is good and real sweet in this department.

No discussion this time. She was 100% in agreement that this TV needed replaced. To her credit she didn’t use my US Navy vernacular sentence enhancers.
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Sculpfun S9 To S30 Upgrade Kit Deeper Dive

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Sculpfun S9 To S30 33 Watt Upgrade Kit

Sculpfun provided me an S9 laser and then subsequently provided me a Sculpfun S9 to S30, 33 Watt Upgrade Kit. I did a “First Impressions” blog which you can read here. After using it for a couple of weeks I decided to do a deeper dive on upgrade kit.

Laser Module

33 Watt Module

The S30 Ultra 33 watt module is considerably larger than the original S9, 5.5 watt module and contains a lot of really cool features

Most noticeable is the addition of an all metal air assist. One of my favorite features of the air assist is that it not only is secured in place with an allen screw, it also threads on and contains an O-ring to keep the air contained.

The tube is considerably larger than most competitors air assists which allows for a higher volume of air movement.

Removing the air nozzle allows for access to the lens for cleaning.
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Sculpfun S9 Upgrade Kit 33 Watt Review

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Sculpfun S9 Upgrade Kit (33 Watt) Review

Sculpfun 33 Watt Laser

The great folks at Sculpfun recently sent me their S9 Laser which I did several reviews of. Also, they very kindly sent me their 33 watt Sculpfun S9 Upgrade Kit which upgrades the kit from approximately 5.5 watts to a FULL 33 WATTS OF POWER to review.

Diode laser modules are roughly 5.5 watts and to obtain higher wattages, multiple diodes are combined into one beam. In the case of a 33 watt module that means there are 6 individual blue diode laser modules.

There is one important point that I would like to make before I begin this review. Let’s get to it, shall we?

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Bible Technology

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Bible Technology

There has been a story in the news the last week or two that caught my attention. And that story is the civil unrest in Sudan. I had one of those literal “Oh My God” moments that I’d like to share with you. And because the title of this website contains the words “Tech Blog” I’ll focus on some aspects of Bible Technology.

Ezekiel

Ezekiel was a Hebrew prophet who wrote the Book Of Ezekiel. He was taken to Babylon during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar. In Ezekiel 38 there is a war referred to as the Gog Magog War. As a Christian this conflict has fascinated me because quite frankly you can literally see the pieces falling into place. And this civil unrest in Sudan fills in one of those pieces. It is what inspired me to write this at 1AM in the morning. That in itself is weird. I felt kind of compelled to write this in the middle of the night.
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Mokerlink Review 2.5G Managed Switch

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Mokerlink Review Of 2.5G L2 Managed Switch

Mokerlink L2 Managed

When upgrading your home or small business network you will quickly discover that 2.5G switches are not cheap. Today I do a Mokerlink Review of their 8 port, managed 2.5G switch.

I ordered the switch from Amazon at a cost of $175. While that might be inexpensive for a 2.5G switch it isn’t inexpensive for a network switch. It will definitely make you question whether upgrading your network to 2.5G is worth it. I understand that a 2.5G switch is going to be more expensive than a 1G switch but there is a huge chasm in pricing between the two.

First Impression

The first thing I noticed wasn’t about the actual switch. As soon as I buy something I head to the internet to download the manuals for it. When I went to the Mokerlink website their https certificate was expired and my browser was telling me it might not be safe. The next day I tried and the website was down. This morning, I finally was able to get to their website and download the manuals.

So my first impression is not a good one. Someone is not minding the store at Mokerlink and keeping track of their web host. Heck, at John’s Tech blog and my other web site I get a ton of emails from my host months in advance of an expiration of a domain name or a certificate.
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Raspberry Pi Shortage

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Raspberry Pi Shortage

Let’s talk about the Raspberry Pi shortage. Pi’s of just about any variant have been close to impossible to get since Covid entered our lives. Particularly difficult to get are the Raspberry Pi 4 of any memory configuration or the Compute Module 4 (CM4).

I particularly like the CM4 for the fact that an SSD can be added to it and that it can have a Real Time Clock (RTC) depending on the Carrier Board you use.

Server Rack Full O’ Pi’s

A few weeks ago I scoured through all my parts piles and disassembled all my old projects and found a ton of Raspberry Pi 3’s. To my utter surprise I found I owned SIX Raspberry Pi 4’s. But they were mostly 1GB and 2GB models.

I also had FOUR CM4’s. Sadly most of the CM4 Carrier Boards you see out there are either lacking in functionality or are simply vaporware. The official Raspberry Pi IO Board is almost the only real choice.

You would think this is an adequate number of Pi 4’s and CM4’s for me, but it isn’t. I’d have a couple of Pi’s in every room, doing various jobs if I could get my hands on more.
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Uniden BCD436HP Speaker Repair

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Uniden BCD436HP Speaker Repair

BCD436HP

I bought a Uniden BCD436HP scanner in July 2022. I keep it in my wood shop shed and I leave it on. It is tucked in the corner and is largely forgotten about. So much so that it took me a while to notice that I hadn’t heard it recently.

Sure enough I see it grabbing calls with no audio output.

And then just to make sure it works I plugged a set of headphones in and the audio output was fine.

A google search turns up quite a few speaker failures for this model. So I hit the Uniden Support site and see that they have a form to fill out and then you are directed to ship the item to Uniden for repair.
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Sculpfun S9 Limit Switch Installation

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Sculpfun S9 Limit Switch Installation

Sculpfun S9 Limit Switch Kit

The Sculpfun S9 is a great laser and is available at a fantastic price point. Any time the price is low on something you can bet a bell or a whistle was left out to keep the final cost down. One way to cut corners on a laser is to offer them without limit switches. Without switches, the laser will not automatically return to the home position (X0, Y0). Positioning is accomplished manually. Fortunately there is a Sculpfun S9 Limit Switch kit available for purchase.

There is nothing wrong with a laser that does not have limit switches. In fact, some people prefer lasers that don’t have limit switches. A lot of the time, I am one of those people.

Equally safe to say that there are a lot of people out there who wouldn’t own a laser that didn’t have limit switches. Anyway, with the S9, at least you have the option.

Cost

The cost of the kit is $27.99 and is all inclusive. The kit works for both the S9 and the S10 models. There are differences in the installation procedures but the kit contains all the stuff you need to install on either model. That probably means you’ll have some stuff left over in your kit when you are done with the mod.
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WiFi Connection Issues

WiFi Connection Issues Fix

I’ve always been the neighborhood geek and I have done this simple wifi connection setting for so many people. Let me set the scenario up for you. I’ll get a call or see a post that says “My internet provider is crap. My WiFi disconnects all the time. Don’t get _____________ for your internet provider. We hate them.”

Your Wifi Router

Most people think when you connect to your home wifi you’re connecting to 1 choice. In reality there are 2 choices usually.

2.4 GHz wifi network
5 GHz wifi network

2.4 GHz is usually the most common connection made and it has the best range. It consists of 11 channels in the US. Each one of those 11 channels is selectable or most routers are set to obtain the channel automatically.

5 GHz is not utilized as much as a lot of people just don’t know about it. Of the two wifi’s, 5GHz provides a faster connection albeit over a shorter range. It consists of 24 channels. Whenever possible you should try to utilize your 5 GHz connection.

The rabbit hole goes a little deeper than just the number of available channels but for now, this is all we really need to know.
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