SVBONY SVGO3 Action Camera

Up for review today is the SVBONY SVG03 Action Camera. SVBONY is a world renowned leader in optics in the field of astronomy. And they have entered the field of action cameras. This is a field that definitely needs some competition.

We all know who the big name in action cameras is, and while they make a great product, the price tag is equally great. In a bad way. At $139 the SVBONY SVG03 Action Camera is well worth taking a look at. It can also be purchased from Amazon currently for $132.

9 in 1 Adjustable Laptop Stand And Charging Hub

This will primarily be a video review of the 9 in 1 Adjustable Laptop Stand from the Mukiya store on Amazon. ($59 currently)

The design is slick and the configuration of ports is more than what any casual computer would ever use. Due to its sleek design it folds down into a very small bundle which makes it ideal for road warriors and functioning off of a small hotel desk.

If you need to be compact and have accessibility to multiple types of ports this is perfect for travel.

Plum Chef Air Fryer – A Must Have Kitchen Gadget

I get a lot of things sent to me to review. And over time those items have gotten pretty diverse. When Plum Chef contacted me to review their Plum Chef Air Fryer 11QT Compact 2-Slice Air Fryer Toaster Oven I asked my wife if I should review it. She said YES!

You see, I’m a Tech Guy but my wife is a foodie. I’m on a first name basis with all the stars of the Food Channel and my wife is an amazingly great cook. While I think I have a few brain cells she constantly throws out cooking and food term words that I have never heard before.

So what you are going to get here is a mix of John being a Tech guy reviewing some hardware, and my wife cooking up some goodness. We make a great team.

Benfei HDMI Adapters

I think that Benfei has sent me just about every thing in their catalog to review. And it is my strong belief that as a MacBookAir user that only has a couple of USB-C ports, that adapters really expand your capabilities. In this blog I have several more Benfei HDMI adapters to test.

Let’s get to it!

HDMI adapter are in strong rotation here at my house. I use HDMI cables on every TV, and Raspberry Pi’s galore. I also use them with a KVM, and we use them at my Mother In Laws house to be able to connect a computer easily to her TV to stream church for her on Sunday mornings.

LCD HD44780 Raspberry Pi 8 Bit Wiring

NOTE:  I originally wrote this in 2017 and want to upgrade this project to the latest Raspberry Pi OS.  This is why I started this page.  To document my ridiculously involved projects so I could repair/replace them someday.   This is a direct cut and paste of my page from the internet Wayback Machine.  I’ll clean it up later as I am currently working on this LCD project again. 

John’s Tech Blog will be down on May 4th sometime after 7 PM EST.  The downtime may be as long as 2 hours during a 10 hour window.

This is my web host performing maintenance on their servers and outside of my control.

Monport Laser 80mm Rotary Table

Rotary Table

We typically think of a rotary device being used to laser engrave round items.  But did you know that you can set your rotary up on a horizontal plane to engrave multiple flat items?  In this example I’ll use my Monport laser, 30 watt fiber with the 80mm rotary chuck to engrave 6 business cards at once.

While this is actually really easy I haven’t found a definitive place that covers all the basics of setup for this operation.  And that’s what I try to do here at John’s Tech Blog.  Make it simple and include important steps that just aren’t clearly documented elsewhere.
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I thought I had upgraded my SSL certificate on John’s Tech Blog but it expired on Jun 30th.  I was able to install the new certificate on the morning of 1 July.

Don’t be alarmed if you have to accept a new certificate when visiting the site.  Nothing fishy going on.  Just me installing the new certificate incorrectly before the other one expired.

John

USB Data Blocker

Road Warrior Pro Tip

How many of you will charge your phone in any provided USB jack?  In the airport?  Rental cars? In a hotel or coffee shop?  Plugging your phone, that has your personal data in it, into unknown sources is a security risk.  You NEED a USB Data Blocker.

Let’s use your car as an example.  Your car has a USB port more than likely.  If you plug into it the stereo head unit in it KNOWS you plugged it in and will proudly display the song you are playing or will offer to sync with your phone.  You know, for your convenience .  If it is your own car that is fine.  If it is a rental car, that’s not so fine.

Here is how it works.  The charging cable you stuck in your laptop bag or purse has 4 wires inside of it.

• Vcc Power
• Data +
• Data –
• Ground

Those two data wires will move your data whether you like it or not if the device on the other end asks for it.  Enter the USB Data Blocker.
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HDHomeRun Issues

I have an HDHomeRun HDHR5-4US which i reviewed, and I generally love it.  However, about a year ago I moved to a “new” house and the previous owner left all the TV’s that were wall mounted.  All were fairly old TV’s and none of them smart.  I hooked Roku’s to all of them.

That is when the trouble began.   I installed an attic antenna and got good signal strength, and symbol quality on the channels that were important to me.  I could watch those channels WITH NO ISSUES on my phone or on my laptop.  The old Roku connected TV’s were another issue altogether.   The channels would pixelate horribly and the stream would fail frequently.  I have super fast internet and the TV’s are all close to the wifi router as well with great signal.

I really believe it is a transcoding issue with Roku.  Or rather the fact that Roku does not transcode.   Again, it works on my computer, phone, and Firestick devices work fine.

LG TV

So, to mitigate the problem I bought a new TV for the Bedroom.  An LG 43UQ7590PUB from BestBuy.  Before I bought it I confirmed the LG WebOS had an HDHomeRun app.  However, when I got home there was no app in the LG store. Previous WebOS versions had it available.  I contacted LG Support and they told me to hook up a Roku!

Yougottabeshittingme!

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