Category Archives: electronics

Fitbit

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My wife got me a Fitbit Charge, she’s had one a while and likes it. I expressed an interest and she surprised me!

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It seems pretty cool. It’s fun entering all the info from the food you eat, keeping track of everything. I especially like the  bar code scanner.

It measures your activity during the day, and how you sleep at night.

I wear it in the shower, but not in the sea, not sure how waterproof it is.. I’ll find out, but I’m pretty sure you can’t take it diving.

Superbowl was yesterday. Both teams sucked. Denver had no third down conversions but won it. Carolina didn’t play well at all either.

It’s Monday, I’m tired and crabby. It’s cold and wwindy outside…Good day for working, if there ever was

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Have a wonderful week!

Late Starting Monday

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Normal routine, took 15 minutes longer than normal. Running. late.

Got the new phone in record time, ordered it on Thursday, got the phone on Friday. And the phone is great!

Happy New Year! It is the year 5776.

Wish I could stay and chat, but I gotta go!

My Next New Phone

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I should be getting a new phone today, a LG G4. I’m pretty excited. It has good reviews and specs. ⏳⌛. I ordered it yesterday, and it might be here today. Not bad.

Friday. Yeay. I’ll be glad when work is over this afternoon.

Have a good weekend!

Should Be Interesting

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Today is the groundbreaking for the airport expansion project. Should be interesting and bust up the routine of the week.

I thought about posting last night instead of today, but didn’t. 10 year routine is hard to bust up.

I need a new phone. My battery is shot. I keep it plugged in the charger all the time practically. It’s not portable anymore, it has a wire attached to the wall. I got home from work yesterday and plugged it in. When I went to bed, it was fully charged, so I unplugged it. While I slept, not using the phone at all, the battery went to about 50% capacity. Now I hope I can get it juiced up enough to make it to work and thru the ground breaking ceremony.

See Ya tomorrow!

Goal Zero Disappointment

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As you may remember, I had a Goal Zero Nomad 20 portable solar panel. I loved it the few months I had it, and I used it all day every day.

Then one day, it died. Under warranty, with good customer service and friendly staff, the manufacturer sent me a  replacement.

Happily, I took the new panel out of the box and plugged in one of my two Guide 10 power packs.

Nothing. No charge light. I check the cable and when I touch it, the charge light comes on, let go, it goes off. Intermittent (bad) cable.

I emailed the manufacturers and they want me to check all this stuff. “Yeah, it all works, except the bad cable”. I know a bad cable when I see one.

So now, customer service doesn’t seem so good, but really, the problem is on my end, I don’t feel motivated to go through the motions of  getting another panel.

I’m very very disappointed (I should type “very” a bunch more times in this sentence). I woke up at 4 this morning, thinking about it.  I got up and decided to write about it here..

I figured those cables were the weak  point before I bought it. They are permanently attached and cannot be removed/replaced. Plus the storage pouch stays full of all these cables that never get used. I only used one, sometimes two. It would be a better design if there were jacks that you could plug the cable you need into, instead of an octopus of cables coming out of a box. The jacks could be very strong. The cables could be  easily replaced. It would be far superior. Although I must point out that it wasn’t the cable that failed the first time, it was something in the electronics.

I  bought a new connector, and am ready to cut the bad one off and solder the new one on. I guess I should do that today, but I think I’ve “fallen out of love” with my Nomad 20 solar panel I want to find a new model and manufacturer, something more durable and with a better design.

This is a rare Sunday post.  I didn’t post Thursday because of a massive dog mess that I woke up to and had to clean up. Then Thursday afternoon I dropped my motorcycle off to get a new tire and had to leave early Friday morning to catch the bus to work, hence no Friday post either. Now it’s Sunday and tomorrow we’re going to Costa Rica! I’m off work till April 9th!

Sure do wish I was taking my solar panel with me to Costa Rica, Costa Rica is a good place to have a solar panel.

The You Tube Game

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This weekend I invented what I call the YouTube Game

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It’s a fun game you play by yourself. Here’s what you do. First of all, get your best sounding headphones and plug them into our YouTube device. I was on my phone.

Think of a song you really really like.
Find it on YouTube.
Listen to it on your headphones.
Enjoy it to the max.
While the song is playing, scroll down below and find another song you really really like.
It can’t be the same song by a different artist and it can’t be the same artist.
When the current song has finished, (skipping to the end is against the rules), play your next song.
Repeat.

The game is over when:
There is no suggested song that you really really like.
There is no suggested song that is by a different artist or song title.
Every suggested song is one that you don’t really really want to hear at that particular moment.
The batteries on your device die or your internet drops out. (it happens here)

When any of the above happens, you win!

You must keep playing till you win!

I played for a couple of hours Friday night. It ended for me when  every suggestion was Ozzy Osbourne. I covered a wide range of excellent music that I hadn’t heard in a long time before I got to the end. It was fun!

Try it!

Have a good week!

Dead Kindle?

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I think my Kindle died. Took it out to read and the display was like it is in the picture above. I tried to reset it yesterday, but couldn’t see it to read it. I can see the screen change behind the partial wallpaper that seems permanent.

I’m already looking for used new ones, but my wife says I have too much electronics, I should just get an app for my tablet… She has a point, but the screen, THE SCREEN! Tablet can never beat that Paperwhite at the beach. Plus, the Kindle is inexpensive enough to take in harms way, like the beach or pool. My tablet is my lifeline to the planet!
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This morning I put it on “deaf mode” so that it talks to me. I’m going to try a reset it today, but I’m afraid my Kindle is dead.

But, on a brighter note, IT’S FRIDAY!!!! Supposed to rain this weekend, but I don’t care.

Experiment results

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With the exception of last Tuesday, when my tablet totally died, My solar panel was able to maintain a usable charge on my Nexus 7.

My next experiment is to compare the time it takes my solar panel to charge 4  AA batteries compared to the time it takes the wall charger to  charge 4 AA batteries.

Today is a holiday  here, our first since July. It’s good to have an extra day off. It’s Remebrance Day. A day to remember our Veterans

I got a part time job as a real estate agent. Now I have to pass the test and get my license.

Have a good week!

Goal Zero – Nexus 7 Solar Experiment

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I have a Goal Zero Nomad 20 watt solar panel and two of the Guide 10 power packs.

My experiment is: Can I go a week without plugging my Nexus 7 tablet into AC power and only use the solar charger?

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I haven’t had the tablet plugged into the wall since Saturday night / Sunday morning. Yesterday was cloudy and I didn’t get a good charge on the power pack, therefore I didn’t get a good charge on the tablet. (I charge the power packs with the solar panels and charge the tablet with the power packs.) I can also plug the tablet directly into the solar panel, but don’t usually.

So it’s looking like this experiment is going to  fail. I’m down to 11% power on my tablet as I type this.

Hope for a sunny day today!