Author Topic: Gadget WEEKENDS (Read 641410 times)

4wd · « **Reply #525 on:** June 08, 2020, 12:09 AM »

Picked up a portable car jump starter, (1500A peak), recently ... now I have to wait for the battery to die to test it. In the meantime it can act as a portable battery pack with QC3.0.

Be interested to try this on my Landcruiser, only a 3.4l diesel but of the old indirect injection glow-plug variety, (20:1 compression ratio), not the more modern common rail direct injection versions ... unfortunately the battery doesn't want to die $:-\$

Amazon [AU]

Also a set of Tronsmart Spunky Beat TWS earbuds

skwire · « **Reply #526 on:** June 08, 2020, 01:10 AM »

Picked up a portable car jump starter
-4wd (June 08, 2020, 12:09 AM)

I have similar in each vehicle and used them successfully on mine and other motorist's vehicles. The others motorists always amazed when I bust that out instead of jumper cables.

wraith808 · « **Reply #527 on:** June 08, 2020, 07:56 AM »

Picked up a portable car jump starter
-4wd (June 08, 2020, 12:09 AM)

I have similar in each vehicle and used them successfully on mine and other motorist's vehicles. The others motorists always amazed when I bust that out instead of jumper cables.

-skwire (June 08, 2020, 01:10 AM)

Same here. I make sure there's one in each car- and now that my daughter has her car, I need to go buy her one!

The other advantage- there's no risk to your car when jumping off the car of others, and it's very easy to maneuver!

mouser · « **Reply #528 on:** June 08, 2020, 08:42 AM »

Ditto

Especially in time of pandemic when some of are not driving our cars frequently, can be a life saver.

Arizona Hot · « **Reply #529 on:** June 08, 2020, 10:01 AM »

GPD Pocket 2 Ultrabook Windows 10 Portable Mini Laptop.jpg

Gadget WEEKENDS

Gadget WEEKENDS

GPD Pocket 2 Ultrabook Windows 10 Portable Mini Laptop

GPD Pocket 2 Mini Laptop

For the pocket with nothing, because there won't be room for anything else! It has almost everything, but you will still need your phone to get online.

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #530 on:** June 09, 2020, 11:04 AM »

Picked up a portable car jump starter, (1500A peak), recently ... now I have to wait for the battery to die to test it. In the meantime it can act as a portable battery pack with QC3.0.

Be interested to try this on my Landcruiser, only a 3.4l diesel but of the old indirect injection glow-plug variety, (20:1 compression ratio), not the more modern common rail direct injection versions ... unfortunately the battery doesn't want to die $:-\$

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Amazon [AU]

Also a set of Tronsmart Spunky Beat TWS earbuds

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-4wd (June 08, 2020, 12:09 AM)

Well...that's bloody useful.

Just added it to my purchase list!

Thanks!

4wd · « **Reply #531 on:** June 09, 2020, 05:47 PM »

I picked it up when they had their range discounted on Amazon AU, (the 1200A, 1500A, and 2000A were $80, $90, and $100 respectively).

Set up an alert on 🐫^³

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #532 on:** June 10, 2020, 02:57 PM »

I picked it up when they had their range discounted on Amazon AU, (the 1200A, 1500A, and 2000A were $80, $90, and $100 respectively).

Set up an alert on 🐫^³
-4wd (June 09, 2020, 05:47 PM)

The price (£80) seems great for what it is. I have it on my list though as we won't be getting the new car till the end of next month so I don't need it until then.

Does anybody have any recommendations for other "emergency kit" type things (minus fire extinguishers/med-kit/snow stuff)?

tomos · « **Reply #533 on:** June 10, 2020, 04:47 PM »

Does anybody have any recommendations for other "emergency kit" type things (minus fire extinguishers/med-kit/snow stuff)?
-Stephen66515 (June 10, 2020, 02:57 PM)

Wasn't there a whole thread about that a while back? (maybe a year -- although, given how time flies, it could've been a lot longer).

x16wda · « **Reply #534 on:** June 10, 2020, 05:59 PM »

I believe this would be that thread. From 2016, your mileage may vary.

4wd · « **Reply #535 on:** June 10, 2020, 08:54 PM »

Does anybody have any recommendations for other "emergency kit" type things (minus fire extinguishers/med-kit/snow stuff)?
-Stephen66515 (June 10, 2020, 02:57 PM)

For the UK?

Decent walking shoes, a decent pocket knife/multitool, a couple of litres of water, and a basic understanding of which way is South.

Then walk East or West, the coast is less than 70 miles away no matter where you are and long before you've walked even 15 miles you'll be falling over a made road, fence, houses, MacDonald's, fish and chip shop, off-licence, etc.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #536 on:** June 10, 2020, 10:06 PM »

Then walk East or West, the coast is less than 70 miles away no matter where you are and long before you've walked even 15 miles you'll be falling over a made road, fence, houses, MacDonald's, fish and chip shop, off-licence, etc.
-4wd (June 10, 2020, 08:54 PM)

And if you stop off at even 1% of the pubs you'll just be falling over.

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #537 on:** June 12, 2020, 12:41 PM »

I believe this would be that thread. From 2016, your mileage may vary.
-x16wda (June 10, 2020, 05:59 PM)

Heh, turns out that was my thread...

Time to revisit it I think XD

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #538 on:** June 12, 2020, 12:42 PM »

Does anybody have any recommendations for other "emergency kit" type things (minus fire extinguishers/med-kit/snow stuff)?
-Stephen66515 (June 10, 2020, 02:57 PM)

For the UK?

Decent walking shoes, a decent pocket knife/multitool, a couple of litres of water, and a basic understanding of which way is South.

Then walk East or West, the coast is less than 70 miles away no matter where you are and long before you've walked even 15 miles you'll be falling over a made road, fence, houses, MacDonald's, fish and chip shop, off-licence, etc.

-4wd (June 10, 2020, 08:54 PM)

It's going to need to be used in Europe, too. Pretty much anywhere from here (NW England) to Calabria (SW Italy).

4wd · « **Reply #539 on:** September 11, 2020, 07:29 AM »

Gadgets, gadgets, gadgets ...

Let's see, first a boring old charger: Blitzwolf BW-S16 75W 6 port desktop charger - 2 x USB-C supporting PD 3.0, 2 x USB-A supporting QC 3.0, and 2 x USB-A supporting plain old Fast Charge (2.4A).

GL.iNet AR750S Travel Router - OpenWrt based, inbuilt Tor gateway, VPN (both OpenVPN and Wireguard), USB/uSD file share, 3 x Gb ports, 802.11b/g/n/ac.

Gerber EAB Pocket Knife

... and a hand held searchlight ...

Sofirn SP36 Anduril LED torch - ~5600 lumens of blinding, eye searing, white light in the palm of your hand

ADDENDUM: Almost forgot, yet another set of BT earphones, Tronsmart Onyx Free ... UV sterilisation, although how effective that is, who knows. You really need UVC and I haven't yet found what wavelength this uses.

tronsmart-onyx-free-true-wireless-bluetooth-earphones.jpg

Had the opportunity to try out the jump starter I mentioned last time on my old Landcruiser, started it but I would have doubted it could have cranked it a second, (or possibly third), time, these old diesels aren't as easy to spin up as the new breed, (it's basically a 3.4l truck engine).

4wd · « **Reply #540 on:** September 11, 2020, 08:20 PM »

DOH! New tablet also: Alldocube iPlay 20 - For just over US$115 it's a terrific tablet, (previously had an Amazon FireHD8) - a review.

No Widevine L1 so limited to Netflix SD but tbh, it's a 10" screen, it still looks pretty good.

Other than that: Octocore Unisoc, Android 10, 1920x1200 10.1" IPS w/ Gorilla Glass, GPS/Beidou, 4GB RAM + 64GB Flash, up to 512GB uSD, USB-C, Dual SIM 4G LTE (inc. B28 & VoLTE) ... biggest phone I've ever owned

Deozaan · « **Reply #541 on:** September 11, 2020, 11:21 PM »

DOH! New tablet also: Alldocube iPlay 20 - For just over US$115 it's a terrific tablet, (previously had an Amazon FireHD8) - a review.

Other than that: Octocore Unisoc, Android 10, 1920x1200 10.1" IPS w/ Gorilla Glass, GPS/Beidou, 4GB RAM + 64GB Flash, up to 512GB uSD, USB-C, Dual SIM 4G LTE (inc. B28 & VoLTE) ... biggest phone I've ever owned
-4wd (September 11, 2020, 08:20 PM)

That looks pretty nice for the price. I've been wanting a newer tablet for a couple of years now. I'm still using my Nexus 7 (2013), but it's barely hanging on to life these days. It's super slow, stuck on Android 6, background apps (including the home screen) don't often survive swapping back and forth between another app (probably because it closes background apps to free up RAM), and it no longer charges reliably through the USB cable. The only saving grace that has allowed me to continue using it this long is that it supports wireless charging. I've come to rely on wireless charging so much that I'm disappointed that nearly 10 years after the release of the Nexus 7 it's not a much more ubiquitous feature in modern Android devices.

Does the iPlay 20 support wireless charging?

wraith808 · « **Reply #542 on:** September 12, 2020, 12:26 AM »

That looks pretty good... especially for the price! Put up your own review after using it for a while, if you will.

4wd · « **Reply #543 on:** September 12, 2020, 09:33 AM »

Does the iPlay 20 support wireless charging?
-Deozaan (September 11, 2020, 11:21 PM)

Sorry, plain old USB charging. If wireless charging is a must then I think the new Amazon Fire tablets are about it currently, you're not likely to get wireless charging on these cheap tablets.

Currently, with the screen at about 60-80% brightness, I'll watch a couple of movies at night, (files, Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Jellyfin), and do about 3 hours of reading, browsing, etc with about 40-45% battery left after 6 hours of screen on time. At that point it reports approx 3.75 hours left before it needs charging, so I'm getting around 9-10 hours currently.

There's also a Pro version that has 6GB RAM but unless you like to load up with apps running in the background it might not be worth the extra.

Deozaan · « **Reply #544 on:** September 19, 2020, 11:17 PM »

Thanks for answering my questions. I almost bought it on impulse already, but put it off, and now the price is slightly higher.

Nevertheless, it's inexpensive enough that I'm still considering a purchase. . .

Currently, with the screen at about 60-80% brightness, I'll watch a couple of movies at night, (files, Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Jellyfin), and do about 3 hours of reading, browsing, etc with about 40-45% battery left after 6 hours of screen on time. At that point it reports approx 3.75 hours left before it needs charging, so I'm getting around 9-10 hours currently.
-4wd (September 12, 2020, 09:33 AM)

Speaking of which, though a 10" tablet might be a little too large to do this comfortably, part of my bedtime ritual is to do some reading in bed using my (7") tablet. I find the lowest brightness setting is adequately dark enough for me that I don't feel blinded by it (though I wish it could get even darker!). My phone, on the other hand, is too bright, and can't get dark enough for me to want to use it to read in the dark, even at the lowest setting; It hurts my eyes too much.

Do you feel that, at the lowest setting, the screen of the iPlay 20 can get adequately dark enough in a nearly completely dark room that it can still be comfortably used for some reading? I know it's a bit subjective, as some people are more or less sensitive to light than others (I'd consider myself a bit on the more sensitive side), but I'm curious how you feel it performs in this regard.

4wd · « **Reply #545 on:** September 20, 2020, 05:17 AM »

Do you feel that, at the lowest setting, the screen of the iPlay 20 can get adequately dark enough in a nearly completely dark room that it can still be comfortably used for some reading?
-Deozaan (September 19, 2020, 11:17 PM)

The tablet has no auto-brightness so you need to adjust manually, if you're in the habit of constantly changing levels this will probably become real old, real fast.

That being said, I've only used FBReader for all my ebooks and you can adjust the brightness by simply sliding your finger up/down the left side of the display, anywhere from 1-100% brightness.

Gadget WEEKENDS

Dark room, against dark carpet, set at 1%, FBReader night mode - it's actually a little dark for me, up around 10% is a lot better with less eyestrain. (I know, shitty picture, phone couldn't cope with that low a level.)

Gadget WEEKENDS

At 10%.

Battery life is really turning out to be excellent:
Last full charge: 21 hours ago
Screen usage since: 7hrs 15mins (Netflix 3H8M, Infinity 1H22M, plus a mix of browsers, puzzle games, etc)
Battery remaining: 42%
Prediction of 14hrs use remaining, (depends on what you run of course).

Plus I've had a SIM in it just to see what it was like: phone calls, SMS/Signal, mobile data, etc all work OK.

I'll try and do a mini-review later but naturally it's going to be skewed towards what I use it for, (eg. I don't do any gaming apart from the occasional puzzle game).

Currently (approx US$):
Banggood: $122 (I got mine here when it was on special)
GearBest: $130
AliExpress: $127
SunSky: $110 (Never heard or dealt with them)

I've bought a few things from Banggood recently and they've managed to turn up almost as fast as the local mail which is in dire straits with our current Stage 4 lockdown here, (eg. 2.5 weeks or less from Banggood vs 2-4 weeks to come from Amazon AU ... I could drive to the Amazon warehouse and back in 90 mins with a stop for coffee ... if we were allowed to drive that far

). Not an endorsement, just anecdotal - it might be a completely different story sending to the USA.

wraith808 · « **Reply #546 on:** September 20, 2020, 12:05 PM »

So, I just moved into a new house, and in my office, I'm used to having a lifx light in the fixture. But I didn't want to deal with changing the light in the fixture in my office, and also wanted something a bit less in your face. My wife had gotten me a desk lamp that I used for that, and with the Qi charging, it was a good place to put my phone when I wasn't interacting with it. So I wanted one of those, that could be controlled by Google Assistant.

Gadget WEEKENDS

This is better than I expected for the price. It's all plastic even though it looks metallic- but that's fine with me. The only downside is that the lamp only goes up and down and does not swivel. But another upside is that it has a USB port, so I can power my little USB decoration through it also.

https://smile.amazon.../product/B085ZBG7LQ/

Deozaan · « **Reply #547 on:** September 21, 2020, 06:26 AM »

I've bought a few things from Banggood recently and they've managed to turn up almost as fast as the local mail which is in dire straits with our current Stage 4 lockdown here, (eg. 2.5 weeks or less from Banggood vs 2-4 weeks to come from Amazon AU ... I could drive to the Amazon warehouse and back in 90 mins with a stop for coffee ... if we were allowed to drive that far ). Not an endorsement, just anecdotal - it might be a completely different story sending to the USA.
-4wd (September 20, 2020, 05:17 AM)

Thanks again for your responses. I've ordered one from Banggood for just under $130 with shipping. ETA is October 14. So, just over 3 weeks.

mouser · « **Reply #548 on:** September 21, 2020, 07:35 AM »

wraith, neat!

Deozaan · « **Reply #549 on:** October 03, 2020, 03:55 AM »

I've ordered one from Banggood for just under $130 with shipping. ETA is October 14. So, just over 3 weeks.
-Deozaan (September 21, 2020, 06:26 AM)

It arrived on Oct 2! I'm very pleased about the quick shipping time. But I'm currently very busy focusing nearly every free moment I have on Ludum Dare 47, so it may be a few days before I get it unpackaged and properly set up.