Thursday, December 29, 2016

Novolumi 10W Super Slim IP65 Waterproof LED Flood Light Outdoor (650LM,4000K Neutral White,120V,SMD3020) Review

The Novolumi 10W LED Flood Light is just what I needed. I have a lot of trees and needed something that I could place on the back of the garage and wire directly in and not rely on solar power like a lot of the floodlights have gone to. This is made with a nice somewhat heavy white metal case that feels very well-built.

I was shocked a little at the size of this. The pictures on Amazon make this look so much bigger than it really is. I guess I really didn’t pay attention to the specs on this. Not that it really matters, it is still really bright with 10w LED light on it.

The wife cares for a feral cat colony in the back yard and goes out and feeds them at 4 am every day and needed some light behind the garage. I have a floodlight on the side corner of the garage but it doesn’t reach the back of the garage and this light will fill that void.

This comes with all the necessary hardware to install this and following the directions, took about 20 minutes to install and have up and running.

This light has a 10w very bright lights that will come on when it turned on with no lag like some LED lights.

This light in plenty bright for the wife’s need of being able to see any cats or raccoon’s that happen to show up for the 4 am feeding.

This is a really great light and works well for what I needed it for exceeds my expectations and sure it will do that for you also if you need a light like this.

DISCLAIMER: This was offered at a discounted rate in exchange for an honest review. I rely on reviews from the community when making purchases, so I believe in giving honest and unbiased reviews to help others. I am not obligated to leave positive feedback and receive no compensation for doing so.  I am not associated with the seller in any way.



My Rating: 5 Stars





Car Windshield Snow Cover Sun Shade Protector Review

The Car Windshield Snow Cover Sun Shade Protector is something I have needed for a while now living in the Mid-West with all the snow and ice. This will work great while I am at work or out and not home. I always park my car in a garage at home (won’t have a house without one now) but when you are out, it’s such a pain to scrape your windows before you can leave.

This comes wrapped up in a bag made from the same material as the cover with a draw string on it. I do wish this string had a pull ball or some kind of stopper or locking mechanism on it. This is just a string you have to manually tie to keep it closed.

The protector itself is a thin cotton material that is really easy to move, hold and fold. The straps and hooks are a little on the small and thin side and at first, I thought “cheap” but as I was installing this, you really want these types so you don’t scratch or ding your car as you are pulling this across the hood of your car. Big heavy hooks would do some damage.

This doesn’t take very long to install and is pretty easy to do it. Hooking this on the one mirror first keeps it in place as you pull it across to the other side. Hook the straps in place on the wheels and don’t forget the one that goes inside, so it doesn’t get stolen.

I haven’t had to use this yet since I received it, but think it should work very well. I am a little worried that with ice, this may be hard to get off the car in order to leave. That and folding this up with snow and ice on it may also be a challenge in order to get it back in the bag it gets stored in. Guess you could always throw it in the trunk and store it later? You will also need to make sure that everything gets dried sometimes as well so it doesn’t mold over time.

Overall, a very good concept and idea. We will see how practical and useful it is really over time. Right this minute, I would say a great thing to get if you think you may need something like this. 

DISCLAIMER: This was offered at a discounted rate in exchange for an honest review. I rely on reviews from the community when making purchases, so I believe in giving honest and unbiased reviews to help others. I am not obligated to leave positive feedback and receive no compensation for doing so.  I am not associated with the seller in any way.



My Rating: 5 Stars














Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Miboxer C4 Smart Charger Review




The Miboxer C4 smart charger is the first smart charger I have owned and so far I like it. Unlike my other non-smart chargers, this one recognizes what battery you put in it and will perform a charge on it for that type and size of battery inserted.

In the box, you receive the C4 charger, an AAA slot conversion tray, the AC adapter plug, and instructions. This charger does have a port on it for a DC 12v car charger power cord, but this power cord is not supplied and is not in the box.

Front of the box

Back of the box

Side of the box

Content of the box
The instructions are in both English and Chinese and do cover all aspects of using this charger. The English instructions are on one side of the page and so small they are almost not readable and need to be bigger. The other side of the page has the instructions in Chinese. Do yourself a favor and download the PDF version so you can enlarge them from here:  https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiwto6k8pLRAhXs7IMKHTQfBPcQFggaMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.miboxer.com%2Feng%2Fdown.html%3Ffilepath%3D1&usg=AFQjCNFrL9GnGYTrSm3UKVYY0Vbb3B_yCA&sig2=xm08p_MqJqSbSkMlXyGlnQ

Instructions in English
The info Miboxer wants you to know:

-   -    Charging load max for each slot is 800mAh
-   -    Each slot charge independently and can charge different kinds of batteries at the same time
-   -    Compatible with Li-on (4.2v/4.35v), LIFPO4 (3.6v) batteries
o   Battery Specification:
§  10340/10350/10440/10500/12340/12500/12650/13450/13500
§  13650/14350/14430/14500/14650/16500/16340(RCR123)
§  16650/17350/17500/17650/17670/18350/18490/18500/18650
§  18700/20700/21700/22500/22650/25500/26500/26650
-    -   Compatible with Ni-MH / Ni-Cd(1.48v)
o   Battery Specification:
§  AA / AAA / AAAA / C
-    -   Compatible with DC(12v) car charging as well as AC 86-265v Input
-    -   Can charge Li-ion and LifePO4 @ 800mAh in all four slots or NiMH and NiCd at 300 mAh  on hi or 150 mAh on low
-    -   Can fix, repair or recharge tripped lithium batteries and slow charge depleted cells back to health, if not it will display ‘Err”
-    -   Slot 4 (only) can be used for capacity and resistance measurements
-    -   3 year warranty

 When you plug this charger in and once the batteries are inserted, the charger will decide the default charge settings for each battery and start the charging using the default mAh unless you manually change them by pushing the mode button. You must do this for each slot if you desire. You can change the default of 800 or 300 mAh to 400 or 150 mAh. Batteries that are less than1000 mAh, should be charged on the lower rate. The display only shows the data for one slot at a time and you must push the slot button to switch between the different slots in order to see the info for each battery. To test this I used an AAA (800mAh), AA (2100mAh), 18650 (3000mAh) and a 26650 (5000mAh) batteries.
Four different batteries charging for testing

As you can see (above), slot C1 defaulted as 150 mAh because it is under 1000 mAh in size. This did go up later to 600mAh as it got closer to being finished (see below). The display shows you the current voltage, the selected charging mAh, the charging time or battery capacity (rotates between the two), the battery type, charging mode and the charging current (high or low).
Slot one at 600 mAh before finished

Slot two at 300 mAh charging

Slot three at 800 mAh charging

Slot four at 800 mAh charging
 Once the battery if full, the display will show you the message “FUL” where the current charging current was displayed. The mode will also display “Full”.
Slot two shows battery is FULL
To test the battery capacity measurement that you can do in slot 4 only, I chose the 18650 (3000mAh) battery that was almost full. To get to this function takes a few steps. Put battery in charging slot 4, press the “Mode” button till the battery capacity reading is all zeros and blinking in the display screen, press and hold the “Mode” button to choose on /off for the capacity measurement function. The three little boxes with up and down arrows display on the right side of slot 4 when in this mode. They disappear when this function is turned off. The charger will charge the battery first using the default mAh. Once fully charged, it will drain the battery using a constant drain mAh that you can select. If you select High it will drain at 400 mAh and if you select Low, it will drain at 200 mAh. I selected the Low at 200 mAh. Once totally drained, the charger will recharge the battery to full again. To go threw all three steps, this overall process took a very long time and completed in 6.5 hours and that was with an almost full battery to start with. Add another hour on a drained battery.
Battery in the capacity measurement mode 

Up/down arrows right of the slot 4 indicated battery capacity measurement is turned on
All my batteries are fairly new and I couldn’t test this, but there is another function the C4 charger has is an activation function for over discharged Lithium batteries. When placed in charging slot C4, it will auto detect the battery & active it. If the battery is unable to be activated, the charger will decide the battery is damaged and the charging slot will display "Err" and stop charging. It will also display “Err” if you insert the batteries the wrong way and reverse the polarity or there is some kind of a short circuit and it will not start the charging process.

The good:
-     -  Each slot works independently of each other
-     - Charger knows what battery types are inserted and charges accordingly
-     -You can manually override and change the charging mAh or the discharging mAh
-     -  You can charge different types and sizes of batteries at one time
-     -  You can fix, repair Lithium batteries
-     -  Display is nice, big and easy to read with large characters
-     -  Charger is well made and can charge multiple types and size batteries at one time
-     -  Instructions are easy to read and cover all the functions of this charger
-     -  For the price, you get some functions other chargers don’t have that cost more

The bad:
-    -   The display is big enough that it could display more info if they have it
-    -   DC car adapter power cord is not supplied and in the box
-    -   Need more slots, 4 is nice but nowadays, everything needs batteries and I need to charge more batteries at one time
-    -   Change the mAh and increase the power and amps for both chargings and discharging to speed things up, these big batteries take a lot of juice but I need them charged fast
-    -   Instructions need to be on multiple pages and the font size a lot bigger

Overall, this is a very nice smart charger that is just a little underpowered and undersized. It works ok as is and will do what you need it too, but it does take time and is a little slow for me. I currently have eight drones and each transmitter take 4-6 AA batteries, so I need them charged and ready to go fast if I didn’t plan ahead and charge batteries the day and night before. If you have time and only need to charge a few batteries at a time and can let batteries charge overnight or during the day, then this will work well for you. It’s a nice little smart charger that once they add a few more things too, will be a great charger. A really good start for Miboxer on their first smart charger to hit the market.

DISCLAIMER: This was offered at a discounted rate in exchange for an honest review. I rely on reviews from the community when making purchases, so I believe in giving honest and unbiased reviews to help others. I am not obligated to leave positive feedback and receive no compensation for doing so.  I am not associated with the seller in any way.



My Rating: 5 Stars

Found on Miboxer at:   http://www.miboxer.com/eng/p1.html


All the pictures I took in one small video: 





Monday, December 26, 2016

FAMILY® Sewing Thread 39 Colors 200 Yards Per Unit Of Colorful Assorted Thread Spool Review

The FAMILY® sewing thread is a decent set of assorted colored threads that work great for small jobs. I do all my own patchwork and sewing of my wife’s and mine clothes and with all these colors now, I have something that just about matches everything I have needed so far.

Clothes today just aren’t made like they used to be. I am always putting buttons back on or fixing a hem or cuff.

This thread is made out of polyester and a little on the thin side and you can break if you pull hard enough. But I guess anything will do that. May have a problem using it in a machine, as I hand sew everything.

These spools do not come with a slot on the spool for the end or starting point and trying to find and start the thread is not so easy and a little frustrating, but for the price, I will deal with it. Create your own slot or put a piece of tape on the end once you find it and done with it.

Once cut, this thread does seem to split pretty easily and makes it a little hard to put through an eye hole on the needle without wetting the end or melting it first.

Overall, it’s a nice set of thread that works for what I need it for. Hard to pass up for the price. I did only give it four stars because I like it, but I don’t love it.

DISCLAIMER: This was offered at a discounted rate in exchange for an honest review. I rely on reviews from the community when making purchases, so I believe in giving honest and unbiased reviews to help others. I am not obligated to leave positive feedback and receive no compensation for doing so.  I am not associated with the seller in any way.



My Rating: 4 Stars


1byone Upper Arm Blood Pressure Monitor Blood Pressure Cuff, Color White Review

Color: White

The 1byone upper arm cuffs blood pressure monitor is one of those things you don’t think you really want or need until you have one and then you wonder why you didn’t buy one earlier.

What you want to know:
-       Runs off 4 AAA batteries you must supply or AC adapter you must buy or already have
-       Large backlit LCD reading screen, very easy to see and read
-       2 users can be tracked and last 60 readings kept for each
-       Measures systolic and diastolic blood pressure and pulse
-       Alerts if hypertension or irregular heartbeat is detected
-       Cuff size should fit most adults with most being in the medium size range
-       One button starts the measuring process
-       Comes with a soft-sided carrying case
-       Great customer service and a 1-year warranty if needed

The stuff you need to know:
-       Cuff may not fit very small (children) or oversize (thicker, muscular) people
-       For the best reading, there are a lot of rules to apply beforehand or may be inaccurate
-       Doesn’t come with the AC adapter included
-       Eats batteries, you should use rechargeable ones in this or get the AC adapter

I always run around 130 over 85 and this has been close. I know I spike at times but overall, this seems to be pretty accurate. I get phlebotomies done all the time and they are always taking my pressure, so I know what I run most of the time. If it was too low they wouldn’t do the phlebotomy or I may pass out, so I know.

DISCLAIMER: This was offered at a discounted rate in exchange for an honest review. I rely on reviews from the community when making purchases, so I believe in giving honest and unbiased reviews to help others. I am not obligated to leave positive feedback and receive no compensation for doing so.  I am not associated with the seller in any way.


My Rating: 5 Stars