Guy Low Price Electronic

Thursday, 11 March 2010

Eye Protection - safety glasses, cheap gifts

An electrical company I was working for at the time issued us these because our site required us to wear them at all times. Over 60 employees wore them every day for two years if I remember right. No one complained about the fit (or the optics???) but they are not anti fog after you clean them. No safety glasses are anit fog, anit scratch or UV protective long term (and depending on how many times you clean them) except the vary high end ones (those being the ones people that don't do any actual work ware if you get what I`m sayng) They are pretty light weight and that helps a lot with the comfort. I'm not going to say they don't get scratch up. Every pare of safely glasses I've ever owned eventually get scratches unless you baby them like they are a pair of nice sunglasses.

Safety glasses are made for the express purpose of getting beat up and scratched and so far these are the cheapest ones I can find that are still light and comfortable. Meaning all it takes is a trip to lowes with full pocket of change to get a new pair. AO Safety/3M Tekk 11329 Virtua Anti-Fog Safety Glasses, Clear Frame, Clear Lens

They work great as indoor safety glasses, but if you are going to be spending time being physically active outside, in the cold or rain, I would encourage you to buy a better pair of glasses. The anti-fog doesn't seem to work very well for more then about 5 minutes of activity outside in the cold or rain.

These glasses are light and comfortable and fit well. I can see very clearly through them and might even forget I have them on. I have not tested their ability to protect from an impact however so I can not comment how good they are at protecting.

These are good anti fog glasses and the fit well.

The item came with a scratch on the center of the lens....not damaged in shipment; but, purposely packed with an obvious scratch.

Let's see if they can ship a non damaged pair for replacement.

I would recommend these safety glasses otherwise.

Certainly these glasses aren't expensive, and would be fine for very short duration wear, but in this case you get what you pay for in terms of optical clarity. The lenses have significant distortion, and caused a lot of eye fatigue for my coworkers and me.

I bought a pair of the clear lenses for cycling. Fits great, extremely comfortable and lightweight, no distortion from the lenses. The wraparound design keeps everything out of my eyes when I'm riding in the city. The only problem is that the clear glasses are hard to see when you put them down somewhere, so I ended up losing them. Great safety glasses, I'd buy them again.

I purchased these for mountain biking. They deal with sweat fine. I haven't had fogging problems. They fit my face good and I have a large head. No optical problems. They've kept the branches and such out of my eyes so far.

These glasses were so cheap, but they work great. They don't slide down your nose, they aren't too tight, they are lightweight, and they don't get foggy at all. I love using them for my college chemistry class. They are much better than wearing goggles!!

I bought these from Home Depot (AOSafety Model #90551) and they seem great. I tried them on outdoors and did not notice any optical distortion. I looked at the trees and my hands to see if I could see detail from far away and up close and everything seemed very clear and detailed. I removed the glasses and looked again and everything seemed identical.

The glasses are very light and I like their "simple" look (most safety glasses just look like they're trying too much to look cool and come off a bit gaudy). They have good wrap around protection and although they look slim to me they cover up to my eyebrows and about an equal distance down under my eye. I tried looking up and down and they seem to stay in place very well and do not move around even when looking straight down. I'll try to post a pic if I can.

Note: Although my pair look identical to the pair here, they do not mention anything about anti-fog. - Safety Glasses - Cheap Gifts'

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Panasonic 50 Inch Plasma - panasonic plasma, panasonic g10

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The P50G10 is my second HD Plasma experience, the first being a 2004 Panasonic, which still looks and works quite well. It has found another spot in our home to make room for the new G10 in our family room. When searching for and finally selecting the new Panasonic G10, I was comparing choices against this first experience considering both the manufacturer and the plasma technology. While I have a few smaller sized LCD's, mostly in the 20-32" range, I have never been overly impressed with the picture. The seem a bit cartoonish, even in HD mode, so I quickly settled on a plasma as my technology choice. Having made that decision the alternatives in terms of manufacturers narrowed quickly. Wh Pioneer exiting the Plasma business, and considering my experience with my original Panasonic plasma the brand decision was made. Selecting which model from Panasonic boiled down to scouring the 2009 product announcements and available reviews (CNET), and making the trade-offs on size, cost and availability. This all led me to the P50G10, which was a good fit on all points.

I have had the unit installed and working for 4 weeks now, and must say its been an extremely satisfying time. The G10 is a major step up, from my previous plasma, in terms of picture, inputs i.e. 3 HDMI vs 1, and ability to control each picture setting independently. I have tweaked the picture setting on the Standard and THX settings a bit to sharpen and brighten the picture a bit, but most of the other settings are very good out of the box. As the unit is stand mounted, and in a room with mostly indirect and overhead lighting there are no issues with glare or light reflection, from the main glass or its glossy black bezel.

In the process I also moved up to a Panasonic BMP-BD60 (will write a separate review on it) Blu Ray player and the 1080P picture is nothing short of amazing. As these are both Panasonic units they inter-operate with VieraLink which simplifies and automates the way the two units operate together, a nice but not essential feature. I setup a Wireless ethernet bridge (Linksys WET54G) to feed the VieraCast function on the G10, and it works flawlessly. At this time the amount of content available is limited, but one can see the potential, if Panasonic can bring more content services to this function. The G10 does employ a set of power consumption controls. There are both Input Idle and In-Activity based auto-power off modes to save on power consumption, which is good as plasma's are a bit power hungry.

To be balanced the G10 does have a few shortcomings. The sound from the onboard speakers is a bit thin. You can mitigate this some by pumping up the Bass control and turning on the Bass Boost, but its just not a rich sound experience. I think Panasonic can do better with some higher quality speakers and a small sub-woofer. I, and I suspect most others, have a surround system connected and utilize it for a better sound experience.

I also preferred when Panasonic placed the additional inputs into a trap door on the front of the plasma, the G10 has these on the left (facing) edge. To me it was more convenient and accessible to have these set of inputs up-front.

All in all, the G10 is a high quality Plasma with terrific features and future expandability. If offers a near perfect picture across multiple inputs and types of content. Panasonic VIERA G10 Series TC-P50G10 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

I bought the TC-P50G10 three weeks ago, and am very happy with it. I did a lot of research and tried out a number of TVs before settling down on this one, so I thought I would share some of the information and my experience with the TV, and hopefully make your decision in choosing the TV a bit easier.

First thing first. According to my research, the Panasonic G10 probably has the best picture quality among all TVs in mass production as of the time of this review (May, 2009). Most importantly it has pitch dark black level, scorching brightness, high color accuracy, and good motion processing.

I chose the Panasonic plasma over Sony and Samsung LCD for a few reasons. (1) Compared to 120Hz LCDs, Panasonic is significantly cheaper than Sony and Samsung. (2) I think the G10 is better in handling motion than the 120HZ LCDs. (3) The colors on the plasma are more appealing to me than those on the LCDs. (4) It has superior viewing angle. It looks perfect from any angle you will actually watch the TV without washing out the color, prserving the quality of the color.

The third point on color appeal is subjective and calls for description of subjective experience. There are lots of technical comparison of the colors on different displays on the internet, but my perceptual experience is that the colors on the panasonic plasma is very vibrant, punchy, tantalizing, and mesmerizing. The colors look like things in real life, but they are more intense than real life. A friend said "it's prettier than real, but not distorted. It is just like an enhanced colorful world." If you prefer high fedelity to real life colors, you can use the THX mode to tune it down to be very faithful to studio color measures. LCD in comparison is also very vibrant, but it doesn't look as realistic. It's more like computer graphics and less like colors of living things. Technically, this may have to do with the deeper black level on the plasma than the LCD.

Before the G10, I had the Panasonic Viera TH-46PZ80U 46-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV. Both TVs have very appealing colors, but I returned the PZ80U and got the G10 because the G10 has a number of important improvements over the PZ80U: it has a brighter plasma display, has a VGA PC input, lower energy consumption, and more accurate color. Also, its frame is more compact, so I can fit a 50" G10 into the space that would only hold a 46" PZ80U. In fact, the G10 is brighter and more contrasty than last year's top model Panasonic TH-50PZ850U 50-inch Viera 1080p Plasma HDTV.

What else do I like about the TV? It is very bright for a Plasam TV. According to tech specs and online reviews, it is the bightest plasma ever made. In Custom Mode, it is more than bright enough to watch in my room with direct sun light (sun light in the room not on the TV). In Vivid Mode, "you should prepare to put on your ski googles". In fact, it's too bright and overly constrasty and saturated for regular viewing. However, it is quite useful in displaying low resolution and low quality online video such as YouTube or Netflix Instant Watch. The extra boost in brightness, contrast, and saturation make the low quality online video look much more appealing and lively.

VieraCast is kinda cool. Not a deal maker but certainly not a drawback. I used third party firmware DD-WRT to set up a Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless-G Broadband Router as a wireless bridge. So the TV can get online without running a cable to my main router.

I find this TV fits my needs perfectly. But no TV is perfect, at least not for the technically savvy.

So here are the cons:

(1) The sound is mediocre. It is fine to watch a TV show, but lackluster to watch a good movie or music show.

(1.2) True Cinema 24-frame mode flickering is perceptually disturbing because the refresh rate is set to 48 Hz in the mode. It is a pitty because motion does look much more life like and less video like in True-Cinema mode. Wish the TV could run at 72 Hz.

(2) My PC only has VGA out but no DVI out. (This point does not matter for those with DVI out on their computers. A DVI to VGA cable will work fine) The VGA input on the TV does not support 1080 HD. It only supports up to 1280x768. Panny should not cut corner here. Although this problem doesn't really matter for video contents because most computer video resolution is less than 1280x768. And the pixel interpolation effect on the Plasma is more like a CRT and less like an LCD. So the set is reasonably good at displaying contents with resolution lower than its native res.

(3) VieraCast needs improvement. The content is still limited. The search function of Youtube on VieraCast is not as easy to use as on a computer. The Amazon video on demand price is way too high (but this is not really Panny's problem). I wish a firmware upgrade would enables Netflix streaming.

(4) The remote is not as well laid out as the one on PZ80. The 3 big buttons above the directional keys are occupied by the rarely used VieraLink, VieraCast and VieraTool. The commonly used Menu key is moved to a small key. Totally wrong choice of ergonomics.

(5) VGA PC input is paired with RCA audio input. I wish it is a 3.5mm (1/8 ") mini jack instead, which will allow a single cable cable integrating VGA video and mini jack audio. Now I have to use two cables.

(6) The stand does not swivel.

Regardless of the above drawbacks, overall I find this TV to have the best picture quality and price combination. The pros by far outweigh the cons. The picture quality of this TV is truly amazing, as such some calls it "The New King of Plasma." Anyone seriously considering an HDTV should take a look at this one, now that the Pioneer Kuro exited the market. I use it with a PS3, the Energy 5.1 Take Classic Home Entertainment System (Set of Six, Black), Denon AVR 589 receiver, and an Antennas Direct DB2 Multi Directional HDTV Antenna for HDTV over the air reception. It's a lot of fun to watch BD movies, play some games, and watch some TVS, stream some video on Netflix via my laptop.

I highly recommend it. - Panasonic 50 Inch Plasma - 1080p - Panasonic G10 - Panasonic Plasma'

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Baby Dedication - boys, accessories

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The little suit was perfect for the one or two times it will be worn. The black three piece suit looks great but the fabric and the covered buttons do not seem top quality. It was promptly sent. I was happy with the suit. perfect for the price. Wedding Formal Boy Black Suit Sizes Baby to Teen (4T) - Boxed-gifts - Accessories - Very Comfortable - Boys'

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Shovels

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i havnt had the shovel for too long, it seems pretty durable but i wouldnt expect it to last under heavy usage. seems like a good enough shovel to take out camping though. needs a little sharpening. overall its worth what u get for the price. the carrying case it came in is average quality, not heavy duty at all.it has 1 belt loop on the back that feels like it could get ripped off easily. i have a military surplus e-tool pouch that im gona use. New Folding Camp Army Shovel Tool for Entrenching'

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Planer Blades - dewalt, knife

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These are the standard replacement for blades in the DW735. No surprise then that they work exactly as well as the originals. Which means that when they are sharp they work quite well. And when they are not you can reverse them. When that side is exhausted you can replace them.

I find that about 200 board feet of 5/4 by 8" hard maple is where the blades start to show wear - a dining room table's worth in realtime terms. Nicks can be suppressed by adjusting the blades laterally so that one blade removes the fault one of the others creates. To be honest, given the price of these strips of metal, I would like them to either last longer or be sharpenable. Although the prospect of sharpening 13" cutting edges does not thrill me.

What I would like to see is someone to start making aftermarket blades, carbide if possible. These are just pricey enough that I would be willing to pay just a bit more to get a few hundred more board feet out of a set. Lacking that, this is our only choice, and it is the single biggest flaw in the DW735 planer design. DEWALT DW7352 Replaceable Knives for DW735 13 Inch Planer

Yes, like toner cartridges, these blades don't last long and forever need replacing. For that reason I sold my DW735 and switched back to a DW733...I could not afford the blade habit! If you use exotics, or simply use your planer a lot, I would not recommend the DW735, as they obviously switched to non-sharpenable blades in order to hook you on their VERY overpriced replacements. If you get 3-400 BF out of a set, consider yourself lucky!

I purchased my DW735 as a quicky (read: impulsive) replacement for a Jet JWP12 that died in the middle of a job. (The poly belt broke.) Uncharacteristically, I didn't research the tool before buying. I should have. Although the planer is satisfactory, the knives are not. I planed about 80 lineal feet (yes, JUST 80 feet!) of antique white oak 1x6s before suddenly finding the blades too dull for the feed rollers to overcome the resistance. This occurred suddenly...within the span of three boards! Going along just fine in the "dimensioning" mode when the feed became slower and slower until finally, the boards quit feeding. The dull knives offered too much resistance. I cleaned the feed rollers with acetone, thinking there was contamination causing them to lose friction. This helped for one board, then the feeding stopped again. These boards were salvaged church kneelers from 1900. I had rough planed them of old varnish and grit to clean wood with a DW675 power hand planer and then ran them through the DW735 to true and thickness to 3/4". Surprised and annoyed, I flipped the knives and continued with the project. I surfaced another 50 linear feet without incident. A few days later, I start another job that required surface planing some 2x10 Select structural Doug fir. These were new clean planks. I managed to surface two sides of one plank before the feed stopped again. Cleaning the rollers had no effect. The blades were SHOT! I tried just a very shallow pass (the material removal gauge didn't even register that material would be removed, but failed halfway through when the planer kicked out a 20 amp dedicated breaker. Cranked up the planer head and removed the plank. The resultant stopped cut was barely perceptible, perhaps less than 1/64th of an inch. Hardly a heavy cut! I've seen some snipe that was greater. So, now I've got two planers and both down! I've ordered replacement knives, but what a PITA. The knives on the Jet were three years since replacement with a huge amount of varied lumber under their belt and although not sharp, still managed to bull through some 2x10s without complaint. I've found some aftermarket knives for the DW735 online at Infinity Cutting [...]. Apparently not laminated or reversible, but anything is better than the stock knives!

We have been pleased with the DW735 Planer, it works well for our needs. The knives are the weak point in the system. They seem to wear quickly. This could be due to the abrasive nature of the particular wood (Makore) we are milling at this time. I think DeWalt does a good job overall but could do better with the knives.

The DW735 is a very expensive planer. For LESS MONEY, one can purchase a planer that has good blades that can be resharpened, and for which blades are available on a secondary market - including carbide. Not with this machine!

Other reviewers have pointed to the problem - these blades are disposable, expensive, and can't be sharpened, and they are the heart of the system. Go look elswhere before you consider buying one of these. If you are even considering planing hardwood, look for a machine that has secondary market knives, preferably carbide, and don't waste your time on stuff like the blades supplied with the DW 735 that probably won't last more than a few hours (or minutes)into the job. When planing hard maple, I had tear-out almost with the first pass, and never recovered from it.

Just to make my point, when I went to "reverse" the blades on my machine, the "new" edge wouldn't even put a crease in my fingernail let alone cut paper. If even a new edge won't cut, no wonder tear-out is a problem.

Don't bother with this one. Look for replaceable knives, preferably on a secondary market by a manufacturer who cares.

When it was time to get a planer, I knew I had to get a portable. I do some remodel work and wanted something that could come with me when my shop was too far away. For a portable, the planer can't be beat. It is heavy (which is great when you're feeding stock) and it ejects chips like nothing else. The issue of course is the pesky blades, and therein lies the trade-off.

I don't do enough milling to mind having to shift, reverse, and replace blades every 6-12 months. I tend to work mostly with hard maple, rough-sawn white oak, and fir. I've found that the 200 bf number is probably about right if you're looking for what some consider a "finished" surface. I've had more problems with the blades getting nicks before they get dull. My stock looks clean, but I've resorted to milling up a lot of stock with the first pass through an old set of knives and a finish pass with a new set. For this reason, I think it would be really frustrating to someone who does a lot of volume. For me, it just isn't an issue.

Now that Infinity Tools has released replacement blades (HSSK-041) here on Amazon for <$10 more (price as of 1/2008) that CAN BE RE-SHARPENED, I'll be trying those next.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd still go with this planer. - Knife - Dewalt - Planer Knives - Dw735'

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Programmable Timer - programmable timer, aube by honeywell

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The Honeywell RPLS740B has some key features I was looking for:

1. Compatible with compact fluorescent bulbs (this timer even works with electric motors).

2. Has the option of turning on or off at either a certain time or at dawn or dusk. It keeps track of the time of year so that it knows when dawn and dusk are.

3. Adjusts for daylight saving time automatically (although it may eventually be a few days off if they change the dates for daylight saving time again).

4. Keeps its programming and the correct time and date during power outages.

5. Has no batteries to wear out (more about this below).

These features let me set it up once and then leave it alone. Of course, it's easy to override it if needed. Just press the main button to turn the lights on or off. The timer will stay programmed and resume automatic operation when it is time to turn on or off automatically again.

Some of the literature on this product says that it has a backup battery to keep the programming set up and the clock running during power outages. At first, I was concerned that the timer might need to be replaced when the backup battery wears out. Even a rechargeable battery only lasts so long. I carefully opened the unit to see if the battery is user-replaceable. I was pleasantly surprised to see that instead of a battery, it has a 0.22-Farad super-capacitor. A super-capacitor substitutes for a battery, but for all practical purposes, doesn't wear out. I wish more electronic devices would use these.

As with any product that has a mountain of features, it takes a little time to read the instructions and set up the timer. However, the menu system is pretty logical, and was easy to catch onto once I had programmed a few settings. I don't even need the instructions now.

Since the timer has been installed for only a week, I can't really be sure about reliability yet. It appears to be well built, inside and out. So far, it works flawlessly and the time is staying accurate.

It is a little expensive, but it's the lowest-priced timer I could find that has the features I want and has good reviews about working reliably. Also, with the super-capacitor instead of a battery, there's no need to worry about battery replacement.

The timer came via Amazon Super-saver Shipping, and arrived ahead of schedule in just a few days. Honeywell Econoswitch RPLS740B 7-Day Solar Time Table Programmable Switch for Lights and Motors

This switch is the Honeywell-labeled replacement for the Aube TI071/U. (Aube, a Canadian corporation, was purchased by Honeywell.) I own the Aube-by-Honeywell-labelled switch.

This is an easy install for a homeowner who is comfortable enough with electrical work to know why the wiring comes in different colors, and can identify which side of a circuit is "line" and which side is "load." Also, you must have a neutral (white) wire in the box where you are installing this, or the switch won't work.

The switch benefits from Aube's years of experience in designing programmable thermostats that are easy to use. The initial setup involves determining your local latitude and longitude, which can be determined from Aube's web site or from using Google Maps. (You only need the degrees [such as 45° N or 75°W], not the minutes or seconds, nor any decimals following the degrees.) The date, time, and location are entered, and your preferences regarding when you want to see the backlight, as well as whether your location is affected by daylight savings time. Once this information is entered, you can program up to eight sets of ON and OFF times.

The twist is in the "Solar Time Table" function. Entering latitude and longitude means that the switch calculates sunrise and sunset times for each day of the year, and those times are fairly accurate for your location. Therefore, you can set fixed on and off times for a program, or set ON and/or OFF to local sunset or sunrise. You can also adjust a time to be offset from sunset or sunrise, in ten-minute increments up to an hour either way. For my holiday lights, I want them to come on in the evening a half hour before sunset because our sunset comes earlier due to a ridge a mile west of our home. This switch allows that.

It is also possible to have the switch turn off the lights a stated number of times at random intervals for a set period (got all that?). This is touted as good for vacation periods, though I have not tried it.

In my experience, so-called "photo eyes" sometimes cause lights to come on during the day, or at times when they are not wanted. This switch will not let that happen.

It is remarkable that Aube/Honeywell built such a degree of flexibility into a small package like this. I think this product is very well thought out, and I recommend it.

I ordered this when Amazon offered it for a special discounted price. I believe that the normal price of $45 is too high for the functionality that this offers. Like a lot of people, I would like an easy way to have my outdoor lights come on and off automatically. Normally the problem with timers is that the lights get turned on too early or too late at different times of year due to longer and shorter days, daylight savings time, etc.

This switch does solve that problem, allowing the user to have the lights come on and shut off at times related to sunset and sunrise. I programmed them to come on at 10 minutes after sundown and shut off at 11:30PM. The nice thing is I no longer have to remember to turn the lights on or off. You can also turn them on and off manually, which is good. There is a chart included with latitudes and longitudes of different US and Canadian cities, you can also quickly look your specific coordinates up on the internet.

The screen on the unit is actually tastefully done, and does not look out of place in the wall box next to another decora switch.

So why four stars instead of five? I have just a few nits with this product worth mentioning.

The size of the switch is quite large, and as you will have to retrieve the neutral wires in your outlet box (typically it's a bundle of white wires tied together with a wire nut) it is quite a tight fit. It does not help that the wire leads from the box are a little on the short side.

Second issue is that when the box is "on" and providing lighting functions there is an extremely bright blue LED in the lower right corner that is lit. This light is so bright that it's a bit obnoxious. The screen itself can be dimmed up or down with three settings but the blue LED is always lit when the lights are on.

Third issue is that the mounting screws that come with the box are garbage. I had to uninstall the box once and repack the wiring and the screws were already stripped with just the use of a high quality flat bladed screwdriver. Forget about using a power screwdriver. I ended up pulling the screws from a $2 outlet switch, they were much better. Considering the premium price it would not kill them to provide better install hardware.

All in all though this is a great product. It even has a capacitor backup to preserve the programming during power outages. Very nice. - Honeywell - Aube By Honeywell - Wall Timer - Programmable Timer'

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Camcorder Batteries

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The JVC BN-VF808 battery is the same type that shipped with my JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black). This battery is rated for about 1.5 hours of use, but has lasted for just over 1 hour for me.

The battery fully charged in about 2 hours the first time.

If size isn't important, you may want to consider JVC BN-VF815US 1460-mAh Rechargeable Data Battery for JVC MiniDV and Everio Camcorders, which lasts for about 2.5 hours. The BN-VF815 is about 1/2" larger and I have posted pictures showing the difference between these two batteries.

Recommended as a spare or replacement battery. JVC BN-VF808US 730-mAh Rechargeable Data Battery for JVC MiniDV and Everio Camcorders

Completely agree with Tieum: do not buy this battery. I bought a JVC Everio camera, which comes with this battery, right before my trip and was very disappointed: the battery lasted for less than 1 hour. If you are mostly taping outdoors, like I did, you are basically screwed.

I thought this is what I needed to get my camera working without being plugged in.. unfortunately it wasn't the problem, so I'll have to take it in and see why it won't work with a battery. Oh well. Transaction was easy and great deal.

Had a problem finding a battery for my new JVC Everio Camcorder. Numbers on camcorder didn't cross reference with numbers at Batteries Plus or other web sites. When I was able to see a photo of the actual battery, I knew it was the correct one. I ordered it, received it in a timely fashion and am happy with the price and the product'

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