I recently realized that my Asus RT-N66U wasn’t routing at the speed it should have been when running the Tomato firmware. Apparently this is because Tomato disables (or rather, doesn’t enable) the hardware acceleration for NAT traffic. So, I started looking at a replacement router. At first I was looking at a Routerboard from Mikrotik, but a friend steered me toward the Ubiquiti Edgerouter products. The Edgerouter Lite is a pretty popular product for Sys Admins and network engineers home networks, but Ubiquiti recently released the Edgerouter X series. They’re the same OS, just slightly more consumer based hardware (no hardware acceleration, faster processor, but less RAM/Flash, and more ports). The stock X was nice, but the SFP version really caught my eye because it had Passive POE on all ports, and supported a single SFP module (which I could throw a copper module in and use for uplink to my cable modem). Amazon had them for $79 with Prime, so I ordered one and waited anxiously for it to show up.
Kinivo K300 4K 3-port HDMI switch
After getting a PS4, I realized that I was one HDMI port short on my TV. So, I started looking for a simple HDMI switch since the option of a stereo receiver wasn’t really a good option for the space. Everything I found seemed to indicate two things, Kinivo seemed to make the most reliable units (and have the best support) and that the PS3 was really finicky with HDMI switchers. I bought the 3-port 4K switcher since I figured I might want to use it in the future should I have a 4K TV.
Amazon got it to me in a couple days, and I hooked it up. PS4 worked great… and… ThE PS3 didn’t work at all. I occasionally got the unit to work when the PS3 was in 480P mode, but it would just cut out again after a reboot. I contacted Kinivo support, and within a day, they got back to me, and after confirming I’d done the basics, they sent me a new unit (through Amazon) and I had that new unit in 2 days… which worked perfectly. They also provided a return label so they could take a look at the defective unit (they also said they’d let me know what they found on disassembly).
Other than the defective unit (which hopefully doesn’t indicate an issue with their QA), I’m quite happy.
[xrr rating=4.5/5]
Surebonder PRO2-100
Hot Glue may be one of the most under appreciated tools of doing electronics (or any) repair, building. It’s extremely versatile, water resistant, and generally, non-conductive. Can’t figure out how to repair/insulate something? Give hot glue a go. I, for years, have used tiny hobby glue guns, and never been overly happy with their performance. Plus, with my desk wiring, I like to keep all my tools plugged into a single “hot” power bar, so that I can turn them all off with a single, separate, switch (basically, so I don’t forget to turn off the soldering iron). But, I don’t really want them all on when not in use, either. So, a glue gun with it’s own on/off switch was something I’d been wanting for a while.
Amazon reviews all seemed to point to the same gun, the Surebonder Pro2-100. But, $30 for a hot glue gun was a bit much. Then, on a video by Applied Science, he mentioned this gun as well, so I just bit the bullet and bought it. And boy, am I glad I did.
The “gun” came from Amazon in a couple days, and first off, it’s big. It’s physically larger than my desoldering gun (and, really, uses almost as much power). But, it feels great, and the full length handle gives very good control over the amount of glue dispensed. Heat up take a while, largely because the glue chamber seems to be on the large side. I say that because the gun takes almost a whole 10″ 1.2″ glue stick before it dispenses anything (so, the glue chamber is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 18in^3) ((Half inch gluestick has a volume of .25*π^2 * 10 (24.67in^3), and figure 3/4 of that is filling the chamber)). Because of this, I really suggest getting the 10″ (or 15″ if you can get them) sticks if possible. 4″ sticks would be brutal. Especially since the gun CAN dispense a LOT of glue at a time (they rate it at 2.5lbs per hour).
The gun, though, works great. While I also purchased some black glue sticks, I actually purchased a separate gun for those so I wouldn’t have to waste glue switching between black and clear glue.
So, that all said, the glue gun is awesome. I really do like it. My only problem has been the added size has made it hard to get glue into small spaces, but there are some replacement tips you can get to alleviate this. Not sure when/if I’ll bother buying those. I also wish the on/off switch was a little bigger, and that there was an LED to show power/heating status. Small quibbles, but would be nice for a future revision.
[xrr rating=4/5]