I've been into electronics for 40 years. The cost of batteries has had me try many different brands, and types. I use some rechargeable batteries, they are not always the best choice. For the battery sizes of AAA and AA, I look for a cost per battery of about a quarter. It is important to purchase Alkaline batteries at a minimum, don't get the cheaper, Heavy Duty batteries. They leak more, don't have the shelf life of an Alkaline, and product less power.
Category Archives: Recommend
Velcro Wire Ties – you probably need this
Velcro wire ties are great, they are just way over priced. 10 ties for eight bucks is a typical cost. Yet I have Velcro ties for tomato plants which are pretty cheap. A 30 foot roll is a few bucks. I've been looking for cable ties that are made the same way. Finally I found someone packaging Velcro wire ties in an inexpensive package. These ties are great, they tear apart real nice, have a hole for a loop around a cable, and don't stick too tight. Velcro comes in many strengths, this connection is on the lighter side, quite right for a cable tie.
SoftPro Calendar options
There are a few options for the SoftPro ProForm user to use a calendar. SoftPro has 2 methods of which the 360 send to Exchange method looks like the best. As far as I can tell it nicely sends closing information to a shared Exchange calendar for wide consumption. There is also a different calendaring package built into the program. Both of these solutions required too many clicks for my clients so ProCal was born. ProCal has been replaced with the Calendar Robot an even better tool which sends updates to Exchange.
Voltage tester on the cheap
Today I was installing some new Insteon devices to control lights other stuff. I needed to determine if the circuit was energized. I have a large variety of test equipment that could answer that question, DVM, VTVM, Probe, and just a normal analog volt meter. The thing that caught my eye was the Christmas light tester, it has a voltage proximity detector built into it.
I wondered how many people had one of these and didn''t know they had a rather sophisticated voltage tester for home use.
It works great, make sure the LED lights up to confirm the three LR44 batteries are good, and point the loop nose of the Light Keeper Pro near the wire. Beeping means don''t touch the wire! It only works an inch away from the wire, so touch the insulated part of the wire with the nose, or get it real close.
Everybody should own one of these, well at least until the LED bulbs take over the season. Then they''re going to need one of these.
