New Jabra BT2045 Review

Intro

The New Jabra BT2045, is a small, light, inexpensive BT ear piece, that enables you to talk on you bluetooth phone handsfree. I bought mine for £16 delivered from eBay. 

Features

The Jabra BT2045 has the following features:

• Echo Cancellation, 
• HD Voice, 
• Noise Cancellation, 
• Noise Isolation
• Talk Time: Up to 8 hours
• Standby Time: Up to 240 hour
• USB Charging: Yes

Real World Battery

Whilst I have not used ear piece for 8 hour talk time, I can safely say it will not last 10 days on stand-by as I have left it switched on over night (not in use) and battery is dead by morning.

Controls

Part of the reason I often leave this switched on is the button is quite small, and hard to operate with podgy fingers. The indicator light is also obscured by your finger when you are trying to operate the button, so you can not see any of the flashes of lights colour changes. 

Comfort 

Despite not "looking" very comfy. The ear piece is so light and small that it is actually very comfy. I have worn it for a few hours at a time listening to audio books, and my ear does not get sore.

The ear hoops is also detachable, and the in ear bud will wedge in you ear quite well, enabling you to use the earpiece without the hoop, if your ear is the right shape!

Call Quality

The sound coming from the small in ear bud, is free from bass but that is quite good for clarity when talking to people. 

The volume could do with being a bit louder, but is pretty good even in windy conditions (for listening), however in wind the microphone (and associated noise cancellation etc.) does struggle a bit, but that is the same all round I think.

Conclusions

The volume could do with being 20% louder. But apart from that the Jabra BT2045 is a good no frills option. 

Sequential Test

Mud Guards for Tag Along Bike

Intro

My youngest child (boy) has recently come to the age where he can go on a tag along bike. Living in rural england, there is mud everywhere for 90% of the year, and our first trip out was cut short owing sogginess and mud splattering. 

I am quite practiced at bodging together DIY mudguards (fenders is in USA) for various bikes, but fitting effective mudguards (fenders) on this tag along has proved a laborious affair!

The problem being that as well as the normal rear wheel splatter problem, you also have a unique "front wheel" splatter problem for the tag along rider, as they are low down and in the line of fire from your rear wheel splatter.

So the rear rider will get wet and muddy very quickly if no mud guards are provided. This can be fun in the summer, but in the winter it is a bit much to ask perhaps. 

Tag Along Wheel Splatter

The easiest problem to deal with is the splatter from the wheel of the tag along bike. Which you would treat as any rear wheel, on any bike. You could buy a set of 20" mudguards and discard the front one, and that would do the trick no problem. 

In my case I used my favourite "trick" of installing a rack (£10) and then zip tieing some plastic board to it. Zip ties are cheap, and the plastic is always free. Plus you get a rear rack, and loads of clearance around the wheel. 

Main Bike Rear Wheel Splatter

This is quite difficult to deal with. The best answer would be to fit a flap on the rear mudguard of the main bike. The flap can be made from allsorts of things, I have done a post on DIY mudflaps some years ago. 

Simply Zip Tie Some Type of Plastic on to Under Side of Rack

As the image below shows the splatter not only flies off in the conventional manner, but also is blown backwards by head winds, meaning that is can "bend" around mudguards fitted on the "down tube" of the tag along. This was happening alot even through I have a a full set of mudguards on my main bike. 

Head Wind Blows Vertical Splatter Back on to Passengers

The answer here as hinted above is to add a flap to the rear mudguard of the main bike. The closer you can get to the ground the better. 

Create  Flap on Your Rear Mudguard to Prevent Splatter 

My initial thought was to use a crud catcher type guard on down tube of tag along, but this would have to be very long, and would need some sort of flap to catch low flying splatter. Better to install a flap on the main bikes rear wheel, and deal with the problem at source. 

Close but Not Quite There

So whilst my tag along wheel guard worked fin, I need to manage splatter from main bike's rear wheel a lot better. I will use a flap.

Sequential Test

Preliminary Ecological Appraisal 
construction environmental management plan

"Something Went Wrong" - Teams Assignment Attachements

Intro

I hope this helps someone. We have 3 kids at home using teams for education during lock down. And this problem has caused a lot if upsets. 

When my kids try to access their assignment reference material through the teams web app. We get a message saying "oops something went wrong", in some instances people see "doh something went wrong" or other over familiar trite snippets. 

Not only does this problem prevent my kids seeing there school work it also means, they can't hand it in easily. 

"Oops Something Went Wrong"  - Tell me something I don't know. 

I will start with the rather disappointing conclusion that you will not be able to use teams web app or even the desktop app, to access you assignment attachments if you are using Windows 7

We have 6 windows laptops and PCs in or house that run on Windows 7. In 2021 I guess this is rarity, but seems to be the main problem. 

Either by design or by accident there is a bit of code in windows 7 somewhere that means teams is not fully compatible. 

I have tried so many different fixes, to get assignments attachments open in teams, but with no luck. But using our 1 windows 10 laptop. The problem is not present.

I have tried firewall rules on router and windows, asked school to check permissions for access. We have tried web app on chrome and edge browsers. 

We have tried web app and desktop app (the one you download and install on PC / laptop). 

iOS 

Teams App on iOS works absolutely fine. Same account same permissions, same operator ame everything. 

Windows 10 

Problem is not present. . . . 

Work Around - 1 

The best work around we have found is to remember the assignment reference material file name (or part of it), and then navigate to office 365 home page, there go in to sharepoint and search for the attachment. It will open from there. 

You or your child can then edit the document and share it with the correct teacher using the share button (on the document ribbon). 

Work Around  - 2 

Use your iOS device (iphone) to share the assignment reference material to a chat. That you have access too. Perhaps set up a chat between you and your teacher only, so you can share documents to the chat and you teacher can check them. 

Environmental Permit Applications

Ocean Plastic Gifts

Soundboks 2 - 2021 Review

Soundboks 2 - 2021 Review - Intro

I have long gazed at the Soundboks 2, wishing it were mine. And after a year of enforced saving (COVID) I have treated myself to a Soundboks 2 Speaker. 

At the time of purchase there was a choice between getting the Soundboks 2 and the "New Soundboks", the Soundboks 3 (?).

However, after watching lots of reviews on YouTube, I decided on the Soundboks 2. The main reasons was I liked the sound better, the secondary reason was that was £300 cheaper . . . .

I watched the above video and, the Soundboks 2, to my ears sounded better. Less harsh I thought. I like a soft mellow bass rich sound, a bit like the kind of sound you would get from an old school valve amplifier. 

Soundboks 2 - 2021 Review - Finding

My Soundboks 2 arrived in early December. I was patient and waited until Christmas Day to open it. The sound was very pleasing at low to moderate volumes, but become harsh at higher volumes. 

In my opinion the bass / treble balance is lost at higher volumes, and the tweeter become jangly and unpleasant at higher volumes also. 

Don't get me wrong it is a great speaker, very well built and the battery lasts for ages (days) for normal listening. It will also likely out last me, and be handed down to my kids it is so well built. 

The switches and the build of the casing is bomb proof. I love that. 

Soundboks 2 - 2021 Review - Context

So you might ask what speaker am I comparing this to? Well it is a home made one, that I have "perfected" over the last few years.

I like to dance to music that is bass heavy, and I like to feel the bass whilst still not hurting my ears, with over inflated treble and mid range. 

The specs of my home made speaker are as follows:

• TPA3116 2.1 
• 24V Power Supply
• 12mm exterior plywood cabinet.
• Salvaged 8 ohm speaker drivers and tweeter complete with original crossovers.
• JBL 2 ohm 10" sub woofer

After a few weeks of listening I can safely say that I prefer the sound from my home made speaker. It quieter in treble and mid range, but still pack mega punch in the bass area. 

I will post a youtube video, with comparison soon:

VIDEO

Ocean Plastic Gifts

Sequential Test

Scientific Web Content

Laggy Slow Rendering PDF - Problem & Fix

For work I often view PDF drawings exported or printed from AutoCAD, some have 100's of layers, others are quite simple. Some are Laggy Slow Rendering PDF, where layers of CAD drawing appear very slowly after one another, and as the pdf is regenerated as you zoom or scroll you have to wait all over again. 

I have notice over the last few years that some of the more complex drawings are very slow to render, the display of the PDF layers is laggy, and when zoomed in panning around the document this can be quite annoying. 

PC Specs are old, but heavy duty:

• HP XW8400
• 2 x CPU (2 x xeon 5160) 4 Cores in Total
• 2 x Nvidia NVS 300 1GB 
• Samsung EVO SSD
• 16 GB of RAM

Document for test:

• 2MB PDF exported from CAD drawing with around 50 layers. 

In my attempt to diagnose the problem, I have made the following notes: 

1 - CPU - Not a Problem

Are these laggy PDF, caused by a CPU bottleneck. No they are not. In resource monitor I see around 15% usage over 4 cores (2 CPUs), whilst zooming in and out on the PDF, and panning around using grab function. 

2 - GPU - Not a Problem

Monitoring use of  2x 1GB cards in Nvidia Control Centre I see a maximum of 7% usage on one card. So it is not likely that GPU bottleneck is causing problem. 

3 - Disk Read Write - Not a Problem

Nope, very little activity. Whilst causing PDF to lag, and badly render. 

4 - PDF Software - Not a Problem

I am using a very old version of Foxit PDF in 32 bit. Lets swap that for 64 bit Nitro Reader, and see if that works. No it does not help, actually worse using new software. Also tried with PDF Architect same symptoms. 

5 - Hatching In Drawings < Solution 

I have found over time that problem rests with "hatching" or solid colour fill in drawings. For example if an architect has used green colouring in on a section lawn, then that can cause very slow rendering of PDFs.

If the PDF reader you are using have a layer control panel, look for layers labelled hatch, or fill, or area. And deselect these layers I have found this helps in 90% of cases. 

6 - Convert to Image and then back to PDF

I can use PDF Architect to convert the PDF to an image (PNG / JPEG). I then print that image back to a PDF, taking care to keep the paper size the same as original to preserve scaling. This works very well in deed and is my preferred method. 

Environmental Consultants

Flood Risk Reports

Access Land (Right to Roam) Map Viewer UK

Introduction to Access Land Map Viewer

If you have ever considered going  walking where there are no paths, then the below map may help you decide where it is legal to do that. Under the CRoW Act 2000 various areas of land have been given a "right to roam" designation which with careful planning, and an understanding of the limitations involved can be explored . 

Using Right to Roam Map 

On the below map simply insert a postcode, of town of village name, and areas shaded blue have are some type of Access Land. View Access Land Map on ESRI (Bigger and Easier to Use) 

When you are enjoying Open Access Land, please be sure to stay clear of "excepted land".

Excepted land

On access land some areas remain private (‘excepted land’). You do not have the right to access these areas, even if they appear on a map of open access land.

1. Excepted land includes:
2. houses, buildings and the land they’re on (such as courtyards)
3. land used to grow crops
4. building sites and land that’s being developed
5. parks and gardens
6. golf courses and racecourses
7. railways and tramways
8. working quarries

construction environmental management plan

Sunlight and Daylight Assessment

TP Link TL-WA801ND Access Point Review

TP Link TL-WA801ND Access Point 

Reviews for the the TP Link TL-WA801ND Access Point can be found by the plenty on Amazon and they are for the most part good. In fact out of 3000 or more reviews the WA801ND gets 4.5 out of 5. 

It is not hard to see why. It is from a good manufacturer and it very cheap, for what it does. It can be used as a access point, or a repeater, or as a client, enabling a wired network device to connect to a wireless network. So its pretty handy.

There are few things that people buying this on Amazon bring up as bad things about this TP Link TL-WA801ND Access Point, and I will go over some of these here.

Quoting 300 Mbps WiFi but only 100 Mbps Ethernet Port

Hmmm. Yes the ethernet point is not gigabit. So this is a bit cheeky. But unless you are doing real heavy lifting with this access point you will not notice. 

We can stream 2 HD TVs through this whilst surfing web, and listening to music on phones. So it is quite a powerful bit of kit.

As an access point the throughout would be capped at 100MPs, but as repeater it should handle 300MBPs. Although factoring two way traffic does this reduce to 150MBs effectively.  

Difficult to Set up and Slow

No. Not my finding. The interface can be a little laggy, but you get that on a lot of networking equipment. 

Some say that when they change the SIDD or login details they loose the connection. This happens on nearly all networking gear with these features. 

Signal Strength 

Not amazing, although 2 or 3 can be used to get wi-fi over large area. We have one that "shoots" wifi to a netgear repeater which then take wifi in to house. 

Reliability 

Occasional stuff breaks. I have had lots of networking gear of the years of all types and makes. Most has broken over time. Whether this is burnt out internals, or misdiagnosed problems passed down from other pieces of hardware (such as DHCP fault on router) who knows. Based on amazon reviews these have a 0.5% failure rate. And if you look at all the other wireless access point available, they all have failure issues too!

Conclusions 

This is a very cost effective piece of kit. It has a few problems, but most of these are found in all access points. 

Flood Risk Reports

Environmental Permit Applications