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Sparkel can carbonate drinks without using a CO2 tank

CROWDFUNDING NEWS – I love using my SodaStream Fizzi One Touch for making sparkling water and I make my own zero-calorie sodas by using flavor drops and stevia. But I’ve always wanted to try carbonating other drinks like tea or juices. The problem is that doing that with a SodaStream can damage it. So I was excited to learn about the Indiegogo campaign for the Spärkel: The Sparkle-Everything Beverage Maker.

What is it?

The Spärkel Everything Beverage Maker is a tabletop appliance that carbonates beverages without using a CO2 tank (sorta).

Why do I like it?

I like that you can use the Spärkel Beverage Maker to carbonate all sorts of beverages. It’s not just limited to carbonating water and you can even put fruits, herbs, spices, and more directly in the bottle so that the flavors are infused into the beverage.

Things to consider before pledging for this campaign


Although the Spärkel device does not use a CO2 tank like a SodaStream, it does use a small carbonator packet that consists of a special granulation of citric acid and sodium bicarbonate. Each packet generates CO2 gas when placed in a sealed chamber within the Spärkel appliance. The problem is that each packet is only good for one 24oz. carbonated beverage, unlike a traditional CO2 tank which can carbonate multiple bottles.

You also won’t be able to go to a local store for a new CO2 tank when you run out of CO2 packets. But according to the campaign page, you’ll be able to order a box of 90 CO2 packets for $49.99

Where can I find more info?

The Spärkel campaign ends on 5/30/19 they are working towards their funding goal of $30,000. You can pre-order a Spärkel starting at $49. After the Spärkel campaign ends, rewards are estimated to start shipping in August 2019. Visit their Indiegogo page for all the details.

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Sparkel can carbonate drinks without using a CO2 tank originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 30, 2019 at 5:49 pm.

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Stop Sensorvault from Providing Your Location to the Police

Where were you on June 23, 2015? Don’t remember? Well, if you had an Android smartphone at that time, Google probably does. And if you were anywhere near a crime scene, they can turn your information in Sensorvault over to the authorities. What is Sensorvault? Sensorvault is a database of location history maintained by Google. Google apps disable “Location history” by default on Google apps, but you have probably been asked to enable it at some point, and you most likely did. Google uses GPS and other location information from your computer to store a timeline of your movements. They gather this data to provide… Read more

Wilson Pro 70 Cellular Signal Booster review

REVIEW – A few years ago, my brother fell while in a rural forest in upstate New York. He totally shattered one of his vertebrae and spent nine months in a full-body cast recovering. When he fell, it was snowy, dark and cold. By some miracle, he located his cell phone, got a tiny signal and called for help. If he hadn’t located his phone, things could have ended much differently. Equipped with this realization, I wanted to see what Wilson’s Pro-series Cellular Boosters could do to alleviate my brother’s weak cell signal woes in his sparsely covered valley farm home.

What is it?

Wilson’s Pro-70 is a cellular signal booster and antenna pair which acts as a transceiver, amplifying signals in an area with weak coverage.

What’s in the box?

List contents – you can remove this heading and section if it doesn’t apply to your review.

  • Wilson Pro 70 Amplifier with LCD Display
  • Wilson Yagi Directional Outside Antenna
  • Wilson Panel Inside Antenna
  • 75′ Black Ultra Low Loss Cable (952375)
  • 60′ Black Ultra Low Loss Cable (952360)
  • Lightning Protector
  • 2′ Black Ultra Low Loss Cable
  • AC Power Supply
  • Installation Guide

Hardware specs

  • Band 4,5,12,13W (700, 850, 1700 and 2100MHz)
  • Max Gain 70dB
  • 50 Ohm Impedance
  • 12 volt, 3 Amp DC power
  • 15 x 6 x 8.75” booster dimensions
  • 2.78 lbs booster weight

Design and features

The kit arrived in multiple boxes inside a larger box. Everything needed (almost) for installation was included. The booster has only three connectors, one for power, one the receiving antenna and one for the home antenna.

The booster is equipped with an LCD screen and single button to toggle between cellular frequencies, checking signal strength and for issues. A single LED indicates if there are any issues or if everything is working properly.

Setup

We pulled all of the parts from their cardboard wombs and connected everything together for testing. Because my brother’s farm has several buildings, we elected to initially put the equipment in a small tractor barn. We plugged in all of the parts, plugged in the booster and waited a few seconds. Using the built-in strength meter’ we were able to get an average of 69dB of the signal across all bands. The antennas needed to be separated to keep from talking to each other, but plenty of cable is included.

Instantly, I went from no signal (no bars) to a very usable and stable signal. I was amazed because the transceiver required no tweaking, no adjustments, and no customization. It just worked – magic!

I made a few calls and visited a few web sites to verify I had gone from signal-nada, to full-speed LTE signal.

Since everything tested ok, we uncoiled the cables and mounted the antenna on a pole between the house and barn, attached the lightning protection adapter, routed the equipment and were finished.  We needed to provide a few zip-ties to secure the cables and a ground wire to connect the lightning suppressor to an existing ground rod, but other than that, everything needed is in the box. It should be noted that the sending and receiving antennas can’t be pointed at each other or the system can experience problems.

Performance

Playing the “can you hear me now” game, I walked around the property and was shocked at the area of coverage I had. Of course, there was significantly less signal inside structures, but still, enough to maintain a connection except in the furthest reaches of the house. Mind you, the equipment was placed in a building about 50 feet from the main structure. My brother and I have different carriers and both received a dramatic increase in cellular reception. Again, prior to installing, I had zero cellular signal in or near my brother’s home.

What I like

  • Almost everything needed for installation is included
  • Virtually no set-up needed other than pointing the antennas
  • Solid performance

What needs to be improved

  • Nothing

Final thoughts

In my brother’s case, a cell phone may have saved his life. I’ll never underestimate the value of a solid cellular connection. The Wilson Pro 70 Cellular Booster is a solid, easy to install remedy for weak signal areas. While it’s not a magical solution to rebroadcast LTE to your “back 40” acres of your property, when properly sized (Wilson sells many different sizes) and installed, it will alleviate many issues in home (or in my case, farm) cellular reception.

Price: $899.99
Where to buy: Wilson Amplifier Pro 70
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Wilson Amplifiers

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Wilson Pro 70 Cellular Signal Booster review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 30, 2019 at 2:03 pm.

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Should You Use Firefox Forks?

Mozilla Firefox is an open source browser which allows anyone to modify the code to create a “fork” browser. Some of the popular forks include Waterfox, Comodo Ice Dragon, Pale Moon, Basilisk, Swiftfox, and TenFourFox. These forks, however, do not carry the seal of approval of Mozilla. If your only purpose is ordinary web browsing, there is nothing wrong with these alternative browsers. After all, Chromium forks are extremely common, and Google Chrome itself is one among many “forks” based on the original Chromium Project. However, with Mozilla it is different. That is why you have to ask the following questions before proceeding with another… Read more

Elechomes UC3101 air purifier review

REVIEW – I take the air that I breathe for granted because I live in an area where the air is pretty clean. At least that’s what I thought. Can the air that you breathe seem clean but in reality, it’s not? Yes. Is there a product that can purify the air and make it better to breathe? You bet! Let’s take a look at the UC3101 air purifier from Elechomes.

What is it?

The UC3101 is an air purifier from Elechomes which features:

  • 1 Pre-Filter and a 3-Layer composite HEPA filter that helps trap and eliminate up to 99% of airborne pollutants
  • A dust sensor and an odor sensor work together to monitor air quality and identify harmful pathogens
  • Smart Mode & Sleep Mode
  • Intelligent Timer & Child Lock: 1-8 hours for automatic working and shutdown purification
  • Up to 350 square feet coverage
  • Remote Control: allows controlling the air purifier from up to 16.4 ft. (5M) away

What’s in the box?

  • Air Purifier with filters
  • Remote control
  • User manual

Design and features

The Elechomes UC3101 air purifier is 16.5 x 8.3 x 19.3 inches and has a white plastic case with decorative vent cutouts on the front.

The sides have built-in handles that allow for easy relocation of the 18.74 pound unit.

The top surface of the UC3101 air purifier has a touch panel with 8 buttons with the following functions from left to right: Filter change notification and reset, auto mode, sleep mode, timer, particulate matter display, fan speed, negative ion function, child lock, and power toggle.

The UC3101 air purifier comes with a handheld battery-powered remote control that has the same functions so that the unit can be controlled from up to 16 feet away.

The unit comes with a pre-filter which is washable and the main HEPA filter which should be replaced once a year or after 3000 hours of use.  Currently, Amazon does not sell the replacement filters, but that’s supposed to change soon.

Installing and replacing the filters is not difficult. The front panel of the air purifier unsnaps to reveal the interior of the device.


The HEPA filter has activated carbon which reduces benzene, formaldehyde, and more and it also has an antibacterial cloth that kills most bacteria and viruses.

It fits in place with the honeycomb side of the filter facing in towards the fan.

The pre-filter is designed to trap larger pollutants like hair, lint, and more.

The pre-filter fits over the main filter and is the first line of defense against to trap all the icky stuff you should not be breathing. The UC3101 air purifier sucks in air through the filters, to clean it and then sends the clean air back into the room through a vent on the side of the unit.

Operation

To use the UC3101 Air Purifier, all you have to do is make sure the filters are installed correctly, plug in the unit and press the on/off switch on the touch panel on top.

The touch panel buttons and display have bright blue LEDs that make them easy to see even in a dimly lighted room.

The front air vent of the air purifier also lights up to provide an easy to see a visual indicator of the air quality in the room. It should be obvious that green means good air quality. The PM display on top of the unit will have a reading of between 0-75 and the fan speed will be low.

If the PM display on the top of the unit shows between 75-150, the vent light will turn yellow and the fan speed will increase to medium.

If the air quality is bad, the PM display reading will be over 150 and the fan speed will increase to high.

I’ve been having a lot of remodeling work done on my home lately and with remodeling comes a lot of dust and fumes. The Elechomes air purifier cranked into high gear after sessions of drywall sanding and even when we had some plumbing work and there were just glue fumes in the air. I was impressed that the sensors were able to detect both types of air quality problems very quickly.

The air purifier has a negative ion feature that is supposed to provide for maximum purification efficiency. I’ve tried using the unit both ways and I’ve just left that feature turned on even though I can’t tell a difference when it’s been disabled.

I have noticed that this air purifier is louder even when than other air purifiers that I’ve reviewed. This is true even when the air quality is good and the fan speed is low. When the air quality is bad and the fan speed is high, it is really loud.

Another issue is that the lighted function panel is bright. Even if you put the air purifier in sleep mode (shown above), the panel only dims slightly, which is still bright enough to light up a room and disturb your sleep. In sleep mode, the fans go to low speed but you can still hear the unit running. The unit does have a timer function that you can use to turn off the unit in 0-8 hours.

What I like

  • Easy to see air quality setting
  • Has dust and odor sensors
  • The HEPA filter should last for one year before needing to be replaced

What needs to be improved

  • Replacement filters are not yet available on Amazon
  • Fan is loud
  • Function panel lights are bright even in sleep mode

Final thoughts

The Elechomes UC3101 air purifier is an attractive appliance that will clean the air of a 350sq foot area of up to 99% of airborne pollutants. It’s easy to use and easy to maintain. The only downsides are that the fan is pretty noisy on the high-speed setting, the LEDs are bright even in sleep mode, and replacement filters are not yet available for purchase. It might sound like I have a lot of complaints, but the good side of this air purifier is that it makes the air smell better, and seem fresher after running for a short time. It’s made a big difference in the quality of the air in my home especially during the times that lots of dust and odors are being stirred up from remodeling projects.

Price: $299.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Elechomes.

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Elechomes UC3101 air purifier review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 30, 2019 at 11:00 am.

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