slicendice

That's exactly the kind of thing I was wondering about. I guess it's like everything else...there's a reason why some are cheaper than others! Better to pay extra and get something that actually fits the bill

I'm looking round for a dashcam for my bro as he's just got a new car. As well as needing to provide decent footage (kinda obvs!), it needs to have an internal cam as well as the ability to be hardwired...ideally it would also include a buffered parking mode. Consequently, I've been looking at the Viofo A229 Plus 3CH as that seems to tick all the boxes. Viofo are generally seen as producing decent quality kit and the performance is also pretty good. Obviously, as with anything, that tends to mean a more pricey route to getting a dashcam, with the above coming in at ~£240 direct from Viofo (my bro is in the USA so this is the USA price converted in £). I know that's noticeably cheaper than, say, a 4K setup, but it's also quite a lot more than some of the cheaper options. I know it's possible to get some very "cheap 'n cheerful" cams on Amazon, etc but the footage from them can look a bit ropey plus sometimes reliability appears to be an issue (reports of random shutdowns, etc). So whereas it would be easy to save a bunch of cash by buying cheaper, I don't know if it would be worth it in the long run. So what I'm wondering is whether anyone has ended up going for a cheaper option and what were your thoughts and opinions? Which model did you go for and how much did you save? And would you say it was worth it in terms of the quality of video? Hope that's not too vague! Any thoughts and input would be much appreciated...

Yes I think it came on relatively quickly...I don't drive it usually, but g/f said it started happening about a week ago. She's been using mine while it was in at the garage, but she did use it again today so I could grab that video of it making the noise. I have a sinking feeling we could be heading towards a bit of a ch-ching moment! 💰☹️

Yes, 5W30 oil used 👍 It's manual and has done 58.8k miles - not sure when sparks/airfilter were last done...I'll see if I can find the service receipts. Will try using 99 RON on the next fill up, see if that makes any difference

So here is a video where you can hear the knocking sound...and completely contrary to what I said above (🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️) , it does seem to go away when you rev it up and then come back when the revs drop down again. Don't know if that helps at all?

It's a bangin little car isn't it?! 😁 I love it (when I'm allowed to drive it, that is!) Yeh it's weird that it only appears when it gets warm. Hard to decribe it in words but I'd say it was more of a tapping than a dull clunky sort of sound. I'll try and get a vid of it when it's happening...not sure if the phone mic will pick it up but I'll give it a go. All the oil, etc levels are fine - it was only serviced a month ago too, so all the "run of the mill" type stuff is OK. It does seem to be linked to engine revs...so it is present when idling and when you rev it, it does knock more quickly, but not more loudly...seems to stay the same volume whatever speed it's going.

My g/f's 65 plate VW Polo GTi has recently started making a slight knocking noise from the engine. It's not a really loud noise but it is noticeable...it makes the engine sound slightly like a diesel. It was serviced/MOT'd about a month ago, so I don't think it's anything related to needing an oil change (though I'd be the first to admit, I have very little knowledge and very few skills when it comes to anything engine-y!). It doesn't start as soon as the car starts and usually becomes apparent after about 5-10 minutes, so seems to be only when the engine has warmed up. There don't seem to be any other symptoms and performance doesn't appear to have been affected at all - it still drives fine. The thing I'm slightly concerned about is that it's an indication of something that could end up being serious (and therefore expensive!) if left unresolved. I took it to my local garage (who I use for all servicing and are pretty good) who spent some time checking it out, but whereas they could hear the noise, they said they couldn't find anything wrong and didn't know what was causing it. They said the only thing they could do would be to start stripping the engine down to try and track it down. They also said it could be worth taking it to a VW garage, as it might be a VW-specific issue that they'd come across before. Either of those options is probably going to start hitting the cash register pretty hard, so I just want to see if there's anyone else who's ever experienced anything like this before, or could maybe suggest a course of action? Many thanks...

The other morning it was -6 and after leaving the engine running for a few mins whilst de-icing the windows, I drove off. As usual, the central locking locked automatically...but then it did it again about 30 seconds later. And then again about 30 seconds or so after that (the boot and all the doors were fully closed). It continued to randomly lock for the next 5-10 minutes before finally stopping. It's not done it since, so I'm assuming it was just something to do with the cold, but it's never done it before in the cold so I was just wondering if anyone else has ever experienced something similar?

Just as a follow-up, I ended up going for the AAwireless 2 and it's been great...doddle to set up and it's worked without any issues.

Am I right in thinking that it's possible to update the firmware on the adapter via the app?

I'm considering getting one of these as I much prefer using Google maps to the inbuilt nav, plus I use Spotify quite a bit whilst driving. There are a ton of options out there but it's the usual battle of trying to determine how many of the positive online reviews are genuine 🙄 So I'm just wondering if anyone has got the new AAWireless 2 adapter and if so, is it reliable? I don't want to have to deal with constant dropouts or keep having to reset my phone, etc...I just want to set it up and forget it.

I'm thinking of getting a cover for the windscreen of my g/f's car (VW Polo) so as to reduce the amount of effort needed to de-ice it on frosty mornings. Just wondering if anyone has one that they'd recommend? I was thinking of just a windscreen cover to start but then I'm wondering if a half car cover would make more sense as it protects all the windows from frost, not just the windoscreen. There's a ton of them on Amazon and many of them have glittering reviews (as usual! 🙄)...but it's difficult to know how good they are without trying them. Some look OK but others look very flimsy. And some of them have the flaps you trap in the doors to stop it blowing away, but I have read these can sometimes lead to water ingress...? Don't know how bad that actually is though. Main requirements are that it's easy to fit (don't want to start having to pass straps under the car), it doesn't blow away if it's windy and it actually stops the windows icing up!

I'm toying with the idea of upgrading my aging PC and I keep seeing articles about mini PCs. I quite like the idea of having something small and compact that doesn't make a noise like a hovercraft whenever you ask it to do more than open a text file. I've been taking a peep at various mini PCs and whilst the specs look very good for the price, I'm just wondering about their long term quality. There are lots and lots of online reviews (e.g. for the Geekom A7, Beelink SER7, etc) that give glowing reports of their spec and performance...and whilst I'm sure most of them are true, I've also seen a number of reports about how the quality control sometimes appears to be a bit iffy, with unexplained bluescreens, non-functioning components, etc. Plus the after-sales support is also sometimes called into question, with some people saying they struggle to get a response from the support departments. I'm just wondering if anyone has had any experience with these mini PCs? And if so, are they any good? Would you recommend? Or would you steer clear?

Got a friend who's asked for help finding a broadband provider and whilst trawling through various vendors, it looks like Brysk seem to have some good options and also appear to be very well reviewed, which is something of rarity for a broadband provider. I realise they are quite new so that could changed, but I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with them? Are they any good?

Thanks Mort I was trying to keep costs down a bit as the Sonos stuff don't come cheap!! 😲 But that's a good point re the RAID. I'll have a poke around and see what the costs are for more bays. The drive I've got is a Seagate one and pretty much brand new (it originally came in a home surveillance NVR that I upgraded) so hopefully should do the trick.

Yep I did spend a bit of time um'ing and er'ing about the height. There's a house just down the road that had some put up just under the gutter on a single storey extension, and it would be an absolute doddle to walk up to them and simply move them so they were pointing up at the sky or give them a smack with a hammer or something. So I went for putting them under the gutter of the second storey and totally out of reach. No, it wouldn't be as easy to identify people, but tbh I don't think it would actually be that easy to identify someone even if the cams were lower...as whoever the intruder was, they'd be able to see the cams in place and would therefore have made the decision they were still going to intrude anyway, so must be pretty confident their face was suitably covered with mask, etc so as to prevent identification. And I've seen footage from a Ring doorbell where the intruders were kicking the door in, so they were literally a few feet from the camera...yet they couldn't be identified as they had masks on. I mainly wanted them in order to act as a bit of a deterrent and show that there is security in place - apparently, if opportunistic burglars are out looking for target properties and they see one house with cams fitted and one without, they'll almost certainly go for the one without. Plus it allows me to see if/when anyone does enter my property so I can keep tabs on comings and goings - the alerts are pretty good, so it will inform me if anyone has approached the house...so if it does look dodgy, and I'm not in, I can take steps immediately to try and do something about it (phone neighbour, police, etc). And if I still got broken into, it's further evidence to provide to the insurance company and police.

I'm wondering about getting a home NAS for movies and music. I've got a spare 2TB drive which will probably be plenty (certainly short term) so all I'd need would be the enclosure. It would need to hook up to Sonos (which I believe is pretty straightforward) and also my LG TV (49SM9000PLA ~3 years old) for movies. I believe the TV should be able to access the movies on the NAS if it's on same LAN (which it would be)? I wouldn't really need RAID as all the stuff I'd be putting on there would be copies of originals that I already have (mainly CDs and DVDs). Is anyone using one of these? Any recommendations? I've had a bit of a poke around and this Synology one seems to be well reviewed and isn't crazy expensive.

Thanks Steve...good to know. I think that's probably what I'll go for - I mean, if I'm going to do it then I might as well do it properly! 😉

In case anyone's interested, I ended up going for a Reolink 4 camera POE kit. The install was relatively straightforward...it was a bit grubby crawling round the loft and threading cat 6 cable all over the place, but not too bad. The kit itself was very easy to setup once wired in and it does everything I need it to. Picture quality is good and the app is excellent. I upgraded the supplied 2TB drive to a 6TB drive, so there's plenty of space for recordings. Happy to provide more details if anyone's interested.

Well, I'm allegedly hitting the big five-oh in the not too distant future, so I've been thinking of going for a home cinema upgrade (it felt like a good excuse! 😁). I've currently got an old LG system and I'm thinking of upgrading to a Sonos set, especially as they have a sale on at the moment. The two kits I'm looking at both include 1 x Beam (Gen 2) and 2 x Era 100. The one kit has the the Sub mini whereas the other has the full Sub (Gen 3). What I'm not sure about is which one to go for. My living room isn't that big (12 x 13 x 8 ft) and I've read that if your room is under 300 sq ft then the mini should be OK. But I've also read some reviews which say that, even though the mini is good, it doesn't give the same depth and resonance as the Gen 3. I do like to feel the bass in music and movies, but given it's a semi-detached house, I'm not really going to be whacking the volume way up. Does anyone have the mini? How have you found it?

Not sure I'd want to start cutting plugs off...would banjo the warranty. The gland is 12mm and the cam cable plug is 18mm at its widest, so not a cat in hell's chance of it fitting. Back to Google I guess! Must be something out there....

I'm mounting a security camera on an outside wall and have a junction box into which the cables from the camera (ReoLink) will go. Then there's a cat6 cable running from the junction box up into the loft and to the NVR. The problem is the cable glands I have for the junction box (https://amzn.eu/d/ec3K2To) aren't big enough to take the plug from the camera (see pic). Does anyone know of a way of getting a cable gland that would fit a plug of this size?

It looks like there may be an app available soon that can be used to record evidence of bad driving and speeding and then submit it straight to the police from within the app: https://www.visordown.com/news/general/speed-camera-mobile-phone-app-dashcamuk Whilst I understand the premise and that it would be good for bad drivers to be held accountable for their driving, I worry that it could just descend into a bit of a farce, with slightly petty drivers submitting footage of anyone who happens to annoy them in some way but hasn't actually broken the law. Or ranting at people who they think are driving at 71 on the motorway. Or am I underestimating the character of the good old British driver...?! 😜

Thanks Mort, that's some useful info I'm also not entirely convinced by the audible alarm...I guess it might raise an eyebrow amongst neighbours if it went off in the middle of the night, but it generally seems that if an alarm goes off during the day, everyone just assumes it's a false alarm and the owner's set it off by accident! In fact I just read an article about how people react to audible alarms and it stated: "Over 30% of neighbours would ignore it while the majority, 42%, would have a quick peek out the window" Can I ask what cameras you went for? Did you go wired (PoE) or wireless? I've delved into quite a few brands recently - it seems HikVision is one of the biggest names at the moment, but there appear to be question marks around security (as it's partially owned by the Chinese government). The cams are supposed to be quite good though. Another one that seems to be good is ReoLink - the cams look well spec'd for the price and the app is apparently very good. The low light/night performance is not brilliant, but I think unless you're paying big bucks, that's probably always going to be the case. But for me, like you, it's more about being alerted to the fact that something's happening so I can take steps to stop it

At the risk of tempting fate, I've thus far been fairly lucky when it comes to suffering break-ins, thefts, etc. But it feels like reports of thefts and suchlike around where I live are increasing; every other day there's been some kind of break-in...some at night, some in the middle of the day, some where intruders have brazenly taken a series of running jumps at a door until it breaks. Now I know that no home security system is 100% guaranteed to prevent such things happening, but from what I've read, they can help to lessen the likelihood of becoming a victim. I do have an alarm fitted at the moment (was installed when house was re-wired 5 years or so ago), but it only covers some of the house (downstairs) and tbh it rarely gets used any more as it kept going off at random times for no obvious reason (and didn't appear to be caused by spiders as the sensors were regularly cleaned). So I'm thinking about getting something a bit more useful. I do appreciate that just having the alarm box on the outside of the house can, apparently, act as a deterrent, but it would make sense to go beyond that for those times when it doesn't act as a full deterrent. So I've started to delve into the world of alarm systems and surveillance cams...and what a vast world it is! But then I suppose that goes for most things tech-related. At the moment, what I'm wondering is: what sort of alarm system is best - wired or wireless? Appreciate one of the biggest differences is probably ease of installation, but that aside, is one notably better than the other? is it worth getting door sensors that get triggered when the door opens? Or would the IR room sensors make them a bit redundant? are outdoor surveillance cameras worth it? if they are worth it, is it better to have two independent systems (i.e. an intruder alarm and then a separate surveillance cam system) or one integrated system? Appreciate that having one system may be easier to use due to the very fact it's integrated, but it seems the options are much more limited if you go that route (i.e. not as many packages that include alarm and cameras) - and if you mix 'n match two independent systems, you can probably get something more comprehensive/suitable. If anyone can help with the above, or has any recommendations or info on their own system, I'd be very grateful.