Review

Every now and then, I look at around my shop and decide I need to make changes usually because I am out of space or I realize there are better ways to work. Recently I decided to downsize to a pancake style air compressor (see my review here) and add a retractable hose reel.

This is my review of the Harbor Freight Central Pneumatic item 93897 Retractable Hose Reel with 50ft Air Hose.

I picked up a CEN-TECH P37772 11 Function Digital Multimeter with Transistor Testing, Audible Continuity feature, support for type K thermocouple and more functionality for $5 at a recent sale.  These sell new for $20 at Harbor Freight so that seemed like a reasonable price to me.   It is a great meter, but I noticed that it just couldn’t be used on the 0 to 2 VDC or 0 to 20 VDC scale.  The reading jumped erratically to the point where the meter just could not be trusted.
 
With only $5 at stake, I boldly went past the "This instrument contains no operator serviceable parts" and declared myself eligible for ”Screw removal by qualified persons only" as engraved on the back.
 
To see what cold and incomplete soldering look like on my Centec P37772 read more….
 

The ASUS X54C laptop is no longer listed at the asus.com website, but is available from retailers like microcenter.

I paid $259 for mine and I can tell you I am very impressed with the amount of computer I got for this price.

Read more for my perspective on this notebook computer.

Home automation and monitoring is a hobby of prokopyshen.com. Recently, we wanted to add monitoring to a replacement sump pump in our basement. Our Arduino based system monitors digital inputs on a real time basis every second, so I needed a simple on/off detection system for when the pump motor was drawing current.

The CR Magnetics CR9321-NPN Current Switch looked perfect for the job.

Read more for my review of this wonderfully simple to use device and how I connected to my Arduino.