If you are doing renovations in Singapore, most electricians will default to MK Electric by Honeywell for switches and sockets. They are value for money, but they could look better.
So if you want to change them, it has to be from your pocket, and they will not give you a discount for using your switches and sockets.
The Ugreen USB-A to USB-C Adapter retails on Lazada for S$7.49. It is a USB-A 3.0 male to USB-C 3.1 female adapter that supports QC3 charging (3A) and a maximum transfer rate of 5Gbps.
I bought it to convert a USB-C to USB-C cable to a USB-A to USB-C Cable.
We have sold out first home and are renovating our new home. Since our new home is an HDB Resale Flat, we have to lay Cat 6 LAN cables around the house. To test whether those cables were working, I decided to get a Cable Tester.
There are many brands of cable testers that are available on Lazada and Shopee. But I ended up buying the UNI-T Cable Tester (UT681C) since I have bought UNI-T products before.
I have used multiple Google Nest Cam in my current house, which has served me well. The connection is stable. The only time it went down was when my Internet was down. I even subscribe to Nest Aware for ten days of 24/7 video recording. I have integrated my Nest Cams to Apple HomeKit using Homebridge with Homebridge Nest Cam Plugin. The integration works well as well.
For my new house, which I hope to move into in Q4 2023, I am seeing if I can integrate smart home devices directly into HomeKit without running Homebridge on my Synology NAS.
Like the Ugreen DigiNest Cube is the younger brother of the Ugreen DigiNest Pro, the Ugreen Nexode 65W Charger is the younger brother of the Ugreen 4-Port 100W Wall Charger.
Ugreen Nexode 65W Charger retails for S$50.39 on Shopee or Lazada. Like most Ugreen products, if you are willing to wait, you can get it cheaper during double-digit sales day.
The much awaited Aqara Presence Sensor FP2 has finally launched in Singapore on 20th April 2023. It retails for S$159 and you can get it from Souky store on Lazada or Shopee.
Unlike the typical motion sensors that use Passive Infrared (PIR) Sensors, presence sensors use 60 GHz mmWave radar sensors to detect “presence” instead of “motion.” Because of this, it can detect multiple people in a room. It can also tell the difference between a person in a room that is not moving and no one in it. This is something that motion sensors could never differentiate.
The much-awaited Aqara Smart Video Doorbell G4 is finally available in Singapore last week. It retails in Singapore for S$209.90, and you can get it from Souky Shop on Lazada or Souky Shop on Shopee.
Introduction
Aqara G4 features 162° angle 1080p recording with infrared night vision. It can be powered via six AA batteries (included in the packaging) or an AC/DC adapter. For AC, it needs to be 12V – 24V 0.2A 50/60Hz, or for DC, it needs 8V – 24V 0.5A.
Bought the Ulanzi U-PAD III Metal iPad Tripod Mount from Lazada for S$41.67 during 12/12. The recommended retail price is S$49.90.
The Ulanzi U-PAD III Metal iPad Tripod Mount is an all-metal aluminum alloy body tripod mount. It is very well-built and feels premium and solid.
Rode PSA1+ is a microphone/boom arm from Rode. I got it from Red Dot Photo on Lazada during 12/12 for S$141.32. The usual selling price should be about S$169.
I was using a cheap China OEM microphone arm that I bought it together with my Rode NT-USB Mini, and it is pretty bad. You can only rotate the arm if you do not tighten the clamp; even so, the rotation is not smooth. The screws protruding near the clamp area will scratch your table, which was my deal breaker. Given the price, I would say it is ok. But in my case, I would rather pay more to get a quality microphone arm instead. So that is why I went ahead and got the Rode PSA1+.
I always wanted to get a microphone for the cool of it since I don’t do podcasts or streaming. The primary use case for me is just for Zoom/Slack calls.
Since I wanted to buy “something” for Black Friday, I decided to get the Rode NT-USB Mini instead of Blue Yeti because the later is outdated and still using mini-USB as the port.
