Prius Accessory Tray, Floor Mats, and Seat Covers

Time for more reviews. This concerns three items I have added to my 2012 Prius that seem to have made a difference to me.

An insert for the accessory tray, heavy duty floor mats, and seat covers.

Early in my ownership of this Prius, I purchased an insert for the lower front center console. I didn't like just having the open space for things to roll about in down there. So I ordered this:

It is pretty simple and provides two cup holders and a storage bin. Now, there is little space over the tray to place a beverage in the cup holder, but the cup pockets are fine for collecting small items or coins that you may want to contain and easily find at a later time. I have a cleaned out "Go Cup" from KFC that fits perfectly in one of the holders and I keep a small pocket knife, gum, OBD-II Bluetooth connector, moist towelettes, etc. in there. The other side can easily hold a cup-holder sized 12 volt "two-fer" and USB charger or a power inverter if you so desire.
The main portion is sized for holding items such as my hairbrush, a can of Ozium, and such. On the side of the tray, I have found the slight space good for accommodating membership and club cards at the ready so that I don't have to keep them all in my wallet.

Another purchase was a set of heavy duty floor mats.

We purchased a second Prius recently, a better runaround for my wife than the minivan when she didn't need to be hauling around all of the grand-kids. It did not have the floor mats when we purchased it so I ordered these and split them between the two cars. I gave her the factory front mats from mine, and the heavy duty mats for the back. Where I put the heavy duty mats in the front of my car and left the original in the back, as I don't usually carry people in the back and she does. The all weather mats are Toyota factory produced and retain the proper mounting holes for the driver's side mat to prevent slippage and have the Prius branding. The all weather mats are holding up very well and showing no signs of wear after 4 months of daily use. I am no longer worried about wearing out the carpet of the original mats or the floor carpet of the car.

Finally seat covers:

I am a person of generous size, an understatement to say the least, and I know I put a lot of wear on the upholstery in my vehicles. So I picked up these seat covers for the Prius as well.
They are easy to fit and it took me only about 5 minutes each with no tools. The main advantage to having a seat cover for me is that it is much easier to replace when it starts showing wear than the seat itself. When the cover wears through, I replace it, instead of adding the cover to a worn out seat. A preemptive strike you could say. Being black, I know that they will be hot when I get into the car, but they cool quickly enough for me in the summer. I no longer have to be concerned with a spill staining the seat or my wearing through the seat back on the left side as I get into the car two or more times a day. The seating surface is the "wetsuit" material whereas the sides and back are a much lighter weight spandex. The back of the cover is open and does not prevent using the pockets on the back of the seats.
The fit is a little sloppy, as they are generic covers, but it really doesn't look that bad once he adjustment straps are in. due to the molding on the bottom of the seats, you have to put one of the bottom straps below the slider rail, and the forward strap will be in front of the slider rail. I expect that they will not last more than a year with my daily use, but that would be acceptable for me.

QI Charging and You.

I am a techie.

My current personal phone is a Samsung Galaxy S5. A good phone when I bought it, just as the 6 was released, and I am not about to splurge on another one just yet. I use the Rokform mount system in my car, and love the security and versatility of it. This is relevant to this post.

A year ago my employer issued us Galaxy S7 phones. These are equipped with a Qi wireless charging interface. At the time I jumped into it head first. My first purchase was a Belkin Boost Up QI charging pad and a Qi Wireless Charging Receiver Card for the S5, which does not include a wireless charging interface as delivered.

The S7 was easy to drop and charge on the Belkin pad. The S5 with the receiver card had it's difficulties, as I had added a Rokform universal mount to my existing case and the added thickness made the wireless charging very picky about placement. I cannot recommend the custom Rokform case more, as now there is no added thickness to the case and with the magnet removed the wireless charging is perfect and it it now truly drop and charge. It appears that the S5 case is much more difficult to find now.

A note on both charging pads, they are limited to a 1 amp charging rate. This will be slower than plugging directly into the cable, but for a charging opportunity it is sufficient.

The QI Wireless Charging Card for the S5 is very easy to install, but there are a couple of issues.

• First, you will loose the NFC functionality from your phone. This will not affect most users, but you must know that it will happen.
• Secondly, it does add a little thickness to the phone that MAY compromise it's waterproof seal. This doesn't affect me much as I only have to deal with rain and am not likely to immerse the phone. 

It is a great solution for easy charging and saving wear and tear on the charging port on your S5 with the above caveats.
For phones that don't have a custom method for adding a Qi receiver there are generic options that plug into your USB port, but I have no experience with them so have no recommendations.

This year I decided that I needed a second charging pad as the first one is now in regular use at my home desk. The new one would be a shared use pad for my workstation. I found the Yootech Qi Wireless Charging Pad at Amazon and decided that it was worth the small investment. It works as well as the Belkin for a third of the price. Neither charging pad included the power supply, the best recommendation is to use the factory included charger for your phone which will supply the 2 amps that the pad requires for charging your phone at 1 amp.

In summary:

• Qi charging is a great thing for ease of use, but it is slower than plugging the charging cable into the phone. 
• A case may interfere with the drop and charge functionality of wireless charging. 
• Upgrades are available for older phones, but may degrade the phone's integrity and other features.

It is a neat add on if your phone comes with the option. If you have to add the functionality to your phone, I would recommend against it.

Items reviewed in this post:

Minimalist Front Pocket Wallet

I would like to introduce to you my wallet for the last several years:

A photo taken early in my years of using it, and here it is now. Notice how little wear is noticeable after five and a half years.

This is a HuMn Mini minimalist wallet. Just larger than a credit card in size and as thin or thick as you need it to be. As you see it here, I have 7 cards and 10 bills in it and it is about 1/2 inch thick. The standard ones come with 2 plates, but I have added a third as in internal divider. I chose the aluminum plates for the outer shell for the RFID protection and durability, the internal plate is plastic and serves to divide my credit cards from my ID. The whole conglomeration is held together with a strong elastic strap. I originally purchased it in 2012 and my first strap lasted for about 4 years. They changed the design of the strap when I replaced it, so I now have the newer version that seems to work better than the original.

I front pocket carry my wallet so the size is important to me. It sits very flat and slides easily into my pocket. When I am travelling I remove a couple of the cards, but this is basically what I carry all of the time.

Accessing the cards is done by wedging the case open from the top and selecting the card you want. Since you can open it from either of the long edges there is no up or down. Nothing will slide out of it. Here is the manufacturer's video on it's use.

They can be purchased from Amazon and from the manufacturer.


The orange sticker in the older photo is a dosimeter tag that I decided to put on it, it has expired since then. I cannot seem to find the sticker versions now, but there is a card version available.

An Accurate Pocket Watch

As you would guess, an accurate timepiece is necessary for running the trains. I like to go beyond that. In the control room we have a large clock that is regularly set to the NIST standard. Our policy is that everyone's personal timepiece needs to be set to this clock, within a set tolerance. This is fine, as a few seconds is a tolerable variance.

There are a few ways to avoid having to set your watch every day.
One is to have a watch that sets itself to the radio synchronization signal in Boulder Colorado. There are many that will do this, the better ones are charged by light and you don't even have to change the battery.
Another is to have an accurate timepiece. Most quartz watches, both analog and digital face, are rated as accurate to +-30 seconds per month and I would guess that most fall into the +-10 seconds per month range. Setting these would be somewhere around the once a week range. Acceptable for most people.
I happen to like mechanical watches, and most of mine are in the +-5 seconds per day accuracy. This is considered to be extremely good for a mechanical timepiece, but I have to check it about twice a week to be sure that it is correct enough for work.
There is also the "Smart Watch" solution, however they are forbidden to be worn by people operating the trains. These watches can be as accurate as your phone is.

The solution I am using is a quartz driven pocket watch by Bulova.

I have last set it at the Daylight Savings Time change in March. 132 days later, it has gained 1.7 seconds. It has been in my pants pocket every work day and most others for all of that time. At this point it is not worth setting again until Daylight Savings time ends in 108 days. Atop this amazing accuracy, the second hand sweeps smoother than any other timepiece out there, including high end automatic watches. It is just a very pleasing aesthetic, the watch face is well done with large raised hour numerals and individual minutes enumerated. It also has a chronograph function that displays elapsed time up to 12 hours with resolution in 1/1000 seconds. Granted, this accuracy is just a gimmick as anything less than a photo trigger resolves no better than 1/100 second, but it is a neat feature. The watch weighs about a pound, most of which is the back case, but it gives it a very solid feel.

Since purchasing the watch for myself, I have gotten 3 co-workers interested enough to purchase them for themselves.

LED Headlight Upgrades

Well, it finally happened. It is now nearly as cheap to replace your incandescent or halogen headlight lamps with DOT approved LED lights. I am referencing H11 bulbs specifically in this review.

At under $35 for a pair, the Marsauto LED Bulbs are comparable in price to SYLVANIA XtraVision Halogen Bulbs, but with several advantages: (Manufacturer's ratings)

• 40W compared to 55W per bulb, more efficient.
• 6,000 lumens vs. 1350 lumens, brighter.
• 6,000K vs. 3,200K color temperature, whiter light.
• 10,000 hour vs 150 hour service life, lower lifetime cost.

I will admit that the service life may be a little deceiving, as it is the LED life that is being quoted here. LEDs do loose some brilliance over time, but even if you only get 1/10th of the quoted service life, you are still ahead of the halogen bulbs.

These were literally a drop in replacement for the low beam bulbs in my 2012 Prius. After removing my watch and FitBit, even my large hands could fit in the space to make the replacement. No boot modifications were necessary, truly just plug and play. After installing them and plugging them in, you MUST test them. There is a 25% chance you got them both right on the first try. If either one or both fail to light up, just turn the plug around and reconnect them. The connection pigtail makes this very easy to do, no need to take the bulb out. On my first try, neither one came on. That's my luck.

It being summer, I get home just after dusk, so the difference in lighting is not as apparent at first glance. However I did notice the difference in the color of the lights and a much sharper light pattern compared to the old halogen lights.

 Above is the original headlights, note the definite hot spot in the center and the square of extra light above each.

Here are the LED lights, note the more even spread of light across the range. The extra square is not as prevalent here, but it still illuminates the road signage.

As strange as it may sound, one of the reasons I have made the changeover is for better nighttime fuel economy. Granted, at 20% efficiency, the standard efficiency for internal combustion engines, the difference will be 1 gallon in 235 hours (30 watts difference) or 0.4% improvement, but it will make a cumulative difference. 

Hmm, doing the actual math on this it really doesn't make much difference, it comes to just under 1/4 MPG for me, but I will live with my rationalization anyway.

There are many drop in replacements on the market at this point in time. With prices from $15 a pair to well over $150 a pair there are a lot of choices. Read the reviews and make your decision from there. Some have built in fans that may be necessary in an enclosed housing or rubber boot but can cause radio interference. I did not feel it was necessary for my application, where the back of the bulb had plenty of air flow available. The word "CREE" is a key for finding the better LEDs. You will also want to be certain that they are DOT rated, as that ensures that the light pattern will be correct for your car.

I will likely not replace my high beam bulbs until one of them goes out, as I don't use high beams very often. I will be replacing my parking lights with LEDs when I make my next order, as I noticed that one is burned out. I found a highly rated set of 10 of the "T-10" bulbs for a very reasonable price. I like using these in dome lighting, door courtesy lights, and for my license plate light as they seem to last forever and are much brighter than incandescent versions. 

There are two disadvantages of using LED drop in bulbs though. 

• First, they do not dim well, they are either on or off, there is no medium ground. For this reason I have used a red LED for the driver's side map light instead of the traditional white.
• Secondly, on some cars, an LED lamp doesn't draw enough current to trip the "I'm working" sensor in the car, this is primarily on European cars and is due to the "CANBUS" system. So the car will show a warning that the light is out when it is working fine. Similarly, your turn signal blinker relay will flash fast unless you have a retrofit relay to prevent this.

Keeping these points in mind, you can easily retrofit a car's interior lighting with more efficient bulbs that you will likely never have to change again.

Items mentioned in this review:

Home automation with SmartThings

I am on a camping trip this week with the kids, so I am throwing some reviews on here while I am away.
As the title says, I am going to address using the SmartThings hub for home automation and security. I would say that SmartThings is one of the better systems out there for automation for a couple of reasons.

• It is compatible with both Z-wave and ZigBee home automation systems giving you a wide selection of devices.
• There is a large customer community providing drivers and programming assistance.
• It can be user programmed if you want to take the time to learn it.

I don't have as much faith in it for home security as I would in a wired system, but that's just my opinion. It works well enough for me in that regard. 

Here are some examples of home automation that I use on a regular basis:

• Notification of my mail arriving at the mailbox.
• Front yard post light on before sunset until a set time in the evening, also when arriving home later.
• Some interior lights on before dusk, turning off at a random time in the evening if nobody is home.
• When I turn on the entertainment system, the room lighting changes for better viewing.
• Turn on the lights in the attic stairs and garage when presence is detected.

For most of these tasks I use a SmartThings app called WebCoRE. WebCoRE is a web based Community Rules Engine, hence the name. Your rules, known as "Pistons" in the app, are easily created using an interactive if-then rule set. Here is an example piston that I use:

You should be able to see how the piston works. The "IF" statement waits for the conditions to occur, either of the motion sensors sensing movement or the garage door closing. After that, the "THEN" statements checking the time and setting lights to a level depending on the time of day. Building the piston consists of choosing items from a drop down list and applying rules to them.

There is another piston for turning them off when motion is no longer detected.

There are other apps available within the SmartThings app that can:

• Notify you if rain is forecast and selected windows are open.
• Turn your thermostat off if doors are left open.
• Notify you when the laundry has finished.

The actions performed by the system are not limited to your smart devices, for example, a SMS can be sent based on the weather forecast.

The SmartThings system also integrates with Amazon's Alexa voice interface for voice control of lights and other settings. I can ask Alexa what the thermostat temperature is at the moment, or ask for her to turn off all of the lights. More on my Alexa experience in a later post.

As far as security goes, it primarily notifies me if there is a door opening when nobody is supposed to be in the house. For me, setting the "Away" mode is manual, as I have not been able to get the kids to use their phones in a way to disable it when they arrive. But for vacations it is very useful. I get the notification and I can remotely check my cameras to see if it is just a family member checking on the cats or something more serious. I will also get a notification whenever the safe door is opened so that I may make a similar check. It would be easy to place an alarm siren on a switched outlet if I wanted a local indication of a door or window opening when we have the system armed. I also have a connected smoke and CO2 detector that can alert me remotely if there is an issue. 

My main issue with SmartThings as a security system is that it is mostly cloud based and a loss of power or internet service would disable the system unless provisions were made.

Items in this post:

Yet another flashlight review

A nice little flashlight I discovered last year:

This is one of the handiest little lights I have had the pleasure of owning. It is about the size of a car's remote fob.
Points that I really appreciate about this light:

• Micro USB rechargeable, use your phone charger.
• Very bright, 350 lumens, and will run for 90 minutes at that setting.
• Long battery life, up to 48 hours in low intensity mode.
• UV emitter, check for refrigerant leaks, animal urine, check currency, or charge your glow in the dark stuff.
• Small enough for every day carry. I wear it with my ID badge and office keys.

Cons:

• Sometimes I find it has no charge on the battery. I think this is due to it being left on accidentally when I toss my badge in my bag. It may be due to a light green glow around the power button when it has been charged, this will shut off if you use the UV light.
• The light is not focused, but a bare LED emitter, great for close up, not so good for distance.
• It claims IP65 water resistance, in my opinion, with the USB port cover in place, it would be splash proof, but I wouldn't submerge it.
• I had to replace 3 of the cover screws within a year of purchase, they had worked themselves loose and gone walkabout. The replacements were secured with LocTite purple, they won't be escaping anymore.
• The single button control works fine for turning it on and off of the bright white setting, however, after having this light for more than a year, I still have trouble getting it to cycle through it's modes. I think the trick is a fast double click to get the UV mode.

If you have need for a small light with UV option, this may be the one for you.

(As of this writing it is not available, but it may be back.)

Link to Loctite Purple, mentioned above. It's the best one for small screws.

Key finders

They only work if they are attached to the keys. And most of the ones out there are limited in that you need to know where the caller unit is to find the keys.
I cannot help with the first issue, mine were hanging together on the key rack for nearly a year before I put them with the keys. The second issue is covered with these:

Not your ordinary key finders here, nopity nope. first thing you will notice is a warning that they are loud. They easily double as a panic screamer, it is part of how they work. Secondly, they call each other or can be called with a sound produced from your phone or computer through their web site. Granted, the range isn't the same, as your phone doesn't have the volume necessary to call the finder at 100 yards, claimed ideal condition range. So, in effect, you are getting 2 finders in one order. If you cannot find either one, use your phone to scream for them.
The XL in their name means Extra Loud, they weren't kidding. There is also a light that will blink when the finder is sounding its alarm.
Through the web page interface, you can also set the finder volume and assign them to a channel. The channel function can be useful to choose which ones respond to which paging tone.
They are encased in a no nonsense poly-carbonate shell that can withstand anything you can throw it at. Batteries are user replaceable and last about 18 months per the company web site.

Strike Anywhere Matches

Apparently they are no longer considered "Safe".

We are taking the kids camping this week and I was in search of matches for camping. The ones we had in storage were beyond usefulness. Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Big 5 sports and the local drug store didn't have them. I ended up doing a search for them online and found them at Kroger (Fred Meyers). It was quite the hunt. I had looked at REI the day before, but they didn't have quite what I was looking for as I did not have a need for 3 inch long hurricane proof matches at $10 for 25, and they were still strike on box.

I found these at Fred Meyer, for a slightly lower price than through Amazon. But the value is still there. Good old Strike Anywhere Matches. I already had waterproof containers for storing them, much like the other link. The containers hold the contents of one little box of the pack, I cut off the striking surface from the empty boxes and stored one inside of each match bottle. It never hurts to be a little extra prepared.

I suppose that I may be a little choosy about the kind of matches I get, but for camping, I prefer the old standard. I guess I am a little old fashioned. I also am taking a lighter and 3 means of making a spark.

Living in a Voice Activated World.

My name is Glenn and I am a technology addict.
This is one reason I am taking a month off of Facebook.
Back to the story.

In January of 2015, I had the opportunity to get in early for an Amazon Echo. So, I can rightfully say I have been with it from the start. I now have 5 Echo devices in my home, pretty much one per room, all but the original are the Dot versions, more on the difference later. I could say that it has changed my life, but I won't. What it has done is made life easier in several ways and I still do not use it to it's fullest potential.

Lets get some terminology out of the way first. The device is called the Echo, there are several variants from original, compact, wireless, and 2 new video variants. The voice interface is referred to as Alexa and you can choose between several "Wake words" for addressing the device.

Yes, there is potential for abuse of the device, but I weighed the benefits against the risks and have decided that I have nothing to worry about.

Of all of the devices, the Dot is the most affordable and often drops to $35. The sound with the Dot is passable but it can be connected to either a $10 pair of wired speakers or a set of Bluetooth speakers and the results are terrific.

Let me just get what I think of as the big shortcoming out of the way first:
You cannot get it to announce anything without giving it a command.
I would love for it to be able to announce when the mail arrives at the mailbox, or that the greenhouse is in danger of freezing, but that is not yet supported.

Now, on to what I use it for:

• Turn on or off lighting in my house, with the assistance of smart lighting.
• Play music from:
• Pandora.
• I Heart Radio.
• Amazon Prime, requires a subscription, more later.
• Timed alarms.
• Kitchen timer.
• Morning news briefings.
• Weather forecast.
• Drive time report for my commute.
• Simple information lookup, more on this later.
• Jokes.
• Sleep sounds with timer.
• Interactive games.
• Calling family members.

There are more uses that I have not mentioned, these are just the ones I have experience with.

Of the music skills, I have found I Heart Radio to be the most useful, I can ask "Alexa, play KNDD in Living room", or "Play KING FM everywhere." Pandora is almost as good, with deeper wanderings into a genre of your choice, but you can tailor it as you listen. 

Prime music is different. First, it requires a membership with Amazon Prime to be used at all, and then only one device at a time may be using it. The basic Prime music package, included with your Amazon Prime annual fee, is one device at a time with a limited music selection. There are higher tiers for Prime music allowing for a larger selection of music. Known as Prime Music Unlimited, you can subscribe to the larger collection of music for one device at $4/month, one player at a time for $8/Month or up to 6 players at a time for $15/month. Note that this is on top of the price for your Amazon Prime. There is good music to be listened to in the basic Prime list, plus any that you have purchased through Amazon.

The Morning Briefing is configurable, but I find a lot of stories repeated when going from global to national. I prefer to read my news anyhow.

The search function is limited by two factors; it only reports the first found item, and it uses Bing as the search engine. For many things it works well enough, such as "What is the proper temperature for a medium rare steak?" or "What is the cube root of 125?" If you wanted a funny answer, ask her the value of pi, or ask her to open the pod bay doors.

The jokes can range from bad to worse. But it can be fun to ask for them.

The calling feature is an interesting newer addition, you can call another person from your contacts list, if they have the option turned on. The difficulty I have with it is that it can be difficult to turn off the connection. It will also act as an answering machine for Echo to Echo calls.

Other skills I have not explored include:

• Calling an Uber or taxi.
• Ordering a pizza.
• Finding your phone.
• 7 minute workout.
• Cooking recipe reference.
• Shopping list.
• Amazon ordering.

While these appear useful, I have not had the inclination or need to try them yet. I do, on occasion ask her for her deals and sometimes you can get some good values around the holidays.

Items mentioned in this post:

Pacific Science Center

Get the membership for the special event, come back for the regular exhibits.

Last year, we visited the Pacific Science Center for the Terracotta Warriors exhibit. When doing so, we purchased a family membership. The economics of this are great. Firstly, you are supporting a great facility. Secondly, it is a better deal.
Here is how we managed ours:

Family Membership: $139

• 2 named adults
• 1 unnamed adult (+$20 must be accompanied by a named adult)
• 6 children (must be accompanied by a named adult)
• 8 guest passes
• 15 IMAX tickets

For a single visit we would have been paying:

• 3 Adults @ $23.95 = $71.85
• 5 Youth @ $17.95 = $89.75

As you can see, the price is already above that of a membership. Add into that the discount for event tickets such as the Terracotta Warriors exhibit plus the included IMAX and guest passes and you have saved more than half of the price. 

Even if you were to only want to visit one time with two friends, your admission would be $71.85 for three adults and no IMAX or $98.10 with the IMAX, where you could get a single membership for $89 including the IMAX and 2 guest passes. The value gets better if you come back.

The IMAX tickets are for documentaries, but they are very nicely done and worth catching.

On the Terracotta Warriors exhibit, I will say that it was amazing. In Seattle, early in the American tour, there was only a rope barrier between us and the items on display. Later a sturdier barrier was added due to an incident of theft.

So, our return yesterday was just to take advantage of the last day of our annual membership, free but for parking and fuel. Total bonus. I got to visit the planetarium for the first time in more than a decade. Some of the exhibits are aging, I remember a couple of them from when I was a child. But they are adding some new items on a regular basis. 

If you live in Western Washington, or are visiting Seattle, make it a part of the tour especially if you have younger folk in tow. There are a lot of interactive displays and can be fun for young and old alike. If you do the math, it is usually worth a membership

What a difference a scale can make.

I know I mentioned this scale last week, but I kinda hit a plateau and the extra features of the scale are making a difference in attitude.

This is the scale I am referring to. Using the app, it can report many things. I believe they are based on body capacitance, and a number of them are inferred by other measurements. but here they are as reported by the app:

• Weight
• BMI
• Body Fat %
• Fat Free Body Weight 
• Subcutaneous Fat %
• Visceral Fat
• Body Water %
• Skeletal Muscle %
• Muscle Mass
• Bone Mass
• Protein %
• BMR (Base Metabolic Rate) Kcal
• Metabolic Age

As I said, most are calculated by the BMI and Body Fat % numbers. I did have to enter my height, frame size, and gender.

Back to the difference it is making in monitoring my progress. While, I can see that the weight is wavering at this first plateau, I can see than the fat % is decreasing while the muscle mass is increasing. This is to be expected as I am exercising more, and it shows in my waist size and not my weight. I am two notches smaller on my belt than I was 3 weeks ago.

If you are at a plateau in your weight loss struggle, try using a scale that measures more than just weight, you may be turning fat into muscle.

Fitness trackers

Well, as I said in my last post I started down another weight loss trail on the 12th on June of this year. I was finding that my shirts were not fitting well anymore and I was just getting tired of it all.
I was walking through Costco and saw a deal on the Fitbit Charge 2. I decided to grab it up and start taking charge of my life. (See what I did there?)

Now, I wear a watch and really don't want a "Connected" timepiece, so I have notifications turned off as well as having the auto display turned off via the app. I do wear both it and my regular watch.
The battery life seems to stay true to it's forecast 5 days, I will see it at a medium level two days after charging it. I bring the charger cable in my lunch bag so that I may charge it when I am sitting at my desk and not at risk of taking a walk.
I appreciate the hourly "Move it" reminder. I have my walks set out at my various work sites so that I can just go on a "round" when the alert goes off. Every little bit helps.
I am nowhere near the 10,000 steps per day, but the tracking helps me move toward that goal. My friends list also helps to motivate me so that at least I am not at the bottom of the list.
I have my connected scale linked to the app, so that is one less thing to enter in the morning.
The app also is good for tracking calorie intake, my favorite part of this is being able to scan the bar code of an item and easily enter the item in my meal counts.
I used to use a Fitbit One. A similar device, but without the pulse rate monitor. I like the pulse rate monitor on the Charge, as it does a better job of monitoring my sleep habits and calculating my exercise levels. However the One is better suited as a device you keep in your pocket, so it is more appropriate for some dress options.

I am going to add, If you do get the Charge 2, it is always nice to protect the display. I found these and found it very easy to install and you have plenty if you need to replace it later.

My other flashlight.

"1 Watt L.E.D. Upgrade & IQ Switch® Combo" by Nite Ize.I have had one of these kits installed on a Mini Mag-Light for a couple of years now and it is great! The kit includes a replacement for the bulb and a replacement for the tail-cap. Simply replace the tail-cap, reflector and the bulb. You may have to turn the new bulb if it doesn't work right the first time, as it has to go in one way only. With the new reflector, you will screw the lens assembly all the way down, it won't turn the light off as the old one would, if it does, push the new lamp in the rest of the way, that should fix it.

The new lamp will put out a nice bright spot, I have not been able to get a real intensity level published for it, but it is nice and bright. I rarely need anything brighter for day-to-day work.

The tail cap is the magic here. It has a recessed push button switch and marker light in it. The marker light flashes once every 5 seconds or so. The switch will cycle through the 5 modes if the button presses are within 2 seconds of each other, if slower, the next press will turn the light off.

• Full power - 100% - approx 7.4 hours with alkaline batteries (calculated)
• 50% power - approx 15 hours
• 25% power - approx 30 hours
• Slow strobe - approx 50 hours
• Fast strobe - approx 15 hours.

In addition the light will flash for a few seconds and go out after 14.5 minutes. I have had to replace the batteries a couple of times, each time it seems that the batteries were dying of old age rather than over use!

I had a "No roll bezel ring" (rubber ring around the bezel) but it would not stay on anymore and got lost. It wasn't much use to me anyway.

A couple of modifications I have made, one was a reflector strip around the side of the bezel, the other was to add a ring of glow in the dark material around the lens of the light. (This is not my light but another done similarly.)

Earbud and lapel mic for Motorola radio

I hate to do it this way but, this seems to be a house brand from this dealer...

I needed a personal mic/earpiece for my work radio, after a short search on Google, I found this little puppy:


"3' Coil Earbud Audio Mic for Motorola HT1000 XTS5000 HD Switch" from Valley Enterprises. It was priced reasonably at $29.95 plus S&H. This retailer was prompt and the product arrived within 3 days of my order.

The audio quality is excellent, if you have never used an air-tube earpiece, you don't know what you are missing! They are lightweight, stay in place, comfortable and help cut out extra sound from your surroundings. I have used another air-tube earpiece before for other radio work and love them. In my initial tests with this earpiece I only had to have the radio at 1/3 of the volume level I normally do with the added bonus that it sounded like the other person was talking right behind my ear. A second earpiece (mushroom) is included but not pictured, a different size and color.

The lapel mic is considerably smaller than the normal Motorola hand mic. With a 3 foot cord, there is plenty of options for where to place the mic and route the wires. In addition to the PTT on the mic there is one on the top of the radio connector, a little easier to press than the one on the side of the radio itself.

Uniform shirt pockets.

Well, I finally went and did it, I made an Instructable! This one is about how I modify my uniform shirts to make the pockets more functionable for me. It involves moving the button onto the flap and tacking down the corners of the pocket. Pretty simple to do.

I hated having to button/unbutton the pockets to access my RFID and pocket computer. This keeps them both secure and accessible.

NightStick LED Flashlight

Here I will review the NightStick 1112 LED flashlight (photo from GoodMart.com.)

In my job, a reliable light is necessary, so I depend on LED light sources for their battery and bulb life. I carry 2 flashlights when I am in the field and this is the one I place in the work vest. I was attracted to the large "flood" feature for giving train signals in the dark, where the size of the light source is more important than the brightness of the spot. The brightness of the spot function was a nice surprise as I use another flashlight for that function.

The data sheet says the following about the light:

• Spot, 1 LED - 25 lumens
• Flood 12 LEDs- 24 lumens
• Battery life: (4xAAA alkaline cells)
  
• 18 Hours Spot
• 16 Hours Flood
• 8 Hours Both
• Movable/removable clip
• 6.9" long.
• 3 oz.
  

I have removed the clip from mine, it just slides on and off, and I don't trust the clip for my line of work, but it can hold the light in an appropriate manner for illuminating a clipboard from your pocket.
The design gives a good gripping surface, relatively slip free, and is not likely to roll around much. It fits in your pocket nicely due to being ovoid.
I have a slight issue with the power switch, it is difficult to actuate with the clip in place as it is under where the clip would be.

One modification I have done to this light was to place some retro-reflector in a ring on the spot end of the light, adding to the visibility.

Utility Vest

I will kick it off with a review of a vest I use all the time in the field.

This is the Mesh Concealment Tactical Vest from 5.11. Designed as a duty belt to be worn under a jacket, it works well to hold my field gear. Their literature describes its use as an emergency call out vest and I can't agree more. I am able to carry all of my duty gear in this vest including the following:

• Flashlight
• Motorola Astro radio with mic and earpiece
• Spare battery for radio
  
• 2 pair gloves
• several large zipties
• Leatherman Surge
• Wrench for cowlings
• Railroad rule book
• Train orders
• Notebook
• 1lb keys

This may not seem like much, but it adds up when you have to get in and out of a vehicle several times a day and need to have your tools handy. With the vest, I can wear it all day, keeping the weight off my neck by clipping the strap to my belt in the back. The mesh holds the load well but allows air to circulate underneath. Anyone who knows me understands that I am not that physical, but I wear the vest up and down stairs (167 feet each way) for my daily station check and it doesn't shift around much.

It is easily covered by a hazard vest or jacket.

After shift, I remove the radio from the pouch, un-clip my mic from the radio, and the whole rig gets tossed into my locker for the next day.

The vest is sold with Velcro backed pockets for:

• Radio - use for the radio.
• 2 Magazines - One holds the Leatherman, the other, zip-ties and wrench.
• Baton pouch - C-Cell or smaller flashlight. (I use the NightStick)
• Cuff pouch - Holds 2 pair thin work gloves or many latex gloves.

It has large pockets (Velcro closure) in the front that hold my rulebook, train orders and notebook. Cable routing is made easy with Velcro tabs and sleeve to hold excess wire.

After using it a while a couple of modifications have occurred to me. I purchased a couple of yards of 2" Velcro at the hobby store and covered the hook side of the side straps so that they wouldn't rub against my shirt, it was causing excessive wear, and the extra hook sections can be used to provide additional hold-downs for belt-looped carriers if you need more pockets (Like for your Nextel.) The other modification I made was to move the front cross strap to the back and use that to tie it to my belt (taking the weight off of my neck,) and use the front belt strap to connect it across the front instead of to my belt. I am a much larger person and this works better for me.

The web site lists this at $59.95 at the time of this writing, I believe it to be worth it.

(Photo is from the 5.11 web site)