Cheap Messenger Bag for My E-PM2

Bought this bag from Challenger Bugis for SGD 12.9 and i must say it is not too bad. Initially i was thinking this will be temporary bag while i wait for the arrival of my Lowepro bag but after use it for few times, i think this can be my alternate bag for my camera also.

The front of the messenger bag

The back of the messenger bag. There is a zip pocket that you can store thing securely.

The main compartment inside the messenger bag, there are 3 padded partitions (2 long and 1 short) that you can adjust for your preference. The space is definitely more than sufficient for E-PM2 and few lenses.

There are 2 front pockets for storing more stuff. This is the first pocket. 

The second front pocket got holder for pen, for small HP and also a small zip pocket. These 2 front pockets are actually quite tight and you can only put something thin inside.

The E-PM2 in front of the bag, you can roughly gauge the size for this bag.

This messenger bag serves the purpose and with this pricing, i think it is worth it.I usually have no problem carry my E-PM2 with lenses such as Sigma 19mm, 30mm and also Panasonic 45-175mm and i can even use one compartment for water bottle ( i know is probably not advisable but just have to make sure i close the cap properly for my water bottle). You can find out more information from this link.

hop.shop.go PromoCode (Dec 2013)

Grab this for items that can only be shipped to US address.

Lowepro CompuDay Photo 250 Backpack (Black) for USD 44.95 at B&H

Ordered one and now waiting for arrival. :)

link.

3 August 2014 update: Saw this at Best Denki VivoCity and it is selling at SGD 69.

Yoobao Magic Wand 5200mAh Power Bank (YB-6012)

Help my friend bought another power bank from Yoobao. This time is Yoobao Magic Wand power bank. Bought this from the same shop i bought the Yoobao Magic Cube for SGD 27 and seems like Yoobao power bank is getting cheaper. (Previously the power bank i bought is also SGD 27 and this time round when i asked again, is only SGD 24).

So compare to my Magic Cube, the major difference is of course Magic Wand has 5200mAh capacity compare to 4400mAh capacity of my Magic Cube. Other than that, Magic Wand only comes with one connector (micro USB) compare to Magic Cube which comes with different type of connectors for different phone. Personally, this is not a big deal because you can always use your own mobile phone charging cable to do the charging.

Another big difference is of course the shape. Overall i like the shape for this power bank. It is slim and long and this makes it very easy to hold and carry around. With this shape, you can always put this in your pants pocket without issue. The only thing i dislike about this power bank is probably the paint type they use, it is glittering type and glittering stuff is always not my type.

This power bank also comes with LED torch feature which might comes in handy if you are in a very dark place.

The technical specification:

You can get this power bank from this website and actually there are other colours also such as blue, red, pink and gold colours. If you don't want to wait, you can always go to their shop to get it but take note that they are closed on Sunday.

Digi-Cabi DB-036N

Bought this dry cabinet from Parisilk last week for SGD 110. Was also thinking about getting the digital one but i just can't convince myself to spend extra for the digital one as the cheapest one from Digi-Cabi cost 200 plus. So i decided to stick to analog one and indeed tuning the knob to achieve stable RH value really take time. I spent few days adjusting the knob until it stabilize at 45% with the knob at 1 o'clock. Overall, still happy with my decision to go for analog one as it is cheap and functioning well now.

My newly purchased dry cabinet :)

Jumping to Green Camp (StarHub Cable Broadband)

I getting the 25 Mbps plan from the roadshow in Tampines Mall which is only $24.90 per month with $50 NTUC voucher and free 1st month subscription. This in fact to me is a better deal compare to the September Comex show where only $30 voucher is given and  mobile broadband (1GB usage) which i don't need.

The installation was carried out today. It was with a bit of drama when the technician told me that my house termination point signal is very weak. So i left with 2 choices of either cancel the plan or call the contractor to come in to take a look and i have to pay for it. As i had been told is not expensive, i decided to fix the problem rather than cancel the trip. So when the contractor was here, he found out that the problem is in the main box outside of my house and the fix is a pretty straight forward process. After the fix, he mentioned there will be a service charge of $30 and as the problem is not in my house, i asked him whether can waive the charges and luckily i asked, he made a call and the charges was waived. Connecting my ancient Linksys wireless router also is another issue. Only after i google then i realize the important of making sure my cable modem is power cycled before power up my Linksys router.

So far the speed of surfing is good for me and i think this will be probably  true for me for any upgrade as my previous broadband is the ancient 1 Mbps plan for Singtel (The cheapest, $22.90). Just to quantify the speed a bit, i also did the speedtest and for local, the speed is around 15Mbps (Saturday night) and 24Mbps (Saturday afternoon) and for oversea, the speed range is around 1 Mbps to 10 Mbps.

Japan

ShangHai

LA

KL

p.s. Called to singtel for termination and they countered offer 15Mbps plan for 29.9 per month, not really that attractive. I once get an offer for 12 moth free subscription for my 1Mbps plan.

Olympus E-PM2 for 498 in Singapore

Bought this from the COMEX show today. The price is SGD 498 (~USD 391) and come with one extra original battery, one 8GB SD card, case and one China made tablet. With just the price itself, i think is a bargain as US price is actually USD 449 and it is so rare to see that Singapore price is actually cheaper compare to US after conversion.

E-PM2 box content

Free gifts. Probably the most useful free gift is the extra original battery. The case is very big and seems like is for the E-PLx or E-Px type of camera. The card is only class 4. The tablet is china made tablet running on single core processor, 512MB RAM and 8GB space, not fantastic but still usable, just have to tolerate some lagging. (3 August 2014 update: Basically i never use the tablet now as it is really lag, my regret on getting this free gift, maybe should try fight for other free gift next time)

p.s. The price is still 498 at Courts online website with free 8GB SD card and case.

27 Oct 2013 update: The online deal is no longer available but i did see deal at Courts Tampines where it is advertised as SGD 438. If the deal is not a gimmick, it is indeed a very nice price. But looking at that price, i do feel that the price might get lower in the future.

Olympus products are covered under international warranty.

Yoobao Magic Cube 4400mAh Power Bank (YB-627)

With mobile phone getting more and more powerful and the battery technology still pretty stagnant at the moment. It is no wonder power bank is such a popular device nowadays. Facing the same problem, i also bought a power bank just to make sure that i never run out of battery juice when i am outside.

The power bank i bought is from Yoobao and i got it from Rochor Centre for SGD 27. Comes with nice packaging, Yoobao does feel like a quality product compare to those no brand power bank.

 Nice packaging with power bank, cables and manual

Comes with different connectors for different phones

Size comparison compare to Samsung Galaxy S2

The power bank itself shape like a square box. It is not really big as you can see from the photos above but it is quite thick. There is a LED torch light which will come in handy if you need some light and capacity indicators to tell you how much capacity left in your power bank.

 Capacity indicator

LED torch light and the power input connector

It takes about 5 hours to fully charge this power bank. Once fully charge, it can charge Samsung Galaxy S2 twice with a little bit power left. Initially, i found it not possible to charge S2 twice and usually S2 will feel very hot during charging which is unusual. After talked to the seller, i used the cable come with the phone instead of using the power bank cable and the problem solve. Not sure whether the cable provided is of low quality or it is just bad cable but at least the power bank itself is working fine.:)

As there is no pouch in the package, i went to Daiso and able to get the pouch below for SGD 2 which can fit the power bank nicely with the cable.

SGD 2 pouch from Daiso

New LG Washing Machine WFT 9101

My house washing machine finally broke down after 7 years. The problem is most likely caused by faulty drain pump and eventually caused the circuit board to fail totally. As the repair cost will be most likely more than 300 (for circuit board, drain pump and labour), it is probably better to get a new washing machine and so the search began.

First thing to decide is whether to go for front load or top load washing machine. After some research, we decided to go for top load. Mainly because:

• It is cheaper (although there are some 500-600 range washing machine but not sure about the quality)
• Washing time is faster
• No potential leaking problem (heard some cases where leaking happen on front load washing door, probably due to bad seal)
• Need to maintain it deligently. (clean the door, maybe this can help to prevent bad seal)
• Cannot stop the wash and put in more clothes
• Have to squad or bent (my gf reason)

We initially limit our choice to 7kg - 8kg capacity and set the budget to be around 400. But as always, after looking at washing machines from different brands, we tend to let loose this limit and always ask ourselves why not pay few dollars more for bigger capacity. And in the end we chose LG washing machine, a 9kg washing machine. We went to expo to checkout Courts expo sales and actually looking at the display set offer. Unfortunately, display set on offer from LG is not the model we want and we almost switched our decision to Samsung 8kg washing machine which is 350 for display set but stop it when we heard that we need to top up 50 more for delivery.

We went to Gain City at Changi City Point to continue our search. This time, we are offered with the discounted price of 429 for the LG machine. After comparing the price survey we did previously (call to MegaDiscount, Lion City, GAB, Harvey Norman), 429 is actually not a bad price and since we don't want to wait anymore, we placed the order on the spot.

So is the new washing machine good? So far, we like it. It has bigger capacity, clothes are not tangle together after wash and is quieter. As for durability, only time will tell but at least the washing machine got 2 years warranty, which is quiet standard and also better compare to other brands like Panasonic which only offer 1 year warranty.

 LG WFT 9101

 9kg!

 The drum is bigger, there 2 filters (the blue colour)

Washing machine in action, it will weight your clothes first, then decide the water level and then start washing

2 ticks for water efficiency. After talking to many sales, the conclusion i get is those washing machines with higher number of ticks usually have eco mode option. So if you are not using eco mode, those washing machines might not save as much as you think.

One problem with this washing machine is this is the non-pumped version, so the drain pipe should place as illustrated in the picture above. So for my case, i cannot put my drain pipe directly to the existing pipe as it will exceed the height limit and now have to just put my drain pipe to the toilet when in use and put it back when not in use.

Cornell Air Cooler CAC-21B

Bought this air cooler from Harvey Norman expo show recently. Not really a planned purchase but the hot weather recently plus a not too bad pricing, i pulled the trigger and get one to try it out.

So air cooler generate cool air by circulate cold water through the fan and in the process, reduce the heat that come out from it. Look at the picture below and you will get a better idea.

Cornell air cooler comes with 2 ice packs and a remote controller

This is how the ice pack looks like, you need to put this in your freezer for 4 hours.

To use this ice pack, you just put it inside the water tank with water. To make the ice pack last longer, you can actually pour cold water inside the water tank or even out some ice inside. Picture below shows the internal of the water tank. You can see that water pipe is used to circulate water through the fan unit.

There are small wheel below so this air cooler is quite portable

So how does Cornell air cooler perform? After a use for few days. i feel that it is not too bad for the price i pay. The fan speed might not be strong but is adequate for bedroom as you usually sit or sleep closer to the air cooler. However for living room, you probably need a unit that has a more powerful fan. 

Another thing to take note is this type of air cooler just do horizontal swing and it is not able to adjust the flow vertically. So if you happen to sleep on the mattress on the floor instead of on the bed. You might not able to feel the flow completely.

I bought this fan for SGD 88 from the expo show but you can actually buy this from Harvey Norman for SGD 98 as of the date i publish this post. 

fisher n paykel drain pump burning smell

Few days ago, i discovered that whenever i wash my clothes, there is this burning smell from the washing machine. Besides the burning smell, the water draining also seems like not working 100%. So i spent some time searching for answer and came across this post last week. To see whether my drain pump is the problem, i decided to figure out this today.

First thing i need to do is to tilt the washing machine so that the under site is exposed. The drain pump is easy to identified as there is a black fan on it. Before take out the drain pump, unplug wires that connected to it. As you can see on the photo below, there is a plastic latch, i just hold it, turn anti clockwise (need some force) and the drain pump is out. Luckily i prepare some towels as some water flow out from it.



Inspecting the drain pump, immediately i spotted something, a rubber band entangle on it!

I took out the rubber band and did some cleaning to the drain pump and put it back and it seems like the burning smell is not that strong, probably have to monitor for few more times. But one thing for sure, next time when i do my washing, i will make sure no more rubber band in any of my clothes.