Technology

The Best Air Purifier: Reviewing The EnviroKlenz Mobile Air Cleaner

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As much as I love living in this little slice of madness and paradise that we like to call the LA Metro Area, the air quality often leaves quite a bit to be desired. Even in Orange County, where I hang my idiomatic hat, the air quality can get pretty rough–especially during fire season. Compound that with working in an industrial environment–replete with metal, wood, and plastics works, hunched over an electronics bench huffing solder and flux fumes, and a healthy dose of good ol’ dust and solvent fumes for good measure–and one might say that I’ve got a serious air quality issue. For the sake of my own health, I need the best air purifier available.

That’s where the EnviroKlenz Mobile Air Cleaner comes into the picture.

EnviroKlenz approached me, having seen some of my other critical review videos, to put their flagship air purifier to the ultimate test. Vacuum Wars already did some seriously impressive air movement tests of the system’s German-built impeller, so I opted for a more “real world” test: I was going to pit the EnviroKlenz against the worst indoor air quality factors that 23b Shop could muster: welding, machining, grinding, 3D printing, plasma cutting, plasticizing, soldering, and every other *-ing we have the capability of performing.

After a few weeks running, I have to say that the EnviroKlenz is possibly the best air purifier that I’ve run across, and I’ve been using various models from different manufacturers regularly for nearly 20 years! This one is not only incredibly effective, but it is also incredibly quiet. It’s not silent, but it’s damn close clocking in at an impressive 58 dBA on it’s “Whisp-Air” setting. It’s so quiet that I am able to record audio with my microphone mere inches from the machine and have very little effect!

Not only does the machine run extremely quietly, it also utilizes a military-grade cocktail of minerals that were originally developed to neutralize chemical weapons to remove volatile organic compounds (those nasty little carbon chains like benzene and toluene that California is compelled to tell you may cause cancer) and the largest HEPA filter outside of a hospital that I’ve ever experienced! Is it overkill? Maybe, but I much prefer the performance of the EnviroKlenz air purifier to that of “consumer” models from Honeywell or Fellowes.

If you’re looking for the best air purifier for a small industrial space, consider the EnviroKlenz as you will not be able to beat the price for the value you receive! If you’re looking for the best air purifier for home or office, this is almost assuredly the best choice as it’s quiet and requires minimal maintenance. VOC filter cartridges typically last almost 6 months while the main HEPA filter cartridges can last up to 3 years!

Don’t just take my word for it, order the EnviroKlenz here and start breathing easier tomorrow! Use my promo code SURF10 to get 10% off your system as well! The data don’t lie: this is a phenomenal system and I’ve got some even more extreme tests lined up, so be sure to subscribe to the newsletter to get informed when those are available!

Holidays, Projects, Technology

Project Rankin: A Retro-Commercial Holiday Ornament

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A child of the hyper-consumerist 80s and 90s, Matt grew up on a steady diet of sugared cereal and UHF television. As such, his sense of nostalgia is driven as much by advertising trends of the era as it is by music or other sociological elements. This leads to an interesting relationship with the winter holiday season, where seasonally-themed television commercials hold as high a place in tradition as any carol, tree, or gift exchange. To celebrate this odd bit of seasonal nostalgia, Matt builds a retro-television-themed ornament from a Raspberry Pi that plays those magical commercials from his youth and is powered by a strand of holiday fairy lights!

Engage with the element14 presents team on the element14 Community – suggest builds, find project files and behind the scenes video: http://bit.ly/2MFMG0v

History, Television

You’re Not Fully Clean Unless You’re Zestfully Clean! (Zest soap circa 1988)

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One of those little jingles that got caught in my head as a child and creeps its way back into my consciousness every so often.

How-to, Projects, Technology

Arduino Basics Lesson 2-1: “Play It Again, Sam”

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For the “Arduino For Kooks” course, I recommend you get the Arduino Starter Kit available here.

Up until this point in the series, we have been using LEDs to manipulate light with the Arduino. For this project, we’re going to incorporate a piezo buzzer to manipulate sound for Maximum Annoyance Value! The piezo is a small element that vibrates in the presence of an electric current or–alternatively–generates an electric current when it vibrates.

The Circuit:

Connect jumper wires from the +5V and GND pins on the Arduino to the bus rails along one side of the breadboard. Connect a jumper from the +5V rail to one side of a tactile switch. Connect the other side of the switch with a jumper to one side of the next switch, and so on, until you have wired all 4 switches in series. Connect a jumper from the last switch terminal to pin A0 on the Arduino.

Connect the 220R, 1KR, and 1MR resistors to the switches as shown in the diagram.

Connect the ground lead of the piezo buzzer to the ground rail and the positive lead to pin 8 on the Arduino via jumper wires.

The Sketch:

/*
  Play It Again, Sam
A rudimentary Arduino synthesizer

  created 13 Sep 2012
  by Scott Fitzgerald

  This example code is part of the public domain.
*/

// create an array of notes
// the numbers below correspond to the frequencies of middle C, D, E, and F
int notes[] = {262, 294, 330, 349};

void setup() {
  //start serial communication
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  // create a local variable to hold the input on pin A0
  int keyVal = analogRead(A0);
  // send the value from A0 to the Serial Monitor
  Serial.println(keyVal);

  // play the note corresponding to each value on A0
  if (keyVal == 1023) {
    // play the first frequency in the array on pin 8
    tone(8, notes[0]);
  } else if (keyVal >= 990 && keyVal <= 1010) { // play the second frequency in the array on pin 8 tone(8, notes[1]); } else if (keyVal >= 505 && keyVal <= 515) { // play the third frequency in the array on pin 8 tone(8, notes[2]); } else if (keyVal >= 5 && keyVal <= 10) {
    // play the fourth frequency in the array on pin 8
    tone(8, notes[3]);
  } else {
    // if the value is out of range, play no tone
    noTone(8);
  }
}
How-to, Projects, Technology

Commodore SX-64 1541 Floppy Drive Repair

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The Commodore 1541 floppy diskette drive is notorious for breaking down. The Commodore SX-64 floppy drive is no different. As I continue my Commodore SX-64 restoration, I find that the 1541 floppy drive doesn’t read diskettes any more and makes a chattering sound when attempting to read a disk. In this video, I walk through how to diagnose the SX-64 floppy drive as well as possible remedies before finally replacing the 1541 mechanism with a standalone drive.

How-to, Projects, Technology

Commodore SX-64 Keyboard Repair

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The Commodore SX-64 keyboard is usually the first thing to fail on these old systems. As such, I need to repair the keyboard on this SX-64 restoration. To begin, I’ll need to DIY an SX-64 keyboard cable from a 25-pin serial cable. I’ll use the SX-64 replacement keyboard cable to diagnose problems with the membrane keyboard itself and resurface the SX-64 membrane keyboard. Finally, I’ll rebuild the plastic shell of the SX-64 keyboard with Bondo automotive filler in order to get the SX-64 keyboard as close to the original stock look as possible.

Holidays, Life The Universe and Everything

10Q: Special Bonus Question

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As in years past, we are offering you a Special Bonus Question in which you get to predict what you think will happen in the coming year–not just to you, but to the world around you. For this year’s version of the Special Bonus Question, we have teamed up with Larry Smith’s  Six-Word Memoirs, which recently published Six Words Fresh Off The Boat: Stories of Immigration, Identity & Coming To America.  For this bonus question, be as local or as global as you like, so long as you answer in exactly six words.

New marriage. New life. New adventures.

Holidays, Life The Universe and Everything

10Q #10: When September 2019 rolls around and you receive your answers to your 10Q questions, how do you think you’ll feel? What do you think/hope might be different about your life and where you’re at as a result of thinking about and answering these questions?

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When September 2020 rolls around and you receive your answers to your 10Q questions, how do you think you’ll feel? What do you think/hope might be different about your life and where you’re at as a result of thinking about and answering these questions?

This has been the most amazingly different year for me: jumping into more entrepreneurial endeavors (and the subsequent stresses and anxieties that come with them) as well as getting engaged (and married, in a few weeks). There’s so much in the air right now that I don’t know where to even throw the dart of expectations!

Barbie and I have talked about kids, but we’re not settled on that idea yet. We’ve got a lot of debt to pay off still, but we’re both making more money to get it taken care of. We’re on the cusp of a new adventure together, and it’s a lot of blank slate over the next 12 months, so we shall have to see!

Previously

Holidays, Life The Universe and Everything

10Q #9: What is a fear that you have and how has it limited you? How do you plan on letting it go or overcoming it in the coming year?

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What is a fear that you have and how has it limited you? How do you plan on letting it go or overcoming it in the coming year?

It’s always been something in the back of my mind, but I have more recently become fearful of losing my ability to easily earn an income in one way or another–either through day job ending when I’m not prepared or contract work drying up. It cripples me with existential dread some times, and others it only drives me to work until I drop.

Gottagetitdonegottagetitdonegottagetitdone

It’s not the most healthy way to live long term.

Previously

How-to, Projects, Technology

Commodore SX-64 Blank Screen Fix

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In my quest to restore the Commodore SX-64, my first obstacle was the lack of video signal on the internal monitor. I needed to diagnose the Commodore SX-64 video signal before I would be able to move on to any other Commodore SX-64 repairs. In this video, I will go through the process to diagnose a Commodore SX-64 blank screen and step through how to repair a Commodore SX-64 blank screen. In this video, I’ll go over how to build a DIY Commodore AV cable, how to reseat Commodore chips, and how to replace a Commodore PLA chip.

Check out more Commodore SX-64 videos here

Watch the complete Commodore SX-64 restoration here

Adventitious Geekery and other distractions created or curated by Matthew "Atari" Eargle